Die to your false identity as an individual self and rest in peace.
How do you do this?
There is no way.
Which is not very helpful.
So . . .
There is one way.
But no one knows it.
Very helpful!
Category: Beyond Spirituality
When All Is Said and Done
‘Once all our beliefs are uprooted, it’s not really necessary to assert what is true . . . even the assertion that consciousness is infinite and eternal should be thrown away.’ ~ Rupert Spira
All has been said.
Not all has been done.
Yet.
I hope to see you in the marketplace.
And when our eyes meet for a timeless moment . . .
. . . that we share a smile.
And don’t forget to play, sing, and dance!
Peace, happiness, and love to all
. . . in the Now Year!
Stepping Stone To The Sun
As a dedicated spiritual seeker it’s not long before you discover that there are two of ‘me’ – the individual self, made up of the body-mind living in the world, and the witness, that which observes the individual self and the world. As you investigate further, one ‘me’ emerges as more real than the other. In the end, both dissolve into pure knowing.
We think, feel, and act in the world as though we are an individual person, separate and unique from all the other beings. It’s obvious that we are all unique individuals, but if we look closely at our experience we are not separate. Nothing separates us from an other or anything else except the idea of separation. And how dependable is an idea? Dependable as using a cloud as a stepping stone to the sun.
There is an element of our being that is aware and unchanging. It exists with or without our body, mind, and world. It is the background of all experience, but is itself not an experience. Experiences come and go, but this unchanging awareness is ever-present. It is totally dependable.
If we identify with the changing elements of our being, such as ideas, emotions, sensations, and perceptions, we will be forever searching for some stability, some meaningful lasting peace, or, as the mystic Dattatreya sings in the Avadhuta Gita[i], the ‘unchanging bliss’ of pure consciousness.
The quickest way to identify the unchanging awareness within you is to notice that part of your being that is ageless.
When someone asks us on our birthday if we feel any older most of us might pause for a moment and then say no, not really. What if you were asked, do you feel any older than you did 10 years ago? Twenty years ago? Fifty years ago? You might say that my body definitely feels older, and my memory might not be as good, but there’s some part of me that does not feel any older. Where do you go when you answer these questions? Who is speaking? Which ‘me’ is speaking?
Something timeless is speaking.
This is it. This timeless element of your being that emanates from the light of pure consciousness or pure knowing. When you look at the core of all experience, the common element is knowing. Nothing exists outside this field of knowing. If you can find something that appears outside this field of knowing . . . well, you can’t.
Rest as this light of pure consciousness and know the unchanging bliss that is at the core of your being, actually, our being, as there can be only one. If we look at the qualities of this pure consciousness we discover that it has no beginning and no end and is ever-present, therefore, it is infinite and eternal. Where is there room for two in that? As Dattatreya ends the Avadhuta Gita, ‘I am everywhere, like space.’
Now back to the beginning, ‘all two of me’ – the individual self and the witness that observes this so-called individual self. This is a very interesting concept, but that’s all it is – just another one of our nebulous stepping stones.
Step beyond all concepts, all thought. Step beyond the beyond, dissolve into pure knowing, and discover the timeless self. Our timeless self.
I, Awareness, Am Here To Simplify
Seekers of the truth can get easily sidetracked on the path towards liberation or awakening. I, Awareness, am here to simplify the process:
There is no process.
There is no path.
There is no liberation or awakening.
You are already what you seek – unlimited, formless, boundless, ageless, all-knowing, ever-present Awareness (some call me Consciousness).
But let me simplify that:
Nothing is unlimited.
Nothing is formless
Nothing is ageless, all-knowing, ever-present, conscious or aware.
Nothing.
No thing. Nothing with objective qualities can be considered real in the truest sense. That includes all concepts, opinions, positions, and beliefs (thought being the subtlest form of object).
I, Awareness, am the only ‘thing’ that can be considered real, as I have no boundaries or limits. I stand outside of time and space, or rather, time and space stand inside of me, as do all appearances of the body, mind, and world.
But again, I must clarify:
I, Awareness, am only a concept, a lofty idea, ideal, which sounds enticing but is only as real as a wave on the ocean or a cloud in the sky. Give up all hope of liberation. Reside in the emptiness that is my heart, and be eternally liberated, beyond time and space, beyond birth and death, beyond the beyond.
There is nothing to believe in, no opinion worth fighting over, nothing to find and nothing to lose.
Relax in the formless emptiness that is your, our, essential being and be forever . . . forever.
Regardless Of What You Think
Regardless of what you think, feel, sense, or perceive, you are not that. We have been conditioned since birth to believe that we are made up of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions, but if we look at the facts of our experience, nothing could be further from the truth – they are all temporary attributes, they come and they go, and therefore can’t be considered real.
If we aren’t our thoughts and feelings, who or what are we?
Ask yourself, do I know my thoughts, do I know my feelings, do I know my perceptions? The answer is obviously yes. And then ask yourself, when my thoughts disappear, when my feelings disappear, when my perceptions disappear, do I disappear with them? The answer is obviously no.
You, your essential aware self, knows the coming and going of all thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, but doesn’t come and go with them. Identify with this awareness that knows the rise and fall of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, not with the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions themselves.
And then see clearly that even this so-called awareness, this witness that observes the coming and going of all things, is itself a concept known by something beyond it.
We are That.
Skyless Cloud
Look closely at awareness, the knowing presence that is our essential being. Notice that all things come and go in this awareness – thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and smells – but it doesn’t come and go with them.
Can you remove this awareness from your experience? Can anything, any thing, be known without it?
Can you remove the sky from the clouds?
Without the sky, can there be a cloud? Without awareness, can there be a thought, a feeling?
