Re: [BardonPraxis] Re: Another Step One question - EOM and lucid dreams

["Rawn Clark" <rawnclark@...>]

Dear David,

>> But from looking at various spiritual approaches to different states
of consciousness, it's become more plain to me that there is a point,
it's just part of a larger context of growth and learning than just
using the dream as a Holodeck. so what you said makes sense. <<

It can be a very useful tool in the context of the Soul Mirror work and
character transformation.

>> Which leads me to a few other questions on emptiness. I think I am
finally experiencing scanty moments of "true" emptiness. It feels like
whenever I experience it, I grab at it and try to hold it and so it
slips away. So instead I just have to keep "dodging" thoughts and focus
on being open and allowing the emptiness to permeate me. Does that
sound about right? <<

Sure. :)

>> Also, Rawn, you mentioned that in step one Bardon only expects the
student to have achieved a silencing of surface thoughts, not a complete
emptiness of mind. At one point does is Bardon's minimal requirement
for having achieved vacancy of mind fulfilled: At the point where my
thoughts stop being verbal and begin to be more feeling-ideas, or at the
point where they are entirely gone? <<

True emptiness is no-thought, no-thinking, just the pure perception of
BEing. By the end of Step One it needs to be no-thinking. As time goes
by and your practice continues, different layers of the mind reveal
themselves and the emptiness changes character as you become more and
more accustomed to it.

>> How do you differentiate between awareness of inner experience in
general
(thoughts, ideas, feelings, images, etc.) and awareness of thought (a la
Thought Control) if they are all connected and related? <<

The "thought control" exercise is about *passively observing* what
transpires in the surface mind. In other words, it's non-participatory
and all you do is *observe*. The "though discipline" exercise, on the
other hand, is about focusing intensively upon just a single thought or
train of thoughts while simultaneously excluding all unrelated thoughts.
The subject "thoughts" is the same in both exercises but the difference
is found in your relationship to those thoughts.

>> And is it normal to feel fear when opening up to this emptiness? It
feels like I am resisting the letting go of my ego-boundaries. <<

I'd say it's a fairly common reaction. Resistance to change breeds
fear. The "trick" is to not resist. "Resistance is futile!" ;-)

My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
13 Nov 2003
rawnclark@...
rawn@...
http://www.ABardonCompanion.com
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