The Seer

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Hi Juvenal,You asked: “have you ever read about alchemy?”

Yes, I have and now understand that most, if not all, of the great alchemists of past centuries were actually investigators, practitioners and teachers of non-dual philosophy. In earlier times, in religion-dominated societies, it was often quite dangerous for individuals to openly explore non-dual spiritual teaching, so they were forced to do this under the guise of searching for the so-called philosopher’s stone that would turn base-metal into gold. They knew this stated pursuit would be tolerated and even approved by wealth-seeking ecclesiastics and local authorities who would not then question their researches, collecting of books and travels to other enlightened masters etc. Of course, they had to set up laboratories and ‘experiments’ to keep up appearances, but their real passion was to discover the truth of man’s essential nature and pass their insights on to other earnest seekers.

Naturally, there were many thousands of lesser souls who heard about the lab equipment and thought there was a real chance that someone could create gold out of sheet lead, got in on the act and wasted the rest of their lives on a futile search for riches. The imitators, like the ecclesiastics, never guessed what the real alchemists were up to.

To the true alchemists, the so-called philosopher’s stone was a symbol of the transmuting power of truth when it is known, understood and practiced. They, as we have seen, were not in quest of a magical stone, but That which transmutes the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the divine, discord into harmony and mind-made suffering into peace. What they yearned for was found, not by some feat of wizardry or arduous attainment, but by simply seeing that all is Consciousness (or God) and that everything that appears is actually an expression of the divine Source! After this direct inseeing and consequent shift in their understanding of what constituted reality, they had to use symbolic language and codes to record their discovery.

One of the ways they might do this was to write an encrypted book or engrave a tablet that purported to be about turning base-metal into gold, but was really about the ultimate understanding or ‘enlightenment’. They had to be extremely secretive, for if their real purpose was found out, they know they could be put to death for being a heretic or a blasphemer. To the society of their day, the enlightened alchemists were content to be regarded as harmless cranks and dubious scholars.

Awakened or ‘enlightened’ people have never enlightened everyone that came in contact with them. We see this most obviously in the cases of Jesus and Gautama (Buddha). In fact, only a small number of those who encountered these great souls seemed to truly understand their teaching. (many are called but few are chosen.)

Why was this? Well, Juvenal, it’s pretty much the same today. Just as the heat of an oven will soften butter,but harden clay, so conscious awareness or the awareness of truth in a seer will attract those who are ready to awaken and repel those who are not. Those who are fully conscious will help those who are just beginning to wake up spiritually to become more and more conscious, while their effect on spiritually unconscious people will be to drive them further into unconsciousness and mind-conditioned behavior. You will probably be experiencing this to some degree or other right now among your associates in Iraq.

The good news, Juvenal, is that there are still ‘enlightened’ teachers in our midst today, only they are no longer disguised as alchemists, but as fairly ordinary people who wear blue-jeans, drive cars and use computers etc. Through their low-profile work, figuratively speaking, base stuff is being transmuted into gold in the lives of many who stumble upon them and recognize what they have to offer. But this only happens, it seems, when what is Deep in the teacher can reach what is Deep in the seeker. Then “Deep calls unto Deep”, and with the answering, there begins a steady transformation on every level of the respondent’s life-experience. A golden moment indeed!

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Hi Robb,

Thanks for your very kind note. I enjoy working with you especially because I sense you have a real desire to know the truth and make it the foundation of your life experience.

You have done well to recognise the importance of being aware of the Self, but the next step is to see or understand that you ARE that Awareness or Self. Its only because of our conditioning that we think we ‘have’ a Self or that we can see it like one sees a tree, for instance.

The more we awaken from that conditioning, as one awakens from a dream, the clearer you see that essentially, you are that limitless Self, but that you are having a temporary limited human experience — an experience as Robb!

Approaching life with this understanding or viewpoint helps to get everything into proportion and frees up energies previously wasted on regret about the past or worry about the future. You are so fortunate that you are presently on the path of freedom, and if you stay on it, your life will be blessed beyond imagination.

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To awaken, there’s no technique or practice required—it’s just a pointing to this. The content of awareness is irrelevant. Nothing needs to be attained or avoided. If you don’t recognize the peace, and if you think something is wrong with your life—just stop for a moment and notice, I am aware. I am aware of this situation, and notice the awareness, not the situation. The peace and love are not in the situation. You can not get peace from any person, you can’t get it from your career, your finances or your relationships. You can not get peace out of any situation because there’s no peace or love in the situation. There’s no peace for you in another person, or in more money or a better career. It’s not there.

