Urban Guru Cafe
Discovering what you truly are
42. Across Space and Time. Program # 4. Nisargadatta Tapes
Posted on 06.13.09 2:05AM under Nisargadatta Maharaj, Podcast
A meeting with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. An extract from rare recordings from Khetwadi, Bombay.
American visitors ask questions.
The voice of Jack Kornfield appears as a short extract from “Awaken to the Eternal”.
Music by L. Shankar, Sirocco (Aus) and Vas.
For those interested a team in India have produced a CD of some previously unheard recordings of meetings with Nisargadatta.
Here is a link to the website – Click HERE.
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Across Space and Time - Program # 4 - Nisargadatta Tapes [ 22:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3104)
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 2:08 am
Welcome to the new program. Comments are welcome so long as they are along the lines of the subject of the program. Anything inappropriate will be deleted. Unfortunately this message must be stated up front, due to a few who use these pages as a chat room and for slinging mud around. It will not be tolerated. Thank you – Gilbert.
Posted by chris on 06.13.09 6:36 am
I haven’t posted here for a short while and I’m really glad to be back again. Would like to thank you Gilbert for the excellent quality of all these podcasts and for your patience here in the comment section.
I can’t really explain it but there was sort of a ‘loosening’ here (for lack of a better word) and a sense of peace while listening to this latest podcast. I’ll definitely have to give it another go however as I have missed some of what was said. I was just floating through listening wih my eyes closed and wasn’t making a particular effort to grasp everything.
One point that struck me was when he said that nobody would knowingly come into this dirty body, this dirty form. What is the phenomena there? What did he mean exactly? Is there not a choice in the matter? Perhaps I am reading too much into this.
Also what is meant by: ‘ without death there cannot be life’ . Is it just meant as the body? I understand that there cannot be love without hate etc but this one has me a little puzzled.
Again thanks for everything.
chris
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 10:09 am
Who can say what he meant? As with all this material, each one will hear what it needs to hear and disregard the rest.
The message is not necessarily in the words or the meaning.
Listen again and again to the program. Notice that each time you listen there appears to be an expansion and more is ‘heard’.
See that some points may be easily accepted while others are met with by some resistance or even denial. Yet pure hearing is happening prior to this activity of acceptance and denial. What is being ‘touched’, stimulated, or not?
There is no transmission. You are already what you seek. Know this intimately.
In not wanting to ‘get something’ there can be a freedom in truly hearing what is on offer.
LIFE lives on LIFE.
One form ‘appears’ to feed on other forms. An ‘exchange’ of energy ‘appears’ to happen.
There is only LIFE.
One Essence expresses and appears AS everything.
In the expression the whole manifestation appears…..yet nothing ever happens.
No harm is done.
In the clear space out of which this SEEING-KNOWING is ‘happening’ – in this pure activity of knowing, there is emptiness, silence, a simple warmth of being.
As the 5 elements play in this clear space, the world appears out of nothing and disappears.
See into this concept of ‘time’ and SEE that it is a concept ‘happening’ in ‘this moment’.
SEE that there is no beginning to ‘this moment’ – there is no ending to ‘this moment’.
See these concepts appear and disappear.
Identify yourself as this clear space of knowing. Start from the fact that you are THAT.
Names will dissolve, the appearance of the world may disappear – yet what you are cannot disappear – it has never appeared in the first instance.
What you are is PURE DURATION – ever lasting presence.
The ‘dirty body’ is simply a graphic way of speaking.
The body is pure energy and that which Knows is formless, color-less, timeless, deathless.
Without this play of the elements, there would be nothing appearing.
The basis of all things (phenomena) is emptiness.
The attachment to the body is due to non investigation.
The instant the investigation ‘happens’ the veils of duality ‘start’ to fall away.
‘Maya’ is the illusion. Maya is mind. The ‘hook’ of Maya is the ‘me’.
The ONLY way out of the mind is Full Stop.
Posted by Arthur on 06.13.09 10:47 am
Could you imagine if what you were saying was real, Gilbert?
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 11:34 am
Reality is unchanging. The expressions are all belonging to the realm of change.
The only reality anything has is in its immediacy.
When there is no separation of the pure functioning, the knowing is undeviating.
As soon as the ‘thinker’ is taken up as being something real, then duality and the concept of separation ‘happens’. What has this got to do with imagining?
‘We’ personalize everything and then complain about ‘things’.
You are No Thing.
There is no becoming.
Because of ignorance, the ‘seeker’ is full of beliefs about ‘becoming’.
All the major religions express the non-dual nature of reality. They all ‘fall’ into the realms of duality, via ignorance. ‘People’ want something to do, so that they can ‘become’ pure and worthy of some ‘higher state’ of being etc. ad infinitum.
There is only One Being.
So bring this intent of becoming to this living moment of Being. In this way the illusion of ‘becoming’ is naturally replaced with the knowledge (knowing) of being.
The concepts of ‘becoming’ fade away and being is clear and obvious.
Unless this is applied, the mind will simply go on searching for whatever it imagines that is missing.
All of the pointers that are offered are simple and direct. They are all directed at being.
No lasting emphasis is placed on ‘becoming’.
This is the obvious difference between this ‘offering’ here and the majority of teachings.
Almost all the teachings are of becoming. A fictional story about ‘someone who becomes other than what they are’. How absurd those teachings are – yet they are very popular. Such is the manner in which ‘Maya’ acts. It is highly seductive and only the purest intent can break that ‘bondage of self’. You are that ‘intent’. Infinitely potent.
It is not a matter of time, for some deliverance to take place.
It is simply SEEING-KNOWING that what you truly are has never been bound by time or by any other concept.
Posted by Arthur on 06.13.09 11:52 am
We can’t grab it though?
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 12:16 pm
You are THAT. What need is there for grabbing it? That is just more mind stuff.
The ‘thinker’ is just another thought.
SEE that. The seeing of it is unexpected. The mind cannot see anything – but it imagines that it sees everything.
Knowing the difference between pure seeing and mind translations is a key factor.
However, trying to grasp it always fails.
Yet seeing is happening.
Investigate what is getting in the way.
Recognize that whatever reveals itself, it all appears in the seeing.
The seeing is the immediate activity of knowing. There is no ‘entity’ in it.
Posted by Arthur on 06.13.09 12:39 pm
Okay, but there’s a desire for more?
Posted by dorothy hoffman on 06.13.09 12:43 pm
What can grasp what? Thoughts parading as a separate entity? Apart from thought, what is this seemingly separate entity made of? What is thought made of? Either which way one investigates, one keeps coming back to oneself…this clear space of knowing.
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 1:02 pm
The desire for more is due to what?
When a desire is fulfilled, the desire disappears.
Transient satisfaction is replaced by more desire – desire for more.
The nature of the manifestation is an unfolding appearance of more. What is unsatisfied by what is appearing? Whatever appears, disappears. Who can hold onto what?
The believed in entity has no respect for pure being. It wants ‘to be’ but it has no substance ‘to be’, so it fails over and over.
What you are is the wakefulness only – the pure cognition.
So long as you take yourself to be a form, that belief will take you on a journey to nowhere.
Recognize that what you truly are has never gone anywhere ‘away’ from Presence – Being. This is simple – yet see how so many miss it altogether.
But do not be concerned about ‘others’. As is expressed in the program “Know yourself, by yourself”.
The Outer Guru is only a sign post. A ‘Pointer’.
You either take careful notice of the sign or you ignore it.
It is up to you.
By the ‘design’ of the sign one may recognize ones own true nature.
‘You’ have failed to recognize it for so long and ‘the search’ has ‘become’ a tiresome problem for ‘you’. Who is this ‘you’? Is it not ignorance?
We ignore our true nature and go off with every concept that comes along.
Enough.
Posted by dorothy hoffman on 06.13.09 1:08 pm
Gilbert, your chiseled expressions simply point the mind back to the silent space of no mind…
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 1:42 pm
Mind is just thought.
No thought – no mind.
Mind is Maya.
Whether you know it or not – the knowing is prior to Maya.
Some call it ‘The Play of Consciousness’ and then add all sorts of nonsense and possible attainments.
Some call it ‘The Divine Hypnosis’.
There is no way out of the dream IN the dream.
There is no way out by thinking your way out of it.
Pure cognition is not an entity.
So long as you insist one being ‘someone’ trying to ‘get something’, the the hypnosis plays its role. It is unnecessary.
Some pretend to be ‘awakened beings’ and ‘create’ prisons for ‘seekers’.
Find out what your core question is and ask it.
Delay tactics are due to attachment to erroneous beliefs.
It is up to you.
No one can do it for you.
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 3:57 pm
Had to delete some stupid comments. The head of hydra will reappear no doubt.
Posted by big john on 06.13.09 4:21 pm
” The body must be there for the beingness to appear, the real birth is nine months prior, one or two years after that you come to know the body”
Is he saying that beingness is totally dependant on the body for it to appear. Would seem to explain why there is a fear of death for most, no body no beingness! and no knowing.
Also he seems to give reality to time and process, a past that leads to a now. Very confusing, …. easy answer for who? doesn’t cut it. The end of the body doesn’t seem to be the end either, can it get any worse. Or is this not being heard correctly.
Posted by gilbert on 06.13.09 6:27 pm
No separation. The body and consciousness are not separate.
The body is an expression of this consciousness. No body, no experience.
Speaking from beyond the limited view of being a body, the language is always confusing for the one who is identified with the body.
We speak of beginnings and endings.
The beginning of the body, in the ordinary sense, is not with the first breath obviously.
The conception is the apparent beginning. Yet the ‘seed’ of that conception is composed of the father’s sperm and the mother’s ovum. So, the mixing of these two is only a ‘con-junction point’, not a beginning.
If you grab the phenomenal ‘string’ it will lead you off ‘conceptually’ into an endless realm of phenomena. An unbroken chain of ‘events’.
