The Carrot and the Stick

By Robert Cinque
of Cinqueterra

The ego is born through an emotional recoil from its Origin.  This creates the appearance that God is distant and must be found.  The spiritual traditions of humanity are based on this search , this impulse for re-union with the Divine.  However, the search is based on an illusion of separateness and isolation, which reduces God to a carrot on an ego stick.

Throw away the stick. Eat the Carrot.

Creating the stick is an activity that produces “me” and then the “world”.    Authentic spiritual life is about recognizing this, not “overcoming the ego”, which cannot be done anyway because it does not exist in the first place, except in our imagination.  This practice is about Standing Prior to the birth of ego, not overcoming it after you created it.

Try picking up an imaginary rock, it’s impossible. The disease of egoity is self created and imaginary, too. When recoil is replaced with emotional intimacy, the ego is pre-empted and cannot form.

The spiritual traditions exhort us to overcome this fleshly “ego” and be more “spiritual” by identifying with our non-physical, “inner” being.  This so-called inner being is only yet another spontaneous patterning of this Infinite Consciousness, Whatever That Is altogether, but the inside of me is not the exclusive domain of truth, only That in which the inner being is appearing is the Domain of Truth, the Amphitheatre of the Heart.

I am in awe of This, I surrender in love to It. Ultimately, I am It, or rather, It became “me”.  Once it becomes clear that It is the basis of “me”, all dilemma disappears, all searching, all “other”.

Authentic spiritual life is about recognizing what is already true, not deifying my beliefs about it.  Conventional spiritual practice is like using a really excellent and detailed map of Detroit while you’re trying to find your way around Paris.  Conventional spiritual life places enlightenment at the end of the journey, the search is finally over, but authentic spiritual life places enlightenment at the beginning, middle, and end, as the very foundation of human life. It is based on heartfelt response ability, not belief, not technique, not method, not mythology, not search.

It’s about Discovery.

Jesus is reported to have said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure a man finds buried in his field.”

Authentic spiritual life is about love, which is truth.  Truth, whatever it is altogether, is identical with Reality.  What Is, is True.  Find out What Is, prior to mind, prior to “me”, prior to “world”.  That is the knockout punch and is why “you” won’t survive the “journey” to “God”.

Conventional religious belief, from fundamentalism to New Age metaphysics, is based on this search, on the “great path of return” to God, to Unity and Wholeness. Sounds great, doesn’t it?  It’s exciting, adventurous, and romantic.  The only problem with it is the fact that you’re not actually lost, not actually separate from That which you seek.  The problem with conventional religious belief is that it supports and enables a carrot on a stick.  At best, ordinary religious beliefs prepare us for authentic spiritual life if only by providing an illusion to demolish.

Only God Exists and You are not separate from It.That’s the truth that sets the heart free, not that I need to be saved from Original Sin or that I can have and do and be anything I want, that happiness can be found in the manifestation of my desires. Happiness cannot be found because it is not lost.

Happiness is the nature of Reality already and our spiritual obligation is to realize it, not believe in it, not seek it in pleasure or in the fulfillment of need and desire. Happiness is prior to pleasure and need and desire, and everything else. 

See for yourself.

To read more, CLICK HERE.

Breaking Study Is The First To Show Link Between Being Present In The Moment And Ageless DNA

by MICHAEL FORRESTER

Scientific studies have suggested that a mind that is present and in the moment indicates well-being, whereas shifting our energy to the past or future can lead to unhappiness. Now, a preliminary UCSF study shows a link between mind wandering and aging, by looking at a biological measure of longevity within our DNA.

In the study, telomere length, an emerging biomarker for cellular and general bodily aging, was assessed in association with the tendency to be present in the moment versus the tendency to mind wander, in research on 239 healthy, midlife women ranging in age from 50 to 65 years.

Being present in the moment was defined as an inclination to be focused on current tasks, while mind wandering was defined as the inclination to have thoughts about things other than the present or being elsewhere.

Many practitioners of spiritual health tell us not to deny the problems we are facing, but to also not get lost in them either. Psychological sciences have shown us that being present brings us greater alertness and inner security, allowing us to face challenges more objectively and with greater calm.

According to the findings, published online in the new Association for Psychological Science journal Clinical Psychological Science, those who reported more mind wandering had shorter telomeres, while those who reported more presence in the moment, or having a greater focus and engagement with their current activities, had longer telomeres, even after adjusting for current stress.

To read more CLICK HERE.

Echoes of Creation - A Joyride for Your Soul

 

 Incredible nature and music....enjoy!

 

WAKE UP!

CLARITY

By Nathan Gill

"...That was it! Suddenly it was absolutely clear to me that these experiences - I call them transcendental events or experiences - actually have nothing to do with clarity. A transcendental experience can last a few seconds or ten years or maybe even the rest of your life, but a transcendental experience is just that. An experience. Many people have had these experiences and then the experience is gone and often the person is left with a desire for more of it. They think they have been given a taste of 'enlightenment' , when all that has happened is that they have had a transcendental experience. Walking down the street is an experience, but it's an ordinary one so you don't go looking for more of it.

The confusion was gone. I knew what I am without any doubt and it was obvious that I already had been that all my life. I no longer required any transcendental experience to prove it to me.

