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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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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We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.

From: Essays: First Series, The Over-Soul,, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

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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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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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The practical difference this discovery makes to your relationships is immense and cumulative. In fact, what it comes to is that you aren’t ‘related’ in any way to anyone: you are that one.

In contrast to the self-regarding and sentimental and very choosy love (so-called) much cultivated on Earth, this is the true love of Heaven, and it is love of all. Here, undiscriminating love is one’s very Nature.

When I really attend, when I’m honest with myself, I find it impossible to wash my hands of the wickedest or stupidest or most contemptible or saddest creature in the world.

It is not a case of, “There, but for the grace of God, go I” but of “There go I — into the prison cell, into the psychiatric ward, on to the scaffold, no less than happier places” — for the simply but truly devastating reason that Who I really, really am is what you and all others really, realy are.

From: Open to the Source, by Douglas Harding. Copyright 2005 by Richard Lang (Editor). Reprinted by permission. www.headless.org

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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