The Myth of "Doing Nothing"

Colin Drake

I recently was talking to a friend who was complaining of existential anxiety; which was dispelled by reading a good book on nonduality or attending an inspiring satsang, but which always returned. So I asked him what he 'did' on a daily basis to establish himself in nondual awareness, whereupon he grinned sheepishly indicating that he did nothing. Which made me ponder the teachings of many modern teachers of nondualism who say there is nothing to 'do' and everything just 'happens by itself'. Indeed even in my book Beyond the Separate Self there is a chapter entitled 'Nothing to Achieve, Find or Get' which could give the impression that there is nothing that one needs to do . However I can assure you that if one continues to live in the same headspace without 'doing anything' then there will no change in one's outlook and anxiety levels. For as I say in the book:

At a deeper level than this flow of fleeting objects (thoughts and sensations) we are this constant subject, awareness itself; this is already the case and as such cannot be achieved. All that is required is to realize this!

So awareness is central to our being, whilst thoughts and sensations are peripheral. This is self-evident for without awareness our thoughts and sensations would pass unnoticed. Thus we cannot lose this awareness; we just need to stop overlooking it.

It is impossible to get that awareness which you already are, and thus have in full abundance. All that is required is to recognize this. In this respect you do need to 'get' this, but this is in fact nothing as it is not a thing but the 'ground' from which all things arise, in which they exist and back into which they subside. So there is in fact 'no thing to get' and you do need to 'get' nothing(ness) !

So although there is:

'nothing to achieve,' we do need to realize the deeper level of pure awareness, for this to be the case.

'nothing to find', we do need to stop overlooking the awareness that is always present.

'nothing to get', we do need to recognize that we already have this awareness.

This realization, or recognition, of the deeper level of pure awareness is easily accomplished by directly investigating our own moment-to-moment experience. My book aims to provide a simple straightforward framework in which this investigation can take place. However even after the recognition of this deeper level we do need to cultivate, and establish, this by further investigation/ contemplation for as it says in The Tibetan Book of the Dead:

All those of all [differing] potential, regardless of their acumen or dullness,
May realize [this intrinsic awareness].

However, for example, even though sesame is the source of oil and milk of butter,
But there will be no extract if these are unpressed or unchurned,
Similarly, even though all beings actually possess the seed of buddhahood,
Sentient beings will not attain buddhahood without experiential cultivation.

Nonetheless, even a cowherd will attain liberation if he engages in experiential cultivation.

For, even though one may not know how to elucidate [this state] intellectually,
One will [through experiential cultivation] become manifestly established in it.
One whose mouth has actually tasted molasses,
Does not need others to explain its taste.


Even after one has 'tasted molasses' this taste will dissipate after a time, requiring further ingesting for the taste to reappear. In the same way the effect of 'awakening' to the reality of the deeper level of pure awareness will dissipate if one 'nods off' again and re-identifies with the mind/body. So one needs to continually inquire into/investigate/ contemplate the nature of Self and Reality for this 'awakening' to become established. It is only in this established awakening that all existential anxiety is banished.

Beyond the Separate Self, by Colin Drake,
is available at http://nonduality. com/btss. htm

Be at Peace

I have been reluctant to write anything for a long time....so many are so much more articulate than I and I am a horrible typist as well. Every time I have a revolutionary thought, it is swept clean so quickly, and I am back to no-mind before I know it...

If there was anything of value that I could say, it would be that whatever you are thinking is true, let go of it as quickly as possible and come back to HERE. All of thought is a secondary notion, a borrowed contrivance, a story believed. Awakening is an unraveling, an undoing of all that was and is, a return to the delight of pure emptiness.

And this is exactly what is happening in the world, and it is so interesting to watch the scrambling for position, the attempt to hold on to the melting icicle of an illusionary world with no substance. It is like an actor who has so succumbed to his role that at the end of the movie he cannot remember the truth of who he was before the story began. YOU ARE NOT YOUR STORY!