Your true nature is not to be found in that ‘direction’. It is not a concept.
Retrace ‘your steps’ to naked, unadorned presence-awareness.
If there is still confusion, listen again to the program.
No one is trying to pull the wool over your eyes here. It isn’t about belief.
Is it about whatever you can confirm as being true? Or is it about THAT which you cannot negate?
There is no question of any individual being born, suggested in the program. Around two years old, the concept of ‘me’ and ‘other than me’ is ‘born’.
You do not remember being born and you know not death.
Look into this immediacy and see if you can find any trace of a beginning or an end.
Concepts about beginnings and endings appear and disappear.
The clear and present evidence is simple – yet it cannot be grasped with a concept.
That is the ‘problem’ for the mind.
Knowing is singular, clear and obvious. Opinions are multiple and diverse.
Posted by dan on 06.14.09 1:33 am
Regarding ‘without death there cannot be life’ – if you listen to the very end of the program, Gilbert quotes Nisargadatta: “the dying now to the Now”, hinting at the old adage of dying before you die.
And that which dies can only be the IDEA of the entity. As Bob mentions in one of the earlier podcasts – “the only thing that was born was the idea of an entity…… it was a fiction all along.”
And, to paraphrase Tony Parsons: “Until you die, you will always seek.”
In this sense, the believed-in entity is equal, synonymous with seeking. They are the very same ‘thing’. It is an energy of ignorance.
All the confusion and questions around this can often build up into a huge furor and spin the apparent individual into a whirlwind of disorientation and blurred vision. At this point it is often totally forgotten that what is being pointed to here is advaita, non-duality, not two. There has never been any question of anything other than oneness. Yet, ‘spinning off’ can leave one ‘lost’.
This is why very direct and clear pointing always seems to be very effective. That line in the Hsin-Hsin-Ming is wonderfully potent:
To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say when doubt arises, ‘Not two.’
Posted by Ralph on 06.14.09 6:39 am
“Die before you die”
“I hope you die soon”
“I was blind but know I see”
“I was never born”
etc … etc … etc …
This all points to NOT who you think you are but instead points to who or what your true nature is. When this is finally seen, then it’s game over and this is where true freedom and peace awaits you. It appears it can wait forever. It has tremendous patience but the good news is that it is already here. It never left.
Have you not suffered enough ?
Posted by Ralph on 06.14.09 6:55 am
Actor and comedian Jim Carrey explaining his spiritual awakening:
“I woke up and suddenly got it,†Carrey says. “I understood suddenly how my thoughts were just an illusory thing. And how ‘thought’ is responsible for most of the suffering we experience … and suddenly I had this amazing feeling of freedom – from myself, from my problems. I saw that I was bigger than what I do. I was bigger than my body. I was no longer a fragment of the universe – I was the universe.â€
Posted by areti on 06.14.09 9:18 am
Hey Authur,
I am the one deleting your comment because I have been reading them and sometimes get a hint of ridicule, and other times am puzzled at what you could mean.
What is your confusion, or are you claiming to have none?
There isn’t anybody there or anywhere to make such claims. Gilbert isn’t making any claims.
And if you think you are somehow being sophisticated with your half-liner comments of mediocre intellect, so obviously hiding behind a facade of being so smart that people don’t get you – only you and a select few get what you write – you’re all a part of a clique – Gilbert calls it ‘club mentality’ – don’t kid yourself. You can kid yourself you do ‘belong’ – moving yourself momentarily away from the suffering inherent in not seeing clearly who you really are, but then the suffering starts up again. Right? Because as soon as you think someone has got it or not got it or you’ve got it, that’s not it, because it is all one and who has got anything? It is such beliefs in separation that cause wars, is what Bob says. Aren’t you creating war or unrest for yourself, others and the site? Point in proof!
Be clear at least with your intended message. Write to be understood so that your misunderstanding can be dropped.
And if your mind is wasting precious time comparing others clarity on ‘non-duality’ against each other, measuring your own clarity against itself (how clear you are today as compared with yesterday and how clear you will be tomorrow), and further; measuring yours against Gilbert’s, and others’ against yours……..phew….. all I can say is give it a rest. It’s what YOU are right now, it’s what everyone is – end of story – end of ‘fairy stories’ as Bob says in his latest pod cast – FULL STOP!!!!! Where does that leave you?
Make peace with self, not wars with others. There is only the self. Look and see.
Your inner guru is the only one who takes you there.
This is a private email I sent to Arthur, but surprise, surprise, it bounced back. No surprise at all actually.
Posted by Arthur on 06.14.09 9:27 am
Thanks, Areti. Clearly issues arise. Thank you for this website.
Posted by Tom Allen on 06.15.09 3:02 am
For what it’s worth:This morning, driving, I look out at the road and the trees etc. and I think:It is pretty obvious that all this is only this and represents nothing other than this and my seeing it is of its essence–well, you get the picture.
Posted by dan on 06.15.09 4:50 am
thanks tom, i love that!
Posted by gilbert on 06.15.09 9:45 am
If you think you have got it, then your’e on the wrong track.
The difference between ‘knowing’ and ‘thinking’ is naturally ‘known’ through ‘knowing’ not through the ‘thinking’. Thinking that ‘you’ know is not it.
There is only one seeing happening…….one knowing happening.
It is not post mind translation.
Everything is clear and obvious.
Before any description of it being so.
What effort is needed to ‘know’ that ‘I am’?
“I am THAT by which I know that I am”
Posted by Ralph on 06.15.09 9:48 am
Great quote Areti:
“Make peace with self, not wars with others. There is only the self. Look and see”.
…… and if I may add, there is no YOU also.
You are not who you THINK you are. In my experience, this was the hardest part of the journey. A long, long, loooooong journey of finally seeing that who I thought I was, was just a phantom. Just believed thoughts. When the ‘thinking’ turns into a ‘knowing’, it will be seen. THE END.
…… and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
- The Beatles
Posted by gilbert on 06.15.09 10:36 am
The appearance of a long long journey is due to non-investigation.
It is easily recognized that the ‘story’ of it being a long long journey is an appearance NOW. There is no other time. Stop telling the stories.
In the instant of recognizing that there is no ‘self’ it isn’t ‘happening’ because some new faculty has kicked into gear. The SEEING is always here.
The belief in ‘me’ is in the content of the mind.
In the pure seeing, there is no ‘me’.
Further more the ‘me’ (mind) cannot see or know anything.
It is simply mis-identification.
Simple as that.
The ‘thinker’ is just another thought.
Seeing without trying to see – seeing without ‘thinking I am seeing’.
Liberation from the belief in ‘me’ or ‘self’, through SEEING with Naked Awareness.
Posted by Randall Friend on 06.15.09 11:25 am
The body and thoughts are objective content to the pure subjective “I”.
YOU are ALWAYS there as all experience comes and goes. And the body-thoughts are objects.
Inquire into how this obviousness of “I” is mixed up with the obviousness of objective content.
We hear over and over how difficult it is to “see through” the identification, to “see through” the person. Why is that?
Isn’t it because what-you-are is SO obviously known already? Isn’t it because that “I” or “I AM”-ness is already fully known and intimate?
So that intimately-known “I AM”-ness is being mixed up with the objective content body-mind. Recognize that this can ONLY happen in thoughts – in assumptions or beliefs.
And beliefs are thoughts.
Therefore what-you-are, that pure “I” or knowing is the “space” or capacity IN WHICH the thoughts of identification come and go. That “space” is ever unmodified by the thoughts. That is ALREADY the case. It’s simply recognized or noticed.
And that pure “I” can never be separate FROM the appearance, again, except in thought/assumption.
Posted by Dennis on 06.15.09 12:54 pm
Isn’t advaita a belief system as well?
A conceptual framework?
A meme complex?
A piece of equipment?
A tool that has an ‘in order to’…..get a result?
A ‘thing’ of the mind that the mind uses to create a peaceful mind but lays squarely inside and only within the field of mind?
A psychological trick?
From the point of view of ‘me’….I love it and it wins for me.
It’s a king meme that appears to checkmate all others.
Posted by Ralph on 06.15.09 3:37 pm
Again, I think it is appropriate to use Nisargadatta’s quote here:
“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.â€
Gilbert and Randall, you seem to focus on the ‘fruit falling suddenly’ where I like to focus on the ‘ripening takes time’.
In truth , both ways lead you there which is HERE, of course.
Posted by gilbert on 06.15.09 4:40 pm
Advaita is a word – it means one without a second. Dvaita means Two. A-Dvaita means ‘not two’.
Belief systems are conceptual frameworks that ‘work’ or ‘don’t work’ for a believed in ‘entity’.
The ‘entity’ also has a name, a word. it is all stories appearing and disappearing. Left alone it disappears by itself.
But the maintenance of the story must be kept going otherwise the ‘me’ who is central to the story loses its support and vanishes.
Dying to the ‘me’ requires no effort. But an ‘identity crisis’ appears. Who am I? This is why it is suggested straight up front – investigate that concept of ‘me’ – se if it has any substance or independence. In seeing that it does not exist – then one’s true identity is realized – but it cannot be reduced to some new idea.
It is the subtle awareness of being – which is always present. ‘We’ go looking for some ecstatic state of bliss and over look the subtle bliss of being.
Looking at the details is where one gets caught. You can focus on the process until the cows come home. Recognizing your true nature is unexpected yet instant.
Clearing away the old beliefs is necessary but to make it into a practice is useless.
How long does it take to see through a belief?
You can hold onto your personalized stories of ‘getting there’ but it is not going to help.
The mind will only build more stories and it is the stories that bind the believed in ‘entity’.
Being genuine with an investigation does not mean that years will pass by.
Being stuck on postponing a true investigation is the bondage of belief.
Belief is NOT the actual.
Seeing-knowing is the actuality.
