Discovering what you truly are
Posted on 07.31.10 8:48AM under Robert Wolfe
Robert Wolfe chats basically about living without the constrictions of an identified state of mind. His books can be seen at his website by clicking HERE.
Music includes: Angus and Julia Stone (Australian), The Swell Season, Olivia Newton-John (Australian), Cat Stevens, Pink Floyd, Jorge Drexler, Al Otro Del Rio from The Motorcycle Diaries and Coldplay.
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Posted by gilbert on 07.31.10 6:38 pm
Many folks live in isolated places with little chance of going to a meeting where clear pointing is happening. The Urban Guru Cafe spreads the word like the broadcaster of seeds, in the Bible. Some seeds fall on barren ground, some on fertile soil. What is important is the making of these programs as freely accessible items of clear expressions. We do not limit it to one teacher or one voice. We have sifted through many voices ‘out there’ for those that have a clear resonance of truth. We have presented many voices here, without the overlay of some overbearing personality or guru that is so common in teachings today. Also the presenter or interviewer is low key, not hogging the scene, like many presenters on this subject. It is not about any personalities, none whatsoever.
Robert is one voice amongst many. If you have not listened to all the programs here on the site, we encourage you to listen to those that resonate with you, listen as often as you can. Little insights happen and ‘something’ sinks in and a response comes naturally.
A mish-mash of teachings is not a good thing but you will find that most programs here are pointing in different ways to the same basic No Thing. Enjoy.
Posted by max on 08.01.10 1:42 am
Thank you, Robert.
I appreciate your acknowledgment of the individuated experience while clearly pointing to source of that activity.
Posted by Scarfox on 08.02.10 1:59 pm
Do not think that an interlude of blank or veil of nescience will supervene after the cessation of thoughts. For, there is no such factor as a blank or veil of nescience. It is simply a figment of the imagination.
Posted by Randall Friend on 08.03.10 11:15 am
Instead of gathering all sorts of pointers and then trying to make some awful nonduality soup out of it, trying to force-fit the universe into some superglued ball of Oneness, get one point clear. Stay with this point until you can answer with confidence.
Are you the mind/thoughts, or are you that which is aware or knows thoughts? Can you describe thoughts? Can you tell me what your thoughts were 5 minutes ago?
The answer is likely yes. If that is so, then you are obviously beyond thought – prior to thought – does that which knows thought come and go with thought? If so how can you survive to know the next thought? In fact that which knows thought is there, ready for the next thought. Is it not so?
So that which knows thought – is it a thing? Is it another thing in your experience? If so, what knows that thing? Something must be prior still to know that also. At some point you stop looking for it to be some “thing” because it just isn’t some “thing” – it is formless – not there objectively – it is empty of “thingness”. Yet it is there – YOU are there.
The present activity of knowing. The present opening or capacity in which all “things” appear and dissolve. That never changes. It never appears. It just IS.
It is YOU.
Posted by Tim on 08.03.10 11:01 pm
A longest time ago, back before recorded history, a man discovered the truth of his being and was immediately surrounded by people searching for answers. How’d he “do” it? What was his trick? What does he see? What should they do? What should they believe?
He tried to point out that they are already that, that what they were seeking was already present and alive in them, AS them, that there was nothing to do and no one to do it. But they couldn’t except that. They kept demanding that he give them something to “do”; they kept badgering and badgering and badgering and questioning and questioning and questioning until finally he was all “F..k! – Just- just sit down, and shut up!”
And that’s how meditation was born.
Posted by fernando on 08.06.10 6:12 am
SEEING that the ‘me’ is only a concept is IT. As was pointed quite clearly in the previous program, there is no one that sees that there is no ‘me’. Everything appears in the SEEING. There is ONLY ONE seeing happening. The ME can’t see at all. It is just an idea, a thought. How can a thought SEE?
The problem is a repeating one. The ‘you’ that is believed in keeps asserting itself as being the ‘knower’ or the ‘seer’ etc.
If it is truly seen or recognized, without a concept of being a seer, that the ‘me’ is an appearance, then that cuts through it all. (Cheese or no cheese)
This CANNOT be contrived by the mind – and the mind cannot SEE. The body cannot see. A dead body has no ability to see or hear, taste or touch.
What is it that animates the body? LIFE. That life essence is what you are.
But the habit of going with what the mind translates and then projects out onto ‘the world’ (inner or outer world) is the sense of separation. It is ALL in the mind.
