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November 2003
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November 1st 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The One Unchanging Thing

When you first have this breakthrough from identification with the ego into truth -- or whatever you want to call it -- this is what can delude people. The experience of it is fantastic -- the experience of the bliss, the Oneness, the feeling of enlightenment. But what they are is experience.

So this, at some point, goes because everything you can experience comes and goes. Even all these feelings of enlightenment -- they come and go.

That's why everybody freaks out. They confuse enlightenment with the experience of enlightenment. There's a difference because at some point you realize you have to look for what is real. And anything that comes and goes is not real.

So you find That within yourself, which never changes. And there's only one thing that never changes -- and that's Consciousness. At some point you get more understanding about it and so you're not so bothered about these great experiences.

Bharat (Melvin Rochlin)

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 2nd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Walk as an Emperor

We are not 'merely' this mind and body -- we are included in the totality -- we are not reduced to our small manifestation of it.

Poonjaji used to say, 'You walk in the world as an emperor because everything is your own. just as an emperor walks out into his kingdom without a penny in his pocket, you can walk in this world without a penny in your pocket and it is all your own!'.

What I would like to point out is that when he said that it's all your own, he didn't mean it as ownership-- it's your own because you 'are' all of it.

So, for myself sitting here, looking through this window, wherever my eyes happen to go, wherever the awareness lands, there's a sense that everything is in this consciousness. Not inside my body but that my body and everything else is composed of consciousness itself.

And that's why, you could say, that the purest form of love is inter beingness. It's knowing yourself as so-called other or as the totality and therefore having the natural feelings of care and tenderness.

Catherine Ingram

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 3rd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Water That Blushed

Apparently, at the beginning of the 19th century in Scotland, a class of older boys were asked to write the final essay of the term on the miracle of Jesus changing the water to wine.

The supervisor was walking around and noticed that one student in the room was not writing.

Now it turned out that this student was none other than George Noel Gordon, later known as Lord Byron.

So, just as the bell was about to ring, young George took up his pen and wrote one line, and then walked out of the classroom ahead of the other students. Filled with curiosity, the supervisor went over, picked up George's paper and read, "The water met its master and it blushed".

Source unknown

See God in all; then ah! what joy is thine! Thou drinkest God with every sip of wine.

Angelus Silesius

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 4th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Truth That Touches the Heart

It does not make any difference what teachers say. The only real authority, your only real authority is not some teacher outside of you. Your only authority is what touches your heart, what nourishes you inside of you.

And you may be impressed by a teacher because he or she can speak of great things and speak of things that perhaps you cannot argue with.

But when you are being impressed by something that does not nourish you, that does not touch your heart, that impresses your mind and your mind goes wow! -- that does not mean anything. If the mind is wowed, that does not touch your heart.

If there is something, anything, that you are hearing from a teacher or reading in a book that does not directly touch your heart and nourish you and leave you quieted and gentled, it is not worth believing. And it does not matter how great it sounds.

John de Ruiter

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 5th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Surrender to What You See

What awakening is, is that you can see, whereas before you could not see. When you are given internal sight as to what it is that you already know is true, then you are awakened.

But so what if you can see? Just because you can see, that does not mean that you will completely surrender, be in absolute surrender to what it is that you do see.

What you are in love with is anything that touches your heart, that causes your whole heart to open. You are not in love with your mind being impressed. When someone is awakened, he or she can speak of things that impress your mind. But that does not necessarily mean that it touches your heart.

The only way that it will touch your heart is if that individual's heart completely open and soft. if he or she has surrendered to what he or she knows is true, then you will be in love with that kind of heart. You will know it. Whether that individual is awakened or not does not make any difference.

John de Ruiter

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 6th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- That's Impressive!

The only thing that has any value at all is purity of heart. Awakening does not mean anything at all. So what if you can see? So what if you can see into all of reality? So what if I can see into the great ocean of reality and explain all of its wonders, so what? All that seeing means is you are awake, you can see.

Just because you know what is true, that does not mean that you have become what you know. You can see into reality but that does not mean that you are at one with it. You can speak the right things but that does not mean that you are one with it. You can have all the right information, so what?

With someone who is awakened -- it does not matter how massive the awakening was. That is not impressive. What is impressive is when that whole heart just totally bows down to what it sees and knows is true, regardless of how tiny that seeing or that knowing is, and merges with it. If with the tiniest little touch of seeing that whole heart bows down to what is true and responds to that, that is impressive.

John de Ruiter

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 7th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Self-Importance Must Die

There are a lot of teachers out there who are awakened and can really see but inwardly they have not died. A teacher who has not allowed the inward death of self-created agendas is a danger.

What needs to die is self-importance, the 'somebody'. What has to die is the importance of the mind within that individual to that individual's heart. The death of the authority of the mind.

