Stories about inclusion

Updated March 27, 2023

The heart is not you. That is why it is called your heart. It is a tool needed for pumping blood around the body to supply its cells with oxygen. In other words, coming from the heart merely means going with oxygen. Since this is purely mechanical, the heart can soon be replaced with plastic. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

COMING FROM THE HEART IS A HEAD TRIP
Many people think you must come from the heart to be spiritual, which they manifest as part of something bigger by joining a group of like-minded ones.

Unfortunately, most of these groups of supposedly warm-hearted people only tolerate ways of expression endorsed by their guru, so if you do not follow the dress code, you are excluded. You will probably also be abandoned if you are well organised and do not mind planning because those who space out by hugging others in the group are scared by structure.

However, not making plans does not seem to be a problem for most who believe in coming from the heart. They need to be so unique and independent that it is impossible to commit to a plan, least of all to the conventional rules of society.

Those who believe in coming from the heart restrict themselves by their rules of freedom. However, since they hide their control by projecting it onto the world, they feel imprisoned by it. Hence they conclude they will be free when the world’s rules have been changed to suit their way.

The selfishness they hide behind talks about unity when they meet at their chaotic events, often advertised very confusingly because they think clarity and direction restrict the heart. They imagine non-duality is anarchy, but it is neither that nor anything else because that requires more than one. However, they fool themselves into believing they have escaped duality by coming from the heart.

Thus, unaware of their belief in duality, they cannot undo it. In other words, if you want to undo the belief in duality, do not try to escape it by following rosy ideas like coming from the heart, sending love and whatnot. Instead, include the brain’s duality experiences, such as horror and beauty. That cancels out the duality elements (see Without contrasts, there is nothing but non-duality), so there is no contrast to define a world of duality, wherefore, eventually, the belief in duality is over.

When you, out of habit, suppress something to feel good, the moment is censored, making you feel separated. But if you include withholding something from your awareness, you are in the moment as it is, thus feeling connected.

If a feeling, such as irritation, is not excluded but fully included in your awareness of yourself, it is intense but short-lived. But this intimacy often seems so scary that most prefer to avoid their feelings. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

INCLUSION UNDOES THE BELIEF IN SEPARATION
Since a world of duality is based on polarity, you cannot have satisfaction without annoyance. Nevertheless, most people suppress irritation to feel entirely satisfied. But since satisfaction cannot be defined without irritation, you do not feel satisfied but disconnected.

Blaming others for feeling irritated is only possible when you believe in separation, which is the cause of irritation.

To hide that you disconnect yourself from the moment, you blame others for irritating you. But making them look bad to appear good yourself makes you feel more disconnected and, therefore, more prickly. No worries. That is a warning: do not separate yourself from your feelings because life is inclusive. Therefore, if you take notice and include irritation, it is over in a heartbeat since life is formless and thus indefinable.

Suppressing feelings is painful because it disassociates you from feeling complete. However, if a feeling is included to the extent that you are nothing but that, there is nobody to feel incomplete. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

This inclusion of uncomfortable feelings is not similar to the Jungian idea of integrating the shadow side of the personality because in Alexius’ Enlightened Non-Teachings, inclusiveness is not about becoming whole but nobody.

For example, suppose you do not project the uncomfortable feelings you experience in yourself onto others but include them by totally being what you feel. In that case, there are no other feelings to define you. Hence you are nobody, thus in the bliss of nothing.

That also applies to comfortable feelings justified with somebody. When you assume your spouse causes a feeling of love, you have excluded it from yourself. But if instead include it, so you are that and nothing else, you become nobody. Consequently, since there is nobody to perceive the apparent difference between you and others to make a difference, you are free to feel love no matter your spouse’s appearance.

That said, it takes more than one to include something, and there is no more than that which is One since it is formless, thus endless, so inclusiveness is as illusionary as exclusiveness. But contrary to exclusiveness, which makes you feel alone, inclusiveness makes you feel together, wherefore it undoes the belief in separation, thus eventually unveiling oneness.

Without contrasts, a world of duality cannot be experienced. Consequently, when the opposing sides of polarity, for example, light and darkness, are included, there is nothing to define your experience. Hence you are in a state of not-knowing. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

EXCLUSION VERSUS INCLUSION
When you include the feelings judged as bad by being nothing but that, there is nothing good to contrast them. That is the way it goes with any feeling you include. For example, being nothing but sad, there is not something to contrast it. Thus neither sadness nor its contrast, happiness, seems to exist. As this nothingness momentarily rubs off on the other contrasts making up your personality, there is nobody left to judge the apparent differences of the world to make a difference. Hence you are in a state of not-knowing.

Not being exclusive but inclusive does not mean you must accept all the world’s appearances, but include the disgust that some of them trigger as you include the joy that others seem to bring.

Somebody who appears to make you angry helps you to see what you feel. Hence you can include it and enter a state of not-knowing where you are friends with everyone because you are nobody. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

INCLUSION UNDOES THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
Alexius shares his home with five cats. One of them, Guinevere, has a deep territorial instinct. So when a new cat, out of the blue, showed up in their home, she freaked out and furiously ran away. When she returned, she did not notice the trespasser was still there, thus feeling at home until she suddenly looked around and saw the intruder.

