The Seer

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Recently, I was meditating on the words ascribed to St John who is believed by many to be a Jnani (a seer) as well as a Christian saint. You may remember he wrote: “God is love … ” and then added, “he that abides in love, abides in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

To abide or dwell in love doesn’t mean for us, as a separate entity, to have constant love for some object or person, divine or otherwise. John wants us to see here that love — true love — is not something we have or do, but rather what we are in essence — already and always.

Consider what is the greatest ‘love’ of any sentient being. If he had the choice of possessing either all the wealth in the world or his ‘beingness’ or ‘consciousness’ (call it what you will), that which gives him the sense of being alive and present, and without which the body would be nothing but a cadaver, what would he choose? Obviously, without consciousness, all the wealth in the world would be of no use to him.

It is this conscious presence one loves more than anything else because without it, there is no universe, no anything! This therefore, is Presence-Love-God. And St John obviously had this in mind when he said, “God is love ….”

This conscious presence which makes us aware of this, here, now — the beingness of every sentient being on the earth — and indeed, the very soul of the entire universe, — this cannot be anything other than God.

It is clear that he meant that he (John) and He (God) were not different as pure subjectivity, but one in conscious awareness. And, therefore, he who is anchored in the conscious presence that is Love — that is God — abides in God and God in him.

The Love John speaks of here is love for the mere (or mysterious) fact of existence itself.

As Adyashanti says, It isn’t a love that is caused by anything. It isn’t based on whether one has a good day, or a good encounter, or a good feeling etc. In fact, it could be not such a good day, not such a good encounter, or not such a good feeling, and there will be still just as much love for it.

This is a love that loves to live this life because in life it is actually meeting itself moment to moment.

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If ever you’re fortunate enough to stand in a great cathedral like Chartres in Paris, or some other elsewhere, and gaze up at the gorgeous stained-glass windows depicting so many stories of saints and sinners, the great symbolism behind it all that the architect, artisans and mystics intended is simply this – through all the myriad figures and representations of nature, the one Light shines through and enlightens them all. Without that Light, they could not be seen nor could their translucent colours enthral us.

One Light shines through the many windows and the many differently shaped pieces of glass in each window section. It is the one Light making many appearances – the so-called saints and sinners stand out in every imaginable shade and hue.

These magnificent windows are trying to tell us – it’s all God! Not God and them or God and us – there is only God, the Light that is the substance of all. The same Light shines in and through everything that comes into being – there is nothing else!

The Christ-Light is What we really are – the Light of the world, as the Master always was, is now and ever shall be – beyond birth and death, beyond time and space. Let us then stand in awe and with the eyes of God, gaze the gaze of eternity – seeing God everywhere and in everything.

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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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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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Dear Caroline,

With regard to where various healing modalities fit in with what we shall call, for the sake of convenience, ’spiritual enlightenment’, the general principle is found in the famous saying of Jesus, “Seek first the Kingdom of God etc. and all these other things shall be added unto you.”

The really important thing, he was saying is, make it your priority to know and live the truth of What you really are (the Kingdom within) and all the other things necessary for your wellbeing will be supplied in due course.

This is not the beneficent act of some ‘being’ but the inviolable law of the universe. Once the true Self is fully realized, then everything else tends to fall into place and generally work out for our good.

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Dear Carrie,Thank you for your inquiry. What I understand Gangaji to be saying in the passage below is that most people identify very strongly and only with the ’story’ of their life up to the present moment. They feel defined by what they have done or not done, and what others have done or not done to them. They feel that life began for them when they were born and wlll end when their body/mind/personality dies. Because such people seem not to be conscious of any other dimension of their life … they could be said to be ‘unconscious’ in this sense.

As consciousness arises in an unconscious person, however, they begin to ‘notice’ their thoughts, feelings and sensory perceptions etc. and as more consciousness arises, they begin to notice that they are noticing these internal phenomena.

You could say that first there is awareness of things and then there is awareness of Awareness itself which is a no-thing or what might be called ‘Spirit’.

It is then seen that while things in awareness come and go, Awareness Itself does not — it is always there and changeless, because it is not a ‘thing’ that can change. At this point, it may be recognized or understood, that one’s previous total identification with the body/mind/personality and its ’story’ was incorrect — and it is then understood, that in fact, one is much more than this — that there is an infinite and eternal dimension to us as well as a finite and temporal dimension. It is then seen that we are Life Itself and not merely our life experience.

