Comments on: 25. What else can I be but what I AM. ****

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:27:28 +0000

I stumbled into the UGC about a week ago, and just listened to this podcast…could only cry.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:07:08 +0000

Indeed. The clear naked presence is not a thought. The words ‘I am’ are not the wordless ‘I am’ – the Naked Being. This discrimination is all that one needs – everything else follows naturally on from this discrimination.

By: howdie

howdie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:22:29 +0000

A very nice website indeed, a great idea and a good place for people to meet, chat, ask and get confused (maybe).

I can speak personally about the taking the “wisdom” from non ordinary reality too seriously.
Mind is hoping for an answer and when we can’t find it here, in the mind, we hope to rely on some other place.

Only when we see there is no answer, and why their is no answer, does something happen

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:26:55 +0000

Barry and NDE: The intelligence that makes all of this possible is not an experience – it is always and ever immediate experiencing. ‘You’ as that believed in ‘entity’ can’t get any closer to it than AS a thought. However with or without that belief of being an ‘entity’ you ARE that intelligence. It is sometimes called consciousness or conscious presence. Experiences belong to the mind and the ‘me’. The experiences are abstract or detailed descriptions of ‘events’ that have usually come and gone. The experiencing is wordless and forever immediate. ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘ego’ are all names and are the same ‘thing’. In essence they are also ‘no thing’ and in appearance they are thoughts, which are also ephemeral appearances – they all come and go. What remains when they disappear? THAT which cognizes all the activities, no ‘matter’ what they are, is not a ‘thing’, never was and never will be a ‘thing’.
If this is a problem for ‘you’ – then look at that conflict or dis-ease and recognize the bias in mind.
As for a trusted source of NDE – it is all experiences – they all come and go. ‘Who’ trusts in what and what is the reference point?
That which is experiencing is ceaselessly present. How come it is not recognized totally and utterly known? Is it because we take ourselves to be a ‘person’?
That pure intelligence is what you are – not the form that appears to be. We call it ‘I’ yet it is not a word – it is space-like awareness. The heart beats in it, the world appears in it. It is not an ‘it’.
It may seem silly from a particular point of view – but examine that reference point and see if you can find the discriminator. That discriminator is intelligence appearing as a pattern in the mind. We call it ‘mind’ but even that is merely a label. See if you can find a ‘mind’. It is extremely interesting and far from anything ‘silly’ – yet few are truly interested to KNOW what they are.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:26:13 +0000

That which changes it not IT. Things get trimmed away. What is the point of ‘Mr. Nice Guy’? Love of truth is ruthless. What ‘time’ is there for dilly dally? So many others provide the ‘rides around the block’. No one goes anywhere except in the dream.
It seems many are floating about in the big dream right now. Years of suppressed ‘feelings’ and intimidation – can’t blame them for a little relief and hope.
Brace yourselves for a new program – tell some friends, let’s get this thing ‘out there’- The time is NOW.
Warm regards – Gilbert.

By: Barry O.

Barry O. — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:44:32 +0000

I can only imagine this question won’t get very far on this site…

But have any of you ever experienced, or listened to a trusted source speaking about, a so-called Near Death Experience (NDE)?

I just kinda get the feeling you folks are saying we are no different than plant life, for instance — other than humans possess the capacity of “thought”?

When the “physical” body dies, yes, intelligence carries out the decomposition of the body, but consciousness — the sense I AM — does carry on.

To say there is no “I” seems silly… Of course “ego,” if that’s what you’re saying “I” is, is totally unnecessary.

Dunno, but there’s just quite a few comments on here seemingly attempting to denote an excited “getting of IT” that smacks of, well, silliness.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:44:49 +0000

Gilbert,

Did you change your delivery, style, words, tone?

Your last half dozen (or so) posts … I can’t even explain it.

Ummmm gratitude?

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:02:18 +0000

YES….SEEING is happening. There is only ONE seeing. It contains everything. No Higher or lower seeing…..no front or back. The X-Y-Z ‘point’ of departure is truly emptiness.
Where are you seeing from? From that zero point – zero degrees of separation.
Radical pointing – The Meeting point of x-y-z is ‘appearing’ as THIS – ‘right here right now’……which is everywhere…..every time…….it is emptiness….yet all space and all duration are contained in IT and it isn’t even an â€˜itâ€™.
All movement is seemingly away from THIS……..but nothing ever comes or goes………SEEING is ceaselessly presence…
All is nothing but presence – which may appear as an oscillating vibration flip between presence and absence……….being and non being.
The one that appears as understanding it, appears and disappears……………………..
By the ‘power’ of ‘conscious negation’ ‘one’ can ‘return’ to Zero degrees of separation……..or so it appears to be so………….the return journey is the dissolution of the journey and the pattern ‘making the journey’.
This Zero dimensions is never manifested……………the HUM of the universe emerges from nothing as AUM and returns to nothing as OM.
The ancients knew this ‘principle’. It is all written down for those who are able to recognize it. It is in all the traditions…….even the Parables and the Fairy tales.
Traces of the ‘map’ seemingly woven into the fabric of the universe………
Are you awake? Obviously you are. Yes…’ordinary’ is the hiding place of the most profound. As our dear departed professor of E=mc2 says “The miraculous is to be found in the mundane”. What you have overlooked ‘all this time’ is blazingly obvious.
But it is not to be grasped with a concept. When the whole presence of being is vibrantly glowing….the bullshit story of me dissolves into emptiness.
A ghost of it may re-appear…..but it has been seen through…so ‘belief’ is rendered as impotency. What more do you want?

By: Angie

Angie — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:40:16 +0000

Is this timeless space or awareness projecting everything that is seen and if so does that mean nothing is real and all is just an illusion? Is anything happening from within this body at all? Could you say awareness is SEEING through my eyes and everyone else’s eyes as well?

By: kale

kale — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:02:14 +0000

In seeing the falseness of this person again and again again, the beliefs previously held begin to fall away automatically. Entering into samadhi, is just another notion arising in this…who is going to enter where? It’s just a maze of thoughts arising spontaneously. The “I” that has high hopes of getting “it” is just another thought. Look at this “I” again and again and again and see what remains…

By: milton

milton — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:06:34 +0000

So the pointers serve to burst the bubbles of mind stuff as they arise in timeless space helping us to stay at the source of immediacy, not being carried away by myriad meanderings. Thanks, I will try that on. Also will give the Wheeler another listen. Also, it seems that people talk about “ordinary” wakefulness, and “real ” wakefulness such as satori, kensho, samadhi, etc., or higher levels of consciousness than is evident in ordinary wakefulness. So you are saying that seeing can occur within our ordinary everyday wakefulness, that we don’t have to be clobbered by a Zen master to see this, enter samadhi, or whatever. That would be nice.

By: billtys

billtys — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:02:01 +0000

There is an awesomeness about what is being pointed to. There is mystery and quiet gratitude when an investigation arises and seeing is understood in the same instant as the investigation arising. The investigation is the seeing.

An “I” may arise…but so what? Let the attention go there…does it really matter? The content is infinitely diverse and why not celebrate.

In fact, if I am doing nothing, then all the content is the patterning of the seeing. The rising investigation and the “I” appearing and the analysis that follows and the endless concepts that arise is also the seeing. Everything is the seeing.

See that… then nothing matters…nothing changes… nothing to learn…nothing to do. You are That… and enjoy it while you can.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:42:07 +0000

It would be good to see some new visitors on the comments pages. Out of 5,000 downloads a month, there could be a few more asking questions or so it seems to me anyway.
Why be shy? Some misunderstandings can be cleared up quite quickly if one ‘takes the leap’. Just expressing some thoughts here. We have some new programs planned so keep tuned in. I have been rather busy with other matters lately but a new program will appear soon enough. I had another listen to some of John Wheeler’s programs and found them to be excellent. He puts things, expresses things, in a different way than some others. Have another listen if you wish. There are many other programs well worth a second or third listen also. I have been spot checking through them and they are all full of excellent ‘material’, examples and ‘pointers’. If you have not listened to them all, I suggest that you check the ones you have not visited so far.
- Warm regards – Gilbert.

By: suki

suki — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:35:53 +0000

Infinite permutations of expressions will abound and be expressed or not!
when genuine “RE-COGNITION” and “SEEING” happens!

What you “ARE” is wordless!

Pure joy and delight in reading Gilbert’s and Bill’s pointers:)

One for All,

All for One~

By: Bill Tys

Bill Tys — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:45:34 +0000

See Gilbert’s comment below…

“The only â€˜thingâ€™ that tells you that you are onto something â€˜trueâ€™ is a sense of expansion in being present and aware. The â€˜boxâ€™ that we have unwittingly put ourselves in, dissolves naturally on â€˜hearingâ€™ a clear message.”

See the latter part of the statement and “reflect” on your day. This is happening all the time. Driving, eating, catching trams, hearing a clear message etc etc…all this activity can only be in the immediacy. “A few seconds later” the mind may label the activity and therefore an “I” arises…but no matter the investigation has been done… and there is only seeing.