The fear and tension only comes because you have so identified with this earthly coil that the Truth of you seems to be a fantasy...but there was a time not so long ago that you saw through the veil clearly and let it fall away. The dream is fading now....just let it, allow it to go....you came here to awaken so let it happen!

The events in the world are the natural result of humanity's decision to be free....like the butterfly breaking from the chrysalis, or a child being born, there is discomfort and struggle. But the result is inevitable and ultimately joyous. Find a quiet place to sit with a few good friends and enjoy the ride!

We are here in Costa Rica, evolving community, allowing it all to unfold....

There is no way to define this by any prior definitions as the moment unfolds itself...and here words fail and I am again rendered speechless....

Be at Peace, All is Well...

Suzen

Channeling by David Wilcock

READING -- JANUARY 5, 2010 -- "BE AT PEACE WITH THE COMING CHANGES"

The reason you are up in the middle of the night asking yourself these questions is very simple. We have an agenda to perform. The simplest requests are often not heard by you, so it takes diligence and patience to perform some of these operations.

You know as well as I do the stakes that are involved. Nothing less than the survival of the human race as it goes through this critical transition. Therefore, be at peace with the coming changes and allow yourself to rectify that which is not understood in the glow of honest acceptance of that which is.

What we have for you is a new view of humanity from this clear perspective that speaks only of love and light.

For in love and light is a vista of consciousness that opens the door to mastery.

That has always been the way it works. Spirit melds with matter and produces majesty. All is revealed in a nanosecond to those who are ready for it. The law of love approaches the law of infinity, and there is a merger of the mortal with the sublime and limitless.

(Click here to continue reading....)

YOU ARE ALREADY THAT

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

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

Indestructible Clarity
www.greatfreedom. org

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The Nature of Things

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

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

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Nisargadatta

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

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

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

~ Cathy Rosewell Jonas

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

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

Student: I've made up all of it?

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

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After Forty Years

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

~ Jack Cain

What is Mind?

And what is mind
And how is it recognized?
If I clearly draw
In sumi ink, the sound
Of breezes drifting through pine
Is all that is seen.

~ Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481) ~

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Let Experience In

The practice of compassion means letting experience in. A Japanese poet, a woman named Izumi who lived in the tenth century, wrote:

"Watching the moon at dawn, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely. No part left out."

When we can open to all parts of ourselves and to others in the world, something quite extraordinary happens. We begin to connect with one another.

~ Joseph Goldstein ~

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Suffering seems real because we don't have a clear understanding of our true nature. Instead, we believe the passing thoughts, such as 'I am no good, 'I am not there yet,' 'I am stuck' or whatever the thought may be. Eventually we understand that we are not those thoughts. Once our real self is pointed out, the suffering loses its grip.

~ John Wheeler ~

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It's not possible to have a problem without believing a prior thought. To notice this simple truth is the beginning of peace.

~ Byron Katie ~

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"Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past."

~ Lily Tomlin ~

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"Oh soul,you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less, why do you worry?
You are in truth the soul, of the soul, of the soul."

~ Rumi ~

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"The Way is not something which can be studied. Study leads to the retention of concepts and so the Way is entirely misunderstood. Moreover, the Way is not something specially existing; it is called the Mahayana Mind - Mind which is not to be found inside, outside, or in the middle. Truly it is not located anywhere. The first step is to refrain from knowledge-based concepts. The Way is spiritual Truth and was originally without name or title. It was only because people ignorantly sought for it empirically that the Buddhas appeared and taught them to eradicate this method of approach. Fearing that nobody would understand, they selected the name 'Way.' The Way of the Buddhas and the Way of devils are equally wide of the mark."

~ Huang Po ~

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For the Sleepwalkers

Tonight I want to say something wonderful
for the sleepwalkers who have so much faith
in their legs, so much faith in the invisible

arrow carved into the carpet, the worn path
that leads to the stairs instead of the window,
the gaping doorway instead of the seamless mirror.