The ego here is very subtle or tricky and there is the possibility if we are not properly guided, that we will swing from identifying totally with the body/mind/personality and its (poor me?) story, to total identification with ‘Spirit’ or the formless Self. The egoic mind then thinks it must reject the material things as being ‘unspiritual’ and if it is ‘allowed’ to do so, then one form or separation and division is simply replaced with another. Also, one story — “I am what happened to this body/mind etc.” is neatly replaced with another story, ie. “I am this spiritual ’being’ who is no longer a body/mind etc.”

The truth that Gangaji is pointing to in the passage below, as I see it, is that in reality, It is all one — and there is no separation or division, or in other words, It’s all God! We are not either finite or infinite, but both at the same time and that neither dimension should be ignored or denied. The truth is, she asserts, is that we are already and always Source and temporarily a particular expression of Source. It can be said, that while being inseparable from the Formless, we are a particular form and within that form, there arise countless other forms — thoughts, ideas, concepts, emotions, bodily sensations, sensory perceptions etc.

The person who is truly awake or conscious, Gangaji is saying, is a two-dimensional being, whereas, the person who is unawake or unconscious could be said to function only in one dimension (even though they too are inately two-dimensional). The barely awake or deluded person will have some understanding of the formless (compared with form) dimension of their life but will identify with only one or the other, and may even alternate between one or the other at various stages in their life experience … which would amount to just another episode in the old self-defining story.

Carrie, I hope this has clarified the quote a little for you. If not, please get back to me with more specific questions. Of course, if you can pick up a copy of Gangaji’s excellent book, The Diamond in Your Pocket’ and read the quote in its context, I’m sure that would bring even more clarification for you.

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For most spiritual seekers, the belief that personal identification
obstructs self-realization gives rise to the drive to get rid of the
personal story. But this is still just another part of the story. It
is so important to recognize this. Attempting to get rid of the story
is just another tangent of the story, another example of the power of
mind to control.

I have often seen in spiritual circles that instead of a real
examination of our storylines, there is a tendency to suppress the
story. In that suppression, the story may seem to be removed, but
there is still no peace. You cannot rest in the beauty and
transcendence of yourself while suppressing the story of yourself.

The story is still going on, but since you identify yourself as a
spiritual seeker, you push it out of conscious awareness. Spiritual
conditioning has simply taken the place of worldly conditioning. The
story is still operating, but now it operates subconsciously. And you
are confused as to why you still suffer.

Continued suffering is proof that your story is still being told. If
you are willing to not label that suffering as bad, then you can be
willing to simply see what the story is.

From: The Diamond in Your Pocket by Gangaji>

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Dear Diana,

Thank you for your note.

Regarding ‘experiences of deep awakening’, you asked: “Does this happen to you often?” My reply is no, and yes. No, in the sense that there is really only one experience of deep awakening, and that is not actually an experience — it could be more accurately described as a shift of consciousness, or seeing, or of perception (apperception). One split-second, you see yourself and the world etc. one way, the way we have all been conditioned to see it from infancy, and the next, we see it as it really is and quite differently. One moment you are identified totally with your body/mind/personality, and the next, you are totally identified with the Awareness of that and every other phenomenon. You cease seeing yourself as one object among many and you know yourself instead to be one with the Source — you are no longer in the world, but the world, and indeed the whole universe is in you. That, Diana, only happens once, because it is not an ‘experience’ that can come and go, it is as if Awareness has awakened at last to its own witnessing of all that is coming and going.

On the other hand, experiences of deep awakening ‘happens’ to or for me constantly, because after the shift, every life experience is an experience of deep awakening. The unawakened mind imagines that experiences of deep awakening are somehow ’special’ or ’spiritual’ and is constantly looking for some kind of ’satori’ or ‘ecstatic’ mind-movement to break in upon their normal state of beingness — so that it can say to itself, “I am someone because I have had an experience of deep awakening, or whatever.”

Many truly awakened ones testify that ALL of life after the shift is an experience of deep awakening, and that includes experiences we might call, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant etc. etc. Awakening is NOT having a so-called satori or elevated experience of some kind and staying in it, but discovering that all of one’s life is a perfect unfolding of the divine will and that everything is the Unmanifest manifesting in trillions of forms constantly. After the shift, there is nothing ‘ordinary’, everything is seen to be extraordinary and that all of life is simply an unfoldment of the one miracle. In the film, The Last Samurai the Japanese here speaks of his search for the ‘perfect blossom’. At the end of the film, as he is dying, he has a moment of great insight and declares to his friend, I see now “every blossom is perfect.” That, in essence, is what everyone sees when they fully awaken.

Next, you asked, “Does anyone stay there (in an experience of deep awakening) permanently? This question is contradictory as I said because deep awakening is not an experience. But if asked can one stay in any experience, awakened, enlightened or otherwise, the answer is no, because ALL experiences come an go. Whatever you have, you can and will lose. Whatever you can get into, you can get out of or be taken out of by one means or another. That is why it is so important, Diana, to focus your attention and your identity not on experiences but on THAT which is the Source and witness of all experiences, which you already are and always have been.

