Personality

Inspired by Vitvan of the SNO

If the following seems esoteric it is due to my level of understanding:

                    Personality is our bent early learned, and learned throughout our days of little awareness. Dealing with one's own personality may come to seem a bit warlike. In that dealing with it helps one to know that there is a stronger more real you within. 

                    Even so we must develop ourselves within and through our personality of today.

                    In the beginning of our individuation process it is difficult to see our personality or even to look toward it. Some may never do so. Even the most aware of us may need more than a little help. Still the personality is a learned happening and is transitory. It is often a reflection of mostly unconscious experience. Our being is stronger; is stronger than personality  You may even come to see that which seemed to be strong is much like a bit froth.  Froth or no, some of it is likely to stay with you for life as a helpful old friend.

                    We say to be true to yourself by acting to fulfill that self. We learn more of the nature of actually doing. We learn that a doing is neither a happening nor an unconscious reaction. As you come to fulfill that state at which you are now conscious, you can expand your consciousness beyond that state. You can make your personality truer to the more real you.

                    None of the process is really easy. The process of individuation is natural but often takes some hard work. It is easy, however, to attend to the rather good in one's self while seeing nearly none of the somewhat bad. We can continue to embrace the false, wrong, and distorted in our lives without being aware of doing so. Nature seems to help one to preserve oneself and then helps one to be productive before it helps us to  develop consciousness of our being. This, in our growing awareness, can cause some grief and disappointment. We often seem to need others or a school to teach us that there is a purification process which helps us in our growing awareness and consciousness.

                    We have common urges to love, sex, and transitory connections. The urges are strong. They create desire and that desire leads us to thought. 

                    Not all bad. There are kinds of desire and qualities of desire. Desires of many kinds and qualities so color our vision that we lose sight of our developing consciousness of being. Do not be very concerned. Each experience is an opportunity for learning. In the state of awareness you have gained you will regain your vision of your developmental process. 

                    There is some sense to be found in this dreamlike contemplation. Congratulations for reading it.  

                                                                                        by Richard Sheehan

A Brief Intro to Awareness

Esoteric to Exoteric: attempted with the word "awareness"

 

Awareness:

~ We may experience changing states. One change of state we may notice from time to time is an opening of awareness.

~ Early awareness could include an identification with appearances.

~ Another awareness may lead  to noting an individualizing process.

~ One may note a gradual awakening.

~ One may come to note turning consciousness to the "levels" upon which one actually lives and functions. 

 

                The word "awareness" comes from the word, aware. "Aware" comes from the word "ware" which we hear little these days. It means watch, be on one's guard, and take care; so, has to do with consciousness. "Aware" means having knowledge, perception, or realization. Check out some of its synonyms. Additional meanings include having knowledge and cognizance. It is much about having knowledge and understanding. But it may refer to a process and more.


                                                                                        by Richard Sheehan

 

 

Thoughts 0n Meditation

Esoteric to Exoteric: An Introduction to Meditation

                I am having some renewed thoughts on meditation. I practiced meditation for some time in the past and found it useful and interesting. 

                I am starting to remember some benefits of the practice. One benefit was like the result of a good nights sleep or a nice little vacation. I may be misleading to put it like that. I often felt refreshed after a practice. Another benefit was that after meditating my mind felt more organized and calmer. My thoughts seemed more usefully filed, organized, and prioritized. I remember that my mind was better structured and organized when I had meditated regularly.

                I suspect that meditation can be an effective and lasting way of structuring one's mind. There are a variety of benefits. One becomes more able to effectively focus on that which one has decided to focus. One becomes more alert, aware, and conscious of  one's self and of what is going on around one. Structuring ongoing process and so is meditation.

                I thought of my practice as a regular ongoing doing. It seems it was much about self and awareness. It was a lot about paying attention.

                Much can be learned about meditation online. You can learn a lot about it right here on Esoteric to Exoteric. I expect I will continue to post about it.

                Your dictionary may correctly inform you that to meditate is to ponder, to plan, and intend in mind. You may be correctly told that much contemplation and prayer is very like meditation. And so told that meditation may refer to a devotional exercise of contemplation. Being told all this one may still wonder why one would want to meditate and also how one could do it effectively.

 

                For me meditation is an exercise and a practice much like working- out regularly at the gym. However, one doesn't need a gym or much of anything to meditate. I once heard that a man did satisfying meditation as he plowed his fields. No you don't need a plow to meditate. I have preferred a siren and quiet atmosphere where the chances of interruption were small, but have meditated on a bus. The idea is that one needs very little to meditate, but may have many preferences.

