What does it mean to be alive?

[olmate]

Is it our awareness of being? Is it the intensification of that awareness to include the awareness of being of others - perhaps expanding to an awareness of all creation - perhaps further expanding to an awareness of the being of God?

Or perhaps is being alive an awareness of Love? Or perhaps an awareness of loving and being loved?

What's your take?

Olmate

[Karmoh]

Hi Olmate,

A difficult one, simply because of the vast array of levels that life is for different people, it will be interesting to see the varied responses from the great cross section we have on the forum.

___

Being alive is seeing there is no centre. Being truly alive reveals that, in the place where you thought there was a separate self in control of life and living in time, there is only space. And that space is not at all separate from what appears within the space. In this realisation, the entire world is seen to be completely alive, to be intimacy itself. Pure love recognizing itself in each moment.

But we have to be wary of being spiritually identified with the notion that we are space or the idea that we are emptiness, as it is still just a concept. Silence and non-conceptualisation are still just passing states. To cling to any concept, even the concept that you are space is to miss the simple and beautiful fact that what you are is, absolutely nothing, appearing as absolutely everything.

This is when the most seemingly ordinary chore of sweeping a floor feels totally free, as if the universe is recognizing itself for the first time with each sweep of the broom.

Life is alive. You are that aliveness.


Peace

[Mr Monkey]

As ever, interesting dialogue from you two guys - thanks

Originally Posted by Karmoh

it will be interesting to see the varied responses from the great cross section we have on the forum.

Fully agree

Originally Posted by Karmoh

Being alive is seeing there is no centre.

I think this pretty much nails it, although I would differ slightly. For me being alive is in two parts experiencing outside your mind and experiencing there is no centre.

Experiencing there is no centre:
When I have played sport and get absorbed in it I fully experience now, as I would guess anyone would be when fully absorbed in any activity. Many of these people wouldn’t have read or experienced any of the teachings we have had access too (as I hadn’t up to a few years ago).

If someone had said to that “a few years ago me”, did you know you have no centre? I would have probably looked confused and prodded my stomach to check it was still there . The “a few years ago me” would have still experienced being alive (many times in fact) as have many others, even though they have never seen/realised that there is no centre to them.

Experiencing outside your mind:
I’m sitting here feeling really tired with a really heavy energy/feeling and am being told by my mind I ‘should’ be doing various things. Whilst I know they need to be done I’m not anxious/worried or lost in thought about them, I just feel I will do them later and am sitting here doing this instead experiencing the tiredness and heaviness. Now whether I do these things later is another matter , but for now I am experiencing being “out of my mind” at the moment (watching my mind at work), and it is a nice place to be

Paul

[Hazelkay]

For me the being aliveness is when the leaves are fluttering me

when the wind is flying me

when there are no edges in my seeing

when the stars seem so near, I can touch them

when for no reason, there is that leap of joy

with love

peace and joy

[selfhypnosis]

For me, having a purpose and mission in life keeps me alive and motivated.

[Michael David]

An intriguing question. And I do not know. Although a few thoughts have surfaced.

I first have to divide the question into what is life and how is live for me.

From one view everything on this side of nothingness is life in varying forms. A tree is made up of a balance of dirt, water and sunlight. In the trees varying form dirt, water, roots, sap, pulp, branches, stems, leaves, sunlight and bark we think of parts of the tree as alive and its outside edge of bark as not alive. Where or when does the dirt go from being dirt to the aliveness of the tree? Where does the food we eat go from being dirt to the aliveness that we are?

The seed of the great oak tree has the bluprint to change its form into a giant oak. Is the life in the seed or is life the conditions that allow the seed to change its form and grow. Life seems to be the growth, the movement the changing form. From the big bang or whatever the change from nothingness to form is, a continual evolution of consciousness is life as its form keeps changing.

For me I seem most alive when a moment of mindfulness evolves into happiness and the clinking of glasses in a toast becomes a moving instant of the joy of life. L'chaim (To Life).

