Assumptions - Worse Than Blindness

We all carry in our heads assumptions about how things are, how the world works etc. The assumptions we have does have its uses... we live with more certainty and conviction with them than we would live without them. 

It takes courage to put your assumptions to the test because that would mean questioning the foundations of certainty that you rely so heavily on. 

But don't mistake interpreting the courage I've written here with some kind of heroic quality that you need to possess or you need to build up in order to move to the next step and see the truth. 

Rather the courage I'm talking about here is more like giving yourself a break from thinking/feeling in the same way and trying to approach things with a blank slate. 

You're not to discard your previous assumptions and adopt new ones... that's not what it's about. 

You're to just stop being dependent on assumptions. No more living off of assumptions, but only on what's real.

Be willing to see the world with fresh eyes.. even if for a moment. 

That's what every man of wisdom has been trying to say since time immemorial... that although your knowledge is all well and good and helps you to carry on with your life, unless you become like children again... someone who's not prejudiced, someone who's willing to see things with a clean slate, you'll not be able to find the truth and the true joy in life.

It requires that you be willing to give up your cherished beliefs to come to the truth.... 

Now I'm not saying that you need to go through certain action steps or you need to live life a certain way before you're ELIGIBLE to see the truth. 

That's bullshit. 

You're ELIGIBLE to see the truth right now... all you need to remember is, that it's not a fight for which belief/assumption wins... you just need to see things as if you're seeing them for the first time without having any idea about what it is, how it is and how it should be... that's it. 

It takes courage to test the assumption of having a self and seeing if it's real or not. 

It takes courage to step off your routine path for a second.

Remember, you can always go back and take up your cherished beliefs, they're not going anywhere... but don't be so stubborn that you're not willing to take a peek into something just because you're not allowed to carry everything you own (your assumptions) with yourself.


One of the quotes that I really found interesting was by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, now although I've not heard many positive things about Scientology, the following quote does convey something meaningful regardless of its source.

"There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there."

- L Ron Hubbard

Not seeing something isn't the worse condition, but seeing something never existed, is.

This is how the assumption of a 'self' comes across.... it's an assumption of the existence of something that never existed.... it can be a little bit confusing, but once you see the truth of it, you'll see how simple it is. 

Hope this helped a bit.... if you've any queries and would like my help for anything please don't hesitate to put on a comment below or reach me via twitter at twitter.com/RTMaverick.  

Until next time, 

Mav

The Two Aspects Of Freedom!

Hey guys!... it's been a long time since I've been active around the blog and stuff and I do apologize for not being very available in the recent past.

I guess there were two reasons for it... one being that I'm super swamped by work and all sorts of things that need my attention because I think if you want things to be sustainable in the long run for yourself then you need to take care of your shit first. Even though I love what we do here, I for sure think that a person will most definitely run out of fuel to help people and do awesome things if he/she doesn't handle the important stuff in his life - health, career/education/money, family/friends/relationships etc. 

The second reason was that I hadn't put much thought into this work that we've been doing here. I did came up with a few very interesting stuff but I guess one's "great theory" doesn't mean shit if it isn't 100% accurate for everyone. Sharing an idea and then getting it tested is super important ofcourse, however I don't feel that it's a good use of everyone's time to get any random idea tested by people only to find out that it's only fluff and there really is nothing behind it - unless you yourself feel that the idea is very concrete in itself and deserving of other people's attention.... which is why I didn't post many of my stuff which if taken from an analytical and philosophical standpoint might definitely prove to be very interesting and intricate... but ofcourse in the end it's all useless so what's the point. 

Anyway moving forward. 

Now.. all this time we've all been talking about freedom and liberation etc but still there's only one aspect of it that we've touched upon and that is the negative side of freedom - freedom from negative emotions, thoughts etc... and I guess Ciaran did post something related to the two sides of freedom - (PS. I haven't been made aware and don't really know what has happened to the whole RT movement and where things stand exactly but I'm posting this out for anyone who might read this and find something of value in it) - which was pretty cool - and so I wanted to delve a little bit more into it today because I don't think the concept of the two sides of freedom got the attention that it needs. 

