August 2005
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August 1st 2005
From Consciousness -- Images in the Mirror
There is only IT appearing as everything; only Oneness appearing AS diversity. Channeling ascended masters, considering light bodies, tasting apple sauce and seeing flying saucers are all appearances with no independent existence. They are in fact nothing but temporal patterns in the current of life.
Look at the screen, rather then to the flickering images that appear on it. What is pointed to here is the mirror of Awareness, rather then the reflections in it. The images in the mirror can not be brushed away, nor can they be taken hold of. They are both there and not there, and their apparent presence or absence does not affect the mirror in any way.
It is fine to be fascinated by the content of the mirror and it is fine to be fascinated by the stories of ascending masters and light beings. They are as real or unreal as any other appearance, including the seeming person fascinated by such ideas.
Anon. ATTD News Letter number 60
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August 2nd 2005
From Consciousness -- Not One. Not Two.
"How does one seek union with God?"
"The harder you seek, the more distance you create between Him and you."
"So what does one do about the distance?"
"Understand that it isn't there."
"Does that mean that God and I are one?"
"Not one. Not two."
"How is that possible?"
"The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and her song.
"Not one. Not two."
Anthony de Mello
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August 3rd 2005
From Consciousness -- Stop Absolutely
Whether you are searching for peace and happiness in a relationship, in a better job, or even in world peace, just for one moment, stop absolutely.
There is nothing wrong with these pursuits, but if you are engaging in them to get peace or to get happiness, you are overlooking the ground of peace that is already here.
Once you discover this ground of peace, then whatever pursuits you engage in will be informed by your discovery. Then you will naturally bring what you have discovered to the world, to politics, to all your relationships.
This discovery has infinite, complex ramifications, but the essence of it is very simple. If you will stop all activity, just for one instant, even for one-tenth of a second, and simply be utterly still, you will recognize the inherent spaciousness of your being that is already happy and at peace with itself.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 4th 2005
From Consciousness -- Reinforcing the Conditioning
Because of our conditioning, we normally dismiss the call to be aware of inner peace with, "Yes, but what about my life? I have responsibilities. I need to keep busy. The absolute doesn't relate to my world, my existence."
These conditioned thoughts just reinforce further conditioning. But if you will take a moment to recognize the peace that is already alive within you, you then actually have the choice to trust it in all your endeavors, in all your relationships, in every circumstance of your life.
It doesn't mean that your life will be swept clean of conflicts, challenges, pain, or suffering.
It means that you will have recognized a sanctuary where the truth of yourself is present, where the truth of God is present, regardless of the physical, mental, or emotional circumstances of your life.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 5th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Truth of Who You Are
In any moment, in a split second, there is the possibility of recognizing the boundless, limitless, eternal divine truth of yourself.
This is an invitation into the core of your being. It is not about religion or lack of religion. It is not even about enlightenment or ignorance. It is about the truth of who you are, which is closer and deeper than anything that can be named.
Experiences of truth have been given different names by different spiritual cultures. Heaven, nirvana, resurrection, enlightenment, satori, samadhi - all are names pointing to this supreme, unnameable, divine beauty, empty of suffering and filled with grace.
The recognition of this truth is what I'm writing about. If you can't hold a word of it in memory, then that's just right. My teacher told me that the truest teaching is like a bird flying across the sky: it leaves no tracks that can be followed, yet its presence cannot be denied.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 6th 2005
From Consciousness -- Opening to Receive
Opening to the truth of our own essential being is simply a matter of receiving. But because of our conditioning, this doesn't seem like a simple matter. There are usually complications and fears surrounding simply receiving, simply opening.
We are conditioned to fear the unknown depths of ourselves, suspecting the worst. There comes a time when we can and must meet this primal fear. When we are finally willing to face head-on the suspected worst in ourselves, we discover an amazing, unbelievable truth.
Opening the mind to what has previously been feared and avoided reveals the capacity to bear and truly embrace discomfort and even pain.
Eventually, the real discovery is that whatever we fully embrace always reveals the peace that we were seeking through all our attempts to avoid discomfort.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 7th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Central Truth
If you find opening difficult, you can examine whatever "story" makes vulnerability seem difficult. It's possible that you believe a story about how you cannot or should not open.
