Reality As You Know It Does Not Exist

THRIVE - What On Earth Will It Take?

THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream -- uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future. THRIVE is being released online on 11.11.11 at http://thrivemovement.com.

THRIVE contains interviews with several prominent activists, journalists, and authors, including Duane Elgin, Nassim Haramein, Steven Greer, Jack Kasher, Daniel Sheehan, Adam Trombly, Brian O'Leary, Vandana Shiva, John Gatto, John Robbins, Deepak Chopra, David Icke, Catherine Austin Fitts, G. Edward Griffin, Bill Still, John Perkins, Paul Hawken, Aqeela Sherrills, Evon Peter, Angel Kyodo Williams, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amy Goodman, and Barbara Marx Hubbard.

You Are Avoiding This Moment

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

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

it is that you are
actively
avoiding this moment.

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

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

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

They keep us
separated from this moment.

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

We are afraid
of being nothing,
of being nobody.

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

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

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

The silence of this moment
completes you.

~Kip Mazuy

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

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"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

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seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here

~ ee cummings

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

~ Jean Klein

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Carl Herman - Open Proposal for U.S. Revolution

Though this is not the normal fare for this blog, I thought I would address the growing dissatisfaction pervading our global consciousness as certain well-known events unfold on the world stage. Exposing the lies we have believed and been subservient to, both inner and outer, is the task of all those who wish to awaken. Telling the Truth is the strongest tool we have in order to accomplish this. The Truth shall set you free.

“Constitutional governments and aristocracies are commonly overthrown owing to some deviation from justice…the rich, if the constitution gives them power, are apt to be insolent and avaricious… In all well-attempered governments there is nothing which should be more jealously maintained than the spirit of obedience to law, more especially in small matters; for transgression creeps in unperceived and at last ruins the state, just as the constant recurrence of small expenses in time eats up a fortune.” – Aristotle, Politics, Book V. 350 B.C.E.

Revolution is from the Latin, revolutio, a “turn around” of political power.

The US public would revolt and end unlawful US wars and banksters’ rigged-casino fraud if they understood and embraced the central facts of these issues. This four-part series of articles provides the central facts, invites passionate public response, and proposes specific revolutionary public action.

Please share the Revolution to end unlawful US wars and return trillions of our dollars to constructive work. With millions of lives at stake (perhaps billions), there is nothing more important for public participation.

Part 1: Open proposal for US revolution: end unlawful wars, parasitic/criminal economics

Part 2: Open proposal for US revolution: end unlawful wars, all begun with lies

Part 3: Open proposal for US revolution: end parasitic and criminal economics

Part 4: Open proposal for US revolution: expose corporate media as propaganda

These four articles are academic in language and documentation. My citizen advocacy paper, Government by dicts, has additional resources.

Click Here to read entire article.

Colin Drake - The Razor's Edge

It has long been held that following the spiritual life to its goal, complete awakening, is very difficult, like walking along a razor's edge. This article addresses this and attempts to show that, whilst experiencing the first awakening is very simple and easy, to live this awakening requires great vigilance like walking a tight rope.

Let the wise merge the speech in the mind, and the mind into intelligence (philosophical reason); let him merge intelligence in the great self (pure awareness), and that great self into peace.

~ Katha Upanishad - 1.3.13

This signifies recognizing that thoughts (mind) and sensations (speech in this case) appear in (and are seen by) awareness i.e. are merged in that. This is to be discovered by 'direct seeing' which is informed by intelligence. Then by the same process one can discover that awareness, being always totally still and utterly silent, is always completely at peace. This is all fairly straightforward and easy to 'see' as the appendix, from Beyond the Separate Self (and A Light Unto Your Self) attempts to show.

Arise, awake, enlighten yourself by resorting to the great (teachers),
for that path is sharp as a razor's, difficult to tread
and hard to go by, say the wise.