And because I personally think it's a very important concept for anyone wanting to improve their life and improve their understanding of how things really work... and especially in this whole 'spiritual/philosophical' sphere you see so many people who're stuck in intellectual paradoxes that they just have everything else in their lives slip away and they can't manage (or even care) to succeed in any area at all.... not in the spiritual/philosophical side of things or any other stuff that matters. 

One thing that needs to get cleared up is that seeing the truth of 'no self'/'no you' etc.... it doesn't mean that you will have your life turned around. It doesn't mean that you'll be free from negative thought patterns and instantly shift into a Buddha of some sort who is free from all negativity in the world - HELL FUCKING NO.

SEEING 'NO SELF' DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING. 

That's the sad part. 

BUT. 

IT DEFINITELY CAN OPEN UP THE POSSIBILITY TO CHANGE.

Now that's something much more powerful and true than a 'one step get enlightened and happy forever' type of deal... which kinda does reek of the 'one click make money fast and easy' schemes. 

Both of these 'one step' things are just magic pills and they don't work as well as they claim to.

They do work a tiny-tinsy bit but that's just about it. And because you got something working for some time, you think there must be more to it than there really is... kinda like squashing out a small orange - there's only so much juice you can get from it and it will dry up pretty quickly. 

So how exactly can the insight/recognition of 'no you' help you in the first place?

By showing you that thoughts are just thoughts, emotions are just emotions and that there really is no entity that is hardwired to think and feel a certain way. There is no entity... and because there is no entity, the thoughts and emotions are just autopilot habitual things that are determining your actions and responses.. and because you're in the thick of it, you're not able to get a larger perspective of things.   

So what 'no you' can help you to do is create SPACE around your thoughts and emotions... give you some kind of distance between them which then allows you to pause and reflect upon the choices that you've in front of you... in other words, it can help bring you to a place of more awareness where your robotic habitual thoughts and emotions aren't the ones that are in charge and you get to see where will each thought/emotion take you.... you get to insert (if you choose to) a small pause and a reset before you actually jump to a decision. 

That's super important and the first aspect of freedom or the negative aspect of freedom if you want to call it. 

Now, the second or the positive aspect of freedom would largely concern itself with you implementing will power... will power to choose to move in a positive direction. 

Killing the negative doesn't mean life for the positive.

You can't expect the good and the beautiful to shine forth once you've destroyed the bad and the ugly... by destroying the bad and not developing good, you're only going to get things that are neutral and mundane... 

So here is when you need to apply your inherent will power to make decisions. By being aware of your choice of actions (having negative freedom) is what makes you 'wake up from the dream'.... and then using your willpower in a positive direction (having positive freedom) is what will make things beautiful once you're awake.  

Again, the goal is not to destroy thoughts/emotions.... the goal is to create space around your thoughts/emotions so that you can then choose to go forward or change these thoughts and emotions if they're not going to help you live a better life in the long run. 

I know it might sound simplistic and I might expand on it later if I think I can add anything else... but that's really just about it. 

PRESENCE/SPACE (getting distance from your thoughts/emotions = negative freedom) + WILL POWER (moving towards positive in thoughts/emotions = positive freedom) 

Now.. when I say positive thoughts/emotions I don't mean be happy when someone slaps you... what I mean is that you choose WISELY what will be the best action to take in the moment that will help you in the long run. If you keep smiling when someone's trying to push you around - then you're really not getting the message I'm trying to convey here and you're caught up in the 'too spiritual/too holy' mentality where you're not in touch with reality itself... 

An appropriate response would definitely be defining your personal boundaries and telling people to back off or whatever.... think long term happiness guys.... and think things through. 

But ofcourse don't over complicate things too much. Trust in yourself that things will take care of itself if you keep on learning and if you keep on moving forward..... 

Okay enough from me now. Hope you're all doing well.  

Please do post some comments :)
See ya soon.

Don't be a Pussy. Don't be a Bitch.

