Oneness and Duality

 

Oneness

Expressed
It loses its expression 

Defined
It loses its definition 

In its emptiness
It is the cradle of all existence 

In its fullness
It is creator of all things 

Ever empty
It surrenders into the mystery 

Ever full
It creates into the unknown 

Of one source, they differ in name
Yet both arise from the one 

Oneness beyond one
Herein lies the key to all mysteries

---

Duality

Beauty is seen only because of ugliness
Greatness is known only for its lack 

Emptiness and fullness are born of each other
Difficulty and ease create one another

Long and short grow out of each other
High and low reflect one another 

Sound and listening complement each other
Front and back follow one another 

And on it goes… 

Thus the wise pay no heed
Their acts without words showing the way 

So do all things flow without thought 

Creating without possessing 
Acting without attachment
Achieving without claiming achievement 
Existing without laying claim to existence 

Thus moves all life unto eternity

---

Tao Te Ching

The Way of the Wise

Chapters One and Two

Oneness and Duality

Taken from Lesson 20 of the Transformation Course,                            available at this link

What is Necessary is Conscience

COMPLETE HUMANITY

I know I have been radical with my expression on Facebook and the more time goes by the more I say as is, no pussyfoot around (I got this from my partner :)

It's too many of us in the spiritual, especially nondual circles that are in denial, clicked into a sheep mode, bamboozled, just like anyone else out there on the streets. You thought you are something special? Nope, the life right now shows very clearly that you just like your next door neighbor who will never know what satsang is. He actually has more chances to survive whats coming, he at least can dig, build, and grow stuff, you spent your years sitting around the stage listening to talks.

I did not know the extent of this bamboozling until probably now. I thought I was talking here to minds that can crack open, can discern, to beings that can stand in autonomy of their own being, but probably most just can't. The neurological groves are set too deep for the neurons not to follow the set direction. These are the times of sorting out of whos mind and nervous system can change and not be enslave by social conditioning of submission, who can walk out from the old paradigm being oblivious and live by default into being fully human who is able to stand in the midth of the storm, see, feel and make their own decisions. 

I was a witness of abuse yesterday when a young mother came out with her very little daughter, probably 8y.o, out of the store and the girl pull off her little mask, looking so sweet, like a true little California born angel with blue eyes and white wavy hair. "Pull your mask on", yelled the mother right besides me, she was so laud it hit me right in my heart. I stood there watching how they crossed the street and went into their car and took off. In the masks. I cried today into my partner chest, as I woke up and recalled this. It is not easy for me to see these things. And when people come here and say; there are much more serious atrocities then just wearing a mask, you don't understand that the mask its just a metaphor right now for submission, and it includes for me all the atrocities happening with humans who are naive, asleep, and enslaved by social conditioning. And why would I care so much that I put myself like that here so I alienated so many, even some of my friends? 

Why we care? Because our conscience don't let us not to. G.I.Gurdjieff said something that penetrated me long time ago:

"People are very fond of talking about morality. But morality is merely self-suggestion. What is necessary is conscience."

and:

“You must learn not what people round you consider good or bad, but to act in life as your conscience bids you. An untrammeled conscience will always know more than all the books and teachers put together.”

And yet, the bamboozling is so strong that conscience in a modern 'spiritual' man is almost nonexistent. Gurdjieff did talk about it that it is a great gift if a modern man was able to safeguard his conscience through the years of being conditioned to be a sheep of the society. I did not see it so clearly as through the times of this plandemic. 

People think I am this hard-core woman that can jump on the horse and charge into the battlefield. I am not really made up for the battlefield, I have very strong feminine qualities, developing masculine qualities as I go by exercising courage to speek my truth and be myself in the middle of the world going in the opposite direction. I have a few people who support this here and on my Youtube channel. I very much appreciate you, guys 

And if you are bamboozled: look up the latest CDC report that they released very quietly, maybe this will help, I start to doubt that I can be in any way helpful for you. 

Sending much love to all, bamboozled and free.

Elena

Quantum Medicine for the Corona Virus

By Paul Levy

AWAKEN IN THE DREAM

One of the real dangers of the current pandemic is for us to feel helpless, overwhelmed with despair, impending doom and pessimism, a state which cuts us off from our agency and creative power. Strangely enough, the hardest of the hard sciences—quantum physics—comes to our aid to serve as medicine to protect us from this psychological danger. A little insight into the essence of what quantum physics reveals to us can be the best anti-depressant imaginable. By revealing that we live in a thoroughly quantum universe, quantum physics is literally placing the keys to our future in our own hands – the question is, do we know how to wisely use the gift that is being freely offered to us?