How anyone can navigate their way around the clear pointers is a marvel to me.
The mind only seemingly divides this present clear awareness with concepts.
No concept is ever IT.
Still, I see that these words will only pass over a realm of thick belief and nothing will change. The intellect is a stubborn mule. So be it.
Posted by dan on 06.15.09 7:19 pm
The mind never wants to let go of the idea that it is over and ‘done’ (before it even ever ‘started’)
It is eternally ‘done’ and complete.
Seeing that the mind never wants to let go can be massively insightful… it means that the futile movements of the mind have been recognized…. the mind never appears the same… always in a billion different ways and forms…. it is erratic, fickle and changeful.
Gilbert, the experience here is that there is always a knee-jerk reaction of sadness when the mind is revealed to be what it is…. a kind of nostalgia. Of course this is still an objective ‘thing’ happening…. it is fine. But it is quite strong. I wonder if you could say something about this….?
Posted by kale on 06.15.09 7:50 pm
A practical exercise posted on Doulas Harding’s web site:
Look at the face in the mirror. Let’s find out if that is you. Look closely, see if you recognise yourself there. It is a very familiar face. Is that really you? Now, close your eyes. What has disappeared? And what stays? Who is aware of the fact that the face in the mirror has disappeared. With what can you ‘see’ that the face has disappeared?
Posted by gilbert on 06.15.09 9:02 pm
Seeing is happening. There is no other seeing happening. The mind cannot see or know anything. It only appears to be able to see and know.
The idea that the mind can see and know anything is just an idea. Don’t take my word for it – take a close look yourself. See that it is just labels that appear spontaneously.
From where? From the mind, is what we say. But is it true? It is a suggestion handed to us by what? Convenience?
What mind is there, apart from thoughts and images? Can you find something called mind? No. It is a concept to explain something that is not a thing.
The thought ‘I see’ cannot see. It is a mind translation only.
The ‘I’ in ‘I see’ cannot see either. It is just a word, a label.
Recognizing that thoughts simply appear without an ‘owner’ attached, is a revelation.
Sadness: ‘We’ imagine that something is lost when the mind game is revealed.
The feeling follows thought. There are many aspects to the investment in believing that I am that ‘entity’. Knowing that what I am does not disappear when the mind is not, opens up the view. Subtle ideas will appear, due to the habit of belief. There is a natural fondness for being – love of being. If there is a story of loss going on, however subtle, then similar feelings will appear.
It is not a matter of confrontation. Simply see that everything, every thought and emotion appears on that clear and empty cognition of ‘no mind’.
No acceptance and no rejection is necessary.
Many go on and on about how it is necessary to accept this or reject that.
Recognize that in the pure seeing, there is no entity. It is simply seeing.
The story about ‘someone’ in that ‘seeing’ that needs to accept or reject something or anything is merely a concept appearing.
Nothing can live without energy, so if there is some story going on, about acceptance or rejection, then there is some belief in a ‘someone’ who is going to ‘do’ that.
There is no point in pretending to know.
Knowing is already happening – it just doesn’t belong to an entity.
The entity is just a habit of belief.
This may appear to be confrontational but to whom?
Posted by kale on 06.15.09 11:58 pm
Gilbert, this may sound totally off track…but when things go “wrong” in the “family” (sudden physical accidents etc.), the worrying thoughts begin to appear on their own. Even though the thoughts are recognzed as thoughts…from a place of no thought; a sense of discomfort, unease and intense fear prevails…wonder if you could say something about it…thanks.
Posted by milton on 06.16.09 1:19 am
Gilbert and Areti, thanks for more SNM, and thanks Areti for the judicious editing. “Giving attention to the Self without making use of the mind” struck home with me. Also the pointer that effort and effortlessness will come as needed (without making an effort or non-effort) with abidance in the Self. Also, that no stories need to be told is very freeing.
Ralph: Great to hear your sometimes plaintive voice once again! The gradual school is sometimes underrepresented. Missed your comments, they always seem to add a missing ingredient.
Posted by gilbert on 06.16.09 1:28 am
The events happen (appear). The essential point is that when we name a feeling or sensation as ‘fear’ it links up instantly with the ‘past experiences’ that we have named as ‘fear’. So, a whole range of associations come into the picture.
Whatever is arising is fresh and new – it does not come with any labels or conditioned past.
In letting things be what they are in the moment, then the intelligence is available to act according to what is necessary. Life lives on life. ‘We’ think that we are so important, as ‘human beings’. Yet a small virus can wipe out thousands or millions of us. It is all life.
Can you imagine what perspective LIFE would have on the dramas of mankind.
Our lifetime is around 80 years. A small bug may live a few days. A planet, a billion years.
A Galaxy, a trillion years or whatever it is.
The intelligence that displays itself as all these ‘things’ is not disturbed by any conditioning or personal attachments. That intelligence is functioning throughout the entire body.
It is breathing you. Beating your heart. What credit can you take for any of it?
Equanimity.
Be warm towards your self. Then whatever is appropriate will spontaneously be expressed. It does not mean that you become a zombie or disassociated from life at all.
In fact it is life without a concept of being separate.
The Gradual School is under-represented? My God, every guru in the land represents it. I guess you mean HERE on the UGC.
The Gradual School never gets there….no one graduates…and the pupils are all ‘seekers’. The supposed graduates perpetuate the gradual philosophy….and so on it goes, gradually going nowhere…….but it is good business.
It is all stories of a future attainment – take away the stories and what is left?
Many of the personal ‘ego’ dramas that appear on these comment pages are petty nonsense – yet at any moment something can be recognized. Peace and harmony as ‘spiritual people’ aim for is little more than a personal prison of ‘the way’ they imagine things should be.
Most often they do not appreciate any reminders about such things.
For years, it appears that ‘I’ have played devils advocate to stir up many ‘seekers’.
Now I am tired of it. Maybe I will be a loving type now and everyone will want to rub shoulders with me. Ha.
Posted by dan on 06.16.09 2:33 am
For me here, playing devil’s advocate was an important part of enquiry, ie. -> to probe, and ask the big taboo question: “who am I?” or “what am I?” It is a dangerous question. ‘We’ are not supposed to ask it, or rock the boat, or fudge around with that comfortably numb status quo. We’re supposed to brush it under the carpet and forget….. and pretend to be something else.
Eventually, you get sick to death of it. It sticks out like a sore thumb. And seeing the sheer pettiness of the entity. Its just seen. From nowhere. Seeing all the petty whims and ways of the individual and its ludicrous concerns…. can be quite crushing. But, as you say “to whom?” There can be SUCH huge investment in that idea. Its a funny thing…. to see the silliness of it all.
Posted by Morgan on 06.16.09 5:32 am
Everything is fine just as it is. The separate self never existed so NOTHING needs to be done. Thoughts arise and fade. Some of these thoughts depict a “me”. When the “me” is believed in, one thinks that one has to do something. In reality, all appears and disappears without any personal effort, though the illusion of the doer can obviously be compelling at times. That image is bound to fade like all others.
Thought draws an artificial distinction between “good” and “bad” and then tries to avoid one and get the other but being invariably appears as “both”. The entity that wants and fears isn’t real, just a thought in present awareness.
Posted by gilbert on 06.16.09 10:01 am
When the milk is churned, butter spontaneously appears.
No churning – no butter.
Space is empty.
Some hint of movement ‘creates’ forms from nothing.
The swirling activity ‘creates’ a sense of something ‘happening’.
‘Identity’ forms from nothing.
At the core of the experience-ing there is an absolute stillness – pure observing.
The sense of duration and sequence are known as appearances in a subtle motionless indescribable state of being. Even ‘being’ itself is included along with non-being in this ‘place’.
‘From’ this ‘place’ it is obvious that all the ‘elements’ are ‘appearing’, including the sense of identity, name, form and apparent substance.
The subtle bliss of being – the silent awareness of being, not this, not this.
I am THAT.
Because of this ‘I am’, everything is as it is.
Whatever is appearing, it is ALL in this Presence.
There is NO separation.
Nothing can be added to nothing and nothing can be taken away from nothing.
No Thing.
Minus One.
I am THAT.
Posted by gilbert on 06.16.09 12:56 pm
Note: We have managed to remove the ads that were appearing mysteriously on this comment page – bottom left corner. That feature was not set up by us and we still do not know who arranged it or who was getting paid for it, if anyone. Some of the items that appeared there were completely contrary to what this site is about. A clean site is better – no ads. Nothing to sell. Free podcast. Donations are not necessary. Some do donate from time to time and it is appreciated. – UGC.
Posted by Fernando Rozas on 06.16.09 2:15 pm
Ok, Gilbert, my English is miserable! (I beg your patience) Seeing is happening…Ok. There is darkness… An obstacle, a veil, whatever, that stands in the way.
But that implies two sides, an ‘obstacle’ implies two sides… Doesn’t it?
WHAT is it that is in obscurity? (Do you know what I mean?) The obstacle is only a cloud, but a cloud for WHOM or WHAT?
WHAT is it that suffers in that obscurity?
And thank you and Areti for this free and beautiful UGC !
‘Gracias’!
Posted by gilbert on 06.16.09 3:01 pm
Where is the darkness appearing? Where is the cloud appearing?
Why takes sides and then asks what sides are there to be on?
What you seek you already are.
The seeking is the problem.
It is only a ‘me’ that can suffer, be angry or ‘conditioned’. ‘Me’ is mind – mind is time – awareness is timeless.
What you truly are is Timeless Presence – but the mind cannot accept it, because it means the end of suffering, isolation and belief.
How absurd it all is. ‘People’ expect to escape from suffering through empty promises of deliverance via more beliefs – all the while they ignore the clear and obvious.
Now, many hear or read this and agree on some ‘superficial level’. They ‘punish’ themselves with more concepts about unworthiness or whatever.
