{"id":47544,"date":"2022-07-27T15:08:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T15:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=47544"},"modified":"2022-07-27T16:03:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T16:03:49","slug":"blown-away-by-absolutely-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2022\/07\/27\/blown-away-by-absolutely-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Blown away by absolutely nothing."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How can you talk about \u2018me\u2019 or \u2018the me\u2019 when you have a sense it doesn\u2019t really exist?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, listen to non-duality teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can talk about non-personal existence forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they can even invite you to their satsangs, so they can tell you for hours that both time and spiritual meetings don\u2019t really exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This branch of spirituality is very amusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not just really interesting but also endlessly puzzling and seemingly circular, and therefore something you can devote a lifetime to, without any real results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was just about to say that people who get lost in non-duality, Buddhism, or the 3P\u2019s (to name just a few of the products in the candy store) don\u2019t really get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the simple reason that all these things are mere tools to open up something bigger, while the goal is never to become really good at using the tool itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\u2026. since everything in life is always absolutely perfect even if it isn’t, becoming a Buddhist is just as good a goal as becoming enlightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or peeling an onion (which is somewhat the same, metaphorically speaking).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reminds me of all the things I have been absolutely certain about in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things that made total sense, but only for as long as they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, some of the things I wrote in my first book, 6 years ago, make me cringe in awkward agony when I read them now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that mean that these earlier \u2018truths\u2019 didn\u2019t have any value and that my most recent insights will probably be just as useless in the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course not (and probably, concerning that last bit of the question).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything, literally everything, is a mere building block of our personal reality, which means it\u2019s essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the \u2018what the fuck was I thinking back then!\u2019, there\u2019s no real sense of growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it also SEEMS that whatever happened back then, turned into what\u2019s going on and what’s deeply known at this moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, my ultimate goal in life and everything that\u2019s part of it is radical simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ultimately means a shitload of negating, cutting out, erasing, pruning, losing shit, and ripping out many ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is a completely natural process, by the way (and feels really good).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s extra cool is that all these amazing things are happening to a non-existing me, in a world that is a divine fabrication, far beyond anything knowable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that a deep sense of Oneness can co-exist with a profound feeling of separation, is what makes it incredibly spectacular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing I\u2019m not really doing anything, in terms of personal responsibility, doesn\u2019t get in the way of pride and awkwardness and all the other flavors of being a sloppy human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess what I wanted to say (and I\u2019m only realizing that while writing this particular sentence), is that no spiritual philosophy has to take away any experience, or any notion of individuality and free will, even though there\u2019s an absolute certainty that these things are not real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no specific behavior needed, no obligation for any preference, and you don\u2019t even have to become a vegan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing really happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, boy, how amazing it all is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @k8_iv, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can you talk about \u2018me\u2019 or \u2018the me\u2019 when you have a sense it doesn\u2019t really exist? Well, listen to non-duality teachers. They can talk about non-personal existence forever. And they can even invite you to their satsangs, so they can tell you for hours that both time and spiritual meetings don\u2019t really exist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,105,116,113,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47548,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47544\/revisions\/47548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}