The truth is that nothing is easier than opening. This may sound simplistic or abstract, but it can be concretely actualized every moment of your life.
In the instant of simply opening, you experience that whatever you were struggling with is no longer there. True openness reveals that the struggle -- the problem, the bogeyman, the demon, the wound -- is actually non-existent. The story is not transformed by openness; it is revealed to be actually non-existent.
The only thing that holds the story in place is the resistance to opening. What remains, when what was feared or fought with disappears, is the openness of existence itself -- the truth in the center of your own heart.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 8th 2005
From Consciousness -- A Great Laugh.
If in this moment you can simply discard your outward reference points for what will give you peace, you might recognize that peace is already here regardless of any internal or external circumstances.
In this recognition you can investigate more deeply to see if there is any separation between the peace that is always present and who you are. What is the boundary between who you truly are and peace?
What emerges in a perfect moment of realization is what has always been present, and this usually gives rise to a great laugh.
What you have been searching for desperately, furiously, relentlessly, and with great frustration has always been present exactly where you are! It is present now, in you, and it can be revealed to you now as your own self.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 9th 2005
From Consciousness -- Only An Echo
It's revealing to ask, "What am I, and who am I now, -- without my story, without my demand upon this moment, without my hope of this moment, without my script?"
The mind, if it were to say anything, would answer, "I don't know," because the mind does not know what it is when it's disarmed, it doesn't know who or what it is without its role or its character to play.
The actor who is acting all this out is named "me." Even when we respond to or welcome the call of self inquiry, that actor keeps maintaining himself or herself, and the tendency of mind is to say, "I'm here."
But when we look for what is behind the "I'm here," it's like yelling in an empty room -- there's an echo, "I'm here," and every time we look, we find only an echo. Who? "I'm here." Who?
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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August 10th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Wordless Experience
At some stage in the process of spiritual awakening, you start to let go, to be disarmed from engaging in the more subtle game of thinking you are an actor behind the role.
You start to see that that is just another narrative. If you truly look, there is the wonderful chance to be fully disarmed because you will not find an actor, or anyone at all.
When this disarming happens, you are allowing the wordless experience to present itself. This is the wordless experience of 'being' that you can experience for yourself.
You will realize that it is not a script or role, it carries no agenda, and has no demand upon this moment. It's also not the actor. What you are is prior to your 'idea' of you.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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August 11th 2005
From Consciousness -- A Story is Just a Story
What you are without your role is often assumed to be hidden somewhere. And so when you let go of your role, when you look past the character called "me" for the truth of your being, you may think that there's a someone to find who is somehow hidden.
If this happens, when you come into this state of openness, you may think, "There's nobody here, but I'll look for it anyway, look for the Self, the Truth, the enlightened me." Looking for the enlightened self is just another role, another script. It's part of the spiritual seeker's script. If you drop that script -- now what are you?
Of course, the reason I ask you to inquire into what you are is because, at this moment, you are living the answer. Nothing that I would tell you is a substitute for that aliveness, for that living of the answer.
That's why it has been said many times that only the people who don't know who they are, are the ones who are awake. Everyone else knows who he or she is. They are their script, whatever their script is, even if that script is, "I'm not awake."
Awakeness is to have no script, to know that ultimately a script is just a script, and a story is just a story.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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August 12th 2005
From Consciousness -- A Very Revolutionary Thing
There is a state in which the mind says, "I have no idea who I am," because it can't find the right script. Awakening is the realization that happens after the mind says, "I give up. I just have no idea who I am."
When you start to understand this, you realize that if you put down your script of being someone listening, and if you put down your script of being someone saying something, and you just drop these roles for a moment, you are not who you have taken yourself to be.
Coming to gatherings where truth is talked about (satsang) is a very revolutionary thing for this idea of "me" to do, because the me thinks it's going to get its happiness through changing its script, its role, its identity -- even if its identity is to have no identity.
It will do whatever it takes to keep the ball called "me" rolling.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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August 13th 2005
From Consciousness -- Nothing on the Altar
Our spiritual culture has become very tricky. We have increasingly subtle spiritual concepts to use in our discussions.
Many people have replaced the old heavy concept of God and sin with the words consciousness and conditioning, which sound a little lighter.
The modern spiritual person has these extremely abstract concepts. The more abstract the concept, the more transparent it is. It's hard to make an image of consciousness and put it on your altar.