Called “the crowning intellectual achievement of the last century,” quantum physics points out that even if something is, to quote pre-eminent quantum theorist John Archibald Wheeler, “incredibly, ridiculously unlikely,” it can still manifest “in reality” in this very moment. Wheeler explains, “unlikely is not quite the same as impossible.” An infinitesimally small or “nonzero” probability is radically different from something that is impossible; we should be very careful what we assign to the trash bin of the impossible. The implications of this, both in “the real world” and within our minds, are truly uplifting and inspiring.

The quantum world is the realm of the extremely small, the sub-microscopic dimension. Even though the macroscopic world of our everyday human experience appears to operate classically, it is built out of nothing but quantum entities. Before a quantum entity is observed, for example, it exists in a state of open-ended potentiality such that each and every possible state in which it could ever manifest exists in a potential parallel universe. At the moment of observing a quantum entity it actualizes into one particular state (what we call “the real world”) and all of its other potential states vaporize as if they never existed.

This process (which is happening at each and every moment, including right now!) takes place instantaneously, in no time at all - literally outside of time in such a way so as to be practically imperceptible. Entrancing ourselves via our own intrinsic creative genius to call forth reality, we think the world is simply happening to us, as we miss how the quantum nature of our creativity has a hand in evoking each moment of our experience. We have then literally bewitched ourselves—casting a spell on ourselves—through using our own creative power in an unconscious, disempowering way that is potentially killing us.

(CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING)

I'm Back....

So....it's been a rather long hiatus. I don't know if I am going to be doing this on a regular basis again, but I felt to check in for some reason. Maybe it was the ayahuasca journey, maybe the increasing insanity on the planet, maybe it's the desire to make a positive contribution....probably all of the above. I know nothing about anything, really. It's all conjecture, a conversation I have with myself.

This is what I have come to realize....it's all in my head. Except that I really have no head to speak of, only this vast space wherein things come and go. As perceived, so appears. There is the conditioned mind constantly interpreting the data from the senses into this holographic reality according to preconceived expectations....one thing leads to another, and another, a seemingly endless panoply unfolding in time. And then there's the aware void, the still point, before anything begins, untouched, unsullied by all of it. When grounded in this awareness, it is more like a movie than anything else, something this "I" simultaneously watches and participates in. There is no investment in any outcome. But "I" am all in.

Oh, there are many opportunities to numb out and attempt to escape and certainly it is understandable why anyone would want to. In so many ways, it's all too much.  Even the spiritual stuff depends on us believing we are NOT THAT, even though we ARE THAT which we seek. So the marketplace lures us on, even in our attempt to escape this matrix mind-control hologram.

it's such a small step, so easy to miss. But you have to STOP. Stop seeking, stop buying, stop wanting something ELSE. Be here...now...as if you came to the end of the road and there was just a deep abyss, and you turned around to find where you had been no longer existed either. Think about it....what if NONE of it is real? What if it is just a story we tell ourselves over and over again because to stop is to face our fear of annihilation? What if we just let ourselves get swallowed by the nothing that we fear? The thing is, the fear itself is just part of the story, part of the script. It's the door to the way OUT. Sort of. Because all that happens is the bubble pops, and you are free.

Don't just take my word for it, try it! You'll be surprised....

One Buddha Teaching That Will Tell You More About Yourself Than Anything Else

 

by Andrew Barker in Collective Evolution

No Self

In Buddhism one of the ‘Three Characteristics’ is No-Self (the other two are impermanence and suffering which are closely associated with this). This refers to the illusion of reality having a permanent and separate self.

There is this notion that there is a permanent “I” or “me,” which is a separate entity that can be found. The obvious assumption of we are our body sounds good until we look at it and say “this is my body,” which implies at that moment that whatever owns the body wasn’t the body. The observer and the observed; duality denies our body being what we are. It is also in a state of impermanence, and at a sensate level it is made up of energy flickering at a similar rate to reality.

Perhaps thoughts are the “I.” They may seem more like the true “me” than the body does. But they come and go and are changing constantly too, as well as the majority of them not being under our control at all. They too aren’t something solid enough to assume they are the “I.” The ego is a process of identification with reality (physical and mental phenomena), not a thing in and of itself; it is like a bad habit. Not being a thing, it cannot be destroyed as some people say, but by understanding our bare experience, our mind, the process of identification can stop.

There is also something frequently called the “watcher” or “observer,” which is observing all of these phenomena. Strangely, the watcher can’t be found either, as it seems to sometimes be our eyes, sometimes not; sometimes it’s images in our head; sometimes it seems to be our body and sometimes it’s watching the body. It seems odd that this watcher to which all of this is being perceived by, which seems separate from reality and which seems in control of “us” is constantly changing and completely unfindable.