This immediacy of KNOWING is the KEY. It is not knowledge that frees the mind – knowledge only binds the intellect.
The essence of all knowledge is ‘knowing’. Whatever knowledge brings you to this naked ‘knowing’ is valid but in the instant of recognition, the knowledge has done its work and is thus useless – dead, the past.
The aspirants do not truly contemplate the actuality of: What you are seeking, you already ARE.
So what is this search about?
It is the mind looking for its own source – but it looks for that source in the concepts, names and forms that ‘appear’.
What you truly are is Clear and Immaculate Presence-Awareness.
Nothing obscures clear awareness. Everything IS Clear awareness.
Everything appears in THAT ‘as’ THAT.
So, the obvious thing to do is investigate what it is that seemingly obscures the view.
What darkness do you know of? What light do you know of?
Where do they appear?
Awareness is not a thing that is separate from other things.
It is ALL things in appearance and it is No Thing in its essence.
What is darkness without light?
What is light without darkness?
Recognition happens, no doubt about that.
Where does it occur?
‘We’ identify with everything as if these things were separate and independent ‘phenomena’. Are they not all ephemeral appearance?
All that can be done is to ‘point’ – point at something that has been overlooked repeatedly for decades. Yet, it cannot be seen. It is the SEEING.
The KING is not his clothing. The seamless garment (the body) is the universe.
The naked Presence is the Singular Essence, the signature of all things.
It is re-discovered as the ignorance lifts away. It ‘appears’ that there must be a keen interest – a heart felt investigation, before something can happen, in this regard. – YET, what you seek you already are.
The ‘place’ where seeing is happening is clear and empty.
You know this more than anything else – but it is ignored.
Why? Because ‘we’ attach importance to concepts.
‘We’ believe that the concepts are reality.
Remove the concepts and what is left?
You cannot say anything about what is left, because it is NON conceptual.
Posted by Fernando Rozas on 06.16.09 3:53 pm
Thanks for your reply.
Amazing.
The suffering is only APPARENT, and the sufferer too !
There is ONLY enlightenment, light, awareness… Wow ! (without words)
‘Un millón de gracias’, Areti, Gilbert and all of you !
Posted by Fernando Rozas on 06.17.09 11:14 am
Then, there is no difference between you (Gilbert) and me, because ‘you’ and ‘me’ are APPEARINGS in Awareness, in ONE.
But… ‘here’, very slowly, there is a growing conviction that there is no ‘me’… and ‘there’ (apparent Gilbert), that conviction of ‘no me’ is TOTAL. Is it so?
¿Is not that growing conviction, GRADUAL, i.e, involves ‘time’?
(I’m not sure I’m correctly expressing my doubt)
Greetings, Fernando
Posted by gilbert on 06.17.09 12:18 pm
What you are is what you are – THAT has never changed. What you ‘appear’ to be is always changing.
The growing conviction is an appearance of ‘growth’ due to the diminishing erroneous beliefs and the resulting confidence in knowing.
It is all appearing as mind content but the seeing-knowing is beyond the mind and is timeless.
Doubt is thought. Belief is due to non-investigation. Once investigation is happening, no matter how brief, the potency of it removes erroneous beliefs naturally. This brings conviction to continue to investigate. Obstacles fall away in the face of the investigation. Resistance is exposed as fixations, thoughts and beliefs – all of which are appearances in what you are. They are not necessary and they change their nature and are transformed.
One repeatedly finds oneself nakedly present, without beliefs – just abiding AS pure knowing. Names lose their holding power and are either useful or not.
It is the ‘me’ that needs support from beliefs. A ‘house of cards’.
Posted by gilbert on 06.18.09 3:29 pm
Billions of sperm are sent on a mission every second, on this Planet. Only one, now and then reaches its destination. The same with this message. Stoney ground and indifference is accounted for by the Intelligence ‘behind’ all this activity. There is no ‘entity’ doing anything. The miracle of LIFE is ever fresh, displayed in countless ways and our feeble intellect gets caught up in imaginary things. And this breath right now is taken without your ‘input’. LIFE takes care of it all – and the believed in ‘entity’ is the originator of nothing at all. Why suffer over an illusion? This does not mean that you do not take care of things or that you become complacent. Be the intelligence that you are. Do not indulge in the impotency game that many ‘non duality fans’ get into. ‘I am not the doer’ etc. As Nisargadatta says: “Be conscious of this consciousness – be extremely friendly with this consciousness”.
“It is the only ‘capital’ that you have”. Each one is unique – so no formula can serve all. You are a unique being as an expression of the One. Where you are actually seeing from is from the absolute nature of Oneness. The details are infinitely variable for each one of us. “One Essence expresses and appears as Everything”. Just As it IS.
As limited creatures we are all ground into dust. The Fire is inherently in the being-ness as warmth in the body. In spirit, be warm towards this consciousness, this being-ness.
This warmth is not of the realm of the me concept. This warmth towards ones own being-ness can transform the ‘me’ concept into a friend, a harmless friend.
The mind is NOT the enemy – it just needs to be understood.
Note: In the beginning of “The Mathnawi” by Jal Alu’ddin Rumi (3 Volumes translated by R. A. Nicholson – first published 1926) there is a short story about the reed and its song. (Check with a big City Library if you can’t find it) – It is a beautiful symbolic representation of the ‘seeker’, the ‘seeking’ and the sense of ‘separation’ from ‘the reed bed’ (source).
Posted by gilbert on 06.19.09 11:29 am
So it looks like everyone has gone on vacation. No questions, no doubts. Everyone is clear on this stuff now. Amazing. The downloads are happening stronger than ever, so it isn’t that no one is listening.
I see people come ‘a long way’ to attend a few meetings and sit in silence or talk philosophically. The ‘seeking’ activity needs to be seen and recognized for what it is.
There is no point in pretending that ‘I know’ and go on seeking. The habits of spiritual pretense need to be exposed clearly.
Many teachers don’t realize that all they offer is something to imitate, a spiritual self-image of a perfect being. Their imperfections are always hidden away from view.
The value of a meeting is to hear the message clearly in a ‘living’ situation and to ask questions and clear any doubts. The dynamic of it all is that no one knows what will be expressed. To address a ‘genuine question’, a heart felt question, there is a living dynamic possible. What is the point of not asking the questions that drive the seeking on and on?
Sitting there ‘pretending’ to be ‘awake’ or in a habitual state of ‘being present’ is quite useless. If the mind is truly quiet, then no problem – but if there is a churning going on in the mind, then get it out in the open – let’s see what it is made of.
Do not give in to any darkness of spirit. See and Know.
The mind translates by habit and uses the past as a guide. Yet this moment is ever fresh and has no past or future.
Know this intimately as best you can.
Warm regards – Gilbert.
Posted by Arthur on 06.19.09 12:05 pm
There’s no pretense of supposedly getting it. It’s just the seeming futility of asking additional questions…
It seems like what you’re talking about is the capacity of knowing. Awareness. Anything that comes up (belief, or what not) is a mind construct/thought and therefore not what is being pointed to. Depression is a feeling that’s experienced so again it’s not that. Happiness in “Wow I finally figured it all out” is a thought, possibly a feeling and not it either.
Is there really so-called non-conceptual “peace” or rest in this invisible ongoing life awareness presence? Anxiety and separation just continually arise over on this side of the internet. Then it’s like, well anxiety isn’t it — “what we’re talking about is what is aware of the anxiety.”
It seems like all the UGC pointing’s been exhausted and there’s only anxiety “not this!” [spanks wrist]. Again, you’re talking about the ever alive presence awareness unsullied by needless thought which can only exist within said awareness.
Anxiety and depression bite, Gilbert. You seriously have peace? Please forgive the mediocre intellect…
Posted by Vishal Chavan on 06.19.09 12:43 pm
Gilbert
Its really Amazing. That the one raises a question at one end and the one urges to answer itself. I mean I had the urge to drop a line here few mins ago and you at the same time dropped a message there. May be the play of universal mind or whatever you call it.
When love arises for all around and feels like hugging everything. Then what quality of the self is expressed?
Or is the self getting confidence of its own being through the body mind mechanism and then this happens?
Posted by gilbert on 06.19.09 1:23 pm
Anxiety and depression bite because of the belief in a separate ‘entity’. Whatever state, thought, image or imagination that may appear, if it has no reference point to catch on and perpetuate itself, then it moves on. Whatever appears, disappears – that is a ‘Law’, so to speak. Whatever value you give to any appearance, no matter what it is, it will disappear without a trace – that is a ‘Law’. What meaning does anything have unless you give it meaning? All these details about depression or anxiety having a ‘bite’ is only due to the belief that it is invested within THIS actuality – this living moment and yet the story is just a story. The actuality of it is that it is a story. Recognizing it happens from ‘outside’ of the story. The character cannot see or know anything at all.
Because there is a ‘feeling’ that hangs around after the thoughts have disappeared, that ‘feeling’ is fertile ground for associated thought patterns to arise again. The perpetuation of erroneous beliefs is the ‘story of me’. Ask “who is this happening to?”
This is why it is suggested, over and over, investigate this self center, this ‘me’ and SEE if it truly has any substance or independent nature of itself.
Taking a stance AS the ‘me’ will not bring anything fresh – it will go around and around the same old track adding more material to the story.
Realize that you are awareness. Knowingly expand this awareness to include everything that appears. The habit of belief in ‘me’ will naturally be seen, without any fixation on being a ‘seer’. No one can do it for you. These words won’t do it for you either.
They can only point.
The most intimate nature of ‘presence’ is right there (here) and the body and the world are appearing in THAT. You are THAT.
All words are empty.
The ‘knowing’ is also empty – so it penetrates everything, includes everything.
Attaching ones identity to anything that is seemingly ‘apart’ from the knowing is where the problem of separation enters.
Separation is a concept, an habitual belief – non investigation.