The “seer” and the “seen” appear in the seeing…you are prior to anything arising in the mind.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:23:27 +0000

“We have to wake up before the obvious is the obvious.” Is that true? Surely NOT. But what a mind twister to wrap your belief system around.
There is an example, a quote from ‘you’ that shows how words bind us, even when the blazingly obvious is self-evident.
Are you asleep? Are you not awake right now?
Of course wakefulness is there. Without it nothing would appear at all. The No Thing would just be emptiness with nothing to appear in the seeing.
The mental constructs that bind ‘us’ can be dismantled by using the words that are pointed out to us. The ‘pointer’ is usually words. They register on awareness. The potency of those words, via the ‘truth’ they point at, exposes the falsehood of beliefs. In one instant it is obvious that THIS immediate experiencing is NOT a concept. What ‘was’ believed in is a concept with possible past experiences associated with it. The living presence is infinitely more potent that the past memories or the future anticipations. But the mind will rarely stop its proliferations so this obviousness is missed. But what is mind apart from thoughts, images and memories etc, arising in this immediacy?
Some ‘teachers’ make a fuss about ‘your direct experience’ when actually there is nothing happening that does not belong to this direct and immediate experiencing. To postulate something ‘outside’ of this, is simply a postulation appearing in THIS direct experiencing NOW. Yes this may seem to be a subtle point but it isn’t all that subtle – it is blazingly obvious. The problem is that ‘we’ try to use the mind to fabricate some understanding and understanding is NOT in the mind.
We look in the wrong places. Even though this is pointed out over and over, ‘people’ gravitate back into the mind stuff, believing that that ‘I’ or ‘me’ is going to acquire some new understanding or ‘become’ something better than what already is. There is NO new understanding and there is NO final understanding. Understanding is wordless, timeless and unchanging – even though the patterns that play upon its surface are forever changing.
The same equation applies to everything. Recognize this fundamental pattern in yourself – empty space and content appearing – and the ‘journey’ vanishes in the blink of an eye.
There is no transaction necessary to open to this understanding. No guru can actually give it to you – and the ones who promise such nonsense have not got a clue about this understanding – all they have is ‘old concepts and dualistic notions’. Thus they are trapped into their own game – or so it seems. There is truly no one trapped in anything – except the appearance of such. Where are you SEEING from?
Is there anything there that is not an appearance? Go back, back, back till there is ‘no going back further’ – recognize that you are actually not going back at all – the mind is simply creating reference points about ‘back and forward, up and down’ etc. (What you truly are has no location)
What you truly are never moves and yet movement takes place. Infinite motion is infinite stillness.
As Nisargadatta says: “If you stay here and listen to my words, they will rob you of everything” or very similar words to those. This is what needs to happen. We must be robbed of what we believe we are – so that what we truly are (that remains indescribable) can reveal itself without a single doubt to stand in the view or way. Tasting THAT is all that is needed. We ‘knew’ THIS before words were learned, before we started to believe in being separate.
Make that your goal – orientate yourself to THAT and it is bound to be a ‘short trip’. It all happens in THIS Instant – What I call The First Instant. There is only ONE.
‘You’ cannot make it happen. It is actually already happening – just stop ignoring it. The movement is KNOWING.
It is amazing how these things can be so glaringly pointed out in a thousand ways and still it slips ‘right over their heads’. I think that is why Nisargadatta says: “Be earnest”. If every cell in your body is aligned with this inquiry into ‘what I am’ then ALL of the senses are registering clearly and cleanly upon that NAKED Awareness.
How could anyone miss it under such conditions? We don’t have to wait until the hangman slips the noose over our heads to get ‘deadly earnest’.
When we get truly ‘hungry’ for what is true, then what is true reveals itself as I AM THAT.
If we are just playing mind games and trying to hang onto ‘who I think I am’ then it remains as a mind game. So be it.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:19:35 +0000

Oh Man G,
Those Last Two……..BAM~~!!

By: milton

milton — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:55:17 +0000

I have noticed a sense of expansion of awareness when encountering certain teachings and sense of contraction when the ego tries to assimilate insights or experiences into a fortress against uncertainty, or tries to hold on to the expansion. Say more on how can words be used effectively to release bindings? Is this like a thorn being used to remove the thorn? Whether appearance is reality or a dream or nothing at all, we would have to agree that everything is, nothing is separate, and it seems to just happen in a way that is far beyond the grasp of our concepts, images, etc. but does seem to be accessible to direct experience. I think that most of us want to know “this” but the ignoring is so habitual, and so confirmed by others, that it seems to take a shock of some kind to break the spell, or trance. Someone hypnotized can easily be made to totally ignore or mistake their immediate environment for something else. It won’t do much good to tell a hypnotized subject repeatedly to look at the bird in the tree if he sees the tree as a refrigerator. We have to wake up before the obvious is the obvious. We are not intentionally being obtuse, for the most part anyway. We know something is amiss, we know we can’t “do” anything about it, so we flounder around making things worse sometimes. What a predicament (and of course the predicament is illusory carefully crafted by none other than ourselves). Seems like a slippery slope sometimes. Thanks for the pitons.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:05:51 +0000

Ultimately, it is all reality. The appearance is real in its immediacy.
A preference for everything to be ‘nice’ and ‘spiritual’ is just a delusion of mind. That self-image which is all dressed up in ‘spiritual garb’ is nothing but an image. To be enslaved to an image of a good ‘self’ is just as binding as ‘I am a bad boy’ image of self.
The self, whether it be self or SELF is just an image and a word.
Our ‘problem’ is we have bound ourselves up with words and images. “The bondage of self”. Words can be used effectively to release those bindings.
What usually happens is the spiritual aspirant experiences some relative freedom and then ‘they’ worship the sacred words that ‘appeared’ to bring some relief. Or they worship the messenger, the guru and so the bondage takes on a new form, which is overlaid upon the remaining belief in being bound, the habitual ‘self-image’. That image is embroidered upon and is just a fancy ‘growth’ in the belief system. The holder of the beliefs is a believed in character. Saying that it is all a dream and that it is real is not going to assist in the required revelation. There are many ‘teachers’ about who may well have had some strong insights and revelations. The evidence is very obvious that they are ‘leaning’ on those ‘old revelations’ and have unwittingly gone back into their belief system and they ‘teach’ from there. Thus much of what they ‘teach’ is nothing but a dead end street. The ‘sign post’ (the teacher) is pointing towards theoretical postulations and old experiences and presenting these as the truth which you can discover – if you follow their instructions. It is an insipid situation – a lame duck parading as a wise fox.
The only ‘thing’ that tells you that you are onto something ‘true’ is a sense of expansion in being present and aware. The ‘box’ that we have unwittingly put ourselves in dissolves naturally on ‘hearing’ a clear message. There is no agenda or requirements to this ‘hearing’. Actually pure hearing and pure seeing are already happening.
A clear moment of experiencing this is unmistakable. ‘When’ such moments ‘begin’ to happen more frequently, then you may be sure that you are onto something true.
If it merely makes your ‘spiritual self image’ flourish, then it is the wrong way to go.
Simple – but who wants to know this?

By: gilbert

gilbert — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:38:13 +0000

Yes…………Seeing is Seeing. There is no making anyone See.
“Look at the bird…..look at the bird”.
The enthusiastic parent ‘robs’ the child of the moment of (self) discovery.
The richness of discovering the bird, without being directed to see it…or in being told that it is there in the distant tree and a finger pointing in the general direction…..
Without all those ‘conditions’ the naked discovery is less burdened by labels and so-called associated ‘conditions’ of discovery.
Is it so important that the child see the bird ‘this instant’? Who is overly excited and wants to share the excitement with the child? The child may feel so anxious about the urgency of seeing ‘the bird’, the anxiety simply disturbs the ‘looking’ so much, that no focus can take place.
The obvious actually needs no pointing. ‘We’ actually ignore what is so obvious simply because ‘we’ have ‘gone’ so much with the thought patterns, which are old and habitual – so habitual, ‘we’ think that the thinking and its thinker are reality alone.
Whatever happens there, ‘see the bird or no see the bird’, the bird can see ‘you’. Seeing is happening. The content of the seeing, the ‘seen’, the impressions and the proliferation of associative thoughts that spring up from a ‘moment of seeing’ and the belief in being a ‘seer’ – is NOT the pure function of Seeing. This not so subtle point may need to be discriminated fresh and new. Actually this ‘potential discrimination’ (being spoken of) may well not even ‘mean’ anything to you and the very mention of it is just a mind puzzle for ‘you’.
True, often when speaking of such ‘things’ one (or I) may feel like a madman, since it appears that no one else around seems to be able to SEE or KNOW anything but what their imagination tells them. Of course such judgments must be biased ‘mind stuff’ and that stuff is always teaming with relativity.
The basic ‘problem’ is that there is no problem.
The Relative is simply an expression of the Absolute. As soon as you ‘pick’ a reference point in the relativity, then it is instantly the Absolute (relatively speaking?). Oddly enough there may be only a handful of so-called ‘people’ who know what I am pointing out here. That is a statement full of relativity (by the way, what statement isn’t?).
Let’s say that the closer the mind cames back to the immediate and true nature of mind, so the clearer the intelligence is – less interfered with by the notion and belief in ‘time’.
Why am I writing this? Who will understand what I am ‘talking about’?
Basically it is all entertainment, since the absolute profundity of your own existence has not stopped your mind from wandering like a lost dervish.
The ‘open view’ is totally available – and everyone ignores it or so it ‘seems’.
Who are these ‘others’? Do they not appear in the SEEING?
And ‘who’ is this ‘SEER’?
Start right there.

By: kale

kale — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:26:40 +0000

Pointers can’t make “us” see indeed; the “us” is non existent; an appearance only. An appearance cannot see. The knowing contains “us”. As long as the mind is trying to grasp something; it’s still the realm of mind. Whatever, it seemingly grasps, is still the mind.

By: milton

milton — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:53:43 +0000

Pointers can’t make us see, but at least they can keep us from looking in the wrong direction for something that is not there. For me, the pointers save me from pursuing dead ends, for which I am grateful. Unfortunately, possibly not unlike Ralph, I experience the the illusory bondage as all too real. What is obvious for those already liberated might not qualify as obvious for those still chained and bowed. Your pointing to the bird in the tree may not allow me to see it until my vision is sufficiently clear.

By: billtys

billtys — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:12:39 +0000

Get a stone, a twig and a beetle from the garden and bring it into the kitchen.

Pull out that mother of all microscopes you have in the bottom drawer and stick the stone under it and turn to 50% power. What do you see? Atoms and funny little things moving around. Go to 75% power and then you will see quarks and farks and wavey things. Go to 100% power and you will see nothing…zilch…zero! Put the other articles under the scope and you will see the same. All of creation comes from that field of all possibilities…including yourself. Put yourself under the scope and have a look… you will see the same. Nothing.

Everything comes from this nothingness. We give this nothingness many labels…I like creative intelligence. The creative intelligence patterns endlessly spewing out all sorts of energy patterns… some are loosely etheric like a thought and some appear to congeal…like the body. The creative intelligence is never the stuff it creates and remains pristine and immaculate.

The mirror analogy is good here. Everything is reflected in the mirror but the mirror is never touched by the objects appearing in it. The objects appear real but on investigation they are not. They certainly appear real enough but are illusory. Do the investigation and the truth will set you free.