One of the biggest clues in solving this mystery is that if we are observing it, then by definition it isn’t us. Reality is made up entirely of sensations, and to begin to unravel this mystery is to begin to awaken. Reality with a sense of a separate watcher is a delusion. So who or what is it that awakens?

What Awakens?

In short, it’s all of this transience that awakens! Here’s an explanation, keep in mind this is an attempt at summarizing something quite complicated. (Not really!)

No-Self teachings directly counter the sense that there is a separate watcher, and that this watcher is “us” that is in control, observing reality or subject to the tribulations of the world. These teachings stop the process of mentally creating the illusion of a separate self from sensations that are inherently non-dual and utterly transient.

 

There are physical phenomena (everything we perceive with our senses) and mental phenomena (thoughts, feelings, emotions). These are just phenomena, and all phenomena aren’t a permanent, separate self as they are completely impermanent and are intimately interdependent. These phenomena arise and pass as we venture through reality, i.e. the sound of a bird singing comes into existence and then dissipates.

There is also awareness of these phenomena, but awareness is not a thing or localised in a particular place, so to even say “there is awareness” is already a large problem, as it implies separateness and existence of it where none can be found. Awareness is permanent and unchanging, and it is said that all things arise from it, and all things return to it. It could be called God, Nirvana, The Tao, Allah, the present moment, the Buddha nature or just awareness.

While phenomena are in flux from their arising to their passing, there is awareness of them. Thus, awareness is not these phenomena, as it is not a thing, nor is it separate from these objects, as there would be no experience if this were so.

True-Self

True-Self teachings point out that we actually are all these phenomena, rather than them being seen as observed. As phenomena are observed, they can’t possibly be the observer. Thus, the observer, which is awareness, cannot possibly be a phenomenon and thus is not localised and therefore doesn’t exist. Duality implies something on both sides: an observer and an observed. However, there is no phenomenal observer, so duality doesn’t hold up under careful investigation. When the illusion of duality permanently collapses in awakening, in direct experience, all that is left is these phenomena, which is the True Self.

There’s a great little Buddhist poem by Kalu Rinpoche that sums all this up:

We live in illusion and the appearance of things.

 

There is a reality, we are that reality.

 

When you understand this, you will see “you” are nothing.

 

And, being nothing, you are everything.

Spiritual Deconstruction - What Is "I" ?

Here is the newest video in my spiritual deconstruction series. This is a social experiment to see what it takes to awaken from the induced virtual reality forced upon us by the institutions of government, education, and mainstream media. Are you awake? Or are you still dreaming......?

Violence and Silence: How to Heal the World

by Eric Klein

What is it about tragic events that calls us to silence and stillness?

There's a profound message in this impulse. The message is: remember the sacred nature of life; connect to it; let it guide you.

It's hard to remember the sacred when you're multi-tasking. By stopping, a space opens up within you and around you. It takes stopping and stillness, to see what has been there all along.

Yes, that's what stillness reveals: that the sacred nature of life is ever-present; that all life is sacred.

You don't have to do anything to achieve sacredness.

Nobody does. It's not a prize. Not an award. It's what you are. Me too. Everybody and everything. It's all sacred.

But, the mind has a hard time with stillness; the mind cries, "What about the violence? If life is sacred, where does all the violence come from? And don't we have to do something to stop it?"

There are many ways of analyzing and answering these questions. The mind can take many perspectives: political, historical, economic, religious.

But, before you adopt any perspective, consider this: what is the quality of consciousness that you bring to the perspective?

It's not the perspective that is primary-it&# 39;s the consciousness that "looks" through the
perspective.

Consciousness is primary; perspective is secondary, which is why stopping and stillness are so vital.

Before you analyze, and definitely before you act, be still.

Don't perpetuate the patterns of the past. Be still.

Don't seek answers or even understanding. Be still.

Breathe and let the waves of emotionality settle; be still and reconnect to the sacred essence of life and your life.

How often in a typical day do you stop and become still?

Do you practice stillness or are you constantly on the move?

Do you rest in the sacred nature of life as-it-is or are you perpetually rushing forward?

Straining to make things happen? Controlling people and events?

If so, you're not alone.

We've all been conditioned as perpetual motion machines; this never-stopping compulsion obscures the recognition of life's sacred nature. It's the relentless (and reactive) movements of the mind that create the conditions for violence.

We all need to become better students of stillness. This is not a plea for inaction-there is a need for wise and healing action. An acute, even an urgent need. But wise and healing action only arises from a consciousness that is awake to the sacred.

