Compare yourself to others - it's so fruitful 😂.

The concept of genes and up-to-date conditioning is in large part pointing to the structure of your neural network (I mean the brain as a whole) at any given moment. 

We react and respond to circumstances based on the particulars of the circumstance and our genes and up-to-date conditioning in that moment. A deep understanding of this implies we could only ever have functioned the way we did. 

Your neural network is continually changing as a result of new environmental conditioning.

Your experience of life is dictated to by your neural network in each moment. 

Any thoughts or reactions are a by-product of your neural network. 

Maybe that makes it easier to see how you, and everybody else, are not the "doers" (given we don't control the neural network and how it changes). 

All suffering stands on the belief in doership and attachment to outcomes, these beliefs if they exist are part and parcel of your neural network.

As well as being a description of your neural network genes and up-to-date conditioning also points to your hair and eye colour, build and skin type, blood type and susceptible to cancer or heart disease etc, but by far the most important aspect to recognise it pointing to is the neural network (I mean the brain as a whole).

Any shifts in perception or even what is called witnessing, or prior to witnessing, I-Am-ness is also a result of a change in the neural network. When you look at what changes in this process, it is always change on the level of the body/mind. Because the shifts seem to be out of a certain type of thinking, it can appear that the shift was not anything to do with the body, but on closer assessment of what caused the change we will find that life delivered new conditioning and that changed the brain which changed the experience. Even a spontaneous shift that seems to be unexplainable is probably just a shift in the neural wiring.

Happy neural networking for now

If there is a prevailing sense of uncomfortableness with yourself or the other, or with life (ultimately all an uncomfortableness with yourself) then upon honest reflection you will be forced to conclude "I am not happy".

If the prevailing sense of uncomfortableness is absent then upon reflection you will know your happiness.

Happiness and peace of mind are synonymous with each other. Peace of mind is the absence of an uncomfortableness with yourself (suffering).

If from time to time attention moves inward and you 'feel', you'll find that the words 'uncomfortableness with yourself' is a spot on descriptor of the sense that disturbs happiness.

These pointers are not intended for you to form an expectation over, or to measure yourself against and feel shame or pride (although this can all too easily happen), if this happens then it is just more uncomfortableness arising in the moment.

These pointers, if you feel so inclined, are here to be used as guides. They are descriptions of things to look at - aspects of the life experience to land on, feel and contemplate. 

If this happens there will be a verification of the concepts for yourself based on your own daily life experience - this is super important. Real change will not happen unless this investigation for yourself happens.

Each time these concepts are verified for yourself based on your own investigation in your own daily life, the understanding goes deeper and deeper. 

It shifts from what it started off as (an intellectual understanding) to a deeper clarity of your own, no longer merely the intellectual grasp of what a concept is stating. In this process a whole lot of misunderstanding which is the basis of the uncomfortableness gets uprooted.

If from time to time attention moves inward and you 'feel', you'll find that the words 'uncomfortableness with yourself' is a spot on descriptor of the sense that disturbs happiness.

Peace for now

If you only ever do what you've been told to do you'll only ever end up where someone else wants you to be, that's why living life that way is so unsatisfying. 

Try doing what you feel like more. Start small and allow the principle to work its way into your life organically, that way fear (attachment to outcomes) won't derail the process. You might just be surprised at the effects.

Enjoy.

Continuous happiness for the human being is available.

It's not available as some form of pleasurable feeling, not as joy or bliss, or an altered state, but rather it's available as unwavering peace of mind in daily living. 

Peace of mind is more accurately described as the absence of suffering, in other words the absence of an attitudinal resistance to life which is essentially an uncomfortableness with oneself or the other. 

This resistance and uncomfortableness arises in the forms of expectation and attachment to outcomes, worry, guilt, blame and pride.

Suffering dissolves when our connection to source remains unobscured and the implications of this connection seep into the depths of our being, dissolving the ground on which suffering stand. 

Happiness turns out to be peace of mind in daily living regardless of the circumstance you find yourself in.

Peace for now

We are very proficient in turning concepts into beliefs, it is a most unimpressive skill. 

Who says you are meant to be, or should be happy? Who says it is even actually available for you?

Beliefs are the very basis of expectation and expectation is a big form of suffering.