The ‘story of me’ is actually non investigation.
Who is it that owns the story?
Be simple and warm towards your own being-ness.
When Nisargadatta says “Be earnest” he is not talking to the habitual personality.
Posted by Ralph on 06.19.09 2:06 pm
“Anxiety and depression bite because of the belief in a separate ‘entity’. ”
- True but if anxiety and depression keep on biting then perhaps this quote might help:
“We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people. A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves. That is impossible. We can’t do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our excrement, our most undesirable parts. We have to see them. That is the foundation of warriorship, basically speaking. Whatever is there, we have to face it, we have to look at it, study it, work with it and practice meditation with it”.
- Chogyam Trungpa
….. I know this is not what you want to hear. The ego hates this kind of shit.
Posted by gilbert on 06.19.09 3:13 pm
Basically it is good advice, on the surface of things. Yet the simplicity is that the ‘me’ cannot see or know anything. So who is going to do what?
It is just words and images and the belief in them. There is only one seeing happening.
The story about a me that is seeing is just a story.
There is no embarrassment in the naked seeing. The psychology of believing in the ‘me’ is an embarrassment for whom? It is just more stories about the ‘me’.
Liberation from the belief in a separate ‘self’ through SEEING with NAKED awareness is the only way.
The ego does not hate anything. It is an idea and has no faculties of its own.
The ego does not exist. The more we talk about it, as if it were real, the more energy it gets as belief. A belief is NOT the ACTUAL.
In this actuality right now, SEEING is happening.
In this seeing a story appears, from habit, and ‘we’ take this story and the translation of the mind as being real.
Question it, look into it with this naked seeing.
It is so simple, everyone misses it.
Don’t take my word for it. SEE if you can find this ego that everyone talks about constantly. Buddhism is riddled with concepts about someone who has to do some practice. What practice are ‘you’ doing to SEE? Seeing is happening.
In the seeing a story appears. Question it and SEE if it is real. Simple.
The mind must be understood. There is no point in pretending to be knowledgeable on this. BE the KNOWING – without a concept to support a belief in being someone knowing something.
Posted by dan on 06.19.09 3:41 pm
Doesn’t matter how much you wriggle and rant around…… it ALWAYS leads you right back into that space of naked awareness. I think slowly it is realized that trying to be ‘anywhere’ else is futile. You’ve never moved anywhere.
Posted by Ralph on 06.19.09 5:58 pm
“Liberation from the belief in a separate ’self’ through SEEING with NAKED awareness is the only way”.
Yes , it is the only way but what if one still struggles with this and the seeing is not seen, then what ? what if your still stuck in ‘separation’ as real , then what ?
I suggest you then try what Chogyam Trungpa said in the quote above.
The ego (separate self) must be seen for what it truly is. That is the obstacle.
Posted by gilbert on 06.19.09 6:14 pm
“What if the seeing is not seen?” What kind of statement is that.
The ME cannot SEE. There is only ONE SEEING happening.
JESUS BLOODY CHRIST……….Why is it so difficult to get this through to you Ralph?
WHO is still struggling with WHAT?
THERE IS NO ONE in the SEEING.
It is NAKED seeing. NAKED awareness.
It seems that Ralph is full of sympathy for his own projected images of ‘others who are stuck’ – Buddhist type seekers. Buddhism is an – ISM. Buddha means awake. Buddhism means slavery to the 4 noble paths etc.
So many Buddhist statements are full of catches for the believed in entity. It just keeps the seeker bound into the search and some protracted practice – just like the millions of Buddhists who believe in some THING called Enlightenment and that it is going to take several thousand life times to get to it. What a ‘Mother’ of a concept – it gives birth to every other concept of someone in slavery to TIME.
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS is WHOLE – TIMELESS – INSTANTLY PRESENT.
NO concept will take you to it.
Drop ALL concepts and SEE in this IMMEDIACY that there is NO time….there is NO other way for things TO BE.
For sure contemplate upon your own crap if you want – but it will not free you, most likely it will drag you back into the shit pile – and isn’t it the belief in that crap that is already indulged in day after day – it is that that keeps you bound – a story.
Don’t meditate on the crap – SEE that it is NOT what you are – Simple.
The razor sharp edge of pure seeing cuts it all away. Don’t be afraid to BE what you ARE.
Who is offended by words? There is NO POINT in pretending to know anything. There is Knowing or there is not. There is no in between realm to knowing.
Be well Ralph. Relax. No one is being harmed.
Posted by Ralph on 06.19.09 6:52 pm
There is ONE SEEING happening. What is arising presently in the seeing is Gilbert getting upset because Ralph does not agree totally with what he says.
Relax man, so what !!
I’m just an appearance, right ?
.
Posted by Jacob ,Isle of wight. u.k on 06.19.09 7:29 pm
It’s been about 4 days of mind battering, the ability to pause thought and be with the space was there but the feelings, thoughts were not allowing it. It let off yesterday and the space became obvious again. It seems when the mind gets into these states the freedom of this space gets swallowed up and the way in seems blocked. love Jacob
Posted by gilbert on 06.19.09 7:51 pm
Jacob: HOW can any thing that appears in space possibly swallow space? Space-like awareness is where everything appears – openness and blockages alike.
In this presence of knowing, ideas arise that ‘awareness was blocked off’.
The ‘feeling and emotion’ that the thoughts attract are chemically supported in the body.
There are habits at play, long standing habits that mechanically operate like a switch.
One flick and off it goes.
In other words, in the heat of the drama there are chemicals running around the body, set off by the drama of it all. The believed in ‘me’ is highly associated by this mechanical activity. The ‘me’ is supported by this habit.
By association other thoughts arise and keep the drama going. If a full stop is applied and the body’s chemistry is allowed to settle down – the feelings subside.
The story of the wet piece of rope is a good example of this being caught.
The instant the ‘snake’ is seen to be only a wet piece of rope, there is an instant recognition and the worry dissipates. However the body has had an injection of chemical for flight. Those chemical will not just switch off. During this period of easement the associations of worry can bring up new unnecessary concerns.
Ralph, it isn’t about agreeing with anyone at all. It is a matter of SEEING what IS.
What effort do ‘you’ need to make to SEE?
None. So the problem is the insisting that there is someone there who will somehow do something and then the seeing will come.
SEEING is happening.
The insistence on being a ‘seer’ is the problem. You can twist yourself into all manner of yogic poses or twist your mind into a convoluted pretty pattern and it will make no difference. SEEING is happening. There is NO ‘seer’.
Posted by gilbert on 06.19.09 9:08 pm
When is this past time of not seeing happening?
When is a future time of deliverance happening?
In this ‘present knowing’ of right now, which is all there EVER IS, what meaning has this talk of ‘not seeing’ have?
Some teachers go on about the ‘Not Knowing’ as if it could be something rather special to attain. It is only the minds inability to name and translate that is called ‘not knowing’.
The mystery is unsolved. How is it known to be a mystery if there is no knowing of it?
The mind games that go on are endless.
Where do they appear?
They appear in the seeing.
There is nothing that you can postulate that does not appear in the seeing.
The postulation appears and disappears. Why hang your identity upon postulations and hear-say? Second hand information. All the while, what is clear and obvious is self-evident – immaculate – untouched by the dualistic pairs of the mind.
Non conceptual awareness is NOT a concept. The words only point.
Getting attached to the words is how the ever present self-illumination is seemingly lost.
But don’t get into that story or you will be off on another round of the merry go ride.
Seeing is happening. Full stop.
Posted by kale on 06.19.09 9:51 pm
Gilbert, a question comes up and it is seen as pointless…
Another one comes up and ditto….
Questions, thoughts, feelings race and subside…
A sense of going crazy is happening… in all honesty, it’s not fun at all…
Posted by Jacob ,Isle of wight. u.k on 06.19.09 10:08 pm
investigation of the me. standing at the cooker making scrambled egg for the kids,tastey! the me is there saying check me out im making this yummy stuff. is the investigation whos doing this, a thoght its me, where is this me apart from thoght and feeling, they cant actually be found as some solid finding invisable i guesse, the body is seen stiring the pot , a relating to it from beliefe happens and then to see just what is seeing. the body stiring this pot the smell, is this investigation G .x
Posted by Jacob ,Isle of wight. u.k on 06.19.09 10:24 pm
just eaten the kids leftovers . who tastes this food, lifts the fork to the mouth, runs down the stairs to write this message, x
Posted by gilbert on 06.20.09 12:17 am
EVERYTHING happens spontaneously. There is no ‘doer’.
Thoughts appear on consciousness. If you try to own them, they will drive you mad.
Let them appear and disappear. Some are useful in the functioning. Many are usually just noise. Smelling happens. Tasting happens. Thinking happens.
There is no entity that is smelling, tasting or thinking. The ‘thinker’, the ‘taster’, the ‘smeller’ are just thoughts, a story of ‘me’. The ‘me’ cannot smell, taste or think.
The thought ‘I am aware’ is not the awareness – it is the mind translating what is spontaneously happening.
The myopic view is like a horse with blinkers on. Expand the view. Recognize that the ‘thinker’ is just a thought.
I can promise you this: If the ‘thinker’ is seen as just a thought, then a great many other things fall into place.
Seeing it will be unexpected. I will be like catching a glimpse of your shadow unexpectedly.
Just be aware of this ‘pointer’. Absorb it. Don’t think about it. It is already innately known – it is simply not noticed.
Focusing on it will not help – you will catch a clear glimpse of it unexpectedly.
Then you will understand what is being pointed out. It won’t be forgotten once it is seen. It may seem like nonsense or fanciful philosophy – it is not.
The ‘me’ is resistance to ‘what is’.
What you truly are has no resistance to ‘what is’ – it IS what IS.