Yesterday I went through one of StepVheN's recent pieces - Emasculation of motivation - and to me it was a very interesting read.

I was thinking about this later and trying to co-relate why people who completely lack any motivation to do things often mask their apathetic and indifferent attitude in the name of being 'spiritually above' what's actually going on.

I think that's a serious issue that needs addressing. I thought about this and came up with 3 paradigms we might tend to operate in.

Paradigm 1 : Being A Pussy 

I remember Ciaran once speaking about how life is a spectrum of everything and there are quite a lot of people who try to limit their experience to only a specific portion of that spectrum, trying to live as if the rest didn't exist.... Hmm... why would anyone do that?!

The only reason I can think of right now is that they do it for the simple reason of not being brave enough.

They're in essence afraid of being hurt.

Afraid of the complexities of life and of what life might through at them.

Afraid of having their expectations go unfulfilled etc.

And in their fear they give up hope and reside in the "All is good" feel good crap mentality - "There's no way to go and there's no action that needs to be taken for all is perfect."

They live by the code - 'If you can be okay with anything that's going on then you can't get hurt."

Bull crap.

Now at some level, that code really is a good code to live by... but only if you've the right paradigm to adopt this code. (see paradigm 3)

Many people who are pathetic idle fucks use this code to justify their lack of motivation for doing something worthwhile.

That's being a pussy.

By living your life like this you sure can come across as someone who is calm on the surface but that superficial indifference has no solid foundation and roots... and by playing the role of "I am the everything's alright even if it's not guy" you happen to only give up your responsibility to take action and make a positive difference in your life and in the world around you.

Don't be such a pussy.

Life is not a bed of roses and stop acting like it is one.

Paradigm 2 : Being A Bitch

Now, on the flip side there are people for whom life isn't a bed of roses and they don't try to escape it and they clearly do suffer from it.

These are often honest people who at least try to make efforts to better their lives, if not make the world better.

These are the kind of people who try to do things but when their efforts end in failure they're severely disappointed and frustrated.

The problem with these kinds of guys is that they tend to be little bitches on the inside.

Anything good or bad that happens to them, they make too big a deal about it. That is why they're always anxious and restless at the core. They basically need to "get over themselves" and realize that the world doesn't revolve around them.

That's what "having an ego" basically means .... not in the egotistical, proud sense of the word... but rather in the sense that Tolle talks about... "being too involved in their life-situation and story"...
(I personally find such phrases to be too vague and useless especially because misunderstanding them can often lead you to be an idle pussy who foolishly doesn't take life seriously AT ALL)

Don't be such a bitch.

Realize that the world doesn't spin around you. Don't make a big deal out of things and have a little control over your emotional systems.

Paradigm 3 : Don't be a bitch. Don't be a pussy.

Now that we've established the two traps we should definitely NOT fall into, what's left behind is something really good. You get to experience the entire spectrum of life while remaining in control of your emotions.

You embrace the challenges life sets for you without any fear of what happens. You've the motivation to do stuff. You get to be passionate about things. Yet you don't get upset over tiny things that come your way. You don't stop taking action, nor do you bitch if things don't turn out the way you exactly want them to.

That's how a sane person should actually behave. Just like Zach.

------

So yeah, that's what I've come up with.

Hopefully it'll become easier to ride the road once we've laid out the dangers we might encounter in it! 

Ofcourse, it's all laid out in theory here and it'll only help if it's actually put into practice.... hope we all get on it.

Still working on the Demon Theory post.

See ya next time.

Until then, stay ruthless. Cheers.

"It's true and false at the same time" *What The Fuck*

I was on a Facebook group just now and found out how semantics pose a huge problem in communicating well with others in the 'spiritual' groups. Some people, even after seeing the truth of 'no you' feel like this truth is both true and false at the same time.

*Facepalm*

After much discussion it turns out to be a case of mis-communicated and misunderstood semantics, which is why I thought I'd make a small post clarifying some semantics.

SELF : 

The whole point of RuthlessTruth is to bring people to check this assumption of having a self, which if investigated with honesty will lead to the realization that it has no substantial reality and merely a mirage.