Your altar keeps being emptied. If you want to see the Truth, don't put anything there. The best altar of all would have nothing on it.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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August 14th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Living Answer
If we ask, "Who am I without the me-concept? What am I without the me?" instantly the wordless can open up, the concept-less can open up.
Allow the 'experience' of that, because that is the 'living' answer to the questions, "What am I? Who am I?" This is not the dead conceptual answer, but the living answer. It is alive! In this moment of radiant awakeness there's a mystery unfolding unto itself, moment to moment to moment. This living state of being, call it what you will, is the only thing that you always have been, always will be, and are right now.
You are not a human being, you are being appearing as human.
Adyashanti -- Emptiness Dancing
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August 15th 2005
From Consciousness -- What Do You Really Want?
Ask yourself repeatedly and directly, What do I really want? Let the answers flow freely, rising up effortlessly from the unconscious without censorship. There are no right answers.
Consider these questions a game, a game that can expose whatever beliefs and concepts all still buried in your subconscious.
As you inquire within, let whatever sensations, emotions, and insights that arise wash through you. If you have discovered that what you finally want is peace, happiness, love, or enlightenment, now is the opportunity to see where you have been searching for them.
You can investigate even further by asking: Where have I looked for what I want? What activities have I pursued to get what I want? Where do I imagine I will finally find it? What do I imagine obstructs me from it right now?
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 16th 2005
From Consciousness -- Tell the Truth Fully
Are peace, happiness, love, and fulfillment conditional on some outside circumstance, or are they already alive within you?
In this moment, be willing to tell the truth, which may at first be the relative, most apparent truth. For instance, your truth in this moment may be what you believe is necessary for your happiness. If your loved one is ill, you may be certain that you want only for him or her to get well, and then you could experience happiness.
This relative truth can open the way to telling a deeper truth that reveals the paradoxical, causeless nature of true happiness, present now, whatever the circumstances.
Tell the truth fully, whatever the cost, whatever the risk, whatever the consequences.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 17th 2005
From Consciousness -- Changing the Mask
Investigating deeply into what you really want opens the door to discovering the truth of who you really are.
In our traditional Western understanding of psychology, personality is often used as an indication of who we are as individuals. But personality is actually a very superficial costume or mask that can easily be changed.
If you want to change your personality, there are many books you can read, or workshops you can go to, or instructions you can follow.
There is nothing wrong with working on or changing your personality. It can be very useful. For instance, in order for human beings to gather peacefully in a room, it is helpful if their personalities have been conditioned enough so that there can be common courtesy and respect. This is all in the realm of personality.
Working on personality doesn't cause any harm unless you somehow believe you are your personality. You may have already noticed that no matter how much you work on your personality, or how great a personality you have finally achieved, you are constantly frustrated in your efforts to discover the deepest fulfillment of yourself.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 18th 2005
From Consciousness -- What is the Ego?
More primary than personality is a basic sense of ourselves as separate individuals, as separate "egos." What is the ego, really? Can the ego be directly experienced? Does it need to be eliminated or augmented in order for us to be happy?
Ego is the Latin for "I". It is actually the thought of "I", a thought that couples with the sensation, "I am this body", and from this starting point expands into endless complexities.
In our experience of human incarnation, we have the natural capacity to identify ourselves as individual egos. This is an enormous power, and there is nothing wrong with this power. It is a delightful power, an evolutionary adaptation that has given the human species an advantage over other species in almost every circumstance.
However, ego has also generated the root of all self-hatred, self-torture, self-love, and self-transcendence. If our individual body/mind/ego is believed to be our final truth, this belief subsequently gives rise to enormous, unnecessary suffering.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 19th 2005
From Consciousness -- Am I Limited to a Body?
If you base your life on the belief that you are limited to a body, then both consciously and subconsciously the preservation of that body becomes the overriding concern. In the growing recognition that there is no real guarantee for your body's safety, great fear arises.
The body is obviously subject to a multitude of attacks -- genetic, environmental, and accidental. Finally, it is subject to the inevitable exhaustion of its functions.
Obviously, any attempt to preserve and keep the body safe gives rise to strategies of self-protection or defense such as hiding or attacking.
