THE SEER
Sat. May 19, 2007.
The Seer Graduates
Well, at last, The Seer has graduated to a new and better blog page using the new WordPress 2.2 software.
You'll find there all the features blog subscribers now expect such as RSS Feed links, the facility to comment on postings etc., a blogroll and archives of course.
We thank you for putting up with this rather primitive blog page and trust that you'll enjoy our offerings on non-dual spirituality and seeing What you really are at The Seer's new location
Tues. May 15, 2007.
The Enlightenment Secret
You are not a separate being. You are Being, and never separate. This is the Enlightenment, the happiness, in which all apparent things consist. It is the very Being of you.
It's a secret not because there's anyone hiding anything. It's been proclaimed by sages around the world for millennia. Rather, it's a secret because enlightenment is often misunderstood to be a matter of personal achievement, like scoring the ultimate goal.
But there's no person there! There's not even a "there" or a spatial location where a person can reside. There is no individualized or separate "you" or "me"; no goal, no task and no achievement.
There are no things, and no gaps separating things. How to "see" this? Experience confirms this at every moment. The world, body, and mind appear as sensations, feelings and thoughts.
These appearances are all arisings in awareness. The person does not see these arisings. Rather, the person is made up out of these arisings, including the supposed act of seeing.
There is truly nothing in experience that establishes that there has ever been anything other than THIS. There is no evidence that there were ever even two arisings. If there cannot be two arisings, how can there be even one? What is left? Awareness, our true nature.
Observing Our Emotions
The Enlightened know there is no value, good or bad, in images; yet a student is prone to hang onto the good while detaching herself from the not-good and/or to detach herself from the not-good in order to experience more "good."
She does the same with emotions. It's surely more pleasant to let go fear and foreboding than to dismiss "that grand and glorious feeling of exhilaration."
One is more willing to give up emotions akin to anger than those emotions and responses that are only self-judged "good" emotions, the inner counterparts of exterior "good things."
Sooner or later, we are required to devalue all emotions, good and bad alike. (Devalue, not deny, not put off!)
Skeptics declare the impossibility of such a requirement. "Even if such a goal were attained," they let us know in no uncertain terms, "the results would be absolutely awful! This would leave us an emotionless, passionless, clod of inane nothingness," they lament. "Who wants to exist, even for a minute, as such a dead thing without life or spark?"
They have a surprise in store for them!
We do not, like ascetics, attempt to end the experience of any emotion. When we de-value emotions and stop searching for them, we find that those we experience are infinitely more than we ever imagined.
It is the I-possess-a-feeling view that would have us constantly striving to feel the positives and eliminate the negatives, only never to feel enough positives, and inevitably to find the negatives hanging on like flypaper.
We come to see (contrary to the educated world's view, and the teaching of many religious bodies) that the Deific Peace is not elation or exalted feeling; it is not ecstasy nor "Illumination."
Instead, it is the center of feeling that resides "between" the ecstasy of Illumination that appears on the one hand and the agony of the dark night that seems on the other. Tranquillity, Peace, is the gentle Shekinah, the promised Comforter.
From A Guide to Awareness and Tranquillity, by William Samuel.
It Is In Everyone
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate
We ask ourselves:
You are a child of God
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone
Marianne Williamson
A Million to One!
A man trying to understand the nature of God asked him: “God, how long is a million years to you?” God answered, “A million years is like on minute to me.”
Then the man asked, “God, how much is a million dollars to you?” And God replied, “A million dollars is like one cent to me.”
The man thought for some time and then asked, “God, would you, out of your great love and kindness, give me what is, as you say, just a cent to you?”
And God said, “In a minute!”
Tues. May 8, 2007.
The Safest Choice
In reality, love is always the safest choice, but the ego doesn't see this. Only essence does, and you must drop into essence yourself to realize this. This isn't always easy to do in relationships because differences are so apparent and conditioning is triggered so frequently.
Conditioning triggers judgment, and that triggers the desire to change someone, which causes conflict and pain and, consequently, withdrawal from relationship.
The easiest place to stop this cycle is at the beginning, when the judgment first appears, because the judgment has the least momentum at that point.
You can't keep judgments from arising because that is not under your control or anybody else's, but you can decide to do nothing about your judgment. And that is the best choice you can make if you want love and relationship.
Many would say that if someone doesn't conform to what they want, they don't want to be in a relationship with him or her anyway. That is their choice and the reason most relationships dissolve or never get started.
Those who make this choice are not likely to find love or lasting and meaningful relationship with anyone because no one will ever meet their stiff and very personal requirements. Those who make this choice don't believe that, so they keep looking and keep rejecting others.
They explain their lack of relationship by saying the person was too this or too that, but the question is, Too this or that for whom? Who is it that has these requirements and preferences?
It is the conditioned self-the ego-and it will never be pleased. As long as you let the ego choose your partners, you won't have one. The ego is in the business of rejecting others, not accepting and loving them.
For love, you need to turn to the real you because that is the one who knows how to love. When essence is evoked in relationships, you find yourself saying yes to love and no to your ideas about how others should be.
You choose love instead of your conditioned preferences. Love feels too good to walk away from just because of some differences. But the ego doesn't allow you to feel love. It cuts love off with judgments before you even have a chance to experience it.
Those who are entrenched in the ego do not feel much love. Fortunately, love is less than a breath away, if only we turn our attention away from our judgments and onto the moment, which is full of exactly what we are looking for: love that is perfect just the way it is.
by Gina Lake. For info about her book: Radical Happiness,
>Click Here
The Paradise We Seek
"Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone.
But if it die, it brings forth much fruit." (John 12:24)
The meaning of Jesus' metaphor of the seed falling into the ground and dying is creative and generative. And it is the heart of the Christian path.
To read the complete article, >Click Here
The Motionless Center
Worked all morning; decided to go jogging down behind my house. If you remain as the Witness while you run you don't move, the ground does.
You, as the Witness, are immobile -- more precisely, you have no qualities at all, no traits, no motion, and no commotion, as you rest in the vast Emptiness that you are. You are aware of movement, therefore you as the Witness are not movement.
So when you run, it actually feels as if you are not moving at all -- the Witness is free of motion and stillness -- so the ground simply moves along.
It's like you're sitting in a movie theater, never moving from your seat, and yet seeing the entire scenery move around you.
(This is easy when you're driving down the highway. You can simply sit back, relax, and pretend that you're not moving, only the scenery is.
This is often enough to flip people into the simple Witness, at which point you will simply rest as choiceless awareness, watching the world go by, and you won't move at all.
The motionless center of your own pure awareness is in fact the center of the entire Kosmos, the eye or I-I of the Kosmic cyclone.
This motionless center -- there is only one in the entire world and it is identical in all beings, the circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference, nowhere -- is also the center of gravity of your soul.)
From One Taste, by Ken Wilber
Wedding Deals
During the wedding rehearsal, the groom approached the pastor with an unusual offer: "Look, I'll give you $100 if you'll change the wedding vows. When you get to the part where I'm supposed to promise to 'love, honor and obey' and 'be faithful to her forever,' well, I'd appreciate it if you'd just leave that out."
He passed the minister a $100 bill and walked away satisfied.
On the day of the wedding, when it came time for the groom's vows, the pastor looked the young man in the eye and said: "Will you promise to prostrate yourself before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life, and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?"
The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, "Yes," then leaned toward the pastor and hissed: "I thought we had a deal."
The pastor put a $100 bill into the groom's hand and whispered: "She made me a better offer."
Tues. May 1, 2007.
The Other Half of the Question
Who am I? is only half the question; the other half is: How shall I live? Who am I? and How shall I live? is the full, challenging, and redeeming spiritual question which we would do well to take up with our whole heart, without looking away, without trying to escape or oversimplify the often untidy totality of our life.
I don't know why we have traded away our human beingness for transcendent ideals. Perhaps its because, like any form of fundamentalism, it creates a false sense of security and certainty.
We love the idea that we are emptiness, or silence, or pure consciousness. We are these things, but not exclusively. We are also a teaspoonful of DNA, but not exclusively. We are this body/mind, but not exclusively.
We are all of it, aren't we? That's the hard part: to integrate enormous endlessness with our daily life. If the teaching is to be full, the teaching must exist within the context of our lives, as we live them.
If we are going to ascend, then let us remember to descend. If we are going to travel to otherworldly realms, let's not forget to come back to the kitchen where we eat.
Not One, Not Two, Just THIS
Acceptance and resistance arise mutually, like two sides of a single coin. When you touch a hot stove, withdrawing your hand is automatic. Now we can make different stories about this: 'Oh, I did not accept the heat.' etc.
Really there's nothing wrong with the finger 'not accepting' the heat of the stove. Also there is nothing wrong with trying to avoid touching the stove in the future. And of course it is as it should be that touching the stove is remembered as 'unpleasant.'
Seeing this is the recognition of the already present acceptance that knows 'non-acceptance' to be fine too, and 'it knows' that it is absolutely 'right' that burning one's fingers is not 'accepted' or experienced as pleasant. Of course, not seeing this is fully accepted too.
You say "There is also knowing I am not my thoughts and feelings, as this has been seen through." I would say that you are not exclusively those thoughts and feelings.
There is only 'This Beingness' appearing to ItSelf as 'all there is' and 'all there is not', including the character and 'its' thoughts and feelings. Feelings of peace, feelings of despair, may come and go.
All the while You Are the Peace in which those feelings arise and subside; not limited to this feelings and thoughts, yet not apart from them either. Like the mirror and its content, not one, not two. Just THIS.