Why a mirage of self exists in the first place is interesting and has a lot to do with thoughts. Hence the importance of investigating whether the thought of 'I' really means something. 

Check out this brilliant piece by Ciaran - Demon Theory - that goes deeply into how insidious thoughts can be and how the reality that thoughts depict of having a 'self' is essentially unreal. 

CONSCIOUSNESS/VOID/AWARENESS : 

People often fall into debates about there being a 'self' that still exists (and is empty) even though there is 'no you'. Yeah that's true, i.e. if you're referring to the void/consciousness... but that's also incorrect because consciousness isn't owned by anything. 

Even to say 'I am That' with reference to the Void is absurd.

Void is just Void. Consciousness is just Consciousness.

---- 

That's it for now. 

I'm also writing a post on Ciaran's Demon Theory which I hope will serve to combine quite a few things. Have hit many dead-ends but hopefully will make some good progress soon enough. Let's see how it goes. 

Until then, stay ruthless. Cheers.

Your character and stuff

Its been about 3 days since I read Ciaran's post on 'The Act', and I gotta say, that it really is something.

So far there have been two core things that have come out of RT :

1. There is no 'you'
2. 'Maverick' (or whatever your name is) is a real fiction

The first statement really is the gate... to see the truth in it takes away all sorts of bullshit you have piled upon a tiny little thing which you refer to as your 'self'.

But, inspite of recognizing this fact of 'no self', you and your entire makeup remain pretty much the same.

Its because the character that is being played does not change.

To cover the fact of 'no you' the mind spins a brilliant character, brilliant in its texture and emotions.

A Real Fictional Character. What people commonly refer to as 'identity'.

I prefer the word 'character' since it is a much better way to describe such a thing, because identity begs the question - 'who are you?' - which for a person who is yet to recognize 'no you' seems like contradicting messages.

Seeing no 'you' is simple because you just have to recognize that the thing which you thought previously existing in real life doesn't.
But it gets quite interesting with this character thing.... this character that is spun is entirely fictional, but it exists. A real fiction.

Like watching a disney (or horror) movie... ofcourse the movie's story doesn't play out in real life exactly and its all make belief... but it still is there in the theatre for everyone to see.

Its a performance, a process of creative imagination brought into real life.... its a real creation based on an imaginary character.

Its freaking wonderful to be able to see this thing.... it really gives you that 'zen on drugs' type thing.

But anyway, much more thoughts to explore in this area.

Hope you're all doing good - check out RT n you'll find many cool things such as this, be able to get liberated from the 'self' etc.. and ofcourse one lucky winner will get instant abs.

Lies

"To hide one lie, a thousand lies are needed."

This simple little proverb is really on point.

When you are dealing with a lie, you are dealing with deception.

And when you are dealing with lies piled on top of lies piled on top of a ton of lies it needs a lot of focus and honesty to burn away the bullshit and dross.

All lies, no matter how innocent, are fucking snakes. They will indefinitely bite you and leave you helpless while you are paralyzed by their poison awaiting your own death.

There are tons of lies out there and to battle them all will require a lot of courage and time. But there is one core process, one singular lie, that is so fucking wretched that it can make satan puke.

Its the foundational fertile ground on which every other kind of deception finds its roots and grows. 

Its the one fucking spider that is spinning a web of lies..... no matter how many times you try and destroy the web, if you don't kill the spider the web will be back up in no time. 

The stink of that one lie is this - it makes itself look innocent. It fucking deceives you - to the core. You might look at it and go - 'oh, it doesn't seem so bad' - and thats when the lie traps you again.... the spider is a spider-cum-chameleon.. it changes its color and shows you like its made up of white holy light... but in actuality is the devil in god's costume.

The lie that I am talking about, and which you have fallen for is this - Its 'YOU'.

Yes, 'YOU'.

'YOU' are a lie.

The 'YOU' that you think is experiencing life. The 'YOU' that you think is observing it. The 'YOU' that you think is living life.

