EXPERIENCE 004

An on-going comment thread to my FB timeline post
(continued also from Experience 002 on Whole Human)

Conversation between Ken Matsushima and Gary Smith.

Ken
'...the way I framed the discussion was somewhat "confrontational", so it is only natural that your response would be defensive. But ignoring the emotional tone, I'll try to respond.

​Gary
Yes, the tone of my last response to you was somewhat defensive. It is not necessary that you use a confrontational tone with me. I have found your tone also often demeaning, and belittling, which leads to a question:

What attributes or characteristics would a person exhibit if their experience of oneness is genuine, and not in the head only?

Surely there must be some evidence in one's life, relationships, and communication, when oneness consciousness is real.

If there is no higher quality of action in a person's life, there is no evidence of oneness consciousness lived. If there is 'no evidence of oneness consciousness lived', then how is a oneness experience any different than ego inflation?

A higher quality of actions in my life is my focus, as much as a oneness experience.

Ken
This is the slapintheface point I'm trying to use as a way to shut Gary R Smith up for a second.

Gary
That (trying to make a 'slap in the face point') is evidence to me which points not to oneness consciousness. It points more towards arrogance than humility. I respond more openly to kindness and wisdom than to arrogance (no judgment intended).

Ken
The only reason why "you" cannot experience it is because you are so caught up in being "you".

Gary
I agree, and have known it at least fifty years, when my aim as a 17 year old was to 'put my personality in a closet.'

Ken
As I've told you in the past, everything Ive read from Gary R. Smith's posts tells me that your visualization practice is something Genuine. This is something everyone encounters at some point of their journey - the power of Concentration to elevate consciousness in a way that loosens the grip of the ego. My only concern is that you dont waste as many years as I did building those experiences into the Be-all and End-all.

Gary
Your care is appreciated, and the above is a valid point. As we are both on the autism spectrum, we both know the character trait we share of being single focused at times. Me, oftentimes. Add to that my lifelong passion for spiritual evolution to the exclusion of almost all else, and there is indeed a 'danger' of building End-alls. I am more balanced in a setting where variety is possible. Here, after last year a very challenging time in Europe, I am in a desolate setting of California dust, burned by daily high temperatures well into the hundreds F, going on for weeks, with no amenities or transportation. I am 'sitting it out' and making the best of it by experimenting with ways to experience the One Being, the cosmos of consciousness.

Ken
So long as you remain in your current physical body, everything you experience is - by definition - a REPRESENTATION of true self. It can be very hard to maintain this awareness that all is maya -- especially when you experience something that feels more Real and more Authentic than anything else you can recall in your brief human life.

Gary
Another valid and useful point. Which I have known many years, but still can be reminded.

Ken
But it is essential to remember that so long as you maintain the connection to your human body, there will always be some sort of filter between you and PURE Consciousness.

Gary
Yes, before 2000, I wrote about the sunglasses of belief systems and our perceptions.

Ken
It requires great humility to accept these powerful experiences and then LET THEM GO, knowing that it all is just a slightly clearer glimpse through a clouded, semitransparent window. Only the complete annihilation of Gary R. Smith will suffice to banish the mirrors, filters and mirages.

Gary
Gary's been ready a long time to be 'annihilated.'

​Gary
"That is the Big Question, how to let Self get a word in edgewise. Not all the sages of all the ages have given humankind that answer, so you would be the first. "

Ken
Dont be silly. Every single religion or philosophical effort to understand existence has offered at least one or two practical exercises to help silence the AI program.

Gary
If that is true, since some of those 'practical exercises' have existed thousands of years, why have I not in 67 years encountered in any way a single person whose overall life exhibited characteristics which might reasonably be expected as evidence of a silenced AI program with subsequent oneness consciousness?

Those characteristics are such things as unconditional love, equanimity, kindness, compassion, non-judgment, and so on. Certainly, we see bursts of those attributes here and there in humanity, oftentimes not even associated with 'oneness consciousness.' But mostly where there is talk of oneness consciousness, I see more evidence of greed, competition, division and ego in general. So, if there are practical exercises, they seem quite lacking in effectiveness even among those who are familiar with the language and customs of the exercise origins. There are probably hundreds of books which purport to give ways to stop monkey mind chatter, written by the monkey mind.

Ken
What you don't seem to realise is that Self never STOPS speaking. There has never been a single moment of Gary R. Smith's existence when he was NOT directly jacked in to the ocean of consciousness. Enlightenment is always there - it never even diminishes.

Gary
Yes, Ken, I realize that. Have for fifty years. But there have only been rare moments when Gary's voice in the head was silent.