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Look in the mirror....

"Look in the mirror.

What's there
is not you,
but an image projected
by the ego.
Like a movie.

Know that,
apply it to
your whole life,
and things will begin
to look different.
Very different.

Better."

Perfect, brilliant stillness....

“Next time when you go to a movie, stop when you leave the theater and think about what you have just seen. When you start to describe the movie, I would ask you to stop. The movie may be what you saw, but it is not what was there. You were in the movie theater for some two hours, and for almost the entire time you were staring steadily at the screen in front of the theater; yet if I asked you to describe that screen to me, you might look at me blankly. Because of the beams of colored light that were projected at the screen the entire time, you did not see the screen, even though it was there and you were looking at it. There were no “real” people or landscapes or events up there on the screen, although you probably got caught up in the story and the emotion of the movie as if it were real; that’s what you go to movies for, and if you spent any time during the movie thinking, “this isn’t real”, it probably wasn’t a very good movie. The projection of light onto the screen caused the appearance of people and places and events that looked real and evoked mental and emotional responses in you; but all the time you never saw the screen, which is what you were actually staring at for two hours and without which the projected light would not have fallen on anything and you would not have been able to see the movie either. “You” and “me” are the movie”.

Nothing but an idea....

“From the perspective of the infinite it is obvious that the individual self absolutely does not exist. The idea that we have a self that controls, arbitrates, or is the doer behind our actions, is absurd. The individual self is nothing but an idea of who we are. Ideas are ideas, and nothing more”.

Awakening from a dream.....

“What we are talking about is not a special state to be reached.
Not something that some individuals have and others don't.
It's more like awakening from a dream, and realising, with crystal clarity,
that it was only ever a dream.
It's like being a newborn baby again. Present. Open. Uncontaminated.
Seeing with fresh eyes. Seeing for the first time.
It's not an intellectual understanding. It's not contained in words or systems of thought.
It's your True Nature.
And you don't need to do anything to see your True Nature,
because you already are It. Fully.

Still, seeking for It may happen.
And for the dream character, all that apparently needs to happen,
is for the seeking to end, once and for all.
And to the dream character, spiritual teachings may appear to be helpful.
Until the seeking ends, that is, and the dream teachings dissolve,
and with great Laughter, and great Lightness,
the dream character dissolves with them.
And then it's all over, and there is only ever THIS, and nobody to know it.”

Emptiness....

"....There is no one left over to believe anything. There is no personality left. Therefore, how can you believe something? To believe, there has to be a believer and an object to believe. When you have transcended the personality, when there is no "I" thought, when there is no "you", you become all-pervading. You become the total reality, omnipresent. Consequently, where is there room for God? There is no room for God when you are all pervading. You are omnipresent. You are the absolute reality, the pure awareness.
Only again when you are a personality, when you are a body, can you say: "I believe in God, I believe in this, I believe in that, I don't believe in this, I don't believe in that. You have that option as long as there is a personality.
When there is no personality, when there is no "I" thought, when there is no body, there is only space. Space is the absolute awareness. This is your true nature. This is what you really are".

Stopping thoughts...

“See the subtlety here? You said that you stop the thoughts by mentally saying to yourself that 'you don't want that thought'. But what is it that is saying 'I don't want that thought', just another thought of course! You are the Awareness which is prior to ALL thoughts, even those which are trying to stop other thoughts.

The thing is that thoughts are not alive, they are not THE reality. When we were little children and we had unpleasant dreams which upset us, our parents let us know that dreams aren't real, and because they aren't real there is no reason to be upset or scared by them.
Well, the equivalent lesson for an adult is that thoughts are not real, they have no life of their own, they are not the real you... so there is no reason to be overly affected by them either.”

Perfect brilliant stillness...

“...and I find that I am not who I thought I was;
what I have called “myself” is nothing, is an idea, is an accretion of memories, attributes patterns thoughts inheritances habits ideas which I can look at and say: not I, I am not this; as myself I simply am not; no self, no me has ever existed – illusion, fabrication.
There is nothing happening, nobody here, there is only One breathing; That is what I – is; I Am That, And That is All.”

Whose...?

"Your problems are not the problem
The problem is the one who wants to get rid of them".

What is it like...?

What is it like to live an awakened life?

“While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone around you is engaged in the same, you’re not. While everybody around you is trying to figure it out, trying to arrive, trying to “get there,” trying to be worthy, you’re not. While everyone thinks that awakening is a grand, noble, halo-enshrouded thing, for you it’s not. While everybody is running from this life right now, in this moment, to try to get there, you’re not. Where everybody has an argument with somebody else, mostly everybody else, starting with themselves, you don’t. Where everybody is so sure that happiness will come when something is different than it is now, you know that it won’t. When everybody else is looking to achieve the perfect state and hold on to it, you’re not.

