When You’re Full On, You're Fully Intuitive
When you're fully engaged with joy in what you love, the sense of a separate self disappears - that's true intuition, not something to control or fix.
At the moment, I very much have to um, well,every now and then I’m reminded of…I don’t like calling it a technique, but I don’t know what quite else to call it but a technique of saying to yourself internally: “Who am I?”
Yes.
And it tends to put myself in this state where I’m more aware that thoughts are something that I’m observing.
Yes.
This is…so I don’t identify. Whatever thought, whether it’s a good thought or a bad thought. Um, and like that over the last three days…maybe I’ve had slightly longer extended periods of time. It feels as though I’m observing from this place without forgetting again and almost going back into identifying with form and phenomena. But I’m pretty sure when I go back to school next week, I mean in a classroom environment, and there are so many other things requiring my attention that I’m sort of going to be lost in phenomena. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, I love my job, so it’s glorious and the boys are wonderful, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a very different experience when you just sort of painting, stood painting a fence. It’s very easy to every now and then to check because there’s not really much, the mind’s not doing much anyway. And I don’t even know whether it’s the mind that triggers. Say it to yourself: “Who am I?” even when I not necessarily verbally say that. And then you think “ah, cool, I’m back in this intuitive insight space, whatever that is. But I do think when I’m working and during the lesson it’s probably unlikely, from experience anyway, it's unlikely that this will occur to me. And maybe I’ve been thinking some of these things on the train on the way to London and on the train on the way back. But kind of what’s occurred between 8:30 and 4 o’clock. It’s been, you know, work as usual. Not that that’s a bad thing, but that’s just, that’s just something that occurred to me that what the experience that I’m, that is currently happening here when I’m painting a fence and almost like having the ability to experience this observing these thoughts from what feels like a detached space in a way…
Ok, let me see if we can simplify this so now, you love your job and what percentage of the time when you’re taking a class where you feel like you’re so involved in phenomena? How often have you suffered in those situations?
Quite a lot, I think. Because I’m either working through the lesson or I’m taking questions or asking questions.
Have you experienced suffering in those situations?
No, no. No, I’m not saying I’m experiencing suffering, it’s just that I’m, I….
Yes, so just to make it simple, don’t worry about thinking, not at all. Just be a teacher like that. A word needs a teacher like that, who loves to teach, it’s completely fine. That’s ok. So we don’t have to fix something where we’ve never experienced suffering because of that. We don’t have to explore, we don’t have to worry when we are full of enthusiasm and joy and full-on with something.
Yeah.
Well, that’s it then. There is no “me” actually operating there. Although the mind may come and say: “but this is different from that, like when you’re painting the fence”.
Yeah.
Mind will come and say, “But that is so much like this”, you see, and “that is so much like that”. Both are fine in the tasting of life. It’s not about trying to control attention or to perceive something differently in some way. It is just a question of what you’re taking yourself to be. It’s just a question of what you’re believing yourself to be. Now, as a teacher, although your words may come out like as if you were a teacher, is there a lot of self-referencing going on as if it feels like you’re taking yourself to be a body-mind?
No.
That’s it then. That’s it.
Is that still intuitive then?
Yes, Yes, fully. When you’re full on, you’re fully intuitive.
Key Teachings
- When you're fully engaged with joy and enthusiasm in an activity, there is no separate 'self' operating - this is true intuition
- The practice isn't about controlling attention or perceiving differently, but about recognizing what we take ourselves to be
- There's no need to fix or worry about moments when you're fully present and not suffering - they represent natural awareness
From: Are We Living as if God Is Real? - 29th September 2023