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Browse every published article connected to Eric Putkonen, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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This is really a nasty question. If I say “yes”, then you will think there is nothing to realize and remain stuck in suffering. If I say “no”, that is not correct and limitations on the Self could be inferred.
Resignation is giving up, quitting, stepping down, standing down, or otherwise conceding defeat. Accepting what is means allowing what is to be and then working with what is. Accepting what is does not mean you are giving up trying to change it. Accepting what is does not mean quitting or conceding defeat.
Motivation is something the ego wants. Ego needs motivation and drive to do things it doesn't really want to do. Motivation is something you need in order to do work. Ask a child "what is your motivation or drive for playing?"...and you will have a very confused child. Or you might get the simple reply..."because it is fun." What is play, really, but to have fun. So what is being said is "I'm having fun to have fun." It is having fun for its own sake. This is play...no motivation needed.
To me, death is a teacher whose wisdom and simplicity can be awe-inspiring. Humanity, as a whole, fears death; however, death is inevitable. For as an old saying goes, you can win a million battles with death, but death only has to win once. This resistance to an inevitable part of nature ...
The idea of partial or incomplete awakenings is a refuge of the ego by creating progress. It feels good, egoically, to say I partially awakened. I have taken another step to “full awakening.” No, that is just being stuck in a new illusion…a new set of chains.
Even if you get what you want, you won’t be happy. If it was a car, a job, a spouse, or whatever…you will fear and worry about losing what you got and so you will never truly be happy even when you get it. There will always be the anxiety of “what if I lose it?” Happiness does not come from getting the things you want.
I have long pondered on why humanity as a whole practices "eye for an eye," especially after reading about Mahatma Gandhi's life and learning the concept that an "eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." The message of peace is within most of the world's doctrines, and yet, it ...
Authenticity and integrity is really the same thing. To be authentic means to be our real being. I did not use the word "self," because our normal conception of self is a false self. What many people see as themselves is not their true selves. We often try to identify ourselves by our ...
After meditating for many years, through many forms of meditation, I prefer a most basic and simple meditation. A meditation that requires no effort. A meditation that is not a doing. It is simply sitting...aware. In its simplicity is something very powerful, because when we sit down to ...
Happiness and joy are our natural state, but people often then question, “why isn't that my experience now?” We don't experience our natural state, because of the bad mental habits and beliefs that we learned while growing up. Look at young children. Happiness and joy perpetually shine from their faces, except when hungry or hurt or a diaper needs changing. Say a young child falls and hurts a knee. The child will cry, and mommy will kiss it and make the boo-boo go away. Minutes later, the child is happy again like nothing happened.
Happiness and joy are our natural state, but people often then question, “why isn't that my experience now?” We don't experience our natural state, because of the bad mental habits and beliefs that we learned while growing up. Look at young children. Happiness and joy perpetually shine from their faces, except when hungry or hurt or a diaper needs changing. Say a young child falls and hurts a knee. The child will cry, and mommy will kiss it and make the boo-boo go away. Minutes later, the child is happy again like nothing happened.
No, not for people. Everything is temporary and changing…without much or any control. Who knows when you might suddenly be laid off and unemployed? Who knows when some sickness or illness will happen to the body? Inevitably, each person will die. There is no absolute protection from ever becoming sick, unemployed, relationships ending, or death. So as long as you think of yourself as a “me” (i.e. a person or people), then there is no absolute security.
To be present means to cease doing things that take your awareness away from now. If you did nothing at all, you would automatically be present. We are present, because our bodies are in the present and our experience is of the present. There is no when or where else we can truly be than here and now.
None. No importance what so ever. The ego is what is looking for “shoulds” and “should nots” and rank by importance and trying to do something (like – not being attached). It is true that the enlightened are not attached to things and people. When there is a seeing through the illusion of “me”, the illusion of attachment also falls away as it is founded upon an illusory “me”. However, there is no such thing as “the importance of not being attached”. There is no need to try to not be attached. In fact, the enlightened don’t really think about attachment or detachment.
I would immediately ask, “where are you looking?” And then follow that up with, “what is looking?”