The ocean still appears blue even after investigating and finding it is not blue. The mirage still appears but on investigation it is a “furphy”.

Investigate the appearance and the reference point (same thing). The body waxes and wanes and will eventually turn to grubs and enzymes. Thoughts, concepts and emotions of today are not the same as those you had yesterday…they too wax and wane. The tree you see is not going to be the same tomorrow. Eveything is transient…everything will disapper and maybe arise again in the ocean of seeing.

Reality is that which never changes. If I ever wanted something from “my search”, I figured it should be enduring, there forever, everpresent, infinite and unchanging.

Mmm…what could that be? That in which everything appears. I am the seeing. The same seeing that was there when I was five years old, the same seeing that was there when I was thirty and the same seeing that was there this morning when I was having breakfast. It never changes, it is immediate, it is presence awareness…and is everpresent.

Pain, suffering, bliss and joy continue… but are appearances or content within the seeing. The mind jumps onto the content ever so quickly and it is immediately personalised.

Do the investigation and know that you are the seeing and the impact of the content is not there.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:40:22 +0000

It persists because it is believed in. Take away the belief and it vanishes – or get a good look at it and then it is naturally impossible to believe in it.
It SEEMS real. How is that assessment made ‘It seems’? Surely there is a knowing behind that ‘seems’ which undermines all that ‘seems’. But ‘we’ do not give that pure knowing a chance to come to fruition. The habit of mind is just so mechanical and so woven with the believed in entity and ‘we’ pardon ourselves and ‘believe’ that ‘we’ can’t do anything about it. ‘Who’ has a problem?
What you truly are is that infinite intelligence behind or within all things. It balances the salt percentage in ‘The Ocean’. You can’t fight it. You can only be it. In taking oneself to be the mechanical habits just because there ‘seems’ to be some security in them, that is the core belief that keeps the wheel turning in its old groove. Go to the axis of your being and drop the identity fixation – SEE what IS.
You say the great pointers don’t work for ‘you’ and make a fuss about the stuck-ness and add a ‘Maybe’. It is all the same ‘stuff’.
If you don’t know, then do not assume to advise others, we have enough gurus to last this new century and most of them speak from a deep identification with ‘me’ – a very special ‘me’. We don’t need another one.
‘Who’ is offended?

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:52:13 +0000

Inward looking creates an inward looker. Separate inward from outward in the search for oneness? That’s a good trick.

Baseball’s ‘The Keeper’ = The Catcher. One of the best of them said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it”. Yogi Berra

By: Ralph

Ralph — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:29:40 +0000

…. and yet for most the ‘suffering separate self’ is still there….. why ?

Perhaps in addition to these great ‘pointers’ an ‘inward looking’ may help to find out why. They may be ‘appearances’ but damn do they seem real… don’t you agree ?

Maybe one should find out why the ‘stuckness’ is still there, if of course it is still there ?

By: gilbert

gilbert — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:13:48 +0000

Everything is simply ‘an appearance’………everything but that essential nature of what you ARE.
You are invisible – its singular quality is KNOWING. That is not negotiable.
What you ARE is expressing itself ‘as everything’.
This open view cannot be contrived by the mind.
That equation applies to everyone.
SEEING is not a concept – SEEING is seeing through all concept without being altered – because SEEING is seeing and nothing more than seeing. (It is also called ‘knowing’)
The mind is the engagement with the appearance of ‘things’ and concepts – and the mind divides it all up into ‘real and unreal’ etc. Are these words real? Where is the reality of them? – if not AS THAT which resonates with any words that touch ‘the truth’ of ‘what I am’.
This pure seeing has nothing to do with belief.
The mental constructs may be huge ‘buildings’ or small crippled structures – they are appearances in this clear and open view. Do not attach yourself to any of them and SEE.
Be the Seeing Only.
Some say the ‘pointing’ isn’t enough – they imagine some other method is required and they do not SEE that all of their ‘ideas’ about this are just mental constructs, beliefs and that there is an obvious hanging onto ‘something’ and that ‘something’ is actually the ‘me’. It may be a spiritual concept about ‘who I am’ and that is a mask. The mask cannot see. This is obvious – isn’t it?

By: christine

christine — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:31:23 +0000

i keep coming back to this attractive coffeehouse for another piece of cake.
i taste the chocolate, savor the fruit, i lick the honey, i drink the nectar.
every cell in my body is nourished and rejoices with delight.
digestion happens, and the words are flushed -
and every time i go and check, i have been resurrected again.
it is so miraculous, so wunderbar, Ã’m resurrected every time.
and even if i go and spoil my speck-less white soul with black ink and am flushed-
by myself, of course, there is no other – iÂ´m resurrected.

godÂ´s child in godÂ´s lap, as Jesus would put it.
woman sitting in chair, as my Californian granny Katie would say.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 04:23:12 +0000

Thank you Gilbert, for the “plug” and yes folks, The Podcast Network, will be launching their first Advaita show of the New Year on Valentines Day.
Our first Guest Speaker is a surprise, but do check in if you feel inclined.
http://advaita.thepodcastnetwork.com.

I’m trying to get Gilbert on the show … but he hasn’t committed yet…

Chow For Now,
Mark

By: Mike in SF

Mike in SF — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:11:40 +0000

Looking forward to the next program Gilbert/Areti and also to the new Advaita incarnation!

By: gilbert

gilbert — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:01:29 +0000

This analogy came to me this morning before my coffee. I don’t play Baseball, by the way.
Life (the impressions of life are) is the Pitcher – the batter is the mind and the guy behind the batter (The Keeper?) is what we truly are – relatively speaking – he lives on home base and never leaves it ‘during’ the game.
The mind is trying to hit a home run….or hit and run all around the ground to get back where ‘what we truly are’ IS.
Interesting analogy – maybe.
A new program is under construction, by the way.
Goss: The Advaita Show is having a face lift and Mark who appears in our comment’s pages will be hosting it.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:40:26 +0000

Yes, in fact there isn’t anything that would not be included in that list of ‘things’. The name of something is not it, the object. You can dissect an Elephant into tiny bits, individual cells even and nowhere will you find the label ‘Elephant’ or ‘made by SONY’. All phenomena are spontaneously appearing without words attached. If you examine the written word closely it ‘turns into’ ink on paper, paint on word (or whatever). Look closer, the word disappears and ‘turns into’ odd shapes that have no meaning. Closer still and it changes into a terrain of textures and fibers. At no point did any word turn into anything other than what it is. The spoken word is vibration, sound and the objects are also vibrations appearing as matter.
(An old story) The Walls of Jericho came tumbling down due to the trumpets, vibrations of sound, that corresponded to the harmonics of the matter, which the walls were made of.
A violin can break a wine glass…etc.

The word on closer examination changes its nature – the meaning disappears – because it, the meaning, was never there in the first instance.
Words are all learned and projected by the mind onto phenomena. Because we can name something, we think we understand what it is.
In actual fact all things are equal to space. Energy appearing as patterns – One Giant Fractal Pattern and that includes that body and mind.
No Thing is not the absence of ‘things’ – all things are no thing.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:36:02 +0000

G:
“Maybe you prefer the wishy washy guru prattle that makes you feel all spiritual and good – for awhile, until the story of me kicks in full bore again. An endless path that is.”

YES, that’s what I was referring to in my e-mail, this endless cycle of equating a “good” feeling or experience with the Truth of What IS. Feelings and experiences, being only temporary, (at least that’s how I perceive it), can just be added to the endless list of things that Come and Go in THIS~

Peace In,
M

By: gilbert

gilbert — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:10:01 +0000

From an email reply (of mine) on these points above:
The mind is habit…….it is a kind of self-protection machine – and it serves well to prolong the life of the organism. Nothing wrong in that ‘automatic process’ if it is understood for what it is.
The problem is we are not ‘the machine’.
That mechanical action MUST be SEEN for what it is.
It is not about the right concept arising…..or ticking all the boxes correctly.
It is all about NON-Conceptual Awareness…………and THAT cannot be tampered with by the mind…..the mind APPEARS in it…………and so all the mechanics of the mind are useless because they only move upon the waters – they are not ‘the water’.
As Bob Adamson pointed out to me ‘some time ago’, something like this: The reflections in the mirror are not the mirror but they cannot be separated from the mirror. Awareness is obvious just like a mirror is obvious – but we focus on the reflections and even though we are constantly SEEING nothing but the mirror, we are attracted to the reflections and take them to be real. We take the ‘me’ to be ‘what I am’. And that ‘me’ is a story. Take a look at a mirror and see what I am ‘pointing at’. You can’t see the mirror for the reflections – but go up close. You are seeing nothing but the mirror, which contains the reflections. None of the reflections have any independence from the mirror. The reflections are there because of the mirror. This analogy applies most well with awareness – except the mirror needs something ‘outside’ of it to reflect. With awareness, everything is contained in that mirror like awareness.
Now ‘you’ may exempt ‘yourself’ from this equation and ‘think’ it does not apply to ‘you’. Interesting, isn’t it.
Which ‘thought’ are you? This present one or the next?
Are you a thought at all? ‘Who’ is attached to this flow of conceptualization? Maybe you prefer the wishy washy guru prattle that makes you feel all spiritual and good – for awhile, until the story of me kicks in full bore again. An endless path that is.
What do you imagine that you will gain from all this interest in Non Duality?
Pointless. Or is it?
The revelation is this: – You ARE THAT non dual ONE without a second.
That is not merely a concept for the mind to play with.
Leave the puzzle alone and BE.
But no, the mind just keeps pushing itself back in and it will do so, so long as you do not get a good look at what the ‘me’ is.
It is what you ‘think’ you are – an image.
Everyone keeps searching, seeking the answer in concepts and ideas. The blindingly obvious is far too subtle for an approach with the mind. Most seem to refuse to ‘turn around’ and SEE what they are. That clear empty space-like awareness is not a void, dark and spooky. It is what you are and the courage to SEE and recognize ‘what I am’ can only come from that space-like awareness. The ‘fear’ that spooks everyone is nothing but a fixation with ‘me’ – and that investment is a fraudulent investment – there are no two ways about it.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:06:04 +0000

There are no self-realized ‘persons’.
The WHOLE is self-realizing in every moment just as it is.
(Except for Ralph of course)

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:52:02 +0000

Maybe these ‘well intentioned seekers’ are not pretending to be ‘finders’ but instead are not satisfied with just the pointers alone and perhaps because of their true intentions and honesty need something more such as an ‘inward looking’ and see why they still suffer and are not free.