The whole of my 'spiritual' search had been added on to what I already am and I also understood why people are confused around this whole issue. Why they confuse 'spirituality' with clarity. This recognition of my true nature was not associated with any transcendental event or experience. It was clear that a transcendental experience of any kind is easily confusing if it occurs before you recognize with clarity your nature as Consciousness.

It is obvious that the transcendental event that was experienced had nothing to do with clarity of recognition. The occurrence of the event brought my confusion to a head and allowed me to see clearly how I had been subtly waiting for an event as permission to be what I already am.

I see now that no transcendental event has any significance in the light of the plain, ordinary, everyday clarity of what you really are."

Read the entire book HERE.

Trees are Happy for No Reason

My continuing passion is to part a curtain, that invisible veil of indifference that falls between us and that blinds us to each other's presence, each other's wonder, each other's human plight.

~ Eudora Welty

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

Fear is the cheapest room in the house.

I would like to see you living

In better conditions.

~ Hafiz

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Don't flail about like a man wearing a blindfold.

Believe me, He's in here.

Come in and see for yourself.

You'll stop hunting for Him all over.

~ Lalla (14th Century)

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Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.

~ Joseph Campbell

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In meditating, meditate on your own divinity. The goal of life is to be a vehicle for something higher. Keep your eyes up there between the world of opposites watching your 'play' in the world. Let the world be as it is and learn to rock with the waves.

~ Joseph Campbell

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Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.

~ Osho

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside

you, brings what you need.

There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in

myself did I come into this beauty.

Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more

silent.'

Die and be quiet.

Quietness is the surest sign that you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running from silence.

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.

Live in silence.

~ Rumi

Freedom "To" vs. Freedom "From"

...And this myth that I can rest in some assuredness. That I will  never again feel insecure or feel fear, or feel doubt, or feel those emotions we don’t want to feel. If I'm truly enlightened I will never feel those emotions.
Forget it. That’s not it. That's the pipe dream. That is the opium that is sold to the masses. And they eat it up and they never get there and they end up disillusioned.

Freedom is never freedom "from." If it's freedom "from" anything, it's not freedom at all. It's freedom "to." Are you free enough to be afraid? Are you free enough to feel insecure? Are you free enough not to know? Are you free enough to know that you can't know? Are you free enough to be totally comfortable, to know that you can't know what's around the next corner? How you will feel about it? How you will respond to it? That you literally can't know? Are you free enough to be totally at ease and comfort with the way things actually are? That's freedom.
 

~ Adyashanti

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- 

You are not "in the now"; you are the now. That is your essential identity--the only thing that never changes. Life is always now. Now is consciousness. And consciousness is who you are. That's the equation.
 

~ Eckhart Tolle

If this were your only spiritual practice, it would be enough: to withdraw identification from opinions, positions, thoughts.

~ Eckhart Tolle

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Not to know is profound; to know is shallow. Not to know is internal; to know is external. 

~ Chuang-tzu

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

To one who knows naught it is clearly revealed. 

~Meister Eckhart

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition. 

~Rumi

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Rejoicing in nothing and knowing nothing are the true rejoicing and the true knowledge. 

~ Lao-tzu

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

All I know is that I know nothing. 

~ Socrates

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When you’re blind to your own nature, the Buddha is an ordinary being. When you’re aware of your own nature, an ordinary being is the Buddha.
 

~ Hui Neng

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------

Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead it's about becoming more fully human. . . . It is the end of ignorance. 

~Lama Surya Das

Take A Good Look

You cannot have made the decision to look, because that would mean that reality was split between you and your decision. The present is the entirety of reality. You cannot have something that stands before it, making it happen, because the only time anything in the past existed, it existed as the present.

~ Cieran

“I” does not exist. It is a referential concept only. A way to put our collected memories of experience over time into a handy photo album we can pull out and display at whim. We think it is real. We “think” it into reality and then turn it into a narrative, a story about “me”. It is fiction. It is a fantasy, a fairy tale, no different then pulling a children’s book off a shelf and saying “Here’s the story of my life.”

Have you ever actually looked for this “I”? Where is it here and now, as you sit reading these words? Who is reading? What is reading? Is there an “I” present? If asked, does there appear a roster of qualities, a list of personal attributes, as if by magic? Is there a recitation occurring, is there a voice in your head?

Do you believe that voice is you? Does it speak with your voice, spell out your ideas and beliefs? Has it a point of view you call “yours”? Is it the way you present yourself to “others”? Do you seek validation through it? Is it true?

You probably have never really thought to look at the possibility that there is no self and never was. You might consider the idea preposterous. But there’s no harm in looking, is there, to scientifically examining the possibility that the idea of self is merely conceptual and has no reality? If there is no self, what would that mean? Would that change the way you actually function? Is a separate self necessary to operating in the real world or is it an obstruction, a detriment? Is having a separate self actually helpful, or does it cause arguments, dissatisfaction, and disappointment?

Does this separate self have real needs or are they imagined? Could it be that this separate self is just a thought, a symbol of an idea dressed up as a body? Could it be that this idea has parasitized the life in the body by encumbering it with myriad desires, plans, expectations, feelings, motivations, and more, all in order to perpetuate itself? Has this virus of mental/emotional selfhood so overcome humanity that it has completely forgotten its natural state of freedom and joy?