I love the way that sleepwalkers are willing
to step out of their bodies into the night,
to raise their arms and welcome the darkness,

palming the blank spaces, touching everything.
Always they return home safely, like blind men
who know it is morning by feeling shadows.

And always they wake up as themselves again.
That's why I want to say something astonishing
like: Our hearts are leaving our bodies.

Our hearts are thirsty black handkerchiefs
flying through the trees at night, soaking up
the darkest beams of moonlight, the music

of owls, the motion of wind-torn branches.
And now our hearts are thick black fists
flying back to the glove of our chests.

We have to learn to trust our hearts like that.
We have to learn the desperate faith of sleep-
walkers who rise out of their calm beds

and walk through the skin of another life.
We have to drink the stupefying cup of darkness
and wake up to ourselves, nourished and surprised.

~ Edward Hirsch ~

Return to Silence

Silence is the language of God, all else is translation

-- Rumi

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"I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely.
I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God.
God is nearer to me than I am to myself..."

-- Meister Eckhart

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"The silence of a quiet mind is the essence of that beauty. Because it is silent and because it is not the plaything of thought, then in that silence there comes that which is indestructible, which is sacred. In the coming of that which is sacred then life becomes sacred, your life becomes sacred, our relationship becomes sacred, everything becomes sacred."

--Krishnamurti

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You are not what happens; you are the space in which it happens. You are not your thoughts; they come and go. You are the vastness in which these thoughts appear and disappear because underneath all your thinking there is the stillness of pure being,... pure consciousness, the timeless dimension of yourself.

- Eckhart Tolle

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"Choose silence, and love is apparent.

When we choose silence, we choose to give up the reasons not to love,
which are the reasons for going to war, or continuing war, or separating,
or being a victim, or being right. In a moment of silence, in a moment of
no thought, no mind, we choose to give those up.
This is what my teacher invited me to.

Just choose silence. Don't even choose love. Choose silence, and love is
apparent. If we choose love we already have an idea of what love is.

But if you choose silence, that is the end of ideas. You are willing to
have no idea, to see what is present when there is no idea, past,
present, future. No idea of love, no idea of truth, no idea of you, no
idea of me. Love is apparent."

--Ganga Ji

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When we are empty of ego we, too, can carry on in calm acceptance of
life's varying events. When we cease making prejudicial distinctions -
gentle or harsh, beautiful or ugly, good or bad - a peaceful stillness
will permeate our mind. If there is no ego, there is no agitation.

-- Master Han Shan

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Live in your Unborn Buddha-Mind. Then there's no regression. No need for advancement. Any idea of wanting to make progress is already a regression from the place of the Unborn. A man of the Unborn has nothing to do with advancing or backsliding. He's always beyond them both.

Since the Buddha-Mind takes care of everything by means of the Unborn, it has nothing to do with Samsara or Nirvana. Seen from the place of the Unborn, both are like shadows in a dream. There can be no death for what was never born.

The marvelous brightness of the Buddha-Mind, by means of words, is able to enlighten people and deliver them from their illusions one by one. And when someone hears these words, understands and affirms them, he will know for himself that the Buddha-Mind' s wonderful brightness surpasses even the brightness of the sun and moon.

What an incalculable treasure is your Buddha-Mind!

--Writing: The Unborn: The Life and Teachings of Zen Master Bankei
Translated by Norman Waddell

Time melting ... being quiet now... 'desires fulfilled breed more desires'

From "I Am That", Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ~ Chapter 53

Click Here to listen to the following being read while you read along with it: http://charliehayes 36.tripod. com/iamthat54. mp3

Questioner: I must confess I came today in a rebellious mood. I got a raw deal at the airlines office. When faced with such situations everything seems doubtful, everything seems useless.

Maharaj: This is a very useful mood. Doubting all, refusing all, unwilling to learn through another. It is the fruit of your long sadhana. After all one does not study for ever.

Q: Enough of it. It took me nowhere.

M: Don't say 'nowhere'. It took you where you are -- now.

Q: It is again the child and its tantrums. I have not moved an inch from where I was.