The scattered, speedy, emotionally fragmented consciousness is blind to the sacred. Actions that arise from a reactive mind only add more violence to the mix. (This is true on a global scale and around the dinner table.)

Which is why stillness is the pre-requisite for healing and helping the world.

By cultivating your capacity for stillness, you serve the world.

By deepening your attunement to the sacred, you heal the world. Today-and every day from now on-make time for stillness and silence. 

Read entire article at Elephant Journal

INSIGHTS

by Anamika

Insights. 

Are they true?  

Or they seem clear and we just assume that 

they are true because there is clarity?

How do we know?   

How do we know anything?

And how can this passion for truth lead to anything anyway, 

as at the end of everything,  when one really goes to the end,  there is nothing.   

Emptiness  

Everything falls apart,  returns to source.  

Void.   

At the end of everything is Nothing.   And at the beginning as well.

All expressions,  all intimations,  insights,  come up and disappear.  

Born out of Emptiness and returns.   

Only Emptiness remains.

Insights can point to the direction of truth at the moment of expression,   

but then they are instantly passed their prime. 

Their moment of glory is immediate, never to return.
 

The pointing to what Is, eternal and unchanging is true,   is real.

Is the golden grail all through the ages,  the alchemist gold,  

the description of nirvana,  the diamond of the sutras.  

But the language used to express becomes 

archaic and out dated in no time.  

As This is ever fresh and new,  and cannot be captured by any word,  

not even the most sublime as it defies all descriptions. 
  

Its beyond the known,  

beyond language,  

beyond labels,  

its always pristine,  

always experienced in the ever present Now.   

Its the ever ongoing open experiencing of all that is. 

 

Try as you might,  
you will never not be this, 

As this is All there.

 

http://noname-allthereis.blogspot.ca/2013/04/insights.html

The Philosophy of Anon

Anon
1 : archaic : at once : immediately
2 : soon, presently /tomorrow will be here anon - Nathaniel Hawthorne/
3 : after a while : later /more of that anon/

You live in a Universe

that exceeds your perception of it
You may see it, taste it
hear it or feel it
And while it contains all those things
It is more

To name the Universe

is an attempt to limit

limitlessness
Yet there is a part of us
that speaks
And that part needs names
So let us call this Universe,
Reality
with the understanding
there is more to it
Then we can ever name

There is also a part of us
that wants to be free of naming
Wants to be free of detail
free of manifestation
A part that only wants
the underlying mystery and magic
of Reality

The historical conflict between these two parts
these two engines of the mind
Is perhaps the result of a misunderstanding
We often feel it would be best
to be one and destroy the other
But who would cut off his right hand
because he wants to be left handed?
Who would willingly blind himself in one eye
or deliberately destroy one foot?
Who wants eternal Daylight
or forever Darkness
Why then should we seek only to name Reality
or to end all naming?
It is in the balance
that we find the universal harmony

Perhaps this dichotomy
is part of the natural human heritage because
We perceive this Reality
through the filters of our human brains
the Left and the Right minds
The Left brain understands
Logic and Language
The Right brain understands
Love, Magic and Religion
The Left analyzes and dissects
The Right synthesizes and creates
But who would want only one or the other?
Who would want rainbows of only one color?
All mystery and manifestation within us
arises from our perception and reflection
of the Universe
But the Cosmos is not obliged to reside
only within our grasp of it
Who can truly say
there is no more?
Who can limit the limitless?

You have been told there are
Three dimensions, perhaps Four
Things are not Black or White but Grey
such dogma denotes limited thinking

Believing thus you bleed
all color, texture and taste from Reality
We live in a multi-dimensional Universe
Unbound in its responses

to our eyes
hands and pallet
Our waking and dreaming mind
And still extending beyond

Perhaps when you name a thing ugly
you limit the beauty you can find in it
Perhaps when you name a thing bad
you limit the good that you can see in it
Is this a really balanced perception?
We may limit our perception
but we can not limit the Universe

Living is balanced by Non-living
Arduous is balanced by Easy
Day by Night
Love by Fear
Light by Darkness
Hope by Despair
Heat by Coolness
Earth by Fire by Water by Air by Earth . . .

None of us can expect an endlessly easy life
we all must touch Reality
Or spend our lives trying to hide from it
But when overwhelmed by one extreme
remember the other is not far away
You will discover that Reality is balanced
but not perfectly symmetrical
Such Cycles are a means of Balance
Everything happens
It just doesn't happen all at once
That's why we have Time

Let us consider for a moment
the two aspects of Balance
There is static Balance
where all things stop
all motion stops
no sound, no heat, no matter . . .
Nothingness
And there is dynamic balance
such as a man walking
the middle of a curving road
Know the difference
You can not control a thing
by only stopping it
Control comes from directing the motion
of things

When Balance is achieved
Is it possible to act
without doing anything?
To dance without moving?