By Leo Hartong -- Awakening To The Dream
The Song of the Sixth Patriarch
He knew my heart was true, so he called me late one night
Who would have known that my Mind is intrinsically pure
To find the full story of Hui Neng and listen to or download this song written and performed by John Wheeler, >Click Here
Bran Muffins Are Good For You?
They were 85 years old, and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they watched their pennies. And, though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last two decades.
One day, their good health didn't help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane unfortunately crashed, sending them off to Heaven.
They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favorite clothes in the closet. They gasped in astonishment when he said, "Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now."
The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. "Why, nothing," Peter replied. "Remember, this is your reward in Heaven."
The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on earth. "What are the greens fees?" grumbled the old man. "This is heaven," St. Peter replied. "You can play for free, every day, any time of day that you want."
Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic desserts, free flowing beverages. "Don't even ask," said St. Peter to the man. "This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy."
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife. "Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods, and the decaffeinated tea?" he asked."That's the best part," St. Peter replied. "You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like, and you will never get fat or sick. This is heaven!"
The old man inquired, "No gym to work out at?"
"Not unless you want to," was the answer.
"No testing my sugar or blood pressure or..."
"Never again. All you do is enjoy yourself."
The old man glared at his wife and said, "You and your bloody bran muffins. We could have been here twenty years ago!"
Tues. Apr. 24, 2007.
Be Still and Know
Imagine perceiving the world through Stillness. It’s like God looking at his/her/its creation … Ohhhh … Beautiful! And you see there's a goodness present that pervades the entire Universe.
What is that Presence? -- it’s your Presence. There isn’t the Presence of God and you. There’s only Presence. It’s arising from within you.
To read the complete quote from Eckhart Tolle and more on Stillness, >Click Here
Something from Nothing
All so-called objects appear in, to, and from 'the Ultimate Subject' which cannot be made into an object and therefore is indeed 'something' that is 'no-thing' to the mind.
This 'Ultimate Subject' -- prior to all coming and going- may be pointed to with concepts such as Consciousness, Awareness, The Void, Tao or no-thing-ness, and from 'this' all arises, just like in a dream.
No 'matter' how we call it, there is this undeniable Presence; And -- mystery of mysteries -- even though it is clear that nothing can come from nothing, Here It Is.
Plop, there it is!
From: Awakening to the Dream by Leo Hartong
Living Reality -- Book Review
When I was in Melbourne recently, I went to see 'Sailor' Bob Adamson and his wife Barbara who live in Deepdene. Bob is a recognized teacher of nnn-dual spirituality who gives talks at weekly gatherings in their home.
While there, I was able to get a few copies of the newly released book by James Braha of Bob's teachings entitled: Living Reality: My Extraordinary Summer with 'Sailor' Bob Adamson.
This is a text in the tradition of the great dialogues of Adi Shankara, Jnaneshwar, Nisargadatta and Ramana ... and as such is much MORE than "A story of liberation, friendship, humor, and love, as Sailor Bob takes spiritual aspirants beyond the need for help, just as Nisargadatta Maharaj did for him thirty years ago..." It's that, AND more.
And if you'd like to hear or download John Wheeler's The Sailor Bob Song, >Click Here
Video -- Socksangs with Puppetji
Here's a humorous take on the truth according to Puppetji, the on-line puppet guru with a name suspiciously like 'Papaji' who was a real guru in India during the last century.
In between the satire, Puppetji makes some good points and does it in a fairly entertaining way. We're not sure if he's sending up superficial gurus or the gullible seekers who are enthralled by them, so it's viewer beware!
You can find Puppetji >Here and catch him on YouTube
Reincarnation?
A Perth couple made an agreement that whoever died first would come back and inform
the other of the afterlife. Their biggest fear was that there was no afterlife. After a long life,
the husband was the first to go, and true to his word he made contact,
Sat. Apr. 21, 2007.
Non-dual Spirituality
Reviewing the history of our sacred traditions, it's clear that non-dual spirituality is the highest form of mystical religion. Non-duality holds that ultimately there is only the Reality of God-Brahman-Buddhata-Tao-Awareness, with no separation between God-and-world, God-and-soul, soul-and-world, or soul-and-soul. In other words, it's all God.
There is One No-dual Reality, Pure Awareness, with no "rival reality" that can compete or interfere with or occlude This Supreme Truth. Hence, anyone who sincerely invokes the timeless self-inquiry, "Who or What am I?" -- will discover the unspeakable wonder and beauty of Who is really here and What we really are: infinite spiritual Awareness poignantly associated with (not trapped inside) a finite body-mind-soul or limited personality.
Read the complete article by Tim Conway >Here
Tranquillity Am I
Tranquillity is another name for the Identity we are. We each determine its
significance for ourselves. To "me" Tranquillity is an inner sense of peace,
contentment and desirelessness.
It stands fast before the sundry onslaughts
of the world. It is a place of refuge, a peace-be-still to tribulation. It is a rock,
a solid foundation to stand AS when human values crumble and fall in a sea
of sand.
It is the Christ-real-within that appears to rectify the misjudged-without.
It is the Identity through whose eyes the universe appears the Heaven it is.
Tranquillity is found to be just that -- Tranquillity, and not elation, ecstasy, or super-exhilaration; it is serenity and calm, not the mere opposites of agony or depression.
It is a balanced, centered quiet which appears to the intellect as a "midway" between emotional extremes in precisely the same way that "sufficiency" has an intellectual residence between poverty and wealth.
Tranquillity is not a condition of overflowing happiness, but happiness itself; not a state of jubilation, but joy itself. Tranquillity is the preclusion of consternation, desire and fear.
Tranquillity is Love. Tranquillity is the Secret Place, the Heart, the Christ, the Shekinah, the Holy of Holies wherein nothing enters that makes a lie. Tranquillity is being absolutely all IDENTITY is; hence, all "I" am! Tranquillity am I!
From: A Guide to Awareness & Tranquillity, by William Samuel
I AM THAT I AM
"I have, at last, reached MY goal,
Translation from an ancient Egyptian text carved into a doorway of a sacred place.
The Holy and the Unholy Parrots
A lady goes to see her priest one day and tells him, “Father, I have a problem. I have two female parrots, but they only know how to say one thing.”
“What do they say?” the priest inquired.
“They say, 'Hi, we’re hookers! Do you want to have some fun?' Isn't that awful?” the woman laments.
“That’s obscene!” the priest exclaimed. Then he thought for a moment. “You know,” he said, “I may have a solution to your problem. I have two male parrots who talk, and I have taught them to pray and recite the Breviary. Bring your two parrots over to my house, and we’ll put them in the cage with Francis and Anthony. My parrots can teach your parrots to praise and worship God, and your parrots are sure to stop saying ... that ... that indecent phrase...in no time.”
“Thank you,” the woman responded, “this may very well be the solution!”
The next day, the woman brought her female parrots to the priest’s house. As he ushered the woman in, she saw that his two male parrots were inside their cage, holding rosary beads and actually praying, their pious little faces upturned toward heaven with beaks moving slightly as they prayed intently to the Lord.
Very impressed, the woman walked over and placed her parrots inside the cage with these very devout parrots. After a few minutes, sure enough, the female parrots cried out in unison: “Hi, we’re hookers! Do you want to have some fun?”
A long moment of silence ensued. Shocked, one male parrot looked over at the other male parrot and exclaimed, “Put the beads away, Frank. Our prayers have been answered!”
Tues. Apr. 10, 2007.
Our Real Nature
There is only AWARENESS -- what ancient mystics describe as non-dual, one without a second, or the natural state. The natural state, also called presence awareness, is so constant, so ever present, that it is as overlooked as water is by fish, or air by people.
The natural state (our real nature) is always with us. Indeed, presence awareness is the only reality, the only constant in our lives. It's the very basis of our existence. The natural state is our underlying condition, or "ground of being," and it's what allows us to experience everything.
But it has been largely ignored in favor of our conditioned behavior of living nearly every moment of every day from the perspective of the completely automatic, yet utterly false, reference point of "me."
Once seen as illusory, this false "self-centre," or human-made reference point, begins to recede and fade, while the natural state, a state of wholeness and oneness with all that is remains. Regaining the seemingly lost natural state or true nature has been the goal of spiritual seekers for thousands of years.
~ to read the complete article >Click Here:
The Spot That Matters
So long as I fabricate here this central obstruction, this nut of a head, this solid and opaque ball or blob, to serve as the nucleus of my universe, then I am not only hard and hard-faced, but also dense and small-minded, my vision is blocked, my understanding blurred and darkened, my world-picture distorted.
With such a spanner thrown in my works,it's a wonder they work at all. And, conversely, when I dissolve this imaginary lump by seeing What's really here, then it is only to be expected that the universe ranged round this simple Clarity (or better, within it) should itself be illuminated and restored to its native order.
To be wrongheaded (and to be headed here is to be wrong) about the central fact of my world is to be wrong about the rest. Expecting otherwise (as if one could be sane outside and mad inside) is like expecting a watch to go without its mainspring, a tree to flourish without its root, a lamp to shine without wick or oil.
How odd that the one spot in the universe which I had systematically overlooked turns out to be the Spot that matters, the more-than-holy Ground which is, precisely, the Solution of all problems and the Fountain-head of all creation!
~ from: The Science of the First Person, by Douglas Harding.:
Video -- Becoming Me
The on line video: Becoming Me, based on the children's book of the same name. It is a brief description of the author's idea of how all "This" came to be manifested, but reflects what most mystics and spiritual teachers consider to be a 'True' understanding. This free presentation is very sweet and touching. To see it: >Click Here
The Atma Enlightenment Blog
Blogs are now becoming very popular so you might like to check out an 'enlightenment' blog by Aja who is located in Portland, Oregon. It's an ongoing expression of what is arising in Aja's consciousness ... random writings, musings, and more on the nature of consciousness, awakening, reality, non-reality, stupidity etc.