If the mind has any authority within that heart, then it does not matter how awakened that individual is -- he or she has not died.

It is not the heart that has to die, it is the authority of the mind within that heart that has to die because the mind is not an authority -- we give it authority.

John de Ruiter

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 8th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Becoming the Silence

It's funny, supposing you want to see a bird in the tree, you are not going to get out your blender to look at the bird in the tree! It would be better to get a pair of binoculars, you know!

This is the goofiest metaphor but it's like going looking for this vast presence with a tiny measuring device that only looks at objects. We are using the brain, which only can perceive something that's an object or a thing, so therefore it can't find something that's not a thing.

And you are what you are seeking. Awareness cannot find itself. It'll find thoughts and feelings and everything like that but since it's using the vehicle of the brain, it's looking for this huge god, an object.

The brain ... is always looking away from the silent backdrop (of the Self). It goes outside to find enlightenment. The funny thing is that when it turns around or when it's exhausted enough just to rest inside, it becomes the silence.

Pamela Wilson

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 9th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Never a Victim

If you're arguing with what is in the moment, you're arguing with God by saying, 'I don't like the way it is now. I should have a partner.' But as soon as we do that, we're a victim and then we're just going to feel powerless.

So it can always simply be, 'OK, I'm being fixated, can I find what I am looking for in me? Can I find this stillness, this openness, this clarity that I'm looking for out there, can I find it in me?'

Because you can always find it in you -- I am complete here. And any feeling of not completeness is just a feeling that hasn't been checked out very deeply.

The ball is always in our court -- we are never a victim to what is.

Isaac Shapiro

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 10th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Facing the Fear of Death

The way that death and fear of death are usually seen in our culture is a clear indication of deep misalignment with truth.

Because of our conditioning, physical death is seen as the problem. In actuality, facing the reality of the death of personal identity is an immense opportunity to directly encounter eternal, undying presence.

There is a strong, conditioned belief that you are a psychological entity located in a body. In truth, there is no real psychological entity except as an image or a thought coupled with physical sensation.

When fear of death is directly investigated, it is discovered that only form is born and dies. Consciousness is free of formation, free of birth, free of death.

Gangaji (Antoinnette Roberson Varner)

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 11th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Looking Out of These Eyes

It's possible, as human being to human being, to see what is deeper than woman to woman or deeper than Westerner to Westerner. What is deeper than this species is what is looking out of these eyes and meeting itself in your eyes and inviting itself into the deeper meaning in this nervous system.

So this nervous system can experience, while still experiencing human incarnation, the radiance and the truth of being that does not need human incarnation for its beingness.

And this loneliness which you speak of and the fear that you speak of (and all other forms of suffering) are pathways to that.

Gangaji (Antoinnette Roberson Varner)

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 12th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Best Service

Your Realization of who or what you truly are can help others, and, what is more, it is the best service that you can possibly render to others.

Those who have discovered great truths have done so in the still depths of the Self. But really there are no "others" to be helped. For the Realized Being sees only the Self, just as the goldsmith sees only the gold while valuing it in various ornaments made of gold.

When you identify yourself with the body, name and form are there. But when you transcend the body-consciousness, the "others" also disappear.

The Realized One does not see the world as different from himself (or herself).

Ramana Mahashi

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 13th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Why the Cross?

D. What is the significance of the Crucifixion?

M. The body is the cross. Jesus, the son of man, is the ego or I-am-the-body idea. When the son of man is crucified on the cross, the ego perishes, and what survives is the Absolute Being. It is the resurrection of the Glorious Self, of the Christ -- the Son of God.

D. But how is crucifixion justified? Is not killing a terrible crime?

M. Everyone is committing suicide. The eternal, blissful, natural State has been smothered by this ignorant life. In this way the present life is due to the killing of the eternal , positive Existence. Is it not really a case of suicide? So why worry about killing?

Ramana Mahashi

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 14th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- He Alone Is

To those spiritually elevated people who professed to recognize God in all around them, but not in themselves, the Master would say:

"Realization can only be in and of the Self. It can never be apart from the Self. Whether you deliberately meditate on God or on the Self, it is immaterial; for the goal is the same.

You cannot by any means escape the Self. You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all is God, are you not included in that all? Being God yourself, is it a wonder that all is God?

To see God, Who is all-pervasive, is to be God. There is no "all" apart from God for Him to pervade. He alone is."

Ramana Mahashi

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 15th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Light of the Heart

The Self is the Heart, self-luminous. Illumination arises from the Heart and reaches the brain, which is the seat of the mind.

The world is seen with the mind; so you see the world by the reflected light of the Self. The world is perceived by an act of the mind. When the mind is illumined, it is aware of the world; when it is not so illumined, it is not aware of the world. If the mind is turned in, toward the Source of illumination, objective knowledge ceases and the Self alone shines as the Heart.