Posted by Jacob ,Isle of wight. u.k on 06.20.09 12:21 am
thanks man xx
Posted by Morgan on 06.20.09 3:03 am
It all comes down to – what is constant? That is what you are. All appearances are transitory and bound to fade. The “lines” that we imagine between things are only in thought. Look right now. Are things separate in consciousness or is consciousness and what appears within it one unbreakable whole? This is the case. Cease to believe in conceptual fabrications. Thought has NEVER described anything REAL, it’s just a system of symbols that attempts to describe the indescribable.
Posted by Morgan on 06.20.09 3:08 am
“It seems when the mind gets into these states the freedom of this space gets swallowed up and the way in seems blocked”
Hey Jacob, the space is what everything appears in – it never goes anywhere as there is nothing outside of or besides it. Look for what is constant, even in apparent turmoil. You ARE that.
Posted by Morgan on 06.20.09 3:12 am
No body, no mind, no world, no universe, only one, undivided perfect whole. Not a problem!
Posted by Ralph on 06.20.09 4:01 am
“What effort do ‘you’ need to make to SEE?”
- sometimes ‘effort’ is required to SEE that ‘effort’ is what stands in the way of true seeing.
“So the problem is the insisting that there is someone there who will somehow do something and then the seeing will come.”
- what needs to be done is the UNDOING of ‘someone there’ until it is no longer required.
…… by who? by the one who still believes in its identity as a ‘separate self’ .
and yes, it all comes down to ONE SEEING. There is NO ‘seer’. SEEING is happening.
Posted by suki on 06.20.09 7:17 am
Knowing ‘IS’ – the primary awareness on which everything else appears on.
But the appearance is never separate from the knowing!
All is well.
Thanks Gilbert and Areti and all at UGC.
Posted by dan on 06.20.09 8:27 am
…..and not a knowing of something (wordly knowledge). More rather a Knowingness, a Knowing Essence.
Words!
Posted by dan on 06.20.09 8:39 am
Gilbert says:
“It is only the minds inability to name and translate that is called ‘not knowing’.”
Don’t pass over this. If the belief in the separate entity is all-consuming then we live in the land of “I know this, I know this to be true, I know what this (object) is, I know how this works, etc.” However, the mind has NO power to know anything. It is really not known what anything is at all. We just don’t know. The funny thing is – we actually don’t ever NEED to know. It is not even necessary in the slightest. It has never actually been asked of you. It is already offered up on a plate in the form as: What Is. However, as long as the belief in “me” is king then we don’t know that we don’t know. The turning point is waking up and realizing sincerely and honestly that we KNOW that we don’t know. This takes the steam and juice out of the “me”-machine quite rapidly. It undermines that entity idea in a very clear cut manner.
It all points back to that essential unadorned Knowing. A Knowing without preferences and opinion. It is naked. Nothing clings to it.
Posted by gilbert on 06.20.09 11:12 am
The lines of belief are drawn in ‘time’ (mind) – they ‘appear on the edge’ of ‘presence’. They can’t exist in the clear light of ‘knowing’.
They all simply appear.
What you truly are does not appear.
You are No Thing.
The terminology we use is all in the appearance, an expression, whether it is Para-Atma, Absolute, Ultimate Reality, Christ Consciousness, or the great ‘Enlightenment’.
They are all words and designations and thre is no entity in any of it. Never was, never will be. It is all finger drawings on frosted glass.
‘We’ are convinced by ‘others’ that ‘we’ need to be delivered into a higher state of being.
The ONLY BEING is right now, just as it is.
The serving of those erroneous beliefs is the drawing of lines in the mind, lines that then need to be rubbed out, removed by the believed in ‘entity’ and it can’t ‘do’ anything – it is all ‘in time’. The timeless undoes everything – nothing ever happened in the manifestation. See that – know that.
What is offered here is simple. STOP drawing lines of belief and rest in this No Thing-ness.
The bondage of self is only made of beliefs. You made them, you support them all by inadvertence, distraction. It is all in the mind.
“Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know”. (quoting the hsin hsin ming)
Knowing that the ‘I’ doesn’t know any ‘thing’ and that it isn’t a thing with any substance of independence is enough.
Posted by gilbert on 06.20.09 12:55 pm
NOTE: You will notice a Virtual UGC link button on the bottom of the UGC logo – at the top of the site.
That takes you to the Urban Guru Cafe in Second Life, a virtual ‘place’ where ‘people’ can meet in cyber-space, whatever that is. Meetings will be held there. Once I sort of a decent internet connection, I may attend these proposed meetings. Randall is often there, so drop in and have a chat. To join the ‘group’ you need to download the software for S.L.
It is fairly easy if you are computer-savy. About 50 already drop in periodically.
You get a visual display of the 3D Cafe and you can move around using the keyboard. You have a virtual body image and you can walk and sit down. Having a headset with microphone may be a benefit. Once you get used to the ‘controls’, you can relax and join in the conversation. Enjoy.
Posted by Arthur on 06.20.09 6:05 pm
We can literally/factually lose our minds in this, right…?
What you’re saying is jibing with this increasingly occasional sense of loosening of some kind of encrusted thinking or something that’s awkwardly difficult to speak about.
Why am I afraid to be what I AM…? (Rhetorical question, supposedly.)
Posted by Jacob ,Isle of wight. u.k on 06.20.09 7:43 pm
Thanks Morgan for your touch on this, the mind is always dropping in to try to figure this out, useless, just leaves a knot in the gut. Love Jacob x full stop! as the boys say.
Editor: Explore the Knot in the guts. Go into it and find the ‘core’ of it. Don’t tell more stories about it – SEE what it truly is.
P.S. The space comes after the comma not before it. Capital letter at the front of a sentence and a full stop at the end. Saves me correcting it all.
Posted by gilbert on 06.20.09 7:44 pm
What mind is there to lose? Mind is just a label. It is the conflict between concepts that ’cause’ so mush tension. The ‘me’ is at the center of it all, a fictional reference point.
Remove the ’cause’ and what ‘effect’ can there be?
Go into this ‘I’ (or this knot in the guts), expand it and SEE what it is – SEE that what you are is not (that ‘knot’ or) that concept of ‘I’.
It is very simple. You are this pure seeing, unattached to any ‘thing’. Knowingly BE that.
It SEEMS that the old regime will not give up without a fight but once you penetrate the mind projection of its fortress – you find soldiers, no civilians and no one at all.
How can what you truly are be a threat to you, whether that ‘you’ is a fiction or not?
Surely there is joy in the resolution. The revolution is not necessary, except for the resistance that the ‘me’ puts up. It is just a habit of belief.
There is ONLY ONE awareness, ONE Being, ONE Presence – THAT is what you are.
‘We’ take ourselves to be this limited conceptual being and live in fear of being found out – by whom?
Your true nature is Cosmic. As one sage said last century: “You are the Infinite Being – then you take yourself to be a limited creature – then you create methods and practices to overcome these limitations. But HOW can these methods and practices free you – when they actually imply the limitation in the first instance”. (Paraphrased only)
Now the essence of that message is pointing to this immediacy of knowing.
Watch the mind and SEE. In seeing what it does from habit, you are freed from it – BECAUSE you know that you are NOT those mechanical appearances.
We must use the mind to reveal the mind for what it is.
Awareness is not limited by any mind.
Posted by Arthur on 06.20.09 8:57 pm
But there’s nothing to get, right…?
Mahalo, G.
Posted by gilbert on 06.21.09 12:26 am
Start from the fact that you are THAT……and see for yourself if there is anything to get.
There is no point in taking anyone’s word for it. No point in following someone else.
There is only one proof, beyond all doubt – and that is found in ‘your own’ direct and immediate experiencing. And it is prior to the mind claiming it as ‘mine’.
The best anyone can do is point you in the right direction.
Each one (of us) is unique as an expression of the One. That expression is in the appearance of things – seeming individuality. The Essence of each unique pattern of the expression is SINGULAR in ESSENCE.
There is no duality in Non Duality.
You are THAT.
The appearance of things still goes on – and maybe the pattern unfolds in more or less the same way. The difference is that there is conscious awareness of being conscious.
When the veil is not filled with belief, it is transparent. It still appears – it is just not believed to be reality any longer. Anger, suffering, pain and loss may still appear – but there is no longer any belief in the ‘entity’. So the anger may flare up and pass a lot quicker. The suffering may appear and disappear without leaving any residue.
Nothing sticks any longer. No longer does one lay awake at night, unable to sleep because the mind is churning of ‘old shit’ and ‘how is should be’….or ‘should have been’.
‘If only I had said such and such’ etc. One knows that there is no point in the churning mind.
Whatever it takes to shake things up, so a fresh view comes into play, is valid.
Sometimes one may appear as an arrogant pig or as a shit stirrer. Someone somewhere
gets a glimpse of their own mechanical attitudes. It happens. The conventional ways do not work for everyone. So many know the lingo inside out and the game goes on, the pretense goes on…about this ‘me’ who is ‘getting somewhere’.
There is no where to go, nothing to get, and no one to get it.
No one HAS it as a personal acquisition – that is just down right plain bullshit.
You are THAT – One without a second.
If you start anywhere else, it is conceptual, dualistic and bound into time and mind.
Posted by Jacob ,Isle of wight. u.k on 06.21.09 12:31 am
. ,thankS G you beauty x
Posted by dorothy hoffman on 06.21.09 12:58 am
Nothing sticks any longer. No longer does one lay awake at night, unable to sleep because the mind is churning of ‘old shit’ and ‘how is should be’….or ’should have been’.
So true…nothing sticks for long as there is no “point” to stick to. The reference point is recognized to be fluid…an appearance in this knowing presence…
“Anger, suffering, pain still appear…”
Thanks for making this clear.
however, a sense of fear still prevails…
Posted by Arthur on 06.21.09 1:19 am
You have your hands full now, huh…?
Posted by gilbert on 06.21.09 1:54 am
The only thing that dies is that which was born – the concept of being separate.
