3rd Gear: The Toll Booth

Here is another way to access the direct mode of perception:

The Toll Booth

This exercise is inspired by a comment that Adyashanti made in one of his talks. He said that once you discover this simple, direct, awake way of being in the world, you would like to be able to live this way instead of just lucking into it now and again. You *can* learn to live in it, he said, but there is a price. The price is simply all your resentment, all your fear, all your anxiety, all your stress, all your manic joy, etc; you have to give over all of that in this moment in return for peace.

I think of this as a toll booth. Anytime I am suffering, a man appears in front of me with his toll both. "Hand it over," he says. At that moment, it is as if a gold coin magically appears in my pocket; my anxiety IS the currency in question! All I have to do is hand it over. This is the best value in town! I happily hand over the gold coin and smile. In return, I get peace.

Hey Kenneth,

I have found myself doing something similar to going thru the toll booth that past days after entering into a 3rd gear/ direct mode of perception type of state. It feels like consciously not allowing feelings to "stick" of not getting my awareness get absorbed in it. Simply noticing how the feeling arises, and how I "let it go" or hand it over actually sort of "centers" me in a totally undisturbed state. All there is around at the very present moment is a direct awareness of the now and it feels as if for the first time things are experienced in a true, unfiltered way.

Grounding anxiety in the body, and the price of peace at the tollbooth metaphor, have been helping me be less reactive to work pressure and also balancing an anxious striving that has spilled over into my practice. Working with watching out for the reactivity bulge before, if possible, it breaks off and runs wild also seems like a promising work practice. Looking forward to cultivating these more during the work day. Thanks Kenneth!

"All there is around at the very present moment is a direct awareness of the now and it feels as if for the first time things are experienced in a true, unfiltered way."-foolbutnotforlong

Excellent! In the direct mode, you are no longer riding the wave, you ARE the wave. Because of that your experience is not being filtered through the lens of memory and you see everything for the first time. It's always fresh.

"Working with watching out for the reactivity bulge before, if possible, it breaks off and runs wild also seems like a promising work practice."-mpavoreal

I love your phrase "the reactivity bulge" in referring to the proto-blob formed by the wax in the lava lamp before it actually splits off from the main body of the wax. Thanks for coining the term, Mark! Do you mind if I use it next time I talk about this?

Mark, I am very excited to see how you make out with this.

This is, by far, the best tool for managing stress I've encountered. It's one thing to dis-embed from negativity, it's another matter to be able to gently apply attention to the proto-blob and have a very pleasant day as a result.

" "the reactivity bulge" Do you mind if I use it next time I talk about this? -- Kenneth"

Kenneth, of course! Please do.

edit: (Thanks, mumuwu, I hope to make good use of it as well.)

The toll booth appears in front of you in every instant. You can always choose to pay the toll. It is always your choice and no one will force you to do it. But understand that you cannot bargain with the toll booth man. His price is a law of nature. No one crosses the bridge without paying the toll. If you want peace in this moment, you must give over all of your resentment, your anger, your defensiveness, your need to be right, your anxiety, your agitation, your manic pleasure, your gross sensual desire... it's all or nothing.

You don't have to pay the toll; that's up to you. No harm, no foul; you'll just stay on this side of the bridge. But there are no discounts. My advice? Pay the toll. It's the best value in town. Try it now and see if you don't agree.

---

You say you never compromise,
With the mystery tramp but then you realize,
He's not selling any alibis,
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes,
And say, 'Do you want to...
make a deal?'

-Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"

When you got nothing
You got nothing to lose
You're invisible now
You got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel?

What do you think devotion is in Tibetan Buddhism?

The toll is body, speech and mind.

The toll collectors are the primordial budas: Amithaba, Vajradhara, Samantabhadra, etc.

Genuine, profound devotion is instant direct mode. After body, speech and mind devotion, who remains?

Whatever you think you know; that is the toll. So simple and so uncompromising. This is the price of admission.

Who is ready for this?

If there were no Buddhism, the toll would remain the same: all of your suffering and everything you think you know. Hand it over and cross the bridge. Or keep it.

True, true.

Eres mi verdadero hermano.

"Eres mi verdadero hermano."

En estos últimos días todo se ha desplomado.

Gracias por las preguntas sobre la enfermedad, gracias por la incomodidad. No he soltado el "pararrayos" desde que lo leí aquí.

"todo se ha desplomado."

Perfecto.

I like this one, Kenneth. It clearly reveals that suffering - or not - is a choice we're all making each moment. Most of us aren't even aware that it is a choice. In finding this out, we (eventually) encounter all our prejudices, all our precious beliefs, all our rationalizations / excuses for perpetuating suffering, and if we're so inclined we can let them go one by one (but nobody's forcing us).

Very simple and very powerful.

Alex

PS. I like how the currency magically shows up when I need it Very Alice in Wonderland when you think about it!

Alex, (akyosti), your post reminds me of something Bill Hamilton said when I asked him if he was disappointed that he didn't have more students. He said, "It's as though I have a treasure of infinite value that I'm willing to give away for free... and nobody wants it."

I would add to your comment that although each of us has the choice in each moment to give up suffering in exchange for peace, the ability to sustain it (to keep one's hand on the deadman switch) depends on having built the physio-energetic infrastructure to the level of 4th Path as well as a high degree of skill at observing the workings of the mind and body in realtime.

In short, anyone can be enlightened in any given moment, but the ability to stabilize in enlightenment requires years or decades of determined effort. This reality, which is borne out in my observations of dozens of successful students, is something I find comforting because it is simple common sense. With this in mind, the 3 speed transmission is intended to support awakening at every level: 3rd gear - remaining undivided in this moment; 2nd gear - seeing that "I" am a mental construct; and 1st gear - working the fundamentals until they are automatic. The more I see people succeed in this system, the more faith I have in it and the more I want to share it.

And a wonderful system it is!

The glimpses at direct mode are quite the incentive to practice well in developmental mode.

tingling tingling, itching, aching, aversion, excitement, aching, pulsing,