Nothing needs to be done—nothing. The only thing I can see to do is notice your awareness. I am aware right now. Not aware of the situation—whatever it is, but I am aware of this—myself, awareness. So, it’s awareness aware of awareness—noticing your awareness. Right now you know you are aware because you can hear these words. You’re noticing the awareness. Because you can hear these words you know you are aware. So, notice the awareness. Not the words. The words are irrelevant. The words are a pointer that point back to the awareness. So you notice—I am aware, I am aware right now. And everything is resolved. Your awareness is the peace. It is the love.

There are times in our lives’ when we get our relationships, our career, our finances all in order. And we stop running on the treadmill because we find our life situation acceptable. When we stop running we notice this sense of peace, this sense of love, the sense that everything is okay—not because we attained anything! Peace and love have nothing to do with attainment. Because we stopped running on the treadmill, the peace is noticed. The love is noticed. And there’s a sigh of relief. But the peace and love have always been here. It’s always here. It’s always free.

Any time the appearance of a problem arises, I know it’s my mind. It’s my own mind spinning in circles. And there’s no need to do anything with the spinning mind—not a thing. Just notice that I am aware. Realizing this resolves all psychological suffering because psychological suffering is based on a separate “me”—an image of myself and I realize the image is not me. I am the awareness. So if the “me” I thought I was, is merely an image in my mind, and it doesn’t exist in reality, then there’s no one to suffer. There’s just awareness. And that’s what I am—I am the awareness. I’m not the imaginary character who has to run on the treadmill of life. I am the awareness, which is the peace and the love we are seeking. So you notice this—notice, I am aware right now—that’s it.

You are seeking love, peace and the sense that everything is okay. So you come back to this. I am aware right now. I am the peace. I am the love. I am the sense that everything is okay. It’s what I am. It’s what awareness is—unconditional love.

by Stephen Wingate

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Dear Christine,

Always keep before you the central liberating truth that Consciousness is all there is and that is What you are … always and already. When you know this in your heart, all becomes clear. You are not a body/mind/personality having certain ’spiritual’ experiences, you are Spirit ItSelf having a temporary experience in and as a particular form.

As you know, all forms are unstable and eventually deteriorate over time. When the human form ceases to function, the life consciousness in that form becomes formless once again, not as a ‘bit’ of spirit or a ghost, but as Spirit in it’s infinite entirety.

Think of a wave breaking on the seashore. The form of the wave disappears, but the water is not lost in any way — it simply becomes part of the ocean again. There are no ‘ghost’ waves within the ocean … just water, however, from the ocean, other waves may arise eventually and roll across the sea to another shore.

The belief in or concept of ‘ghosts’ or ’souls’ going on and existing somewhere after the death of the body is just another way the little me tries to cling to its separate selfhood. It’s a way of reinforcing the idea that we are all individual entities and will somehow remain so forever. This is not the answer the egoic self is looking for and it will demand that you keep an ‘open mind’ on the subject and urge you to seek out those who will confirm its desperate hope of ongoing existence as a ghostly entity of some kind.

Once you have ’seen’ or understood What you really are (the ocean, not just the wave), you can smile at the ego and reassure it that it does not have to take on the task of preserving ‘you’ anymore, because you have now seen that your essential Self is deathless and eternal, and always was. If you like, you can thank the ego for its concern and allow it to resume the role it was meant to have in the first place — that of enabling you to function in society as a unique and special form for as long as that form will last. You then see the ego as a form within a form (within Awareness) and honor that form as we should all expressions of the One.

Finally, Christine, be careful about speaking of your ego as a separate entity within yourself to whom you must cater when ‘it’ makes ‘its’ demands. Remember, all is Consciousness … without any separation whatever. If enlightenment or awakening means anything at all, it means the healing of all divisions within us. The ego is then seen as a conditioned part of our mental functioning and not as a ’someone’ with whom we have a relationship. From the standpoint of infinite Awareness, view this ego-function with understanding and compassion and you will find this function will eventually become a peaceful and helpful part of your life-experience.

Your ever well-wisher,

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Encouraged by the great tradition of the Inner Light at my core, and inspired by my direct vision of it, I submit with reverence to what it lights up.

Here I am at once this central Awareness or Consciousness and what it’s conscious of, which is none other than its own region-by-region embodiment, its cosmic constitution.

The view out from here embraces the One-centred but many-levelled physique that is the expression and instrument and object of the Consciousness that I AM, and I take it as I find it.

From: The Trial of the Man who said he was God, by Douglas Harding