Alone? Not Alone?
These are tricky questions.
If we feel alone, we have to rely on our own understanding which relies on all the information we have received. Quite often, this information can feel incomplete, and then doubt sets in (and this is a problem with being open-minded).
I could be wrong 🙂 but, through reasoning we get back on track, if we have a firm foundation to start with. That foundation is realising that it doesn’t matter what I think, pure consciousness is always present. Doubt comes from others’ elaborations about this reality, while the inner voice says, “Let them be.”
What if we are not alone? What if there is … ‘other’ help? Inspiration or help that just comes, where everything seems relevant. No one can say we are right or wrong, as that becomes a hinderance.
Things happen that seem to clarify an abstract feeling,
just before a thought is formed.
Maybe it’s a bit of both. 🙂
BUDDHA IN THE MUD is a blog - a living book based on the Dzogchen teachings. Our teacher is life, and life is karma. We are all Buddhas in the mud of concepts. 
I struggle with doubt occasionally…recently it has been, ” what if everything I have ever believed in is false, and all my beliefs are rooted in Fear (ignorance)? ” I see myself falling in the darkness of a deep ditch, then slowly I climb back out. Metaphorically, I am holding a single ray of light to find my way back up to the sunshine again…this ray of light is that I am conscious (aware). SO, just hold on to that, that usually brings me out of the darkness (until I fall again).
Hello Ramble,
The word belief means accepting something without proof, the same as the word assumption. This is why the Buddha said, “Don’t take my word for the truth; test it for yourself.”
We doubt because we are pulled in two opposite directions – belief and knowing. It’s our constant inner conflict – darkness/not knowing and light/clarity – forgetting and remembering.
There a very subtle confusion going on in all of us, it’s holding on to an idea. Awareness or consciousness is always present, as you say, it’s what we are, no effort is needed. Falling into darkness is just forgetting.
The moment we are aware we have forgotten, we are back. It’s a constant oscillation that becomes smaller and smaller, until it is timeless – spontaneous presence.
Tony
Yes, I see that. And yet, forgetting happens. Thankfully, I am always pulled back to remembering again.
🙂
Also, what I mean by ‘belief’ in my comment above is not an idea of someone other being out there who could help me…but more the fact that I am consciousness…and not just the material physical organism with a body-mind which is all there is to it…
Belief is an idea or concept about consciousness, rather than realising it in actuality.
This is extremely subtle. It’s like the difference between being aware of awareness or being awareness itself.
Tony
I am perhaps in a stage, where I find myself transitioning from being convinced at a conceptual level, to ‘knowing’ as an experience, but occasionally I still wander of from this ‘knowing’ towards doubting… But I return quickly and more and more, things are settling down with a trust for that ‘knowing’.
Looking forward to, but I may still be far from that one final ‘knowing’…the point of no return. Thank you for all your pointers 🙏 I am very grateful 🙂
🙂