This blog is only about awakening, nothing more, nothing less. Anything that will contribute to the possibility of complete liberation from the dream, or from the mass hallucination of humanity, or from the mental matrix, or from the false self, or from the lie, or any other label you want to call it, is welcome here. The key words are FREEDOM and JOY. Sometimes I think this reporting about stuff just keeps the false story going and only adds to the insanity, and there's too much of that already. But something is trying to pry the lid off still, something awaits to be seen. We are all in this boat together, so here we go......have fun!


Saturday, August 20, 2011

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/

Thursday, August 18, 2011

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

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

No Agenda Needed


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

~ Ramana Maharshi

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

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

~ Anne Lamott

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

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

~ Albert Einstein

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

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

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

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

~ Tilopa

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

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

~ Jean Klein

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

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

~ Adyashanti

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

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

~ Chogyam Trungpa

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

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

~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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

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

~ Papaji

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

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

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Saturday, July 16, 2011

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

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Jean Klein: The Seeker IS the Sought




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

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

Student: Had this ever happened before?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Student: Ignored?

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

Student: How is life different now?

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

Student: Did your relationships change?

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

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

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

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

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

~ Jean Klein

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

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

~ Jean Klein

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

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

~ Jean Klein

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

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

~ Jean Klein

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

"What any desire really aims at, is a state of non-desire. This non-desire is a state in which we demand absolutely nothing. Thus it is a state of extreme abundance, fullness."

~ Jean Klein


Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Charisma Does Not Equal Enlightenment


Selling Water by the River

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

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

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

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

~ Adyashanti

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

Today I Awoke

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

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

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

Rest and Be Taken

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.adyashanti.org

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE - June 21, 2011


Here are some astrological observations from Barbara Hand Clow.....Enjoy!




"The Summer Solstice has arrived north of the Equator where it is time to breathe, relax, be sensual, and to become fully embodied. South of the Equator, it is the Winter Solstice where it is time to assess what you've created during the year, especially to consider your Spring Equinox intentions made during September 2010. [This site is written for readers who live north of the Equator, so those down south will need to switch your comprehension of the influences of the solstices accordingly.]

For those of us living in the north, our spring coincided with the opening stages of the Universal Underworld on March 9 (hereinafter the Universal). Experiencing the Days and Nights of the Universal during only 18 days is causing great changes in our personal and collective lives. Thus, letting go and relaxing will be difficult this summer. For most people, it's been hard not to be totally distracted with so much going on, so it could be easy to miss this summer's potential to flesh out and deepen what we've been creating since March. Yet, remember, you create your own reality, and the events in the outer world are deeply connected and inspired by what's in your minds. Please take a look at your Spring Equinox intentions to assess how you are doing now, and also take note of the things that are popping into your life that you didn't even plan on. During such intense time acceleration, chaos is breaking out everywhere, since chaos is always part of new creation: The reorganization of the fractal fields creates exceedingly unexpected new things in your life.

We are in the middle of three eclipses from June 1 through July 1, 2011. The June 1 eclipse occurred during the Day Three sprouting phase of the Universal. In the reading for the June 1 Gemini New Moon-which was an eclipse during Day Three-I summarized the progress of three key events that were seeded during Day One of the Universal. I will not be constantly repeating this material as I follow it through to October 28, 2011, so you should print out or save a copy of the reading for the June 1 Moon in Gemini to make it easier to follow the unfolding events.

Events since the Gemini New Moon have continued to verify the critical nature of these three themes: a crisis over the use of nuclear power, chaos in the Middle East, and global financial instability. During this Day Three sprouting phase, three Fukushima reactors are in meltdown, Syria is afflicted with a civil war, and the Americans are opening a fourth war front in Yemen. Regarding the financial crisis, on June 1 (the first eclipse), the European Union Times published an astonishing story about the real reason the president of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested by the Federal Security Bureau in New York on May 14 for supposedly having attacked a hotel maid. Apparently, Strauss-Kahn discovered that Fort Knox has been emptied of all its gold bars, which are the basis of US drawing rights in international banks, and he was trying to fly back immediately to Europe to meet with the German President, Angela Merkel! The real story about what he was doing from the European Union Times is posted on http://2012patriot.wordpress.com

My reading for the March equinox suggested that the Universal would unfold amid an explosion of chaos: The equinox Sun in 0 Aries moved right to Uranus in 1 Aries soon after the equinox. Many planets were in Aries throughout the spring, so this hot astrological influence was right in tandem with the Mayan Calendar as usual. Many of you are feeling quite disturbed and distressed right now, and during such great change, I find that deep reflection on personal growth in light of events in the collective world is essential. As humans, we keep our sanity by maintaining some kind of logical explanation for what's going on in our world, and Carl Calleman's thesis on the Mayan Calendar certainly helps. [I, for one, cannot imagine comprehending our times right now without Calleman's idea! I'm going to continue this site through the Winter Solstice 2012 mostly to reflect upon the nature of the new world that will be emerging after the end of the tun-based Calendar, October 28, 2011.] Right now, we are in the end of Night Three (Day Four opens June 25), and we are beginning to see the real implications of the Day Three sprouting: The Middle East is being totally reshaped by revolution; many countries, besides Japan, are seeking ways to shut down their nuclear reactors; and the world's financial systems are tottering. Arresting one key player after another for sexual peccadilloes will not hide the truth.

Meanwhile, the only thing that matters is how you live your life. Who do you love now? Are you faithful and devoted to each person you are connected to? Are you ready, at a moment's notice, to go right to those who need assistance from you? Do you trust the grand plan that is unfolding no matter what will happen in your personal life? During times like 2011, heroes are made. Or, are you sitting around groaning and waiting for the end of the world while you are doing nothing in your own life? I suppose if I could make a film that would characterize the current scene, it would be titled Waiting for Nibiru. Ironically, in the middle of silly apocalyptical fear, a popular film is popping up titled Tree of Life, and my dear friend Brian Swimme has announced his monumental film, The Universe Story, which premieres in September 2011! Surely we are living in a time of miracles! We are all invited to observe in wonder, breathe deeply, and enjoy the show!

This Summer Solstice chart is very musical, like an early medieval madrigal; when the theme of one planet is played, all the other planets sing along. This is because many planets are in a 0 to 10 degree range causing many more multiple aspects than usual. The Sun in 0 Cancer, for example, is exactly 30 degrees from Mars, while sextiling Jupiter; squaring Uranus; trining Neptune, Chiron, and Moon; and opposing Pluto! Quite a potent entry into summer, wouldn't you agree? The other notable character in this chart is its director-Saturn; he stands alone by the rising of the Washington, DC chart, while the other bodies are in a wide "bucket" with Saturn as the handle. Saturn directs the field of an impressive Grand Square involving Mercury/Sun in Cancer, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn. Saturn went direct on June 12 and is now moving forward to cross the 1776 USA Saturn on August 28 (see the USA chart at the end of this reading).

In late August, the world will be deeply immersed in the Night Five, the destruction phase of the universal. I have to wonder who set up this game? Often I wonder if the US could have avoided being central player in the National and Planetary Underworld game called Empire? But, it's not really about the US during the summer season-it's about a global emotional-body cleansing with Saturn in 10 Libra exactly quincunx the Moon in 10 Pisces. The Moon passes over Neptune/Chiron just before the Solstice, which means that we all will be experiencing acute emotional healing crises while the structures of the last 5,125 years crash and burn. Since Saturn is in Libra, this is the grand balancing, the grand culling. What could this be? For me, if we are in our hearts and coming from our hearts, we will exist in universal peace and joy. Those who are hard-hearted will be part of the culling. We are moving out of Homo Agressus into Homo Pacem; you are either a warrior or a peacemaker. It is each person's choice, it always was, yet now the field is shifting to peace and harmony.

We begin with the Sun moving into Cancer as a focus. Engaged in multiple aspects, its agenda is to seek comfort, joy, security, and nurturance. Mercury is 10 degrees just past the Sun, and so the Sun in Cancer comprehends itself and knows it wants total and enveloping nurturance. The Sun feels its power because it resonates freely with Mars in 0 Gemini, and the Sun is expanded and stabilized by a sextile from Jupiter in 3 Taurus (exact on June 25). Jupiter in Taurus is grounded and wise, so this sextile to the Sun (with Mars activating their midpoint) is like the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin. Yet, as the Sun in Cancer sextiling Jupiter in Taurus lilts along, the Sun is kicked in the butt by a square from Uranus in 4 Aries (exact on June 26). Since the Sun in Cancer opposes Pluto in 6 Capricorn (exact on June 27), Uranus sits at the top of a T-square to Sun opposite Pluto. This tense T-square occurs while Uranus-square-Pluto is in close orb, so this summer will express the early stages of seven Uranus squares to Pluto that will come in 2012 and last until 2015. Described simply, this T-square suggests that this summer is when everyone on the planet will realize that the classic old ways are not coming back. Then Saturn in Libra opposing Uranus in Aries makes this T-square into a cardinal Grand Square, which anchors the shift into new realities. The exact aspects to the Sun and other planets go off like time-released capsules through June 27, so the new themes will be complex as well as very apparent-since Mercury is a strong player in the Grand Square.

As our species evolves with new cultural ways, old security blankets have to go. The most amazing thing about this Solstice chart is that it even indicates what the new patterns may be. The Sun in 0 Cancer exactly trines Neptune retrograde in 1 Pisces, which is close to Chiron in 5 Pisces; and the Moon in 10 Pisces has just passed over Neptune and Chiron. This is an exquisitely subtle planetary and lunar dance, like a sweet little Irish jig that dangles our future right in front of our noses. This Cancer/Pisces trine says it's time to heal (Chiron) our separation from spirit (Neptune), and the way to do it is to open our hearts (Sun/Mercury trine Moon). The most profound Cherokee teaching is in the stories about the "Two-Hearted's." From these stories, I learned that my people (Cherokee and Celtic) have endured because we live in our hearts no matter what the two-hearted ones-the conquerors-did to our people. We have endured; they never penetrated and split our hearts. And now, during this beautiful summer season, the end of dominant cruelty is coming for all of us...."