To those that claim to have recognized their true nature , I ask :
Are you free from suffering ? and please enough pointers, instead speak from your direct experience and then maybe it will be heard. I mean afterall you are me and I am you …. Just Onesness expressing itself.

……… and now Gilbert will answer by saying this is all rubbish.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:17:15 +0000

“I am not a finder” – What a wonderful mantra……could make invisible prison wall bricks out of that one….
As I pointed out – ‘We’ personalize everything and there is the problem.
I was not addressing ‘you’ or your comment – I was addressing the error of belief.
There is NO TIME.
There is no way around this fact. In really examining this fact about time, it will stop the mind. Let it. Don’t be afraid – you will not disappear.
Once this is seen and known to be true then the mind will ease off and the self-centered-activity will lose its momentum.
It ‘appears’ to take time – yet is it not obvious that right NOW is all there is?
At any moment in your famous time all the mind has is an imaginary view of the future and memories of the past.
What you are is timeless.
How can I or anyone convince you of this? If you continue to ignore it then this moment will unfold as a ‘personal drama’. Why should I be concerned?
The dedicated scientist examines the ancient bones – and the ONLY time he can do it is in this ever-present-NOW. He can write a thick book about his postualtions about those bones and history of ‘the past’ but every movement of his pen on paper is made in this ever-present-now. Every set of eyes that read his book are living organisms of sight and the only time that they function is in this ever-present-now.
The appearance is TIME.
That which SEES is timeless.
P.S. – Curiousity killed the Sabertooth.

By: milton

milton — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:05:56 +0000

Thanks Bill. Helpful comment.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:01:26 +0000

I am certainly Not a “finder”, G, as my comment will attest to.

I was just curious, more about what “feels” like a gradual “loosening” of “something”.
Could just be indigestion.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:51:24 +0000

What Bill says is spot on. The ‘false’ cannot stand up to the SEEING of it for what it is. SEEING is happening. There is truly NO seer. ‘You’ as a separate entity will NEVER see this truth. That ‘you’, a pattern, cannot SEE and in the SEEING there is no one that sees. Recognize that ‘you’ are ‘personalizing’ everything and there lies the problem.
But who’s problem is it? It can ONLY be the problem of a ‘me’, a reference point – and that reference point is habitual, so habitual it has never truly been questioned and looked at.
I see it all the time, ‘people’ say that they have seen through the ‘me’ and the very expression that is happening in saying that, there is an obvious belief in a ‘me’. How odd.
The intellect is not the intelligence. ‘Your intellect’ is just one in billions of intellects and the core essence of them all is SINGLULAR.
The same intelligence ‘opens as a rose’ and moves mountains into the sea, it gestates a grub into a butterfly and appears as a trillion rain drops in the desert. Each grain of sand has a ‘story’, each grain is unique and its own journey is different to all the others that it nestles with in this moment. At any ‘point in time’ it is simply ‘What IS’. Each synaps in your brain has a ‘history’ and ‘you’ know nothing about it.
‘You’ imagine that ‘you think’ and the fact that ‘the thinker’ is just another thought is not recognized.
Why? Isn’t it because ‘you’ are too busy with ‘yourself’ and your search for meaning? And you search in an old rubbish dump – the mind.
There is no answer in the mind. Let that sink in and cease from this merry go round ride to nowhere.
The intellect is learned ‘stuff’. As children we are praised when we learn by rote and pass exams etc. We are encouraged, quite unconsciously, to ‘fit in’ and be a winner. The kids that get ‘top of the class’ are obviously bright – yet a robotic response is encouraged and rewarded by ‘the system’. That quickness of mind is rewarded and it often turns into a ‘big problem’. It isolates the ‘idea of self’ and the idea that ‘I am better than everyone else’ turns into a sticky attitude. That turns into a ‘wart’ called arrogance – and it all turns on a reference point that does not even exist – thus underneath it all is vulnerability. Some join ‘special spiritual groups’ and the pattern just repeats itself there. Have you not seen the backbiting bitchiness in spirtual groups?
In the so-called ‘spiritual realm’ there are many who are blatantly spiritually arrogant and they most often don’t see it themselves or even suspect it – and they are often rewarded by the guru because they play the game and support the gurus hypnotic trance inducing methods. That arrogance is a ‘set of armour’ which must be smashed to pieces one way or another, if any true freedom is to emerge.
All the ideas about oneself are almost always revolving around a false center – some call it ‘false personality’. Is it all about ME? (for you)
Are you spiritually arrogant? Are you playing a game of one upmanship with your spiritual friends? It is a ‘sneaky thing’ and I see it going on in ‘well intentioned seekers’ who often pretend to be ‘finders’.
I am just throwing in a red herring. With those who truly have recognized their true nature there is an obvious ease of being and an absense of ‘mind games’.
‘When’ are you going to get down to tin tacks? If not NOW – then ‘When’?

By: Bill Tys

Bill Tys — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:12:07 +0000

Any view, any question, any statement is always made from a reference point.

You are not a reference point. A reference point is limited.

Investigate the reference point and see that it is without susbstance. Then the notion arises that all questions etc. are simply endless content appearing on or in the seeing.

You are the seeing which is prior to anything arising in the mind.

By: milton

milton — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:51:48 +0000

Gilbert: how do I stay with the “wordless subtle beingness, which has been called â€˜I amâ€™ ” without getting caught up with ego pursuits such as turning it into yet another technique for achieving enlightenment?
(Gilbert inserts answer here) Give up the idea that there is ‘something’ called enlightenment. That is all second hand ideas and mind projection.
What you seek you already are. The ‘I’ cannot stay anywhere. It is a word and all words appear and disappear. Be what you ARE. You are awareness – full stop.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:15:07 +0000

G said:
The habit of the mind rushing in to make it personal will ease off as the frequency of this open view happens.

(I) notice this… and yet this still “feels like” a process in time.

(I) could say… yesterday, the mind rushed in and made it personal, Much
More that it did today… the illusion of “process” and “progress”, then appear,
giving rise to another… Maybe tomorrow it will “ease off” even more and I will be closer to the truth….. But that’s right, Its about the frequency of something called an “open view”, so (I) will now be trying to “have” one of these “open views” more frequently.

(I) do see the utter futility of this train of thought but it is one of the many examples of what the mind seems to do in the search for a “future state” that is Not Present Now.

G said:
Once you understand the principle of something, one can see that everything relates to the principle – it is the same with this.

Who or What understands?

(I) “see” the mechanics of the so called “mind” and thus, that particular understanding/”seeing” seems to create less of tendency to identify with it As A Reality or Absolute Truth.

(I) also see (*) that over a “process” of time, the fixation of concepts anywhere has “eased” up or more accurately…. Slowed Down.

The thinker still arises With the thought and Any surfer will attest to the fact that most wipe-outs happen when we think about What we’re doing.

Early Morning Brain Fart~~~ Gilbert, please pass the coffee pot this way….

?question mark?

By: christine

christine — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:32:12 +0000

grÃ¼ÃŸ gott, may i join the word game again?
i know i`m only playing with myself, talking to myself, because there`s nobody there.
my marriage of 37 years has taught me that.
still i do enjoy the word game.

do a deer-a female deer,
re a drop of golden sun,
mi a name i call myself,
fa a long long way to run……..

up jacob`s sound ladder and down the loop. up i climb and down i go in a whoosh.
up again, down-up-down-up, what fun.

and i like fairy tales. have you heard the one about the rabbit and the hedgehog?
they were betting about who`d arrive first at the end of the field.the rabbit was so sure that he`d arrive first. but he didn`t know, that the hedgehog had put his wife there.
so when he arrived there was the hedgehog saying: i`m already here.
let`s run again, said the rabbit, because he couldn`t believe it.
so he kept running back and forth, he tried again and again: i should put more
effort into it, that cannot be. but every time the hedgehog: i`m already here.
back and forth, back and forth until finally he dropped dead-that uptight angsthase.

i notice that you are using the word angst. i guess because it`s so accurate. it is related to eng, which means narrow.

a narrowminded rabbit an openminded hedgehog

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:14:40 +0000

The not so subtle point – yet it is not recognized my so many – is that the ‘I am’ is a verbalization of that BEING. The being is not the words – the words come out of the being – they represent the being. Naked being is prior to language, even logically – you only learned words some two or so years after the birth of the body. The natural state is wordless, even though words come from it or from within its scope.
Now this point cuts to the core of why so many misunderstand what is being pointed out. The misunderstanding can only occur in the mind, via the translation of pure understanding and ‘people’ believe that they are that central character, even when they say they don’t believe in it. It is never a matter of belief. You KNOW or more specifically, there is KNOWING and that knowing is not in the patterns that appear.
In pure seeing there is no misunderstanding – everything is seen and understood before the mind translates it. The words come ‘after’. Opinions are made of ideas and words.
A clear insight that may happen is actually wordless. Maybe a pattern is recognized or the emptiness of things reveals itself. The mind then translates it into words and ideas, which all come from memory.
You have never had an original thought even if you believe you have. They are not your thoughts – thoughts are impersonal but ‘we’ make them personal almost instantly. In the freedom from a believed in ‘entity’ that is ‘attached’ to thoughts then the thoughts are seen clearly without bias. The clear knowing is obvious yet it is wordless. The habit of the mind rushing in to make it personal will ease off as the frequency of this open view happens.
Once you understand the principle of something, one can see that everything relates to the principle – it is the same with this.
The central factor is KNOWING. Everything is the knowing – whether it is deemed as correct or incorrect, by the mind.
The subtleness of that factor is indescribable – yet if it ‘hits home’ the limited sense of being vapourizes and one can see and know that everything is vibrantly ‘alive’ as REALITY – yet not as it appears ‘in time’ or ‘mind’.
What is remarkable and yet not noticed by most is that this naked awareness is not passing through the mind and it is not personal.
‘We’ have so many problems because we personalize everything and lock ourselves into a mind realm of time and conceptualizing.
As long as that predominates the beingness then the clear view is ‘seemingly’ obstructed – yet nothing truly obstructs awareness.
When Nisargadatta says “You are not the body, nor the mind” he is not just saying some wise words or some cliche.
If you are not the body, nor the mind, then what is left?
‘People’ pass far too quickly over such ‘pointing’ – because it goes to the core issue and that does not fit with their pretentious spiritual persuits.
I would say this: Stay with the wordless subtle beingness, which has been called ‘I am’.
The impulse to ‘do this’ comes not from the ‘person’ that you may believe you are.
It is the resonance of BEING, intelligence beyond anything the mind has access to.
It is not possible to speak of anything beyond this, because it is wordless – yet you KNOW it far more intimately than anything else. It is formless – it is what you are – invisible and untouched by whatever appears to be. It is the true being – timeless – universal and unlimited.
These are not fancy words – they point directly at what you are – (everyone is THAT).
A habit can be broken – it is time bound and the timeless remains self-evident.
The habit is a pattern of repetition. What you truly are never repeats itself – ever fresh and ever now.
Repetition is the appearance of changing phenomena. What you are is one without a second.