Awareness contains the mind. Mind is a concept attributed to awareness. There is NO MIND apart from the appearances of thoughts, concepts, memories and states or moods.
Where is the confusion? It is nothing but conflict between thoughts and held onto ideas etc. The one who claims these is a fiction. SEE that in the immediacy of its arising and don’t buy into it. The confusion will dissipate naturally. The pointers are NEVER addressed to a ‘person’. It is the natural intelligence that sees, hears, tastes etc.
What the mind translates from these impressions is ONLY images, appearance. They have NO substance and their ground is emptiness. See that.
It is only the mind that starts adding conditions and a story again – that is where the confusion re-enters. SEE it for what it is.
You can’t see through someone else’s eyes and you can’t just accept ‘beautiful pointers’.
If ‘you’ are dazzled by the beauty of some ‘pointer’ then the pointer has been missed – it has been taken up by the mind.
A ‘pointer’ cuts through the mind stuff and renders that mind stuff passive.
There is an unbound OPEN SPACIOUS ‘quality’ about ‘the mind’ or awareness when a pointer actually works. It is NOT a THINKING about anything.
(…)
(Posted by gilbert on 03.06.09 9:24 am)
Posted by fernando on 08.09.10 2:04 am
Even confusion appears in the SEEING.
Confusion is a conflict between points of reference.
SEEING is not a point of reference. It has no locality.
ALL points of reference APPEARS in NO point of reference, which is SEEING.
Posted by gilbert on 08.10.10 12:35 am
Of course everything appears in the seeing. The confusion ‘appears’ to cloud the clear insight into the nature of presence-awareness (seeing).
The mind is dualistic. Thought cannot see. Conflicting thoughts (opposing reference points) bring dis-ease in the body via feelings and emotions (reactions).
Posted by Randall Friend on 08.10.10 2:31 pm
There is literally nothing standing in the way of recognizing this right this very instant. You see a world and take it to be separate. It is in taking it as such which seems to obscure and make it difficult. The answer isn’t in somehow forcing the world into a conceptual model of Oneness, or in blindly accepting spiritual pointers as Truth, but in allowing the possibility, truly allowing the possibility for just a moment, that the world is not outside of yourself.
Without that trust or openness, your pre-existing assumptions are as hard as a rock – impenetrable. They will unfailingly and automatically assert themselves without you even noticing.
Be open to the possibility, no matter how absurd it may seem, and watch the mind as it always jumps in to lay a framework of beliefs around you, creating the world just as you like it, comfortably, without anything unknown to destabilize you.
It is this comfortable conceptual platform which the mind will defend at all costs. Shake it up. Watch the mind squirm. Find a pointer which resonates and let it be a splinter in your mind. Let it fester. Reality will always be there – only it may not be as it seemed.
Things are never as they appear. Embrace that instead of ignoring it.
Posted by anatta on 08.11.10 1:28 am
The “ripples on the surface of the lake of being” are seen and then labeled by arising thoughts. One ripple is called “Frank”, another is called “cat” and so on. Thought imagines that it describes reality but it is only the surface appearance that is menitoned.
Without the “lake”, there would be no surface ripples. Without being/awareness, there would be no appearance. The lake is one and whole and not apart from the ripples. Only thought says otherwise – this is also part of the ripples and is only the infinite playing the game of limitation.
Posted by Jan Madsen on 08.13.10 5:48 am
Just the title of Robert Wolfe’s book Living Non-duality is a great pointer in and of itself, isn’t it? It occurred to me that in the same way Maharaj’s great classic I Am That is the title of the book and a summation of what is contained between the covers. Doesn’t Bob say just start with that and be serious about it and that should be sufficient. What I got from the person, and it needn’t be from a person, by the way, who pointed me to This, which was the most useful to me in my own un-folding was simply….apply!!! This is not complicated, everything is revealed already! Simply apply it to your ordinary everyday life. Reality is completely ordinary, after all! That is where the non-duality rubber meets the road isn’t it, in a car with your wife in a big traffic jam, in the middle of an economic shutdown in the middle of War. This podcast as well as many of the others, and the satsangs and churches and all the rest abound with profound simple wisdom. It is really all, ONE, not even that, too complicated, lets just say not-two and leave it at that. Ignore the thoughts and apply. By the way simple doesn’t alway mean easy. Thank you Gilbert and Robert and all of the rest for these simple useful pointers.