The moon shines by reflecting the light of the sun. When the sun has set, the moon is useful for displaying objects. When the sun has risen, no one needs the moon, though its disc is visible in the sky. So it is with the mind and the Heart. The mind is made useful by its reflected light. It is used for seeing objects. When turned inward, it merges into the Source of illumination, which shines by Itself, and the mind is then like the moon in the daytime.

Ramana Mahashi

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 16th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Unclouded by Thought

You may have overlooked that brief periods in which you are "conscious without thought" are already occurring naturally and spontaneously in your life.

You may be engaged in some manual activity, or walking across the room, or waiting at the airline counter, and be so completely present that the usual mental static of thought subsides and is replaced by an aware presence. Or you may find yourself looking at the sky or listening to someone without any inner mental commentary. Your perceptions become crystal clear, unclouded by thought.

To the mind, all this is not significant, because it has "more important" ' things to think about. It is also not memorable, and that's why you may have overlooked that it is already happening.

The truth is that it is the most significant thing that 'can' happen to you. It is the beginning of a shift from thinking to aware presence.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 17th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Right Action Happens

Become at ease with the state of "not knowing." This takes you beyond mind because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret. It is afraid of not knowing. So, when you can be at ease with not knowing, you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state.

Artistic creation, sports, dance, teaching, counseling -- mastery in any field of endeavor implies that the thinking mind is either no longer involved at all or at least is taking second place.

A power and intelligence greater than you and yet one with you in essence takes over. There is no decision-making process anymore; spontaneous right action happens, and "you" are not doing it.

Mastery of life is the opposite of control. You become aligned with the greater consciousness. 'It' acts, speaks, does the works.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 18th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Egoic Self

The mind is incessantly looking not only for food for thought; it is looking for food for its identity, its sense of self. This is how the ego comes into existence and continuously re-creates itself.

When you think or speak about yourself, when you say, "I," what you usually refer to is "me and my story." This is the "I" of your likes and dislikes, fears and desires, the "I" that is never satisfied for long. It is a mind-made sense of who you are, conditioned by the past and seeking to find its fulfillment in the future.

Can you see that this "I" is fleeting, a temporary formation, like a wave pattern on the surface of the water?

Who is it that sees this? Who is it that is aware of the fleetingness of your physical and psychological form? I Am. This is the deeper 'I' that has nothing to do with past and future.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 19th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The One Who is Aware

When each thought absorbs your attention completely, it means you identify with the voice in your head. Thought then becomes invested with a sense of self.

This is the ego, a mind-made "me." That mentally constructed self feels incomplete and precarious. That's why fearing and wanting are its predominant emotions and motivating forces.

When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice -- the thinker -- but the one who is aware of it.

Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 20th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- More of This or That

The egoic self is always engaged in seeking. It is seeking more of this or that to add to itself, to make itself feel more complete. This explains the ego's compulsive preoccupation with future.

Whenever you become aware of yourself "living for the next moment," you have already stepped out of that egoic mind pattern, and the possibility of choosing to give your full attention to this moment arises simultaneously.

By giving your full attention to this moment, an intelligence far greater than the egoic mind enters your life.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 21st 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Attend to the Doing

When you live through the ego, you always reduce the present moment to a means to an end. You live for the future, and when you achieve your goals, they don't satisfy you, at least not for long.

When you give more attention to the doing than to the future result that you want to achieve through it, you break the old egoic conditioning.

Your doing then becomes not only a great deal more effective, but infinitely more fulfilling and joyful.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 22nd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Victim Identity

Almost every ego contains at least an element of what we might call "victim identity." Some people have such a strong victim image of themselves that it becomes the central core of their ego. Resentment and grievances form an essential part of their sense of self.

Even if your grievances are completely "justified," you have constructed an identity for yourself that is much like a prison whose bars are made of thought forms.

See what you are doing to yourself, or rather what your mind is doing to you. Feel the emotional attachment you have to your victim story and become aware of the compulsion to think or talk about it.

Be there as the witnessing presence of your inner state. You don't have to do anything. With awareness comes transformation and freedom.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 23rd 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Favorite Mind Patterns

Complaining and reactivity are favorite mind patterns through which the ego strengthens itself. For many people, a large part of their mental-emotional activity consists of complaining and reacting against this or that.

By doing this, you make others or a situation "wrong" and yourself "right." Through being "right," you feel superior, and through feeling superior, you strengthen your sense of self. In reality, of course, you are only strengthening the illusion of ego.

In your dealings with people, can you detect subtle feelings of either superiority or inferiority toward them? You are looking at the ego, which lives through comparison.