You then asked, “Is it a bad idea to long for this experience?” Diana, it is neither good nor bad. What is important is that you clearly recognize where this question is coming from — who or what is it that longs for these peak experiences? The answer should be plain to you. It is the mind or what might be called the egoic self that always wants something more or different to what it already has. It always wants something other than what presently is. Awakening or enlightenment, it says can never be this, never be here, never be now. You are not this conditioned and defensive pattern of thoughts, Diana — seize the day — this present moment!

Finally, you asked, “did you detect personal change after experiencing these “flashes”?” The answer is obviously no, because “flashes” or experiences never change Reality or THAT which always is. They may change the dream or the illusory life, and if that is all that’s wanted, then fine — one can go ahead and improve the dream by whatever means one can. Awakening or enlightenment is never about personal change or self-improvement — that stuff is all about fixing up the dream and having a better illusion than the one your having right now. Awakening or enlightenment is about self-realization or realizing Who or What you really are. It’s about waking up to Who or What was actually having the dream! When you wake up to the fact that the character in the dream that you thought you were is really only a ‘dream’ character and that all the other things in the dream that you desperately desired or feared are only ‘dream’ desires or fears etc. then you understand that you are not a ‘person’ or a ‘thing’ that can ever change or ever needs to! You see that you are the No-thing, or the Formless from which all ever-changing ‘things’ or forms arise.

Interestingly, however, when the shift occurs in a particular person or form, that form begins to change in ever increasing conformity to the love and truth it knows Itself to be. Not only does the form tend to experience deeper levels of love, joy, peace and well-being, but the context or environment of that form tends to become more harmonious and fulfilling. It seems that ALL things work together for good for those in whom the great shift has occurred. It’s a case of “Seek first the Kingdom (awaken to the truth) and all things (necessary for well-being) will be added (arise in due course as you consciously abide in that understanding).” as Jesus once said.

Your ever well-wisher,

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In the Sept/Oct Advaita Fellowship Newsletter, Wayne Liquorman writes:

I am periodically taken to task for not having a teaching style more like some of my preceptors - most notably, Nisargadatta Maharaj. Maharaj was famous for speaking from the standpoint of the Absolute. He would say things such as, “I was never born and I will never die” and “I am awake even when I am asleep.” Such assertively non-dual statements sometimes had the effect of shocking his listeners into a profound, transcendent Seeing.

I am sympathetic to this approach but I have rarely been comfortable using it. I feel much more at home when I am meeting my listeners where THEY are…most of them believing that they were born and will die and that they are asleep while asleep. From this point of “obvious” truth we can then proceed to examine the more profound, underlying nature of this “one” who lives and dies and sleeps.

No one can deny that there is EXISTENCE here. The nature of that EXISTENCE can (and has been) debated endlessly. But this EXISTENCE is self-proving. It is not a philosophical debating point but a self-affirming Truth. It is here at the center when you pull off the onion-like layers of your apparent self - the self that lives and dies and sleeps and wakes.

We are the victims of our beliefs. When you “believe” the pointers of a teacher such as Maharaj the inevitable result is a kind of nihilism in which all that is apparent (including yourself) is denied as meaningless and illusory. When you believe the pointers of a teacher such as myself the inevitable result is the sense of having a progressively deeper and truer knowledge about the nature of Existence.

So pick your poison. With a little luck…either one will kill “you.”

With much love,
Wayne

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Enjoyment of what you are doing, combined with a goal or vision that you work toward, becomes enthusiasm. Even though you have a goal, what you are doing in the present moment needs to remain the focal point of your attention; otherwise, you fall out of alignment with universal purpose.

Make sure your vision or goal is not an inflated image of yourself and therefore a concealed form of ego, such as wanting to become a movie star, a famous writer, or a wealthy entrepreneur. Also make sure your goal is not focused on having this or that, such as a mansion by the sea, your own company, or ten million dollars in the bank.

An enlarged image of yourself or a vision of yourself having this or that are all static goals and therefore don’t empower you. Instead, make sure your goals are dynamic, that is to say, point toward an activity that you are engaged in and through which you are connected to other human beings as well as to the whole.

Instead of seeing yourself as a famous actor or writer and so on, see yourself inspiring countless people with your work and enriching their lives. Feel how that activity enriches or deepens not only your life but that of countless others. Feel yourself being an opening through which energy flows from the unmanifested Source of all life through you for the benefit of all.

From: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle