SIT SILENTLY AND DO NOTHING

ZEN WILL BE YOUR PATH. Dhyana, meditation, will be your path... and Rinzai was one of the greatest meditators. His meditation is the simplest -- JUST SITTING AND DOING NOTHING.

IT IS THE SIMPLEST AND YET THE HARDEST -- because if people are told to do something, they can; even if it is difficult, they can manage to do. But when they are told not to do anything and just to sit, it becomes almost impossible. NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO DO NOTHING, nobody knows how not to do. People know how to do things; it is easier. Once the knack of it comes to your consciousness, you will laugh that it was so simple: one can simply sit.

So, start at least one hour sitting, mm? I will give you other groups that you can do, but make it a point that whenever you have time, to just sit silently under any tree. GO TO THE RIVER OR ANYWHERE AND JUST SIT. There is nothing else to do, just go on sitting for one hour. Thoughts will come -- let them come and go.

Rinzai's famous saying is: SITTING SILENTLY, DOING NOTHING, AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF. There is no need to do anything -- the grass is growing by itself. And so grows the soul... so grows the inner being!

~ OSHO

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THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING AT HOME has to be spread slowly, so that for twenty-four hours you are at home -- waking, sleeping. But this is possible only if you learn THE GREATEST ART OF BEING SILENT. Then you are settled in yourself. Then your whole energy is turned into a silent pool, without any ripples.

AND IF YOU CAN ATTAIN THIS STATE... existence does not want you to fulfill any other condition -- this is enough. You will be accepted, welcomed... by all the mysteries and all the splendor of existence. Right now, it is a small taste. But I have made it clear to you why it is happening.

YOU HAVE TO TRY IT ON YOUR OWN. Just go into the forest and sit silently, or by the side of the river, JUST SIT SILENTLY. Or just here in the ashram, anywhere, sit silently -- just being alert of whatever is happening all around, not thinking about it... what this bird is saying. They are not saying anything; they are just feeling so joyous in the early morning with the new life that the sun has brought again -- one day more to dance, to sing, to enjoy the whole expanse of the sky.

Just listen to them, the way you listen to me, and you will feel at home. And slowly, slowly you have to learn that it is not a question of listening, IT IS A QUESTION OF THE INNER CHATTER STOPPING. Then whenever you find the inner chattering is starting, simply say, "Shut up!" ...and you will suddenly be at home.

ONCE THE MIND UNDERSTANDS that you have found something greater, something better, something higher... slowly it recedes into the darkness. Its function is fulfilled; it is no more needed; it is an unwelcome guest.

~ OSHO

Reality As You Know It Does Not Exist

You Are Avoiding This Moment

If you really look,
you will see
you are avoiding
this moment,
you are avoiding
experiencing
this moment.

It is not that you
are somewhere else
and you have to get
back to here,

it is that you are
actively
avoiding this moment.

If you can really
be honest
and see this reflex
of avoiding this moment,
then you can really begin
to let it go
and drop into this moment.

You can begin
to let go of thinking
and experience what is here.

Our problems
make us important.
Our knowledge
makes us important.

They keep us
separated from this moment.

We hold on to our problems
and what we know
because we are scared
of the nothingness
underneath it.

We are afraid
of being nothing,
of being nobody.

We hold on to hope
and improvement
and 'feel good' quotes
because the present moment
is too vast and empty.

Yet the very thing
we keep avoiding
is the very thing
we are seeking.

The moment
you give it all up
and fully immerse yourself
in what is really here,
there is unconditional peace.

The silence of this moment
completes you.

~Kip Mazuy

Your Own Heart Is Waiting For You

There are still many gifts unopened from your birthday.

~ Hafiz

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Late Ripeness

Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.

One after another my former lives were departing,
like ships, together with their sorrow.

And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready now to be described better than they were before.

I was not separated from people,
grief and pity joined us.
We forget -- I kept saying --
that we are all children of the King.

For where we come from there is no division
into Yes and No, into is, was, and will be.

We were miserable, we used no more than a hundredth part
of the gift we received for our long journey.

Moments from yesterday and from centuries ago -
a sword blow, the painting of eyelashes before a mirror
of polished metal, a lethal musket shot, a caravel
staving its hull against a reef -- they dwell in us,
waiting for a fulfillment.

I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,
as are all men and women living at the same time,
whether they are aware of it or not.

~ Czeslaw Milosz

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"Immobility and silence are not inactive. The flower fills the space with perfume, the candle -- with light. They do nothing yet they change everything by their mere presence."

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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"This pure mind... shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don't perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising..."

~ Huang-po

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Whatever you've been doing, you're using your mind to do it. And your mind will always fool you. It will make you believe you're getting somewhere. You're becoming something great. But it's really the ego. It is the ego that is controlling the mind.

~ Robert Adams

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The entire conversation around awakening, awareness, satsang, advaita, enlightenment, nonduality, etc. was a huge distraction from Love. It is only when I saw, very recently, the pride of "wanting to be special" that I realized how lost I was. I cannot be special. I can only be kind, loving, generous, honest, loyal, humble and diligent in my effort to distinguish the difference between Love and fear.

~ Benjamin Smythe

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Your own Heart is waiting for you when you're sick and tired and done scouring the landscape of illusion for the substance and love it can never give you.

~Mags Deane

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Oh lovers, where are you going?
Who are you looking for?
Your beloved is right here.

She lives in your own neighborhood.
Her face is veiled.
She hides behind screens calling for you,
While you search and lose yourself
In the wilderness and the desert.

Cease looking for flowers,
There blooms a garden in your own home.
While you go looking for trinkets,
Your treasure house awaits you
In your own being

There is no need for suffering, God is here!

~ Rumi

Unstructured, Contentless and Ineffable

An Interview of Peter Fenner, Ph.D. by Alex Dijk for BewustZijn magazine

.....We set standards for our physical wellbeing that place a huge cost on the environment. We spend enormous amounts of money on our appearance: wearing the right clothes, trying to look young and attractive. In some weird way we want to be in optimum health, right up until the moment of our death! Globally, we expend vast amounts of energy and spend huge sums of money trying to retard the aging process and prolong life.

What a great asset it would be if we could just let ourselves age, for example, without holding on to some notion of agelessness or immortality. No one really believes that we can remain young forever, and still the illusion motivates us to spend enormous resources on trying to forestall the aging process.

The ecological alternative here is to discover how we already have everything that's needed to be fulfilled in the most comprehensive way possible. This isn't just a fanciful idea. There are hundreds of thousands of great spiritual masters throughout the ages that have shown us that this is possible. There are sages who lived in 'great bliss' in severe environments without any heating or air-conditioning, without the latest gadgets, and without the security of knowing that quality medical care was close at hand.

The ultimate benchmark that these sages offer us is the possibility of making the journey through aging and dying without losing a connection with the supernal bliss of unconditioned awareness. For these sages, death itself was a non-event. As the 16th Karmapa of Tibet said on his deathbed in 1981, 'nothing happens.'

....But more significantly, we can make our own experiment right now. Here we are. We've come together in this moment. How do we discover, first-hand, the very same reality that allowed the sages of the past and present to remain unperturbed in the face of the very same experiences that throw us into confusion, obsession, anger or fear.

The remarkable news is that nothing is needed in order to make this discovery. We don't need 'more time,' to be somewhere else, to receive a superior teaching, or engage in a special practice. All that's required is to see that we can be-that we are, in fact-already fulfilled. In this moment we don't need anything more. We don't need more money, a different body, a different partner-not in this very instant.

This moment-right now-is giving us everything we need just to be here; unassumingly, effortlessly, being 'no one' in particular, and with no need to be anywhere else. That's the magic of this moment. This moment is perfect. Why? Because don't need anything more. Here we are-you and me-in this tight, quite unique, perhaps slightly weird, but effortless conversation. We started with my observations about Buddhism and it's relevance to ecology, and here we are, not asking for anything more. This moment is giving us everything we need just to be here, in the simplest way possible. We don't need to be entertained, right now-enough is happening. We don't need a flashy car-we're not in it! In this moment, we don't need a different standard of living, or a better return on our investments- we are clothed, fed and comfortable. We have everything we need, in order to rest with 'what is.'

The beauty of this moment is that it's effortless and uncontrived. The magic of this moment is that it's ungraspable and ineffable. We can't say what 'this' moment is. It leaves without a trace or history. In the very same moment that it arises, it disappears. We can't say where it comes from, or where it goes. We can't even say 'where' this is, except that 'this' is where it is: where ever that is! We can't think about 'this' because there is nothing to think about. This is exactly what the sages mean when they say that 'this' is ineffable.

And now we can also see that if we are 'here' at the moment of our death, we have no fear. If we were to remain in this state, our death would be uneventful. The process of dying is nothing more than a continual letting go of everything at the conditioned level: our body, our friends, our possessions, our memories-in fact, the entire known world. At our death we say goodbye forever, to everything that we know and we never return. If we are here-resting in unconditioned awareness-everything can drop away with no grasping or attachment.

Read more of the article here:
http://www.nondualt raining.com/ nondual-ecology- interview- of-peter- fenner/

No Agenda Needed

The Self is not attained by doing anything, but remaining still and being as we are.

~ Ramana Maharshi

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Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save: they just stand there, shining.

~ Anne Lamott

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I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in the silence, and the truth comes to me.

~ Albert Einstein

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Strenuously seeking truth
by investigation and concentration,
one will never appreciate
the unthinkable simplicity and bliss
that abide at the core.

To uncover this fertile ground,
cut through the roots of complexity
with the sharp gaze of naked awareness,
remaining entirely at peace,
transparent and content.

You need not expend great effort
nor store up extensive spiritual power.
Remain in the flow of sheer awareness.

~ Tilopa

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Listening, non-directed attention, is the natural, the inbuilt functioning of the brain.

~ Jean Klein

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The Truth is the only thing you’ll ever run into that has no agenda. Everything else will have an agenda. Everything. That is why the Truth is so powerful. Give up your agendas and continue to expose yourself, and harmonization will naturally occur.

~ Adyashanti

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Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.

~ Chogyam Trungpa

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When there is a wound deep inside a person, he will try to share that with other people. What else can he do? You just recognize: "Oh, he needs compassion." Compassion is the only medicine. Unconditional love is the only treatment.

~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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Your purpose is to be at peace, to love all beings, and to know who you are. This is the purpose of life. Slowly you will know this and get through.

~ Papaji

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Ah, not to be cut off,
not through the slightest partition
shut out from the law of the stars.
The inner -- what is it?
if not the intensified sky,
hurled through with birds and deep
with the winds of homecoming

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Jean Klein: The Seeker IS the Sought

Student: And during this stay there was a moment of enlightenment?

Jean Klein: Yes, it was a total switch-over from the residual conditioned state to the unconditioned state. Awareness expanded completely and I felt myself in globality.

Student: Had this ever happened before?

Jean Klein: No. There had been glimpses, but this was more than a glimpse. There was no going back. I had found my real ground.

Student: Did you know in the moment that it would be permanent or did you discover this in the days that followed?

Jean Klein: Because of the quality of the switch-over there was no doubt that I could be taken again by duality, and this was confirmed in the days and weeks that followed. I felt a rectification in my body and in my brain, as if all the parts had found their right place, their most comfortable position. I saw all events spontaneously appearing in the non-state, in my total Absence, real Presence.

Student: Could you say what were the exact conditions, physical and mental, before this moment?

Jean Klein: There had been, for two years, a retreat of all the energy commonly used in becoming, so that when some birds crossed my horizon, instead of becoming lost in them, they were lost in me and I found myself in awareness free from all objects. This time, what I admired, the birds, dissolved in my admiring, in Presence. And admiring dissolved in the Admired. Before the birds appeared, I had been in a profound and prolonged state of being open to openness. Now I found myself AS the openness, identical with the openness. Openness was my being. There was no more duality.

Student: Was there any other difference between this time and other times when you had looked at birds?

Jean Klein: Before, there was a looker looking at something. This was a moment when there was simply looking without a looker. Previously, it had been my nature to live in pure perception with objects, not living in the divided mind. I had for a long time ignored the arising of all qualifications.

Student: Ignored?

Jean Klein: It belongs to the traditional approach, and so that of my teacher, never to refuse or indulge in the coming up of qualifications, but simply to ignore, and eventually forget about them. neither to look for freedom nor avoid non-freedom. The mind simply ceased to play a role except in a purely functional way.

Student: How is life different now?

Jean Klein: There is no more identification with time and space, body, senses, and mind. All events simply happen in awareness.

Student: Did your relationships change?

Jean Klein: There was no more relationship. As there's no longer an "I", there is not another.

Student: Can this non-dual state be described at all?

Jean Klein: It is love where the mind is dissolved in love. The seeker IS the sought, and is always so very, very near.

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True detachment comes when things leave us of themselves. And they leave us as soon as we have really understood that they never keep their promises.

~ Jean Klein

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The natural state of the relaxed brain is multidimensional attention. It does not need viewpoints, data, opinions, memory to be alert. When all the directions cease, an organic, non-directed watchfulness remain.
This is the threshold of "I am."

~ Jean Klein

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"Taking oneself to be a person is a habit just like any other. It is the desire to be distinct from one's surroundings, different from others. The person exists when it is formulated as a thought, so we can see that it is nothing but a memory. Repetition gives it a hold, a locality in which to situate itself."

~ Jean Klein

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"Where there's an ego there is purpose. And when there is no sense of "I" there is no purpose. Life is purposeless. There's only beauty in living in the eternal. If you believe you are the individual "I" you are isolated from your surroundings, and this isolation brings feelings of insecurity, fear and anxiety. Then you look for goals. You worry and anticipate. Life doesn't need a reason to be. That is it's beauty."

~ Jean Klein

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"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, fullness."

~ Jean Klein

Charisma Does Not Equal Enlightenment

Selling Water by the River

In speaking regularly with spiritual seekers, it dawned on me one day how addicted so many of them are to the power of charisma. They swap stories about how powerful this or that teacher is and compare experiences. They get a charge from it, many mistaking charisma for enlightenment. Charisma attracts at all levels: political, sexual, spiritual, etc., and it feeds the ego's desire to feel special. The ego loves getting hits of power—it's like a form of spiritual candy. The candy may be sweet but can you live on it? Does it make you free?

Freedom is not necessarily exciting; it's just free. Very peaceful and quiet, so very quiet. Of course, it is also filled with joy and wonder, but it is not what you imagine. It is much, much less. Many mistake the intoxicating power of otherworldly charisma for enlightenment. More often than not it is simply otherworldly, and not necessarily free or enlightened. In order to be truly free, you must desire to know the truth more than you want to feel good. Because if feeling good is your goal, then as soon as you feel better you will lose interest in what is true. This does not mean that feeling good or experiencing love and bliss is a bad thing. Given the choice, anyone would choose to feel bliss rather than sorrow. It simply means that if this desire to feel good is stronger than the yearning to see, know, and experience Truth, then this desire will always be distorting the perception of what is Real, while corrupting one's deepest integrity.

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Enlightenment has nothing to do with states of consciousness. Whether you are in ego consciousness or unity consciousness is not really the point. I have met many people who have easy access to advanced states of consciousness. Though for some people this may come very easily, I also notice that many of these people are no freer than anyone else. If you don't believe that the ego can exist in very advanced states of consciousness, think again. The point isn't the state of consciousness, even very advanced ones, but an awake mystery that is the source of all states of consciousness. It is even the source of presence and beingness. It is beyond all perception and all experience. I call it "awakeness." To find out that you are empty of emptiness is to die into an aware mystery, which is the source of all existence. It just so happens that that mystery is in love with all of its manifestation and non-manifestation. You find your Self by stepping back out of yourself.

~ Adyashanti

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Today I Awoke

Today I awoke, finally I see the Self has re-turned to the Self.
The Self is none other than the Self.
I am deathless. I am endless. I am free.
The birds outside sing…
The birds outside sing and there am I.
The seeing of leaves on the trees, that seeing am I.
The body breathes, breathing am I.
I am awake and I know that I am awake.
Seen from the old eyes, everything is asleep, a game, a delusion.
But now I am awake. I am the play. I am the game. I am the
delusion.
I am the enlightenment I sought, looking everywhere.
Nothing is separate, nothing is alone.
I am all that I see. All that I smell, taste, touch, feel, think
and know.
I am awake and this awakeness is the same as Shyakyamuni Buddha’s.
Today the leaf has returned to the root.
I am all name and form and beyond all name and form.
I am Spirit, no longer trapped in a body.
I am free. I am free because I am awake.
So ordinary. Who would have thought ? Who could have guessed?
I am home. I am really home. Ten thousand life times.
Ten thousand life times but today I am home.
Ten thousand life times but today I am home.
This is not an experience. This is me.
I am awake. Finally, I am awake.
Nothing has changed, but I am awake.
Before I tasted the root many times and felt, how delicious.
Today I became the root. How ordinary.

~ Adyashanti: My Secret is Silence: Poetry and Sayings of Adyashanti

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Rest and Be Taken

When there is deep abundance
there is nowhere to abide.
There is nowhere to rest
or grasp onto
and yet there is rest

The sky abides
yet it never rests.
Neither can we say that
the sky is not always at rest.
We talk about the sky
as if it were something
as if it actually exists -
and yet we cannot say that
the sky does not exist.
The sky is nothing but
coming and going.

Everything is perfectly spontaneous.
The coming and going arise mutually
instantaneously.
If the true I is asleep
you will miss the point entirely
and you will continue to dwell
in the world of opposites.

So see the two as one
and the one as empty
and be liberated
within the world of duality.

At first it seems
as if begoing follows becoming.
But look even closer
and you will see
that there are only
flashes of lightning
illuminating the empty sky.

Life and death
becoming and begoing
are only words.
In order to save your life
you must see that you die
instantaneously
moment to moment
instant to instant.

Now where are you going to abide?
And where are you not abiding already?

Indeed there is nowhere
to rest your head
and there is nothing but rest.
So let go of all ideas
about permanence and impermanence
about cause and effect
and about no cause and no effect.
All such notions are dualistic concepts.

The Truth of what you are
is completely beyond all duality
and all notions of non-duality,
and yet it includes duality
and non-duality alike.
Like an ocean
that is both waves and stillness
and yet un-definable
as waves or stillness.

The truth of being
cannot be grasped by ideas
or experiences.
Both waves and stillness
are the manifest activity
or your own self.
But self cannot be defined
by its activity
nor by its non-activity.
The truth is
all-transcendent
ungraspable, all-inclusive
and closer than your own skin.

A single thought about it
obscures its essence.
The perfume of true life
is right in your nose.
There is nothing you can do
to perceive it
and yet you must do something.
I say:
Rest and be taken.
Rest and be taken.

~ Adyashanti: My Secret is Silence: Poetry and Sayings of Adyashanti

To read more poems:
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/A/Adyashanti /index.htm#PoemList

http://www.adyashanti.org

The Most Important Thing

Words exist for meaning,
but once you understand the meaning,
you can throw away the words.

~ Chuang Tzu

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"A strange passion is moving in my head, My heart has become a bird which searches in the sky. Every part of me goes in different directions. Is it really so that the one I love is Everywhere?"

~ Jalal-Uddin Rumi

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"The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing."

~ Shunryu Suzuki.

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"Saints and ordinary folks are the same from the start. Inquiring about a difference is like asking to borrow string when you've got a good strong rope. Every Dharma is known in the heart."

~ Hsu Yun

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"When we practice zazen [meditation] , all that exists is the movement of the breathing, but we are aware of this movement. You should not be absent-minded. But to be aware of the movement does not mean to be aware of your small self, but rather of your universal nature, or Buddha nature. This kind of awareness is very important, because we are usually so one-sided. Our usual understanding of life is dualistic: you and I, this and that, good and bad. But actually these discriminations are themselves the awareness of the universal existence. "You" means to be aware of the universe in the form of you, and "I" means to be aware of it in the form of I. You and I are just swinging doors.."

~ Shunryu Suzuki

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"Even when the light begins to dawn in zazen, we don't get attached to that either. If you start to see what the world is really made up of, if it comes apart in tiny glowing, luminous pieces for you, don't be attached to that either. It's important to just keep walking. It doesn't matter where you're at in the way--if you're at the beginning or far along-- the instructions are the same: Keep walking with an open heart while the wonder comes over you."

~ John Tarrant

All is Truth

The spiritual journey does not consist of arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one's own ignorance concerning oneself and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening.

~ Aldous Huxley

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Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity - but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our "biography", our partners, family home, job, friends, credit cards...It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?

Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn't that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

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I ask you only to stop imagining that you were born, have parents, are a body, will die and so one. Just try, make a beginning ---- it is not as hard as you think.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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For me, it is as though at every moment the actual world had completely lost its actuality. As though there was nothing there; as though there were no foundations for anything or as though it escaped us. Only one thing, however, is vividly present: the constant tearing of the veil of appearances; the constant destruction of everything in construction. Nothing holds together, everything falls apart.

~ Eugene Ionesco

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Oneness and unity aren't profound feelings or spiritual beliefs or altered states of consciousness, they're just plain old consciousness; unadorned, uncorrupted, uncontaminated. We don't have to attend lectures or read books or kneel before altars and wise men, we need only cleanse our perceptual faculties, rid ourselves of all egoic befuddlement, see what is and stop seeing what's not. No teaching or teacher or path or practice required, just simple honesty.

