Do not all ways point to no way?

...that I am...separateness and suffering

I am finding this awareness is none too easy trying to put it all into words and print. But I'll have a crack at it anyway. Practising this awareness seems to delete suffering. But to do this requires an ongoing and consistent realisation or mindfulness.

Where the suffering goes to, who knows?
But again I have an awareness on that too, another topic there.

Drilling down into suffering (karma)-

When I look at the work of art that is a tree I am free to recognise, or not, that it's just there, as what we name a tree.
But I am also completely free to truly appreciate it, its splendor, its beauty, its majesty, and the intricateness of this growing form of life that is completely at one with the earth and elements, providing a home for other creatures and has also the material for homes of a great many people.
I notice though something rather funny between just simply recognising it, and that of appreciating it; which is - when I am appreciating I find I am not, in a weid way, separate from the tree.
Now, upon looking deeper into this I then find the hidden-ness of what it is I am appreciating.
I am appreciating the totality of this moment that has the tree in it.
It is this instant that holds the tree, it is the availability to see the tree afforded only by this precise, exact instant, which is none other than this Now.
The way I know this, is that on the surface when something unwanted is occuring I have found I can appreciate that unwanted thing or condition. But under it all, or more accurately containing it all, the supposed and believed bad or unwanted part is occuring right now and the appreciation that is able to be felt for the supposed bad can therefore be nothing other than fully embracing that exact moment... this is irrespective of what that moment contains.
So I find this consistently, that appreciation is nothing other than the appreciation of 'What Is', which is what it is I have my focus or attention on, and that starts to identify Itself as NOW.
Regardless of what is, it can be loved and appreciated, because what I am doing is finding I am synonymous with what 'IT IS' that contains the thing or the deed, but not necessarily the thing or deed that I originally gave my attention to that is contained in IT.
Is this a spiritual truth ... that finding a way to appreciate what is, regardless of what it is, leads one to love that which holds everything that is occuring?
Is this what the first commandment was depicting or may point to? -
"...You shall have no other gods before Me" Is it, (regardless whatever is happening), do not have anything other than or separate to God, As All is God?
This realisation simply put is - God is everything, every conceivable particle of energy and matter, and that also includes this being reading this and all other beings.
God being everything has to also include every thought and every deed, regardless of any moral values or judgements the societies of the day places upon these varying behaviours.
So if everything Is, everything is all common to God.
In reference to ancient scriptures, and in so doing let me replace the word God, or Jehovah, as contained in ancient scripture with another word, but which equally describes that which contains All.. so what is that description that contains All?
What is the 'One Thing', and the 'Only Thing' that contains All?
It Is NOW?

However, I ask myself whether I am able to sense I am this moment that an altercation happens in, and if so, then my focus is not on the issue that another is having with me or even an unwanted thing, but it is instead on the arena, or the space, or this moment that it is all happening in.
Then what it is I can become acutely aware of is this - I am sensing I am the common point, the common moment, this one now-ness with the other, or even with an unwanted aspect, so then in effect I am in communion with all the happenings ... and the sense of separateness starts to diminish.
And so too does any suffering.

Communion from
www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/communion
" A communion is an intimate connection. Many people enjoy hiking in the woods in order to have a sort of communion with nature. When you connect in a meaningful way with something, or intimately share your feelings with someone, you experience a communion. The word implies a deep connection, particularly a spiritual one. A Communion, with a capital C and also called Holy Communion, is a Christian religious service involving consecrated bread and wine. The Latin root of communion is communionem, meaning "fellowship, mutual participation, or sharing." "

Perhaps, there is not much of a difference between what has been expressed in the last couple of posts. Yes, it seems to me also that you have to be dead to be untouched by suffering. I don’t see how a cancer call from the doctor is ever going to be a welcome event. This is what happens in our phenomenal life. But the question is, is that all we are - a phenomenal appearance that comes and goes? It seems just logical to conclude that you cannot have an appearance without the space for it to appear. This space cannot be phenomenal. It can have no attributes whatsoever; no time, no form. It is only known by its phenomenal appearances. What we are then is this formless space from which phenomena appears. Of course there will be suffering but it seems to me that the degree of suffering and the inability to just let it be (and appreciate what is) is related to the degree in which the belief of the phenomenal self is your sole, singular reality.