Have you ever stared into the eyes of a newborn? There is nobody there. Only emptiness. But there is tremendous life force. It silences you completely. It is the state we are born to, before words, labels, ideas, and beliefs become the predominant way we interact with the world. A child has no concept of separation from experience. A child is its experience.  It is fully immersed and one with life, right at the start. And then the parents begin injecting the generally-accepted version of reality into its vulnerable brain, starting with the labels of “boy” or “girl”. Before you know it, the child thinks it’s the label. Identification with labels, words, and beliefs leads to the formation of the fictional idea of “I”.

“I” relates to categorized experience, listed and filed under headings such as good/bad, right/wrong, like/hate, etc. The categories are arbitrary and are not necessarily connected to what happened, only to how it was perceived. This remembrance of experience is not a bad thing when applied to what is actually happening. No one wants to forget what “hot” means, or repeat an action that could cause bodily harm. But when a concept replaces an experience of actual knowing, then life is immediately corrupted, disconnected, and disjointed. It becomes a lie.

Living a lie leads to intense suffering. Living in a world based on this lie spreads the suffering to everyone. And this all begins with the erroneous and false belief in a separate, individualized self.

This lie can be seen through. Prove it to yourself. Look for yourself. There is no “I”. It is only a concept. Concepts are not real things. They can only point to real things. What does “I” represent? What is the sense of it? Take a good look. Take a real good look.  Look into the face of what you fear most, the demise of “you”. What is real cannot die, what is unreal never existed.

Take……….a………..look.

Marked Eternal: There Is NO SELF

This is the simplest, most logical; most obvious truth- there is no such entity as self. There is no self at all, no nothing, but life flowing freely, all is one reality, one life. Life just IS.

It is so simple, that it's most difficult to see. Thinking that we all have a special separate self that is in charge of our lives it's nothing else, but unquestioned assumption. It's a core belief, through which a human sees life. The feeling of separation persists in everyday life, making one always stressed, depressed or seeking for more. There is deep constant feeling that something is wrong, that there is something to find out, that life is not full, not abundant, stressful.

Of course there is something wrong! There is this feeling that something is wrong. It rises up from deep and keeps us searching for answers.

The answer is simple- there is no self! There never was. We are not doing anything in life, life is happening as us. There is no manager involved that decides what, when, with who, why. Life just happens, by itself, for no other reason. It's life alive. It's Life-ing.

The big question is how to see that there is really no self in reality at all. If you accept this as a belief, without testing, nothing will change. You will have one more belief running in the system creating more conflicts than before. To see the truth of it you need to look.

Looking is also very simple- one just needs a clear intention to finally see the truth, no matter what distractions stand in a way. It's not scary, it is not magic. One just needs to start thinking for himself and answer some precise questions with whole honesty like never before. 

When you start looking first thing to do is clear the path. This can be done by writing. You can have somebody guiding you or just do it yourself! Take nothing for granted, question everything. There is nothing at all that you need to know to start digging. Just begin writing and clarify stuff for yourself. No one can do the looking for you. Don't even think about that.

(Don’t start just yet. Read the whole thing to the end, then start)

I came up with these steps as a result of seeing what really works for most people. 

CLICK HERE to continue reading......

The Myth of Yoga or Integration

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definitions:

Yoga - System of meditation and asceticism designed to effect reunion with the universal spirit.

Integration - The combination of parts into a whole.

Common questions that one sees are 'how to integrate self-realization into one's day to day life?' or 'how to achieve yoga - union?'. However, both of these questions are based on a false premise which is that there is something separate which needs to be reunited, or combined, into the universal wholeness. Now it can be readily seen, on the experiential level, that each moment is just an experience consisting of thoughts/mental- images and sensations appearing in Awareness (I.e. we are aware of them). So that deeper than this flow of objects (thoughts/mental- images and sensations) we are this constant conscious subjective presence - Awareness. For a more detailed exposition of this see chapter two of Beyond The Separate Self or chapter one of A Light Unto Your Self.

Once this self-realization has occurred one sees that there never was any separation, as that which one truly is - pure Awareness, consciousness at rest - can never be separate from the Totality of consciousness. In the same way it can be seen that nothing is ever separate from This (consciousness) which exists in two states, at rest as pure Awareness, and in motion as cosmic energy. Every thing in existence is a configuration of this energy for modern physics has shown that matter is equivalent to energy, and the string theory posits that all matter is composed of strings of energy vibrating at different frequencies.

Now all motion arises in stillness, exists in stillness, is known by its comparison with stillness, and eventually subsides back into stillness. For example, if you walk across a room, before you start there is stillness, as you walk the room is still and you know you are moving relative to this stillness, and when you stop once again there is stillness. In the same way every 'thing' (consciousness in motion) arises in Awareness (consciousness at rest), exists in Awareness, is known in Awareness and subsides back into Awareness. Awareness is still, but is the container of all potential energy which is continually bubbling up into manifestation (physical energy) and then subsiding back into stillness.

Therefore pure Awareness, that which we truly are at the deepest level, is the substratum of all existence, the source, ground, seer and dissolution of all things. So there is, and never was, any thing that needed to be reunited, or combined, with the universal wholeness; for no separation is possible. In the same way our 'day to day existence' is never separate from This (pure Awareness) and thus no integration is necessary. For when examined living is seen to be a series of momentary experiences that seem to merge together to form something we call my life. As previously stated, it can be readily seen on the experiential level that each moment is just an experience consisting of thoughts/mental- images and sensations appearing in Awareness (i.e. we are aware of them).