~ Jed McKenna, "Spiritual Warfare"

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Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself,
I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
And nothing fails its perfect return---
And that what are called lies are perfect returns,
And that each thing exactly represents itself,
and what has preceded it
And that the truth includes all, and is compact,
just as much as space is compact,
And that there is no flaw or vacuum
in the amount of the truth---
but that all is truth without exception;
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.

~ Walt Whitman

Why the Power of Mind Over Matter is Important

Have you ever wondered how powerful your mind really is? Have you ever considered that if one human can achieve the most amazing feats then we all possess the same potential?

There are indeed amazing feats of mind over matter like the Yogi in India who lives without food and water, the story of Coral Castle where one man cut and moved solid stones larger than those used in the pyramids, or the proven telekinetic powers of Nina Kulagina.

These cases, and others involving transcending the material world like cases of extrasensory perception (ESP), are typically viewed as paranormal events. However, these seemingly impossible phenomenon may become more widely accepted as we better understand the implications of quantum mechanics.

Quantum physics has proven that all matter at the subatomic level exists in wave form, and that matter only appears solid when we, as the observer, use our senses to decode and perceive the wave patterns in space and time. Significantly, thoughts, especially concentrated thoughts, also form measurable wave patterns. And thought waves have proven to affect observable matter in the physical world.

Droplet with "Thank You"

In his book called The Hidden Messages in Water, Masaru Emoto explains his experiments on water crystals which proved that droplets of water form different shapes when frozen with words associated to each sample. For example, the sample droplets would have phrases like I love you, thank you, or I hate you written next to them. The frozen droplets would form glorious snowflake-like crystals with the words love and thank you, but a nasty oil splotch-like design next to the word hate. As stated in the movie What the bleep do we know?, "If thoughts and words have that much power over water, imagine what they do to us," as we are formed of between 60%-80% water, based on our age.

If our thoughts have the power to manifest changes in the physical world, then controlling our thoughts would seem to be of utmost importance. As popularized in the book and movie The Secret, thoughts will manifest into reality. Simply put, thoughts become things -- even negative thoughts. The examples laid out in The Secret are mostly about people attracting wealth, health, or relationships to themselves through positive thinking and visualization exercises.

Droplet with "You make me sick.
I will kill you"

What's more, physicists have also discovered that at the quantum level all particles (matter) seem to somehow be connected to all other particles through what they call entanglement. Tests show that particles that were created together will react instantly to the same stimuli presented to one of them no matter how far apart they are in perceivable space. And assuming the Big Bang theory is correct, then all particles that created the known universe are forever entangled.

This detectable connection between all particles represents profound implications. First, this would seem to mean that on the subatomic level we are scientifically one with everything and everybody. And second, this connectivity and oneness would seem to provide unlimited power for the individual to imprint changes to the whole with his thoughts. Lastly, it may ultimately solve many paranormal mysteries.

This connectivity would appear to help explain the mechanics behind extrasensory perception (ESP), which is now a statistically measurable phenomenon on average humans. So much so that a recent Cornell University study on ESP has been published in the prestigious Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Psychological Association.

If we are connected to all things past, present and future -- and all things are frequency ranges that cannot be destroyed -- then space and time does not exist as we think of it. So, in a sense, we are connected to the dinosaurs who still technically exist, only in a undetectable frequency range. In turn, all human souls, or intelligent consciousnesses if you prefer, consistently exist in a timeless, space-less frequency range. It is this concept that may help explain precognition, channeling, reincarnation, telepathy, etc. In other words, people who have these abilities and experiences may simply be tuning into a different frequency on their extrasensory dial.

As outrageous as it may be to believe, we all would seem to possess these great powers of the mind to transcend and effect the physical world. Minimally, each of us clearly plays a distinct role in creating, not only our personal reality, but also collective reality though our thoughts and beliefs. These thoughts, if conditioned to focus on negative or fearful feelings, will likely result in more manifestations of negativity in the world through more economic collapse, natural disasters, wars, suffering, and other events that feed off our fears.

Although most fears propagated by those with an agenda are an illusion, even seemingly legitimate fears that help us survive in the material world may also be fictitious. After all, if the energy of our being, by laws of nature, cannot be created or destroyed, death is nothing more than a transformation of our eternal frequency. Therefore, not even death should be feared.

The lesson is that if each of our minds has great power over what manifests in the world, it would seem to nullify the blame game of all problems in the world. Incidentally, each of us, by way of connection on the subatomic level and fear-bound complacency on the physical level, are partially responsible for all global atrocities. To place angry blame on a specific group who represents a given atrocity would only seem to feed the darkest manifestation of what this group promotes.

This idea was highlighted by Gandhi who stated that a movement is much more powerful when it promotes what it stands for, rather than fight against what it opposes. Hence, those who seek to make the world a better place would be far more effective by focusing their energy and thoughts on solutions to what they oppose. This is not to say we should not acknowledge our distaste for unsavory events like war, environmental disasters, economic injustice, and the like. However, we should not allow our anger to become hatred of the perpetrators themselves, but rather to help concentrate our focus on manifesting the world we wish to see around us.

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/why-power-of-mind-over-matter-is.html

On Being Ordinary

Don't try to understand what I'm saying. These are just pointers. I don't understand what I'm saying either. Pointers point to the state of direct realization but they're not a substitute for it.

~ Eckhart Tolle

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“The nice thing is that when you stop waiting for the mind to stop doing what it does, you start to realize it doesn’t matter how long the mind does what it does. There’s still this direct taste, this sense of being. So waiting is unnecessary. It’s just another concept.”

~ Adyashanti

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To say something meaningful,
Get in the circle of silent ones
And be silent.

~ Rumi

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I felt in need of a great pilgrimage
so I sat still for three
days

and God came
to me.

~ Kabir

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The desire to find the self will be surely fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in the meantime you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges. Go within, without swerving, without ever looking outward.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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In Master Linji's time, some Buddhist terms were used so often they became meaningless. People chewed on terms like “liberation” and “enlightenment” until they lost their power. It’s no different today.

What is a True Person?

“As I see it, there isn’t so much to do. Just be ordinary—put on your robes, eat your food, and pass the time doing nothing.”

~ Master Linji

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Insight can’t be found in sutras, commentaries, verbal expression, or —isms. Liberation and awakened understanding can’t be found by devoting ourselves to the study of the Buddhist scriptures. This is like trying to find fresh water in dry bones. Returning to the present moment, using our clear mind which exists right here and now, we can be in touch with liberation and enlightenment, as well as with the Buddha and the patriarchs as living realities right in this moment. The person who has nothing to do is sovereign unto herself. She doesn’t need to put on airs or leave any trace behind.

The true person is an active participant, engaged in her environment while remaining unoppressed by it. Although all phenomena are going through the various appearances of birth, abiding, changing, and dying, the true person doesn’t become a victim of sadness, happiness, love, or hate. She lives in awareness as an ordinary person, whether standing, walking, lying down, or sitting. She doesn’t act a part, even the part of a great Zen master. This is what Master Linji means by “being sovereign wherever you are and using that place as your seat of awakening.”

