Goldcup Software and Design

The Human Experience

Category: The Human Experience
It is part of human evolution to rise up from the dark past into the brighter future, to rise from restriction to freedom.The human psyche has evolved in a world of competition and survival. Planet Earth can be a hostile environment where animals and humans have had to fight or flee in order to survive. It is because of this that the 'Fight or Flight' response is imbedded in the human psyche. Even now, in a totally safe environment it can be difficult to totally relax; there is an underlying readiness to respond quickly to defend ourselves or run. Effectively the body reacts automatically to a dangerous situation to keep itself safe. This may also include the Freeze response where there is no reaction to the threat, and this may have been useful at times for survival.
 
But what about fear? It is fear that can trigger these responses and start the adrenalin pumping, whether there is a real danger or an imagined danger. The body reacts to the environment as well as the mind. We may fear that something awful might happen, an accident, an attack, or an unwanted event. It is the mind then that fears what might happen. Fear is the mind's resistance to what it thinks will harm the body-mind. The mind wants to protect itself or its sense of self.
 
The human mind has evolved with these response mechanisms embedded within it. There are pros and cons to this. On the one hand they protect the human and continue the existence of the species. On the other hand fear can take over and prevent the natural expression of peace, calmness and contentment. Ultimately fear and its responses pertain to the survival of the separate individual. In Non-Duality we know that the separate individual is illusory, and reality is an infinite indivisible Oneness. There really is no other to fear. The Oneness, which we truly are, cannot die or be harmed. It is only the reflected expression of Oneness that is subject to the interplay of opposites. Peace and contentment are the true nature of Being.
 
So we need to move on from fear. We may fear spiders, for example, but understanding them better can take away the fear reaction. There may be some deadly spiders, but most are harmless to humans. We don't need to be afraid of the harmless ones. Caution is fine if we're not sure, but irrational fear is something humanity needs to move on from.
 
Fear, competition and survival have been relevant to the human world or the human experience, but we are not the human being. These responses and reactions that have been part of human evolution can and will be overcome. It is part of human evolution to rise up from the dark past into the brighter future, to rise from restriction to freedom. Fear and competition are the old way, the way of opposition. The new way is the Way of Oneness, where there is a recognition that there is only one. We don't need to compete to be the best or to survive. There is no other to beat. We are One and we are Life itself. We perceive the human experience with its apparent sense of ups and downs, wins and losses, life and death. We are That which does not die. We are Life. We neither win nor lose. We are beyond the play of the World of Opposites.
 
Gradually, as the evolution of apparently limited form towards freedom progresses, fear and competition will diminish. The imaginary boundaries will fall. This comes about naturally with the growing realisation of Oneness. The realisation of Oneness is the peak of evolution, rising from the conflict of separation to the unity of Oneness. It is the natural outcome of all successful civilisations.

Category: The Human Experience

There are truly no limitations to Life.Restriction, boundaries and limitation seem to be common aspects of this world. They refer to the same thing, of course. Limitation, boundaries, restriction, separation and division, are the same sense of beginnings and ends in the world, where one thing ends, has a limit or boundary, and another thing begins. And where these beginnings and endings seem to appear they form a distinction between one thing and another.

Let's consider some examples. A vehicle may be restricted from driving over a certain speed limit. It reaches that point and cannot go beyond it. A kitchen will have its boundaries, and where we walk through a doorway out of the kitchen another room or hallway begins. We all know about life and death. It seems we, or these human bodies, are born, live for a time then die. There appear to be limits on the life of the human body and there appear to be boundaries of each human body. The human body is restricted in what it can achieve. For example, there are boundaries to what the eye can see and limits to how fast the body can run.

But none of these boundaries or restrictions are true limits. There is no clear divide between a kitchen and the next room. We can say there is a doorway, but there is only a vague definition of where the kitchen ends and where the next room begins. These ideas of 'kitchen', 'hallway', 'living room', 'bedroom' and so on are human made definitions without any clearly defined edges. It is the same with the human body. We can't really say where the hand ends and the arm begins. There isn't really a divide.

We can't say at what point life starts in a human body, because life is there before the body developed. It is life that develops the body throughout, and life continues when the body 'dies'. When the mental activity ceases and the body can no longer function, it doesn't suddenly lose life. It is life that continues through the body's decomposition. But even aside from that, our idea of who we are based on the limits of the human body are flawed. There are no true limits, only vague ideas of limits. There is no boundary to the body that separates it from the world. The body is a flowing, interactive quality of the planet. It may seem that air separates one person from another, but the different humans and animals and the air they breathe are the planet. They never truly become limited and separate from the planet. Our ideas about boundaries are flawed.

The human body may be restricted when locked within a room of solid walls. The body can't get through the walls because of its relative density compared to the wall. But the wall and the body are not wholly truly restricted or impervious. Restrictions can only appear relatively. A 'body' that was made of a less dense form may well be able to glide through walls, just as radio waves can travel through brick walls.

The point here is that restriction, boundaries and limitations are not as real as they are generally presumed to be. They are not real. There are truly no limitations to Life. Restrictions in the world are only relative. Boundaries and limitations do not really exist. The world is infinite and indivisible. You are not limited. You are not a human body, because there is no clear boundary to any human body. You are all that is. It is the activity of the mind that thinks and believes that it is restricted and limited as a human body.

There is never really a divide between you and the world. You don't have any limits or restrictions. There is only the Whole. There is only That which seems to appear as many by aid of restriction and limitation. But it is never truly divided or restricted.

