The Seer

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“Those who hear not the music
Think the dancers mad”

This should not come as news to those drawn to non-dual spirituality. You have discovered an entirely new way of looking at things. Insights have come and you can never go back to the old way of seeing. Your head is in the tigers mouth!

You may have also discovered that talking about these insights puts you at odds with those around you. To even remotely suggest that the individual is not the ultimate source of his actions (and is thus not responsible for creating them) is to invite powerful, sometimes violent opposition. It is as if the world has an unwritten agreement to not look at its most basic assumptions and if you violate that agreement you are in for a rough time.

Nisargadatta Maharaj had a strict policy that his disciples were not to discuss the Teaching outside of the satsang room. Not only did this have the effect of keeping the blind from leading the blind but it helped protect the fragile seedling of the new insight from being trampled by an ego-centric society. While it is not my nature to create policy, I am sympathetic to the spirit of Maharaj’s njunction.

The deepening of understanding and the relief from suffering that comes with a weakening of egoic involvement are usually part of a process. In the early stages particularly, it is best to let the Teaching grow strong inside you before taking it out and parading it on the street. You may even find that as the understanding deepens there is an ever lessening impulse to talk about the Teaching at all.

By Wayne Liquorman

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Relationship is not to totality, it is totality. This is why so many mystics have discovered that the limitation of worship is that they must maintain the duality of separation from that which they love.

The mystic is tempted by his love for God, even after he discovers that maintaining that duality separates him from the totality, which, of course, is the manifest God. So the poor mystic is in a real dilemma. He’s been fasting and praying and doing all kinds of austerities for all these years. He loves his God with all his heart. He prays to God every hour of every day. God returns his worship with words of love.

One day he asks God for insight into the nature of the absolute and the bounddryless nature of life is revealed to him. God shows the mystic that the God he worships is the mind’s projection. God shows the mystic that there is no mystic who worships, and no God to be worshiped. There is no separation. There is no difference.

The mystic is in rapture. He calls to God his thanks, his praise, his ever lasting love. But, there is only silence in response. In the mystic’s realization of non-duality God has vanished.

So, after a very long night of consideration of the boundrylessness of life, the mystic calls to God once more. This time he asks for one last boon. The mystic asks God to take away the knowledge of that true nature of life and to return as his object of love.

Of course, the boon is granted, the mystic once again can worship his God. He soon forgets the totality. He is addicted to separation.

Steven Harrison. - Read the complete interview >here

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It was a delight to have UK teacher, Richard Lang, sharing once again at Gurukula, the Headless approach to spiritual insight In a series of talks and workshops, Richard showed us how to unmask our true identity using a variety of practical experiments that reveal the undeniable truth of What we really are.

Toward the end of each session, Richard invited some present to then demonstrate one of the ’seeing’ experiments to all the others and it was amazing how they were able to do this quite effectively. By these and other means, almost all who attended discovered new and liberating depths of perception (or apperception).

One new seer, Chris, jotted down the following lines, which probably captured the feeling of many, after attending one of Richard’s workshops:

Gratitude
The heart’s recognition
Of home

At last I’ve found my voiceless voice
Can exercise my choiceless choice
And silently rejoice

See Chris’ poem, Like an Eddy below.

If you weren’t able to be with Richard on this visit, you can check out the experiments at the Headless Web Site

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The ego is nothing
Is no thing at all
Like an eddy in a river
It’s a swirl of consciousness
When shrunk by a spell
Of belief in a ‘me’And behind the appearance

It’s easy to see
That the eddy’s just water doing a dance
And the ego’s just boundlessness caught in a trance
So kick up your heels
And dance the good dance
But never forget to constantly glance
Back at the source from which it all springs
And rest in the stillness that silently sings

Written by Chris Irving (after doing a Headless workshop at Gurukula)

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Back in the Cold War days, an old Russian man lived alone on a small parcel of land near Petragrad (Now St Petersberg). As Spring approached and the ground began to thaw, he longed to plant some potatoes to suppliment his meager rations, but he was in poor health and unable to dig the half-frozen black soil.