~ Katha Upanishad - 1.3.14

This next verse says that the path of 'direct seeing' is sharp as a razor's edge and thus we should abandon this and resort to the great teachers. However, this advice itself is very difficult to follow for the modern sceptical Western mind which does not trust anything that lies outside its own experience or 'direct seeing'. Also the teachings of the great are often difficult to follow being somewhat cryptic and needing interpretation. resulting in different opinions leading to schisms and the formation of sects. From this also comes tribalism based on 'our teacher is the best' or 'our interpretation is the correct one' and the whole sorry saga of division and competition is perpetuated!

So based on this I think, on balance, we are better off following Buddha's final teaching which was that one is to become 'a light unto yourself'. This can be achieved by the 'direct seeing' of our essential nature by self-inquiry or 'investigation of our moment to moment experience' - see the appendix.

This results in an 'awakened moment' when one sees that deeper than thoughts (mind) and body (mind) one is pure awareness and the ramifications of this seeing can be amazing. However, due to our habitual identification with the body/mind one soon 'drops off' again requiring a further awakening by self-inquiry or investigation of experience. So to become 'totally awake' requires absolute vigilance and commitment, akin to walking a razor's edge.

However, this is not a problem, for as the periods of 'wakefulness' (which are totally carefree) increase so will the commitment to identifying with the level of pure awareness. This will lead to more reflection and investigation, resulting in further awakenings which will continue the process. To call it a process may seem a misnomer for when one is 'awake' there's no process going on, but the continual naps keep the whole thing running.

This does require us to be more interested in being awake than in our own 'personal story', and to prefer peace to mental suffering. It is amazing how many people identify with these and seem to actually enjoy them in a masochistic fashion. Assuming that this is not the case one can use mental suffering to be a wake up call that one has 'nodded' off again and return one to 'awareness of awareness'. So although staying awake is like walking a razor's edge it is very easy to see when one has slipped off this and to hop back on again!

There is another danger for those that feel that they have 'awakened' and that is spiritual pride based on the thought that "now I've really got it" and thus cannot fall off the edge. It is easy to see that this thought "now I've really got it" is dualistic involving a 'me' that's got something (else). This is the difference between thinking 'now I've really got awareness' and directly seeing that one is awareness itself. Any thought that objectifies the 'I' is to be avoided, for awareness is not an object but the constant conscious subjective presence. Once again vigilance is the key .

Thirdly for those of us who attempt, in our own feeble way, to point to awakening there is another greater danger, which is believing that we are (separate individuals) pointing . This belief can easily be strengthened by the appreciation that we receive by those who experience awakened moments based on this pointing. As 'awakening' is the most profound seeing that can occur, often with momentous implications, the gratitude expressed is often of the most lavish proportions. So we need to 'walk the walk' by continually realizing that we are ephemeral manifestations of That (consciousness) , through which pointing is taking place, and that no separate 'pointer' exists!

In conclusion, 'awakening' is straightforward and available to all but is quickly countered by nodding off again. So we need to constantly reawaken by becoming aware of, and identified with, awareness itself. In this respect it is like walking a razor's edge, but it is not painful and hopping back on again is simplicity itself, by the relevant shifting of attention from thoughts/sensations to the awareness that sees these.

Appendix

Below follows a simple method to investigate the nature of reality starting with one's day-to-day experience. Each step should be considered until one experiences, or 'sees', its validity before moving on to the following step. If you reach a step where you do not find this possible, continue on regardless in the same way, and hopefully the flow of the investigation will make this step clear. By all means examine each step critically but with an open mind, for if you only look for 'holes' that's all you will find!

1. Consider the following statement: 'Life, for each of us, is just a series of moment-to-moment experiences' . These experiences start when we are born and continue until we die, rushing headlong after each other, so that they seem to merge into a whole that we call 'my life'. However, if we stop to look we can readily see that, for each of us, every moment is just an experience.

2. Any moment of experience has only three elements: thoughts (including all mental images), sensations (everything sensed by the body and its sense organs) and awareness of these thoughts and sensations. Emotions and feelings are a combination of thought and sensation.