In 1990, through self inquiry, Aja experienced a permanent shift in his perception of reality, recognizing that Self of Absolute Consciousness from which all arises, and which permeates all things.
This ever deepening experience of Self allows Aja to help guide others to this same awareness, and to recognize the truth of who they are. More about Aja Here. You'll find Aja's Blog Here.
Top Ten Best Things to Say If You Get Caught Sleeping at Your Desk at Work
10. “I wasn’t sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement.”
Tues. Apr. 3, 2007.
Our Judas Projections
The crown of forgiveness is placed on our heads once we finally realise that those in our lives who seem to have betrayed us are our own Judas projections, projections that our consciousness has brought about in order to make possible our resurrection and our final ascension.
Often, those whom we feel have betrayed us have done it out of a love that neither of us has understood or were capable of understanding at the time. What they did has pushed us into becoming conscious beings, into taking our next step, and that is Love....
Forgiveness becomes possible when we transcend appearances and realise that those people who represent the Judases in our lives and those qualities within ourselves that seem to have betrayed us have been the divine process growing us into Christs. It is all Love.
From: It's All God, by Walter Starcke
Everything Comes Back to Nothing
Inexplicably it comes. When you least expect it. For a reason you can never know. One moment you are striving, figuring, imagining, and then, in the blink of an eye, it all disappears.
The struggle disappears. The striving disappears. The person disappears. The world disappears. Everything disappears, and the person is like a pinpoint of light, just receding until it disappears.
And there’s nobody there to witness it. The person is gone. Only, only awareness remains. Nothing else. No one to be aware. Nothing to be aware of. Only that remains itself. Then it’s understood, finally and simply.
by Adyashanti. To read the complete article, >Click Here.
Music and Life
Alan Watts played an important role in introducing Zen Buddhism and other oriental ideas to many thousands of westerners in the 1960s and 70s. You can now download quite a lot of Watts' illuminating talks from the net.
Seer reader, Mike Graham, recently drew our attention to an animated short piece by this high-priest of the counterculture to brighten your day -- it's only a minute or so but very good. You'll find it >Here.
How You Can Tell
A mother and her young son -- a toddler-- had to go on a bus one day. In the middle of their rather quiet journey, the toddler yelled (as toddlers will do), "Mummy, is our cat a mummy cat or a daddy cat?" The mother quietly explained "It's a daddy cat."
The little boy thought for a second and yelled, "How can you tell?" The entire bus was suddenly quiet as a tomb, waiting to hear how a young mother would handle such a ticklish question from a child too young to even have a clue about sex. The mother came back with, "He has whiskers, doesn't he?"
The Law of Attraction
Recently, the on-line and DVD presentation, The Secret, has become popular in many countries including Australia. What it refers to as the secret is the Law of Attraction -- that our thoughts attract or draw to us what our lives are made up of.
The main value in proposing the law of attraction is that it lets people know that they create their own lives, that thoughts take form, that if one desires to change ones life that person must change how they think, but the law of attraction goes only so far and tends to be a mental activity rather than a spiritual one.
Actually, we do not attract to us, but rather we ourselves create our life experience and everything in it. We materialize our perceptions. The quality of the forms our lives take is determined not by what we think superficially but by what we perceive as reality. Our perceptions manifest our reality.
by Walter Starcke. To read the complete article, >Click Here.
Tues. Mar. 20, 2007.
Relax and Let Go
All disciplines are fixations: discipline excludes everything, except the one thing that one wishes to concentrate upon. Thus one establishes a dictatorship over oneself and all understanding is jeopardized. What is absolutely necessary is attention without strain.
When I observe myself, I am really forced to admit that every day I am the prisoner of a thousand unsatisfied desires, or desires whose satisfaction brings me no permanent bliss.
So it seems to me that instead of endless running from one desire to another, it would be better to stop and examine the true nature of desire. If this investigation is successful you will penetrate the nature of the true aim of all desire.
What any desire really aims at, is a state of non desire. This non desire is a state in which we demand absolutely nothing. Thus it is a state of extreme abundance, of fullness. This fullness is revealed as being bliss and peace.
You now know that you are really seeking nothing else but fullness and absolute peace. Now that you have understood the inner nature of your ultimate goal, you perceive that the ultimate goal is, in fact, not a goal, that is to say an end towards which you strive, but that the ultimate state can only be the consequence of relaxing and letting go.
Liberation is not to be obtained by collecting and accumulating, but by being rooted in a state of being which is truly ours and in which we live constantly without knowing it. Even if we wished to, we could not live for a single moment outside of this state.
by Jean Klein
No Way!
A golfer was having a run of trouble. First he sliced his ball into the rough. Then he got stuck in a sand-trap. Then he hit it over the highway. Finally he hit it deep into a stand of trees. He searched for it but couldn't find it. It was getting dark so the caddie said, "Why not forget it?" The golfer replied, "No way. That's my lucky ball!"
Tues. Mar. 13, 2007.
Confusing Content With Essence
Inquirer: One of the great principles of philosophy and psychology is: “Know yourself”. How can I know who I really am? Which traps should I avoid? And which tools should I use?
Eckhart: The main trap to avoid is to confuse content and essence. The ancient dictum “know thyself” points towards essence, your true identity. Your name, nationality, religion, your opinions, political views, material possessions, likes and dislikes, desires, fears, ambitions, as well as your view of yourself as a success or failure, good or bad – in fact your entire personal history and your thought processes… all that is content.
All content is subject to the law of impermanence (as the Buddha already discovered 2600 years ago), and if you try to discover who you are within the dimension of content, you will encounter frustration again and again. Or, as the Buddha put it, you will suffer. You suffer because you derive your sense of identity exclusively from the content of your life. Another word for content is form. That is what the ego is: identification with form.
When you stop identifying with form, the ego is no longer in control. So, first realize who you are not (form) and what’s left is who you are. But then there is nothing left, you might say, but this is not so. What’s left is not form, but essence, which we could also call inner space. The space out of which all forms come and into which they disappear. The ancient Chinese philosophers called it the Tao. It is beyond time. It is the eternal, the primordial I am.
From an interview with Eckhart Tolle
Nothing Is Given Up
The continued operation of all the functions in the state of freedom is an awesome way to live. It bears no resemblance to the stark emptiness that fear might paint it to be. People who tell me they don't want to give up the personal because they believe they would be giving up love or joy or deep feeling don't understand that the personal never existed. Nothing is given up.
Love that appears to be personal is based on a mind-constructed sense of being separate. Love in this separate state involves a longing to merge with an other in order to be fulfilled. From the perspective of the vastness, the other does not exist. When the vastness sees everything out of itself to be made of itself, this is the ultimate intimacy.
The moment-to-moment flavor of the vastness undulating within itself as it perceives itself through every particle of itself everywhere brings a love that is limitless, far surpassing anything the mind could construct as the ideal love it seeks.
From Collision with the Infinite by Suzanne Segal
Furling
Sounds swirl:
by Shawn Nevins
Fortunate or Unfortunate?
Everything that seems on the surface to be an evil may be a good in disguise. And everything that seems good on the surface may really be an evil. So we are wise when we leave it to God to decide what is good fortune and what misfortune, and be thankful that all things turn out for good with those who love to abide in the Presence of the Most High.
Then we shall share something of that marvellous mystical vision of Julian of Norwich who uttered what for me is the loveliest and most consoling sentence I have ever read: "And all things shall be well; and all things shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well!"
Fri. Mar. 9, 2007.
Thanks for writing to me about your breakthrough. I'm so delighted that you're discovering the effortless practice of Presence. Spontaneous behaviour is what happens when we relax into the Awareness we are.We stop trying to manipulate life one way or another and simply allow Life to express ItSelf through our unique body/mind/personality.
The depth of your deeper understanding is displayed in your observation: "Consciousness played it out the moment “I” got out of the way completely. Consciousness played it out the moment “I” got out of the way completely."
Actually, there's a double removal involved here. First "I" is gotten out of the way, then the idea of someone doing something to get it out of the way is dissolved or abandoned -- or to put it another way, we finally and forever identify with Consciousness as our true Self, rather than identifying with the separate egoic self or 'little me'.
Ramana Maharshi had a very picturesque way of putting it. First he said you stir up the all consuming camp-fire with a stick and when it's blazing brightly, you toss in the stick. What is left? -- no thing, but ever, always and only the flame of Consciousness.
Tues. Mar. 6, 2007.
Love Is Still Here
The great good news is that love is free and it has not gone anywhere. In all of these aeons that you have been hiding from love, love is still here, it is still open, it is still waiting for your commitment, still waiting for you to say, “Yes, I give my life to the truth of love. I vow to let love live this life as it will, for better or worse, for richer or poorer.” The love that you search for everywhere is already present within you. It may be evoked by any number of people or events. A mountain can evoke this love. A sunset can evoke this love. But finally, you must realize you are this love. The source of all love
is within you.
by Gangaji
A Benevolent Universe?
Inquirer: How can we know that in the quiet of which you speak we'll experience goodness? Do you presume a benevolent force in the universe?
Catherine Ingram: Look to your own nature because, after all, we are each a microcosm of totality, inseparable from the macrocosm. Those moments that you have known pure love, have they not been the truest? Have you not felt the most authentic, the most alive? Through all the strange turns and wanderings of your life, isn't love what you have always yearned for, what you have wanted to express, what you have wanted to give? And can you imagine that on your deathbed the love that you have known and shared will be all that will have mattered?