M: You began as a child and you will end as a child. Whatever you have acquired in the meantime you must lose and start at the beginning.

Q: But the child kicks. When it is unhappy or denied anything it kicks.

M: Let it kick. Just look at the kicking. And if you are too afraid of the society to kick convincingly look at that too. I know it is a painful business. But there is no remedy -- except one -- the search for remedies must cease. If you are angry or in pain, separate yourself from anger and pain and watch them. Externalisation is the first step to liberation. Step away and look. The physical events will go on happening, but by themselves they have no importance. It is the mind alone that matters. Whatever happens, you cannot kick and scream in an airline office or in a Bank. Society does not allow it. If you do not like their ways, or are not prepared to endure them, don't fly or carry money. Walk, and if you cannot walk, don't travel. If you deal with society you must accept its ways, for its ways are your ways. Your needs and demands have created them. Your desires are so complex and contradictory -- no wonder the society you create is also complex and contradictory.

Q: I do see and admit that the outer chaos is merely a reflection of my own inner disharmony. But what is the remedy?

M: Don't seek remedies.

Q: Sometimes one is in a 'state of grace' and life is happy and harmonious. But such a state does not last! The mood changes and all goes wrong.

M: If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and expectations, you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events. It is your restlessness that causes chaos.

At least it did not slow them down, as your kicking would have surely done! You want immediate results! We do not dispense magic here. Everybody does the same mistake: refusing the means, but wanting the ends. You want peace and harmony in the world, but refuse to have them in yourself. Follow my advice implicitly and you will not be disappointed. I cannot solve your problem by mere words. You have to act on what I told you and persevere. It is not the right advice that liberates, but the action based on it. Just like a doctor, after giving the patient an injection, tells him: 'Now, keep quiet. Do nothing more, just keep quiet,' I am telling you: you have got your 'injection', now keep quiet, just keep quiet. You have nothing else to do. My Guru did the same. He would tell me something and then said: 'Now keep quiet. Don't go on ruminating all the time. Stop. Be silent'.

Q: I can keep quiet for an hour in the morning. But the day is long and many things happen that throw me out of balance. It is easy to say 'be silent', but to be silent when all is screaming in me and round me -- please tell me how it is done.

M: All that needs doing can be done in peace and silence. There is no need to get upset.

Q: It is all theory which does not fit the facts. I am returning to Europe with nothing to do there. My life is completely empty.

M: If you just try to keep quiet, all will come -- the work, the strength for work, the right motive. Must you know everything beforehand? Don't be anxious about your future -- be quiet now and all will fall in place. The unexpected is bound to happen, while the anticipated may never come. Don't tell me you cannot control your nature. You need not control it. Throw it overboard. Have no nature to fight, or to submit to. No experience will hurt you, provided you don't make it into a habit. Of the entire universe you are the subtle cause. All is because you are. Grasp this point firmly and deeply and dwell on it repeatedly. To realise this as absolutely true, is liberation.

Q: If I am the seed of my universe, then a rotten seed I am! By the fruit the seed is known.

M: What is wrong with your world that you swear at it?

Q: It is full of pain.

M: Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind. Change your scale of values and all will change. Pleasure and pain are mere disturbances of the senses; treat them equally and there will be only bliss. And the world is, what you make it; by all means make it happy. Only contentment can make you happy -- desires fulfilled breed more desires. Keeping away from all desires and contentment in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state -- a precondition to the state of fullness. Don't distrust its apparent sterility and emptiness. Believe me, it is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery. Freedom from desires is bliss.

Q: There are things we need.

M: What you need will come to you, if you do not ask for what you do not need. Yet only few people reach this state of complete dispassion and detachment. It is a very high state, the very threshold of liberation.

Q: I have been barren for the last two years, desolate and empty and often was I praying for death to come.

M: Well, with your coming here events have started rolling. Let things happen as they happen -- they will sort themselves out nicely in the end. You need not strain towards the future -- the future will come to you on its own. For some time longer you will remain sleep-walking, as you do now, bereft of meaning and assurance; but this period will end and you will find your work both fruitful and easy. There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable for it means the soul had cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places. This is detachment -- when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing; but there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the instruction: whatever you come across -- go beyond.