3. Thoughts and sensations are ephemeral, that is they come and go, and are objects, i.e. 'things' that are perceived.

4. Awareness is the constant subject, the 'perceiver' of thoughts and sensations and that which is always present. Even during sleep there is awareness of dreams and of the quality of that sleep; and there is also awareness of sensations; if a sensation becomes strong enough, such as a sound or uncomfortable sensation, one will wake up.

5. All thoughts and sensations appear in awareness, exist in awareness, and subside back into awareness. Before any particular thought or sensation there is effortless awareness of 'what is': the sum of all thoughts and sensations occurring at any given instant. During the thought or sensation in question there is effortless awareness of it within 'what is'. Then when it has gone there is still effortless awareness of 'what is'.

6. So the body/mind is experienced as a flow of ephemeral objects appearing in this awareness, the ever present subject. For each of us any external object or thing is experienced as a combination of thought and sensation, i.e. you may see it, touch it, know what it is called, and so on. The point is that for us to be aware of anything, real or imaginary, requires thought about and/or sensation of that thing and it is awareness of these thoughts and sensations that constitutes our experience.

7. Therefore this awareness is the constant substratum in which all things appear to arise, exist and subside. In addition, all living things rely on awareness of their environment to exist and their behaviour is directly affected by this. At the level of living cells and above this is self-evident, but it has been shown that even electrons change their behaviour when (aware of) being observed! Thus this awareness exists at a deeper level than body/mind (and matter/energy[ 1]) and we are this awareness!

8. This does not mean that at a surface level we are not the mind and body, for they arise in, are perceived by and subside back into awareness, which is the deepest and most fundamental level of our being. However, if we choose to identify with this deepest level - awareness - (the perceiver) rather than the surface level, mind/body (the perceived), then thoughts and sensations are seen for what they truly are, just ephemeral objects which come and go, leaving awareness itself totally unaffected.

9. Next investigate this awareness itself to see whether its properties can be determined.

Firstly what is apparent is that this awareness is effortlessly present and effortlessly aware. It requires no effort by the mind/body and thoughts and sensations cannot make it vanish however hard they try.

10. Next, this awareness is choicelessly present and choicelessly aware. Once again it requires no choice of the mind/body and they cannot block it however they try. For example, if you have a toothache there is effortless awareness of it and the mind/body cannot choose for this not to be the case. You may think that this is bad news but it is not so: can you imagine if you had to make a choice whether you would like to be aware of every sensation that the body experiences? In fact be grateful that there is no effort or choice involved for awareness just to be - such ease and simplicity - which is not surprising for you are this awareness!

11. It can be seen then, that for each of us this awareness is omnipresent; we never experiences a time or place when it is not present. Once again be grateful that the mind/body is never required to search for this awareness; it is just always there, which of course is not surprising for at the deepest level we are this awareness.

12. Next, notice that this awareness is absolutely still for it is aware of the slightest movement of body or mind. For example, we all know that to be completely aware of what is going on around us in a busy environment we have to be completely still, just witnessing the activity.

13. In the same vein this awareness is totally silent as it is aware of the slightest sound and the smallest thought. Therefore awareness is always completely at peace as to be absolutely still and totally silent is to be completely at peace.

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[1] The theory of relativity, and string theory, show that matter and energy are synonymous.

http://nonduality.org/tag/colin-drake/

Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth

let's not speak in any language,

let's stop for one second,

and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment

without rush, without engines,

we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea

would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt

would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,

wars with gas, wars with fire,

victory with no survivors,

would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers

in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused

with total inactivity.

Life is what it is about;

I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded

about keeping our lives moving,

and for once could do nothing,

perhaps a huge silence

might interrupt this sadness

of never understanding ourselves

and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us

as when everything seems dead

and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve

and you keep quiet and I will go.

~ Pablo Neruda

Thandie Newton: There Is No Self

Now this is what I'm talking about! Beautiful!

Your Own Heart Is Waiting For You

There are still many gifts unopened from your birthday.

~ Hafiz

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Late Ripeness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ Czeslaw Milosz

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

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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

~ Huang-po

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

~ Robert Adams

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

~ Benjamin Smythe

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

~Mags Deane

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

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

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

There is no need for suffering, God is here!

~ Rumi