These strategies give rise to both aggressive and submissive traits, to social and sexual skills -- all as a way of defending the thought, "I am a body." This is ego.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 20th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Revelation of What is Deathless
When preservation of the body is primary, we live in a fearful and defensive universe. Defensive action -- whether in terms of "me first", "my tribe first", or "my nation first", at the cost of all other people, tribes, and nations -- gives rise to tremendous suffering....
At a certain point the reality of the death of your body and all bodies, all forms of every kind, becomes apparent. Although much of society, particularly in the West, seeks to keep this fact hidden, the death of the body cannot finally be denied.
This demon death, which has been feared, denied, and run from, is called out of the subconscious to be faced in the light of conscious awareness.
At this point, you can realize the undeniable presence of permanent, eternal awareness: the truth of who you are. This realization is the death of believing in the ego as reality, and the revelation of what is deathless. It is easily apparent that you are much more than a body. You are actually that which animates the body.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 21st 2005
From Consciousness -- Seeking Peace of Mind
It is the core belief of the human being that peace of mind can come from adequate achievements in the external world. And we hang on to this belief in spite of whatever we may hear from the wise people.
We are busy worrying about providing for the future, and being resentful about those who we believe have stood in our way.
The result is that we have put ourselves in the ridiculous situation that our peace of mind is at the mercy of the 'other' and the external world.
The fact of the matter is that our peace of mind depends entirely on ourselves: How we react to a happening in the external world.
Ramesh Balsekar -- Nuggets of Wisdom
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August 22nd 2005
From Consciousness -- Destiny -- God's Will
If I am hurt in any way -- physical, psychological or financial, there are clearly two ways in which I can review this happening. One, I can believe that it is my Destiny -- God's Will or Cosmic Law -- that I am to be hurt, and therefore, whether the happening that has hurt me has happened through one individual or the other, is really irrelevant.
This view prevents me from hating anyone for my hurt, and absence of hatred for the other means peace of mind for me.
Everything changes if we view life as something in which everything is a happening, and not something done by anyone -- neither me nor the other. Then, in our daily living, we must accept whatever the society decides about our actions, and the consequences.
But one is free of any guilt or shame for one's actions, and also free from any hatred and malice towards the other. This means inner peace and harmony for 'me'.
Ramesh Balsekar -- Nuggets of Wisdom
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August 23rd 2005
From Consciousness -- No Individual Doer
In the ultimate analysis, peace of mind means not going through life with bitterness, either towards oneself or towards the other.
The freer we are of our judgrnents -- towards both me and the other -- the more at peace we are with ourselves and the more in harmony with the other.
'Enlightenment' is misconceived by many, as awareness of more subtle dimensions, more energy, more powers -- in fact something beyond one's everyday mundane perceptions.
I am now of the clear understanding that enlightenment obviously means seeing the same samsara in a different perspective altogether: Everything is a happening, and there is no individual doer of any deed.
Ramesh Balsekar -- Nuggets of Wisdom
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August 24th 2005
From Consciousness -- A Deep, Ultimate Understanding
A spiritual seeker usually has no clear idea of what she is seeking. She may term it as self-realization or enlightenment. What she really has in mind is an experience of ecstasy, something on the lines of a photograph she might have seen of the sage Ramakrishna or a Sufi saint in ecstasy.
She does not realize that any experience is essentially temporary, time-bound -- a few minutes or a few hours -- and is not what the sage has really got out of his enlightenment. What the sage really has is a deep, ultimate understanding -- with or without an experience.
What the understanding has brought him or her is a deep sense of peace within himself or herself and a sense of harmony with the other, whether the other is a close relative or a total stranger. This is not a temporary experience but a lasting one, the very basis of his daily living.
It is very necessary for the spiritual seeker to understand this fact clearly in order to avoid deep frustration after years of spiritual seeking.
Ramesh Balsekar -- Nuggets of Wisdom
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August 25th 2005
From Consciousness -- When the Pot Overflows
Nityananda has said: "Pour water in a vessel that is full, it will flow out. Similarly when Peace is getting full, all come to know of it. Such a man or woman has no desire. This is the highest Peace, the full Peace, Union."
When the pot is being filled with water, there is sound until the pot is full. Similarly, while the seeker begins to think that he is being enlightened, he cannot wait to talk about it to others until he finds himself avoided by his friends.