We may wonder, “If a person has no direction, isn’t yearning to realize an ideal, doesn’t have an aim in life, then who will help living beings be liberated, who will rescue those who are drowning in the ocean of suffering?” A Buddha is a person who has no more business to do and isn’t looking for anything. In doing nothing, in simply stopping, we can live freely and true to ourselves and our liberation will contribute to the liberation of all beings.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Simple Enlightenment

Enlightenment is not about words and thoughts and concepts which can be doubted. Enlightenment is always Here.

By "Here" I don't mean this present space. Here is somewhere within where mind cannot reach. Presence is always Here and you are always That. This Here is not the opposite of "there." This Here is nowhere, it is your Heart. When mind is still all comes back to the Heart. All the cosmos is but a speck in your Heart.

Turn mind over into This Here and it is lost. Then only Light, Wisdom and Love remain and This you are not different or apart from.

~ Papaji

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I love Jesus, who said to us:
heaven and earth will pass away.
When heaven and earth have passed away,
my word will still remain.
What was your word, Jesus?
Love? Forgiveness? Affection?
All your words were
one word: Wakeup.

~ Antonio Machado

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Ninth Duino Elegy

Praise the world to the angel: leave the unsayable aside.
Your exalted feelings do not move him.
In the universe, where he feels feelings, you are a beginner.
Therefore show him what is ordinary, what has been
shaped from generation to generation, shaped by hand and eye.
Tell him of things. He will stand still in astonishment,
the way you stood by the ropemaker in Rome
or beside the potter on the Nile.
Show him how happy a thing can be, how innocent and ours,
how even a lament takes pure form,
serves as a thing, dies as a thing,
while the violin, blessing it, fades.

And the things, even as they pass,
understand that we praise them.
Transient, they are trusting us
to save them - us, the most transient of all.
As if they wanted in our invisible hearts
to be transformed
into - oh, endlessly - into us.

Earth, isn't this what you want? To arise in us, invisible?
Is it not your dream, to enter us so wholly
there's nothing left outside us to see?
What, if not transformation,
is your deepest purpose? Earth, my love,
I want that too. Believe me,
no more of your springtimes are needed
to win me over - even one flower
is more than enough. Before I was named
I belonged to you. I seek no other law
but yours, and know I can trust
the death you will bring.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

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I clean my teeth in water drawn from a cold well;
And while I brush my clothes, I purify my mind;
Then, slowly turning pages in the Tree-Leaf Book,
I recite, along the path to the eastern shelter.
...The world has forgotten the true fountain of this teaching
And people enslave themselves to miracles and fables.
Under the given words I want the essential meaning,
I look for the simplest way to sow and reap my nature.
Here in the quiet of the priest's temple courtyard,
Mosses add their climbing colour to the thick bamboo;
And now comes the sun, out of mist and fog,
And pines that seem to be new-bathed;
And everything is gone from me, speech goes, and reading,
Leaving the single unison.

Liu Zongyuan
773–819

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The Art of Seeking

"Time is ticking. Fast, hurry, seek what you are trying to find!"

That is what I said to myself when my seeking hit the roof. I had to do something in order to achieve enlightenment.

It all started when I was 18 years. I started doing meditation after listening to a new age program on the Dutch radio station. I am 33 now and I did not know anything about enlightenment or spirituality or whatever you want to name it. So there I was, meditating for 5 minutes each day. Thoughts were all over the place, scattered as if they came from a bombshell. I read about Buddhism online and I did not understand anything about what they said.

I didn't know anything about God/Brahman/ Life itself. I was never a believer in the catholic God and thought going to church was kind of ignorance.
Going to heaven after I die? Was it my fault that I was born?
So I turned on the TV one night and Osho (an Indian mystic) said the following words 'you are not the doer, you are a watcher'. This trying to figure out who the doer was started right there that night.

So time flew but enlightenment and Self realization did not make any sense. When I was 27 or so, I typed the question on Google "who am I?" I came to an advaita site of Ramana Maharshi. It sounded good to me. As I went to YouTube, I found other advaita/non- duality teachers talk about it. When I listened to Tony Parsons saying 'everything just happens for no one', something clicked. Surely, hearing, smelling and feeling were happening on their own accord. If ever enlightenment was that easy! I couldn't believe it. I thought I had it. I thought that it happened to someone.

Darkness, separation and no Brahman/Source/ Life to be found anywhere!

Help! I saw myself as a separate doer, doing stuff in life, not knowing that that very thought of being a doer also was just perfectly happening on its own accord. SO I believed in this whole seeking mind game and all of its diverse thoughts. One day the mind started to talk in the 'you' form. So I wondered. Are there two separate selves?

But very recently things started to change. I had glimpses. They went away as fast as they came. I should be happy knowing that I was enlightened. I had it in my hands! I finally arrived.

Reality check!

Who is it that becomes enlightened?

Who is it that wants to get rid of the doer?

Who is it that seeks?

Isn't it so that all of these divine things are also happening perfectly?

So yes, writing this post is happening on by itself. And there is something still 'knowing' that it happens that doesn't require effort and pain. It is there.

This/Life itself is a knowing which knows:

- itching sensation on my left leg
- deep inhalation
- sounds
- tapping
- legs crossed on the ground
- coldness on the nose
- a thought saying ' if there is no one, who or better say what knows that this very thought is happening'
- smile
- humming of the PC
- moistening of lips
- blinking
- another thought saying why I wasn't aware of the blinking before
- laughter
- another thought saying that there is a noticing/ knowing that knows that I wasn't aware if there is an I!

So all of these things seem to happen and the 'you' cannot figure out this doership. You cannot surrender either or let go. It happens or not. In my case seeking was an obsession, like a day-job. The pre-thought 'I am going to wiggle my toe whenever I want' was my seeking experiment for 2 years but step by step in the story of Javier (if there is a step by step), there was an understanding that subtle actions were happening too, including concentration, sending imaginary signals to the toe, closing the eyes and forcing it to move the toe. Hilarious really but just OK. So there seems to be a process here NOW of dismantling subtle layers of belief and subtle thoughts of identification. So self inquiry into the doership can be the way. Or more correctly, there is no way ... there is only 'waying' by no one.

Life is living you. You are not having a Life. Of course, don't say this to an apparent anyone who believes they are separate. 'You' might end up in a separate isolation room!

It couldn't have happened in another way. So trust what you know or don't know. It is one big paradox!

~ Javier

http://beyond- advaita.blogspot .com/2011/ 04/art-of- seeking-by- javier.html

No Thoughts, No Words - Benjamin Smythe

Find your mute button. Ben calls it "find the thinker". Others might call it something else. Does it really matter? When thinking ends, all that is left is the One looking at itself in the mirror, laughing. And then the mind starts up with a discussion about the proper word to use to describe it. Too funny! Enjoy these two videos, Ben really simplifies the whole business of awakening to its primary, primordial components. It ain't rocket science, folks!

Not For The Faint Of Heart - From the Council of 12

An excerpt from http://lightworkers.org/channeling/127630/not-faint-heart

"...We come to You today with this Message because it is time for the Truth and it is time that You awaken to the world of darkness You have created. There are dark forces of energy at work, playing in the realms of Your mind, and because You have allowed this to be so for so long, You have forgotten that You are only dreaming. There was a time, long ago, when most of You knew You were only dreaming this dream so that God could experience Itself as Love… but over time, corruption has happened, and so many of You have fallen into a deep, deep slumber.