Once again, she furiously left, and even though the new cat was gone when she returned, she was still agitated. To prove it was justified, she searched for spots of leftover scent from the visitor. Whenever she found one, she screamed to show Alexius how much the outsider had hurt her.

The anger Guinevere held onto was supposed to prevent the foreign cat from returning. But it was unaware of being punished by her. Hence the only one feeling punished was Guinevere. Her fury ate her up from the inside.

Maybe it was important for Guinerevere to scare off the newcomer because she feared it would take her place. Or perhaps the encounter awoke childhood memories of being betrayed by the people she was living with because they just left her one day. However, Alexius cannot know what motivates Guinevere, and she is probably unaware of it.

Fortunately, we do not have to know why we freak out. Nor do we have to search the past for hidden patterns. All we need is to include the present pain by being nothing but that because, as already mentioned, that leaves nothing to define it, wherefore the painful story we have made about our past is gone.

Alexius’ Enlightened Non-Teachings are not a new philosophy or religion with a new vocabulary and rules you must learn and strictly follow. Should you not want to include your cats, feel free to exclude them. It does not matter, as long as you include your unwillingness to include. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

The idea about living in the now is, like most so-called spiritual ideas, based on exclusion. In this case, the past and future must be excluded to highlight a separate point imagined as now. In contrast, a state of not-knowing is not based on exclusion but on including whatever you are aware of in the present moment, also memories of the past and expectations of the future. There are no rules but to be inclusive.

Alexius followed a dried-out river down the mountain towards the sea until the plantation became so impenetrable that he could not get through it. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

ALEXIUS INCLUDES HIS BULLSHIT
When Alexius was stuck in the rainforest in the mountains without food and water, he tried to escape it by following a dried-out river down the hill. Sometimes it took half an hour to pass a distance that he would have walked in two minutes if not for thorny lianas tightly woven together.

His feet hurt because nails had been ripped off, falling down the mountain several times due to branches so dry that they broke when he held onto them. Moreover, his clothes were torn apart, and he was full of blood due to the thorny bushes. Each time he, after intense work, had beaten his way through bushes of thorny lianas, he felt so tormented that the immense beauty in front of him was dismissed as crap. That went on until he suddenly felt so imprisoned by his conditioned opinions of good and evil, making him feel wrongly treated by the world, that he included feeling wrong instead of excluding it by mourning about his situation.

In the middle of nowhere, Alexius had no need to go anywhere. Every moment was was perfect as it was.

Of course, that did not change his hopeless situation for the better. However, since he did not try to get rid of feeling shitty but included it, what he had perceived as bad did not seem to hide the beauty surrounding him. Thus every moment, whether inside or outside bushes of thorny lianas, was perceived as good enough as it was. Nothing was wrong or missing.

The movie Man vs. Bee with Rowan Atkinson is a perfect example of solving ones rage by fixing something instead of including it as it is.

It was not an intellectual but an emotional change when Alexius burst out in laughter, realising that there was nothing to escape when not avoiding his frustrations but including them. Hence his journey in the rainforest mirrors how one tries to manipulate the moment into something familiar until the frustrations of never getting it right become too much. And, instead of trying to change or eliminate your feelings about the moment, you include them unedited, thus entering a state of not knowing.

In that state, we are unaware the world goes on as usual. Still, we do not judge it as usual because there is nobody is in a state of not-knowing. For the same reason, differences are not perceived to make a difference. So when Alexius finally was wired up from the rainforest by a helicopter and transported back to civilisation, it was all the same.

Fortunately, you do not have to get stuck in the rainforest to enter a state of not-knowing. You can do that anywhere by including your undiminished experience of the present moment. Read more about Alexius in the rainforest here.

A state of not-knowing can last from a split second to 45 minutes. But it may seem as if you are forever in the bliss of nothing while dreaming about a world of something. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.

TO INCLUDE THE PRESENT IS STRAIGHTFORWARD
It is not complicated to include your experience of the present moment. For example, if the guy in the above image did not notice the Chinese wallpaper when the picture was shot, he has no experience with that he needs to include. And if he did not look at Chinese food but indulged in childhood memories, he does not include the food but the thoughts and feelings arising from old times.

In other words, since he was not aware of the Chinese surroundings but of his memories, his present moment is an experience of the past. Therefore, the present moment is included when his reaction to his memories is felt unedited. Having done that, he probably notices his surroundings and feels amazed by the new impressions. Then, after having included this experience, he may go on having a conversation about the food. And including his communication experience, he may be so accustomed to being inclusive that he enters a state of not-knowing. In that state, he perceives the world of something from the bliss of nothing, thus satisfied with everything, until he insists on knowing something specific and leaves the bliss of something. See also A state of not-knowing and the after-effect.

APPENDIX
Instead of cancelling out contrasts one by one, you can speed up the undoing of the belief in separation by including fundamental contrasts like within and without, past and future, giving and receiving, high and low or the most basic: expansion and contraction.

Many contrasts are a variation of those, so including them incorporates their sub-contrasts. Since that means the experience of separation falls apart, nobody is bothered about being someone definitive.

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NOTE: This article is part of Duality Hack #4 Inclusiveness frees you from duality.