Is it possible to be taught
without a teacher?
To have without holding?
To Act outside of Fear or Anticipation of reward?

Is it possible
to let things appear in the distance
move to this place
and let them go
While perceiving the balance
of this motion within Reality?

It is said that our current aspect of Universe
Began in a great explosion
or rending of nothingness into which
one tiny seed of energy became everything
The speaking side of the mind
sees the Wonder of this
The mysterious side of the mind
sees God

A beginning
a middle
what of the end?
Is this not in keeping with Balance?
The Past and the Future
fuse in this Instant
Anon

While the Matter/Energy of this Cosmos
remains balanced
The possibilities are without limit
The Universe is
the Well of first things
A storehouse of new and old things
ever evolving, growing, changing
The Universe is an ever opening flower
And You are part of the Dance
You are not divorced from it
how can you be an unnatural thing?
Are your atoms from somewhere else?
Is your pattern so bizarre?
You are human and share
in the heritage of human beginning
middle and end
How could it be otherwise?

Inside of You . . .
you are a universe
There is the infinite circular ring of You
surrounded the receding
Great out-there
and filled with the vast
Great In-here
The Universe touches your universe
at every points
and all points beyond
You can paint your walls
any way you like
Or you can learn
to see the subtle colors
already there

Hold to the center of the Universe
If you talk of it
and do not dance with it
you will become confused
If you paint it with all the pigments known
and do not reflect it
you will become murky
If you follow the rituals of others
with infinite attention to detail
you will become disillusioned

But if you face each moment
with an open hand
an open heart
an open mind
You will be the Master
of the Moment
And a life is built
of such moments

It is said that the Universe
is running down
But is in this degradation of energy
lies the integration of Life
Human life is the water
that runs uphill
Notice how beautifully
Order arises out of Chaos
without breaking any of the True Rules

The vast open spaces within the Universe
contain an indeterminate number of worlds
The Universe is always pregnant
giving birth to the New
This birthing is the rising up
from the ashes
The fresh breeze of Spring
within the depths of Winter
It is always present within you
How will you use it?

It is said
That which is not born can not die
Is that wisdom?
Is that eternal?
Perhaps . . .
But each moment is born
used
and passed to the past
If these moments are of no use
why do we build them?
Each is special, different
unique
Not a thing to be wasted
If you waste the moments of your life
you will end up
with a bunch of wasted moments

The Past touches the Future
As this moment
this instant
this Now
Anon
Right now
The waters of the Sea
are transformed into the mist
And in this same instant
the clouds are congealing and twisting
And in this same instant
the rains are nourishing all things
And passing through caverns
creek and riverbeds
Running away
away to the Sea
All in Motion
all in Balance
as it should be

There are myriad other examples
of this balance in process
and you should take time
to name them and see them in your mind
Do this and you will never grow bored
You must keep you mind ductile

In living
remember the Earth, the Air, the Fire
and the Rain
I know we have much fancier names than these
But you get my drift

Keep things simple
in your mind
Children have such complicated minds
to be truly simple
you must be older

Confront your adversaries
with your understanding of the Truth
Examine your own motives
seek counsel in wise people
Be Fair and Just
They are people too
and people generally will not do
things that they feel are wrong

If a person does a bad thing
he will have to lie to himself
Saying
"I have the right to . . ."
Or
"He hurt me and my honor demands . . ."
This is an attempt to avoid responsibility
to make the other an object
which can be destroyed with impunity
It is a lie

Try to avoid making such lies
But when the Truth is manifest
as it always must be
Forgive your opponents
forgive your friends
forgive yourself
Odds are its all non-sense
though it wont seem so at the time

Chose a vocation that you enjoy
Avoid over zealous competition
Commerce, like Life, is a process
not a means to an end
Avoid comparing yourself to others
Each of us has many attributes
and envy is not a nice one to have

Father and Mother your Children well
Any civilization
which does not prepare a place for
the children
Has about one generation
to realize its mistake


William C. Burns, Jr.
chyfrin437@yahoo.com

The Looking Glass: Language as Mirror

by Fred Davis

Notice that you are already awake. 

Right now, this moment, the only reason you can read these words is that you're awake. You're already awake. You're as awake as it gets. You're already fully awake.

 

Given that you're already fully awake, how then could you wake up further? Since you're already awake, does that idea even make sense? You can't wake up more from where you are right now. And you can't wake up again.