The dark energies of this earth are being called into the Truth of The Light. They are being held accountable for what they have created. And now this can be seen as many of You are waking up to what has really been allowed to go on in Your world. You are all being held accountable. This is what karma is. You are not being punished, no, that is never a word a Being of Love would use. You are simply being held accountable, on every level, for every unloving thought You CHOOSE TO HOLD. This is the reality of what is happening on Your earth, in truth. There is nothing more or less going on here. You can sugar-coat this all You like, but the truth of the matter is this: what You are experiencing is as a direct result of the thoughts and feelings each and every one of You has individually and collectively chosen to hold in place of love. Plain and simple.

When You talk about Gaia and “Her” transition and “Her” shedding You take the heat and accountability off of Yourselves. You displace all of that and act once again as though You have no part in this. You seem to either look at this as being detached from Mother earth and what ‘She’ is going through… or You seem to feel You are being violently punished because ‘She’ is angry for what You have done to the earth. The truth is, neither of these are actually what is happening. You have created this all by Yourselves, and now when everything is coming back in reflection for You – in such a way You cannot run and hide—You all want to blame someone else. ‘It’s the Gov’t. It’s the greedy corporate people, it’s the people who don’t care about the environment.’

Let Us say now, there is not one of You who is completely innocent from what has now become of Mother earth. Why? Because all of You have feelings of negativity to overcome. That is why You came to the earth. You have created martyrs of Yourselves in many ways, rather than stopping to look at how You played a role in creating the current state of affairs.

Do not mistake Our speaking to You about dark energies as [if] We are blaming or judging. This is not true. We are pointing the finger at each and every person on the planet who has not taken a personal account of what he or she may have put out in terms of thoughts, words, and actions to create this state of destruction and chaos. And this finger isn’t an angry and condemning finger, it is simply to say, before You spend one more moment looking around Yourself for someone to cast blame and throw stones at, perhaps You should look at how You think and speak every day.

Because this is truly it, Dear Ones. This is where You are powerful and have given up Your power to the dark energies of which We speak. Every word You utter out of anger is an energy that strengthens the forces that seek to destroy this planet. You have the choice right here and now to make a change. You do not need to change the world, in fact, You shouldn’t even be focused on changing ANYTHING other than Your own thoughts. We mean this most seriously. The life of this planet and every living thing upon it is in a state of peril, let Us help You by illuminating, without question, where the real problem lies…within You-YOUR mind. The world You see is a world You have co-created. God, the Loving Being of Graciousness and Free Will has given all of You the ability to use the very gift of thought to create. It is with this thought You paint upon the canvas of Your individual and collective lives what You truly want to see.

Your thoughts, not aligned with God, produce hell on earth. Your thoughts, aligned with God and Love, create Heaven on earth. And all of this starts WITHIN. No one should be focused on any other living soul’s change until they have fully and completely mastered their own mind. If You are focused on Your brother’s negativity, and have not yet mastered Your own, then You are a hypocrite and nothing more. We want to release You all to Love, knowing that You ARE powerful enough to make this happen for the world, as a Whole. But, You must understand that You are sitting with the keys and do not know what to use them for. You have the power, but are just giving it away out of ignorance.

There doesn’t need to be any violence or protest, that again, re-enforces the power of the dark. So many of You do not get this. You think if You go out, highly charged with emotion You will create change. You are creating NOTHING more than more of the same. Do You hear Us? You are empowering what You do not want and giving Your energy over to the darkness You want so much to vanquish. That which You resist persists. If You say “NO!” the Universe doesn’t hear this. It just hears I want more of this please because I haven’t learned how to control my mind.

The greatest power You all have is stillness and turning within. If You were to stop the mental chatter for just one hour a day, Your world would change dramatically, if not over night. But instead, You chatter, chatter, chatter, feeding the ‘beast’ more of Your energy by sharing negative dreams all around the internet. This is not true for all of You, for We cannot make a blanket statement, but, for the most part, in an act to wake people from the dream, You are only empowering it. This is what We wish to illuminate here to day."

Click HERE to continue...

Who Are You?

“It really doesn’t matter.
Here goes nothing.
It will be interesting to see what happens.”

~ Sloan Wilson – The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* *******

I mostly do not write on my own blog, because I figure everything that needs to be said has already been said a million times, and why add to the cacophony? But I’ve just come out of a rather intensive self-imposed retreat, and there is something that wishes to explore its findings to itself. After all, there’s only this One Thing talking to itself all the time, attempting to get its own attention, wanting to remind itself of its true nature.

There’s only one story ever told and it goes like this: first, there is harmony, then chaos ensues, and then there is a successful (or sometimes unsuccessful) attempt to resolve the chaos in order to return to harmony. All stories have this same central theme, though the details vary.

This is the story that all of Life is telling itself, as it attempts to resolve the appearance of separation. What has been forgotten is why this world was created in the first place.

Consider a vast nothingness, an infinite womb, and then out of nowhere, an idea, a spark of creativity appears, the possibility of nothing knowing itself as something. The essence of this appearance could be called love, this sudden desire for nothing to become something and look upon itself. And Life begins to multiply upon itself in its vastness and create more and more diverse and fantastic depictions of itself.

Fast forward to this moment. The experiment has turned in on itself, so successful in its degrees of otherness that it no longer recognizes itself as one. The story has become so vast and complex that the One is completely distracted from the only story, which is the one that returns it to harmony. This is your story. Everything and everyone who you seek out to help you resolve your lack of harmony, every teacher, book, workshop, whatever, is you looking in a mirror to find yourself. The trick is to turn around and look at who is looking.

The battles within and without are an attempt to continue the story of separation. Why? Why do you want to continue to live a fragmented version of yourself? You say you want wholeness and healing, peace and freedom, love and harmony, but who are you kidding? If you truly wanted it you would have it. You are still somewhat entertained by all the craziness and chaos, admit it. All the loneliness, all the suffering, all the pathos, you’re making it up as you go along.

On the other hand, this story has been played out in so many versions over the millennia, in some ways it has become tiresome and rather ho-hum. Really, I mean how much more violence and mayhem, the self against the self, this holding onto a concept of otherness, how much longer do you want to hold out? Aren’t you tired of it all? Maybe not…..

Because the ET’s might come, and the Ascended Masters will show up, and there will be heaven on earth, and no more struggle for survival, and yada, yada, yada. More story, keep it going, play some more. That’s OK. It’s all perfect. It’s your story (satori).

Well, in my version of this story, the One finally recognizes itself as Not Two, never was never will be. And in the final gazing, One into the eyes of the One, the love is so huge and tremendous that it bursts the boundaries of creation and dissolves back into absolute Nothingness from which it all arose in the first place. End of story. Wow!

And then I woke up this morning, and the cats were meowing to get in, and the phone rang, and I made coffee, and I sat and watched the wind blow the leaves and branches of this giant tree in my backyard, and this idea began to form in my brain as to writing something on my blog. Go figure.

