[charley]

All of my posts are nothing less than laying a foundation for meditation to occur naturally, freely, without any compulsion, or thought. To repeat, these posts are in essence by themselves the laying of a foundation for meditation to occur naturally and easily, without any effort, without any forethought about it, without any planning whatsoever.

Of course, if one doesn’t have a good foundation, something solid and indestructible, one can always start again, and build yourself a foundation on a more solid basis.

Fallowness

Now, when one plants a garden, one must ensure that the earth itself is fertile and rich. Otherwise, the plants won’t bloom or grow naturally. When the ground is fallow, dry, and barren, such as found in a desert, very little can blossom and bloom in sand. In that sense, the seeds that are planted in a desert will just blow away and be forgotten. In the same way, when one’s own ground is fallow, these posts will not give rise to the laying of a foundation for meditation to occur naturally.

The ground/foundation of a person must be fertile for a new seed (idea) to be planted and to flourish. When the ground is fallow, the seed (idea) will perish and drift away. [As an aside, and in tune and in harmony with nature and the seasons of life, there are natural times when meditation itself can and does subside. So, it is nonsensical to apply a fixed time and routine for meditation.]

For meditation to be occur naturally, a right foundation has to be laid within. And, one basis of such a foundation is always right action, right behaviour, proper conduct. And, the beauty and wonder of right action is that no one can tell you what you “should” do - such an awful word is that word “should”. So, what I am saying is that it is for each and everyone to discover for themselves what right action is.

Authority

Any foundation that is based on thought will result in conflict and sorrow. The foundation for meditation must be based on right action, on virtue. Most definitely, virtue is not the virtue that society tells you is virtue, what others define for you. When society defines to you what virtue is, you are following the dictates of an authority, someone or a group of people who obviously have an agenda. When you follow what society tells you is a virtue, all you are doing is developing a habit. Society may say that it is okay (in effect, virtuous and commendable) to be greedy, to be competitive, ambitious, acquisitive, successful, intent on achievement, on becoming, etc. even to the point of being ready to kill for some idea, for some belief, etc., but that is not virtue. It can never be true virtue, because as long as there is this ambition and competition, and so on, there must be exploitation. Exploitation means that one is using another, even if it is mutual, and this very exploitation prevents relationship, prevents communion with “the other” - because there is always fear involved in exploitation, even to the point of paranoia - fear of losing, so then jealousy, possessiveness, etc. Moreover, it is thought that creates the idea of virtue that society tends to impose on others. It is thought that creates the idea of virtue that is inculcated into us by society. It is thought that chooses the morality and ethos of society, of any group, of any gang, of any organized group of people. It is never love. [As an aside, it is important to understand that love is always located outside the field of thought.]

Virtue itself cannot be cultivated, because when it is cultivated it only leads to respectability - what others think you are worth based on what society values and thinks you are worth. Such people have no problem showing a fake form of respect to those they want to be liked by, and they can easily deny respect to those they don’t like, which is so hypocritical. This is important, because it is respect that gives rise to understanding, and it is understanding that awakens intelligence.

So, any foundation that is laid must not involve the acceptance of authority. Authority must be questioned and doubted all the time. Authority always ends up resulting in arrogance and a lack of humility and is a dead end in itself. There must be freedom from authority for meditation to occur naturally.

So, what I saying is that virtue is something that can only be discovered by you alone. And, when that is done, then only can there be order in your life. When there is that order, it may be possible for meditation to occur naturally, freely, and without effort.

Freedom

From the above, it is clearly seen that unless one puts one’s beliefs aside, these very beliefs prevent a naturally occurring meditation. How can anyone feel free to look when one is tied to beliefs? How can anyone feel free to look when one is afraid? So, what I am saying here is that freedom is also a basis for laying a proper foundation for meditation to occur naturally. While most people “believe” that freedom is the goal, that just isn’t true.

Additionally, one also needs space - to be able to move around in life, but one also needs interior space. To be able to see what is happening within, one also needs to have enough space within. Please understand that there is very little space between the tip of your nose and your skull. And, when you stuff that small space with psychological knowledge, with beliefs, with thoughts, you block yourself from having the necessary space within to see clearly “what is” happening inside, as well as “what is” happening outside. So, by dropping beliefs, you create space inside that will make it possible for meditation to occur naturally. Of course, most of you know the expression: ... “you can’t see the forest for the trees”; and, that is why it is important to free yourself up of the trees that get in the way of you getting the whole picture of who you are. So, it is seen that psychological freedom is part and parcel of laying a right foundation, right at the beginning. It is not a goal or an end to be achieved.

Love

Without love, there no possibility of virtue. To me, this love is the love of humanity, which includes: sympathy, empathy and compassion - compassion being the love for all. [It is not affection or fondness, which also exists; and, please understand that affection or fondness or sensation is not love. Even a monster like Hitler was fond of his dog!!! but, he wasn’t a loving human being!]

For my part, my understanding of the word “passion”, comes from its original etymology, meaning suffering, sorrow from the Latin word “passio-”. People have corrupted and misused its meaning due to how people alter the meaning of words according to their conditioning and how they then try and influence others so as to use them and exploit them... which is nothing less than outside propaganda and pressure - years of corruption through generation after generation of abuse, etc. As well, people say, because of advertising, “I love Coca-Cola”... Of course, it is impossible to actually feel “love” for a soft drink. You can see easily from this one example how words have become corrupted and easily misused.

So, from my part, when one accepts who one is, there is passion. In other words, a priori, one must know who one is. Unfortunately, most people don’t even know who they are, nor even understand who they are.

In this context, please understand that knowing about oneself is not the same as “knowing” one’s sorrow closely, intimately.

So, without accepting all of one’s conditioning which comes from sadness, fear, sorrow, suffering, and everything else, a person really has no passion. They may have a form of ego energy, which fuels and drives their life, but that isn’t passion.

Now, there is a big difference between having a particular interest/hobby/a “liking” in one area, and having a lifelong passion in a direction which carries one to leave a particular mark on the world, which is beautiful in itself, and which has not caused harm to anyone, especially to themselves.

Compassion means to have a feeling towards and with (com- meaning “with”) the suffering of another. Therefore, compassion is passion which extends outward to include “the other”... which, of course leads to the meaning of having passion for the suffering of all... in other words, a love for all.

Of course, without being open to or close to or being in touch with one’s own suffering/sorrow, it is impossible to have that passion, and therefore be open to integrate compassion into one's being - that feeling of love of humanity, that feeling of love for all.

Please understand that when one behaves with greed, with pettiness, with brutality, cruelty, ambition, elitism, exploitation, competitiveness, etc., we create a world where all that exists. Please also understand that while all organized religions say that they promote love for all as a message, the fact remains that they do not denounce or condemn the greed, the pettiness, the brutality, cruelty, ambition, elitism, exploitation, competitiveness, etc. of their congregation, because they depend on the cooperation of their congregation to maintain and sustain their religion. [As an aside, all gangs/cliques usually function in somewhat the same way.] If they would actually condemn and denounce these aspects to create a world where love for all (that is, compassion) would exist, it would mean the collapse of all of their organized religions.