 

If you want to read a book through that body, or watch a video, or send it to a retreat for further clarity or to get some context that has the potential to open to the door to further clarity, that's great. But before you do, notice that you don't need to read another book, watch a video, or go to a retreat in order to wake up, because you're already awake. 

 

If you want to do meditation, drum, dance, chant, or what have you, for the sake of grounding yourself in that present human experience you're having, or calming that unit's mind so that you can better hear yourself talk to yourself, and better watch yourself dance for yourself, terrific. Have at it. But, be absolutely aware that you can't practice yourself into awakening. You can't achieve what you already are.

 

You're just not who you think you are; that's the only issue here. You're undergoing a case of mistaken identity, and all you need today is a little light reflected from this mirror, this mirror of clear language that is also you. There is only you, but you tend to get a bit cloudy sometimes, and forget that. It comes with the territory when your spaciousness contracts around human beings, and it's no big deal. It's fine. When you're ready to be clear you find a bright mirror, so here you are, back in front of the vanity mirror.

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity! This is all you, every bit of it--you dancing for you, you preening for you, just you showing off for yourself, to yourself and loving it.

You think you're the human being reading these words. 

You're not. Well, you actually are that human also, but you're not that person exclusively. You're the awareness that's reading these words through that human being. The human is not reading the words; you are. The human is a reading tool for you just as reading glasses are a tool for the human. Reading glasses never mistake themselves for being the reader; humans almost always do. 

 

You think you need to wake up. You don't. All that has to occur is for you to recognize yourself as what you are. "Awaken" makes it sound like something really new and different needs to happen. It doesn't. Recognition, on the other hand, is simply about noticing what already is. See how much lighter the idea of recognition is versus the idea of waking up? Why make it hard on yourself, when you're clearing longing to see/be your true nature again.

 

Be easy on yourself. How much effort does it take for that human to recognize itself in a mirror? None. The same is true for you. You just have to be willing to look in the mirror and see the reflection instead of the projection.

~ ~ ~

Read the rest of Fred's article here:

http://awakeningcla rity.blogspot. ca/2013/03/ the-looking- glass-language- as-mirror. html

Mastery of the Expanded Self

By Chris Bourne

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

To truly realize the depth and majesty of our expanded self, we have to master the direct confrontation of the moment. It’s all about performing inner alchemy. There’s essentially two forms of consciousness that make up our existential being: the separation consciousness that forms the bodymind, and the unity consciousness that forms the soul. If you include various disruptive energies of society’s matrix, everything we experience from thoughts, to emotions and feelings are caused by the interaction of these various flows of consciousness. How might ‘we’ – as presence – be able to positively influence the internal dynamic?…

Creating Your Own Reality?

Some speak of shaping the thoughts in order to master beingness, but to me, this is simply a case of the tail wagging the dog. The same goes for ‘creating your own reality’. Sure, we do create our own reality, but what do we mean exactly by ‘our’? In most cases the identity doing the manifestation is just a more subtle form of ego – a spiritual identity – that wants to control the situation in some particular way because it cannot accept what is already unfolding.

We are already shaping and creating everything we experience. Either the true self - the soul - is shining through and creating harmonious experiences or else the false self is influencing the show, by resistance to what’s currently happening, denial or just plain insensitivity. We might feel a creative impulse for something to happen, only for the flow to get derailed by internal eddy currents of life’s conditioning.

In which case you can’t simply ‘paper over the cracks’, by manipulating the outer pieces on the game board without first uncovering and unwinding what’s really happening inside. To do so, is simply to perpetuate the disharmony through our lives. Even though the circumstances may change – our jobs, relationships or location – the patterns remain the same. Instead, we need to look deeply into the outer mirror we’re already creating. This includes our most intense and intimate feelings towards it, no matter how challenging or painful. Then there’s a requirement to notice the blind spots, the grey areas in these points of attachment where presence closes down and gets drawn into the fray through identification.

Grasping the Hot Coals

The only way out is through. We have to feel the fullness of these retractions from the moment. You have to grasp the hot coals and feel the heat before you drop them. If you retract in the face of the heat or the pain or the heartache, be it emotional, physical or mental, then in that moment, you have reconfirmed your identification with the heat and with that your separation from the all that is. You have made yourself a victim of the sense of separation and crystalised that as your reality.

The key is transcendence: feeling through the heat of the moment until the coals define you no longer. You become the heat, the pain, the tension, the discomfort and soften into it. You become so totally at-one with it, that you no longer build internal references, structures and judgments around the situations. It is in these totally lucid moments you become absolutely authentic and free. You have transcended the limitation of identification and dropped into the void of infinite potential. From here, anything can happen. The authentic flow of the soul ignites, fueled by the unstoppable force of the universe.