His only son, Nicholi, who used to live with him, had been imprisoned for unspecified ‘crimes against the State’. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Nicholi, I am feeling sad, because I miss you and it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potatoes this year. I haven’t the strength now to dig up this hard ground. I know if you were here, you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Papa

A few days later, he received a letter from his son, who well understood the ways of his captors.

Dear Pop, Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where I buried all the manuscripts I wrote. Love, Nicholi

At dawn the next morning, KGB agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any documents. They apologised to the old man and left.

That following day, the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop, You can go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances. Love you, Nicholi.

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Here’s a great Chai recipe from Mooji who gives satsang in the UK.

The preparation in Presence of this recipe can be as delicious as the Chai itself.

Ingredients:
3 or 4 assam tea bags, ( or 3 teaspoon of loose assam tea)
3 inches piece of ginger, peeled and crushed or grated,
1 or 1 and a half stick of cinnamon, loosely crushed,
1 flat tablespoon of black peppercorns (crushed),
1 inch of natural vanilla stick or 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence, (optional)
6 or 7 sticks of cloves,
5 pods of green Cardamom (crushed),
2 whole star anise,
1 full teaspoon fennel seeds,
1 full teaspoon aniseed,
a half teaspoon of ground nutmeg brings in a warm, caribbean flavour,
3 or 4 cups of soy milk or cow’s milk (Mooji uses soy),
brown sugar or honey to taste,
3 cups of water.
Place all dry ingredients, except the assam tea, in a sealed container and shake well to blend. Leave for a few hours or overnight to ‘mature’.

Bring water to boil. Add the assam tea and boil for 5 minutes. Add masala chai blend from container and boil for 15 minutes then turn down flame and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Now add milk of choice and bring again to the boil, watching carefully to ensure chai does not boil over by reducing heat quickly just before it does. Repeat 2 or 3 times. This process ‘thickens’ the chai and gives a rich and creamy taste. (This is not necessary if you’re using full cream milk!).

Sweeten with brown sugar or honey to taste. Strain tea and serve hot. Sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon powder on top (optional). Enjoy! (Serving five to seven)

Ps: For those who like their chai extra spicy, Mooji suggests adding more black pepper. He also recommends using organic african ginger which is much hotter and dryer than the usual kind you find in most markets. Try looking in afro-caribbean food shops.

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Question: Does any appearance (thought, feeling, sensation, object, state or experience) exist independent or separate from presence-awareness?

Comment: Everything that we ever know or experience appears within presence-awareness. You have never had a single thought, feeling, sensation or any other experience outside of awareness.

In other words, this presence-awareness is the necessary precondition for anything else to be. Without this conscious presence nothing else is.

Because objects of experience and the presence of awareness are never known independently of each other, they must be, in essence, the same undivided substance or principle.

Just as waves are nothing but water or gold ornaments are nothing but gold, so are all appearances nothing but that one undeniable beingawareness. All that appears, including the seeker him or herself, is only that.

From, You Were Never Born by John Wheeler

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Not long after I noticed that the respected non-duality Web site www.advaita.org.uk/ described the Melbourne-based ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson as “arguably, the greatest non-duality teacher alive”, Rosemary and I were planning an outback 4WD trip into central Australia, and I figured that as we would already be about 70% of the way to Melbourne — why not spent some time with Bob.

Bob went to India and spent the whole of 1976 with Nisargadatta Maharaj, the great Indian Teacher, and has been teaching in Australia ever since. Transcripts of Bob’s talks in book-form have been published and are available from Gurukula.

Bob, who is now 79 and gives three talks per week at his own home in Deepdene, about 6 km east of Melbourne. In A Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams, the answer to the question “What is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything” turns out to be 42. If you catch a train (streetcar) from the CBD to alight right outside Bob’s place -­ you will be getting off at tram stop 42!