                There are many reasons to meditate and many good reasons to to change ones ways and means of meditation. One reason I had was gaining self-knowledge. another was to broaden my awareness. For some it could be part of a process of purification or much about experimentation. I have been told that the major purpose or goal is, or ought to be the conscious integration of mind, body, and intellect.

            I hope you are beginning to get a better feel for what meditation can be. I also hope to post more about the "why" and "way" of meditation.

 

                For right now here is some more about the "what" of meditation. Consciousness is important to the practice of meditation. Conscious means to have in mind, to be aware. So, if you add focus, you pretty much have the heart of meditation. The practice of focusing attention one  happening, thought, area, field, doing or something is meditation.

                So, meditation is about maintaining the focus of attention on that which you choose, about being mindful only of that which you have chosen. Its the practice of keeping conscious attention on that which you choose to focus, say I.

                It can be a sort of game of getting back to your chosen object of focus as soon as you can when you wander from it.

                Some have called their practice sitting. For some of them the object may be to sit. They may choose to sit for half a hour. Once they have sat for that time, they may feel that they have completed a good practice. They may very well be right.

                Please feel free to comment on meditation or the content of this post in the "comments" window below. Use your name, a name you chose, or you may be anonymous.

It is 7/3/2023 and I have though to add a little paragraph on the benefits of meditation.

                Benefits of meditation can include a deepening and broadening of consciousness and awareness. Your breathing and posture may improve. Your meditation can also become an important part of a kind of purification process; a sort of letting go of falseness and cleaving to honesty and reality.

                

                Its meditation.

 

                Thank you for your reading. You can have your say in the "comments" section just below.

 

                                                        RCS

We Can; Let's

EsoExo: Sharing knowledge multiplies knowledge. Knowing and understanding are good doings.

 

 

            Let's be positive. Let's affirm the good, the better, and the best. We can act to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. We can become more knowing and understanding.

 

            To know is an activity, a doing, a process. We can know and also have some ability to share our knowing.

 

            A positive doing, a good way to live, is  to know and to share our knowing. It is useful to observe, to be conscious, and aware. Being so can be a purpose of ours. We can find joy in increasing our skills in the arts and ways of civilization. We can live better by sharing information and knowledge. We can look at what is going on and better interpret that which we see. We can keep an eye on that which is happening so as to better plan our doings. We can recognize our common humanity and know that can be and do enough. We have the power to do on purpose. We can learn to trust ourselves and one another more appropriately. We can learn how.

 

            Truth and reality can be sign posts pointing the way to the good, better, and best. They may even point to bliss and security. But, honesty is the best policy and a great attribute.

 

            We can share. We can learn to share well. We can practice sharing. Sharing can be a way of multiplying. We can honestly say that sharing knowledge multiplies knowledge.

 

            Perhaps sharing similarly multiplies the useful such as: information, ways and means, arts and crafts, governance, consciousness, awareness, understanding, meaning. 

 

            As human beings we can learn and share our learning on purpose. We each have our experience to share.

 

            We can free ourselves from ignorance. Our civilization implies culture, which necessitates common memory, a history, shared stories, the power of the word. We free ourselves by practicing the sharing of knowledge. We have the wonderful power of learning from each other, from one another.

 

            Art goes back to putting together. Art is often a skill of putting together in a variety of ways. Putting together can be a move toward knowing, understanding, and meaning.

 

            "Wit" has to do with see and know. With some that includes humor, good humor. It is good to know that we can use our minds and wills, to judge, sense, and understand with good humor.

 

            We have will, so we can act with purpose. "Purpose" contains a a bit of "propose" and so goes to "put forward," "declare," narrate." Purpose can have to do with our words to our self. Let's make our words to ourselves honest and positive.

 

            Are we coming to agree that knowing and understanding are good doings. When we would do so, we can come to better see what is going on. We can trust our ability to learn to better interpret our senses and experiences. We can let more meaning into our lives.

 

            We are using words as well as we can. We are coming to know that the verb "to know" points to a doing of our volition as and act of will and purpose. To know is to approach understanding. We know that understanding is a process we experience.

 

            Our will and purpose can be set in the direction of freedom, truth, honesty, and understanding. Doing so can allow more meaning into our lives. 

 

Truth may free us and honesty is a good start. The real beginning is with self-honesty.

 

            Can it be that we are kind and faithful to ourselves and to others by sharing the honest information and awareness we have within ourselves and with others?

            It hurts little for us to regard, to look at the happenings and doings around us. We can regard humanity, civilization, culture, art, awareness, organization, information, but we don't have to.

We can choose to do that which we can do. 

We can choose to be aware and informed.

We can choose to understand and share. 

We can chose to support beauty and health.

We can choose to be honest with ourselves and others.

            More efforts to come.

 

 

                                                            RCS