To master such transcendence is to increase our inner intimacy – to bring absolute attention into our bodily field, to know when we retract, resist and deny. Bringing presence into these blind spots automatically begins to unwind them, liberating the soul as a free flowing spontaneity through the moment. There is nothing that feels better, more harmonious or complete. This is truly living.

The Path to Bodhidharma

It is the Openhand Approach to life and I’ve found it very aligned with some of the ancient eastern teachings such as that of the monk Bodhidharma. I came across his work some years ago through a lovely synchronicity and felt to share a glimpse here…

In the old days in China there was a priest called Master Tozan. A monk asked him “how can we escape from this severe heat and cold?” This is not just a question about severe heat and cold. It is a question about the reality we are always facing – a melancholy and difficult reality, a reality that is full of suffering. People are sick and in pain: people have lost their homes in disasters and wars and have nothing in which to believe any longer and are suffering in their despair. For those whose belongings have all been destroyed, their refuge in the material world has been shown to be empty and meaningless. This kind of pain is always occurring all around us.

Master Tozan answered the monk, “You have to go where there is no hot and no cold!”

The monk continued, “Where is that place where there is no hot or cold? Where is that true place of refuge for the mind?”

The priest answered, “When it is hot, become that heat completely! When it is cold, become one with that cold completely and totally! When it is painful, become that pain completely and totally, and when you are miserable, become that misery totally and completely! In the very midst of that, go beyond all the thoughts you hold in your mind, let go of all the ideas of good or bad or gain or loss – let go of all of these thoughts – and from there grasp that place of your very own vivid life energy! That which directly experiences that ‘ouch’ – feel that life energy directly, grasp that life energy that feels that pain and sorrow.” More important than finding a place out of pain and suffering, or trying to find a place where there is no pain or suffering, is to go directly to that place where the pain and suffering are being experienced, to go where you feel that pain and sadness directly and totally. Touch that life energy directly and with your own experience. Use that actual direct experience which you have grasped as your base, and stand up strong and firm. This is how the master answered the monk.

Phoenix from the Ashes

Of course this advice is not just for the metaphoric physical feeling of hot and cold. We may apply it to every aspect of our lives. Especially in relationships for example where we might suffer emotional or psychological trauma.

As it’s happening, we must not deny it, but rather go into the very heart of the contraction and become as one with it – to soften into it – in the way described above. Then the bubble of identification bursts, the void of silence is touched, the soul rises like a pheonix from the ashes and a new, more harmonious reality takes shape.

Finally, the majesty of the expanded self is realized.

Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds - Parts 1-4

Excellent introduction to all that leads to awakening consciousness. Enjoy!

What Do You Want?

TRUE ABUNDANCE

You don't really want what you think you want
You only want your wanting to end
To no longer want for anything
To be existentially full and complete

But isn't that just another want?
Perhaps the biggest want of all?

Do you really want your way out of wants?
What do you really want?

"Want" actually means "lack"
So now the question changes:
What do you really LACK?
Do you really lack anything in this moment?

Thought says YES
Thought lists all the things that are missing
Thought advises that certain objects, people, experiences would complete this moment
Thought is always a seeker
It is always comparing

Thought says:
If you get what you want
The lack will disappear permanently
And this moment will be completed

Get what you want!
No more lack!
Do you see the trick here?
A mechanism perfectly designed to keep you away from what you really want

What is true abundance?

It's not about getting what you want
It's not about filling a lack
It's about realising that the present moment never lacks anything
It's already full to the brim with sights and sounds and smells
With thoughts and feelings
With colours and shapes beyond imagination

A thought or feeling of lack
A sense of 'something missing'
Is actually part of this moment's completeness
Not a threat to it
Part of the richness of Now
Not an enemy
A welcome visitor in the vast open space that you are
An old friend, come for tea

Space lacks nothing
For it is full with everything
Pregnant with possibility
Rich with potential

The mind confuses peace with 'absence'
Space with 'emptiness'
And unlimited capacity with 'lack'
And the game is on
The search for opposites
The longing for goals

You don't really want what you think you want
And that's why getting what you want
Doesn't satisfy 'you' for long

Who you really are does not 'want'
It has never heard of 'lack'
It is already satisfied with this moment
For it is this moment
Exactly as it is

This is true abundance:
Remembering who you really are
Prior to time and change

These are the unparalleled riches of the universe:
A breath
The simple feeling of being alive

Getting what you thought you wanted
Acquiring all the material and spiritual riches of the universe
Doesn't even come close

This moment is a strange and unexpected jackpot

And when nothing belongs to you
Everything is yours 

A SORRY AWAKENING

Many years ago
When I believed I was "enlightened" and "beyond ego"
(How ironic!)
I had a mantra:
"Never Say Sorry. Never Apologise".