Posted by Sandy Jones on 08.14.10 1:54 am
Yes, yes, thank you Jan– this is the key to this–Understanding “non-duality” is not worth much unless you take it for a spin, test it, live it, act on it, put it to practice right here in our daily lives– apply!
As you know, my favorite teacher is William Samuel, he was the ‘way shower’ for me, he had a tone and delivery with the words that just made my heart sing. I recognized something honest and real in his message.
He is very much about “applying” it.
Now these years later, having applied my understanding to everyday life, now there is this abiding center, a balance within, Grace, Something tender and pure, beautiful, reliable and powerful that guides my way, leads me aright, tells me honest and true–
Yes, apply It, yes, absolutley, and its always ‘correct’ when we do, it never fails—
Anyway, since Jan mentioned this rubber to road, everyday stuff, I wanted to add my enthusiastic agreement; So true, without the application of ‘what we understand’ we will never know for our self the ‘healing’ power this is. If we don’t test it, prove it is so, see for our self how it ‘works’– then we won’t experience the evidence, the fruits, we won’t know “what marvels are in store for us” nor will we know the Joy and Wonder and Delight and Peace that happens all around, everywhere.
So, I thought you might enjoy reading a few examples of “how to apply it”
See them here:
http://www.williamsamuel.com/08-09-09-sd-liars.htm
Sandy
Posted by Ronna on 08.14.10 3:11 am
There is no one to apply this or anything. Beliefs, practices, applications are mind and body. Who would be doing the applying? There is nothing needed, you are already, always THAT
Posted by Ekhmm on 08.14.10 4:04 am
Hallo there, i’m still “seeking”. Could u please tell me if being and feeling are much closer to oneness than thinking? Am i right? I think that there have to be some conditions to do investigation, once i am deeply grounded in the body, feelings, then i can be aware of space and only then trying to investigate te me idea isn’t just piece of dead, mechanical method, then i feel like can look at or maybe turn around and wonder what this me that i think i am really is. Yeah, two weeks ago i had this expirience but i stopped the investiation beacuse of fear what would happen if i see “the advaita”.
Posted by confused on 08.14.10 4:50 am
Ronna – In the appearance of things there is certainly a person who can apply beliefs, knowledge and practices. In my experience it certainly appears as though I have free will, and so I act accordingly. I will continue to do so until my experience proves otherwise. I personally do not agree with the school of thought that there is nothing to do and no one to do it. This may be of some benefit to you, but I feel it holds little practical value. (yes, for so called “people”) Yes, everything is already perfect, whole and complete. However, those who come to this site and delve into this spirtuality obviously do not experience this completeness. It takes incessant investigation, determination and honesty to see through the erroneous beliefs that cloud our experience.
Posted by Ronna on 08.14.10 5:14 am
Appearances are not REALITY. You are not an appearance. There is no answer in the mind or the body. There is nothing to agree with. There is only wholeness and you are THAT
Posted by anatta on 08.14.10 5:53 am
Ekhmm, every sensation, thought, feeling, perception arises in the open field of awareness and owes it’s appearance to it. The “body”, “mind” and “feelings” are only fickle appearances – your true nature won’t be found by studying or trying to control these “things”. Look at what is always present in your experience.
Don’t be afraid of “the Advaita”, non-duality as it is what is real RIGHT NOW and there has never been anything apart from oneness. You don’t need to be determined, sincere, commited or anything else to BE WHAT YOU ARE. Advaita isn’t about gaining something that you lack – it is about seeing what you already have and cannot loose. It’s about seeing what you really are, free from false, thought-based identities. You are timeless being and for that reality there are no questions or problems.
The idea of the seeker and separation will fade as all thoughts do, leaving only crystal clear sentience, that which is expressed as “I AM”.
Posted by Sandy Jones on 08.14.10 7:37 am
Yes, one can apply the Truth; Or we certainly should if don’t.
I am saying exactly what you said “There is nothing needed” and “You are already That”– That is the Truth–Yes, we got that— so when, for example, someone steals something from us, we can find the Truth of this situation, we can put to ‘practice’ the deeper understanding that says ‘things’ are ‘nothing real’ but only images within Awareness and “That Which Is needs nothing” therefore nothing ‘real’ was stolen, only images being images. And no one can ‘own’ something and no one can‘steal’ something from Awareness, Awareness is Not depleted in any way. “There is more where that came from” we shout in JOY and Wonder! We step out of the ‘personal ownership’ and we SEE and BE the Light of Truth in the ‘seeming’ challenge.