So will this little missive change anything? Probably not. Maybe. I think there are only two people in the entire known Universe who read this thing, who knows?. In turning to look upon what is inherently true in one's consciousness, perhaps what arises is a sense of responsibility for everything, a realization that outside is only a projection of what has become unacceptable inside, and even the very idea of inside and outside becomes erroneous. The enemy is whatever you have said no to. Neti, neti, not this, not that. But how can that be, when everything that exists is you? Everything! Even the idea of an enemy exists because we wish to annihilate whatever stands in the way of Oneness, we just made the mistake of thinking it was out there! As if that were possible…

Every conflict is the resurrecting of the same story, over and over, countless scenarios, one after the other, always seeking something more. I guess resting in sublime contentment seems rather blasé in comparison. But not for this one. I can’t seem to find anything that wants something other than what’s right here. The addictions have fallen away. I know where it all leads. It no longer interests me. My attention keeps turning to what is looking through these eyes and stopping there. Even food is a distraction. I don’t even care why this is so. This questioner has no questions left.

There is still a narrative playing in this mind, but it is its own merry-go-round of entertainment, slowly winding down because the ticket booth is closed. It’s closing in on itself, no where to go but a leap into the void. Like a caged animal it paces, the mind seeking some escape, but all the avenues are shut down and there’s no place left to land.

Why am I writing this? The invitation is for all parts of myself to enter this exploration of what has always been and forever will be the only truth, and that is YOU ARE IT!

Got it? Good.

******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* *******

One of the strange properties of being me
is I don’t want to be ignored,
but I don’t want to be seen either.
Sometimes I am my only witness.
I AM a mirror within which
I reflect myself;
my own mind and consciousness
a vast and fascinating playground
where I dance for myself
and engage myself
in scintillating conversation.

I argue with my ghostly
and mostly imaginary past,
shaking my fist at the inner critic
who boasted its way
into becoming a feature of my brain,
and while I drag my neural sea
for the anchoring point,
and practice eroding new paths
into presently pristine fields,
my own voice narrates.
Each corner turned, each breath taken,
each mundane and extraordinary task is
noted, verified, examined, reiterated,
some flushed, some filed,
some deified, others exiled.
It is constant,
my rambling and eloquent
talk with myself.

If I found a way
to package, publish, and exhibit
this artistic performance and
masterpiece of life,
I would be no different
than all the other needy, greedy
children crying for worldly attention,
and I would miss the lone applause
that only I can gift myself.
I would forget that
in closing my outer eyes
I see everything,
have everything,
am everything,
and opening them again
just brings into sharp focus
the state of the romantic interlude
I’m having with me.

I remember now.
The rest doesn’t matter.
Solid things are more ephemeral than
soap bubbles
when the attention shifts.
Only looking closely
makes it real and tangible,
brings it to human life,
a form through which I may
caress my skin,
kiss my lips and breasts,
and make my heart pound wildly
until passion, exhausted,
closes again my eyes,
and I surrender, smiling,
into luxurious sleep.

I dream of new ways to awaken
while the old familiar faces/places
appear once again on the horizon,
imploring me to continue my line of thought
for one more day.

I comply.
If only to follow the story line
and take in the surprise ending.
For as many things I think I know
I don’t.
As far as I may have come,
every point in eternity is
a beginning place.
I might as well be a child forever,
in wonderment at my own fingers
and the timeless pace of snails.
Today I am fresh as tears,
watching from the center of everything,
and no one is here but me.

~ Suzen

Authentic Inquiry

What is inquiry, really? This is a good question. And like most really good questions, it is very basic. Authentic inquiry is allowing yourself to care, to take on the weightless burden of caring. Everyone knows what it’s like to inquire out of intellectual interest—asking for the sake of asking or because you think you should. This is not caring. When you care about something, it gets inside of you. It gets inside the shell that keeps you from being affected or bothered, the shell that keeps anything really new from happening.

So in the beginning, to deeply inquire about anything, you have to care about it. You have to care enough to allow it to get inside that shell. What do you really care about? What pulls you into here and now, this minute? What is the most important thing to you? For real inquiry, it is important to be asking about something you sincerely care about. The question needs to be personal, not about a spiritual teaching or something that’s outside of your experience. It needs to be something that’s coming from the inside.

When you care, you care from the inside. Many people impose ideas from the outside upon themselves, but this isn’t inquiry. When you really care, you enter a love affair with what you care about. Sometimes it draws you into bliss, sometimes into confusion. You don’t know what to do. You don’t know where you are going. You feel a bit out of control. You’re letting this caring get under your skin. To find out that you care like this is the most important thing; otherwise you can spend your whole life caring about what someone else says you should care about.

Like many people, you may be afraid to find out how much you care because that caring could just steal you away. What is the one thing that will matter the most at the end of your life? Without it, you would say: “That’s what it was all about and I missed it.” If you had the best job, lots of money, the perfect lover, or whatever your ideal is, and suddenly your life was over, what would still be left undone? That’s what it’s all about.

When you find that kind of caring, inquiry has some power behind it. You also find your own inner integrity. You find something inside that’s stable. There’s a place inside you that is willing to be a little crazy—crazy enough to take inquiry seriously and hold nothing sacred. Holding nothing sacred means that nothing is assumed to be true and all of your assumptions are fair game. The more spiritual they are, the more they are fair game. Ultimately it is your most sacred and unquestioned assumptions about yourself, others, and life that are most important to question.

Many people find their spirituality taking them outward. They think they are going inward because they have heard the spiritual teaching, “Inquire and look within.” Meanwhile, they are out in the stars somewhere looking for someone else’s experience, looking for the right experience, or looking for the experience they believe they are supposed to have. This is spirituality going entirely in the wrong direction. Inquiry is a means of taking you back to yourself, back to your experience.

When inquiry is authentic, it brings you into the experience of here and now, bringing you to the full depth of it, pulling you into it. The question pulls you back into the mystery of your experience. “What am I?” takes you right back into the mystery. If your mind is honest, it knows it doesn’t have the answer. You ask, “What am I?” and instantly, there is silence. Your mind doesn’t know. And when it doesn’t know, there is an experience right here, right now, that is alive. You bump into nothingness inside—that no-thing, that absolute nothingness which your mind can’t know.

The answer does not come in the form of a description or phrase; it is a direct experience. And this experience, your livingness, always transcends any words or intellectual answer. In fact, the truth of your being is eternally transcending itself. As soon as it projects itself out as something, even as a profound insight, it has already transcended it. So eventually the inquiry wears itself out. You wear yourself out. You wear your ego self out. You wear your spiritual self out. You wear it all out. You’ve inquired yourself out of this whole thing, and you’re disappearing faster than you can put yourself together.

As Nisargadatta Maharaj said so brilliantly and beautifully, “The ultimate understanding is that there is no ultimate understanding.” When it’s in the head, it’s an impressive piece of understanding; when it’s in the heart, as the Buddha said, it’s extinguished. You find a living experience of being, empty of content, empty of you. This is where spiritual awakening begins. This is the living answer of authentic inquiry.

© Adyashanti 2007

http://www.adyashan ti.org/index. php?file= writings_ inner&writingid= 32

"The Heart Jewel of the Fortunate" Dudjom Rimpoche's Personal Advice on Dzogchen Praxis

"The Great Master of Oddiyana once said:
Don’t investigate the root of things,
Investigate the root of Mind!
Once the mind’s root has been found,
You’ll know one thing, yet all is thereby freed.
But if the root of Mind you fail to find,
You will know everything but nothing understand."