So whenever you find yourself in doubt about a benevolent force in the universe, just return back home, to this, to your deeper nature, love Itself.
To Know Is Enough
Inquirer: To crush the ego is what one would think and feel is necessary
to identify more with the 'Greater Source' or 'Universe' How would a student
of the dream go about accomplishing this!
Leo Hartong: A mirage can only seem problematic when its true nature is
not recognized. When the mirage is known for what it is, it does not suddenly
disappear, nor does it have to. To know that one cannot fetch water from it
is enough.
Likewise, the ego illusion is not in its appearance, but in the way it is perceived.
When there is the conviction that what we are is limited to the ego, we are
under a sort of hypnotic spell.
Once it is clear that our thirst for insight and liberation cannot be quenched at
the mirage of the ego, the investment lessens. This understanding does not
depend on erasing the ego, but simply sees through it to its illusory nature.
What is more, attempts to do away with the ego, are now recognized as the
ego illusion itself.
Ultimately, the personal 'I' and the 'Impersonal Self' are not two. It is the One
Universal Self appearing as this 'I'. Self-re-cognition shows that there is no one
to accomplish anything, yet everything unfolds presently as this. There is no
independent separate character to identify with the 'Greater Source.' There is
only the 'Greater Source' regardless of how it appears. Many waves may rise and
fall, but they are the expression of a single ocean. There may be a variety of
ornaments, all crafted from the single substance of pure gold; there may be many
appearances, but there is only One Consciousness.
by Leo Hartong Awakening to the Dream
The Power of Now Seen in a Movie
Those who have been impacted by Eckhart Tolle's best-selling book, The Power of Now, may be intereste to know that the pale green and gold volume can be observed in two separate scenes of the Comedy / Romance movie The Holiday, in which Kate Winslet is reading it. Apparently, either Kate or Nancy Meyers, the director, used the book in the screenplay on purpose. It's not often you see a first rate spiritual book in a Hollywood movie -- in fact, would there be a more appropriate place in which to awaken than Tinseltown? For more about the movie, >Click Here
Can Anybody Be A Nobody?
A priest and a rabbi are praying together, when suddenly the priest falls to his
knees and cries out 'I am nobody'. The rabbi, similarly inspired falls to his knees
and cries out 'I am nobody'. Nearby, a cleaner witnesses this and similarly
inspired falls to his knees and cries 'I am nobody'. The priest turns to the rabbi
and says 'humph - look who thinks he's nobody!'
told by Eckhart Tolle (on the subtlety of the ego):
Weds. Mar. 1, 2007.
Just a quick response to today's Gem.
Thinking
Cheers, Jim.
Thanks for the Peter's Pearls, they are a good reminder, especially when nothing seems to be working in my world.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say, "nothing seems
to be working in my world", but of one thing I can be absolutely
certain, and that is, that you, the real You, cannot be touched
or harmed by adverse circumstances, and that these 'things'
that are presently not working out will pass.
May I encourage you to inwardly step back from the 'nothing is
working out' story, and just rest in the Tranquillity or Awareness
you are and always will be. Just notice the thoughts that judge
certain things in your life as 'bad', and that judge the things in
other people's lives as being 'good'.
Don't fight your thoughts or engage them in any way, just watch
them and let them drift by like clouds.
As you abide in this Awareness or what we might call Presence --
the presence of the infinite Self -- negative thoughts will eventually
dissolve and your true nature, happiness, will emerge. This is
important, because your outer world, believe it or not Ed, is a strange
reflection of your inner world or consciousness. So, if your inner
world is free of negativity, contrariness and disharmony, then you
will begin to see a change in your outward world. You will find that
your circumstances begin to work out positively in ways you never
imagined, because your outer world is reflecting your inner state.
Pearl and I see this spiritual principle taking care of us and supplying
our needs and more as we simply live from Presence and not from
the judging mind.
Why don't you have any photos of yourselves on your web page? I would be interested to see your faces.
Actually there are photos of Pearl and myself on the site. You'll find one above and others here and here.
The reason why these are the only photos of us presently on the
site is because Clearsight is not about us but about the liberating
teaching of truth or what is described in some quarters as nondual
spirituality.
The odd thing is, that it's my experience and Pearl' that we
each have no face, but are spacious capacity for other faces and
the whole Universe. If you examine your own experience right now,
you will find the same is true for you. As you look down and around,
you can see everything except your own face (unless you happen
to look in a mirror).
This is because, you're not just the body you can feel or see in a
mirror, but the infinite Awareness that is aware of physical objects,
bodily sensations, sense perceptions, thoughts, feelings etc. etc.
You and I are not persons that have awareness, but infinite, eternal
Spirit or Awareness is What we are. That is the foundation of the
truth that sets us free and what we seek to share through our Web
site and other activities.
If you're interested to explore this further, you might try some of the
experiments at: headless.org
Tues. Feb. 27, 2007.
To Feel Tranquillity
Become acquainted with the feeling of Peace. Understand that it's the only
legitimate sensation. This feeling itself is one's identification, not the body-
ego which appears to be experiencing it. Proclaim Tranquillity and insist on
being this only. Round is round, forever being itself. Exactly so, (our true)
Identity doesn't change; it forever remains itself; nothing changes it; nothing
prevails against it! If one finds herself disturbed and untranquil, suffering fear,
loneliness, grief or any contrary emotion whatever, she need only make the
conscious return to Identity to re-mind herself that unchanging Tranquillity is
who or what we are -- not grief, not loneliness, not any wayward thingl!
No misery can turn Perfection into imperfection; no experience can change
Tranquillity-I into grief-I or loneliness-I. WE NEED ONLY INSIST ON BEING
TRANQUILLITY TO FEEL TRANQUILLITY! Try for yourself and discover that
this is so.
From: A Guide to Awareness and Tranquillity, by William Samuel
The Tatagata (Japanese) Tea Ceremony
In the Tea Ceremony, you become a Tatagata. You evoke suchness in each action.
When you pick something up, you just purely pick it up. When you set it down, you
just purely set it down. You just do it. You do all of it. But you don't add anything to
it and you don't take anything away. You just make tea. Also, in that moment of
activity you remain with what you are doing. You pay attention, investing all of your
awareness in what you are doing. And this being with what you do is continuous as
each motion of making tea unfolds.
For instance, when you get a dipper of hot water, your attention seamlessly follows
each motion, as you dip the dipper in the water, as you pause a moment to let it drip
a little, as you glide it, steaming, across to the bowl, as you tip it to let the water
cascade out, and as you return the dipper to its resting place on the mat. There are
no parts or pieces to the act, it is all one conscious motion, and you are with every
moment of it. When drinking: you pick up the bowl. You drink. Your direct contact
with the act is like the purest consuming fire. Like they say in Zen stories, "burning
completely -- leaving no ash." Nothing else happens in one's awareness. Nothing else
needs to happen. You just do it.
The Tea Ceremony can be done with this suchness. You invest your awareness in what
you are doing in the moment you are doing it. There is a kind of union there. Many people
instantly get what suchness is when they see a tea master demonstrating it. It's like a
transmission of this special state of consciousness. Then they set out to develop this
peaceful focus in their own ceremony. When they finally get it going, they begin to
discover that they can get great satisfaction doing whatever they are doing, tea or any other
activity, from this highly attentive state.
Read the complete article by Edrid
Always at the Centre
C F Wong had still not lost his love of elevators. And he particularly liked
glass-walled elevators on ultra-high skyscrapers, where one could see
the world changing shape before one. This elevator was an external one,
clinging to the side of a glittering glass-walled tower. He watched with
eyes wide as the Shanghai cityscape rearranged itself gracefully in front
of him. One moment the office blocks towered above him. The next moment,
they seemed to elegantly throw themselves down, and he was level with
the tops of the highest ones. The buildings seemed to morph and shrink
as he watched. And then, seconds later, he was up in the sky and the
buildings and streets had all laid themselves out as toys below him, the
biggest city in China becoming a doormat at his feet.
Standing next to Wong was Bi Yun, a vice-president of the company that
owned the hotel at which he was about to dine. His eyes were on the feng
shui master's face, and he had noted his guest's obvious pleasure in the
elevator ride. 'Gorgeous view, isn't it?' Bi said in Beijing-accented Mandarin.
'You feel like you are blasting off into outer space. It's like being in a glass
rocket or something, right?' Wong nodded. 'View very beautiful, yes.' 'Do
you know how fast we're moving?' the businessman asked. 'Yes. We are
not moving at all.' Wong replied, 'The world moves down. Each person is the
centre of his own universe, as Mo Zhou said in 479 BC: "The wise man knows
that he is the centre of the world. Throughout his life, he never moves an
inch, but the world runs and jumps and leaps around him."
From a novel by Nury Vittachi, The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics, page 57. To have this experience yourself, see the Experiments at: headless.org
The Public Creator
The Public Curator's office is in one of Brisbane's largest State Government buildings. As she stepped into the lift (elevator), a little old lady asked the operator … "Can you take me to the Public Creator?" The lift operator said, "I can take you as far as the top floor, lady, but from there on you'll have to go it alone."
Tues. Feb. 20, 2007.
The Practice of Presence -- a free on-line course.
One of the commonest questions we're asked by inquirers who have just
seen for the very first time what they really are, is, What can I do to
embody this awesome truth that I've now glimpsed? As we go deeper,
we will understand that our life-experience as a body/mind is being lived
by the formless Source or Presence that is the Life of all forms, but for
the time-being, we will approach spiritual practice as if we are the ones
who can decide to do it or not to do it.