We put the Truth “to practice” in many ways; when we do no take offense by what some ‘else’ says, or does, we ‘apply’ the Truth by recognizing our deeper nature, and so without judgment we stand as This Awareness which is being all images, knowing I Am This, and everything is an aspect of My Being, One Self Here—and since there is ‘no me’ and Awareness cannot be harmed, and there is no other self here but God’s Self Awareness, then, if we really see it, we do not fight with the situation, or the thief, or whatever else ‘disturbs’ the ‘old belief of me’.
Knowing the Truth is putting to practice the Truth that “What Is Real” is perfect and doing just fine as always–This ‘knowing’ brings a calm and sense of Peace and that sweet sigh of relief—we let it go.
For me this abiding Peace that I can ‘return to’ is my saving Grace. If it seems like ‘stuff’ wants to rock my boat–This Peace is Here and It is like ‘the stored up treasures in heaven that neither moth nor rust can destroy’. That turning around, or rising up, that “seeing the Truth” is putting it to the test, taking it out to see how She takes the curves at high speed, see if It is Real.
When we are first ‘learning’ the Truth we do have to ‘practice’ with every situation that come along–and they do, we cannot stop them coming. We can only learn to Understand ‘what they are there for’.
Everything in our life is either going to be seen as an affront to ‘me’ or I am going have to acknowledge the Truth and really Live that ‘there is no me’ ‘Awareness needs nothing’ or with what ever words you use.
For me the words were “God is All there is”–But I had to really ‘do it’–let God Be All and let go all my ‘me stuff’ —and it “worked” everytime, and still does.
I know my words do not sound “non-dual” but this is how I say it.
So, yes, we are to put it to the test, all the time, all the time—that is what this world experience if ‘here for’ to “Prove Me(Life,Oneness,Allness of God)Now Here With”.
Now, here in my later years, there are still those times when I must ‘back up’ and say “whoa boy!” that ain’t where I wanna go—I Am Staying Here in The Light Truth and so be it.
We put it to ‘the test’ when we maintain an unshakable equanimity in the knowledge that Eternal Allness being the Identity-I-am is the Value,the One and only Real Value. We joy in the simplicity of Allness’s all. That takes ‘the doing’ as long as we are in this world-time-space-body then, it seems to me, we are to learn from the ‘divine challenges’ that seem.
And the Joy and Wonder is that by putting it to practice we are not drawn into an attack on what others say, or a defense of what we say. We see directly with honesty that the Truth stands Here as This Presence of simplicity, tenderness and an unjudging love–This is how we apply It, and it makes the Heart sing and does astounding things within our experience.
Posted by fernando on 08.14.10 12:08 pm
‘Applying’ implies TWO (‘applier’ and ‘applied’)
and there isn’t even one (there is no one ‘there’).
Where ‘you’ are seeing from, NOTHING is happening (to no one).
End of drama.
Posted by max on 08.14.10 2:18 pm
Yes, but if you were abiding in that space exclusively it would not be possible for you to comment here, the fact that you did is proof of TWO in the appearance. You are a singular point of consciousness with a unique view that allows the I AM to taste and experience this existence through separation, its undeniable and not a bad thing. I do not understand the rejection of that particular play of consciousness given the claim “all is one”.
Posted by Tim on 08.14.10 3:56 pm
Oh, thank God, it’s the Advaita police! Keep fighting the good fight, y’all; duality never sleeps!
Posted by fernando on 08.14.10 4:18 pm
There is no one that ‘abides exclusively’ in that ‘space’.
Multiplicity is ONLY in the APPEARANCE.
Reality is ONE. Appearance is ONE too.
Mind (thought, words) seemingly divides this ONE Appearance into ‘multiplicity’ (me, you, others, things etc etc… )
There is only ONE Seeing. ‘You’ are not seeing from a ‘singular point of consciousness’. There is no one that sees from ‘some where’. Seeing is from ‘no where’.
Posted by fernando on 08.14.10 11:13 pm
Correction (in the last paragraph):
There is only ONE Seeing. ‘You’ are not seeing from a ‘singular point of consciousness’. There is no one that sees from ‘any where’. Seeing is from ‘no where’.
End of correction.
Every ‘where’ APPEARS in ‘no where’.
Posted by anatta on 08.15.10 1:10 am
Thought describes multiplicity and a doer but when one’s direct experience is looked at, there is simply one field of awareness that encompasses all appearances within. The idea of “me” and others “not me” is just a thought that arises and dissolves without any personal involvement. In the presence or absence of this idea, I AM.