By: bwalsh

bwalsh — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:23:39 +0000

thanks for the previous replies Gilbert.

“Or better stillâ€¦instead of those very formal words above, you could have the following conversationâ€¦

YOU: Do you know that you are?
PERSON: Of course I do!
YOU: Do you need to say â€œI amâ€ to realize that you are?
PERSON: Certainly not!
YOU: So you are before you say â€œI amâ€?
PERSON: Yes!

Case closed!”

really? don’t you have to stay put in the “I am” to the exclusion of everything else? of course you are before you can say “I am”, but through habit, identification with the mind continously occurs. theoretically, anyone can agree with what you said.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:13:50 +0000

And………the KNOWING is prior to it all – untouched and dependent on nothing at all.
Everything depends on the knowing and yet it is ALL Knowing.
That as a mystery is found in the mind content…..it is no mystery at all, without conceptualizing it. The natural state has no words, has no need of words and the pure understanding is silent – it cannot be depleted by the expressions that pour out of it through the mind translations.
What I am is inexpressible and yet it is expressing itself consistently, ever fresh and new.
The tangled misunderstandings only belong to the time bound mind.

By: suki

suki — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:05:48 +0000

BOTTOM LINE:

ONE CANNOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING!

WITHOUT LANGUAGE, WHAT CAN YOU SAY?

In fact what you ‘ARE’ ! is beyond translation!

The above has only meaning within the confines and structure of language!

By: Bill Tys

Bill Tys — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:50:25 +0000

Or better still…instead of those very formal words above, you could have the following conversation…

YOU: Do you know that you are?
PERSON: Of course I do!
YOU: Do you need to say “I am” to realize that you are?
PERSON: Certainly not!
YOU: So you are before you say “I am”?
PERSON: Yes!

Case closed!

By: Bill Tys

Bill Tys — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:07:30 +0000

The following three lines are an abbreviation of Andrew’s five minute concluding delivery at Bob’s last night. He was inspiring and spot on!

When the words “I am” arise, it is the mind translating what is.

The words are content appearing in the seeing and the words are not necessary to know that you are.

Just prior to declaring “I am” is the natural state…and it is undeniable.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:01:35 +0000

Yes, BILL……. Write On~
ThanQ,
M

By: milton

milton — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:41:28 +0000

I agree with Bill, unlimitedness arises when it arises there is nothing we can do to make it happen. All the doing just happens by itself.

Gilbert: Some of us do respect what we get for nothing, maybe even more than what we pay for! Thanks for your efforts

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:25:42 +0000

I have two books already. I already give away a good portion of those two books as ebooks on my website. No one is knocking down my door to get anything – because the books do not capture the imagination with ‘something’ to get. The expressions consistently point at the fact that what you seek you already are. That is uncommon in books. Most books feed the concepts about time and getting something – they are about BECOMING something that you can never become. What you ARE is what you ARE and there is no getting away from it, improving it or developing it. The worldy ways of education and business are not applicable in THIS revelation of ‘what I am’. This site, the programs and the comments are freely available to anyone. No Club to join – no membership fees and no practice to do for decades in order to become what you dream of becoming. This is not about dreams. What is being pointed at is the immediacy of KNOWING. A dream cannot withstand the arising of the waking state and the identified ‘entity’ (me) in the waking state cannot withstand the clarity of presence awareness – SEEING-KNOWING. Once you have truly seen that the ‘me’ is simply an idea with no substance of its own, then how could it ever be forgotten? Many believe they have seen through the ‘me’ yet ‘the drama of me’ is repeatedly indulged in.
This should tell you something. SEEING is immediate. The ‘me’ is ‘time’. That which is ‘time based’ can never BE the immediacy, except as an appearance. The essence of what you are is NOT in time – it can never be in time. To imagine that it is is the same belief as the belief in ‘me’ – a mask. As Nisargadatta says: “You are not the body – nor are you the mind (content)”.
If one would simply allow this pure knowing to be unencumbered by preconceived ideas and historic attitudes, it WILL reveal everything ‘as it is’. But ‘you’ can’t make that happen. We personalize everything and that feeds the ‘me’ and the ‘me’ is the obstacle. Naturally ‘we’ (as the ‘me’) are drawn to the reponses in the waking state – impressions register and a response happens – that is the waking state. The glue of the waking state, that which makes it seem real is the ‘me’ complex. ‘Who’ wants to know this? All states of being appear in or on this clear and present awareness. Awareness does not shift or change via the impressions of the waking state or the dream state. We associate the waking state with awareness and believe that it is awareness itself. Therefore we ‘think’ that awareness disappears in deep sleep. The stimulation of impressions is what deminishes – awareness remains no matter what.
P.S. Let’s see some more comments from Bill – very clear pointing there.

By: Mike in SF

Mike in SF — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:53:27 +0000

Great posts Gilbert. Hopefully you’re saving these up for a book or two.

By: Bill Tys

Bill Tys — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:53:25 +0000

The imagined entity does nothing…not a thing. It is fully automatic. It is totally animated. Just like the planets moving around and the trees growing and digestion happening and finger nails growing…it all just happens. So what is there to do? What can you do? You cannot do a bloody thing. You cannot investigate, you cannot understand this advaita stuff, you cannot get it! You cannot even stop the search!

You do nothing! If the search stops then the notion of stopping the search is arising. This notion is a wave on the ocean and will disappear into the ocean again. The ocean is unperturbed by this and continues to pattern endlessly.

Notions and concepts and ideas are arising and patterning and one notion may appear to have the flavour of an investigation happening… and then another notion may arise which has the flavour of “AH AHH!”

These words are the seeing patterning. If a notion of understanding arises, it is the emptiness or the seeing cognising itself. The appearance is the emptiness and the emptiness is the appearance. The appearance is the footprint of the emptiness.

Events and thoughts are just arising. Even before awakening the seeing is there. During sleep there are dreams arising or maybe no dreams arising…but the seeing is there. In awakening, thoughts arise but the seeing is there. As the day goes on the seeing is there with thoughts and events arising…but always the seeing is there.

Could those thoughts and events arise without the seeing? The seeing is prior to anything arising in the mind. Do not imagine yourself to be “someone” who knows the seeing…because then the seeing is objectified. It becomes a thing which is contained in the seeing. There is no “you” in the seeing. The “you” is an appearing concept or pattern or thought which has limits…

Be the unlimited…but wait a minute! You cannot do anything…so if unlimitlessness arises…that’s good.

Just carry on…you cannot do anything else.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:22:11 +0000

There is only ONE SEEING. The paper bag and the pin holes are just appearances in the SEEING. It is ALL SEEING.
‘You’ imagine yourself as a ‘seer’ but that is an idea – that is correct – it is only an idea – it can be seen as an idea because it appears in the SEEING – just as EVERYTHING appears in the SEEING.
This revelation will stop the mind in its tracks and the wonder of it all is spread out across the universe.
The Hubble Telescope cannot SEE – it is an instrument of seeing – it increases the power of cognition just like a pair of binoculars or a microscope. The SEEING has no limitations at all. In taking yourself to be the instrument of SEEING, ‘you’ limit the unlimited with a simple concept – it is unnecessary and in fact a concept does not limit anything except the ‘me’ – and REALLY recognizing that is called ‘liberation of self’. Yet there is no self and there is no bondage. SEEING is happening.
Krishnamurti said in his last years “I have been singing to the deaf for 40 years”.
That is not such a subtle belief in separation and his appearance of being depressed about that ‘situation’ only shows how the mind can drag us back into the drama.
Yet some of the clearest ‘pointing’ emerged from him in the early years.
The K Foundation still treat him like a hero and so the direct message gets covered over by the ‘personal’, the belief that there is a ‘person’ and even an ‘enlightened person’.
Start right there where (you are) the SEEING is clear and obvious – do not add any concepts to the seeing. Let the mind be free.
There may even be a momentary gratitude for this ‘pointing’ as it is recognized, before the ‘me’ dissolves.
I am telling you that this revelation is completely and totally available right NOW.
It is only doubt and engagement in beliefs that stop this revelation from blossoming – the core belief is that you are a ‘person’.
The postulated ‘future deliverance’ of that person, so popular (as a binding factor for seekers,) is only an idea, promoted by gurus who believe in the ‘personal enlightenment’. It is a story – sure it puts butter on their bread and why not – but it is just a story, with a begining and and end. What you ARE has no begining and no end.
Drop the stories and SEE it all for what it is – right NOW.

By: milton

milton — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:43:39 +0000

Christine: I like the moviehouse and granny ganga.