The word practice simply means doing something or intentionally taking
action to bring our awareness back into the formless dimension of our
Beingness while continuing to deal with life in the relative realm of forms.
Without a practice such as this, the conditioned mind pulls us totally into
our story and our identity as a separate "me" and keeps us there. This is
the cause of all mind-made suffering and personal dysfunctionality.
The purpose of the practice is not to take us out of the realm or forms
-- the material world, but to enable us to function more joyfully and
freely in it while at the same time being alive to the tranquility of our
formless dimension. When, through the practice, we become plugged
in to that Presence which is beyond time and space, infinite resources
begin to flow through us into the realm of time and space where we
operate as human beings.
To see the complete course on The Practice of Presence: >Click Here
How Very Fortunate
Adyashanti's Reflections in 2006 After Ten Years of Teaching.
It's been ten years since I began teaching, and in those years there has been much
change and evolution in the expression of the teaching, as well as the emergence of a
growing community and supportive organization. Since I began teaching at my teacher’
s request, I have focused on only one thing: to express and transmit the fundamental
realization of unity that lies at the heart of all forms of true spirituality in the most direct
and unadorned way possible. I have always held the conviction that while the various
spiritual traditions and lineages are valuable carriers of ancient teachings, practices, and
subtle transmissions, they need to have a constant living renewal breathed into them by
truly free and creative human beings lest they start serving the needs of the dream state
and not those of the awakened state. It is good to remember that the goal of Buddhism
is to create Buddhas, not Buddhists, as the goal of Christianity is to create Christs, not
Christians. In the same vein, my teachings are not meant to acquire followers or imitators,
but to awaken beings to eternal truth and thus to awakened life and living.
To read the complete article by Adyashanti, >Click Here
Is Matter Really Known?
According to most scientists, matter can neither be created nor destroyed. If this is so, then matter has neither a beginning nor an end. How then, can awareness/consciousness be said to be prior to matter/appearances?
When zooming in on a presumably solid object, all we find is empty
space and energy, and its firmness turns out to be an illusion, or a 'relative
truth' at best. Look, where does matter - or anything else- manifest? Is it not
in consciousness? Does IT really 'matter' (solidify into matter) and what is
'matter' anyway?
Here matter is only known/experienced as sensory input . In other words, matter -
itself is never really known, only various sensations in consciousness; and like
ripples in water are nothing but water 'sensations in consciousness' are
consciousness itself. In that sense we could indeed say that matter -or
consciousness appearing AS matter - has no beginning or end.
We could also say that consciousness is prior to matter in the same way that gold
is prior to golden ornaments. Actually there is no difference between the ornament
and its 'substance' just like there is no difference between Consciousness and the
way IT appears as matter: All there is, is Consciousness. 'Objective appearances'
are also available in dreams where it is perhaps easier to see that solidity and fluidity
manifest in - and out of - consciousness only.
by Leo Hartong Awakening to the Dream
Older But Wiser
A wealthy old lady decided to go on a photo safari in Africa taking her faithful
aged poodle named Cuddles along for the company.
One day the poodle started chasing butterflies and, before long, Cuddles discovered
that he's lost.
Wandering about, he noticed a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the
intention of having lunch.
The old poodle thought, "Oh, oh! I'm in real deep doo-doo now!"
Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settled down to chew
on the bones with his back to the approaching leopard. Just as the big cat is about to
leap, the old poodle exclaimed loudly:
"Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"
Hearing this, the young leopard halted his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror came
over him and he slunk away into the trees.
"Whew!", said the leopard, "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!"
Meanwhile a monkey, who'd been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree,
figured he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the
leopard. So off he goes but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with
great speed and suspected that something must be up. The monkey soon caught
up with the leopard, spilled the beans and struck a deal for himself with the leopard.
The young leopard was furious at being made a fool of and said:
"Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that
conniving canine!
Now, the old poodle saw the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thought,
"What am I going to do now?", but, instead of running, the dog sat down with his back
to his attackers, pretending he hadn't seen them yet, and just when they got close
enough to hear, the old poodle said loudly.
"Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"
Tues. Feb. 13, 2007.
About Happiness
Just as quickly as one realizes that happiness (tranquillity) is her Identity and that
she doesn't have to go out and do this or that in order to "be happy," just that quickly
happiness becomes a present aspect of conscious experience. Standing pat upon
the acknowledgement "Happiness itself am I, already!" we realize that nothing can
change the happiness that is our felt Identity. Give up the idea, "I am one who is
happy." That is NOT the truth! State the fact (or truth) to yourself as it is: "Happiness is
who and what I am! Happiness is Identity-being-I. Happiness itself am I!" Find yourself
amazed that you need nothing to make you happy, and more amazed, that nothing
can take it from you. The happiness we speak of here is Tranquillity or Presence.
From: A Guide to Awareness and Tranquillity, by William Samuel>
A Call to Presence
To be fully awake and enlightened simply means to be fully present in the moment of now.
To be present is the simplest thing. It is your natural state. Every moment, you have a choice.
Will you be present in the truth and reality of this moment or will you allow yourself to be
seduced into the world of the mind? All thoughts take you out of the present moment. And
then if you believe in those thoughts, which most of us do, you get lost in the world of the mind.
For most of us, we have become so habituated to thinking, that now thoughts never end.
They have a life of their own. We are not even choosing to think. Thinking is happening all by
itself and we are simply pulled from one thought to another, never really experiencing the
sacredness of this moment. The present moment is free of memories of the past and
imaginings into the future. And so the pain and limitations of the past magically disappear
when you are present. Anxiety about the future also disappears. You are just here now, fully
present in this moment. When you are fully present, your inner experience is one of peace,
love, acceptance, power, truth and compassion. Separation and fear dissolve. You exist within
Oneness.
When you bring yourself fully present, thoughts stop and your mind falls silent. But there
is an even deeper level of silence waiting to emerge. As your mind becomes silent, an inner
door is opened, allowing an infinite and eternal silence to emerge. This infinite and eternal
silence is the very essence of your Being. It is your true nature. It is the essence of all
existence. It is the eternal silent presence of pure consciousness. It is the "I AM" of you.
It is that dimension of you that exists in Oneness with all that is. It is your Buddha nature.
It is the Christ of you, which exists in Oneness with God. It is awakened man. It is
awakened woman.
by Leonard Jacobson, an Aussie spiritual teacher currently working in the USA.
“There’s only one thing more satisfying than being loved, and that is loving - truly,
authentically, for real. When you're in that place, you are being yourself. You are
expressing your true nature. You are what you want, and you want what you are.”
Adyashanti ~ And the exciting news is that Adya will be in Perth later this year!
The Blessed 'Do Not's
In the sixth century BC, the historical Buddha said:
Rely not on the teacher/person, but on the teaching.
From the Kalama Sutra (ancient Buddhist text)
A Slight Misunderstanding
"We're bloody well broke," said one expatriate Aussie to his mate during breakfast
at their Earl's Court pad. "And there's only one answer -- work. You know, get a job."
As the blood slowly returned to his friend's face, he continued, "I'll slip down and get
The Times."
When he returned he was pointing excitedly to an ad: "Wanted, Footmen (2). Apply
Buckingham Palace." "Two!" he exclaimed. "Made to order for us." So, giving themselves
a bit of a polish up, they went to the Palace to present themselves and their sad story
of financial disaster to the Queen's secretary.
He was quite impressed, and eventually said, "Well I'll have to see The Lady. She does
all the hiring and firing around here. Just wait in the anteroom and I'll see what gives." After
a short waiting time the secretary returned, accompanied by the Queen who stated that,
being Aussies, they'd be quite unsuitable. For whilst employed at Buck. Palace they
would be required to wear black velvet pantaloons, white stockings and black shoes with
silver buckles.
When they protested their eminent suitability, the Queen softened her attitude and said: "Well,
when we go to Balmoral it will be necessary for you to wear the kilt, and to wear the kilt you
must have good, shapely legs." After a momentary hesitation, and urged by financial necessity,
they both dropped their tweeds for the inspection. "Very good, very good, said HRH approvingly,
"now, could I see your testimonials?"
As they were walking out down the long red gravel drive one bloke said to the other in a slightly
disgusted tone of voice: "You know, Dave, if the standard of education had been a bit higher in
Manangatang we could have got that flamin' job."
Fri. Feb. 9, 2007.
Thanks for today's Pearl, but Nadeen, and perhaps this is just my reading, seems to claiming that the script of our lives is fixed even before the theatre of life begins. That assertion can be no more than a belief, a mental construct taking place within this play of Maya. Perhaps there can be no destiny simply because there is no-one there to have a destiny.
The question of whether we do or do not have 'free will' is one that
has vexed the human mind for millennia and probably always will.
If we accept that Consciousness (God, the Absolute, etc etc.) is all there
is and there is nothing else (which is the basis of all truth teaching), then
there can only be one doer -- Consciousness.
The problem only arises when we (with finite body/minds) cannot recognise
our inseparability from infinite Consciousness. We think the assertion is being
made that OUR life is being run by someone or something else.
it's incredibly difficult to speak of nondual truth in language that is in itself dualistic.
The truth is, however, that all forms, including yours and mine, are one with Consciousness.
We're not a part of the Absolute -- the Absolute or Consciousness is what we are.
This means that as Consciousness is the only 'doer', and Consciousness is what I am (and
what you are), then I must be the overall 'doer' in the ultimate sense, while having a limited
sense of doing (free will) in the finite or relative realm.