Posted by Jan Madsen on 08.15.10 3:56 am
Until a mirage is seen, it is a lake. Once it is seen all of the platitudes are true.
Posted by confused on 08.15.10 7:24 am
Ponder this: Isn’t this “me” who “can look at or maybe turn around and wonder what this me that i think i am really is” just another concept? Look closely at your experience and notice that the “me” who is looking is itself no different from the concept it is apparently investigating. They are one in the same. See, there appears to be a concept called “me” that holds itself above and beyond all other concepts. It claims to be thinking, or having, the other ideas. This is false. It is an idea just like any other. It has absolutely no control but the belief in it as your true identity is what perpetuates suffering. Look again at your experience. What is it that tells you you have not yet reached your goal, have not yet become enlightened? Is it “you”, or is just a thought, the same upon examination as a thought about your neighbor? Both are thoughts, yet neither can, in actuality, divide what IS. You are what IS…what never changes…awareness/seeing. This awareness/seeing registers and knows all of these thoughts and ideas; the ones about “me”, the ones about “her”, the ones about “next year”. It knows them all, equally and without bias. Start from this fact of awareness/seeing and continue to investigate. Look honestly and openly. Good to see you still around, take care Ekhmm.
Posted by nour on 08.16.10 12:03 am
Too many words to say IT because the mind wants or seeks to understand everything even the Understandable
Why are we worrying about That, it is ITS wonder anyway, it is ITS job
where is the problem for Paul or John or Nour who wants to realise NoThing
The practice is to be convinced that YOU are THAT.
Posted by max on 08.16.10 2:44 am
Practice to realize No thing? WHAT?!
Posted by max on 08.16.10 4:10 am
I am just a humble seeker, but that smells even here from my plateau
Posted by anatta on 08.16.10 5:15 am
Agreed Max – there is no practice necessary or possible to be what you are. The thought story of limitation tells us that we must do something to escape separation and become oneness but there has only ever been that. The idea of a separate me that can or can’t do anything is only a passing image arising in eternally present unfettered being.
Posted by Ekhmm on 08.16.10 5:56 am
Can u tell me what happens if someone offends u or is agressive? Do u feel any emotional reaction about it? Do u connect this with yourself? Or what is happenning in such situations? Do other people see somehow that u “see the truth”.
Posted by fernando on 08.16.10 7:12 am
‘Dis-ease in mind and body’ – suffering – is the (apparent) problem.
‘Apparent’ because what you really are NEVER had a problem.
Disease in mind and body happens only when a ‘me’ story is playing in the ‘head’.
What’s left when ‘you’ drop the meaning of the words (of the apparent ‘me’ story)?
Sensations, only sensations… that happen to no one, isn’t it?
Posted by billtys on 08.16.10 9:26 am
Are you thoughts…or do you know thoughts…
Are you the body…or do you know the body…
Are you the tree…or do you know the tree…
Surely it is the latter in each case.
That seeing or knowing is not an object, it has no attributes, no qualities, no location, no thing the mind can define. That seeing or knowing is always seeing and knowing…it is pure indefinable seeing…never an object…never able to be seen like thoughts, body, tree…because it is that which is seeing…it is pure subjectivity…it is you…
Can you separate that seeing or knowing from thoughts, body, tree?
No…
Reality is what is happening right now…
Appearances in awareness…yet inseparable.
Posted by gilbert on 08.16.10 9:38 am
The mind is time.
The believed in entity is just an non-investigated habit of belief.
That belief appears to want confirmation from outside about what is going on. No one can give you the answer……and any answer will be ADDED to the story of me…..however subtle the explanation may be, it will just be an addition. This ‘point’ I am speaking about is missed by just about everyone, even teachers appear to not know the subtle qualities of pure knowing and the mechanics of what is appearing to happen. Everything is Clear and Obvious – right NOW, just as it is.
All that can be done is to point you in the right direction. Since ‘you’ have been looking in the wrong direction for ‘so long’ there is a resistance to the direct and obvious. It is not noticed because the mind (mind is time) or what we might call the movement which comes out of emptiness and appears as body, the world and all the apparent states is dynamic……and it appears to grab the attention……and the clarity of seeing-knowing is engaged……the spaciousness is missed.
Space itself is an appearance. Everything is an appearance.
The eye cannot see the eye.
Bring the seeing back so that the eyes, the body and the whole appearance is included AS the appearance. Then ask yourself where the seeing is actually happening.