We often see a cloudless sky, but never a skyless cloud. We sometimes experience an aware stillness, but never an independent thought.
There can be an infinite number of clouds, but only one sky in which they appear and disappear, just as there can be an infinite number of thoughts, feelings, or sensations, but only one awareness in which they arise and pass away.
Just as an endless parade of clouds come and go while the sky remains unchanged, an endless parade of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions come and go in the unchanging field of awareness that is our original nature.
We can experience awareness without thoughts, but we can never experience a thought without awareness. In other words, you can take thoughts out of awareness, but you can’t take awareness out of thoughts.
Find this awareness, this aware stillness that is in the background of all experience, the stuff out of which all experience is made, and know your original nature.
Where is it?
Just as clouds sometimes obscure the sky, but we know it’s always there in the background, notice that awareness, the knowing presence that is your, our, original nature, exists prior to the appearance of any thought or perception. It is ever-present and aware regardless of what arises and passes away.
We know without a doubt the clear, pristine sky that is always present and unchanged by any cloud that appears and disappears within it. Now know without a doubt the clear, pristine presence of awareness that is always with you, always is you, unchanged by any appearance.
Then let go the mental images of the skyless cloud and an aware presence, only concepts of mind. Let them dissolve in that which is beyond all images, beyond all concepts.
Beyond the beyond.
Welcome!
Any Idea
Any idea of how things are is not how things are.
The only thing standing between you and your true nature is the idea of your true nature.
Any idea is made up of thoughts, all of which come and go in the open empty field of unchanging awareness just as clouds come and go in the open empty field of the unchanging sky.
Set aside any idea of who you think you are – your age, gender, occupation, where you have been, what you have done, where you are going, what you will do. Even set aside any idea of what you think you are doing in this present moment.
When all ideas are set aside and thinking comes to rest, in this silent, still moment between thoughts your true nature is revealed.
Nice idea. You see how easy it is to be seduced by yet another idea of how things are, even if it’s of a profound realization of your true nature as the open empty field of unchanging awareness?
Throw it all out! Even the idea of throwing it out!
Now, quickly, without referring to any thought, any idea, what remains?
Dining Out
‘When you go to a restaurant you don’t take your own menu.’ ~ Mooji
If you are a seeker who sincerely wants to find your essential being, you must leave who or what you ‘think’ you are out of the search. Your essential being cannot be found in any of the temporary attributes of the body, mind, or world. Your essential being is prior to all appearances.
This is really all you have to know – the source of your being, our being, is prior to all appearances. Our essential nature knows the coming and going of all appearances of the body, mind, and world, but does not come and go with them. Check this out for yourself. For example, a thought comes and goes, but the essential you, that which is aware of the thought, doesn’t come and go with it. Your essential self remains eternally present and aware, infinitely receptive to all experience, yet unchanged by any of it.
Just as you wouldn’t bring your own menu to a restaurant, you wouldn’t bring a head full of beliefs, concepts, and opinions if you were trying to discover your true nature. To be full is to leave no room for discovery. No room for dessert!
So set aside all the so-called identifying qualities of who you think you are – no name, no gender, no size, no weight, no thoughts, feelings, sensations, or perceptions. All of it goes.
What is left? Whatever it is cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, and has no scent. It cannot be found, yet is the background of all experience.
I, you, we, know what it is because we are that – emptiness beyond emptiness.
To be empty is to be open and receptive.
To be open and receptive is to be nothing.
To be nothing is to be everything.
To be everything is to be Love.
No ‘Who’ Or ‘What’ About It
Notice that all thoughts come and go.
Who or what notices this?
Notice that all sensations come and go.
Who or what notices this?
Notice that all feelings come and go.
Who or what notices this?
Notice that all perceptions of the world come and go.
Who or what notices this?
All things noticed come and go, yet the part of you, the part of us, that notices the coming and going of all things remains unchanged and ever-present. And this ‘you’ is not the individual self, the body-mind limited by time and space that we’ve all come to think of as our identity.
This thing within us that knows that we are, that we exist, that we are aware, has no definable qualities. It is beyond the grasping mind. No ‘who’ or ‘what’ about it, or for that matter, no ‘where’ about it.
You do not know it, but you are known by it.
It is not embodied in a thing, yet all things are embodied by it.
And it can’t found in any particular location, yet it is always with us, always here as the background of all experience, the source of all experience, and regardless of the experience, good, bad, or neutral, it remains unaltered, unchanged, untarnished, ever-present and aware.
As no limits or boundaries can be found to this ever-present awareness, it makes sense that there can only be one, infinite and eternal. We are that.
Settle into this effortless knowing and dissolve into the unchanging love, peace, and happiness that is your, our, essence.
I Don’t Mind
‘I don’t mind what happens.’ ~ J. Krishnamurti
Why would Krishnamurti say something like this? Because, relatively speaking, he was coming from the point of view of pure awareness. He didn’t mind what happened because, as pure awareness, all things happened in him, as him, not to him.
Just as clouds cannot disturb the sky, nothing of the body, mind, or world can shake the sublime emptiness of pure awareness, the core of our being.
Birth and death happen in you, not to you. If this doesn’t make sense, you are looking from the point of view of the illusionary personal self, illusionary because all of its qualities – thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions – are subject to the limits of time and space. They come and they go.
If this does make sense, you are observing the body, mind, and world from the point of view of pure awareness, in which all things appear and disappear and are therefore made of and known by, including the ideas of birth and death.
If whether something makes sense or not doesn’t matter, or as Krishnamurti says, you don’t mind what happens, you are looking at the body, mind, and world from beyond relativity, beyond any point of view, including that of pure awareness.
Call it non-conceptual awareness or choiceless awareness.
Then call it nothing at all and enjoy the silence, the peace.
The love.
Centerless Center 