As Nadeen says, the Consciousness we are loves limitation and has chosen to have a limited
life-experience in your case and in mine. This means that the infinite Consciousness you are that
can do anything and everything (see the Bible -- with God all things are possible -- nothing is too
hard for Him etc.) is experiencing NOT being able to do all that the mind wants or thinks it 'should'
be able to do etc. in your case and in mine.
Again, as Nadeen says, infinite Consciousness -- the Consciousness we are -- somehow loses Itself in
our limited form, even to the point of most human forms thinking they have complete free will, which
is a real joke, given what we know now about DNA and conditioning etc.
Those who have awakened to their true Identity, however, know (intuitively) that they, as infinite
Consciousness, are running the whole shooting match, as Sam puts it, but happily accept that this
infinite Consciousness has been expressed as their finite human form.
The more the awakened one abides in Presence, the conscious awareness of their unborn nature, the more
their form is infused with and becomes a vehicle for infinite intelligence, creativity, tranquillity, joy, compassion
etc. etc. The awakened form continues to act AS IF they have free will, but retains always the inward smile
knowing that it is the true Self that is doing what is done and not the little "me".
As one abides in Presence, the whole question of "free-will or no free will" is completely dissolved and is
replaced by a serene confidence that the doing of the form and the doing of The Formless are as one action.
Jesus obviously understood this when he remarked, "I (the form) work and my Father (the Formless) works
also." He also clarified, "It is not I that doeth the works but my Father in heaven etc." Doubtless, if we can
understand this as perfectly as he did, our life-experience will be as fruitful as his was,
You may also like to see my letter to Maria on this subject.
Tues. Feb. 6, 2007.
After Many Many Years
On top of my television sit 5 small Buddhas, deliberately placed, powerfully
present in their stillness. The screen flashes with drama, tragedy, comedy
and disaster. The Buddhas remain constant in their stillness, a steady reminder
not to get lost in the constantly moving images on the screen of life or the
television.
At some point in our lives we need to decide whether we believe our bodies
created and contain our consciousness inside them (matter creates consciousness)
or whether consciousness exists in its own right, and permeates and contains
bodies. Of course some of us will not have thought about this at all!
For me consciousness, is prior to form, permeating and giving it life. So form,
in the shape of a body is just a physical construct. However my body is also
a lifelong partner, one that has kept me incarnated and connected to the
material world, but in essence, essentially it is not the THAT 'I AM.' and at
death, we part company. At birth we joined up for an adventure.
As the circle of life closes, and the body's capacity to perform physically
and mentally diminishes, there is a return to childish beginnings, physical
instability, vulnerability, minimum interest in what is not immediate a tendency
to tire easily, and an increased difficulty in coping with life.
On the positive side, an increased sensitivity and awareness of falseness and
truth, a delight in small, simple things, a loss of interest in future and past,
and the desire to live totally in the moment like any child.
by Lydia Duncan (aged 90 - Sydney) To see the complete article,
>Click Here
The Thing in the Mirror
Without question, the one thing to which we give the greatest value, out of all proportion,
is the thing we see when we look in the mirror. The body in the mirror is not our Identity,
any more than Macbeth is the identity of the actor playing that role. The one and only Identity
is That which is being the consciousness that perceives the body in the mirror. Awareness is
the action-activity of That which is being the body in the mirror, the mirror itself, the door
frame, the house, the world and the entire universe, every bit included in (as) the Awareness
that looks in the mirror.
Identity, then, is infinitely more than a single outline in the consciousness of images and things.
As a matter of fact, Identity has no more to do with a particular body-outline than the picture
hanging on the wall. The Identity-being-I is being every object of perception. It is well we say
again that.the images in the mirror (and all other objects of perception) are neither real nor
unreal; they are nothing in themselves. The "value," the "something," is That which is being
images! The "That" is Reality, Supernal Isness, God.
From: A Guide to Awareness and Tranquillity, by William Samuel
Misunderstood
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen
and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing
to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what
you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard
words again, though it contradict everything you said today, – "Ah, so you shall
be sure to be misunderstood." –- Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras
was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo,
and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to
be misunderstood.
From his essay: Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841.
Everlasting Inheritance
I can see in your eyes a fear and confusion. All this talk of endings brings a tremble
to your bones. But fear not, for I do not speak of death or chaos except to point out
that you have already fallen prey to both. No, I talk of awakening from the death of
sleepwalking in dreams and veiled imagination. Beyond the veil all is well, and more
well than I can attest. Within the immortality of what you are, there is a contentment
and peace born only of your true identity.
From: An Unfinished Poem by Adyashanti. To see the complete poem, >Click Here
Baseball Philosophy
In the 2006 Claxton Shield baseball competition final played out recently in Perth,
Victorian side, the Aces, are bridesmaids no more. After five grand finals in the
past six years and only one trophy to show for it, they got home at last, 4-3.
This is a good excuse to share some baseball philosophy from the noted US
linguist, Yogi Berra, that applies almost as well to spiritual work:
"Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical."
From: >This Site
Tues. Jan. 30, 2007.
About Thinking
Sometimes I'm asked, "How does one stop (incessant judgmental) thinking?" We don't; we stop being a personal thinker, and be Awareness itself. Awareness is the thinking of Deity. We can only stop trying to be a thinker on
our own and acknowledge Isness as the all of Consciousness; hence, the all
of thinking and thought. We "stop all thinking" as though we were an identity
who possesses Awareness. We stop all thinking as if we were a personal judge
of the images contained within Awareness. We stop planning and calculating as
a personal thinker to be Awareness alone and only. Awareness is the "witnessing."
"Be a faithful witnesses," says the Christ. Be this alone! How? Become mindful
of the Heart, the only place any of this makes sense.
Shortly, we find our entire experience to be Awareness in action. Then we see
whatever is seen, without judgment and without fear -- because Awareness
need not (cannot) fear what Awareness is. Only Isness presents itself to be
witnessed, and only Isness is present to witness itself. The beholding, the
witnessing, is this Awareness I am! (And you are.) Deity witnessing is being this
Identity! Thoughts continue to come to us concerning everything, but they are
happy thoughts and complete. They are no longer involved in ponderous planning
and calculating nor with human reason and logic. They are God's thoughts, not
"ours"; yet "we" are the happy Awareness of an infinitude of thoughts and ideas
as surely as we are the awareness of the qualities and attributes ("things") which
transcendent Being is being.
From: A Guide to Awareness and Tranquillity, by William Samuel
Happiness Is Our Essential Being
The degree of happiness that we experience at any moment is directly proportionate to
the degree of clarity with which we are then conscious of our true and essential being.
Therefore happiness is not only our essential being, but is also our consciousness of
our being. In fact, since we are the consciousness that experiences our own being as
'I am', we are both being and consciousness. In other words, our essential being is
consciousness, or more precisely it is self-consciousness – consciousness that knows
itself clearly as 'I am'. Therefore, since our unobstructed consciousness of our own being
is experienced by us as happiness, in our essential nature we are non-dual being,
consciousness and happiness.
Read the complete article by Michael James at this site. You can also download a free eBook: Happiness and the Art of Being
The World Flowing Through You
Richard Lang has just posted a short film on the world flowing through you. This
is an ancient wisdom presented in a contemporary way. You can see it >Here.
You can also try out other Experiments or awareness exercises at the new
Headless Web site.
Cosmic Consciousness
I have wrapped the wide world in my wider self
And Time and Space my spirit's seeing are.
I am the god and demon, ghost and elf,
I am the wind's speed and the blazing star.
All Nature is the nursling of my care,
I am its struggle and the eternal rest;
The world's joy thrilling runs through me, I bear
The sorrow of millions in my lonely breast.
I have learned a close identity with all,
Yet am by nothing bound that I become;
Carrying in me the universe's call
I mount to my imperishable home.
I pass beyond Time and life on measureless wings,
Yet still am one with born and unborn things.
Sri Aurobindo ~
Good Intents
The boss was a keen yachtsman, and everyone in the office had chipped in
`to buy him a sextant as a birthday present. The accountant volunteered to
buy it. Since the ships chandler had run out of them, the accountant rang
the nearest sporting goods shop. After a short conversation, he hung up the
phone with a bemused expression on his face.
"What's the matter?" someone asked him. "Well," said the accountant,
"I asked the girl who answered whether she had a sextant in stock and she
told me that they had all kinds of tents, and if I bought one what I did in it was
entirely my own business."
Tues. Jan. 23, 2007
Lost In God
Few ever come to know the apex of the spirit and the hidden fund or depth of the soul.
It is far more inward and sublime than are the three higher faculties, for it is their origin.
It is wholly simple, essential, and uniform, and so there is not multiplicity in it, but unity,
and in it the three higher faculties are one thing. Here is perfect tranquillity, deepest
silence, because never can any image enter here. By this depth, in which the divine
image lies hidden, we are deiform. This same depth is called the heaven of the spirit,
for the Kingdom of God is in it, as the Lord said: ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’;
and the Kingdom of God is God Himself with all His riches.
Therefore this naked and unfigured depth is above all created things, and is raised above
all senses and faculties; it transcends place and time, abiding by a certain perpetual adhesion
in God its beginning; yet it is essentially within us, because it is the abyss of the mind and
its most inward essence. This depth, which the uncreated light ever irradiates, when it is laid
open to a man and begins to shine on him, powerfully affects and attracts him… May God, the
uncreated Abyss, vouchsafe to call unto Himself our spirit, the created abyss, and make it one
with Him, that our spirit, plunged in the deep sea of the Godhead, may happily lose itself in
the Spirit of God.
by Blosius, Benedictine Abbot, died 1556
Sin And Virtue
Maharaj: Why do you insist on polluting the impersonal with your ideas of sin and virtue?