But when there is total understanding -- the pot is full -- there is no sound, but the overflow of water is quickly noticed by others. Others are attracted to the sage because they notice that his or her daily living is full of peace and harmony.
As Nityananda has said, such a person has no desire. But that is not strictly correct. Desire may arise, and it may get satisfied or not. If the desire is satisfied, the sage certainly enjoys the pleasure totally, but, if it is not satisfied, he or she does not pursue any desire. Not pursuing any desire, the sage is never frustrated. He or she is always at peace, contented.
Ramesh Balsekar -- Nuggets of Wisdom
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August 26th 2005
From Consciousness -- Me and the Universe
It has been generally accepted that all we know as the physical reality are the sensory images that appear in our minds.
This clearly means that the world is in me, and not me in the world. I am the entire universe. This is precisely what is stated in the highly revered Hindu text, the Ashtavakra Gita: "The universe produced phenomenally in me, is pervaded by me...from me is the world born, in me it exists, in me it dissolves."
Surely, this is awakening from the dream of everyday reality.
Everything is structured in Consciousness.
Ramesh Balsekar -- Nuggets of Wisdom
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August 27th 2005
From Consciousness -- Experiencing What is Real
The conviction of the egoic belief "I am this body" is in fact the only obstruction to recognizing the truth of who you are. This belief must be maintained hourly with incessant thought activity revolving around the image of who you imagine yourself to be.
When you cease that thought activity, and instead turn your mind inward toward the central I-thought, you discover boundless, pure consciousness, inherently free of all thought and free of any need for safety.
In this discovery, you understand that the ego is an illusion, just as a dream or a trance state is an illusion. It may be felt, seen, and experienced as real, but this is only because its reality has never been deeply questioned.
This questioning is self-inquiry. Openly inquiring into illusion -- in this case the essential illusion -- is the doorway to directly experiencing what is real.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 28th 2005
From Consciousness -- Fooled by Illusion
When questioned, the individual "I" is revealed to be nothing but a dream. When you awaken from a dream, whether it was sweet or a nightmare, you realize it was only a dream.
Obviously, there is nothing wrong with dreams or illusions. The problem arises when they are accepted as reality, particularly this illusion of the I-thought.
Everyone has the experience of being fooled by illusion -- a mirage in the desert or the horizon being the edge of the earth. Illusion holds enormous power until it is deeply questioned.
True investigation is designed to reveal what is real and what is illusion, what is eternal and what is passing.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 29th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Original Sin
In our culture, we draw an understandable yet tragic conclusion based solely on perception. That conclusion is that since you and I appear to be separate, we therefore must be separate. This elevates perception to the position of authority.
The original sin, the original mistake, is the belief that separation from the source, from consciousness, from God is even possible.
Since separation is our experience, we believe it to be reality. This mistaken perception is the root of all suffering.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 30th 2005
From Consciousness -- The Invitation Into the Truth of Yourself
If you have been aware of perception for any length of time, you know that it is subject to change.
If you gain just this fundamental understanding, which is quite profound in its simplicity, you have the opportunity to recognize that anything you can perceive is bound to be limited by the conditioning of your species, your culture or subculture, your family, your simple likes and dislikes.
The world is not as you think it is. You are not who you think you are. I am not who you think me to be. Your thoughts about the world, yourself, or me are based on perceptions. Whether they are inner or outer perceptions, they are limited.
Recognize that, and you hear the invitation into the truth of yourself, which cannot be perceived or imagined, and yet permeates everything.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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August 31st 2005
From Consciousness -- The Bliss of the Truth
When all mental activity around who you think you are or what you need for happiness is stopped, there is a crack in the authority of perception, in the structure of the mind. I invite you to enter through that crack. Come in through that opening.
When you do, the mind is no longer filled with its latest self-definition. In that moment, there is only silence. And in that silence, it is possible to recognize absolute fulfillment: the truth of who you are.
Any thought that you have had about yourself, however deflated or inflated, is not who you are. It is simply a thought. The truth of who you are cannot be thought, because it is the source of all thoughts.
The truth of who you are cannot be named or defined. Words like soul, light, God, truth, self, consciousness, universal intelligence, or divinity, while capable of evoking the bliss of the truth, are grossly inadequate as a description of the immensity of who you truly are.
Gangaji -- The Diamond in Your Pocket
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