So we need to be very careful when contemplating reality not to fall into the trap of assuming that we need to integrate ourselves, or achieve yoga (union), as there never was any separation. Any mode of thought that seems to posit a separate self which needs to be integrated, or united, subtly reinforces the myth of separation, and thus should be avoided or treated with care.

~ Colin Drake

Order Colin Drake's books as ebooks or in hard copy at

http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm

Sometimes Enlightenment Can Be a Real Kick in the A**

Very Clean Enlightenment - This is More Like It

DIEGO:
05:33
hey ciaran
my name is diego, and i´ve been reading your work lately

CIARAN:
05:33
word
how you finding it

DIEGO:
05:34
quite frankly i´m frustrated and angry

CIARAN:
05:34
cripes

DIEGO:
05:34
bc i don't seem to get it

CIARAN:
05:34
yeah
it can be a bugger
so where are you at right now
re the whole
no you thing

DIEGO:
05:35
there is no you, looking at it from that lens

CIARAN:
05:35
ok

DIEGO:
05:35
but i get pissed, bc i only am at the point of mentally understanding it, not seeing it

CIARAN:
05:35
ok
still
that's not a bad point, eh?
could be worse
might not have any idea about it
could be on fire
or in a bag
all of which would be worse
ok dude
look
you have to have a level of understanding
i mean, shit
you might just stumble across it
but that's a million to one
everyone i've ever popped
had to get some level
of clear idea
of what it was they were looking for
that's not just fine
it's important
it really is
and yes
while yes
of course you do need to see it
because that's where the juice is
don't be so down on yourself

DIEGO:
05:37
so it's best to define why i want this to happen?

CIARAN:
05:38
no
that would be silly
ignore that sort of thing
pointless
it's best to get try and get the issue
clear in your head
to the extent that you can
when you are not enlightened
which is to say
you have to allow
for a certain level of haze
but
you still gotta get some sense
of what you're looking for

DIEGO:
05:40
and how do i go about it? other trying to understand or thinking about it

CIARAN:
05:40
well look
the difference with this thing
as opposed to another idea
is that this is actually true
and that changes the playing field a little
in your favour, actually
this no you thing
isn't just true
it's totally true
from every conceivable angle
in every possible way
it could ever be thought of
one of the major problems people have
is that they're trying to see it in this one thing
or maybe from two or three angles
or whatever
and they get stuck in some paradox or other
and they start spinning out
thing is
it's true from every angle
100%
you can look at it from your ownership of a sandwich if you want
whatever
and actually make it
in 10 seconds
it is that total
so point one
is don't worry too much about angle of approach
because all angles hit it
after a single honest step
just pick whatever you feel most comfortable with
the second thing
is what you're actually trying to do
with this angle
or whatever

DIEGO:
05:44
what do you mean by that?

CIARAN:
05:44
well look
i say this over and over
it's like we're so stuck in thinking
that ideas are things
well, not things
that the arena of ideas
is the main arena of interaction
in which we operate
i know i'm getting a little out there
try to stick with it
that we don't really credit reality itself
with actually being there
we think we need to believe this or that
or whatever
otherwise it will go away
people think enlightenment
is like a special kind of confidence
you know?
that if you hold the peace
and believe there's no you
then you'll get all the hot new age babes
or whatever
but it's not like that

DIEGO:
05:46
hahaha im
guilty of that

CIARAN:
05:46
more than anything
cheeky scamp
more than anything
it's like seeing one of those magic eye patterns
like in the film mallrats
"it's a sailboat not a schooner"
if you've ever seen it
the truth is that there is a boat there
you don't see it
because it's unusual for you to look in that way
it's not impossible
or even particularly hard
your eyes focus in and out all the time
but you've just got to jiggle the thing a little
and then pop
sailboat
or schooner or whatever
look
there actually is no you
in real life
it's not a game
or some special thing
that you believe
which is magic
or makes you awesome
by it's internal awesomeness
it's just a single thing
that is actually the truth
really
check it out man
it's trippy as fuck
really
there really is no you
there's just the life
that 'you' think that 'you' are living
but there's no you
there's just thinking
and living
is that not
something of a headfuck?

DIEGO:
05:50
yes it certainly is

CIARAN:
05:50
is it true?

DIEGO:
05:51
honestly, i get glimpse that it isi

CIARAN:
05:51
well
check them
look deeper
find out
find the real truth of this
is this just ciaran talking crap
or is it real?
you get a glimpse of it
glimpse harder
you know?
is it true?
ask yourself that
right now
is it true?

DIEGO:
05:53
it's weird, it clicks in my thoughts

CIARAN:
05:53
is it true?

DIEGO:
05:55
don't know right now

CIARAN:
05:55
find out right now
there is no you
behind your life causing it
or in front of your life
being effected by it
there's just your life
and it's not yours
it's just life
and you
are just the imagination
of yourself
headfuck yes
true?
look
see
look at it
look how totally fucking true it is
it is mental
it is everywhere
look
it's so obvious
it's not magic
it's just the truth
look
look right now
look
it's real dude
look at the fucker
there's no you
in any sense
there's just life
it's crazy, yes
but it's 100% real
right now
look
there's no you

DIEGO:
05:59
have got a headache right now, from looking

CIARAN:
05:59
no you haven't
there's just a headache
it's not your headache
there is no you

DIEGO:
06:01
so life just is?