Michael

[olmate]

Right off the bat... I will take one large bowl of what Hazelkay is having . Great response!!

Thanks too for all of the other responses. This topic has been exercising the mind for the last few days. Perhaps if I share some of the contexts...

Firstly the mind went to those who are suffering. Living in physically difficult circumstances, the ill, those in physical or mental pain and torment. Is this living? I think yes.

Then the mind went to those at the other end of the spectrum. Those in absolute bliss, nirvana, super Grace, etc. Is this living? I think yes.

Then the mind went to the various spectrum in between. Is this living. I think yes.

The mind canvassed living within the confines of this body and the infinity of beyond mind. It seems it is all living. Where we land in the broad spectrum may be as a result of choices made. Some of it may be as a result of the mystery of the web of life - that is, no apparent or obvious reason.

So perhaps the issue more rightly comes down to no matter where we are on the spectrum, life is available each moment to each one of us. Obviously the quality of that life varies, but just the same it is there. I kind of am struggling with the idea that anything short of an enlightened state (for the want of a better term) is not living.

Hmmm... what do you think?

Olmate

[Mr Monkey]

For me, to exist or live you simply need to physically be in the World, so as I see it everyone currently in the World exists and lives. But how many of those people are just focussed on and lost in the mind, not enjoying or fully experiencing life. Again this is a spectrum and different people will fall into a different area on that spectrum, with the fully ego identified at one end and those of the enlightened variety at the other.

I can remember on my way to work I would sometimes grab a coffee and sit and look out over a river on a nice sunny morning, the sun warming my face and the breeze gently brushing past my face. I would just look at the light bouncing off the water ripples, watch some birds flying or just feel the breeze on my face and hands. All very nice .

I would also see others walking past on there way work very purposefully, obviously concerned about events in the past or in the future or possibly reflecting on how great or bad they are (or will be) due to these events. In this example, I am living/existing along with the other people going to work, but I am the only one who feels alive at that time, because at that moment in time I am not caught up in my little monkey mind (for once! )

The same parallel can be drawn between someone who has every material thing they want but are stressed, don’t see there family, have to compete with everyone (including family) and although surrounded by hundreds of colleagues have no true friends. On the flip side you can have only a few pennies to rub together but have a twinkle in your eye and an approach to life that is simply priceless. Again for me, both people are existing/living, but only one is ‘alive’.

In essence, and after all that writing, I think that it’s the level of attachment to your life circumstance that determines how alive you are. I think that being alive is being able to sit outside the mind and emotions and thus see the true reality of life outside the lenses of fear, self-interest and to some extent, time itself - which now I think about it, is simply living in the now.

Paul

[olmate]

Good points Paul. I guess part of my musings is to be careful not to make something right or wrong. But the point that many have made about being alive with adjectives like rich, fully awake, etc. is important in terms of walking our chosen paths.

So perhaps as you identify, glimpsing the now may be an important catalyst to starting the journey down the road to a fuller life.

Nothing but the best...

Olmate

[Edwin]

You know Paul, I both agree with you and disagree.

I see how the businessman ignoring the beauty around him is a cramped up person, and yet, when he starts that presentation on which a million dollar deal is based, and he brings it across nicely, and he sells it, he too will feel very much alive. The butterflies in his stomach as he is walking to work, will they make him feel less alive ?

With your example, you are bringing across a judgement on what you think is "good behaviour" and "bad behaviour".
But the businessman is responding to the situation he is in, and doing it with purpose and concentration. And, he probably enjoys it, even the stress that comes with it. Instead of denying the full scope of life like you are doing, he is enjoying EVERY minute of it, not just the calm ones. If you feel at peace at a mountaintop, doesn't mean that you have to return to that mountaintop every time you want to feel calm, it means you have the ability to feel calm everywhere, it just becomes more prominent at that mountaintop.

I hope I can bring across what I mean.