When everybody around you has a whole host of ideas and beliefs about a whole variety of things, you don’t. Everyone on the path is getting there; you haven’t gotten anywhere. Everyone is climbing the mountain; you’re selling hiking boots and picks at the foot in the hope that if they climb it and come back down, they may be too exhausted to do it again. When everybody else is looking to the next book, to the next teacher, to the next guru to be told what’s real, to be given the secret key to an awakened life, you’re not. You don’t have a key because there’s not a lock to put it in.

When you’re living what you are in an awakened way, being simply what you’ve always been, you’re actually very simple. You basically sit around wondering what all the fuss is about.

When everyone is sitting around saying, “I hope that happens to me,” you remember when you did that. You remember that you didn’t find a solution to that. You remember that the whole idea that there was a problem created all of that.

When you’re being what you are, when you’re living the awakened life, there’s nobody to forgive, because there’s no resentment held, no matter what.
When you’re living in the awakened way, in the awakened being that you are, you’re alone, and you’re finally comfortable with it. You’re alone, but you’re not lonely at all, because the only one who was ever supposed to meet you where you are—the only one who ever could meet you where you are one hundred percent—was you. Nobody else could ever fully meet you where you are—maybe ninety percent, maybe ninety-five. Nobody can meet you fully but you. When you finally do, then you don’t need anybody else to do it for you. Then you’re alone, more alone than you could ever imagine. And strangely—very strangely—you are more connected, more intimate, more at one with everything. More. And you would have never thought that those two could in any way be together: total aloneness and total oneness. You would have never guessed that that’s the way it would end up. But it does, and it always has.

And finally, when you’re just living in the awakened way that you really are, you’ll never form an image again of what it’s like. Even as it’s happening, you won’t form an image because you’ll know they’re all images, dust. The way it was yesterday won’t be the way it is today.”

None other than...

“What has been sought all along is found to be none other than this which is the seeking. The ultimate goal or prize turns out to be what already is. There is nothing and no one to find. There is awareness with no one being aware. All along you have been the butt of your own cosmic joke. The magnificence of all appearances, everywhere you look and seek is simply your own play or dream of being. There is nothing and no one and yet there is awareness whereby everything appears, including this appearance as an ordinary man or woman. You are, and always have been, completely awake, aware and present, but merely mesmerized by your own cosmic play”.

Ego process...

“If you come to understand the ego process and see how it functions in you and all of those around you, you will be far closer to awakening than by merely going to some teacher who may or may not know what is true. Not only that, you will become far freer in your day to day living. All your relationships will be understood more clearly. You will understand when things fall apart what the basic cause is. Every day becomes many lessons on what is not real, what causes you to suffer, what keeps you from letting go and truly loving the people and animals and all of life”.

U.G.

"We have been brainwashed for centuries by holy men that we must control our thoughts.Without thinking, you would become a corpse.Without thinking, the holy men wouldn't have any means of telling us to control our thoughts. They would go broke. They have become rich telling others to control their thoughts".

U.G.

"The so-called self-realization is the discovery for yourself and by yourself that there is no self to discover".

U.G.

"There is no need to understand anything. It just dawns on you. Stop thinking and start living".

Enlightenment...

“Among human beings it is said that any individual human being can attain enlightenment. Now, within the context in which it is said, this is undoubtedly true. However, it tells you absolutely nothing about enlightenment –because enlightenment means precisely: the impossibility of the existence of any individual human being.”

Dreaming..........

"Chuang Tzu dreamt that he was a butterfly.
When he woke up, he was very confused.
“ Am I a human being”, he thought, “who was dreaming that he was a butterfly?
Or am I a butterfly, that is dreaming that he’s a human being”?

What is enlightenment?