CIARAN:
06:02
you tell me

DIEGO:
06:02
i'm frustrated and scared by this

CIARAN:
06:02
no you aren't
there's just frustration
and fear
they're not your frustration
and it's not your fear
there is no yo
you

DIEGO:
06:03
that feels so true

CIARAN:
06:03
is it?

DIEGO:
06:04
it is, but there's no change

CIARAN:
06:04
no change in what?
in 'you'?
you dumb bastard?
i will slap you

DIEGO:
06:04
yes, in thinking in terms of me

CIARAN:
06:04
no shit
so
you're not thinking
in terms
of you
there's just thinking in terms of 'you'
and the 'you' involved in that
is a fucking fiction
that does not refer to anything
fucking look you dumb bastard
it's right there
come on
seriously
it's so simple
it's not some mental complex equation
there just isn't a you
at ALL
there's just life
look
and NO
it will not MAGICALLY change things
but
if you see
that it is actually true
yes
it's pretty fucking mental
so look
and see
if it's fucking true or not
now
and don't just stare off into space
repeating it like a mantra
actually look
for the actual answer
to the question
is there really no me?
actually answer it
in real life
for yourself
now

DIEGO:
06:08
there's only the thought of me

CIARAN:
06:08
YES
go on

DIEGO:
06:08
there is no me, it's not anywhere

CIARAN:
06:08
GOOD
YES
go on

DIEGO:
06:08
it's not physical, it's not of substance

CIARAN:
06:08
true

DIEGO:
06:09
it's not fully definable

CIARAN:
06:09
no
it's not in ANY way definable
because it does exist
at ALL
try again
doesn't exist rather
you know what i meant
ahem
there is no you
look
it's incredible isn't it
the totality and the simplicity
of the delusion
it's just huge
but at the same time tiny

DIEGO:
06:10
it is simple

CIARAN:
06:10
yeah
just so simple
it's right there all the time
but we just never look
it's crazy right?
this 'delusion of self'
thing
yeah?

DIEGO:
06:11
its unnecessary

CIARAN:
06:11
of course
is there a you
in any sense?

DIEGO:
06:12
no, it's just a belief, fake

CIARAN:
06:12
uh huh
look at how deep it is
inside everything
it's like the foundation stone
of all human bullshit
there's just life right
this one moving flow
of consciousness and life
we call the present
in it there are thoughts
actions
will
belief
truth
lies
but no you
never a you
incredible
that we would be so deluded
about something so intimate to us

DIEGO:
06:13
everything just is

CIARAN:
06:13
yup
tell you what
keep exploring it
post something up whenever you see something cool
i'm off for a smoke
but will be back
in just a little while
but keep exploring how real it is
as it is
pretty mental to look at
and quite cool

DIEGO:
06:14
thanks man

CIARAN:
06:15
just keep looking
and keep on the conversation
just see if you can't see some more stuff
it is quite cool to look at the truth

DIEGO:
06:16
there's no you to keep protecting
there's no self to keep nurturing
there's no self love
there's no self help
the only thing that is, is freedom

CIARAN:
06:19
freedom indeed my newly enlightened chum
stick with it
you're really getting somewhere now
go further into it
just explore the truth of it
you don't need to persuade yourself of anything
just keep checking it the fuck out
it is quite cool
as i'm sure you'll agree

DIEGO:
06:21
there's a feeling of lightness
and some joy
like a big release

CIARAN:
06:21
yup
that's the one
stay with it
keep looking into the truth of it

DIEGO:
06:23
this moment is very full
full of life

CIARAN:
06:23
isn't it just?

DIEGO:
06:23
there's no struggle

CIARAN:
06:24
nope

DIEGO:
06:24
but more of a childlike curiosity

CIARAN:
06:24
yeah
dude
i think we're finished here
that was rapid
even by the standards
of people who are very quick
you did good here
you're american right?

DIEGO:
06:25
nope, from el salvador

CIARAN:
06:26
but you go to uni in penn state?
how long have you been in america?

DIEGO:
06:26
yeah i went to school there, i was in america for 4 yearsi
then came back to el salvador after graduating

CIARAN:
06:26
ok
cool
not sure what it is
about hispanic people
you guys are very good at this
seriously
hispanic and irish
for whatever reason
no idea why
maybe just the fact
that both groups
are a little insane
i have irish blood
and am something of a nutcase
probably helps
anyway
now you've popped
here's the deal
all the thoughts and stuff
and the feelings
they don't go away
you can if you do nothing now
stagnate at a very shallow level
of enlightenment
so don't
get yourself
some eckhart tolle
there's a great audio thing he does
called 'through the open door'
it's really good
what you want to do now
is to deepen your vision
of the truth
not for a laugh
or because it is magic
but because there is a world
at the mercy of a lie
that's very simple
as you now understand
and cracking a person out of that lie
is not magic
nor is it really
that hard
it's a little tricky
takes a clear eye
a firm hand
and a kind heart
but it absolutely can be reproduced
i have no interest
in recreational buddhas
there is a kind of belief
in my country
Britain
that if a person has the ability to help others
they also have the duty to do so
you now have the ability
to help your people
in a way so deep
and so permanent
that it will change the whole dynamic
of the world
and turn the people of el salvador
into a beacon of truth
that can literally guide the world
out of the dark age
it is currently in
so deepen your state
and sharpen your scalpel
the world has need of you
diego
the question is
what's more appealing to you
the serenity of a mountaintop
or the glory of a free world?
what's it gonna be?