One of the biggest benefits which comes out of the 'flip/flop/flip/flop' phase is the clarity, the recognition beyond just what someone has pointed at, for the first time, of what we are REALLY looking for.

In a certain moment, after having experienced this seemingly unfortunate and ongoing sliding in and out of peaceful and suffering phases, the experiential contrast between the two can become glaringly clear. It is seen that in practical terms the: 

'Flip' stage equates to a sense of ease with whatever may be happening in the flow of life,

and the 

'Flop' phase equates to a resistance and uncomfortableness with what's happening in the flow of life.

When the contrast between the two becomes clear experientially and in practical terms, the intellect may register a very important conclusion; 

It may insightfully proclaim, based on a recognition of the contrast of the two states, based not just on what someone else has told us but rather from really having registered it clearly for oneself for the first time:

"All that I'm REALLY looking for is the end of the 'Flop' !!!" 

"I'm NOT REALLY looking for an ecstatic experience, I'm not looking for my life situation to change radically, I'm just looking for the end of the 'Flop', when the 'Flip' is there all is ok, really more than ok. 'Flip' is the absence of the 'Flop' not the gaining of anything, Wow, I din't really really get this for myself before"

Peace of mind is what we are REALLY looking for. And peace of mind is just the absence of an uncomfortableness, the absence of the different forms of suffering which arise.

If this gets registered, a most important recognition has happened and so much confusion that has stood in the way of what we are REALLY looking for can fall away. 

The seeking becomes much more focussed, awareness plus the intellect then start to see the remaining subtle dynamics which still remain in the system which are forcing the movement out of peace. 

Additionally, a whole lot of interest in topics which we thought were important fall away when it's seen that they may not actually be that relevant for what we REALLY want.

We have more clarity, our understanding has gone deeper, our earnestness has grown. The seeking becomes much more focussed.

Peace for now

We're not really scared of dying because we're afraid we will no longer exist, or because of the uncertainty, but much more so because we have forgotten that we exist fully right now.

When it comes time to die, die knowing that in each moment you did exactly what you thought or felt to do.

The human being is not JUST a body but rather is the blend of a body AND consciousness. 

The consciousness aspect surprisingly goes unnoticed and it's not uncommon for people to live an entire lifetime disconnected from a very significant aspect of themselves, and as a result, have the opposite of a well rounded experience of themselves - this is experientially very uncomfortable.

From some perspective this can be seen as a tragedy.

In order to address this oversight - this one sided obsession with the body - Nisargadatta Maharaj and others, in fact whole teaching traditions, would make bold statements like "I am not the Body, I Am Awareness/Consciousness" or "The world is illusory, the body is illusory, your thoughts and feelings are illusory, you are not that, you are the Self in which all arises and is seen".

Are these sorts of statement absolutely true? Or, could it be, that in order to break an obsession with one aspect of ourself (which is preventing a more balanced, well rounded experience) it is necessary to trick the mind into shifting attention from the aspect it is overly identified with to the aspect it is overlooking. 

And what better way to aid this shift than to introduce the notions of 'Truth versus illusion', 'Absolute versus the changing', 'what you are versus what you are not'. 

In other words we need to be told we are absolutely not the body, not the thoughts and so on, and simultaneously told that we are exclusively Consciousness or Awareness or No Thing, in order to get the job done, at least that is one way. 

Couldn't we consider it kind or compassionate that someone has dedicating their life to do whatever is needed to bring attention on that which has been overlooked, to bring about the end of this tragedy? 

A few half truths here and there are not so bad after all, right? 

They will all get sorted out in due course anyway. 

When and if it happens, the recognition of the awareness or consciousness aspect of the human can be called Awakening, awakening to the aspect of ourselves that we were asleep to.

Integration is the process after awakening where we start becoming less identified with any aspect of ourself. And after being [compassionately] told emphatically for years that we are consciousness or nothing, that the person doesn't exist etc, and having shifts that may have been taken as 'proofs' of these statements, we may have some issues to deal with for a while 😂. 

So after life has delivered our non-dual rehabilitation program (integration) we just find ourselves living as a well balanced human being in a world of time and space. 

We now find, as a result of all these realisations, that all aspects of ourself are held in a healthy perspective and suffering which resulted from an over-identification with one aspect or the other falls away.

Peace for now