tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778518.post-1117473929799156572005-05-30T12:56:00.000-04:002005-05-30T13:26:20.430-04:00<a href="http://www.rolandmartin.blogspot.com/">My uncle</a> and I were having a discussion yesterday about how little of who we are has to do with our making. I strongly suspect that what we think of as our personalities are no more under our control than is the color of our eyes.<br /><br />We're all on auto pilot - responding to each other and situations in the same predictable and automatic ways we have for a our entire lives. Even if the desire to change is there, the ability to do so is not. This isn't a negative thought. It is just pointing out something that should be obvious (but that we pretend is not).<br /><br />So what do we do? Where do we go with that kind of knowledge of ourselves?<br /><br />I've done some reading about the selfless state of consciousness -- living in the present moment as a nameless point of consciousness as opposed to little person with a name, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, etc. I've had the privilege of being in that state for brief periods of time (so I know what I'm missing on a day-to-day basis).<br /><br />When I think back to those moments of clarity and try to remember how they arose, I have a difficult time. The thoughts and activities preceding them seem random. They seemed to just happen on their own. Once started, I recognized what it was and I didn't resist for as long as I could handle it. But in the end, I was either distracted or came out of it when fear arose.<br /><br />So I think I know something about how to maintain it: Don't resist it. Trust it and go with it. Drop the fear as soon as it arises and trust and let go. But I don't have a clue about how it comes to me in the first place, or what I can do to encourage it. Guess I'll keep reading.<br /><br />Here's the best of the best with regard to the books I've read on this subject in recent years:<br /><br />The Power of Now - Ekhart Tolle<br />On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious - Douglas Harding<br />Loving What Is - Byron Katie<br />Collision with the Infinite - Suzanne Siegel<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6778518-111747392979915657?l=www.riddlelake.com%2Fblog%2Fblog.html'/></div>Lynnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17446280680744570851noreply@blogger.com0