Can you observe those patterns within yourself and recognize the complaining voice in your head for what it is?

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 24th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Ego Needs Conflict

The egoic sense of self needs conflict because its sense of a separate identity gets strengthened in fighting against this or that, and in demonstrating that this is "me" and that is not "me."

The ego needs to be in conflict with something or someone. That explains why you are looking for peace and joy and love but cannot tolerate them for very long. You say you want happiness but are addicted to your unhappiness.

Built into the very structure of the egoic self is a need to oppose, resist, and exclude to maintain the sense of separateness on which its continued survival depends. So there is "me" against the "other," ... "us" against "them."

Not infrequently, tribes, nations, and religions derive a strengthened sense of collective identity from having enemies. Who would the "believer" be without the "unbeliever"?

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 25th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Ego Needs More

Envy is a by-product of the ego, which feels diminished if something good happens to someone else, or someone has more, knows more, or can do more than you. The ego's identity depends on comparison and feeds on more. It will grasp at anything.

If all else fails, you can strengthen your fictitious sense of self through seeing yourself as more unfairly treated by life or mare ill than someone else.

What are the stories, the fictions from which you derive your sense of self?

Your unhappiness ultimately arises not from the circumstances of your life but from the conditioning of your mind.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 26th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- The Ego Needs Guilt

Do you carry feelings of guilt about something you did -- or failed to do -- in the past? This much is certain: you acted according to your level of consciousness or rather unconsciousness at that time. If you had been more aware, more conscious, you would have acted differently.

Guilt is another attempt by the ego to create an identity, a sense of self. To the ego, it doesn't matter whether that self is positive or negative. What you did or failed to do was a manifestation of unconsciousness -- human unconsciousness. The ego, however, personalizes it and says, "I did that," and so you carry a mental image of yourself as "bad."

Throughout history humans have inflicted countless violent, cruel, and hurtful acts on each other, and continue to do so. Are they all to be condemned; are they all guilty? Or are those acts simply expressions of unconsciousness, an evolutionary stage that we are now growing out of?

Jesus' words, "Forgive them for they know not what they do," also apply to yourself.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 27th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Dashes on Gravestones

"No self. No problem," said the Buddhist Master when asked to explain the deeper meaning of Buddhism

If you set egoic goals for the purpose of freeing yourself, enhancing yourself or your sense of importance, even if you achieve them, they will not satisfy you. Set goals, but know that the arriving is not all that important.

What will be left of all the fearing and wanting associated with your problematic life situation that every day takes up most of your attention? A dash -- one or two inches long, between the date of birth and date of death on your gravestone.

To the egoic self, this is a depressing thought. To you, it is liberating.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 28th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Welcome the Now

On the surface it seems that the present moment is only one of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consist of thousands of moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more deeply, is there not only one moment, ever? Is life ever not "this moment"?

This one moment -- Now -- is the only thing you can never escape from, the one constant factor in your life. No matter what happens, no matter how much your life changes, one thing is certain: it's always Now.

Since there is no escape from the Now, why not welcome it, become friendly with it?

When you make friends with the present moment, you feel at home no matter where you are. When you don't feel at home in the Now, no matter where you go, you will carry unease with you.

The present moment is as it is. Always. Can you let it be?

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 29th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Life Unfolds With Ease

The division of life into past, present, and future is mind-made and ultimately illusory. Past and future are thought forms, mental abstractions.

The past can only be remembered Now. What you remember is an event that took place in the Now, and you remember it Now. The future, when it comes, is the Now. So the only thing that is real, the only thing there ever is is the Now.

To have your attention in the Now is not a denial of what is needed in your life. It is recognizing what is primary. Then you can deal with what is secondary with great ease.

It is not saying, "I'm not dealing with things anymore because there is only the Now." No. Find what is primary first, and make the Now into your friend, not your enemy. Acknowledge it, honor it. When the Now is the foundation and primary focus of your life, then your life unfolds with ease.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks

--- Anthologist and Mentor - Peter Stafford Sumner

November 30th 2003

From the OmniRead Treasuries -- Pointers

The message of the Masters is generally conveyed through nouns while the deepest meaning can only be suggested by verbs and adverbial forms. In other words, the Teaching is really concerned far more with functioning and its process than with the "who" that functions or with the "what" that results from functioning. Both the "who" and the "what" are incidental, inferential and almost irrelevant.

There is no gainsaying the fact that Reality or Truth cannot be expressed at all, except to the extent that it can be suggested or pointed at. But to the extent that language must be used, care has to be exercised by both the speaker and the listener to remember that nouns point in the opposite direction and thereby create considerable misunderstanding.

Ramesh Balsekar

The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: "All things are intrinsically one." That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.

Eckhart Tolle -- Stillness Speaks