Preparation is an important aspect of all ego games. To prepare for experience requires predicting experience. The ego-self is committed to preparing for every experience you could ever encounter. In fact, even “be here now’ is prepared for as predicted.
Obviously, in order for ‘be here now’ to be experienced authentically, it cannot be prepared for, yet billions of individuals spend years in active preparation for just such an experience.
This is based on the ego-self prediction that it CAN be experienced. Once an experience is predicted as attainable, the ego then must devise a means through which to get it, since the ego-self is wholly subsistent on bodily ‘doing’ as indicative of ‘existence.’
All means of attainment are found IN the ‘world’ and this reinforces the experience of a ‘world’ as tangible and 'real.' Therefore, once the means have been determined as effective, based on the reports of credible witnesses (enlightened masters - the more the better) proclaiming the means as effective toward the ends, the ego then prepares to acquire the experience, as predicted, by investing in the process of ‘doing’ as justified by the collected accounts of credible witnesses. The ego attaches to a prediction and seeks out allies to justify that prediction.
Essentially, the means have been acquired from your experience of a ‘world’ for which to prepare to attain your experience of transcending that ‘world.’ How can the world teach outside its own knowledge base? Yet, we tend to hold all of this a perfectly logical (based on the 'world's' logic, of course) in direct relation to the credibility of the witnesses. However, the witness is an ego-constructed experience as well, so how can an egoic experience teach transcendence of ego?
The problem is circular because if you did not believe in your tangible experience of world, you would not look to the world to save you from yourself. But how can what causes your suffering save you?
The experience of a ‘master,’ which teaches your salvation from worldly suffering, is the very same experience that reinforces your suffering (makes it real) because of your investment in teachings from a ‘world.’ There are no witnesses to timelessness that are not entirely bound to time, since that is where you look to find them and receive their predictions. Preparing for timelessness reinforces time based on the predictions time provides and requires that you prepare for.
“Be here now” is an experience that cannot be predicted nor prepared for. Any preparation based on predictive ideology will create an experience that conforms exclusively to that ideology. So, in fact, you will acquire experiences (some very grand indeed) but if based on any prediction as to what that experience is composed of, you will give yourself what you expect to have, but interpret it as NOT of your doing.
The ego thrives on preparing for experience and thus demands predictions to aid it in that preparation. Your whole life is based on preparing for predicted outcomes and this is often referred to as playing “finite games.” We plan goals and objectives for which to measure ‘self’ value, but usually based on standards and means provided directly from our experience of ‘world’ in order to tailor our experience of ‘self.’ Your experience of a ‘world’ teaches you an experience of ‘self’ in complete denial that you constructed your experience of ‘world’ to begin with. There is NO division.
The ‘infinite game’ is aware of the predicted standards, but does not prepare based on those standards. We may see many who play this infinite game in the coming severe economic collapse, since they are highly adaptable to each and every game played. This is because they are not bound by the expected outcomes as predicted and thus they engage in very little preparation other than seeking a sense of deep quietness so that what naturally comes into experience is NOT missed.
When you are not bound by predictive measures, you no longer prepare for experiences that lead to outcomes and this means you are open to surprise, which for some is a much more meaningful experience as long as it is not used to make further preparations. You cannot allow surprise to predict ideological direction or make preparations from it, since it came from a complete absence of prediction.
Take the time to recognize all the experiences you prepare your ‘self’ for, because this preparation gives you what you expect based on prediction and this is how we construct, or as the LOA advocates report, “attract” our reality. In fact, essentially you have prepared for every experience including death.
No doubt, death will be exactly as you have predicted based on the world’s standards and so, you are prepared for just that and only that. Yet, preparation has a tendency to stifle what could be experienced if experience was not predicted and prepared for. This is because the Truth will have nothing to do with your predictions, based on what your 'world' teaches. Preparing to experience your learned predictions merely stifle awareness.
All spiritual ideology seeks to predict and, based on those predictions, teach you the proper preparation. We all employ such ideology to some extent and the most authentic ideology seeks, not only to annihilate the teacher, but the teachings as well. The best ideology will take you to a point in which it becomes irrelevant. You will not prepare for irrelevancy and this is your best option for surprise. When all predictions becomes irrelevant, surprise replaces prediction, through the option of letting go all preparation and prediction and allowing for surprise.
Yet this is can be a frightening prospect for the ego constructed entirely from prediction and continuously constructing experience in such a manner. This is why experiences are so completely bounded by expectation and rarely will you leave the realm of experience as predicted and prepared for.
However, there is the concept of the “miraculous,” or experiences outside the realm of prediction. Miraculous or surprising experiences are available. However, you must be 'still' internally to have such experiences since all internal chatter is nothing more than your constant ideological predicting and preparing for experience.
So, simply, sit still and be surprised!
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