Category: The Human Experience

Every breath you take, every move you make, every thought you think, it's not you.What is identity? It's the sense of who I am. It's the mind's sense of what the mind thinks I am. How accurate is the mind? Well, it might think it's accurate. Some minds think they are always right. Some minds don't know. Some minds are more open to the possibility of being wrong. The truth is that the mind can never accurately know anything. Knowledge is never as accurate as the thing itself.

For example, let's consider knowledge of a square shape. We may have knowledge about its dimensions, and we can work out its perimeter and area from that. We have a name for the square and it may be a certain colour. We can know a lot about the square, but none of that knowledge is the square itself. Knowledge is only relative. The measurements and ideas of colours and shapes are all relative: they are human-made and relate to other ideas of dimensions, shapes and colours. Knowledge is like a language of description for 'things' as we perceive them. Knowledge can be close to truth or far from truth. If we describe the square as having sides of unequal length then that would be inaccurate according to the human accepted idea of what a square is. It would be relatively far from truth.

What does this all mean in relation to identity? It means that the human idea of identity may be close to or far from truth, and at best it is a relative description of something, not reality. The idea of who we are can be close to accurate or far from accurate, but the idea can never be wholly accurate. The idea or knowledge cannot be the thing. Knowledge of who I am cannot really be who I am.

It should also be noted that this idea of identity, the sense or notion of being someone, is observed. We observe the mind thinking. The mind thinks that we think thoughts, but we see this idea too. We see the mind thinking that I am thinking. The truth is we cannot perceive ourself. The eye cannot see the eye. We can perceive the mind's idea of who I am. But this is not who we are.

If we trace back who we really are we come to the root of experience, the heart of where we are perceiving and knowing from. Who is it that knows knowledge? It is the one that perceives the knowledge ideas. It is the same one that perceives the identity. Every breath you take, every move you make, every thought you think, it's not you. You perceive breathing, moving and thinking. You are not these.

This identity idea is what we call the ego. We perceive the ego. It is not who we are. We are deeper than that. We are that in which the ego appears and disappears. We are that which remains still whilst witnessing change. We are that which remains present throughout all apparent movement. We are not this or that, something that can be perceived. We are that which ultimately perceives all. We are the Consciousness in which all perception takes place.

The identity idea or ego must be discarded as an inaccurate sense of self. But the seemingly hardened or strongly defined ego does not want to let go. It holds on, refusing to believe it is wrong. It has developed out of a defence mechanism for survival in a world of competing forces. It seeks to keep itself alive. It hardens its defences and repels anything that may harm it. Then along comes reality, smashing down its defences, telling it that it is wrong. Telling it that it's not what it thinks it is. This is the wakeup call to the new freedom. The true freedom.

We are not what the mind thinks we are. We are that in which the human mind is evolving and moving towards an open clarity of Infinite Consciousness. We are That.

Category: The Human Experience
Ownership is a human idea.We Non-Duality folk don't agree with sharing. I'm just having a little fun here, but it's true. In Non-Duality there is no sharing. There is no-one who shares, nothing that is owned, and no other to share with. So really we don't agree with sharing.
 
I should add that neither do we agree with selfishness and ownership. I'll explain. Non-Duality is the understanding or recognition that there are 'not two', or not many. It kind of means that reality is One, but even that's not wholly accurate, as the One is infinite. It's really no number. There is only This. Although the world may appear to be separated into multiple things, that is only an appearance of This, or What Is.
 
Generally in the human experience sharing is considered to be a good thing. It's considered kind to share things, and of course it is. But strictly speaking there is no sharing. Sharing means to give some of what you have to others or let others use some of what is yours. Well, in Non-Duality there is no you and others. There is only this Infinite One. The notion that there is a 'you' separate from the world is incorrect. It is additionally incorrect that there are things that belong to this idea of 'you'. There is no separate you and there are no separate things. Also, there is no ownership of things. Ownership is a human idea. Truly no human owns anything. Even more truly, there are no separate humans and separate things. The world is one infinite indivisible What Is.
 
So sharing may seem good and is a good human practice, we could say, but it's not factually correct. The act of sharing is of course good, because it breaks down the supposed barriers of separation. So it is to be encouraged. But it is not to be believed. What that means is that it's good for humans to share, as it's a good expression of Oneness, but it should ideally be done with the knowing that nothing is 'yours' anyway. Allow the play of interaction to play out. It is the Oneness playing at separation and unity.
 
Let's also consider selfishness. We might say that the more selfish someone is, the less they will share. Selfishness is the opposite of the reality of Infinite Oneness: it is a limited divided separateness. Selfishness is always lacking and wanting, whereas true Oneness is complete in itself. Selfishness seeks ownership and likes to define its separation from others by claiming its own identity. Selfishness isn't satisfied in being on its own. There is an emptiness it tries to fill by collecting and owning things. Ownership becomes important to selfishness. It is then that selfishness refuses to share what it feels it owns.
 
However, when selfishness does begin to soften and drop its hardened defences, it begins to allow sharing. It gives away what it felt was its own. It didn't really own anything anyway. But it thought it did, and it may feel the loss in sharing. But it can be therapeutic then to share. Sharing expresses the breaking down of barriers from 'others'. Sharing brings the selfish one closer to the Infinite One. Sharing drops the limitations that the selfish self has built around itself. Through repeated sharing the selfish self gives more and more of itself away, until there is no self left. There is only This.
 
Truly nothing is gained or lost in reality. It only seems to come and go. Reality is always right here, complete and content. What is perceived as a world of opposites is a play of giving and taking within the Infinite Oneness of reality. Nothing is given. Nothing is taken away. Reality remains complete and unlimited.
  1. Vessels of Love and Peace
  2. The Darkness of Depression
  3. Coping with Loss
  4. The Simulation Theory