The Seer

At Day’s End

Pete — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:54:50 +0000

At day’s end, what honest effort do you look back upon? Did you express one thought that was not in defense? Did you look at your self from another person’s perspective? Did you understand the why behind another person’s actions? Did you laugh at your self? Did you remember you will die? How long till you experience one night utterly alone, where silence absorbs every hope, and boils you down to zero? How long till you remember these questions every day, then end them?

by Shawn Nevins

Eckhart Tolle in Australia & NZ

Pete — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:51:11 +0000

It was recntly announced that Eckhart Tolle will be coming to Australia and New Zealand in March next year! It’s planned that he will give an Intensive in Sydney on March 7th. a talk in Melbourne on March 10th, another talk in Brisbane on March 12th, and then a three-day retreat from March 20th at the Hyatt Resort at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

When I and many others wrrote to Eckhart’s office in Vancouver asking for Perth to be incluced in the Australian tour, Erin replied:

“Our original Australia/New Zealand itinerary for Eckhart included Perth, Adelaide, Wellington, and Christchurch; however it was Eckhart’s decision to remove these cities from the tour. He knows that there are many people in each of these cities who would love to have him teach there. If only he could be everywhere all the time! It is just physically impossible for him to meet all of the expectations placed upon him. We understand your disappointment and hope you’ll be able to make it to one of his Australian destinations.”

Further details of the Australian tour can be found on Eckhart’s Web site.

Leonard on Advaita

Pete — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:20:52 +0000

Question: In your latest book (Journey Into Now), you say that there is a fundamental choice available to us. Either we are fully present in the NOW (Heaven) or we are in the mind (Hell). Do ‘we’ have a choice, or is it destiny? Advaita says there is no choice because there is no ‘you’ present.

Leonard Jacobson: You ask, do we have a choice, or it destiny? In the context of your awakening, both are true! It is your ultimate destiny to awaken fully into Oneness and the truth of life. But when that will occur depends upon the choices you make. Your choices can lead you into Oneness, or they can lead you further into separation and illusion.

You might also ask “Who is choosing?” That depends. It can be your ego which chooses, which will keep you in the separation, or it can be some deeper dimension of you, which at some very subtle level, remembers the Oneness and longs for it. A choice made from this longing will lead you home. When Advaita says that there is no choice, because there is no you, my question is “Who is saying that? Who is aware of that.”

Of course, when you are fully present, in any given moment, then your mind is silent. There are no thoughts. All spiritual concepts dissolve. There is no doer and there is no choice. But there is no Advaita. There is no Ramana. There is no past or future. There is no opinion. There is no understanding. There is no agreement, or disagreement. There just is!

Is this the ultimate state of awakening? If so, I would ask, “Who thinks so?” Is this the state you desire? If so, I would ask, “Who desires that?” In true awakening, all spiritual opinions, concepts and understanding dissolve. Ultimately, we are left with that ancient expression, “Neither this nor that!”

And beyond that, nothing!

Attending to the Eternal

Pete — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:06:36 +0000

We fail to understand God’s purpose because we (are conditioned to) see with physical eyes only and not with our spiritual eyes.

We see what we want for ourselves (a better dream experience), not what God wants for us (to awaken as the dreamer to the dream).

So now (in awakening) we give our attention not only to what is seen, but to what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal

St Paul, sharing the gnosis (the knowing) with the followiers of Jesus’ teaching at Corinth, Greece. (2 Cor. 4:18).

All Forms Are Unstable

Pete — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:00:10 +0000

After our last Satsang gathering at Gurukula, our friend, John Walker, returned home, went to bed and finally drifted off to sleep listening to a CD talk by Eckhart Tolle. At 2.30am, John was woken to a major shock. A car being pursued by police crashed through a wall into the room where John was sleeping. The flying bricks stripped the bedding off him and grazed his back, bum and legs. His headset he had been wearing ended up at the foot of the bed on the floor under the rubble! It made a news story on all our TV channels. We’re so thankful John’s form was preserved.

John’s narrow escape reminded us of some apt words by Adyashanti when he said:

“This that you are is here to experience anything and everything that comes down the pike (highway). It’s the only way to experience the greatest love, the greatest freedom, in a way that’s permanent - not just a vacation. It’s a permanent abidance in the truth of your being.”

The Dualist’s Lament

Pete — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:53:49 +0000

(inspired by Hughes Mearns’ famous verse)

As I was walking up the stair
I met a non-dualist who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today—
I wish, I wish he’d go away.

He looked at me with eyes so clear,
And said, “I cannot disappear,
For I am THAT, the ALL IN ALL–
The stairs, the janitor, the wall…

I am the ocean and the drop,
I am the cleaner and the mop,
I am the bell-boy and the bell,
I am pussy and the well…

I am the toaster and the toast,
And though I do not like to boast—
I am the saucer and the Source
Of ALL THAT IS – right NOW, of course…

I hope I’ve made it very clear,
That you’re the one who isn’t here.
So when we meet along the way,
Don’t even try to say G’day!”

by Ann Faraday

The Lucifer Idea

Pete — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:31:15 +0000

Years ago, I discovered a new way to look at the world — a new way to think, a new position from which I could view the universe — and that position let me see beauty and wonders that were not apparent to the old way, to the old position, to the Old Think.

Well now, this new way to think, this way to view the world seems wonderful and marvelous to me. At the time it happened I was absolutely certain it was virgin and pristine and that it never before had been seen by anyone. I’ve since learned that this experience is awaiting everyone and will for each come as it did with me, with the absolute conviction that it’s unique and new ….