I secretly believed that I was perfect
Beyond humanity
Beyond reproach
And there was "nobody here"
who ever needed to apologise for anything
(since everything was "perfect", of course).

If anybody ever had a problem with me
If anybody was upset with something I'd said or done
It must have been their projection
Their ego
Their un-enlightenment
Their ignorance
Their suffering
That's what I believed, anyway
(I also believed that I had no more beliefs).

I was attracted to "radical" spiritual teachers
Who acted unkindly
And never apologised.
How awakened they seemed!
How cool and detached!
How unaffected by life!
How radical!

But when did saying sorry
And making amends
And listening deeply to the one in front of you
And truly meeting in humility
Ever become the Original Sin of enlightenment?
When did awakening lose its humanity?
When did enlightenment become an excuse for a raging ego?

Back then, I held 'others' at a distance
With my lack of humility and refusal to engage
And then I claimed that there were "no others"
Like a well-trained Advaitically-correct robot.
Perfectly denying the perfectly imperfect human heart.
A disconnected Oneness.
A recognition with no love.
A fire without warmth.

I'm sorry.

Jeff Foster - Life Without A Centre

Wei Wu Wei - Bits and Pieces

From 'Fingers Pointing Towards The Moon':

It is less what one is that should matter, than what one is not.

* * *

The qualities we possess should never be a matter for satisfaction, but the qualities we have discarded.

* * *

It is not for us to search but to remain still, to achieve Immobility not Action.

* * *

There is no becoming. ALL IS.

* * *

The Saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The Sage is a man who rids himself of his ego.

* * *

It is only the artificial ego that suffers. The man who has transcended his false 'me' no longer identifies with his suffering.

* * *

We ourselves are not an illusory part of Reality; rather are we Reality itself illusorily conceived.

* * *

Are we not wasps who spend all day in a fruitless attempt to traverse a window-pane - while the other half of the window is wide open?

* * *

Detachment is a state, it is not a totalisation of achieved indifferences.

* * *

The notion that human life has greater value than any other form of life is both unjustifiable and arrogant.

* * *

Wise men don't judge: they seek to understand.

* * *

How many of the ways (disciplines, exercises, practices) recommended as helpful, or even necessary, for the attainment of Satori are not in fact consequences of that state erroneously suggested as means?

* * *

There seem to two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realising its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being.

* * * * *

From 'Why Lazarus Laughed':

Living should be perpetual and universal benediction.

* * *

Doctrines, scriptures, sutras, essays, are not to be regarded as systems to be followed. They merely contribute to understanding. They should be for us a source of stimulation, and nothing more... Adopted, rather than used as a stimulus, they are a hindrance.

* * *

Of the many earnest, and how earnest, people we may observe reading, attending lectures, studying and practising disciplines, devoting their energies to the attainment of a liberation which is by definition unattainable, how many are not striving via the ego-concept which is itself the only barrier between what they think they are and that which they wish to become but always have been and always will be?

* * *

Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role!

* * *

On the phenomenal plane we seek pleasure and the avoidance of pain. On the noumenal plane we know the absence of both - which is Bliss.

* * *

When you give a shilling to a beggar
- do you realise that you are giving it to yourself?

When you help a lame dog over a stile
- do you realise that you yourself are being helped?

When you kick a man when he is down
- do you realise that you are kicking yourself?

Give him another kick - if you deserve it!

* * *

Reality alone exists - and that we are. All the rest is only a dream, a dream of the One Mind, which is our mind without the 'our'. Is it so hard to accept? Is it so difficult to assimilate and to live?

* * *

Even the intellectual understanding of the inexistence of our 'selves' is a rare and bitter attainment which few even attempt. And that is only the elimination round which qualifies us for access to Reality... Intellectual understanding should be not indispensable to a 'simple' mind, but, with our conditioning, it would seem to be an almost inevitable preliminary.

* * *

Past and Future are a duality of which Present is the reality. The now-moment alone is eternal and real.

* * *

Spontaneity is being present in the present.

Spontaneity by-passes the processes of the conceptual (aspect of) mind.

Reintegration with Nature, which we are, is the recovery of spontaneity.

* * *

What we know as 'life'
is the analytical realisation
in the seriality of time
of our eternal reality.

* * *

We have only to eliminate the ego-notion by succeeding in the difficult task of understanding that it does not exist except as a notion.

http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com/bits.html