It just does not apply. The impersonal cannot be described in terms of good and bad. It is
Being-Wisdom-Love -- all absolute. Where is the scope for sin there? And virtue is only the
opposite of sin. True virtue is divine nature. What you are really is your virtue. But the
opposite of sin which you call virtue is only obedience born out of fear.
Inquirer: Then why all effort at being good?
Maharaj: It keeps you on the move. You wander till you find God. Then God takes you into
Himself -- and makes you as He is.
Inquirer: The same action is considered natural at one point and a sin at another. What
makes it sinful?
Maharaj: Remembering yourself is virtue, forgetting yourself is sin. It all boils down to the
mental or psychological link between spirit and matter. We may call the link psyche. When
the psyche is raw, undeveloped, quite primitive, it is subject to gross illusions. As it grows
in breadth and sensitivity, it becomes a perfect link between pure matter and pure spirit and
gives meaning to matter and expression to spirit. There is the material world and the spiritual.
Between lies the universal mind which is also the universal heart. It is wise love that makes
the two one.
From, I AM THAT, by Nisargadatta Maharaj
Love Demands Union
The timeless realm of absolute unity is the realm where no distinction made
apparent in time is lost. And here alone are fulfilled the conditions of love. Love
demands that the loved one shall be himself and free; and love demands union.
In the world of time these requirements are incompatible, and love is always
working its own undoing. But in the timeless world they are realized together –
the perfection of independence and of oneness do not cancel out, but reinforce
each other. In Hell I am bent on finding myself in myself, but time destroys me;
in Heaven I am bent on losing myself in Another, but Eternity preserves me.
Seeing Through Transmission
Direct transmission, a seven step plan to enlightenment, karma yoga, past life therapy
and a zillion other systems are not suggested here as they all feed on the illusion that
THIS as IT IS, is not already fully IT. Every step towards 'enlightenment' confirms the
mistaken belief that there is a person separate from THIS Oneness, who -- through effort
or transmission given by 'others' -- can somehow become an enlightened person.
This is not about freedom for the person, but about freedom from the idea of being a person.
As such, the idea of 'the enlightened person', is itself the great delusion. No one can give
it to you, no one can transmit it to you and ultimately the you that wants to learn or have
this, is an illusion.
Whatever is transmitted is an experience and all experiences are finite. The Infinite One is
not an experience for some one, yet It is always and already fully here as This Timeless
Presence, in which the reading of these words is known. As there is only THIS, from where
to where would this Omnipresent Light be transmitted? AS there is only Oneness, from
whom to whom would such a transmission flow?
Of course, all you read here is nothing but words. The funny thing is that even the conclusion
that words are useless is itself built from words. And yes, words can indeed be a waste of
time if they are not understood to be concepts and pointers. For example: If you assume that
the word water is intended for drinking, you might die of thirst. On the other hand, words may
be a useful tool in giving directions to the source, where only you can quench that thirst. No
one can drink for you.
'Enlightenment' is the end of the 'you' who seeks enlightenment and it is the end of apparent '
others' that are 'enlightened.' It is the end of the seeker and the seeking. It's the end of all
ideas about 'time to waste' and 'enlightenment to achieve.' When it is clear that THIS is the
Source, all maps to it -- and writings about it -- are known to be 'useless'. Including this one
of course.
by Leo Hartong
A Close Call
Two farm workers had been out playing poker one Saturday night and had lost
all of their money. They got in their pick-up truck and headed for home. As they
turned on to a quiet country road, they noticed an old sow which was sound asleep
just over the fence. "Hey!" Said one of the boys. "I know a man in town who would
give me $50 for that old sow and we could get back in to that game and clean it out."
They agreed that would be a good idea and set about to get the sow into the back
of their truck. The hard part was getting her over the fence. Just as they were
ready to put her in the truck they looked up to see a car coming. The little blue light,
flashing on top, told them it was the highway patrol. They didn't know what to do.
There wasn’t enough time to put the sow back over the fence. Instead, they had
the bright idea of putting the sow in the cab of the truck between them.
They were just driving off, when the police officer pulled alongside and threw his
spotlight on them. "Who are you and what are you doing down this country road
this time of night?" He shouted. "Oh, our truck just stalled. We're on our way home.
We're the McGee brothers. We live just down the road." One of them said.
"The McGee brothers." Demanded the police officer. Then pointing his light, he said,
"What's your name?" "I'm Bill." The boy in the driver's seat said. "And what's your name?"
The police officer said, shining his light in the face of the boy on the far side of the cab.
"Oh, I'm Ted." The boy said. "And you, in the middle there!" The police officer said, shining
his light on the sow, "What's your name?" Just then the driver gave the sow a mighty poke
in the ribs to which she responded with a loud OINK! "Okay, you boys," The police officer
said. "I guess you're all right. Get going. And don't stop on the road late at night like this,
if you don't want to get into trouble."
The brothers took off in the truck as fast as they could go. The police officer turned around
and headed back to town. As he drove down the road, he said to his offsider, "You know, I've
been around for quite a while, but that Oink McGee is the ugliest man I've ever seen!"
Tues. Jan. 16, 2007.
Acting As Our True Identity
You are Seeing itself, constantly about the Seer's business. You are not the
one who thinks she has a lease on seeing for a few years, during which time
she wants it to show her that she possesses health, wealth and fame. You are
Awareness ITSELF and ONLY this. It's the most infinite "only" you can imagine,
because it includes the infinity of Reality, the infinity of Love and the infinity
of Health and Wealth -- not a mere part of it, but all of it! Why? Because
Awareness is God's consciousness of Himself! It is our good pleasure to be the
witness of all God is! It is our good pleasure to be what God is being. It is our
good fortune to be infinity itself, and consciously so.
We act as the wrong identity when we act as the ego who possesses this
consciousness called Life, and when we believe it is our personal property, the
'action' of a private mind. We act this misidentity when we think of ourselves
as one who is the recipient of Life. We act the true identification when we
reckon Identity to be Awareness (Life) itself. We act the true identification
when we declare that Awareness itself is being this Identity-I-am, when we act
from the standpoint that Awareness only is being Identity-I, instead of the body-
form which is merely the focal point of images within Awareness.
From: A Guide to Awareness and Tranquillity, by William Samuel
The Passing of a Great Teacher
Sadly, we report the passing, on January 11th, of Douglas Harding, who was best known
to us as an outstanding spiritual teacher, author and founder of what is sometimes
called 'Seeing' or 'The Headless Way'. He was 98 and died peacefully in his sleep at his
home in Suffolk, UK, under the care of Catherine his wife. Most of us at Gurukula were
introduced to Douglas' insights into the obvious and enlightening 'experiments' through
Richard Lang -- a long-time student and friend.
Ten days ago, several seeing friends travelled to a prison farm on the outskirts of Perth
and sat with a young man, Andrew, who had been in custody for 11 years after being
convicted of involvement in a serious crime. Andrew told us how another inmate, who had
been exposed to Douglas' teachings in prison, had shared 'Headlessness' with him and
how this new perspective had eventually transformed his understanding of what he was
and his whole attitude to life. This change is now being reflected in the prospect of an
early release.
We will never know just how many lives Douglas touched and helped like this, but we
can be sure that his influence was as widespread as it was profound and though his
form will now disappear like the Sun that sinks below the horizon at the end of day, the
glorious radiance of his life will long linger in the sky of our consciousness and the
Source of that Light will never be lost to us.
Spiritual Pride
Spiritual pride takes many forms. Some are gross and obvious, others are more subtle
and hidden. Regardless of the form, spiritual pride has its roots in the belief that "I" know
the Truth. Our Teaching does not advise you to rid yourself of spiritual pride, rather it
directs you to look at the belief that fuels the pride. Is Truth (in the Absolute sense)
knowable?
As transcendent Understanding deepens, belief in the certainty of knowable truth lessens
and a simple humility prevails. You find yourself less critical of the convictions and practices
of others. You become content to know what you know and believe what you believe without
being burdened by the crushing weight of relative (reactive?) knowledge masquerading as
Absolute Truth. As this new year dawns before us, perhaps you will take a moment to reflect
on what is True? Insight may await you.
The Nonconformist
In India, a seer is sometimes called a jnani -- one who knows or understands
reality or the truth. The behavior of a jnani has always attracted the curiosity
of the average individual. The jnani is seen enjoying a joke, enjoying a meal in
the company of friends with as much zest as anyone else -- and people wonder
whether the supposed jnani is really a Self-Realized individual. This is because
they don't realize that they are comparing the attitudes and behavior of the
jnani with an imaginary concept they have themselves created. Actually, an
ordinary individual anxious to be known as a jnani will indeed make every effort
to conform to the image which the average man has created. The real jnani
does not care if he disappoints the others.
What the Ego Hears
Once upon a time there was a famous theatrical couple who were making their respective
ways up the ladder of success and were idyllically married. One day the wife rushed into
her husband's dressing room as he was preparing for the evening performance. "Oh, darling,"
she said, "I have just come from the press show of your new film. Darling, it was fantastic!
The critics actually stood at the end and cheered! No one has ever seen anything like it
before. Imagine, darling—the critics cheering! Oh, it was magnificent, darling, The most
exciting moment of my life.
Oh, how I wished you'd been there, for it was your performance they were cheering, my
darling. Your performance. The film itself was good, too, but you were miraculous! The
artistic merit and truth behind the author's words were there for all to see, of course. The
costumes were magnificent. The direction—faultless. The lighting and make-up sans pareil.
There was one tiny moment when you appeared to have no lips—but that was nothing.
