Tag: love

Nothing Is Sacred

On By centerlesscenterIn Consciousness, Happiness, Non-Duality5 Comments

We might make fun those who bemoan, ‘Nothing is sacred anymore,’ but when you look at the present condition of our world, nothing is sacred. With every conceivable experience at our fingertips, there is very little, if anything, left to the imagination. Our lives are inundated with endless images of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The amount of information available, regardless of its accuracy, drives one group in one direction, one group in another, creating seemingly insurmountable division. Everything is overexposed, and in the process, can lose its meaning, its essence, its soul.

But if you look more deeply at our experience, we find that it’s not that nothing is sacred, it’s that no ‘thing’ is sacred.

Searching for peace and happiness, we first look at our objective experience for an answer. After all, this is what we have been taught, conditioned to do – seek our bliss in relationship to things in the world.

All things, all objects, though they might provide momentary pleasure and happiness, are ever-changing, temporary appearances in the world. All ‘things’ come and go, and therefore, even though we might hold a thing, an object, special, it is not sacred, it is not of God, the Absolute, the Divine. God, the Absolute, the Divine, is not a thing.

God, the Absolute, the Divine, has no objective qualities. It is ever-present and unchanging, untouched by any activity of the mind, body, or world.

By setting aside all that is temporary, that is, all objects – thoughts, memories, emotions, sensations of the body, and all perceptions of the world – we are left with our essential being: that which exists prior to, during, and after any appearance of the body, mind, or world has come and gone.

And what is this essential being that remains when all appearances are set aside?

Nothing.

‘Nothing’is truly sacred.

You don’t have to do anything to be nothing, which is what we all are at our core. Or, more accurately, we are no ‘thing’ at our core – our essential being has no objective qualities. It is not a thing. Resting in and as no thing, or nothingness, our true nature is revealed as awareness or consciousness, the knowing presence in all experience that is not itself an experience. A knowing presence that is always here and has no boundaries, whose nature is of peace, because it is undisturbed and unchanging, of happiness, because it is inherently full, and of love, because it is indivisible.

All You Need To Discover

On By centerlesscenterIn Awareness, Consciousness, Experience, Uncategorized4 Comments

All you need to discover is the limitless, timeless nature of awareness – that which knows the coming and going of all things but doesn’t come and go with them.

Discover this and all your questions about the meaning of life, the truth of existence, enlightenment, awakening, or liberation will be answered.

Simply look at what in you exists prior to any appearance in the body, mind, or world. Or even more simply, notice that whatever you are aware of you are not.

You are the awareness or consciousness with which all things are known. Because your nature is limitless and timeless nothing can exist outside of you.

Recognize this limitless, timeless element of your being and experience freedom from the bondage of the body, mind, and world, and in this recognition experience the one true experience, your essential self, whose nature is one of unbounded joy.

How do you recognize the limitless, timeless nature of your essential being? Look at that within you that is aware, or awareness itself, and see if you can find an edge or boundary to it. When you firmly establish that there is no end to awareness, in other words, it is infinite, then see if you can discover a time when it is not present. When you firmly establish that there is no time when it is not present, or, in other words, it is eternal, you are home free.

What else do you need to know? This discovery, recognition, understanding – the infinite and eternal nature of awareness or consciousness – dissolves all separation between self and other, you and me, subject and object, this and that, and reveals the indivisible nature of all experience. All things are made of the same stuff – consciousness if you’re a scientist or pragmatist, awareness if you come from a philosophical or spiritual background – and therefore all of our actions spring from the reverence of this oneness and promote nothing but peace, love, and happiness for all beings, all things, and all worlds, inner and outer.

A Bird’s Simple Song

On By centerlesscenterIn Advaita, Awareness, Music, Non-Duality, Uncategorized

A bird’s song is a simple song, a song sung from dawn to dusk, year after year, for a lifetime. It may be only a few melodic notes, perhaps a small variation here or there, but always beautiful in its simplicity.

Composers from all musical traditions have been inspired by birdcalls like that of the nightingale and the cuckoo. ‘The Lark in the Morning’ is an old and beloved Irish fiddle tune. The call of the Western Meadowlark brings to mind a saxophone riff by Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker.

And to know ourself as Awareness is a simple song – there is only one thing going on, not two. That is, there is only one consciousness, one aware-presence that knows the coming and going of all things, but doesn’t come and go with them. And all things that arise in consciousness, which, in fact, is everything, must be made of consciousness, leaving us to conclude that consciousness is all there is.

The source of our being.

How simple is that?

I, Awareness, sing my song, my simple song

My one note song

Of silence

From dawn to dusk, from dusk till dawn

A timeless melody

~

As I am boundless, with no beginning or end

Nothing exists outside of me

I am the source of all sound

~

All songs appear in me, in my silence

All songs are known by me, by my silence

All songs are made of me, of my silence

~

I, Awareness sing my song, my simple song of silence

Alive with the rhythms of peace, love, and happiness

The only song I know

My one note song

Not two

Ram Dass, Going Home

On By centerlesscenterIn Death & Dying, Happiness, Natural State, Spirtuality

For those of us who hold Ram Dass dear to our heart, if you haven’t already, watch the newly released Ram Dass Going Home streaming on Netflix.