Mike: The paper bag analogy is nice. Maybe we are all different points of view of the oneness looking at itself.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:26:22 +0000

“When the consciousness is gone” is a postulation that has no direct evidence.
You cannot remember being born. You know nothing (it is a postulation) of ‘your own death’ except some second hand ideas.
It may be useful to define things like thins: Consciousness is the manifested forms that appear in Awareness and that includes the body and all its states, thoughts, ideas, concepts, feelings etc. These patterns appear and disappear as the changeful nature of the world. The ONLY thing (which is no thing) is Awareness.
The mind is trying to grasp awareness and understand, it would seem. That trying is appearing on awareness, in awareness, like everything else.
You cannot divide it up and the attempt only produces more and more concepts.
Negation is the way to go.
Retrace your steps. You have ‘entered’ a world of concepts and it is endless.
Cut them away one by one if necessary. As new ideas arise dismiss them.
Let the mind rest on nothing at all.
In this way it will be revealed that ‘what I am’ is no thing.
I am the SEEING of it all. Yet I cannot say what I am.
The forms belong to phenomena and the SEEING-KNOWING is not in phenomena.
“Prior to Consciousness” is one of Nisargadatta’s book titles. It, the title, points at what I am deliniating here.

By: Mike in SF

Mike in SF — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:17:53 +0000

I like the analogy of the light within a paper bag with pin pricks all over it. It’s one light, and one bag, but with different little perspectives. I can’t remember where I heard that one or if I made it up myself.

By: milton

milton — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:38:39 +0000

Reciprocal vibrations are happening via the UGC penetrating the dense jungle to pierce the shroud. Let the emergence of the truth not be smothered. “Not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.” Thanks to one and all.

By: christine

christine — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:52:33 +0000

you know, i like this coffeehouse. in addition to this marvellous seat it has beat.

now that iÂ´m almost a regular, i should tell you how i like my coffee: i like it small and strong with beat.

where i live we donÂ´t whip the cream, we beat it up. and when it has been beaten, it is called beat – schlag. and here cream is not cream but up above = obers. it is the part of the raw milk that rises to the top. so the skim milk is down under and the obers which can eventually become schlag is up above. see?

i could go on and on about coffee. the two months before christmas i spent in spain,for instance. there i drink cortado, which means cut. it is served in a small glass.they bring the black coffee and pour hot milk on it at the table.

i must say we have nice coffeehouses in austria, but this one is very special and i keep coming back for the goodies. and they are for free – fancy that.

in return iÂ´d like to invite you to our european moviehouse, sorry, we donÂ´t have a virtual coffeehouse.

you find it on http://www.jetzt-tv.net . i recommend the last but one movie with granny ganga. i love her, not just because she is a granny like me. she demonstrates what you are trying to explain.

By: nathan

nathan — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:05:38 +0000

Yeeeesssssssss…

By: Kimo (Jim)

Kimo (Jim) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:10:28 +0000

You are Aware. Nobody can deny that. There is Awareness.
Where so-called “advanced students” get hung up over and over is on the concept of separate “Awareness’s”. For example, the thought may occur that the concept “Gilbert” is experiencing in Australia, Kimo is experiencing in SW Asia, and Charlie is experiencing in the United States. When did Awareness ever separate and become owned by different characters? If Awareness ever became separate and finite, these different “Awareness’s” could be objectified and knowable on some level. But You already know you can’t grasp what you think is the Awareness of Gilbert, Kimo, or Charlie–and that frustrates you because you know Awareness exists and assume that the Awareness you know belongs to “You” and that these other “Awareness’s” manifest separate from You. You cannot grasp any Awareness; You cannot even grasp your own Awareness! This is because the one “I Am” never separated. There is only One I Am “doing the looking” and it will never be grasped because it never lost its infinite nature and never became a knowable object.

By: bwalsh

bwalsh — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:50:40 +0000

hmm, i’m still puzzled. i’ll try to explain.

so when the consciousness has gone(bodily death has occured), only awareness remains. that is the unchanging source. now, what is stopping consciousness to re-appear and through ignorance from others, there is again identifying with the body and again the seeking process occurs.

sorry if the question is stupid, but hope ya understand what im trying to say.

By: christine

christine — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:12:24 +0000

wow, an empty seat with my name on it again. i feel so welcome. you reserved it especially for me.

i sit on the seat. well, let me think, is that right? iÂ´m very insec
ure. or is it unsure? isnÂ´t the spelling wrong? i shit on the sheat – i sit on the seat. which is it?

my tounge is germ man, or should i say my motherÂ´s tongue? please be patient with me.

because of my insecurity i wanted to go sure and went to the dictionary to look up the word duality. it said related words:

entity
duality
trinity

that was enlightening. i remembered the pointer of my childhood.

dreieinigkeit in german. which is three-in-one in english. wow, isnÂ´t that saying exactly what you are trying to say?

and i remembered my favourite one: in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god.

what a great pointer.

you can flush me now. but mind, you are only flushing words.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:57:14 +0000

B. Walsh……
There is no birth…..nothing is born except the idea of ‘me’.
Nothing exists outside of this moment. This moment is Eternity.
Rebirth is a concept. There is only LIFE.
When did this moment begin? Does it end?
As one saint said: “Only by dying (no ‘me’) can I have Eternal Life”.
Identification with the body, the form, is where the problem lies.
Bodies are conceived and they live in this immediacy – the life force at ‘death’ continues within the micro organisms of the body. Nothing is lost. Awareness remains – but the association with identified consciousness has dissolved.
Look now in this immediacy and see if you can find anything called ‘time’ – not the concept of time.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:58:27 +0000

If you need to re-read it over and over you are missing it.
Where do the words register?
Explore that.
It is what you are.
It is not a form or an object, it has no qualities apart from seeing-knowing.
Everything ‘appears’ in THAT.
As long as ‘you’ take yourself to be somebody the mind game will perpetuate itself naturally. There is nothing wrong with that, except it is not real and as long as ‘you’ take yourself to be that ever change-full pattern, the notion of ‘me’ is regenerated.
Let it die…..and SEE that what you are exists with it and without it.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:08:17 +0000

Gilbert,
Your 01.11.09 6:18 pm post was too good. I’m using up too much paper and ink printing out your pointers. Why not in one sentence tell us only “You are That” and I can make that my final printing job?

Angie,
Mooji is from Jamaica mon.

Richard

By: milton

milton — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:50:03 +0000

Gilbert: Thank you pointing out that there is no sense in worrying about what to do since a dream person only appears to do. The content of the dream is not my problem, believing the dream is, Everything just happens on its own, why worry about doership? I guess that I not only don’t have to do anything, in actuality, I can’t do anything anyway. I am having trouble understanding “I am that” since I don’t seem to be anything at all.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:26:07 +0000

Isnâ€™t that what all the longing for is about? – To be real and cast aside this game of being someone that we are not?
So True

ThanQ G.

By: bwalsh

bwalsh — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:24:24 +0000

Could someone explain to me about birth/rebirth? after self-realization, birth will not occur again, as the saints have said. How is this so? after consciousness disappears and the ultimate state prevails, what happens if consciousness reappears and “birth” has occured again. How is it guaranteed that birth will not happen again?

By: gilbert

gilbert — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:11:40 +0000

Yes, I know of him and that his name sounds like some sort of milk product. He contacted me last year wanting to share videos. I looked at a few minutes of one of his. I wasn’t moved to listen any further. He may be quite OK. The masses of followers is not such a good sign in my estimation. Why keep seekers treading the time wheel. Set them free and be done with it. The atmosphere around gurus can be a sticky trap. I am not into devotional stuff and kissing the gurus feet is a sign of a servile mind. There are many teachers around who say all the ‘right things’ and still indulge in a ‘self-image’ (God’s gift to man). I could name a few well known ones but I prefer not to get abusive emails. Mooji may be OK. We may even interview him one day. Frankly speaking, there is enough ‘stuff’ on this website to get the message across to the most stubborn intellect. We don’t need another guru, in my opinion. Sending anyone to a guru complex nut case is not what we are about. They skim the pockets of their devotees and live the high life and it would seem that they gradually get corrupted and die looking like Dorian Grey.
All this nonsense I am writing doesn’t help anyone and it just sets a few ‘nutters’ off on a mission to discredit me.
“Don’t go sticking your head in a hornet’s nest” is one of my favorite quotes.

By: Angie

Angie — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:50:44 +0000

Gilbert,
Do you know anything about Mooji? I heard him on youtube. I think he is from the UK.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:18:14 +0000

‘People’ make ‘heroes’ of gurus and they, by habit, immitate their favourite guru or teacher, imagining that that will give them what they seek.
Nisargadatta’s words in all the books about him are consistently pointing at what lies beyond the ‘I am’. Each ‘answer’ was directed at the essence of the questioner. Some ‘answers’ included particular details for that ‘being’, the questioner. He was not addressing ‘everyone’ and to take the recorded conversations as being a general public talk is misleading. Of course many points throughout the books relate to ‘us all’.
I have listened to many recordings (60 or so) of the meetings of Nisargadatta and I can tell you that he was predominately quite softly spoken and the general impressions I had, like many others also have, from the various video footage of him being very animated and fiery – those concepts vanished.
He was fiery at times – You could say that some ‘stubborn seekers’ may well need to be shaken out of their stupor – yet the essence contact was always there.
Awareness speaks to awareness – and getting the obstacle of old habitual mind out of the way is a good thing. There are many ways of doing that and a ‘shock’ can serve quite well. Those who trusted him, those who didn’t get lost in ‘self-defense’ benefited.
A shock in life can make the mind come back to what is real – when we drop the bullshit, things get a lot clearer it seems. They are ALWAYS clear of course but the occupied mind is getting things muddled and messy.

