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shoup's avatar

“Losing the ability to ignore”….I feel at some point it became about losing all that I held together, maybe that’s what it means to let go

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Marius's avatar

Yes. I can relate to that. It was, and still is, a process of letting go. Things still comes up from time to time to be seen and let go of here.

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Henk Barendregt's avatar

This is the right way. If one still minds, as the post asks, then one is 'near-liberated' (cula-sotapanna). If one is clear about this state, has no doubt, then selfing is relinquished.

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Marius's avatar

Thanks for the comment. Who is near, and who is far? I’m not speaking from or to any framework. The invitation is to look beyond the mind that tries to label, rank, and resolve.

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Henk Barendregt's avatar

Yes. Great you arrived where you are, without framework. The Buddhadhamma has given me a framework. It was helpful. In that framework, on the basis of where i think you are, that position is called “lesser-sotapanna”. Sotapanna is the first degree of liberation. It is called “lesser”, not because your level is below other first degree liberateds, but because in principle you have to find out how to teach someone else to come there. If you have been taught, then that didactical part comes at the same time.

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Marius's avatar

That is exactly why I step outside frameworks. Even the well-intentioned ones tend to place you somewhere on a map that only exists within the illusion itself, feeding the mind’s need to feel in control. The moment we think we know where someone else is, or where we are, we are already lost in the idea that there is somewhere to get. And in that moment, we stop meeting what is real and start relating to a story.

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Henk Barendregt's avatar

We can live our life and find somethings that are valuable. An other option is that we follow a 'course in meditatoon.' In that second possibility we use our ego, based on the reward system of pleasant & unpleasant. At some moment we will understand intuitively (possibly prompted by a teacher) that we have to shift gear: proceed, but no longer based on ego. That is a bit tricky, but not impossible.

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