Words can’t express the indebtedness to Richard Alpert, who, in the midst of the political, social, and spiritual turmoil of the late ‘60s, went to India in search of the truth and returned as Ram Dass to spread his message of peace, love, and happiness to the many seekers who were inspired by his journey. His book ‘Be Here Now’ motivated us to join him on the pathless path and discover our essential nature that his presence now embodied.

And now, at age 87, having gracefully weathered a severe stroke he suffered over twenty years ago, he is preparing to die. His mantra, ‘I am loving Awareness.’ His message, ‘Let’s all lead each other home.’

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ram Dass!

Eternal gratitude!

We love you!

No Expectations

On By centerlesscenterIn Awareness, Natural State, Non-Duality2 Comments

When you have expectations of others that are not met, more often than not you feel disappointed, maybe even frustrated or angry, certainly not satisfied or happy.

Greet someone with no expectations and see what happens. This is more easily done with strangers than it is with someone close to you – with strangers expectations are low. We don’t know what to expect. When we think we know someone well, we tend to have a preconceived idea of how we expect them to act, and when they don’t act accordingly it upsets the balance of our little self, the only one who has expectations in the first place.

Just as the sky expects no particular formation from the clouds, awareness, the source of our being, has no expectations about the comings and goings of the self, others, or the world, and therefore accepts everything as it is, embraces everything as it occurs, in an open field of loving kindness.

When you greet someone from this perspective, you don’t expect anything in particular; you just meet them as they are. In turn, they will feel your unconditional acceptance and communication will be open and spontaneous.

And then recognize the infinite and eternal qualities of this awareness, its ever-present, boundless nature – that part of us that knows ‘I am’ – and realize that there can be room for only one. And you, I, we are That – one consciousness manifesting as the many.

No expectations. Try it. You won’t be disappointed.

Avadhuta Gita

On By centerlesscenterIn Advaita, Beyond Spirituality, Non-Duality

I am beyond the distinctions of night and day

I cannot be split into parts

I never wake from within my self

I am never not awake

I am never moved by thought at all

I never try to be pure

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

I am neither the lord, nor am I not the lord

I am the formless self

I am beyond the presence or absence of the mind

I am the formless self

Know well that I am free of everything

I am the formless self

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

I am a house that is empty

What may I say of that

I do everything, yet I do nothing

What can I say of that

I am always in the even state

I am the formless self

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

I am beyond being a soul or not a soul

I am forever shining forth

I am beyond being a cause or not a cause

I am forever shining forth

I am beyond both nirvana and bondage

I am forever shining forth

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

Unlimited by a beginning

I am forever shining forth

Unlimited by the continuing play

I am forever shining forth

Unlimited by the destruction of all

I am forever shining forth

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

Though you may be spoken of

You have neither name or form

Whether you are divided or undivided

There is nothing here but you

Oh mind, Oh shameless wandering mind

Why do you weary yourself so

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

Why do you weep and moan my friend

There is no old age or death for you

Why do you weep and moan my friend

There is no pain of birth for you

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You cannot be touched at all

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You have no form of your own

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You cannot be deformed

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You can never become old

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You can never lose your youth

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You can never lose your mind

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You have no organ of the senses

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You cannot be touched by lust

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You cannot be touched by greed

Why do you weep and moan my friend

You cannot be touched by infatuations

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

You and I are not attached to this world of ephemeral forms

It is only the shameless mind that divides the one into parts

Division and non-division are the same to you and to me

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

 

There’s no object of worship in your heart or in the state of Samadhi

There’s no object of worship in your heart or in the objective world

There’s no object of worship in your heart

I am beyond both place and time

I am nectarian knowledge, unchanging bliss,

I am everywhere like space

~*~

Avadhuta Gita is a Hindu text based on the principles of Advaita Vedanta (nondualism). It has been dated to approximately the 9th or 10th century. The singer of the Avadhuta Gita (gita = ‘song’) is Dattatreya, an Avadhuta.

Avadhuta is a Sanskrit term referring to a type of mystic or saint who is beyond egoic-consciousness. Such personalities ‘roam free like a child upon the face of the Earth’. An Avadhuta does not identify with their mind or body or ‘names and forms’. Such a person is held to be pure ‘consciousness’ in human form.

nectarian – ancient; sweet as nectar

(Notes taken from various sources on the Internet)

 

Do Unto Others

On By centerlesscenterIn Natural State

This command is only for an individual self – one who sees a world out there from the point of view of a me, I, limited body-mind, in here. There is no me and there is no world. There is no self and there is no other.

When you look deeply you can find no division, no separation, between self and other, between subject and object. Even to view the world, including your own body-mind, from the viewpoint of the ‘all-seeing witness’ is still a subtle division. All divisions are an illusion.

Find a true division now. Exactly where do you stop and the other begin?

As you gaze into a loved one’s eyes, where is the point at which your two gazes meet? Does your line of sight bore through their eyeballs and bump into the back of their skull? No! It’s one seamless, boundless experience, no point at which you can say, here is where my sight ends and the other begins.

When you hold a child’s hand, exactly where does the sensation of touch occur? Thought would say at the point at which skin meets skin. It appears this way from a limited point of view, but can you find an edge to either sensation? Isn’t it actually one sensation, one vibration?

Yes, you can say there is a you in here and a world out there – a doing-self and others to do upon. But this is the point from which all our problems arise. These are imagined divisions. See that if you remove all thought – this includes all concepts, all points of view – from the process and just go with the raw experience, you can find no separation whatsoever. And when there is no separation, what is left?

Love.