DIEGO:
06:34
definitely help others

CIARAN:
06:34
good man
ok cool
well
you did real good tonight
that was a pleasure

DIEGO:
06:35
have you tried this with relatives?
thanks

CIARAN:
06:35
with some limited success
i used to be pretty harsh with it
you can be clean
and firm
firmness is important
but so is just sort of letting the purity of the truth
do all the heavy lifting for you
anyway
run along now
download some tolle
sign up on the forum
and PM me so I can add you to the list
of enlightened people
and also

DIEGO:
06:36
ok will do

CIARAN:
06:36
start thinking about ways
to get this shit out
ok?

DIEGO:
06:37
ok, thanks
had to say that again

CIARAN:
06:38
haha
no problem hero
this is going on the blog btw

DIEGO:
06:38
going to bed now, catch you later man

CIARAN:
06:38
very nice enlightenment
sure man

There is more where this came from at RUTHLESS TRUTH

Also check out the forum for some gritty one-on-one, get the job done:
Ruthless Truth: The Arena

So Much Beauty.....

"It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever."

~ 'Ricky Fitts', from the movie "American Beauty"

Effortless Freedom

Enlightenment absorbs this universe of qualities.
When that merging occurs, there is nothing
but God. This is the only doctrine.

There is no word for it, no mind
to understand it with, no categories
of transcendence or non-transcendence,
no vow of silence, no mystical attitude.

There is no Shiva and no Shakti
in enlightenment, and if there is something
that remains, that whatever-it- is
is the only teaching.

~ Lalla

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

"If you want God and you chase God, God will be out of your reach. If you stop and drop every concept of God, you are enfolded in the Living Presence of God."

~ Gangaji

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here

~ ee cummings

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Acceptance is your inherent state, non-acceptance is artificial, fabricated.

~ Jean Klein

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

There is no island of bliss to which we finally arrive post-awakening. The experience of Silence is always available, of course, and it is the background of all experience, but it does not REPLACE or NEGATE experience. It remains the birthplace of personal experience, which goes on just like before but without the personal attachment that used to make it so joyful or painful. We must keep our eyes open and move forward into whatever life presents from moment to moment, even as we rest as that Creative Silence. Such radical courage is what reveals that we are also Life Itself.

~ Richard Young

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

There is another, sweeter power available to us all, regardless of how many words we know. It starts in the heart and is effortlessly spoken through the eyes. Sometimes, just for perspective, take a break and hear the music.

~ Gangaji

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Listen to your life.
See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.
In the boredom and pain of it
no less than in the excitement and gladness:
touch, taste, smell your way
into the holy and hidden heart of it,
because in the last analysis
all moments are key moments,
and life itself is grace.

~ Frederick Buechner

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

The Treasure Chest of the Body

Everything we have ever fled from, as separated consciousness, is here, right here in our body, in our nervous system. We don't have to travel far to know ourselves, to meet ourselves.

This fleeing the body is what keeps us bound. And now we have an even more sophisticated form of leaving ourselves - the use of spiritual concepts. How frequently the mind tries to chew on these , in one more valiant, exhausting effort to get away from the 'ouch' of life, from what we are actually feeling, from the discomfort, the waves of angst that rise in the body.

Discomfort arising is a gift. It is the body's way of defrosting itself, of integrating the massive amount of old shock, separation energy that is stored there.

Don't deny your experience, even if you know at some level it's not real. Imagine telling an upset baby it doesn't exist. Where and how could that land. Let your experience become truly unreal by giving it the reality
and attention it first needs. It is through this body of ours that we come to realize we are not the body.

Presence and sensation with no ownership of any of it. Our sanctuary, our favorite resting place, our true resting ground.

~ Mags Deane

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

in time of daffodils

in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why,remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of waking is to dream,
remember so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with paradise)
forgetting if,remember yes

in time of all sweet things beyond
whatever mind may comprehend,
remember seek(forgetting find)

and in a mystery to be
(when time from time shall set us free)
forgetting me,remember me

~ ee cummings

Your Own Heart Is Waiting For You

There are still many gifts unopened from your birthday.

~ Hafiz

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

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

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

"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

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

"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

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

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

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

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

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

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

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

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

Silence Is All I Can Say

Rumi speaks:

Listen to presences inside poems,
Let them take you where they will.

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

Silence is the root of everything.
If you spiral into its void,
a hundred voices will thunder
messages you long to hear.

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

Heart is the one who calls.
The sound of Heart echoes
on the mountain of body.
O the one who hangs on sound,
Be silent.
Instead, embrace the place
from whence sound comes.

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

The silence that Love would tell to Love,
That would be a narration
Which would feed the Soul
And have no end.

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

Be silent. That Heart speaks
without tongue or lips.

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

We listen to words
so we can silently
reach into the other.

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

“Keep silence,” be mute;
if you have not yet become
the tongue of God,
be an ear.

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

You..You...You...& Me too...

Why is there always music in this house?
Ask the owner.

Idols inside the Kaaba?
Beloved's light in a pagan temple?

Here is a treasure this world could not contain.
The house and its landlord
are all pretext and play.

Hands off this house, this talisman.
Don't argue with the landlord;
he's drunk every night.

The dirt and garbage are musk and rose.
The roof and door are music and verse.
In short, whoever finds this house,
is ruler of the world, Solomon of his time.

Look down, Lord, from the roof;
bless us with your glance.

I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is a fraud and fantasy.
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.