"What is enlightenment, no, I mean really, like what is it?
Many friends and family have been after me for some time to write about my experience and understanding of this topic. I have hesitated to write about it not because enlightenment itself is so hard to describe, but because enlightenment tends to make one quite lazy. Before my change I was a busy beaver, reading and writing and playing music and sports and really actively getting out there. But after “the change” as I call it, there was a clear vision of how silly all this activity was and how much incredible effort is required to perform it.
But before I get ahead of myself let me lay out one basic fact, I am awake. I woke up about a year ago. I know what I am, what I have always been and what it is impossible to stop being. Some call this enlightenment or ultimate truth, unity consciousness, infinite mind and so on. But all those names don’t tell the non-awake what it is. Even I calling it "the change” is not really accurate because nothing really changed, yet paradoxically, huge change took place. In simple terms I was once Steve living his life but now I am the experience of Steve living his life. It is a shift in perspective. Before this perspective shift occurred I had practiced about three years of medium intensity meditation consisting of some breath watching, a little mantra repetition and some light self inquiry Ramana Maharshi style. These techniques were coupled with an intense desire to find and know the truth. I read everything on enlightenment I could get my hands on.
After about three years of this I had my first experience of “nonduality” as it is called. I had just read a passage in Ken Wilber’s “The Spectrum of Consciousness” where he points out that ordinary awareness is ultimate awareness. This struck a chord in me, I set the book down and stared at a paper that was sitting on the table in front of me, after about a minute or two an exciting and frightening thing happened, I disappeared! By that I mean the middle fell right out of the equation. Normally there would be Steve over here looking at the paper on the desk over there, now there was only the experience, "paper" but no Steve over here seeing it. It was clear that the middle that normally separated the paper from Steve did not really exist, there was only the experience, "paper."
Now let me try to make this more clear by giving an illustration.
Imagine as clearly as you can that you enter a large house that you have never been in before. You feel strange and kind of scared, there is furniture and drapes but no people. You wander around feeling the creepiness of being alone in this big house. You go from room to room not knowing what you will find. You start to get nervous and a little fearful being alone in this big house. You wonder how long it has been empty like this. In time the sense of the bigness and emptiness of the house starts to weigh heavily on your nerves. Finally, when you can not stand it any longer a shocking realization occurs to you, your not there either! Only the experience, "house" exists.

This is how nonduality feels and is the real truth of existence. Remember the question, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Now you know the answer.

You see, with enlightenment comes the knowledge that even though there is much activity in the world, there are no doers. The universe is in a sense, lifeless. There is no one, only happenings and the experience of happenings. Enlightenment reveals that the universe emerges spontaneously. It’s emergence and pattern are perfect in mathematics and symmetry and involve no chance. Nothing is random, everything emerges exactly as it has to. There is no random chance, or evolution based on chance. The universe is perfect, nothing is wrong or could be. There seems to be chance or unpredictability from a human perspective but that is only because our time frame reference can not see the universe emerge through its whole life span in a matter of minutes. If we could see that, then we would clearly see how every event was not only perfect and necessary but even predictable.

Now lets summarize so far, the universe is perfect, no one exists, yet the experience "universe" persists. How can this be? Consciousness. Consciousness is aware. If it were not, then there would be no universe. The very nature of existence implies consciousness. One can not exist without the other.

There can never be a universe that does not involve consciousness. There are no universes or dimensions where there is no consciousness. Matter and form would never arise without consciousness. Universe/Consciousness, Mind/Matter, Wave/Particle, call it what you will, the reality is that the manifestation, the very appearance we call the universe, is consciousness.

Now don't mistake me here, there is no observer. There are no persons in existence experiencing the universe, but more than that there is no Ultimate Person, God, Mind, or anything else observing the universe. There is only the experience of the universe being there with no experiencer.

This seems like a paradox but who cares, this is the way it is. Experience "is," that is all, that is the way the universe is, an experience by no one. The universe spontaneously arises out of consciousness yet at the same time is itself consciousness. We must lose the idea of matter being observed by something we call consciousness, that is not true. Some teachers talk of the Witness, the ultimate passive mind that observes all things moment to moment. This implies some level of separation, a witness over here watching the universe over there. It's not like this, there is only the experience, universe. There is no observer. Even if there were no manifestation the feeling would be the same. Once again let me make this clear: consciousness is not aware "of" the universe, consciousness is aware "as" the universe.

Now don't mistake that last sentence. Don't think, "Oh yeah Steve, I get it now, consciousness is not aware of the universe from a vantage point separate from it, like a disembodied soul, consciousness is instead aware of the universe as one of the billions of beings in it, like man, or dog, or fish." No! Such thoughts are false. When I say consciousness is aware "as" the universe I mean the very act of existence is consciousness. A carrot is itself consciousness, is itself awareness. There is not carrot aware of itself as carrot nor disembodied invisible consciousness aware of carrot as carrot, there is only the experience "carrot" and that is consciousness and that is enlightenment. There is no observer.

Let's talk now about how this fits in with human life. All people who do not know what's going on believe that they are the people that they are, an individual with thoughts and desires and hopes and dreams, a body and a house, a wife and a child. The list goes on but you get it.

