YOU ARE ALREADY THAT

"Everything is clear. It does not need to be made clear. It does not need to be made clear because it never was unclear.

Because you were never unclear there is no change required. You simply instinctively recognize that you have always been clear. The term 'lack of clarity' becomes meaningless. Lack of clarity is recognized to be impossible.... "

Indestructible Clarity
www.greatfreedom. org

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The Nature of Things

Seeing the emptiness of the phenomenal world relieves us of the heavy notion of things being solid or intrinsic. When we understand that nothing exists independently, everything that does arise seems more dreamlike and less threatening. This brings a deep sense of relaxation, and we feel less need to control our mind and circumstances. Because the nature of everything is emptiness, it is possible to view our life the way we would view a movie. We can relax and enjoy the show.

~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, from "The Theater of Reflection"

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Nisargadatta

Questioner: Why so much insistence on relinquishing all desires and fears? Are they not natural?

Maharaj: They are not. They are entirely mind-made. You have to give up everything to know that you need nothing, not even your body. Your needs are unreal, and your efforts are meaningless. You imagine that your possessions protect you. In reality they make you vulnerable. Realise yourself as away from all that can be pointed at as 'this' or 'that'.

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I recall meeting a spiritual teacher once. She complimented on my necklace. Without thinking I took it off to offer it to her. She quickly stopped me, but did something I will always remember... She had us hold the gift of intention, and release it to God, to Consciousness that surrounds everything. All was suddenly experienced as the Love of Gratitude, even though no physical gift was given.

~ Cathy Rosewell Jonas

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Student: Letting go of our egocentricity so we can experience awakening -- do you suppose it is peeled off us the way we peel an orange?

Adyashanti: Peeling is like having a dream at night in which you dream you are going to a therapist, and you start feeling better and better, and you feel like you are getting somewhere.
Awakening is as if you are sitting on the couch telling your story, and you are still a mess -- haven't gotten very far. Then all of a sudden you realize this is a dream, this isn't real, you're making it up. That's awakening. There's a big difference.

Student: I've made up all of it?

Adyashanti: The whole thing. But the awakeness in you is not dreaming. Only the mind is dreaming. It tells itself stories and wants to know if you're progressing. When you shift into wakefulness, you realize, "Wait, it's a dream. The mind is creating an altered state of reality, a virtual reality, but it's not true -- it's just thought." Thought can tell a million stories inside of awareness, and it's not going to change awareness one bit. The only thing that's going to change is the way the body feels. If you tell yourself a sad story, the body reacts to that. And if you tell yourself a self-agrandizing story, the body feels puffed up, confident. But when you realize it's all stories, there can be a vast waking up out of the mind, out of the dream. You don't awaken, what has eternally been awake realizes itself. That which is eternally awake is what you are.

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After Forty Years

After forty years
A few quietly spoken words
Have led me irrefutably to know
That hidden in the constellation I call
Mind, or
Heart
There truly is
The home
I never dared believe
Could be.

~ Jack Cain