ET Dialog, Part Two
Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:32 am
[Editor's Note: This is a continuation of ET Dialog.]
ET:
The ego says: "One day, when this, that, or the other happens, I
am going to be okay, happy, at peace."
JJ:
I agree here that many people's egos seem to have this illusion
and for these people Tolle's writings will be especially helpful.
Actually disciples usually aren't that bothered if they are happy or
not but of course happiness is more fun.
ET:
Tolle talks about how enlightened people oscillate between mind and no mind.
JJ:
I agree with this and have pointed out how many of the great
minds of the past have been "abscent-minded" because of their focus
on ideas. I do not know if I would call it mindlessness as more of a
quieting of the mind chatter.
ET:
"The mind is essentially a survival machine. Attack and defense
against other minds, gathering, storing, and analyzing information."
JJ:
This tells us that he includes the computer brain as part of his
definition of mind because he says the mind "stores" information. It
is the brain that does the storing, not the mind as defined in the
Ancient [Ageless] Wisdom.
ET:
"In the way I use the word (Mind), is not just thought. It
includes your emotions as well as all unconscious mental-emotional
reactive patterns."
JJ:
This is a pretty broad definition of mind. No wonder some of his
writings on mind seem confusing.
ET:
"It wasn't through the mind, through thinking, that the miracle
that is life on earth or your body were created...."
JJ:
I would say it had to be done by some kind off mind that figured
things out. Let us go back to a time that our DNA did not exist and
there was only conscious intelligence focussed in the NOW. At that
time the DNA did not exist in the present, but the future. Some mind
had to come along and look at the needs of the future and figure out
how to manufacture the DNA. If there are any other theories on how
intelligence could do this without thinking I would like to hear it.
ET:
Suppression is not healthy. We need to be in touch with our emotions.
JJ:
Agreed.
ET:
He says the mind cannot find the solution to emotional pain.
JJ:
My mind has found the solution to emotional pain on a regular
basis throughout my life. Without my good ole mind I may have gone
insane for I have had much more than my share of emotional
turbulence. From my observation it is those who do not think about
what they are doing that create the great emotional dramas.
ET:
"Love, joy, and peace ... are not what I would call emotions."
JJ:
Love and joy are not negative emotions, but I would definitely
call the feeling of them an emotional experience.
ET:
"The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to
the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are
identified with your mind."
JJ:
We are close on this but with a subtle difference. I have said
that pain is caused by a resistance to impulses received from the
soul. Sometimes you need to resist what is to avoid paid. For
instance, if we did not resist Hitler we would have multiplied the
pain of humanity many times over. When I see I am about to drive
over a cliff I will resist what is and my good old faithful mind will
make a correction that saves much pain.
ET:
"Always say 'yes' to the present moment. What could be more
futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something
that already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life
itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is."
JJ:
I really, really, really disagree with this. So people living
under Hitler should have just accepted the Nazis because they were
"what is" at that time? Thank God I have not surrendered to what is
or I would be miserable. I have changed "what is" so my life is free
from emotional pain and quite joyful.
Now if he were to tell us to accept the things we cannot change, or
higher will, then that would be a different matter, but he did not
say this.
ET:
In the chapter of "Power of Now" called "Past Pain: Dissolving The
Pain-Body" he describes the pain body as composed of past pains that
are activated by a trigger of some kind.
JJ:
Some think this is the Dweller on the Threshold but he is almost
exactly describing the reactive mind, or body from L. Ron Hubbard's
"Science of Mental Health." The problem is he doesn't give Hubbard
any credit for borrowing his ideas. He does use the term "reactive"
several times in describing it but would be more concise if he used
Hubbard's word "engram" to describe the "dormant" pain.
According to Hubbard the reactive body was a survival mechanism that
evolved in all animal lives that the human is on the verge out
outgrowing for we do not need it to survive as do the animals.
The reactive body is not capable of logic but just simply reacts to
pain as a survival mechanism.
Let us take a small fish for instance that has wandered into
dangerous waters. He encounters a bigger fish that chased him, takes
a bite out of his tail, but he barely escapes with his life. During
the moment of intense danger and pain his reactive body kicks in and
takes a snapshot of everything the fish experienced to avoid this
situation again. This body will record a couple things like the type
of seabed, the other fish in the area or maybe even the temperature
of the water. These recordings are called engrams.
Then the fish may live a pretty normal fish life for a month or so
but then when he wanders into the dangerous waters again he sees a
similar seabed again and this kicks in the engram. The reactive mind
takes over and the fish panics whether there is a predator fish there
or not. The fish feels a painful impulse to get out of there fast and
he flees from what the reactive mind sees as danger.
Hubbard says the reactive mind has been helpful for animals and
primitive man, but for modern humanity it creates more problems than
it prevents.
Let us say, for example that you are playing ball and get hit ion the
head and are laying on the ground in a semi conscious situation.
Your reactive mind kicks in and for your protection it tries to
assess everything you should avoid in order for the pain to not
return.
Here is what it takes in:
- The thumping of feet.
- A sweaty smell in the air.
- Someone shouts: "Get a doctor!"
These then are three triggers in the reactive mind that can be
activated any time.
Let us suppose the guy heals up and resumes life as normal for ten
years. Then one day his grandmother has a heart attack and everyone
gathers round. He hears the thumping of feet, the air smells a
little like sweat and someone yells, "Get a doctor!"
Suddenly the engram kicks in and the guy gets a splitting headache.
Little does he know that this is his reactive mind's signal to him
that he is in danger and should flee. Instead he just wonders where
the pain came from.
Now the engram is activated the headache may return any time he hears
the word "doctor" and may even lead to an unreasonable fear of
doctors.
He has no idea what is happening to him because he does not
understand the reactive mind.
Now according to Hubbard all of us have many engrams that interfere
with a productive life and causes unnecessary fears and worries. He
developed a method of returning to the pain and neutralizing it.
When all engrams are neutralized the person is then a "clear," and
his state of being is supposed to be much enhanced.
Now where Hubbard created an elaborate and very expensive method of
becoming "clear" Tolle has developed a simple one which simply consists
of detaching oneself from the pain or reactive body and raising one's
consciousness. He was not the first to suggest this method as I
briefly described it several times as early as 1999.
I wrote:
"The removal of engrams can have some benefit for the astrally
polarized person, but what the Scientologists do not realize is that
soul consciousness can eliminate most of the problems created by
engrams, and the financial cost is zero.
"He who has firm soul contact can register the effects of engrams,
prayers, influences and then let them pass through him and dissipate
into the ethers.
"Any time you do not feel free it is because some knowledge is
lacking for 'you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you
free,' as the Master said.
"If we 'seek first the kingdom of God,' as Jesus also said, 'then all
things will be added.' This includes a release from engrams and all
unwanted influences from painful childhood experiences through soul
contact."
Archived Article 494, Sept 3, 1999.
Now I doubt if Tolle got this idea from reading the archives but it
does sound like he accumulated some of his ideas on the pain body
from studying Hubbard's writings.
"Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you like it not at present."
-- English Proverb
Copyright © 2008 by JJ Dewey, All Rights Reserved
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