Vince's awakening

Teague wrote: erm... I'd like to listen to it too.

I have the downloaded file and could make it available. But, I wonder if the link is dead for a reason. I would like Vince's approval before I upload it to my dropbox file.

jack

Sent Vince a message.

Hi all,

Sorry, I didn't realize that when I moved over to squarespace that all the files I had hosted on my site are no longer available for download. I re-uploaded this talk on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/vincent-horn/my-story-of-awakening

Reflecting back on the conversation that Jeff & I had, this questions comes to mind as an appropriate frame for our conversation:

"If delusion is awareness stuck in attention-traps, and enlightenment liberates awareness, does the spiritual path involve finding the correct story, or getting rid of stories, or learning to story in a new way?" - David Loy, The World Is Made of Stories

Best,

-Vincent

Thanks Vince, that was a good listen.

One question came up for me that anyone is free to answer. What is the inquiry of "what is love?" pointing to?

oh i know this one

Teague wrote: One question came up for me that anyone is free to answer. What is the inquiry of "what is love?" pointing to?

The interesting thing about most inquiry is that it's an invitation to pick up on aspect of awareness/experience that we're overlooking. You don't even need to know conceptually what you're missing, the opening itself will show it --- and that opening is both the method AND the goal. Kinda cool.

My best guess in this scenario is that the love-aspect of awareness kind of keeps a tiny flavor of "self worth/protection" alive while still going way out to the edge of what it means to be an aware being (which is very selfless and without ground). "God is love" gives some of that same comfort, allowing someone to meet the actual rawness of life yet not get overwhelmed. Love isn't afraid, neither is awareness. Love doesn't get stopped by anything, neither does awareness. Love doesn't need justification, recognition, congratulations and neither does awareness. Love is both the method and the goal, just like awareness. Etc.

Inquiry is good for sits with a fair amount of equanimity. Inquiry can be a really good thing to add to practice after a period of stabilization. After 20-45 minutes of getting grounded, rested, and stabilized, 10 minutes or so of inquiry (asking the leading question about once a minute or so) can help open things up. It's then important to sit for 10-15 minutes without the question and feel what the new space is like and let it really soak in.

Anyway... just my best guess!

Teague wrote: Thanks Vince, that was a good listen.

One question came up for me that anyone is free to answer. What is the inquiry of "what is love?" pointing to?

I had heard this recording several years ago, and I felt confused when I heard Vince talk about "What is love?" as a self-inquiry question. Now, I'm finding my experience of it tends to agree with what Shargrol is getting at.

To me, the question seems to be pointing at what's going on when you are opening to whatever happens in awareness. It's about facing that experiencing with no resistance, about softening and letting things simply be, about feeling instead of thinking. The question seems to revolve around the tension in the process of opening to the beloved, but can equally apply to opening to a sunset or a flower, passing a stranger in the store, seeing a leafless tree, or finding a dead raccoon in your yard.

It seems to me that from an early age the stress center becomes our defacto switchboard that qualifies what information is important enough to move up from our subconscious to our conscious mind. When we dwell in our love center instead of the stress center it seems to sidestep some of the sensations/ information that has the stress built into it. If we dwell in this love/opening mode of experiencing reality I think it can lead to some shifts in the selfing processes. I tend to think you can do this with many different practices including metta, direct pointing, feeling into love/openess/acceptance, actual freedom etc.
~D