Click HERE for more....

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/


Friday, June 17, 2011

The Most Important Thing



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

~ Chuang Tzu

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

~ Jalal-Uddin Rumi

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

~ Shunryu Suzuki.

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

~ Hsu Yun

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

~ Shunryu Suzuki

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

~ John Tarrant

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Trusting Others vs. Trusting Self





http://www.benjamintsmythe.com

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The ULTIMATE, ULTIMATE, ULTIMATE Secret of Existence!






Jeff Foster - http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com

A Prayer for the Dying


Life,

Let them struggle to understand until there is only confusion,
and in the centre of that confusion show them their inherent clarity.

Make them courageous by taking away all of their hope,
and let them weep until their stomachs hurt,
until their tears melt into laughter.

Love them by destroying them.

And when they are more alone than ever,
show them an intimacy they cannot imagine.

Make them suffer until they are exhausted from fighting You,
make their pain great enough so that all their concepts turn to ash.

Let them never know what they are looking for,
but make them keep looking anyway,
as if their lives depended on it.

Give them time to read their books and listen to their teachers,
give them time to build up mountains of knowledge,
give them certainty and pride and a sense of security.

And then let their books rot,
and turn their teachers into hypocrites,
and make them doubt and forget everything they've learned.

Everything.

And make them stand alone, facing You,
naked and without protection,
and let them tremble,
let them piss and shit themselves with fear,
let all facades fall away.

And then let them into the great secret,
that they are loved beyond words,
in their nakedness, in their failure, in their ignorance,
in everything they were running away from.

That they are you.
That your face is their face.

That nothing ever happened at all.


~ Jeff Foster - http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

All is Truth


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

~ Aldous Huxley

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

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

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

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

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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

~ Eugene Ionesco

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

~ Jed McKenna, "Spiritual Warfare"

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

~ Walt Whitman

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Focus Now on the Real


Now you realize that the I AM can exist by itself,

without manifestation,

in perfect fullness, balance, peace and bliss.

Experience it again and again

until the agains blend into permanent experience,

the natural state of I AM.

It is existence,

awareness,

and unhampered joyous liberty.

Nothing other than Consciousness

ever was, is, or shall be.

Therefore,

You are That!

You can never Be the body-senses-mind-ego-intellect.

You are Consciousness Itself,

the Self.

Focus now on the real,

not on appearances!

Movement and change are appearances only!

You will naturally realize the ocean of I AM,

an ocean of Light, Peace, and Happiness.


~ Srimati Margaret Coble, from "Self Abidance"


Friday, May 27, 2011

Inelia Benz - Straight from the Source


This woman claims to have incarnated directly from Oneness with a clear function and mission. She exemplifies the manner in which some are now detaching from their lower vibrational 3D identities and emerging into a higher frequency state in order to facilitate the planetary awakening.

Each of us has a function that becomes clear as we detach from egoic identification, a function that acts to re-harmonize and balance all of Life.

Recognizing we are not the body we wear or the role we play is a vital step that removes us from cycles of becoming engulfed in drama and story. Embracing and incorporating our higher frequency existence then becomes as simple as breathing and no mental understanding is necessary.

We are here to facilitate awakening, this is Life's mandate. The return to what is beyond birth and death is imminent.

http://ascension101.com/





Friday, April 29, 2011

Why the Power of Mind Over Matter is Important

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

On Being Ordinary

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

~ Eckhart Tolle

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

~ Adyashanti

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

~ Rumi

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

and God came
to me.

~ Kabir

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

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

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

What is a True Person?

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

~ Master Linji

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

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

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

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Simple Enlightenment


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

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

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

~ Papaji

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

~ Antonio Machado

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Ninth Duino Elegy

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

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

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

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

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

Liu Zongyuan
773–819

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The Art of Seeking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reality check!

Who is it that becomes enlightened?

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

Who is it that seeks?

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

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

This/Life itself is a knowing which knows:

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

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

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

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

~ Javier

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

Friday, April 15, 2011

No Thoughts, No Words - Benjamin Smythe


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





Thursday, April 7, 2011

Eric Whitacre - Sleep (Virtual Choir 2011)


This is beautiful...astonishing...amazing!

Be uplifted and enjoy!



Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Dear Woman - by Consciousmen


On one level we are all responsible for everything that has ever happened on this planet, either by collusion, delusion, or confusion, whether we have played the part of victim or perpetrator.

"I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
I love you.
Thank you."
~ Ho'oponopono Prayer

Maybe now we can co-create a planet of harmony and balance, with love and respect for all Beings regardless of gender or form.




Monday, March 28, 2011

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


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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click HERE to continue...