Now the truth. Even though the above is happening, it is an automatic machine like emergence out of Universe/Consciousness and is following a strict nonchance pattern. More importantly, no one is performing any of the above and Universe/Consciousness is what is going on.

To make it more clear, stuff is happening but no one is doing it. Emergence proceeds and consciousness is aware. The unawake person, the person that doesn’t know what's going on believes that they are acting, that the human them exists. The reality is, the body exists, the thoughts exist, the memories exist and that is consciousness and that is all.

Someone might say consciousness has temporarily mistaken it’s experience of the body and the body’s memories as a person. But even though that answer may seem to explain the why, really there is no mistake at all. Universe/Consciousness has never been confused. The person can fall away at any moment restoring the original state of matter and consciousness which has never actually been obscured. This happened to me, but in that happening nothing was lost because there never was a me to lose, only a confusion to correct that never existed.

Knowing this, I mean really knowing this, not intellectually, but as a direct experience of everyday life is enlightenment. Now once this is known it is impossible to go back. Once you have drawn the curtain and seen who Oz really is you can’t cover him back up and pretend not to know the truth.

So how do we proceed once we know? We let experience manifest unmolested. As has been said, “The universe is perfect, intervene at your peril.” The enlightened person never acts. This is the riddle of karma solved, there is no karma, never was, never could be. There is no reincarnation, how could there be? Who is there to reincarnate? There are no persons, there is no birth or death, there is ultimately nothing except Manifestation/Awareness.

99.999% of the spiritual books and teachers out there are completely wrong. They are wrong for one simple reason, they are not enlightened, they don’t know what's going on. So in order to keep the illusion of personality, of the idea that there is something or someone, they invent stories, or theories, or ideas, wear special clothes, perform certain rituals and so on. They teach this stuff. But the truth is so simple, it is laughable.

Now let me make a clear distinction on one point, mystical experience is not enlightenment. You may have mystical experience, see God, get abducted by aliens, receive messages from an angel, contact your spirit guides, the list could go on. But always and forever, no matter what is going on the truth is, every experience, mystical or ordinary is a happening of Universe/Consciousness.

If I could teach the world a lesson it would be, no matter what you experience always remind yourself, “There is no experiencer, there is no observer.” If you do this long enough and often enough you will one day know what's going on. When that day comes you will realize nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. It is a feeling and a knowing. An inescapable falling away of untruth. If you think you know it then you don’t. When you know it, you do. And when you do know it, no one can take it away from you.

Some points to clear up. When I said the enlightened person never acts I did not mean such people sit in a cave and die of starvation and exposure. I mean the body can be quite active and manifest all manner of good and bad behavior, the mind can be racing with thoughts and feelings, but consciousness, now enlightened, knows no one is acting. It is only the universe blossoming forth spontaneously and perfectly.

As consciousness you are more aware of the feelings of the body, physically and emotionally. You don’t feel these things but you are aware of them because there is no division between them and consciousness. The Universe and Consciousness are equivalent, remember the formula, U=C. Also the thing we call personality or ego does not totally vanish. It can remain intact along with the body. It behaves and interacts and changes over time like any person would but the enlightened one knows they are not that ego.

Some schools emphasize the destruction of the ego as the only means of liberation. All that is really required is the realization that you are not that ego. That the ego really doesn’t exist, is an illusion of sorts that can be left to it’s own designs. It’s not really there, but it appears to be there and that is just fine, don’t worry. If the ego begins to fade that's ok. Remember, there is no experiencer.

Let me talk briefly about practice. Meditation and book study are useful and can ripen an individual towards awakening, but the most important thing is to change your perspective. You must learn to see what is really going on. Understand, in reality everyone is enlightened, but not everyone knows how to perceive this. The reason is, enlightenment is so natural, so obvious, that from birth we have become accustomed to ignoring it in preference to anything else that manifests. Meditation can train you to still the mind and gain concentration but it will not give you enlightenment. A radical shift in perspective must occur, the habitual focus of your awareness and your way of perceiving must be changed.

Study of books will not get you there, you need a shock. The easiest way I know is for an enlightened person to talk you into this perspective shift. The best books I have read were the ones that talked you into enlightenment. Feeling experiments such as the house scenario above are good to help evoke the feeling of enlightenment. Feel what it is like to not be there. The real breakthrough will come when you “feel” the truth.

It’s creepy, not blissful or ecstatic. It should scare you, the body should react defensively, or there could be uncontrolled laughter at how stupid you have been for so long. It’s like one of those 3D dot pictures, you stare and stare at those dots until bingo the picture emerges! After that, you can always see it, you can’t unlearn it. The same with enlightenment.

