Advaita Post #11-03 --- You don't need to be afraid of death...

Volume 11 No. 3 (February 8, 2010)


--- You don't need to be afraid of death, because you already are that great space ---


11-3Paardenvlieg

You can certainly say: "Horse Fly",

but the strangeness makes everything

strange, including yourself.

*

Contraction and expansion


From a talk in Gouda on August 30, 2009 (Part 3)


I often find that I try to improve things and ideas in order to match them better to my goals and desires, so that they suit me better.

This often happens: you're busy in your work or anywhere and you find that it should go differently, in a way that is better for you or is more desirable. That situation is always a mix, a mixture of the one and the other. At first there is a greater consciousness, a sense of something that is better and more authentic than what currently is. Secondly you quickly connect that realization to a variety of practical goals in the world and in your life. Then you go after it with all the tension that already exists there.

You can look at your own spiritual path in this way. Each path begins with a dual situation in which a person thinks that can he achieve something by committing to one path. "I will adjust my life to what I experience for myself as more authentic." The positive is that there is already a sense of what is really authentic and that there is the desire to realize it. Of course you know that, because you are that, even though it is not yet fully aware. If you keep projecting the authentic onto certain conditions, you'll notice that you haven't moved much, and have even gotten stuck. Then, as soon as possible, it's best to reaffirm what your real impulse is, your true desire, your true authenticity. This goes further and is also closer to you than you could ever imagine. So take a look again at your own situation and stay true to your own notion and impulse of the beginning. Within it there is already something of the infinite. If you stay aware of "what fits better for you", then you get a certain development in which the restrictions continue to disappear and proceed to the infinite openness.

If that happens, then life appears just as it is, organizing itself in the best way possible, however it may go. Principally, there's no worry any longer; so it's free.

If the self recognizes its own nature as freedom, then not only the self but with it everything becomes freed. Your whole life becomes free, your claims on other people become free. So you release others.

So stay with yourself as an infinitely free sphere. Stay lucid. If you establish it clearly, internally there is the immediate knowledge: this is good.

Sometimes with great awareness I fall into a deep sleep. But up until now I always awaken quite suddenly. It is a startling response of the physical body.

It is an I-residue with biological roots that in the aware sinking into deep sleep suddenly rises back up. This mechanism does not exist at the mental level, but much deeper. The feeling arises suddenly there: "I'm going to die now".

From that deep seated I-residue arises the will "I want to live". Then you are at that level. While you sink away into a dreamless sleep, you experience that everything falls away, that you fall away. Apparently there is still such a strong "I-want-to-live" will that it suddenly says: "Stop." At that deep level, the "I-want-to-live" is a kind of cramp, which opposes further relaxation. In such a situation that cramp strikes suddenly.

And if that doesn't happen, you go from the waking to the dream state.

The point is that there is usually a closing off of consciousness and there is nothing more for you to worry about. As this process becomes aware, there is a release of the last remnant of ego tension. Just stay aware of yourself as you go to sleep. And keep floating in the sphere previous to the reaction. Confirm it with awareness: here it is so spacious and relaxed; I am myself and it feels good. In that familiar space of the self-being without forms, the process can continue. Then it becomes increasingly clear that you are not dependent on an I-remnant for continuing survival. The self-being doesn't need to be afraid of death, because it already is that great space. If that becomes somewhat obvious, you can stay longer, you become more relaxed and feel at home.

How can you halt for a moment that process of falling?

This is possible by becoming more aware of the process of relaxation. "Delicious, I feel all the heaviness fall away; I feel the deep relaxation; I feel myself dissolving in the infinity, that's wonderful, because I already am that space." If that continues to determine the situation, there's no fear.

You can compare that fear with agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). How can someone get over it? Of course, behavioral therapy can help by becoming used to the space, but then the question is whether the fear won't take on another form. A deep trust must come, for example through someone else who will go with you and say: "Come on; you don't need to be afraid; you'll see it will be all right." Only when more trust comes, you see that there is nothing to be afraid of.

So have trust; it is good.

It is and stays good, because you are yourself and remain so.

The more clearly that you can be aware of yourself on the subtler levels, the better it can go. If you're not aware there, there can be a sudden panic that totally disrupts the whole situation. You see that the same processes exist there as on coarser levels. If you are clearly aware of yourself there, you can have trust and let go. That can continue in your conscious feeling sphere, until it's clear that there is nothing to hold on to and that there is no self-being that could and would hold on to anything.


Er is geen tweeheid

als je ontspannen bent
in zelf-bewustzijn
is dat duidelijk.


  • Naar de Openheid

    De teksten in dit boek zijn geschreven op basis van gesprekken gehouden te Gouda, aangevuld met enkele gedichten en korte teksten met illustratie. 
    Als uitgangspunt dienen steeds bekende gegevens en situaties, waarin verwijzingen zitten naar dat wat niet te beschrijven is, maar dat hier Openheid wordt genoemd.

  • Management en non-dualiteit

    In bedrijven en organisaties is meer aandacht gekomen voor de oriëntatie op samenhang, eenheid, heelheid, ongescheidenheid, kortom: non-dualiteit. Wat betekent deze ‘niet-tweeheid’ en op welke wijze kan zij in het eigen werk en in de organisatie doorwerken? Deze vragen staan in dit boek centraal.

  • Mediteren leren

    Dit boek geeft een handleiding bij het leren mediteren voor beginners en voor de gevorderden die nog eens bij het begin willen beginnen. Het uitgangspunt is de spontane meditatie, die iedereen af en toe heeft. 

  • Non-dualiteit - de grondeloze openheid

    Non-dualiteit is niet-tweeheid (Sanskriet: a-dvaita), de afwezigheid van scheidingen. Deze openheid vormt de kern van elke spiritualiteit en mystiek. Maar wat is non-dualiteit nu precies? Daarover gaat het nieuwe boek van Douwe Tiemersma. In zijn vorige boeken stond de non-dualiteit ook al centraal, maar nu laat hij stap voor stap zien wat non-dualiteit in de eigen ervaring betekent. Iedereen blijkt die ervaring te kennen en te waarderen.

Boeken

Douwe schreef en redigeerde gedurende zijn leven boeken. Via onze uitgeverij zijn deze nog verkrijgbaar.

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