Awakening to the Dream
The Gift of Lucid Living
Welcome
The world is unreal
Inner Strength
Be the way you are
Where is Shiva not?
I am not this person
What is real
Talks with Bob Adamson
Clarity talks with Nathan Gill
An ancient story
Certificate of Awakening
The Mysterious Stranger
Extracts from Tony Parsons
Seeds for the Soul
The Drama of it All
Clarity talks with Nathan Gill
The Self-Perfected State
Amazing Grace
The cage of self-centeredness
Original mind
You Are That
All There Is
The existence of consciousness
A myriad bubbles
Beyond the grasp
Selling water by the river
Awake In The Heartland
What is wrong with Right Now?
This First Instant
Peace of Being
Talks with Ramana Maharshi
All That Jazz
About Silence
It is all
The background
Seeing it Simply
The Dream of Space and Time
Discovering
Already Awake
Reincarnation?
IN MEMORIAM
Basic Questions
Integration
Simplicity
One Essence
Thought
The Central Teaching
Unity
Knowledge and Ignorance
Inexpressible Door of Nonduality
The real "I"
Presence/Awareness
Awakening to the Natural State
Looking for God
Life As It Is
There is only Source appearing
Yearning for otherness
Dharmakaya
The ever-present nature
Getting rid of the ego
To Hell with it All!
You Are the Self
The Search is the Trap
The Obvious
Are you awakened?
The Supreme Self
Naturally Timeless Awareness
The Absolute
Seekers of Enlightenment
Presence of Awareness
I am...
This Amazing Realization
I am Life itself
Awareness is the Source
The Golden Eternity
Simple Beingness
The Boundless Void
Self-enquiry
Who pays the bill?
Changeless Reality
The Precious Treasury
Transparent Radiance
You Are the Buddha
Beyond Good and Evil
The real does not die
Memory
Seeking
I Am
The Nature of Thinking
The Great Way
Beyond na?ve affirmation
Ping-ting T'ung-tzu
Free will versus determinism
The End Of Seeking?
A Sharing of Timeless Being
Present and Obvious
Blinded by the Light
Hooked on Enlightenment
It's marvelous
All the world's diversity
There is no oblivion
Direct insight
Remembering and forgetting
Letting go
Beingness
That which appears
Manifestation of the Absolute
Nothing Being Everything
Consciousness
This
Radiance
Benedictory Verse to the Self
* ATTD News Letter Number 93
Sunday, November 12, 2006 *
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Table of Contents.
Q & A |
Free will versus determinism |
Awakened Poetry |
Quote of the moment! |
Smile of the moment! |
Links |
Fair Use Notice |
Q & A.

"I can see that everything appears in awareness.
I can also see that awareness proceeds on its own without any effort by anyone in the same way that my hair grows without any effort on "my" part. The person (name) and his various characteristics and even "his" body are all appearances in awareness.
It seems, however, that "I" am able to change the course of the appearances - during my days of work or leisure, for example, substantial planning seems to pay off in terms of at least partially predictable outcomes -- and it does seem as if "I, (name)" has something fundamental to do with it and that my ability to do this is closely linked to my history background, education etc. , i.e. what I normally would call "myself".
Deciding to do regular exercise, for example, seems to change the way the body feels and looks - my intuition tells me that the whole thing rolls along without any doer-ship, but the realization hasn't penetrated beyond the mind."
Leo, I would like to hear what you have to say about this statement.
Answer: Let's say it will be noticed that the body is out of shape. A thought may arise that the body could do with some exercise. Next a decision to go to the gym could come up. Nowhere in this 'chain of events' is there the need for an entity that takes the decision. If there was such an entity, it first would have to decide to take such a decision to be able to claim 'authorship.' It also would have to decide to decide to decide ad infinitum, thus creating an infinite regress.
What I always say is that non-doership does not mean that you are helpless, but that the 'you-agent' is fictitious. We say "I live, I think, I breathe" and so on but living, thinking and breathing is not done by someone; it happens by itself.
Let's have a look at thinking: Is there really a 'thinker of thoughts' independent of thought? Does this 'thinker' know what the next thought will be? Or is the thought only known when it comes along? This thought may get claimed in the next thought, which could goes something like "Oh, I just thought about such and such". But is the 'I' -claiming to be the thinker of the thought- not itself part of the thought?
Do not take this to literally please, as there actually isn't even a 'next thought'; only this thought right now. There is no past, which has led up to this moment. There is only THIS; including memories and other apparent evidence for such a past.
Nevertheless, there is the unfolding of this dream in which "the Tao, without doing anything, leaves nothing undone." As such there may be the appearance of doing exercises, making decisions, planning your day, falling asleep, waking up, gazing at the stars, reading these words, or registering the sounds around you. It all happens by itself. As the Zen saying goes:
Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com
Art by: Alexander Filippov Title: 'On Spring Grass'
Found at: http://www.paintingofrussia.com/gallery_artist.php?id=162
Fair Use Notice
author@awakeningtothedream.com
Art by: Alexander Filippov Title: 'On Spring Grass'
Found at: http://www.paintingofrussia.com/gallery_artist.php?id=162
Fair Use Notice

S: The absolute freedom that we are, I am, has nothing to do with the concepts of free will or determinism. Free will and determinism are interesting concepts that are entertaining to discuss and debate, but it?s not necessary to have an opinion about them to live in peace.
Just for the entertainment value, consider these questions: if we have free will, can we choose determinism instead? Is there a person who is separate from the universal process who can exercise free will? If there?s still a clinging to the concept of free will, then go ahead and exercise your free will?choose only happy thoughts and feelings for the next two weeks. Of what value is free will if it cannot be exercised?
In this I AM THAT I AM, there is neither free will nor destiny; and there is both free will and destiny. Is there free will or does destiny rule? All I know for certain is that I am. This I am is the peace that?s being sought by exercising the intellect with questions about free will and destiny. Know yourself as I am right now and your search is over.
From: "Outrageous Myths of Enlightenment"
By Stephen Wingate
Art by: JT Thompson Title: 'Free Will'
Found at: http://www.jtoriginals.net/index.html
Fair Use Notice
By Stephen Wingate
Art by: JT Thompson Title: 'Free Will'
Found at: http://www.jtoriginals.net/index.html
Fair Use Notice

In the Land of Great Perfection
In the Land of Great Perfection
there are no Buddhas
and no sentient beings.
In the ground of Great Perfection
there are no moral dualities.
There is no near or far
on the Great Perfection path.
There is no attainment
or non-attainment
of the Great Perfection goal.
There is no correct
Or incorrect behaviour
in Great Perfection.
There is no meditation
Or non-meditation
in the reality of Great Perfection.

There is neither creation nor destruction,
Neither destiny nor free will,
Neither path nor achievement.
~ Ramana Maharshi ~
Fair Use Notice

Cartoon by: Scott Adams.
Fair Use Notice
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