One without a second. One Essence expressing and appearing AS everything.
In the appearance all the diversity appears in an endless array of expressions.
The nature of the appearance is emptiness.
You do not have to look into the deepest recesses of your being to know this nature of emptiness. It is clear and obvious in this naked seeing (non conceptual seeing) – This is what you a seeing out of.
Can you truly tell me that you know nothing of this clear space of knowing – in which the body appears, the world appears – all the thoughts, sensations and ALL the appearances appear within?
As the essence of what you are – every experience, every sensation is registering upon that empty space of knowing. It has NO center and NO circumference.
The mind cannot grasp it and it cannot negate it.
That single factor is enough to know.
As the mind approaches this knowing, the mind vanishes and is absorbed into the knowing. KNOWING is all there is.
How can you truly say that you know nothing of this?
Posted by Ralph on 06.21.09 4:16 am
- All know the Way, but few actually walk it.
…… use the mind to know the mind to get beyond the mind .
Posted by gilbert on 06.21.09 8:10 am
Nothing in the manifestation has intelligence at all, without the life essence that forms it and suffuses it with life, this activity of ‘intelligence in action’.
Look at a butterfly in flight.
You cannot predict where it will fly with any accuracy. This magnificent creature is physically far less complex than a human being’s physical presence.
What do you understand about how your arm moves or your eye lids? The breathing?
The circulation of vital fluids? Do you control any of these vital life functions?
Arthur, Ralph, Gilbert can all appear to be brilliant or dull in the relativity of appearances.
Even the dullest ‘human being’ is a miracle beyond comprehension. Professor Einstein did not have the ability to think one thought, without that life essence. LIFE is One LIFE – undivided by time. The life that you are enjoying right now is the same life that is being enjoyed everywhere, in any time, eon or place.
All the functioning is happening spontaneously. Study Embryology and see how this miracle of life unfolds spontaneously, without some ‘entity’ choosing anything.
Around two and a half years old, the child consciousness develops ‘reason’ and language starts to take ‘shape’. ‘Me’ and ‘other than me’ are concepts that get filled with belief.
This sense of separation is conceptual. Reinforced year after year it takes on a mechanical nature and is not questioned. Some ‘lucky ones’ hear about this ‘message’ and some questioning starts happening. When the questioning is honed accurately and is directed at the ‘me’ concept, the intelligence that formed the body penetrates these erroneous beliefs and they are found to be transparent, mere beliefs, based on habit and non-investigation.
The whole ‘purpose’ of life is to re-discover your true nature.
Whether you do so or not is not up to ‘you’ and it actually does not matter one iota that you do. ‘Your’ anxiety about this is unnecessary and counter productive.
The ‘purpose’ of this website is to gently encourage the investigation.
There are no rule to this ‘purpose’.
‘We’ all have heard stories about those who have realized themselves and ‘we want it so badly. This wanting is the blockage that prevents this realization from expanding naturally in this moment. THIS MOMENT, ANY moment is the moment of self-realization JUST AS IT IS. A ‘spark’ of recognition is all it takes and the ‘whole bale of cotton’ will be consumed. All samskara (past impressions) are consumed as fuel for this ever-present self-realization.
The fuel in the Sun is ignited by the same Life force that is breathing you, is living you and is thinking you. ‘You’ as that believed in separate ‘entity’ don’t DO a thing. Never did. Never will.
It just takes one spark of true recognition, unexpected recognition. That is all.
Posted by gilbert on 06.21.09 8:24 am
Since this message hit home here, many years ago now, there has been a spontaneous activity of ‘sharing’ going on. The world at large does not want to know about this message. Resistance in gross forms arise consistently. Some ‘people’ get very ‘pissed off’ and some go to great lengths to try and shut me up.
It is all mechanical resistance – no one chooses to ignore their true nature.
It is mostly a thankless activity to share the message. Yet a growing number are actually finding a resonance in being – not for the few any longer.
The irony of so many being attracted to ‘teachers’ who teach useless methods and practice has lost its sting. Like a soldier clearing the rubble to uncover his lost comrades, the activity goes on, against all odds and against all resistance. Untouched is the true essence – nothing sticks to the immaculate clear presence of simple being. The light shines of itself.
Nothing can extinguish the flame.
Words are just words. What intelligence puts them into such an order?
What intelligence reads them and understands?
Posted by Jodi on 06.21.09 10:45 am
Gilbert – You have a wonderful gift of being able to put flesh and bones on the indescribable. Your words are definitely resonating here. Thank you so much.
Posted by Arthur on 06.21.09 1:14 pm
Dude, like Jacob, I just like you. Help us (and Dorothy), you clown. I would say help Dot first, maybe.
Matthew 9:12 (The Message)
12-13 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick?” – Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”
(Slow.)
Posted by gilbert on 06.21.09 5:40 pm
The medicine is inside you.
The cure is SEEING what IS.
You punish yourself over things that don’t exist. If you cannot accept this, then SEE for yourself. Look into the things that trouble you and expand them – don’t indulge yourself in them.
The poison that haunts you is belief. Examine these beliefs. They won’t go away by themselves – they continue to re-appear because you continue to believe in them.
Stop imagining things and projecting the idea of there being ‘problems out there’.
The natural state of life is health – otherwise it would have all ended up as a seething mess long ago.
The usual spiritual way is to pretend to be above trouble and in being a ‘sacred being’. It is bondage in an insidious fashion. ‘We’ all have seen examples of that ‘stuff’ in every spiritual group there is. There is nothing in this for me – we will probably never meet ‘in person’.
In the appearance of ‘things’, I put myself ‘out there’ every day – and I take the flack for it.
Nothing sticks. Yet, every now and then someone actually ‘clicks’ with the expressions or the pointers, however unconventional they are. The common old mind games are known quite intimately here- there is nothing new in them at all. The same old objection pop up over and over – like ducks in a shooting gallery.
No harm is ever truly done to anyone – but some feather sure get ruffled at times – including my own.
This is not religion. It is merely pointing. The resistance to the pointing is due to the ‘me’, the self-centered activities and its apparent momentum which is actually the entropy of it all.
If you have half a spine, stop this nonsense about mercy coming from ‘out there’ and have the courage to SEE what IS, this Actuality. Not what the mind is telling you from its moldy old habits. Drop the self-centered activity and take a good look at WHAT you ARE. There may never come another chance – so don’t throw it away on ‘personalized crap’.
To live with erroneous beliefs is a pathetic way to live – while the clear evidence is right in front of you. Stop being a stubborn mule and SEE.
This moment is actually clear and empty of all conceptual garbage, if only you can stop conceptualizing long enough to recognize that it is the background to all concepts, no matter what they are. Non conceptual awareness. Treading the old pathways of belief cannot release the ‘bondage of self’. Recognizing I am not those ‘things’ is essential.
One true spark of recognition is all it takes. Incline towards that and away from the endless mind game. Be genuine with yourself.
Your insults are wasted on me. Stop insulting the intelligence that you are and get down to tin tacks. NOW. It is the only time there IS.
Posted by Arthur on 06.22.09 5:30 am
Hey, thanks. Sorry for all the obnoxious comments, just wanted to see how you’d respond to them. Inane and childish, I know. I’ll stop now.
Happy Father’s Day, BTW. If you have children, what do they think of all this non-conceptual awareness business?
Seriously, thank you, Gilbert. In whatever way there is to “work on the above pointers” trust me, I will…
Thanks,
Art
Posted by Morgan on 06.22.09 6:54 am
Dorothy, the feeling of fear will pass and what you are will still be present. Anything can appear. It is resistance (the “me” idea) to what arises that prolongs it. It’s always only oneness appearing, no matter how it “looks”. Knowing this, there is love for EVERYTHING that arises which is oneness.
Ralph – There is no mind, there is nothing besides being, NOTHING.
Posted by Ralph on 06.22.09 10:16 am
The fear will pass but it will return until it is dealt with. Most were born in childhood.
- Same shit different day.
See if these fears that keep reappearing are true. The problem is that we take these fears as the truth of who we are. Do you have the courage to stay in its presence and see if they are true ?
Posted by Ralph on 06.22.09 10:28 am
I’m afraid for most, “One true spark of recognition is all it takes” is not enough.
It may require many sparks before the fire can truly burn.
Posted by gilbert on 06.22.09 11:50 am
Where is the problem? It is all conceptualizing…….and belief in the concepts. You say…..”I’m afraid for most……” Stop projecting YOUR fears onto ‘others’ and get to the bottom of it…..NOW.
All this stuff about your concerns for ‘others’ is just delay tactics.
You are at the Gates of either Heaven or Hell……and you are concerned……because you don’t know which Gate this one is. No point in asking a Priest…..Hell is full of them. No point in asking an Angel, they are dreamers and Hell is full of those too.
Heaven and Hell are both conceptual designations in a dualistic mind – and mind is just a concept. They are concepts.
Knowing is beyond all these designated ‘things’ – obviously beyond all concepts. Don’t get caught on any of the metaphors – they are all concepts. One may be useful for one and a trap for another. It is the activity of POINTING that is useful……the resonance in being rises up….however faint it may be……there is a response….it is life….livingness……not merely a concept appearing.
“The only thing that lives in ‘matter’ is spirit – the only thing that dies in ‘spirit’ is matter” quoting a Sufi ‘master’ from 18/1900′s.
Examples of the ‘trap’ are:
“What do you think of this non conceptual business?” Asks Ralph……and he asks it possibly quite seriously. Is Ralph serious or is he simply a brilliant intellectual setting a psychological trap for Gilbert? After all Gilbert goes on and on about all this stuff every day it seems and uses concepts endlessly.
Okay, who cares? Look at the question Ralph. Thinking is conceptualizing.
“What do you think about non conceptual awareness?” can only be another concept appearing spontaneously in this clear space of knowing. Even so a concept can POINT back at THAT – draw the attention back to THAT – which is non conceptual awareness.