Oh, my darling, you are going to be a great star, probably the greatest star in all the theatrical
firmament and if my being with you should in any way impede your meteoric rise, then I must
leave you, my darling, for it would be wrong of me to stand in the way of one who is destined
to straddle the world like a Colossus, hear the thunder of applause from countless international
audiences, be showered with blandishments from all the critics and receive the just financial
rewards for one who is truly great.
So, choose, my darling, and if it be your wish that you make your way like some mythical
deity—lonely but unencumbered—then you have only to say the word and I will go through
that door never to impose myself on your dear life again." Came the reply, "Yes, yes, yes.
What do you mean, no lips?"
Tues. Jan. 9, 2007.
Conscious Choosing
How do you go beyond a dysfunctional relationship with the present moment?
The most important thing is to see it in yourself, in your thoughts and actions.
In the moment of seeing, of noticing that your relationship with the Now is
dysfunctional, you are present. The seeing is the arising Presence. The moment
you see the dysfunction, it begins to dissolve. Some people laugh out loud when
they see this. With the seeing comes the power of choice -- the choice of saying
yes to the Now, of making it into your friend.
Due to the unprecedented influx of consciousness we are witnessing on the planet
now, many people no longer need to go through the depth of acute suffering to be
able to disidentify from the pain-body. Whenever they notice they have slipped back
into a dysfunctional state, they are able to choose to step out of identification with
thinking and emotion and enter the state of Presence. They relinquish resistance,
become still and alert, one with what is, within and without. For the first time in the
history of our planet, it can be a conscious choice. Who is making that choice? You
are. And who are you? Consciousness that has become conscious of itself.
From A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
The Awakened Way
Inquirer: What's it like to live an awakened life?
Adyashanti: While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone
around you is engaged in the same, you’re not. While everybody around you
is trying to figure it out, trying to arrive, trying to “get there,” trying to be
worthy, you’re not. While everyone thinks that awakening is a grand, noble,
halo-enshrouded thing, for you it’s not. While everybody is running from this
life right now, in this moment, to try to get there, you’re not. Where everybody
has an argument with somebody else, mostly everybody else, starting with
themselves, you don’t. Where everybody is so sure that happiness will come
when something is different than it is now, you know that it won’t. When
everybody else is looking to achieve the perfect state and hold on to it,
you’re not.
To read the complete article by Adya, >Click Here
Doin' The Leela
I'm not source, but object
I'm God presence
Wrong or right is the melody
And the beat goes on!
I see souls not roles
I once saw lack
Dancin' the leela
by Kolika
One Way or the Other
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.
The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.
The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah".
The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?"
The little girl replied, "Then you ask him ".
Tues. Jan. 2, 2007.
New Year's Resolution -- Be The Buddha
Starting right now, this moment, I am asking you to become the Buddha.
I am asking you to take your stand, to stand absolutely firm in your intention
to awaken to the Truth of your Self.
This is what the Buddha did. He didn’t say, “I’ll try.” He didn’t say, “I hope
I’ll find the Truth.” He didn’t say, “I’ll do my best.” He didn’t say, “If not in
this lifetime, then maybe next lifetime.” He came to the point where he didn’t
look for anyone else to tell him the Truth or show him the Truth. He came to
the point where he took it all on himself. He sat alone under the Bodhi Tree
and vowed never to give up until the Truth be realized.
The power of this very simple, yet unshakable intention and absolute stand
to be liberated in this lifetime propelled him to awaken to the simple fact that
he and all beings are liberated — that all beings are freedom itself. Pure
awakeness.
by Adyashanti. Read the complete article >Here
Only Surrender Can Do It
What is conventionally called "love" is an ego strategy to avoid surrender. You are looking to
someone to give you that which can only come to you in the state of surrender. The ego uses
that person as a substitute to avoid having to surrender. The Spanish language is the most
honest in this respect. It uses the same verb, te quiero, for "I love you" and "I want you." To
the ego, loving and wanting are the same, whereas true love has no wanting in it, no desire to
possess or for your partner to change. The ego singles someone out and makes them special.
It uses that person to cover up the constant underlying feeling of discontent, of "not enough,"
of anger and hate, which are closely related. These are facets of an underlying deep seated
feeling in human beings that is inseparable from the egoic state.
When the ego singles something out and says "I love" this or that, it's an unconscious attempt
to cover up or remove the deep-seated feelings that always accompany the ego: the discontent,
the unhappiness, the sense of insufficiency that is so familiar. For a little while, the illusion actually
works. Then inevitably, at some point, the person you singled out, or made special in your eyes,
fails to function as a cover up for your pain, hate, discontent or unhappiness which all have their
origin in that sense of insufficiency and incompleteness. Then, out comes the feeling that was
covered up, and it gets projected onto the person that had been singled out and made special --
who you thought would ultimately "save you." Suddenly love turns to hate. The ego doesn't realize
that the hatred is a projection of the universal pain that you feel inside. The ego believes that this
person is causing the pain. It doesn't realize that the pain is the universal feeling of not being
connected with the deeper level of your being -- not being at one with yourself.
The object of love is interchangeable, as interchangeable as the object of egoic wanting. Some
people go through many relationships. They fall in love and out of love many times. They love a
person for a while until it doesn't work anymore, because no person can permanently cover up
that pain.
Only surrender can give you what you were looking for in the object of your love. The ego says
surrender is not necessary because I love this person. It's an unconscious process of course. The
moment you accept completely what is, something inside you emerges that had been covered up
by egoic wanting. It is an innate, indwelling peace, stillness, aliveness. It is th
This initial blog was maintained by Pete S., who is based at Gurukula in Fremantle, Western Australia and who sometimes finds himself assisting as a
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us
And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same
As we are liberated from our fears, our presence automatically liberates others.
(Spoken by Nelson Mandella at his 1994 Inaugural Speech)
And read the Diamond Sutra to me in the candlelight
When I heard about a Mind that alights upon no pain
Suddenly I came to a great awakening
Who would have known that my Mind is forever free from change
Who would have known it gives rise to this manifested world
Who would have known I would find ... Buddha is the Light in my own Mind
Nothing else than that, which is empty of matter, fills all corners of the universe!
Mountains, rivers, the entire world, you and all, they manifest the body of the One.
(Buddhist verse)
"Mary. Mary."
"Is that you, Fred?"
"Yes, I've come back as we agreed."
"What's it like, Fred?"
"Well, I wake up in the morning to a beautiful ocean view, I have sex, I have breakfast,
off to the golf course, I have sex, I bathe in the sun, and then I have sex twice. I have
lunch, another romp around the golf course, then sex pretty much all afternoon. After
the evening meal, golf course again. Then have sex until late at night. The next day it
starts again."
"Oh, Fred you surely must be in heaven."
"Not exactly dear, I'm a rabbit at the Margaret River Golf Course!"
And solved the secret of MY soul.
I am THAT, to whom I prayed,
THAT, to whom I looked for aid.
I am THAT, whom I did seek.
I am MY own mountain peak.
I, upon creation look,
As a page from MY own book.
For I am the ONE, the many make,
Of substance, which from ME I take.
For ALL is ME, there are not two,
Creation is MYSELF, all through.
What I grant, unto MYSELF,
I just take, from MYSELF.
And give it to ME, the only ONE,
For I am the Father, and the Son.
What I want, I do but see,
MY wishes flowing forth from ME.
For I am the knower, and the known,
Subject, ruler, and the throne.
The three in ONE, is what I am,
And hell itself is but a dam,
That I did put in MY own stream,
When in a nightmare, I did dream.
That I did dream;
That I was not the only ONE,
And thus by ME, was doubt begun,
Which ran its course, 'til I awoke,
And found that I, with ME, did joke.
So now, that I do stand awake,
MY throne, I do surely take,
And rule MY kingdom, which is ME,
The master, through eternity ."
9. “This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to.”
8. “Whew! Guess I left the top off the White-Out. You probably got here just in time!”
7. “They told me at the blood bank this might happen.”
6. “I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance.”
5. “I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?”
4. “Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem.”
3. “The coffee machine is broken...”
2. “Someone must’ve put decaf in the wrong pot...”
And the #1 best thing to say if caught sleeping at your desk...
1. “ ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
a blackbird bringing food to babies,
a truck lumbering up a low grade,
two dogs in dispute,
the wind through a crevice in my collar.
This is life looping, expanding into space,
then furling back to the beginning.
If it were not for the beginning,
if all were just a pulsing fountain,
no poems would be necessary… but they are.
You make poetry every day,
desperate connections of words:
hellos, goodbyes, pledges of never and forever,
looping, swirling sounds that appear and disappear
with no more hope than dew in the desert.
But you are the dew, you are the desert.
You are these two opposites,
in the same moment,
furled into one.
As a thought arises ,
we examine it , thats all.
No need to 'control' this thinking,
to attach , or build a wall.
You know you are awareness,
in the examination of these thoughts.
Either take clear and present action,
or relinquish them.
You are the One who sorts.
Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words.
Rely not on theory, but on experience.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees
with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all,
then accept it and live up to it.
"You can observe a lot by watching."
"In baseball, you don't know nothing."
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
"If the people don't want to come out to the park, nobody's going to stop them."
"Think! How the hell are you gonna think and hit at the same time?"
"I didn't really say everything I said."
Hey Yogi, what time is it? "You mean now?"
not doer, but player
It's all so laughable.
frolicking the leela
good, bad, beautiful, and ugly are the versus
eternal companions
changing partners
as we doe-se-doe
to the plan.
now I see the Kingdom of God,
I am that.
just sway to the rhythm
clap the beat and scream,
"I am original innocence."