Do this and include in that seeing, every notion or point of view that the mind ‘comes up with’. Keep doing this and it cannot fail…..the mind will come to a standstill. It will be exhausted and empty. The natural cognition is always empty.
Naked awareness. Space-like awareness.
There is a subtle bliss – expansive and Cosmic in its nature.
No one to claim it.
The insight is that it has always been so. And since there is no time other than now. You KNOW in that moment that you are THAT.
How could you ever go back into erroneous beliefs?
The past is dead and gone.
Posted by billtys on 08.16.10 10:42 am
We can only know anything through a conceptual framework.
If one asks the question “How am I awareness?” one immediately begins to try to squeeze some sort of identity into that word “awareness”. It’s spacious, its open, etc.
The concept of awareness can only be seen from the point of view of a knower of this concept.
But on deeper investigation the knower is just an object like all other objects… like a thought or body or tree…it is included in this seemingly independent appearance…
What knows this appearance…what knows this appearing hard world which includes the knower and the known…
Is that not the indefinable, undeniable You?
Posted by Ronna on 08.16.10 2:58 pm
You can imagine the concept ‘you’ applying the concept ‘truth’ but this is not TRUTH. THUTH is what you ARE.
Posted by Ronna on 08.16.10 3:22 pm
TRUTH is what you ARE
Posted by nour on 08.16.10 11:47 pm
I think that we are here in this forum, to help each other to awaken to our true nature
Maharshi spoke about the enquiry “who am I” and this is a practice
Nisargadatta said he has heard from his teacher to abide as the I am and this is a practice
If every John, Paul, Mohamed in this UGC is speaking as a jnani, l leave you in your peacefull communion of jnanis
Posted by fernando on 08.17.10 1:36 am
You THINK there are ‘jnanis’ and ‘ignorant people’.
What happen if you don’t think about it? Where are the ‘jnanis’ and the ‘ignorant ones’ without labels?
You only have CONCEPTS about ‘jnanis’ and ‘ignorant people’.
WHO is pretending?
Sailor Bob says: ‘Start from the fact that you are THAT’.
‘From the point of view of a jnani, there is only ONE’, says Nisargadatta (I’m paraphrasing). Nisargadatta says too: ‘Be what you are and stop pretending to be what you are NOT’.
A ‘seeker’ will NEVER find, because a ‘seeker’ pretends to be what he is NOT… an ‘ignorant one’.
Posted by Jan Madsen on 08.17.10 2:48 am
The Universal and the individual
Are circling the same sun
And even the fire in the heart of the sun
Is kindled by the invisible light
In which everything is being shined
Posted by nour on 08.17.10 6:28 am
I understand that you like swimming in an ocean of words, you see words, you hear words, you smell words, you touch words, you feel words What is real for you? For me the answer is not a word and I continue to practice
Posted by anatta on 08.17.10 7:00 am
Hello Nour. It seems the bottom line of what all of the speakers on this site are saying is that there is nothing to achieve and no one to achieve it. All there is is unbroken wholeness. Advaita Vedanta adherents refer to this singular reality as Brahman. Of course no one here is the final word on this subject. If there is practice of some sort, then there is. If there is a seeing of the self image as false, then it is so.
Seeking arises the moment that there is belief in oneself as a separate individual and it ends when it is seen that such a thing never existed. There are no Jnanis apart from seekers – all such ideas are the projections of thought that don’t refer to actual distinctions.
Right now, whoever and wherever we think we are, there is only the absolute freedom of boundless and timeless being. Within this, there appear images and a thought story that pretends to narrate what is seen. When these concepts are mistaken for reality, there is suffering and a feeling of great drama. When it is seen that they are just thoughts arising in clear awareness there is natural, easy peace. No one “owns” this peace – it is what we are, beneath the often turbulent surface appearance.
Quoting from “The Crest Jewel of Discrimination” by Shankara:
“Both bondage and liberation are fictions of ignorance. They are not in the Atman. The Atman is infinite, without parts, beyond action. It is serene, stainless, pure. How can one imagine duality in Brahman, which is entire like the ether, without a second, the supreme reality?
There is neither birth nor death, neither bound nor aspiring soul, neither liberated soul nor seeker after liberation – this is the ultimate and absolute truth.”
Posted by max on 08.17.10 7:20 am
Nour
I did not intend to disparage your practice, it has its place.
It is just not logical to create something (a practicing you) to find nothing.