When you start to meditate on your mind, sit up with your body straight, allowing your breath to come and go naturally. Gaze into the space in front of you with eyes neither closed nor wide open. Think to yourself that for the sake of all beings who have been your mothers, you will watch awareness, the face of Samantabhadra. Pray strongly to your root teacher, who is inseparable from Padmasambhava, the Guru from Oddiyana, and then mingle your mind with his. Settle in a balanced, meditative state.

Once you are settled, however, you will not stay long in this empty, clear state of awareness. Your mind will start to move and become agitated. It will fidget and run here, there, and everywhere, like a monkey. What you are experiencing at this point is not the nature of the mind but only thoughts. If you stick with them and follow them, you will find yourself recalling all sorts of things, thinking about all sorts of needs, planning all sorts of activities. It is precisely this kind of mental activity that has hurled you into the dark ocean of samsara in the past, and there’s no doubt it will do so in the future. It would be so much better if you could cut through the ever spreading, black delusion of your thoughts.

What if you are able to break out of your chain of thoughts? What is awareness like? It is empty, limpid stunning, light, free, joyful! It is not something bounded or demarcated by its own set of attributes. There is nothing in the whole of samsara and nirvana that it does not embrace. From time without beginning, it is within us, inborn. We have never been without it, yet it is wholly outside the range of action, effort, and imagination.

But what, you will ask, is it like to recognize awareness, the face of rigpa? Although you experience it, you simply cannot describe it – it would be like a dumb man trying to describe his dreams! It is impossible to distinguish between yourself resting in awareness and the awareness you are experiencing. When you rest quite naturally, nakedly, in the boundless state of awareness, all those speedy, pestering thoughts that would not stay quiet even for an instant – all those memories, all those plans that cause you so much trouble – lose their power. They disappear in the spacious, cloudless sky of awareness. They shatter, collapse, vanish. All their strength is lost in awareness.

You actually have this awareness within you. It is the clear, naked wisdom of dharmakaya. But who can introduce you to it? On what should you take your stand? What should you be certain of? To begin with, it is your teacher who shows you the state of your awareness. And when you recognize it for yourself, it is then that you are introduced to your own nature. All the appearances of both samsara and nirvana are but the display of your own awareness; take your stand upon awareness alone. Just like the waves that rise up out of the sea and sink back into it, all thoughts that appear sink back into awareness. Be certain of their dissolution, and as a result you will find yourself in a state utterly devoid of both meditator and something meditated upon - completely beyond the meditating mind.

"Oh, in that case," you might think, "there’s no need for meditation." Well, I can assure you that there is a need! The mere recognition of awareness will not liberate you. Throughout your lives from beginningless time, you have been enveloped in false beliefs and deluded habits. From then till now you have spent every moment as a miserable, pathetic slave of your thoughts! And when you die, it’s not at all certain where you will go. You will follow your karma, and you will have to suffer. This is the reason why you must meditate, continuously preserving the sate of awareness you have been introduced to. The omniscient Longchenpa has said, "You may recognize your own nature, but if you do not meditate and get used to it, you will be like a baby left on a battlefield: you’ll be carried off by the enemy, the hostile army of your own thoughts!" In general terms, meditation means becoming famiIiar with the state of resting in the primordial uncontrived nature, through being spontaneously, naturally, constantly mindful. It means getting used to leaving the state of awareness alone, divested of all distraction and clinging.

How do we get used to remaining in the nature of the mind? When thoughts come while you are meditating, let them come; there’s no need to regard them as your enemies. When they arise, relax in their arising. On the other hand, if they don’s arise, don’t be nervously wondering whether or not they will. Just rest in their absence. If big, well-defined thoughts suddenly appear during your meditation, it is easy to recognize them. But when slight, subtle movements occur, it is hard to realize that they are there until much later. This is what we call namtok wogyu, the undercurrent of mental wandering. This is the thief of your meditation, so it is important for you to keep a close watch. If you can be constantly mindful, both in meditation and afterward, when you are eating, sleeping, walking, or sitting, that’s it – you’ve got it right!

"The great master Guru Rinpoche has said:
A hundred things may be explained, a thousand told,
But one thing only should you grasp.
Know one thing and everything is freed-
Remain within your inner nature, your awareness!"

It is also said that if you do not meditate, you will not gain certainty: if you do, you will. But what sort of certainty? If you meditate with a strong, joyful endeavor, signs will appear showing that you have become used to staying in your nature. The fierce, tight clinging that you have to dualistically experienced phenomena will gradually loosen up, and your obsession with happiness and suffering, hopes and fears, and so on, will slowly weaken. Your devotion to the teacher and your sincere trust in his instructions will grow. After a time, your tense, dualistic attitudes will evaporate and you will get to the point where gold and pebbles, food and filth, gods and demons, virtue and nonvirtue, are all the same for you-you’ll be at a loss to choose between paradise and hell! But until you reach that point (while you are still caught in the experiences of dualistic perception), virtue and nonvirtue, buddhafields and hells, happiness and pain, actions and their results – all this is reality for you. As the Great Guru has said, "My view is higher than the sky, but my attention to actions and their results is finer than flour."

So don’t go around claiming to be some great Dzogchen meditator when in fact you are nothing but a farting lout, stinking of alcohol and rank with lust!

It is essential for you to have a stable foundation of pure devotion and samaya, together with a strong, joyful endeavor that is well balanced, neither too tense nor too loose. If you are able to meditate, completely turning aside from the activities and concerns of this life, it is certain that you will gain the extraordinary qualities of the profound path of Dzogchen. Why wait for future lives? You can capture the primordial citadel right now, in the present.

This advice is the very blood of my heart. Hold it close and never let it go!

~ Taken from Counsels from My Heart by Dudjom Rinpoche, Chapter 7
Shambhala: Boston, 2001

(Thank you, Jeannie!)

BODIES SEPARATE, MINDS OVERLAPPING, AND SOULS ARE ONE

THIS MIND THAT YOU ARE CARRYING IN YOUR HEAD HAS ARISEN OVER CENTURIES, MILLENNIA. Your small mind carries the whole experience of humanity -- and not only of humanity: of animals, of birds, of plants, of rocks. You have passed through all those experiences. All that has happened up to now has happened in you also. In a very small nutshell, you carry the whole experience of existence. THAT'S WHAT YOUR MIND IS. In fact, to say it is yours is not right: it is collective; it belongs to us all.

Modern psychology has been approaching it, particularly Jungian analysis has been approaching it, and they have started feeling something like a collective unconscious. YOUR MIND IS NOT YOURS -- IT BELONGS TO US ALL.

Our bodies are very separate; our minds are not so separate. Our bodies are clear-cutly separate; our minds overlap -- and our souls are one.

BODIES SEPARATE, MINDS OVERLAPPING, AND SOULS ARE ONE. I don't have a different soul and you don't have a different soul. At the very center of existence we meet and are one. That's what God is: the meeting-point of all. Between the God and the world -- 'the world' means the bodies -- is mind. Mind is a bridge: a bridge between the body and the soul, between the world and God.

~ OSHO - A Sudden Clash of Thunder

YOU are the ALWAYS-SO - Cashify on You Tube

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