But there is no 'YOU'. The lie caught you into believing something there was. But there isn't. There isn't a 'YOU' that was a cause, the owner, the SEER.......

There existed an assumption of a 'YOU', a mirage, a thought, an illusion..... but illusions aren't real... they just fool you into thinking that they are.

'YOU' is the lie that humanity has fallen for.

Recognize this.

There is no 'you'. Never was.

Clean Goodness

It is all too often in life that we find ourselves in situations where we feel like we are walking a tight rope and are losing balance, because all the good things which we possibly want to live with, manage to turn into some kind of monstrosity - our love turns into obsession, our peace into apathetic inaction etc.

The obvious choice is to fire on less than full cylinders. Live in 'moderation'. To live 'average'. To live less than what you are capable of because the possibility of you burning out is unquestionable.

Is this what it comes down to then - to not live fully?

No, there is a way out.

There is a place where you can live in goodness and not be worried about getting sucked into evil.

There is this story in Greek mythology about this guy called Icarus, and whats great about this story is that when I read the story, it struck me that it was very similar to what happens in our everyday lives.

Icarus basically was a dude whose dad made him wings of wax and feather for him to fly and escape some kind of prison where he was held up.

There were only two rules he had to obey when flying - don't fly too near the sun and don't fly too near the ocean.

One day, blinded by his ability to fly he decides to fly too close to the sun - gets his wax wings melted and eventually falls down and dies.

This tends to be the "normal" human experience - either we manage to fly too close to the sun and melt our wings, or we don't try push ourselves hard enough to take a good flight at all.

In the spectrum of life, good exists in the middle of the spectrum where on either side of it lurks evil. Evil which is ever ready to pollute and corrupt the goodness and turn it into some kind of monstrosity.

To remain in the sweet spot of good between those two extremes warrants caution. And it fucking sucks.

But what if I were to tell you that there is a place where there is no need for caution to get your wings burned down? what if I were to tell you that you could drive your life pedal to the metal without any harmful consequences?

There is a place where life is lived fully.

There is a place where all concerns for having something good corrupted into something out of control and essentially evil go out the window.

There is a place where goodness is clean.

Clean Goodness

Lets take up 'self-confidence' for example.

Do you feel that tingly sensation when you are about to do something important but you just have a hard time trusting 'yourself'? That's because somewhere deep down, you have never verified what does 'you' actually stand for. You fear what you don't know.

The 'self' remains in the dark and that's the place you never go to check because you're afraid. But if you would just have the courage to jump in the dark, with your lamp of honesty.... man you'll be surprised.

You'll be surprised to know that there was never ever a 'self' in the first place. EVER.

That's why the biggest flaw in this whole 'self-confidence' deal is this - an assumption of a 'self' in existence. Assuming there is a 'self' that exists which you can trust.

One quote I read by Russell Brand which I especially liked on this subject was -

"It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. No-one really feels self-confident deep down because it's an artificial idea."

There really isn't a 'self' for you to derive/place your confidence from/in. The idea of a 'self' is just an idea. The idea of an 'unicorn' is just an idea. An idea does not make anything real.

'Self' is a lie. But the lie of 'self' when alive will do everything in its power to survive.

Arrogance is a monstrous form of confidence. Its the lie's attempt to cover itself up with so much bullshit that you have shit all over your eyes forbidding you to see anything clearly.

Truth is empowering. Lies, no matter how grand they might seem on the surface are ultimately pretentious and like poisoned sugar... they taste sweet, but they end up fucking killing you.

Get the lie of 'self' out of your lives guys. Recognize the lie and it loses its power over you.

You can't go back on something which you have verified (not know - because there are many false assumptions which give you the sense of knowing but are actually flawed at the core) to be true.

Be open to the possibility that what you now assume to be true might be wrong. That's why, test this assumption. Test this assumption of a 'self' to be in existence. Be honest in putting this to the test.

Know that there is no 'you' to have a life, no 'you' to be the cause for 'your' life, no 'you' to have a body, no 'you' to have a mind.... everything just is... nothing belongs to anything... its just Life...