Understanding Feelings, Processing, Karma, And Enlightenment

Feelings are the underlying foundation of manifest reality. They shape our moment-by-moment experience by determining what we perceive and what we do. This talk will help you understand the relationship between feelings, suffering, enlightenment and karma. It is followed by a Q&A session and answers questions such as: how to ask a question; what is the link between individual and collective karma; and the meaning of the phrase 'to talk about what cannot be talked about'.

Transcript

Hi everybody and welcome to this event on understanding the link between feelings,

Suffering,

Enlightenment and karma.

Such massive topics and I will do my best to share what I know,

Share my experience and hopefully it will be helpful for some of you at least to surrender ever deeper into what is and to allow life to unfold,

To accept it,

To simply be.

What I've learned in this journey is that feelings are the underlying foundation of manifest reality.

When a feeling arises in the body it shapes everything else,

It shapes our perception,

It shapes how we feel,

It shapes how we think.

You know if the feeling is happy and peaceful then the thoughts that come are open,

There is a clear mind,

We know what to do,

It feels like everything is flowing and if the feeling is tense,

If it's anxious,

If it's stressed then the thoughts are worried,

They are less clear.

It's like our sense of what's true is veiled.

We are condensed in an uncomfortable form for some time.

So it's very important to understand feelings.

During the spiritual path at first I was thinking that thoughts and beliefs shape feelings but actually it's the other way around.

It's the feeling comes first and then the thoughts emerge because a feeling it's not just a feeling in the stomach or in the heart,

It's like a full body experience and then that affects our thinking.

And what I've noticed is that there is a sort of a pendulum of feeling.

So in order for us to be able to feel the anxieties and the tensions which are there,

There also has to be an opening,

This feeling of peace,

Of life being beautiful,

Of things going right and this pendulum will keep swinging until we realize that reality simply is,

It is neutral,

Until we can't be swayed anymore by events,

By thoughts,

By feelings and we are simply present with what is.

I haven't heard anyone really talk about this this way.

You know a lot of us are conditioned or a lot of teachings try to make us focus on this side,

On the positive,

On opening,

On happiness,

On peace and very often I've heard people have that experience and I have had it too.

After a retreat,

A spiritual retreat,

You come back to life and that's when a lot of things come up and this is the swinging,

This you know happiness and then anxiety,

Stress,

Tension.

It is all again to bring us back to center,

To bring us back to presence,

To the understanding of non-duality,

Of the fact that this awareness that we reach in meditation is ever present,

It is changeless,

It always is and it is neutral,

It is not a blissful euphoric experience.

Although that can be experienced at first you know and that's what people call enlightenment experiences,

But the fact that such a massive blissful euphoric experience happens means that there is also a lot of tensions,

A lot of stress,

A lot of questions,

Unresolved beliefs in separations that are there in the background and this is how this whole manifest reality works for each of us and also collectively it's this creating of meanings,

These attachments then followed by detachments,

These ideas followed by the opposite ideas,

This constant flux that is seemingly chaotic and I was thinking earlier today that you know this quote the only constant is change.

That is because of this pendulum of feelings but also it's not quite accurate,

There is the stillness,

The awareness in the background that is changeless,

That is unmoving,

Unmoved,

Peaceful,

Just neutrally being in the moment with whatever unfolds and then there is these forms that it takes,

These constantly changing forms that are evolving towards itself so it is bringing a belief that there is something other than awareness,

Other than peace,

Other than presence back to this neutral presence.

Another way in which this is very practical in day-to-day life is for example I have an allergy to pollen and it's really fascinating to observe how it affects me,

How it changes but also you know the amount of feeling that I have in the body lead to a lot more allergy and so when I am surrounded with people that have a lot of anxiety and tensions then that resonates,

The tension and the anxiety that I have still left in me which in the months in which the allergy lasts turns into a stronger allergy and it's the same as desire and sensitivity,

You know we are more sensitive when there is a lot of feeling and sometimes this feeling is hard to become conscious of because it takes this form,

You know the form of an allergy and then we focus on well I need medicine to take care of that or some other form that it takes but when we ask the questions what is behind this,

What is behind this,

What is behind this then we reach this feeling,

This tension that is there and then we can open up,

Allow it to be,

Allow it to be released and slowly and over time all of these tensions become more and more freed up,

More and more released,

The body becomes more relaxed,

More open,

More present and that is this whole spiritual journey or even the whole of manifestation in the world even those who are not yet on the spiritual path that is where they are heading to where they're going and this whole reality really is a perfect manifestation of our beliefs in separation,

It is also guiding us,

All of us individually and perfectly to face our fears,

To open up enough to be able to face some of our suffering and reach this stillness,

This presence over time.

Of course all of this is underlined by the knowing of our true self,

The knowing that awareness simply is,

That tools arise in the moment,

That there is no free will,

There is no choice,

We just do,

We just hear,

We just be in the moment with what is in whatever way we are and everything is unfolding perfectly and then you hear all of these stories about someone doing a course and then they have this amazing realization or someone struggling with a food addiction then finding a way to cure it and telling everyone this is the cure to food addiction but of course it's all about this underlying feeling,

It's all about the amount we have left to feel and when we are ready that's when things shift so that's why different courses don't work in the same way for different people.

