Sample Peter's Pearls

Here's a sample of the current series of Peter's Pearls free daily enlightenment gems. They are reproduced by permission from Scott Kiloby's book: Reflections of the One Life -- Daily Pointers to Enlightenment. For more info on Scott's books >>>Click Here.

October 1st - Resentment

To say that you are a person who is resentful is a story. In the story, "you" are the main character who gets to focus on "your" pain and "your" story of how someone in "your" past did "you" wrong. It's all about you. The story of resentment makes you feel morally right and justified in your pain, which in turn keeps the sense of separation and self-centeredness alive.

Enlightenment is not about "letting go" of resentments. Enlightenment is seeing things the way they really are. When resentment arises, that is what is happening. Any movement to get rid of resentment is seeking.

Dreaming that you are a person who is resentful and who is going to get rid of resentment in the future perpetuates the dream self and keeps resentment around. The dream self is not interested in being resentment-free. It just wants to be separate. To accomplish this, it keeps the story of time alive. That includes the story of making resentment into a problem to get rid of over time.

In noticing the emotional pain and mental story of resentment as it arises, there is a seeing that you do not bring resentment about. Therefore, you are not in control of when it leaves. In that noticing, resentment is allowed to be exactly as it is without any movement to get rid of it. It tends to diminish on its own when it"s brought into this light.

October 2nd - Unconditional love

Unconditional love is not based on what the other person does or does not do. It is not based on whether someone lives up to some image you have in your mind. It is not based on whether you get a return on your investment in a relationship. Those are conditions.

Love is who we are. It is what life is. You cannot give love. To love someone is not to give them anything but to recognize the love that is already there. To pretend that you have something that others need, including love, is arrogant. This pretense fuels separation. It is spiritual violence.

To seek, expect, or demand love is not love at all. It is egoic neediness. Love wants nothing because it lacks nothing. Love does not seek love. It places no conditions on life and others. It simply recognizes itself everywhere, in everyone. It does not buy into the illusion of separation.

Unconditional love is not something that thought could ever show you. To realize it, find out what is prior to that thought-based story of "me" in the mind. What is reading these words " not the thoughts that arise to agree or disagree with what is being said " but rather the simple presence itself? What is resonating beyond these ideas? That presence is love. Realize that what you truly are, beyond all mental conditions, is unconditional love.

October 3rd - Gratitude

Gratitude arises when the preciousness of "This" is realized. "This" is life happening right now in whatever way it is happening. Perhaps "you" are sitting on a chair, just reading these words. That is all that is happening and it is perfectly enough. Sitting. Breathing. Looking. Reading. Thinking. Feeling. That is all there is. Suffering and searching arise when the belief in a separate, thought-created "me" starts telling the story that something other than "This" should be happening.

Once the search for something more starts up, true gratitude for "This" cannot be seen. Gratitude is not something we find in the future. Future is just a thought arising now. Gratitude is not thought. You can think about gratitude, but it would still just be a thought about gratitude entertained by a separate self.

True gratitude arises naturally in presence. Gratitude is realized to be your very essence when the search for something more than "This" is seen to be a thought-based illusion.

When "This" is seen, the simplicity and preciousness of life is seen. In this realization, it is not that "you" " as a separate entity " are grateful for other people, things, and situations. In true gratitude, there is no self attempting to gain something from other people, things, and situations. There is only gratitude. Gratitude for "This" in whatever form it takes right now. Simple gratitude for aliveness itself.

October 4th - The Simplicity of 'This'

In the search for something more than this moment, the simplicity of 'This' is missed completely. Look around. Sense the being " the felt oneness with life. Thoughts may be happening. Perhaps a feeling of anxiety briefly arises and falls in awareness as you read this reflection.

Maybe there is the sound of a dog barking, a clock ticking, or a child laughing in the other room. That is all that is happening. Isn't it beautifully simple? Spiritual awakening is that simple. It is to realize 'This' fully and to allow the search for something more than 'This' to die naturally in that seeing.

Isn't the search for something more a dream of thought arising now? Can you grab the future and control it from where you are sitting now? You cannot touch the future because it is nothing more than presently arising thought. When this is seen fully, the search is seen to be an illusion.

How can you need something other than 'This?' 'This' is precious. 'This' is all there is. Spiritual awakening is about the truth. The truth is that 'This' is life, happening now. 'This' is it. It is that simple. 'This' is when whatever is presently happening " whether it is the sound of dishes being washed or a plane flying over heard " is the most fascinating thing because it is all that is happening. It is truth.

October 5th - Awareness is Great as a Pointer, But Lousy as an Identity

The word "awareness" points to an immediate, timeless, formless non-conceptual seeing. All concepts arise in this seeing. "You" are merely one of those concepts arising in this seeing. Your entire story of self, as detailed and personal as it feels, arises as a set of concepts in awareness.

Although it can be liberating to see that the separate self is a concept and that who you really are is closer to this awareness, there can be a subtle fixation with the notion of awareness even after the initial seeing. The word "awareness" is great as a pointer, but lousy as an identity or philosophical fixation.

If the word "awareness" is taken as more than a simple pointer, there can be a subtle fixation with passively witnessing. An unconscious belief arises that there is something here called "awareness" or a "witness" watching something else called "thought" or even "life." This is still dualistic.

When the word "notice" is used in these reflections, it is not an invitation to passively witness life. It is a call to love " to the unknown. Spiritual liberation cannot be known through dualistic concepts. Liberation cannot be realized when there is a fixation in some realm of experience.

Liberation arises naturally when the dualistic boundaries between self and other, awareness and thought, and form and formlessness are seen to be illusory. You are not the witness of something separate from you called "life." You are life itself.

