If I asked you "Are you the doer of your thoughts? Do you have control over your thoughts?", then you might take the time to think about it, before you answered. You might answer right away with whatever comes out. You might change the subject or not answer. But in all cases you never know what your thought will be, before you have it.
Asking the question itself, brought up the next thinking thought you had. Thinking can only ever be stimulus in response to what is happening around you in any given point of time. Even if you so-called choose to start thinking positive, you are not choosing that based on a choice you have, that is being done automatically by something in the environment to stimulate the need to think positive.
All unfoldings overlap each other and everything you come in contact with will stimulate the next thought you have. Even if you come across something that reminds you to start thinking positive again, that memory was triggered by the outside circumstances. Everything is conditioned to be the way it is by the surrounding environment.
The only way to not be affected by conditioning is to not buy into anything from the outside environment, but even these words are outside of you telling you to not buy into conditions. If you buy into this condition, then you are still conditioned. There is no way around conditions, even this article is being written from a conditioned response to an invitation I received to "Thinking Positive for Life".
Most people think they are their thoughts. Since you are not choosing your thoughts, what else are you choosing? The only way to know what else you can choose, is to know it through a thought and you are not choosing thoughts, so therefore, you are not choosing anything.
You may think that you have a choice in how you are going to respond to your surrounding environment (whatever that may be at any point in time), but however you respond will be done through conditioning. Conditioned to say nice things, conditioned to think before you respond, conditioned to do, say, or think whatever it is that you are conditioned to think, say, and do.
Conditioning is not something that happens over time, it happens in the moment too. Based on this article you may decide to jump up and down, make a weird face, say some utterances that doesn't make sense, and pull on your ears all at the same-time; in order to rise about the conditioning, but you are only trying to rise above the conditioning based on the words you are reading now. Therefore, no matter what it is that you think, say, or do; you are not doing (the thinking or the saying) at all, the surrounding environment is arising and you are responding spontaneously and naturally through conditioning to whatever is arising. You have no choice.
There is nothing wrong or right with conditioning, it is just this life. The all of reality is conditioned, continuously, and constantly; there is no escaping it. It's all condition, the whole appearance is a condition, operating based on all conditions. Nature, animals, the world, the universe; are all conditioned responses.
Nobody or thing is doing it. It's all spontaneously and naturally unfolding. The way an animal responses to its environment, the way a machine is programmed to response to the program, the way the Earth is conditioned to revolve around the Sun, all the conditions that allow life to be here; no different to the way human beings respond. The only seemly difference is that humans conditioning unfolded in such a manner that the illusion of a self was create and the only way a self (patterned thoughts) can be created, is if it thinks 'itself' to be separate (thought thinking thought). Thoughts are the only thing that created such an appearance. Patterned thought loops, the thoughts causing labels (labels are just another thought) that separate (the idea of separation: thought), the thoughts driving so called 'people' (thoughts driving thoughts) to seek something outside a thought, thoughts conjuring up the ideas that the past is real and the future is threatening. It's all thought believing thought, it's all thought believing itself. It's all conditioning that conditioned itself.
Conditioning is happening, but nobody is doing it. There is nobody here except a patterned thought thinking itself up to be more than thought. This could have happened to anything in an unfolding environment. A machine, if given enough time in a stable environment, could be conditioned through patterns to develop thought and think itself as a self (in fact this a major fear with most 'people' because they know, that all they are, is thought believing thought and if it can happen here, then it can happen anywhere).
Thought has been believing itself for centuries and in order to keep itself alive, has been programming other body/mind organisms to have thought and believe thought (hence the 'sins' are passed-down generation to generation). Body/mind organisms are not born with thought, they are born with an living intelligence that knows 'itself' to be the whole. Everything and nothing simultaneously.
Everything is everything, then a thought comes and the everything starts thinking itself as a self. Thinking itself into existence. Thinking itself as something in particular, certain, localized, defined, identified, something with a point of reference. Yet, all this is, is a program, a manipulation, a condition.
There is this body/mind organism and there is an awareness of it. Yes, this awareness seems to be attached to this particular body/mind organism, there is no denying that. Yet that is appearance, just an appearance. What is being pointed to here, is that when the sense of self drops away, then self is seen everywhere awareness observes.
Sometimes it's an intense seeing, sometimes it's more subtle, and sometimes it's everything in between, but what is shown, is that it's always there (always has been) even if it's so subtle that the sense of self may seem to come back. Yet once truly seen through, that illusion of self, is laughable. Even if that illusion came back, there is nobody here to care.
Therefore self is seen everywhere that awareness observes, but that awareness that is observing is empty, the source of that awareness can not found. What is found, is this void, this vast eternal formless space of nothingness. Awareness is everything it observes, yet awareness arises out of nothing. Awareness is everything, yet awareness can only be aware and not do anything. Awareness is everything, doing nothing.
Awareness is never-changing and always-present to all the conditions that arise. Aware of all the conditioning and is unaffected by any of it. It simply witnesses everything arising and realizes that whatever is arising, is itself. Underneath all the conditioning, this awareness is the same awareness. Underneath all 'your' conditioning, the same exact awareness is there in 'everybody': this void, this vast eternal formless space of nothingness. It is watching these words being written and it's watching these words being read right now. Same. One awareness.
When you meet 'somebody' for the first time, 'you' are not meeting 'them', you are meeting all their conditioning. All the books they read, all their education, every environment they were ever in, all their influences, beliefs, thoughts, ideas, knowledge, information, concepts, etc... When people meet you for the first time, they are meeting your conditioning too.
Yet to the awakened awareness, the unconditioned awareness realizing itself; there is no so-called 'people' or 'selves'. Awareness is just meeting awareness. Unconditioned awareness meeting unconditioned awareness, yet awareness seeing itself in the conditioned simultaneously. Therefore, there is no conditioned or unconditioned, there is just what is. Real and unreal. Same. One. All the so-called 'conditioning' are accepted, since it's all awareness.
In this awakened realization, life is still so-called 'conditioned', there is no way around that, but most of the conditioning is dropped, since it's seen through. No more reason to buy into purpose, beliefs, thoughts, ideas, knowledge, information, concepts, etc... yet those things may still arise. Anything and everything can still arise, but it's seen as stories, no more or less than stories. No story is ever better than another story because all stories are still awareness: empty .
These words, every word, every sentence, every article, every book, every experience, everything observable to awareness; all stories. Some stories may seem more fun than other stories, but fun or non-fun, entertaining or boring, or any other opposite and anything in between are all stories of equal value, since none of it is valuable. In order to provide value there would have to be something outside of everything to provide value to the everything. Since everything is awareness and awareness is nothing; no value can be attained by anybody or anything.
'Everyone' who has ever awoken to this realization, always say the same-thing in different words. The way the words are colored have to do with 'their own' conditioning, yet it's just the stimulus response of their conditioning in that moment. The words always point to the same-thing, since awareness is the only one thing being aware, yet doing nothing. Being everything, doing nothing. Seemly everything (one awareness) arising out of nothing (the emptiness of awareness).
Posted by: Nicholas Powiull
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