A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.

Zulaikha's female friends,
beside themselves in Joseph's presence, sliced their wrists.
Maybe a curl of his hair brushed their hearts.

Come in. The Beloved is here. We are all drunk.
No one notices who enters or leaves.
Don't sit outside the door in the dark, wondering.

Those drunk with Beloved,
even if they are a thousand, live as One.
But drunk with lust, even one is double.

Enter the thicket of lions unafraid of any wounds.
The shadows you fear are just a child's fantasy.

There is no wound and nothing to be wounded;
all is mercy and love.

But you build up thought
like a massive wooden door.
Set fire to the wood.

Silence the noise of the heart.
Hold your harmful tongue.

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/

Listen to Your Life

If someone says, “To be enlightened you must fast and pray all night,”
Have dinner and go to bed.

If you see a sign, “This way to salvation,”
run the other way.

If someone says, "This book is the truth, you can buy it from me,"
Take your money and buy grapes and roses.

If someone says, "He’s talking tonight, thousands will be saved,"
Go for a walk… listen to the birds and watch the clouds, and leave your backpack, your Bible and your Buddha under a tree and hope they will be gone when you return.

Where we are going you can't carry anything, not even your name.

~ John Squadra

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way into the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

~ Frederick Buechner

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Mysteriously they entered, those few minutes.
Mysteriously, they left.
As if the great dog of confusion guarding my heart,
who is always sleepless, suddenly slept.
It was not any awakening of the large, not so much as that,
only a stepping back from the petty.
I gazed at the range of blue mountains,
I drank from the stream. Tossed in a small stone from the bank.
Whatever direction the fates of my life might travel, I trusted.
Even the greedy direction, even the grieving, trusted.
There was nothing left to be saved from, bliss nor danger.
The dog's tail wagged a little in his dream.

~ Jane Hirshfield

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. there is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

~ Henry Miller

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

As soon as the non-dual language becomes a strategy to manipulate, to try and get away from something, it has become something else. It is no longer on behalf of Truth. Content is nothing. The words are nothing without the Love they spring from. Love has no formulas. It can say anything or nothing, a little smile. It is not about the words.

~ Ramana Spencer

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

You made me without name or trace, like the heart and soul.
And You made me hand-clapping without hands, like joy.
I said, "Where am I going, since my soul is in no place?"
You made me without "place" and moving like the spirit.

~ Rumi

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

We are, what are we?
We know not, what we are!
For a moment we are blessed
For a moment we are accursed
Some moment we pray and fast
Some moment we are free spirits
Now we declare, 'Only we exist'
Now we declare, 'We don't exist'
For a bit, our heart is calm
In a bit, we weep rivers
Now we say, 'We are self-realized'
Now we ask, 'Who are we?'
'Sachal' we are only That eternally
What other contracts can we make here?

~ Sachal Sarmast

Be Silent

Sit quietly and listen for a voice that says, 'Be more silent.'

~ Rumi

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

The role you play on the world's stage has no meaning other than the clear-sightedness with which you play it. Don't lose yourself in your performance - this only blurs the vision of your inner being.

~ Jean Klein

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

Student: How did I end up with this role?

Master: No one else wanted it.

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

In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.

~ Ram Dass

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

I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
the astonishing Light of your own Being.

~ Hafiz

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

When I was the stream, when I was the
forest, when I was still the field,
when I was every hoof, foot
fin and wing, when I
was the sky
itself,

no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever
wondered was there anything I might need,
for there was nothing
I could not
love

It was when I left all we once where that
the agony began, the fear and questions came,
and I wept, I wept, And tears
I had never known
before.

So I returned to the river, I returned to
the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again,
I begged – I begged to wed every object
and creature,

and when they accepted,
God was ever present in my arms.
And he did not say,
'where have you
been?'

for then I knew my soul – every soul -
has always held him.

~ Meister Eckhart

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

Walking Out the Door

Has someone ever come up to you, thinking they know you, and started chatting away about people and events you have no knowledge of. You wonder who they're speaking to. Suddenly, they wake up and realize that they don't know you, that you only looked like someone they know or knew.

This is happening to me now. People are writing and speaking to me as if they know me. They don't. I wonder who they think I am. I wonder who they're speaking to. I wonder why they aren't more present with themselves, and me.

It is quite common, isn't it, to assume that we know people, because their name and face and voice are familiar. But we have to be careful, because something may have happened in their hypocenter, the place where earthquakes start. Without our noticing, their entire identity, history, and being may have shifted so suddenly and totally as to make them a new person. Not the old person with new ideas, experiences, and beliefs, but a new person, one we've never met. This can happen to anyone, to all of us. It's often why we undertake personal and spiritual growth work - to become something utterly new.

If we are to serve and support each other in our growth, change and transformation, then we must approach each other with care, especially those closest to us, those we think we know. If we are not careful, our knowing will create a prison for them and us.

Can we approach each other with this level of care, being willing to both know and not know, suspending easy and habitual projections, in order that we may all truly have the opportunity to grow, change, and transform?

Whatever the answer to this question may be, we each ought to be true to who we are, who we've become, who we're becoming. You know as well as I do what it feels like to pretend to be someone you're not, to accept and cooperate with the projections of others. It makes you feel sick, doesn't it? Self-betrayal leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth.

I love Rainer Maria Rilke's poem, "Sometimes a Man":

Sometimes a man stands up during supper

and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,

because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.