October 6th - Seeing Beyond Dualistic Emotions

A negative emotion is an alarm bell revealing that there is attachment to some story in time happening. If resentment, sadness, guilt, or shame arises, notice that a story of past is happening. If anxiety or fear arises, notice that thought is telling a story of future. When anger or frustration arises, notice that there is a story of resistance to now happening (e.g., the driver in front of you is not doing what you want her to do).

Awakening presents the opportunity to see that these stories are arising now. You aren"t actually visiting the past or future. There is simply thinking arising in timelessness. Suffering is an illusion of thought.

Liberation is not about removing emotions or thoughts. It is not about destroying the ego. Only ego would seek to destroy ego. Liberation is about seeing how attachment to these stories in time creates suffering.

In seeing that this thought life is keeping a dualistic, time-bound, self-centered story alive, the possibility of liberation from suffering arises. In that seeing, attachment to these stories and their accompanying emotions dissolves on its own. Liberation is not about replacing the negative stories and emotions with positive ones. It is about seeing what is actually happening in 'your' mental and emotional world. Peace, love, and joy arise in that seeing. These attributes of peace, love, and joy exist beyond dualistic emotions.

October 7th - Love Just Is

Thought takes dualistic positions. It says: "This is about Oneness." "This is not about Oneness." "There is a God." "There isn"t a God." "Spiritual realization is about awareness." "Spiritual realization is not about awareness." "There is a self." "There is no self." "There is choice." "There is no choice." "This is about Jesus." "This is not about Jesus." "My life is good." "My life is bad." "This teacher has it." "This teacher doesn"t." These are all dualistic stories.

Thought cannot see non-duality. The function of thought is to take dualistic positions. Thought can even take a position on thought. "Thought is bad" is just another dualistic position.

Oneness is not a position. It is not anything to argue about. It is nothing at all. It cannot be grasped. You can't get it because you are it. It is a seeing that life is impermanent. There is nothing to hold onto. No experience. No concept. No belief. No philosophy. No expression. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

To the dualistic mind, that may sound like nihilism. But again, the dualistic mind will never see 'This.' When non-duality is realized to be this seeing of what the dualistic mind is constantly doing, an opening can happen. The attachment to all positions dies. Love is what is left. This love takes no position on non-duality. It is not for or against it. It sees no other so it allows everything. Love just is.

October 8th - The Dream Self is a Virtual Reality

The dream self is like a conceptual overlay placed on reality. Thought interprets reality through concepts, most of which act to confirm the central "me" concept. "I" exist only in relation to the "other" thing, person, event, etc.

The dream self is a conditioned existence. In some computer games, participants wear stereoscopic goggles that produce images of a virtual reality. Similarly, in the dream of self, conditioning creates a virtual reality that says: "This is a chair" or "My husband should listen more." These are thought-based interpretations of reality based on memory. The dream self is essentially the past coming to meet the reality of now.

When the past (memory) meets the present, life feels dead. Thought gives the false impression that you can know life by labeling and judging it. But life is not conceptual. It is an actuality. The depth and miracle of life is veiled when life is lived only through the goggles of the dream self, the playing of one mental image after another.

Liberation is like taking the goggles off. It is seeing reality the way it is, including the thoughts that are arising. Life is not conceptual. When this is seen, what is left is a love of reality. This love is not dependent on thought. For example, your love for your husband has nothing to do with whether he does what you "think" he should do. This is unconditional love.

October 9th - Raw Sensitivity and Openness

In allowing the body and mind to be absolutely open to the experience of sensitivity in the present moment, the truth reveals itself automatically. Every notion of separation, every fixation, attachment, and identification gets swallowed by that openness. Love just eats the 'self' away. Bit by bit, the 'you' that you take yourself to be is devoured.

Many experience a contraction against that degree of sensitivity. They would rather hang out in or try to recreate some experience, identity, by-product of awakening, fixation or position that this is somehow about awareness, or Oneness, or some other insight that pops up along the way. But 'This' degree of openness cannot be pinned down. It swallows even your insights.

In this raw openness, you see that what you thought or felt to be true in the dream state was just fear, masquerading as a separate self. You see that, even after an awakening experience, little pockets of resistance want to come back to know something. But there is nothing to know. That is what pure love reveals.

When this love burns up every mask you've tried to hide behind, there you are standing naked in a truth that cannot be expressed. It cannot be held onto. This is raw openness, the kind that no fancy Advaita inquiry or pointer can touch. In this openness, there is nothing to find " nothing to add and nothing to subtract. There is only 'This' meeting itself.

October 10th - The Ordinary and the Extraordinary

The mind believes that enlightenment is something other than this present experience. It keeps looking for the next moment. It can"t believe that enlightenment could be as simple as taking out the trash right now. Yet it is. Enlightenment is overlooked in each moment simply because we are expecting something extraordinary somewhere else, in some later experience.

Then one day, after all that movement towards some other moment in the future, the mind utterly fails. It sees that it cannot know. It gives up. It doesn"t give up because some guru said that enlightenment happens when the mind gives up. It gives up because it sees that no matter what the question, the answer will not be enough.

When the mind fails, it is like falling into a ditch. A hand reaches to the water and mud. "What is this? It's like I've never seen this before ..." All of a sudden the water and mud appear alive for the first time. "That's me. I am that water! I am this mud!" Joy, love, wonder and innocence arise.

The person who was looking for enlightenment drops away completely and all that is left is what was always here ... this ordinary life in this moment. But now, because there is no one living it, and no one looking for some later moment, it is extraordinary.

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