The Best Strawberry Ever

Or Bullies and Tigers Run Amuk.

My ego has been on high alert all week. It triggered uninvited behavior and defended itself from imaginary slights and danger. A past battle conflated with the present still shocks me with its savagery and sends me on a weird path of research and fruitless angst for the ego. The wind rattles the blinds, and I'm on pins and needles, ready to flee!? My ego senses it is no longer safe. It is not in total control and appears to be doing its best to claim it is in charge. 

"The more concrete our identity is, the safer our ego feels." - momentum.

The ego, kept safe and secure, prevents our authentic self from exploring and investigating what is possible. When the day appears like an adventure into uncharted territory, the ego is asleep. Or something else?

"There's excitement in pursuing what you cannot see or know. Whether or not you recognize it, you, too, are a beacon of energy, constantly sailing into uncharted territories. Each day unfolds like an endless path, inviting you to stay curious and play. Let the spirit of exploration connect you to a feeling of infinity." - momentum.

Mara Gleason Olsen [One Thought Changes Everything] discussed “the paper-thin nature of thought” with Michael Neill. We live in a world of thought. The thing about thought is that it doesn't have the power to stop us unless we allow it or say it does. Thought can't do anything to you or me. Thought is just a phenomenon that happens inside us.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit versus Universal Mind, Thought, and Consciousness are pointing at similar considerations, pure metaphors, and not real, only thoughts I made mean something! Ideas used by the ego to maintain control. Taking the insight on the road, the road test shows the road is new, too! A new route on the same street as before! I’ve stepped into a new environment and haven’t gone anywhere or moved!

Who is noticing? I [my eye or another?] see ego as a screen or filter noticing, ego commenting, and I am not paying attention, so it ‘sounds’ like chickens clucking… Noticing there is a noticer, a witness, an observer, and I [my eye?] sense a ?door?, an opening at times shimmering before me, the other, another side?, and I [my eye?] experience a shyness, an attraction to enter to find what is there and it closes. The excitement remains!

The ego is the part of us concerned with our self-image and self-preservation. It is the voice in our head constantly telling us who we are, what we want, and what we fear. Some believe the ego is necessary for our survival. It limits us, keeping us in our comfort zone and preventing us from exploring new possibilities. War is entirely ego against ego. 

When we are in a state of ego, we focus on our thoughts and feelings as reality, and there is no opening to the world around us. We do not see the world as it is but only as we perceive it through our ego's filters—all the opportunities and possibilities are blocked from view.

We must cultivate awareness and mindfulness to spend more time as the witness, the observer, instead of the ego. [Noticing ourSelf as the witness, the observer is fleeting at first.] We must learn to observe our thoughts and emotions without judgment or attachment. We need to be present in the moment and open [without judgment] to what is happening around us. Allow anything else, and ego steps in to 'save' the day. 

How to spend more time as the witness, the observer, and the noticer instead of the ego requires cultivating awareness and mindfulness. By discovering how and learning to observe our emotions caused by thoughts without attachment or judgment, being present in the moment WHILE open to what is happening around us, we can break free from the limitations of the ego and explore new possibilities.

The paper-thin nature of thought suggests our thoughts are not solid, substantial, or reliable as we make believe. Thoughts are transient, ephemeral, and subjective, and thoughts influence and generate our emotions, biases, and expectations contained in our ego. Thoughts are not reality and do not define who we are unless the ego says they do. They are the illusionary aspect of one's experience. They are observable, questionable, and changeable.

The ego’s maniacal concern for self-preservation and self-control correlates to identifying with our thoughts, feelings, and sensations as personal and group identities. The ego is the part of us that tries to protect and enhance our sense of self by creating imaginary and delusional problems, conflicts, and suffering. The ego is afraid of losing its grip on its identity, and it resists, in all ways imaginable, anything that challenges or threatens it. The ego wants to control everything, often creating illusions of separation, superiority, or inferiority. The ego is not our true Self but a false self we have constructed over time.

Viewing life and noticing the Self as an observer and witness is a way of disengaging the ego and its attachments and connecting with our true Self, which is pure awareness, consciousness, and spirit. By observing our thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment, attachment, or identification, we realize they do not limit us, and we have a choice, at that moment, in how to respond. By witnessing the thought and experience, we become more present, mindful, and compassionate and access more profound wisdom, joy, and peace. By noticing the beauty, wonder, and mystery of life, we can appreciate and celebrate the gift of existence and align ourselves with the flow of the universe.

"There is a space within you where you are already perfect, whole, and complete. It is a space of pure consciousness – the space inside which all thoughts come and go.

When you rest in the feeling of this space, the warmth of it heals your mind and body. When you operate from the infinite creative potential of this space, you produce high levels of performance and creative flow. When you sit in the openness of this space with others, you experience a level of connection and intimacy that is breathtakingly enjoyable and filled with love. And when you explore this space more deeply, you will find yourself growing closer and closer to the divine, even if you’re not sure there is such a thing and wouldn’t know how to talk about it if there was.

Every problem we have in life is the result of losing our bearings and getting caught up in the content of our own thinking. The solution to every one of these problems is to find our way back home." 

- Michael Neill

Finding your way back home is a lot of fun with a group. Michael Neill, perhaps the present Alan Watts, is worth investigating. 

https://www.michaelneill.org/

Imagine a life with the best-tasting strawberries every day and all day.

“There is an old Zen parable about a man being chased by a tiger. As the tiger gets closer and closer, the man realizes he is nearing the edge of a cliff. Forced to decide between being eaten alive and leaping to his death, he scrambles over the edge of the cliff and drops down to a tree branch that’s growing out of the cliff face.

 As he hangs from the branch, he looks up and sees the hungry tiger above him; he looks down and sees a seemingly endless drop to the rocks below.

 When he looks right where he is hanging, he notices a beautiful strawberry plant growing out from the face of the cliff. He plucks the fruit from the vine, takes a big bite, and exclaims "Wow – this strawberry is delicious!"

And in that same way, when we rest in the presence of the space within, we find ourselves in the timeless present, where every strawberry is delicious and as has been said about the Scottish mystic Syd Banks, where every cup of tea is the best cup of tea we’ve ever had.” - Michael Neill. [

https://geniuscatalystcafe.com/

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