The potency remains in “I am THAT” and all those other recorded conversations (books) and many readers still appear to benefit from them – and many more also miss the essential message. Whatever is required to ‘stop the mind’ is valid. Each case is different.
I am not a devotional type and that ‘way’ seems full of time wasting. I wanted to KNOW for myself and that impulse prevailed.
Now I know that I am that knowing and always have been THAT. The direct ‘way’ is quicker than the quickest – but to convince the ‘mind’ of this is impossible. The mind is slow and cumbersome. It can never catch up to this immediacy of BEING. Understanding is in BEING – not the mind.
It is only the mind that ‘gets in the way’ but the fact is that nothing can obscure awareness. It all appears in, on and AS awareness.
As Bob says: “There is no answer in the mind”. Why do ‘we’ keep looking there for an answer?
Whoever the teacher is, Nisargadatta, Bob or Mary Lou – It isn’t about him or her.
They (the realized teacher) have already made the required ‘efforts’ and the result is obvious. There are many who have rediscovered their true nature who are not moved to be teachers – yet they ‘influence’ many in their lives, maybe in apparently indirect ways. (Understanding is in BEING – not the mind)
Whatever resonates in your being, the words of any guru or of anyone at all is only resonating BECAUSE of…. what someone once called ‘the law of reciprocal vibrations’. That is a concept – a useful concept and it must also be discarded once its done its job.
The basic fact is: YOU ARE the truth – reality. The pointers cut through the crap and are only ‘touching’ that truth that you are – assisting it to ‘respond’. Isn’t that what all the longing for is about? – To be real and cast aside this game of being someone that we are not?
When that resonance (response) is strong then the ‘shift’ from identified consciousness back into pure being is invincible.
It appears we need to taste it a few times. Our authenticity may show itself as a ‘feeling’ of being genuine. As a thought it is less likely to be genuine because thoughts so easily divert by association. Things get muddy quickly and even the most profound insight can ‘become’ unclear quite quickly – thus the seeking of it again takes us back into the mind – and we believe that it is real.
Are these words making some sense? It is like navigating through a dense jungle, avoiding all the vines and ‘dangers’ of the mind – the pit holes and well trodden pathways of old ideas.
With that strong resonance in being, one realizes that ‘I have always been here’ and in seeing the dissolution of what was believed in, there is an undoubitable KNOWING that ‘I am not those things’. I call it ‘The First Instant’ (The only instant). That is our true nature. There is no one living in time. Everything is THAT.
The manifested appearance of ‘things’ is ‘the essential nature’ expressing itself but it isn’t how it ‘appears to be’ (in time) – it is ALL Being ‘appearing’ timelessly – ever changing in appearance yet unchanging in essence. Its undeviating ‘reality’ does not move or change. There is ONLY one reality.
Seeing that I am (in being) equal to THAT, via the natural ‘equanimity of all things’, then a natural understanding expresses itself though the mind without getting bogged down on old ideas. The ‘signature’ of all things is ‘awareness’ itself – space-like – emptiness.
‘The ONE’ (Whole) does not ‘need’ the many. It ONLY appears AS the many.
Our many beliefs are appearances. The ‘me’ is an appearance. The clear understanding does not need beliefs or knowledge.
If you can grasp the underlying ‘principal’ of these ‘pointers’ it may reveal itself to be the basis of everything.
This ‘knowledge’ is also an appearance and the essence of all knowledge is KNOWING.
Knowing is unchanging and that is what ‘I am’ (this applies to everyone).
All expressions are actually equal and there is nothing wrong or right in them.
One need not enter into the realm of defense, of an opinion or the ‘ground of being’, because there is no need to protect what I am.
It is the ‘biased mind’ (duality) that introduces right and wrong.
Get a glimpse of the mind game and see that it is the habitual ‘ego’ that all the mind game revolves around.
In the moment of SEEING it, it already is vanquished – yet what usually happens (an opinion) is that the minds habit quickly regroups in order to smother the emerging truth of ‘what is’. Of course ‘the truth’ or ‘what is true’ does not emerge because it ‘already is’.
After ‘many years’ of being ignored or ‘smothered’ this ‘emergence’ appears to have two aspects to it – the ‘dark side’ is threatening (to ‘me’) because the false is tentatively balanced upon beliefs and will crumble in the face of what is true. The other aspect is a sense of utter release from ignorance and ‘me’.
The brilliance of SEEING WHAT IS may ‘seem’ like an overwhelming revelation for the mind. Like a caveman emerging from a cave after many years in darkness – he needs some ‘time’ to adjust to ‘the light’.
‘The dark night of the soul’ (often spoken of in spiritual literature) is the struggle of the habitual ignorance. The light of ‘what I truly am’ will not be defeated. Once a crack appears in the shroud it is already falling away. It may appear to take time – yet the ‘instant of seeing’ is ever present. The habit is to ‘go with’ what the mind is translating from the experiencing.
As Bob says: “The only way out of the mind is full stop”.
The mind is time- the mind is ‘me’.
What you are is NOT in the mind.
WHO are you? Where are you located? Why is seeking manifesting?
What do ‘you’ imagine that you will acquire?
By what light do you SEE?

What you SEEK you already ARE.

There is a popular teacher in the West who prides himself as being in the same state as Nisargadatta and uses that in his self-promotion crap. That may impress the unwary devotees but to me it is just guru bullshit. Charisma crap and sucking seekers into a process in time belongs to the realm of the mirage – it will NEVER help anyone – it only prolongs the confinement – ‘people’ get comfortable with their uncomfortable-ness.
A ‘true messenger’ does not need devotees and the delivery of the message can be very quick. Whether it is ‘heard’ or not is ‘another matter’.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:11:33 +0000

“Nisargadatta often acted agitated with questioners, but inside he was quite calm”.

may want to check our beliefs on what enlightenment “looks” like.

the sensations we label agitated and calm are “appearances”.

having little or nothing to do with That which they “appear” on, in, or through.

peace:)

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:13:13 +0000

Hi Gilbert,

You’re the man. You are what Willis was talkin’ ’bout. (If that doesn’t translate, it’s a compliment based on an old t.v. show.)

I for one truly appreciate your (and everyone’s) replies to my posts. If you are in the ultimate state, I would doubt expression of that appreciation or even condemnation, would matter at all to you, being beyond such nonsense. Nisargadatta often acted agitated with questioners, but inside he was quite calm, according to those who knew him.

I can’t agree with your portrait of seekers as “somewhat annoying creatures”. There is no ‘somewhat’ about it. We are totally annoying, totally self involved egotists who continue our meaningless search for absolute Truth, and will settle for nothing less.

Thanks,
Richard

By: christine

christine — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:06:08 +0000

feeble joke, i know.
checking for the teachervirus on the website. i didnÂ´t want to get infected.

forgive me.

By: christine

christine — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:46:37 +0000

hey, there is something wrong with your computer. itÂ´s 12:44 right here right now.
at least where i am.

By: christine

christine — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:54:07 +0000

hello, iÂ´m back. so kind of you to keep my seat reserved in this great global cafe.

i take it as an invitation to join the wordgame.

my question is. whatÂ´s wrong about duality-unless you think about it?

By: suki

suki — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:40:51 +0000

Gilbert,

No more questions or problems are arising here!

i see more and more about less and less.

Love and deep gratitude,

suki

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:55:59 +0000

YOU as a separate entity are doing nothing at all. YOU as the true essential being presence is the SAME intelligence ‘behind’ or ‘within’ everything – ever movement is the potential of this knowing presence. Belief in being ‘someone’, a body-mind, is the diverting factor. Drop and BE the seeing. Everything is clear and obvious.
THIS seeing has no origin and no limited point of view.
SEEING is everywhere and IS everything. SEEING and KNOWING are the SAME. One without a second.
There is no more. THIS IS IT.

By: milton

milton — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:38:23 +0000

Gilbert: Thanks for the pointing. Please stay with us a while longer. What you say rings true but for some reason there is a resisting of going beyond the intellectual level to seeing, don’t know why, guess attachment to me (but not consciously aware of this). Obviously seeking or effort at this point is to no avail or just reinforces the resisting. Resisting the resisting goes nowhere. Be patient and do nothing???

Grateful Life,
Milton

By: Sully

Sully — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:15:20 +0000

Gilbert,

WOW, I am so glad that your pointers show me I don’t have to wait for a ripening or wonder if it is time for me to see. You cut through all the BS and make it so clear!

“You are THE SEEING, start from there”

“You are already HOME and the seeking is an obstacle.
The postulated â€˜arrivalâ€™ at â€˜what you areâ€™, which is the core of all seeking, is not an objective â€˜thingâ€™ and cannot be hidden in the future somewhere.
Reality IS. Timelessly evident.”

Thank you, Thank you!
Sully

By: nathan

nathan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:41:06 +0000

Alongside a very serendipitous meeting with the teacher of newly taken up musical instrument, these interviews accompanied by Gilbert’s excruciatingly clear pointers have been an incredible gift.

When doubt arises…LOOK at it…when fear arises…LOOK! SEE what the hell it is…when arguments/objections/opinions come up…who SEES…are there two of you? Are there a billion of you?

“I” is the hinge upon which everything hangs…and everything’s swinging in thin air…appearing out of nothing…returning to nothing.

Who WANTS more?

By: gilbert

gilbert — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:02:30 +0000

Postulations are not the SEEING-KNOWING.
What is timeless remains timeless. Whatever ‘means’ are used to negate what SEEMINGLY obscures this knowing is VALID. I may say things that seem to be opposite to what some other says. The instant of recognition of ‘what I am’ can arise in a million ways. Just because someone says “it happened like this” does not mean it must be that way for YOU.
What I repeatedly point out is that the mind translates from ‘What IS’ – that translation is NOT REALITY. In ceasing from thought the naked awareness is HERE.
It is the mind and its preconceived ideas that prevent the recognition from arising in its fullness. There is nothing I can do for you. All these expressions simply appear.
‘I’ would rather be ‘sailing’ – yet for some inexplicable ‘reason’ I am moved to write and talk to ‘seekers’. Actually, ‘my mind’ tells me that they are somewhat annoying creatures. Every ‘now and then’ one ‘out of the blue’ CLICKS with it – and there is a warm feeling that arises from seeing that – a resonance of the ‘moment when’ freedom made itself known to ‘Me’. Actually I am surprised myself at how many new ways it gets expressed here. I need no new insights but it appears that for the benefit of ‘others’ they spring up like sunflowers in an open field. Wonder of wonders. Maybe it will stop all by itself and I can go about life without any concerns for ‘seekers’. They certainly ‘appear’ to be a most ungrateful lot sometimes and nearly always fixated on ‘dead gurus and their words’. I have no impulse to be a guru. Very few of the people around me even know about my website, books or the UGC.

By: Vat

Vat — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:14:18 +0000

Nisargadatta: â€œTo go beyond the mind, you must have your mind in perfect order. You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond. He who seeks Liberation must examine his mind by his own efforts, and once the mind is purified by such introspection Liberation is obtained and appears obvious and natural.â€

Q: “Then why are sadhanas prescribed?”