While we were there the average attendance was about 15. Bob’s talks are quite informal and these are followed by questions from the attendees. Bob then responds and dialogues begin and often a lot of fun too. Bob said that it normally takes people about 7 talks to get to grips with his teaching, and fortunately, this just happened to be the number we attended.

Bob is also available for private talks to personally help clear up any doubts or misunderstandings on the teaching, and both Rosemary and I had two sessions with him each. We found these very helpful indeed.

Bob uses the analogy that the sea usually looks blue, but if you ask someone to go and get a bucket of blue water from the ocean — they will just laugh. They know that seawater is not blue and are not fooled by the illusion that it is.

We, though, have a sense of a separate self — the so called “little me” — but it is an illusion too, it’s insubstantial, there’s no Aliveness at its core, and it is comprised totally of thoughts. It’s apparent power comes ONLY from the belief in it, but what happens if that belief crumbles?

The answer is that self centered thinking falls away, and with it, personal problems and mind-made suffering. The “me” drops out of the equation, just like the blue water. There is no belief in it any more. It has lost its power. Thoughts still come and go — and that is fine. They are just the passing content of awareness.

Bob talks a lot about the investigation into finding out if there really is a “me” there. Nothing can be found apart from the Aliveness that you are. If that occurs and there is no “little me” there — was there ever a “me” there? It is the direct SEEing of this that is the key.

The common thread of all the great teachings is the non conceptual recognition of our true nature. The seeing that the separate entity that we take to be ourselves does not actually exist in any substantial way is one part of it. The othr part is the actual direct recognition of our true nature — and the alleged “me” is the primary barrier to this.

Bob stresses that this is not about enlightenment, awakening, or self-realization, not about an “attainment” as there is no-one there to “achieve” anything.. No blinding flashes, no “fireworks”, no visions, no eternal ecstatic bliss, not this, not that — just the understanding and the end of seeking. The tram, so to speak, stops right Here, right Now.

Rosemary and I left Bob’s place and continued out journey back to Perth, via northern Queensland, and the Northern territory -­ the “short cut” home. We discussed Bob’s teaching every day and every night and it was our central focus from the time we left Melbourne ­ all the way home. And still is.

You might want to check out Bob’s Web site

Mike Graham

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If I am perfectly contented now, it is because I have ceased to be any kind of Container at all, but instead am content with my content.

Peace is our very nature, not something we come across. It’s where we are, nearer than all else. We don’t come to it; we come from it. To find it is to allow ourselves to go back to the place we never left.

At the Center is always perfection … off-Center is always imperfection. One thing alone can be relied on through all circumstances, and that is their Core of Peace.

The seer may often find himself in a tragic and sad and puzzling and troublesome world, but he never (so long as he’s seeing) lacks peace of mind. His basic anxiety has gone. Seeing that he is indeed Peace Itself, he is at rest.

From: Open to the Source, by Douglas Harding

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Two pirates ran into each other in a tavern and after the initial greetings, one said to the other, “Good Lord, Patrick, what happened to you?” “I suppose you’re talking about my pegged leg.” “I certainly am.” “Well, a few months back, I was out on the rigging and fell into the water. Before I could get back onboard, a shark attacked me and now I’ve got the peg.”

“What happened to your hand then?” “Oh, you’re referring to the hook. Well, I ran into a young swashbuckler recently and you know how it is. We started to fight and since I’m not swashing and buckling as well as I once did, he slashed off my right hand. Now it’s the hook.” “And what about your eye?” “You’re referring to the patch over my eye? Well the old sawbones had just fixed my arm up when a fly landed on my face and that was it, I lost my eye.”

“Excuse me,” his friend said somewhat bewildered, “I can understand how you lost your leg through a shark attack, and your hand through a duel with a younger man, but I can’t see how you could lose an eye just through a fly landing on your face.” “You would if it was your first day with a hook!”