Q: The Buddhas rule: to remember what needs to be remembered. But I find it so difficult to remember the right thing at the right moment. With me forgetting seems to be the rule!

M: It is not easy to remember when every situation brings up a storm of desires and fears. Craving born of memory is also the destroyer of memory.

Q: How am I to fight desire? There is nothing stronger.

M: The waters of life are thundering over the rocks of objects -- desirable or hateful. Remove the rocks by insight and detachment and the same waters will flow deep and silent and swift, in greater volume and with greater power. Don't be theoretical about it, give time to thought and consideration; if you desire to be free, neglect not the nearest step to freedom. It is like climbing a mountain: not a step can be missed. One step less -- and the summit is not reached.

~ ~ ~

"Stop thinking and talking and there is nothing you will not be able to know" ~ Hsin Hsin Ming

Happiness Has No Opinion

How refreshing, the whinny of a packhorse unloaded of everything!

--Zen saying

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The sound of one dog barking

Human beings understand too much. But what they understand is just somebody's opinion. Like a dog barking. American dogs say, "Woof, woof." Korean dogs say, "Mung, mung." Polish dogs say, "How, how." So which dog barking is correct? This is human beings' barking, not dog barking. If dog and you become one hundred percent one, then you know sound of barking. This is Zen teaching. Boom! Become one.

-Seung Sahn, from "Boom! An Interview with Zen Master Seung Sahn,"

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'Love' is a big word, of course. It is enough, I feel (whatever mechanisms are at play) to enter the feeling of BEING in this body, fully and completely embodied. Then, there is a tactile understanding of what is felt in THAT body, and THAT body, when the BEING in that BODY is also embodied/awakened. It also felt when THAT body is somehow blocked/restricted in its natural flow.

Some non-dual teachers make a lot out of the concept "there is nobody here" or "there is no-one here" - but if it is just an idea, just a concept, and not fully realised in the body, in the feeling, in the breathing out, then it is just playing with words.

The difficulties arise with language. I have one language, you have another, Rupert has another, and everyone else has their own vocabulary in all this. I feel this is perhaps the final frontier in non-dual meanderings ... opening up the language, and the sense of mutual trust, such that language is no longer a barrier. Instead, we look for bridges that cross the language barrier, we become less rigid in our thinking through what has been embodied, so that it is clearly and openly offered and received. In a way, the mind is not subtle enough to articulate completely in words what is felt deep down. Whatever language arises within 'you' or 'I' is bound to not totally resonate with the 'other' ... because of the way that language evolves within each of us in such a personal way.

When speaking about and refering to a traditional viewpoint/ philosophical stance, how do we bring that alive in the listener in such a way that fully conveys what we have realised through it as a vehicle of embodiment ... so that it is not just seen as a 'philosophical viewpoint'? And how can we be receptive enough to that traditional vehicle of embodiment, such that we overcome our resistance to it, and its terminology and methodology?

with warm regards
Roy

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Everything is new now for me.
My mind is new, the moon, the sun.
The whole world looks rinsed with water,
washed in the rain of I am That.

Lalla leaps and dances inside the energy
that creates and sustains the universe.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song", Versions by Coleman Barks
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Separateness

Where on earth would we find a boundary between us?
Would it be the air between us that we both breathe?
Would it be the skin on my body that is participating
in the exact same atmosphere as the skin on your body?

The idea of separateness is something we have to make
up, so we say everything that connects us doesn't count
because we can't see it. Of course, if the air weren't
there all of a sudden, it would become important in a
hurry. But for right now, we choose not to pay attention
to it.

Look and see how you make up separateness within yourself.
Look for your sense of "self' and "other." Notice how within
yourself, there arc many selves. Inside or outside yourself,
see if you can find a boundary.

From: 'Trying to be Human: Zen Talks from Cheri Huber'