And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.

And another man, who remains inside his own house,

dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,

so that his children have to go far out into the world

toward that same church, which he forgot.

A few months ago, I stood up during supper and walked out the door. The children of my past do not know me.

On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist, walked across a wire he had strung between the two World Trade Center towers. He was on that wire, a quarter mile above ground, for 45 minutes. It was such a catastrophic enterprise, so beyond imagining, a feat of such daring that he walked from one life to another. When he was finished, he left his past. No one could follow him. He had become someone else on that wire.

I wonder what might happen if we were to truly let go of the self we were, and let go of the images we hold of others? I wonder what might happen if we stood up at supper, or breakfast, and walked out the door. I wonder what might happen in 45 minutes, a quarter mile above ground, with nothing but self-surrender to steady us and keep us safe, if never the same.

~ Robert Rabbin

As It Should Be

One of the ways we can know what is happening in these times is not to read channeled messages or news reports, but to extrapolate from our own experience. We are here as lightworkers and starseeds and what is happening within us, in terms of our energies and outlooks, surely reflects the intentions of those who are managing events.

There is one drawback and that’s that we only know what is happening within ourself alone, not what is happening within others, which is why we share in discussion groups. Our sharing makes our experience known to others and they make their experience known to us.

And doing this job, I receive your emails in which you say that what I wrote about is also happening for you. These too help construct a picture of what we’re all going through.

In the last three messages from the Boss, he’s said that he (or perhaps my guides, or even both) is gradually raising the kundalini and I feel the impact. So may you, since your guides are probably doing the same with you. Since I’ve begun watching in April, there has arisen an increased sense of joy, wellbeing and satisfaction. At the same time, there has also arisen a decreased sense of personality or personal-ness.

What does that mean? It means that, at exactly the time when I feel “better,” I feel fewer issues, desires, or preferences. “I” am disappearing. In fact “I want” is disappearing and surely that is the main obstacle to evolution or enlightenment, is it not?

It is “I want,” or what the Buddha called the cycle of desire, that has us remain on one plane rather than advancing to another, is that not so? Endless, endless desire, one desire satisfied succeeded by another, making us what Buddhists called “hungry ghosts.”

I’m becoming more fit to serve because “I” am getting out of my own way. And the same may apply to you.

But there isn’t a straight-line path up a divine incline. There is doubling back and standing still and walking from side-to-side. Habits assert themselves and confuse. I’m used to watching the odd TV program and I still turn on the TV. But I watch less and turn the TV off sooner. I imagine soon I’ll only watch it to catch up on the “news,” if what the mainstream media presents can be considered news.

I also feel drawn to meditate more and I do. But often it is not meditation as we’re used to thinking of it. I meditate actively sometimes, instead of passively. I’m meditating now as I work. The telling of the truth about myself is no hindrance to meditation. A statement of truth is no diversion, but a fulfilling of the inner impulse to be still.

Truth is still, is it not? It is known in stillness, as many sages tell us. King David is one:

“Commune with your heart upon your bed, and be still.” (1)

“Be still and know that I am God.” (2)

Or Lao-Tzu. Here he captures exactly how it’s becoming for me:

“Be still while you work
And keep full control
Over all.” (3)

“Touch ultimate emptiness,
Hold steady and still.” (4)

The same way of speaking can be found in modern-day sages like Adyashanti: “An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition.” (5)

What Adya called an “attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation” is exactly the frame of mind that I’m gradually finding myself in or moving towards. It isn’t true that I’m not following any discipline, because karma yoga or selfless service is a discipline. So I cannot say that all is simply the product of the rising energies.

I’m a seeker of truth (jnana yogin) who follows the discipline of selfless service (karma yoga). All paths, sincerely followed, lead to God. There is not one that is better or more fit than another.

I could fight the rising energies and not pursue a spiritual discipline. If I did, I assume that life would be getting progressively more difficult for me rather than easier round about now. To know about that we’d have to hear the shares of those who are in fact fighting the unfoldment that’s occurring and we probably won’t hear from them, at least not now.

But I’m not fighting them. I know what’s happening energetically behind the scenes, as do you, and I’m allowing it to work its effect on me, as are you.

So, in every way, we’re riding an escalator, a divine moving staircase to Heaven, to an expanded state, a higher vibration, a more umbrageous existence. It’s just that it’s happening slowly and without watching it and noticing the gradual expansion, we might not be aware of it. Or without discussing it with each other in discussion groups, or reading channeled messages whose mission is to alert us and reassure us about what is occurring, we might not be aware of the gradual rise.

Knowing this, I’m not alarmed to watch the falling away of desires and preferences. As I become stiller, I’m not fighting it or acting against it. No matter where it leads, I’m convinced that the outcome will be one I’ll be happy with. As I become stiller and stiller, I simply adjust accordingly. I let the things I used to do fall by the wayside in full trust that what is happening, since I asked for it in the first place, is as it should be.

Footnotes

(1) Psalm 3:4.

(2) Psalm 46:10.

(3) Lao-Tzu, The Way of Life. The Tao Te Ching. trans. R.B. Blakney. New York, etc.: Avon, 1975, 55.

(4) Lao-Tzu, WOL, 68.

(5) Adyashanti, “True Meditation,” 1999, downloaded from www.adyashanti.org, 2004.

~ Steve Beckow - http://stevebeckow.com/2011/06/as-it-should-be/

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