As the title of the Dzogchen ‘teaching’ is translated: The Great Perfection is Non Conceptual Awareness.
Can you SEE what is being pointed at? No. You can’t see it.
It is the SEEING – clear and empty – non conceptual – presence-awareness – just that and nothing other than THAT.
Not THIS (the particular) – it is all THAT (Equanimity).
Posted by gilbert on 06.22.09 1:50 pm
Note: We talk about the ‘mind’ as if it were something with some substance. There is no ‘mind’ – the mind is a label we give to the collective appearance of thoughts, ideas, images and memory. It is merely a useful term but just like any concept, it can seemingly bind us into ‘something’ that is actually nothing.
In addition, if you consider that you may (like many ‘seekers’) have been fed a lot of concepts by various ‘teachers’ and ‘experts’ and very few of those concepts have ever been questioned – there is some obvious ‘value’ in shaking up the whole box of tricks – like a ‘shock’ can bring about a fresh evaluation of one’s life.
It is all appearances of course. Forget about ‘others’. Some ‘old ideas’ may be blocking the view and to shake them up and out of the way brings a fresh view, even if only for a moment. Getting a fresh glimpse can be ‘life changing’.
This is why I say that anything that brings about a fresh view or a vivid recognition of our true nature is valid. No taboos to it.
The ‘spiritual teachers’ usually play a clean role and their reputation depends on it. Not giving two hoots about one’s reputation leaves one free to express whatever is needed to be expressed. Nothing sticks. The bonus for me is that ‘my space’ is not cluttered up with dreamy eyed devotees wanting darshan or some fictional transmission from me. And we don’t need another glorified guru anyway – the world is already full of those useless parasites.
Amazing how words can stir up a non existent mind, isn’t it.
But what about the program? Few make comments about the program.
Our next program will stir things up for sure.
P.S. The free e-book “Without a reference point” on my website has been replaced with an all black text format. Some found the colored text unreadable, so I have changed it to all black. Those who wish can download it and delete the previous one before saving this new one.
Posted by Ralph on 06.22.09 4:19 pm
Gilbert, I’m setting no traps, just telling it from my experience and it appears that ‘others’ are no different from ‘me’, including ‘yourself’.
I have no problem with your ‘direct pointing’ but I do have a problem when you refuse to acknowledge other ways of expression that point to the same place you are pointing to but no worries, that’s my problem, right ?
“What stands in the way of true SEEING ?” is also a concept that can POINT back to THAT.
… sometimes, but not always, it appears that when you speak it comes across as ‘the World according to Gllbert’ even though you claim that it is not Gilbert doing the speaking, it just flows out of you.
The bottom line and what I am trying to get across is this ONE PRESENCE being expressed in many different ways.
That’s all.
P.S. This is not a personal attack. Just expressing how it it seen over here.
Posted by Mike in SF on 06.22.09 6:34 pm
Looking forward to the next program Gilbert/Areti, keep up the good work.
Posted by gilbert on 06.22.09 7:24 pm
The pointing is to beyond the mind. Beyond all concepts. You can’t ‘think’ the beyond – thinking about it may happen but it is all of the mind….not beyond the mind.
So many teaching point straight back to the mind stuff for an answer. To point the ‘seeker’ back into mind stuff is not useful – useful for whom? one may ask – and so it goes round and round. The world according to Ralph or Gilbert is simply relativity. Biased opinions may form into groups, religious beliefs and all manner of things. None of it truly helps – in fact many go to great lengths to harm others who disagree with them. All in the appearance of things.
Belief is the problem. There are those who believe that the horror camps from World War ll did not exist. The soldiers who discovered these camps after the war in Europe was over, they experienced directly those camps and the horror that was in them. For them, there was no question of belief – except maybe they could hardly believe that anyone could do such a thing – even after their own experiences of the terror of war. The point I am making is that your own direct experiencing is not based on beliefs. Belief can enter via the minds translation but the immediate experiencing is not a belief.
Living in denial of what is clear and obvious is common. It is not necessary.
By being open to one’s own immediate experiencing, it may well reveal that all these concepts about ‘me’ simply appear and disappear. That is highly informative.
That is central to what we are on about here. Those who get tangled in ‘the Gilbert drama’ miss the point. It amuses me somewhat but the opposite, the ‘serious side’ of things is never far away. Being caught in the middle is not the ease of being.
As I say often: There is no point in pretending to one’s self that they understand.
There is either understanding or not. If there is confusion, then look into what is it that is confusing without taking sides. Expand it, examine it and discover the reference point ‘me’ and so discover what it is for yourself – someone else’s knowledge is useless – it is just belief.
It is all very simple, yet so much resistance comes up. Why? You need to know why there is resistance. Erroneous Belief is released by knowing.
Belief is not knowing. Knowing the difference between thought and knowing changes life from a turmoil of ‘personal drama’ into an ease of being with what is.
If that appeals to you, then don’t follow what the old habitual ideas tell you, follow what resonates in your being.
Posted by Jeremy on 06.22.09 9:47 pm
Excellent program per usual. Funny that people bitch about it. Everyone knows the old saying about teaching a man to fish vs giving him a fish. Stop bitching about what Gilbert does and listen very closely to the programs. Almost every single program on offer has in itself all the information you could ever need to learn to fish and never go hungry again. When life is being lived without doubt, everything is perplexedly OK. Thanks to the UGC team.
Posted by gilbert on 06.23.09 11:57 am
Efforts are spontaneously made, without friction, to bring you fresh programs – just to give that ‘penny’ a nudge. Waiting for the penny to drop is agony. Everything is actually in free fall already. The fixation is the reference point called ‘me’. The true nature of all phenomena is emptiness. So as the fixation dissolves into equanimity with all phenomena, so the suffering individual is resolved.
The separate ‘entity’ cannot SEE – being a ‘thing’ it thinks it sees things.
Everything is No Thing.
As Nisargadatta so beautifully put it: “When I see that I am nothing, that is wisdom – when I see that I am everything, that is love – and my life moves between these two.”
Our next program will touch upon this ‘pointer’ – yet in a very different way to what has been presented here, so far.
Controversial, Innovative, Entertaining and Informative. The incentive plows the field.
But you have to tend to your own garden and pull out the weeds yourself.
The UGC delivers.
Posted by Randall Friend on 06.23.09 1:42 pm
It’s no longer a penny. Due to inflation and loss of the dollar’s value on the world market, we must now refer to it as the “quarter dropping”. Ha!
Some seekers gladly discard many thousands of “pennies” for a taste of THAT which is already present…
BY WHAT is the search being conducted? How do you know you exist? By what light does the “I”-thought appear?
We invest everything, including identification and what we believe we are, in something that comes and goes. We hang our hats on the impermanent, trying to gather up as much information and pointers and wisdom as we can, in hopes that we might, by some grace, accidentally fall into the correct arrangement, to then be bathed in the light of enlightenment. We are waiting for some “state” or special experience to come, to validate our conceptual understanding, to save us from ourselves, to rescue us from suffering.
Basically, we don’t like the shit and we want out. Enlightenment is our way out of the shit. That is quite a farce.
What we’re seeking is already present. If one second is spend waiting on some “state” or experience to come, waiting will last forever. We’re looking FOR our true nature as some objective experience when the very ground of all experience is closer than your face, simpler than simple, so obvious that it’s overlooked.
Right this very instant, you are looking FROM your true nature. THAT is what is being pointed out.
The eyes cannot see the eyes. You cannot find yourself. You can only know that you ARE. You are pure and simple, everyday, ordinary awareness/being/knowing. And there isn’t anything else to it. Why continue to discard this? Just BE as you ARE.
THIS, right here and now, is all there ever is. And YOU are the very basis for THIS. You ARE this very moment, this unchanging, unmodified, unaltered, unaffected presence of being/awareness. Just THIS and nothing else.
Posted by Morgan on 06.23.09 1:49 pm
Everything is perfect as is. `
Posted by Jodi on 06.25.09 4:36 am
Beautiful expression Randall. Thank you.
Posted by gilbert on 06.26.09 11:31 am
Basically, every expression is THAT. All inclusive. All expressions are vibrations, a movement of energy. That movement takes place within space. It is space that is untouched by the movement of things. Things are patterns of energy. The pattern, all patterns, have no independent existence. The causal link between all seemingly separate ‘things’ is a conceptual construction. It is the minds way of adding meaning.
The capacity of reason is a useful tool. When it turns upon itself, when it slides into self-destructive mode, judgment and criticism there is suffering. For whom?
For the believed in ‘entity’, an idea of ‘who I am’.
Take the meaning out of it all and what is it?
‘We’ takes sides with philosophical view points as if it can solve the ‘problem’ of identity.
What you are, you already are. No idea can add anything to that. No idea can take anything away from that. What we witness is a mind game of cat and mouse.
Knowing remains untouched.
Posted by Michael S on 07.22.09 7:31 am
I read that Nisargadatta could only speak Marathi… is this him speaking english?
Posted by gilbert on 07.26.09 1:58 am
No it is not Maharaj speaking English. The translators were there to translate whatever Maharaj said into English for the many visitors who came each day.
For anyone who reads the various books on Nisargadatta, there is a little known one called “Gleaning from Nisargadatta” which is composed of clear notes taken down by Mark West in 1976-77. The book is very clear and carries the weight of Maharaj’s message.
You can find a link for this book on http://www.markwestsite.com Order the book from there, if it interests you.
Posted by manunamasivayam on 04.23.10 10:44 pm
A non-commercial site exclusively for the articles related to Nisargadatta Maharaj. Books, Photos, Videos, and others.
http://nisargadatta.co.cc/
Manu Namasivayam
Posted by Ronna on 05.18.10 11:21 am
So great to re-listen to these, thanks again.