Hi everyone, good to get back into our discussions, enjoying great insights as found in the posts above. What is great about them is that they are much less speculative (taking a guess at what may be the case) and much more experiential and confident of what is being expressed, coming from a deeper felt-sense of 'what is the case'.

In regard to 'suffering' in the context of 'what is the case', I think it's important to distinguish its two meanings: the direct stimulus (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) and the response to the stimulus. A simple example: a toothache is simply a signal that something is happening to the tooth. If we take action by seeing a dentist there is no problem (other than the painful sensation), hence no suffering. If we respond to the pain by resisting it as 'I should not be having this pain' there is instant suffering. Therefore as long as one lives in and as a form (body/mind unit) there will be pain (toothaches and heartaches). There may or may not be suffering. Even a cancer call from the doctor can be seen with equanimity (after all I will die one day, in one way or another) without either accepting or rejecting it.

Once you know that you are both Formless and Form, there is no death (or birth), or both birth and death are Life itself manifesting in the world of space and time. Before that insight we are likely to suffer, after that we know that are what we do (the I is extra). As they say in the Zen tradition, both birth and death are Nirvana.

I would like to comment more at length on Kolomo's "It appears to me that the entire world is built upon thoughts" in an earlier post, and the ongoing subject of Karma and suffering, as bee is presenting. For the moment two very brief comments. In my experience:

- thoughts are part of the world (they arise as forms like anything else arises) but can shape the view we have of the world as well as being part of the sense of free-will. This is clear in Meditation, when we let go of thoughts (don't buy the story).

- ego/self/sense of separation/ is karma. No ego/self, no karma (e.g. for babies). In other words, the thought and belief of being a 'fixed self' gives rise to actions motivated by that self (volition). Causality is of itself impersonal. It becomes personal when we believe to be the author of actions (the idea of free-will). Therefore if I kill someone without meaning to do it, there is an impersonal causality at work. When I do it for a purpose, the causality becomes karmic (has its a precise and unavoidable effect on how my life unfolds). What the Sadhguru call 'memory', is otherwise known as conditioning and programming.

Thoughts, This spells it out quite well, society at large lives and sleeps in it's garbage bin

Ya, that was a fun video Bee, thanks. And CD is right (BTW, thanks for keeping the conversation going), there are a lot of contradictions, that is unless there is a kind of listening with the heart or a gestalt understanding, at least in my opinion. I like his analogy relating the workings of the mind to garbage, and yet, this garbage is one of the apparent fragrances of awareness or God. I know it’s hard to grasp but, it seems to me, that it is only through being attached and subservient to the divided, judgmental mind (conditioned by culture) that we identify with this objectified mirage we call ‘reality’. But it’s all an objectification or as Santa says (I recognized him from my childhood!) garbage. But the word garbage may come off a little harsh, how about saying it is a wave of awareness conceptually reflected just as it should be.

To me this brings to mind the ‘gateless gate’. There is nothing to attain, no special knowledge, no special states or feelings; those things are just more garbage. Things are just as they should be (suffering or not) in their own a perfection, no matter what label you might want to put on them.

And if I may offer another elusive (and repetitive) response to CD’s question – What we think we are is a merely a concept or an objectification. Where is free will in concepts? Are not concepts a result of cause and effect relationships? I don't think freedom can ever be found in the apparent cause and effect mentality of the conceptual mind. But without any objectifications or concepts, without these arising thoughts, without the constant chattering and judging, without trying to find an answer or figure things out, what is left? I think this is where Santa wants us to stand.

One last thing - a quick summery from a chapter in 'The Open Secret' (not Tony Parson's)

As long as you think of yourself as an individual, that is to say a phenomenal object, you are subject to the laws of causation and there can be no freedom whatsoever. No amount of seeking, meditation, prayer, mantras or practice will be of any use. Lay down all these antics and suspend all beliefs. There is no one to get enlightened or be in bondage. — Wei Wu Wei

Another last thing, this summery, on the surface, may seem to contradict many spiritual practices but I believe what he is really saying is that it is perhaps foolish to think you can achieve an elevated or special state of consciousness through some type of practice. You already are what you seek.