Nisargadatta: “Freedom to do what one likes is really bondage, while being free to do what one must, what is right, is real freedom.”

Q: “How can the absolute be the result of a process?”

Nisargadatta: “You are right, the relative cannot result in the absolute. But the relative can block the absolute, just as the non-churning of the cream may prevent butter from separating. It is the real that creates the urge; the inner prompts the outer and the outer responds in interest and effort.” “You seem to want instant insight, forgetting that the instant is always preceded by a long preparation. The fruit falls suddenly, but the ripening takes time.”

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:04:55 +0000

Just wondering… Gilbert, do you ever get tired of repeating these same pointers over and over again in so many different ways and yet most still don’t see what the pointers are pointing at or if they do are still having trouble in their ‘separation’ and ‘suffering’. Is it possible there is another more productive way, like maybe meet the seeker where they are and start from there .
It appears to me that awakening to one’s true nature is more like a dimmer switch than a light switch, more like a ‘process’ than in an ‘instant’.
We can use you as an example, how long have you been searching before it finally hit home ? Yes it took an ‘instant’ but all that lead to it must not be disregarded, it perhaps was necessary for the ‘instant’ to take place.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:50:21 +0000

Excruciatingly Clear~

By: gilbert

gilbert — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:40:40 +0000

The ‘knowing’ of multiplicity is singular. The appearance of multiplicity NEVER divides ‘the knowing’ into two (or more).
This is so obvious ‘we’ do not notice that this seeing-knowing is uninterrupted.
If we take ourselves to be a thought, ‘I’ or ‘me’, then this apparent ‘division’ of this singularity of presence is a ‘belief’ in being separate.
If there are no others why all these leaves on the tree? Why colors in the rainbow?
The knowing is universal and it is not limited to a being that is bound into organic life on the surface of a planet. The planet (the universe) is all knowing.
The One appears as many. ‘You’ appear to be many also but is it true?
All questions have no foundation, no substance just like all appearances are nothing but space – emptiness ‘appearing as’.
The apparent foundation of any question is in duality and it will dissolve once they are explored by the intelligence of this knowing presence.
The false cannot stand up to the investigation.
What is being held in reserve – un-investigated?
What contempt lurks behind ‘my opinions’? Who is that?
There is only one seeing happening – one knowing – you are THAT.
Why attach yourself to the dualistic nature of mind?
It is all like a Rubik’s cube. Turn the concepts round until they all fit neatly together – and SEE that they are just concepts. You solve the riddle and life goes on exactly the same way. Forget about ‘suppose’ – SEE what is truly going on.
Be THAT – One without a second.
No foundation in mind has any substance, except as a transient appearance in mind.
KNOW that this knowing is never ‘coming or going’.
WHO wants to get a benefit? Who is tossing the concepts over and over?
Is the intellect a servant or a master?
Who is the arrogating ‘I’ who wants to know?
Where is the KNOWING and can it ever be a form called the ‘knower’? – or Richard, Tom or Harry?
SEEING-KNOWING does not belong to the forms or the pattern – the appearance.
What is there prior to it all. In the instant of waking (in the morning) what is there before the ‘story of me’ rolls in?
What was I a hundred years before conception?
The wordless ‘I am’ is the closest one comes to it in experiencing – yet I AM THAT and near and far are relative notions only.

By: tomvds

tomvds — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:59:10 +0000

Everything (IS) happens in non-duality including concepts.It may be seen that concepts never divide anything. There is no beneficiary, only the ACTUALITY beyond belief.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:21:49 +0000

The frequently used term “There is no duality in non-duality” never seemed quite correct to me. Either term (duality or non-duality) implies its opposite. Therefore both terms are dualistic, as I suppose all language is.

Language, being in the conceptual realm is being used to point to non-conceptual awareness. Might work if the imagined pointee lets go of the concept.

Which brings up the questions: If there are no others, why all these pointers? Who is the beneficiary of the verbiage?

By: hoopoe

hoopoe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:49:09 +0000

“Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,
And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander’d into Darkness wide
Return and back into your Sun subside ”

-The Conference of the Birds (Persian: Mantiq at-Tayr, 1177)

By: gilbert

gilbert — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:39:05 +0000

Everything only APPEARS to happen – and it all appears IN the SEEING, which is the very nature of the appearance also. It is ALL SEEING.
Drop the concept of location (seer) and time (duration) and all is obvious as it always IS.

By: Mark Ellis

Mark Ellis — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:30:55 +0000

They yearned so deeply for Him who is both near and far,
They were drawn to this sun and burned to an ember;
But the road was long and perilous that was open to offer.
Hooked by terror, though each was asked to remember
The truth, each an excuse to stay behind was keen to proffer.

ThanQ G~

By: The Feral Dream

The Feral Dream — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:50:38 +0000

Hi Gilbert!

I read a few pages from your E-book yesterday. I had read it cover to cover before and it felt nice warm and fuzzy. Yesterday however, i could not read more than a few lines and was completely electrified to a standstill. Specifically the line “there is only Experience-ING, there are no experiences”. Once that was seen to be true, all your other words just fell into place along side, the coherence that they are all pointing to the same IT was evident.

I realize one doesnt need several 4000 page books, a single line may suffice to make one see this, and then the rest are just entertainment. I cannot describe it too well, but here I was reading your stuff, and something hit home, without even trying, it was a sense of “yes!” from that point on i tried to read more because i wanted to ‘get more’ out of this seeing/clarity whatever, but the strange thing is, even the body on the couch reading Gilbert’s e-book was naught but an appearance. It was like “what is this body reading stuff for, what can it get? WHo is reading this and for what?” It is a paradox (to me) because it seems (to me) that while Pointing can seemingly precipitate seeing, once seeing happens its almost as if there is no cause and effect so nothing can precipitate anything from happening.

thank you from the bottom of my heart.

By: audrey

audrey — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:13:36 +0000

One of several gems in Gilbert’s last few comments – ‘..what I am is beyond all that is perceivable, even the finest impressions of life, on whatever scale, register on ‘something’ that is finer than any thing (impression) can be..’ What I am is always just behind everything else, untouched and untouchable, known and at the same time forever ungraspable.
Something that made me laugh in the last post, Lee Hazlewood sings, ‘you hurt me, I don’t forget, I’m a bad sport’ ..if anything was ever true about the aggrandizing/defended sense of me, that sums it up. And Randall..’you are there to see these things happen’, and Bob..’no-one to take delivery’, and the interaction he has with someone who describes joy as the relaxation that comes with not wanting.Great stuff.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:32:49 +0000

Ralph

Try observation without analysis/thinking/interpretation

Just ‘see’

Just ‘be’

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:49:11 +0000

“the dream character BELIEVES in its reality.” A belief has NO power at all. Explore the believer and recognize that you are the SEEING, which is obviously beyond what is seen and the notion of being a ‘seer’ is also just a concept.
Then these stories about that character will have no fascination for you.
At the moment, it seems you keep attempting to give this character some qualities that don’t exist. Why that is happening can only be because you have NOT seen it for what it is. Ralph consistently agrees with some pointers and then ‘he’ throws up the very point that ‘he is caught on’ – as if that is a ‘reason’ why he is not free, or usually ‘he’ uses the ‘third person’, as if ‘he’ has some compassion to help those caught in his own trap. Only one that is truly free of concepts can help another – and that is only in duality. There is no duality in non duality and there are truly no others.

By: gilbert

gilbert — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:13:29 +0000

There is nothing final to arrive at. You ARE – that is IT. These words are just words and remain as words, unless ‘you’, what you truly are, SEES that what they are pointing at, which is what you truly are is, itself, no thing – clear and immaculate, like space – and yet in this space-like awareness, seeing is happening. This ‘journey’ will continue to appear as an unfolding pattern that entices the mind and its attachments, so you must recognize it effortlessly without attaching yourself to any thing. You are already HOME and the seeking is an obstacle.
The postulated ‘arrival’ at ‘what you are’, which is the core of all seeking, is not an objective ‘thing’ and cannot be hidden in the future somewhere.
Reality IS. Timelessly evident.
Ultimately the anticipated ‘arrival’ or postulated (infamous) ‘spiritual deliverance’ is illusion – simply because what you truly ARE has not moved anywhere into TIME or SPACE. The whole manifestation is a Time-Space Pattern, worlds within worlds, patterns within patterns, like a fractal pattern. An endless appearance of repetition without a single repetition. The sun appears to come up each morning but the truth is that the sun never moves in the sky (relative to the Earth). Any data point one attaches oneself to, in order to measure anything, is a relative ‘point’ in space and time. What I am is beyond all that is perceivable, even the finest impressions of ‘life’, on whatever scale, macro or ultra micro, they register ON ‘something’ that is finer than any ‘thing’ can ever be.
Out of that ‘emptiness’ springs forth every ‘thing’, including every thought, emotion, state of being, objects, subjects and any ‘thing’ you care to postulate. Even the mind springs up from that emptiness.
Now…….WHO is it that wants to know something of this?
Start only from the fact that you are THAT.
That is just a ‘pointer’. There is no starting actually but for an approach we must use what we apparently have.
The realization is that I am no thing.
This may well stun the mind into silence.
That SILENCE is the foundation of all there IS.
In contrast to this:
All the arguments and talk about Non Duality is like children fighting or playing in a Kinder-garden.

By: dorothy hoffman

dorothy hoffman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:05:06 +0000

Gilbert, in your e-book, you state

“In your apparent ‘journey’ you must find what is called ‘a true teacher’. One who lives the freedom he speaks of. It is not a matter of service to someone and time does not play a role in self realization, so in the appearance it can be very quick. Very quick – and it is in fact instantly revealed.
You must find out what it is that ‘seemingly’ obscures this clear presence of immediate knowing.
Even though the messenger will tell you that there is no teacher and no teaching, you must pursue the situation to its final ending. Paradoxically, such an ‘ending’ can only ever be ‘a dissolution’ of erroneous beliefs, right here, right NOW. You are already HERE â€˜inâ€™ and AS this Moment.
Get the message and be done with seeking all together.”

I know for a fact that you are the true teacher as your pointing resonates; and even though it is recognized for what it is, the situation has not “reached” its final ending as you state. How and what to pursue?