The Seer

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Like a child separated at birth from its mother, we are separated from the Ground of Being. This separation is experienced by us as an exile, a state of disharmony and disunion.

From it has come our present dualistic, fragmented consciousness, and the fears and anxieties which torment us.

But the memory of fusion or union with the Ground of Life lives on in us as a longing for reunion, for the ecstasy of belonging once again to that greater other.

The mystics and sages of all times and cultures have tried to reveal to us what they have discovered: that we are in the Ground like a fish in the sea, like a bird in the air, and have tried to help us dissolve the illusion of our separate existence so that we would experience ourselves here and now, in this dimension, as what we truly are — Divine Being.

Andrew Harvey

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We hope to experience peace and happiness once and for all by getting what we want. However, peace and happiness are not achieved by getting but by loving what is, just the way it is. We are so afraid that if we love what is we will never get what we want, when that has been the secret to happiness all along!

Loving what is would seem to be the simplest thing possible. It involves no effort, no struggle, no longing, and no disappointment. But loving what is goes against our programming, so it is difficult.

It requires vigilance to counteract the egoic mind’s automatic rejection and resistance to whatever is happening. To experience the peace and happiness that exist in this moment, it is necessary to stop listening to the egoic mind, which undermines this peace and happiness with complaints and judgments.

These are the tactics it uses to take us out of the present and into its world of desires, hopes, and dreams. It woos us with fantasies of a more perfect world, a more perfect mate, a more perfect experience, and a more perfect you, all of which are unreal and will never be real.

Your fantasies, dreams, and desires don’t create reality or even reflect reality accurately, although they do affect your experience of it. When you are focused on your desires, dreams, and fantasies, you are not experiencing this moment, and you are missing out on the real richness, peace, and happiness that are right here, right now.

From Anatomy of Desire, How to Be Happy Even When You Don’t Get What You Want by Gina Lake

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All that we can know is what appears to us in immediate experience. And that which appears (whether it be a thought, feeling, perception or any other experience) has no separate and independent existence apart from the awareness which cognizes it.

Since awareness and objects always appear together, they must be the same in essence. How many thoughts, feelings or perceptions can you have outside of awareness? They are inseparable.

Everything that appears arises from, exists upon and returns into awareness. Even time, space and seeming external objects are present experiences contained in your knowing presence.

There is nothing separate and apart from this—ever. In fact, there is just this — only this inescapable presence-awareness. You are that.

From ‘You Were Never Born’ by John Wheeler

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When Bob Seal ‘woke up’, and saw the ‘Oneness’ of everything he had previously seen as ‘manyness’, he probably had a good laugh and since he was an illustrator in the publishing industry. it was natural for him to express his newfound awareness through cartooning. Bob started posting his humorous drawings on a blog and now this New South Welshman is renowned around the world for his dry with and ironic depictions of non-duality in all its many manifestations. You can find “Nonduality Cartoons” >Here

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May you be at peace within, with a steady mind.
May you rest in the inner silence.
May you remain alone, without self-willed thoughts.
May you be brave, having conquered the mind and the senses.
May you be desireless, content with what comes to you unsought.
May you live effortlessly, without grabbing or giving up anything.
May you be free of all mental perversions and from the blinding taint of illusion.
May you rest content in your own self. Thus, be free from all distress.
May you rejoice in the Self by the Self.

From the Visistha tradition of India.

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A new monk arrives at the old Italian monastery for his celibate life of shared poverty and prayer, and is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand.

He notices, however, that they are copying from copies, not the original manuscripts. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this, pointing out that if there were an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.” So, he goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original.

Hours go by and nobody sees him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. Hearing sobbing coming from the back of the cellar, he finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying, and muttering between tears: “There’s an R! There’s an R!”

He asks the old monk what’s wrong, and in a choked voice came the reply, “The original word isn’t “celibate” but “celebrate.”

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To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. That means now.Ask yourself, “Is there negativity in me at this moment?”Then, become alert, attentive to your thoughts as well as your emotions. Watch out for the low-level unhappiness in whatever form it takes, such as discontent, nervousness, being “fed up”, and so on. Watch out for thoughts that appear to justify or explain this unhappiness but in reality cause it.

The moment you become aware of a negative state within yourself, it does not mean that you have failed. It means that you have succeeded. Until that awareness happens, there is identification with inner states, and such identification is ego.

With awareness comes disidentification from thoughts, emotions, and reactions. This is not to be confused with denial. The thoughts, emotions, or reactions are recognized, and in the moment of recognition, disidentification happens automatically.

Your sense of self, of who you are, then undergoes a shift: before you were the thoughts, emotions, and reactions; now you are awareness, the conscious Presence that witnesses those states.

From: A New Earth, Chapter 4. by Eckhart Tolle

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Admire then, the works of the Lord, though He himself considers them as nothing but Him. His throne is on the waters and the world is in the air. But leave the waters and the air, for all is God: the throne and the world are only a talisman. God is all, and things have only a nominal value; the world visible and the world invisible are only Himself.

There is none but Him. But, alas, no one can see Him. The eyes are blind, even though the world be lighted by a brilliant sun. Should you catch even a glimpse of Him you would lose your wits, and if you should see Him completely you would lose your self.

All who are aware of their ignorance tuck up the flap of their garment and say earnestly: ‘O thou who art not seen although thou makest us to know thee, everyone is thou and no other than thou is manifested.

The soul is hidden in the body, and thou art hidden in the soul. O thou who art hidden in that which is hidden, thou art more than all. All see themselves in thee and they see thee in everything.

Since thy dwelling is surrounded by guards and sentinels how can we come near to thy presence? Neither mind nor reason can have access to thy essence, and no one knows thy attributes.

Because thou art eternal and perfect thou art always confounding the wise. What can we say more, since thou art not to be described!’

From: The Conference of the Birds, a Sufi fable by Farid ul-Din Attar (12th Cent.)

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There is no getting closer to this Being/Consciousness and there’s no getting away from IT either. All appearances are only Consciousness appearing to ItSelf. There is only Consciousness. Therefore, wherever ‘you’ are, there IT IS, and wherever IT IS, there you are. Suddenly, the picture — like an optical illusion — may flip inside out and instead of just ‘you’ appearing in the universe, all universes appear in YOU.

by Leo Hartong

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Deep inside of each one of us is light that is utterly peaceful and quiet.
It is the you in me and the me in you.
It is unaffected and undisturbed by the outer world.
It is unchanged by birth and death.
It is not limited by time and space.
Teachers can teach you about the world, but only you can come to know the inner you.
This inner light is always pure, ever present, and free of sorrow.
Learn to rest in the Self. . .
Come to know the bliss. . .

Visistha ~ www.peterspearls.com.au/presence.htm#presence