All we can really say and should really say is you know be with what is,

Allow your experience to unfold moment by moment,

It is perfect for you,

You are ready for anything that is arising whether it is peace,

Bliss or more tension etc and we are all on this journey to find presence,

We are walking each other home as Ram Dass likes to say and another thing that's really beautiful about this feeling dynamic is that if you trigger something in someone or someone else triggers something in you and there is an argument or a clash of some sorts that's good,

It's not a bad thing because what's happening is this walking each other home you are helping each other heal and just by knowing this,

By knowing that this is your journey you can accept whatever happens as a result,

You can love your own suffering knowing that it's temporary,

That it will be gone maybe soon.

Of course we should try our best not to trigger others but sometimes and you've probably experienced this,

You have a loving intention to say something nice,

To do your best,

To spread love and joy and it's taken exactly the other way around and in that moment you know that you are not to blame it's just what is arising in the other person there is a feeling coming up in them and they have to say,

Do and express whatever they press.

It's all happening perfectly and beautifully you know any sense of duality is shown to us and then its opposite is also shown for us to return to non-duality to awareness which is all encompassing,

All embracing and is in fact everything.

This is our true changeless ever-present self.

I'm reminded of something that I saw recently there was this quote saying relax nothing is under control and someone had commented well I was relaxed until you said that nothing's under control but if relaxation comes from control that means that there is an attachment that means that everything is going right according to your mind that your mind doesn't know what right is so as soon as something goes a bit wrong as soon as the person,

Job or object or whatever you have attached your happiness to is changed slightly then there's the non-relaxation the anxiety that comes up so being relaxed knowing that nothing is under control is a much higher form of relaxation because then you know that everything is unfolding perfectly that there is no self to control anything that's the way we perceive things are resulting from a feeling in the body or a non-feeling when there is no feeling in the body when it's just this transparent openness it's quite easy to smile to be happy to be present and that's the natural state of the body ultimately this is what all feelings both blissful euphoric happy lead us to is this present body this open transparent body so that was quite long and I think a new way of speaking about all of this from me so let me know if you have any questions any comments very recently you said that you sometimes find it difficult to come up with a question and I think that that's probably the case for for a lot of people that do my courses or listen to to these talks because it's and I've said it before it's almost like a new language that itself needs time to to be understood and also the questions somehow it's very much in the background it's in the unconscious mind and it slowly takes time to to come sometimes it comes as a comment other times it's a very clear or very unclear question that's then over time focused more in awareness where you say yes that's exactly it and that's perfect you know I make space for questions and answers if they arise if they don't arise that's also perfect for me it's nice to know that that you're here that you are listening that maybe some of this is resonating with you maybe you'll continue thinking about it and exploring it on your own so yeah Maggie you say what about karma karma is the total amount of feeling and processing that each of us needs to do and that's about all I can say about it because I have no idea how it comes up I have no idea about past lives and if they exist about you know how we have come here it's like as soon as we come here we forget everything but also even more than that to go one step beyond the individual karma to me karma is this this whole underlying structure of reality the the feeling itself the the manifestation the spiritual path the unfolding is karma it's just what is arising in the moment and even though I don't know exactly how it it occurs how we are divided into who has to feel how much maybe we all feel equally over different lifetimes I don't know but what I do know for sure is that there is no creator no doer of any of this and it is simply a natural evolution you could say the end of karma is the presence awareness this non-pendulum when it stops swinging when there is simply presence that's beyond duality that's beyond concepts beyond feelings beyond manifestation so that is what karma is leading to and again I think just from looking at the world it seems like for many people the pendulum just swings left and right or even doesn't swing very much but when you start being interested in spirituality it's like you get the glimpses of presence you get the glimpses of truth beyond the feeling beyond the individual and the more you you progress the more this becomes the stillness becomes all that there is the way it works is there is awareness pure awareness empty of all forms and then a form arises in awareness and that form has to somehow return back to its source to recognize that it is not separate from it and that happens through this pendulum you know happiness peace and then tensions and anxieties this is the the suffering part and then it is released back to where it came from there is a return back to to this empty source that is no karma the the very manifestation and and return all of that is what at least what I call karma and enlightenment is the first glimpse of presence where you just recognize oh I'm not the thoughts I'm not the feelings I am something beyond that is formless that is everywhere that everyone is and then that in the beginning often comes with a sense of bliss happiness peace and then its opposite you know diving into shadow work into the beliefs in separation until it is recognized to just be neutral formless is-ness and just when I said formless is-ness it's quite hard to conceptualize this presence so any concept really kind of almost takes us away from what it is and that's why next week I will do an event called Beyond Labels where we we talk about what cannot be talked about it's a beautiful way to say it again it's this process of to talk about what cannot be talked about it it comes there is a word the form about the formless and then the concept the words the forms and dissolve back into where they came from in this very sentence you know how they say that the whole is in every part it's like in that single sentence there is the part you know the sentence the concept but the whole is is already in it so if there are no more questions I think I'll end the talk here thank you for being with me I look forward to staying in touch you can also check out my website which is on my insight timer profile where I have divided all of my meditations talks writings etc in different categories and videos you can have a look at that and I also offer one-to-one sessions if you want to go deeper into this if you want to really leave it in your day-to-day life to be new to be fresh to be here to be present thank you for being with me bye bye and see you soon