God is light. Light is a beautiful synonym for what God is. You may have heard of Lucifer — Lucifer, the devil … the word Lucifer means the bearer of light, the one who carries light. And, according to the Bible myth, that Lucifer was thrown out of heaven, damned to an eternal darkness.

Lucifer is the idea that we are the ‘bearers’ of light. Lucifer is the idea that we are the ‘custodians’ of this awareness right here, right now. Never was there a bearer of life, never a bearer of light.

We are life, we are light and we let go the Lucifer, the deceitful nature of us that would say, “This is my life to do with as I please; this is my destiny to live as I choose.” We let all that foolishness go — just to be light, to be life that is the Godhead shining.

From a transcribed talk (Woodsong Series #7) given by William Samuel at his home — Woodsong, in Alabama, USA, in April, 1980

Thank You Eckhart

Pete — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:23:40 +0000

Eckhart Tolle, the well known author of “A New Earth” and “The Power of Now”, has been the catalyst who, without knowing me personally at all, has been the one that changed everything.

I somehow figured out in the year 2001 that I was always in either the past or the future, and wasn’t really very much in the present at all. Because that didn’t seem like a good thing, I set out in my usual way to figure things out and I searched “living in the present” at amazon.com. Up came “The Power of Now” along with a selection of other books. I ordered two other books too, not knowing, but don’t even know what those books were now. I was so taken with “The Power of Now” that I’m not sure I ever read them.

“The Power of Now” seemed so clearly to be coming from the same source that I was experiencing as the source of my personal guidance, which I understood intellectually to be my own Self, but which I was yet unable to experience as such. To have a book so clearly coming from that source was absolutely riveting.

I tried to register for a retreat with Eckhart Tolle in October of 2002 but it was already full with a huge waiting list in February when I tried to register. By some stroke of luck, by August I was given a space and was pleased yet also I remember being kind of confused. I couldn’t understand why I was going, because I thought he had already said it all in a book, so why was I going? What more could I possibly be expecting?

When it came time to go to the retreat, I mostly remember just sitting there with a great big silly grin on my face, totally being delighted by Eckhart’s way of being with us. There were 450 of us in the big hall at Omega Institute, and it was just a matter of sitting there and listening to Eckhart for five days. In between his talks I was just very quiet. Somehow between the beginning and the end of that retreat, something irrevocably changed for me. I was immersed in bliss, and knew that everything that I had ever wanted as a spiritual seeker had now arrived, and there was nowhere else to go. Somehow it seemed that Eckhart Tolle had handed it all to me on a silver platter.

My old life ceased operating the way it had before, but there was a long way to go to learn how to live from this new place. All sense of need or lack was gone and everything not only appeared to be perfect as it was, radiating with love and life, but that also pervaded me and made it so that any personal problems appeared to have vanished.

Of course, Eckhart Tolle knew nothing of this because he personally hadn’t done anything, although it took a while for that to sink in. It was the awakeness (the One life) that was speaking through him that somehow woke me up. He is such a clear, clear channel. I owe him an infinite debt just for being so clear, and for being there at the right time for me. It felt so incredibly grateful to Eckhart but even at the same time I could see that it wasn’t him. It is the awakeness that I owe (call it God if you will, the Self with a capital S, or Life with a capital L). The awakeness that took him, took me also.

It has been over five years since this happened and it has not faded or wavered at all. All that changes is how much of a commotion the “me” is making at any given time, which may or may not be obscuring the perfect unity underneath. The underlying foundation never wavers at all, but steadies whatever is happening in my personal life. And when I give it the space, it lives life through me, as me.

by Alice Gardner, author of “Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice” (now available from Clearsight)

God is an Atheist - Book Review

Pete — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:19:44 +0000

We rarely make book recommendations in fiction, but you might find this odd new book from Sentient Publications of interest: God Is An Atheist: a novella for those who have run out of time.

The author, N. Nosirrah is a writer and philosopher who asks his readers to question their existence, God’s existence, and in particular, Nosirrah’s existence. He has said that those who understand his writings have no need to meet him, those who do not have no reason to meet him, and those who need to meet him have no need to read his writings.

A profoundly funny romp through religion, spirituality, and the contemporary clash of cultures of belief, with special attention to the human obsession with knowing what can’t be known. Nosirrah provokes just about everyone as he describes a world where God is on the run from Islamic extremists, the Pope announces he shares a bed with Richard Dawkins, and Buddha’s son disappoints by getting enlightened instead of becoming a doctor.

To say this novella is strange might give the reader a way to relate to it, but in fact, nothing will shift the burden away from the reader. In its pages, the world is bent around the reader’s mind until either the mind itself begins to bend, or indeed, breaks. A book without plot, characters, structure, or obvious purpose, this is an endless descent into the netherworlds of a dystopian mind. If a thousand monkeys typing endlessly would eventually produce all great works of literature, then God Is an Atheist (ISBN 978-1-59181-072-8) is their first draft.

Click on the link to see an amusing YouTube book trailer for God Is an Atheist. (Not available from Clearsight)

The Lurking Ego

Pete — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:15:15 +0000

When Tesshu, the famous medieval samurai swordsman, was young, he visited one Zen master after another. Once he went to visit Master Dokuon and told him triumphantly that all that exists is empty, there is no you or me, and so forth. The master listened to all this in silence. Suddenly he snatched up his pipe and struck Tesshu’s head with it. The infuriated young swordsman would have killed the master there and then, but Dokuon said calmly, “Emptiness is surely quick to show anger, is it not?” Tesshu left the room, realizing he still had much to learn about Zen.