Just One Look Forum Archives

Carla and I have come to an understanding that the non-dual spiritual teachings that seem to be everywhere in one form or another in these times are worthless at best.

There are millions of us who have believed in them and trusted them to ease the misery of worry and fear that is the lot of the vast majority of us. We do so because we are told that the wisdom to be revealed upon our acceptance and surrender will bring an end to our war on our own life, which is caused by ignorance.

But those of us who have believed in them as the literal word of god seem to be no less needy for the truth than we were when we first fell in love with those ideas.

I mean, if you have been truly freed, why would you continue to attend meetings, read spiritual literature, and seek solace in meditation?

I mean, wouldn't you think that after having seen directly the deep singularity of all things, however small or big, filled with mystery or triviality, the need to return to the tit of spiritual conversation would vanish in the emptiness of found truth?

Stay tuned. More to come.

Look at yourself.

It is very clear to me that it is a fundamental difference to understandings, actions and motivations in a mind before and after the looking.

After the looking new and fresh connections are being made in the mind towards understandings, action and motivations. It is an automatic adjustment in the mind that, strangely enough, seems to change everything and nothing at the same time.

A way to notice this adjustment is to see how one's thought forms change over time. Thought forms come automatically with a slightly new explanation to a certain "situation" every time. They get saner, clearer and more correct in relating to life.

A new thought form that has developed in my mind that is related to spiritual understandings is for example: "Why should I meditate anymore? Even if I would meditate for hours a day I would still be here as me. The only thing meditation can change and has any effect on is my state and why would I want to change my state?" My understanding and motivation towards meditation as an action that I had to do to be well changed as a result of this adjustment. It no longer made any sense to me to meditate.

My motivation towards reading spiritual literature also changed over time. The more I came to experience and understand that the clarity and insights I always had been looking for in complicated spiritual and religious ideas were actually found in my new relationship towards my own personal life. I didn't get what I thought I wanted but instead I got what I always needed. A more self-reliant, clear and intimate relationship with the circumstances of my life. The act of inward looking did that.

Today, my spiritual literature has found its way to the bottom shelf of my book case and stands as a an old memory of a much more complicated and confusing time. Not that they necessarily are false, but they are far too complicated and useless in my life today. In a way it feels like I don't understand them anymore.

This post was originally posted in the Just One Look Facebook group.

Wonderful, Niklas. For me, the difference is also in the flow of my life. The flow of life was constantly interrupted by anxiety, fear, and crazy thinking that stopped everything and put me into some kind of weird stasis that whipped anxiety into a frenzy. This did not allow an open system where new information could come in. When we are in flow we are receiving information in real time and can react to it sanely and enjoyably. ( well, none of us probably sees life precisely clearly and unbiasedly at any time, but we get closer and closer with growing sanity). Thoughts and emotions become part of the flow and are more in sync with the reality around us. They come and go in response to real events, forming, dissolving And reforming naturally. I think this is what is jarring about being around people suffering from the fear. We are in a different flow, a different reality than they are. They stop the flow, or fear stops it, and they hover around looking in the direction fear points. We are hearing their narrative but living a completely different one.

I was never involved in spiritual seeking, so I am not among the "millions of us who have believed in them" and may also not be among the disappointed lovers, I suppose. Especially after the looking, which actually is also propagated by Tolle in some videos (admittedly not as a core practice), I find useful insights in some spiritual techniques. Just don't drink the Kool-Aid. Attention to the breath for example was THE technique used by Buddha. So why this emphasis to cut off from all tradition? Could it be itself a remnant of the fear, that masks itself in a holy mission of "saving the world"? Similar to your earlier life, John, just with different methods?

Don't get me wrong, the looking and the subsequent breath exercise are a brilliant finding due to its simplicity and effectiveness, basically a condensation to the max, and I truly mean this. Just suggesting that the lack of money might have to do with the unnecessary and overzealous separation from "spirituality", that almost border on insult and cause unnecessary separation. A gentle readjustment could do wonders...

Sorry for these frank and open words, but somebody had to say them.

Our approach is actually simple, but can seem difficult to understand.

The only way to settle your confusion is to begin a true effort to actually complete the full course of Self-Directed-Attention, and then begin a self-directed consideration of the nature, purpose, and origins of all thought forms - for yourself.

If you do this and still have any difficulty with the practice itself, or confusion as to its results, email me and we will set up a phone call, and I'll help you understand it.

I'm also one of those who didnt particpate in any spiritual practices before this, though I believe that those people will be easier to relate to further down the line.

In the video "Looking at yourself is the essence of self-inquiry" John says right at the end that "we have a great deal more to say about our life and our relationship to life than can possibly be imagined within a spiritual context". Brilliant, John - that's it!

I can understand how this question of no spiritual component can be a mind fuck - it certainly has been for me with all the strange and hard to explain effects of recovering from a lifetime of fear I go through - but when I consider how more or less everything I ever did or thought was formed in service of the fear of life it begs me to question the validity of all my previous assumptions, because strictly speaking everything formed in a false context will be crippled, lacking and up to no good. Past these assumptions however I feel empowered to investigate the various aspects of life for myself rather than looking to already existing explanations, and this leaves spirituality among many things obsolete. My own views appeal to me more because they fit better with reality for one thing, but what's more is that they evolve as new information comes in. Prophecies ingrained in my old mind as well as those carved on a stone somewhere are looking rather dead in contrast and I wouldn't use them to explain much of anything at all anymore.

"I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."

"” Joseph Campbell

"...when I consider how more or less everything I ever did or thought was formed in service of the fear of life it begs me to question the validity of all my previous assumptions, because strictly speaking everything formed in a false context will be crippled, lacking and up to no good."

roed, I just now got the significance of what you're saying here... It cleared up a certain entrapment that has been going on for a long time in my mind. I always felt I wouldn't be able to completely drop all the spiritual/religious teachings I'd been involved in, because "someday they might finally help me." What a freeing thought that all my contact with those teachings was within the context of the fear of life! Makes it so much easier to be done with them! OK, somebody might ask, "But what about JOL? Didn't you get involved with that in the context of fear, too?" Well, yes, but the brilliant thing about JOL is the minute you do the looking, the context of fear is destroyed!

Absolutely jr, the context is destroyed the moment you see you! How amazingly simple that is.