Basically any practice that can shock you into seeing what is really going on is acceptable. But understand, you want to know what's really going on, to feel it, to contact reality. It shouldn’t take long, a few years at most, less for some. If a practice or a teacher tells you it will take 10 or 20 years, find a new practice or teacher. Remember you are your own salvation, ultimately it is you who will wake you up. Any method that can shock you into seeing what is really going on is acceptable but the perspective shift must occur.

Let me try to bring some clarity to the subject of enlightenment and morality. It has been said that enlightenment produces compassion and love and that many enlightened ones forgo release into Nirvana and reincarnate again and again until all souls have obtained enlightenment, the Bodhisattva vow and such. None of this is enlightenment. Enlightenment is not about morality or vows, it is simply existence in the truth, that is all.

Enlightenment carries no requirements and expects nothing, the universe manifests and just that is enlightenment. We don't seek enlightenment to be happy or to give our lives meaning or to feel bliss or ecstasy. Loyalty to a flag is not enlightenment, love is not enlightenment, hate is not enlightenment. If you see these as the fruit of enlightenment then you are wrong. Instead each of these are enlightenment themselves. Each of these are spontaneous emergences out of and as consciousness. Action, feeling, creation, performance, love, hate, murder, salvation, compassion, each is enlightenment itself. There is no doer, no experiencer, only manifestation. This is the truth, this is enlightenment.

I want you to understand that while nothing ultimately changes, in human terms much change takes place. This happens because once you recognize what's going on the main motivations of life begin to drop away. The level of dropping away is no doubt unique to the individual but is directly proportional to how much you desire to resolve into reality. What I mean is that it is possible to be enlightened and still try to retain a level of unconsciousness in order to interact in human affairs. As time passes this state will be harder to maintain.

It is similar to suspending your belief when watching a movie. You pretend to believe the reality of what is going on. You cry with the characters, you laugh with them, you hope with them etc. You do this for the entertainment, to get your moneys worth. This is the way real life is with enlightenment. You know there really is no one. You know that it is just a display, a machine like emergence out of and as consciousness. Yet you must believe it at some level or you will simply lose the ability to interact in the world.

I can see why some enlightened ones have isolated themselves or become hermits. For the last year this has been an issue I personally have struggled with. How to know the truth and continue to interact with the world as if you believe it? You basically have to employ a little Orwellian 1984 doublethink. You have to pretend to believe while always knowing the truth. Some things are unavoidable of course, I was an avid reader but now can barely open up a book. I loved and played the guitar for years but now have zero interest in picking one up. Even writing these few words is a colossal effort. The reason is that deliberate effort is an affront to reality where nothing is deliberate, everything is spontaneous, and nothing at all is going on.

Don't mistake me here, I have not invented a rule of behavior where I have decided I must act less because to do otherwise would be an affront to reality, rather the natural outcome of enlightenment is less and less action, less and less thought. This is a natural development within the enlightened person. Eventually all action will be spontaneous and the person will not be acting.

Of course to say this is not ultimately true, because in reality no one ever acts. But from the human vantage point this is how it plays out. Memory is also a tricky thing, the memories of your life are still there and can be jogged into awareness but as time progresses and enlightenment begins to dissolve you, your access to them becomes more difficult. Your awareness becomes centered in the events of the present as they manifest, this is natural since these are the only events that actually exist. The person and the ego are simply dissolving. They don't really exist but the illusion that they do becomes less a part of awareness. You don't remember and you don't care.

Let me make a point about Zen breath watching. Most people just don't get it and most Zen schools don't make it any easier for students to get it. There are all kinds of books on Zen meditation, catalogs where you can buy all the cool silk clothes, cushions, gongs, incense and a host of other aids to Zen breath watching. But once you have all that stuff and finally sit your butt down, close your eyes and start watching your breath what exactly are you doing? Why are you doing that? I ask people this all the time and really piss them off, "Why do you meditate? What are you trying to accomplish? Why do you watch your breath?" I have never met anyone that has given me the correct answer.

The reason they don't know is because they are not enlightened. If they were, then they might not even meditate anymore, or they might, it would make no difference. You see, the simple truth that is missed by almost every meditator is this, the act of sitting there watching your breath is enlightenment. That is all. You are not doing something to gain something, just sitting there is enlightenment. That still state with calmed mind, just that is enlightenment, yet that annoying gossip over there interrupting your meditation, just that is enlightenment and that guy flipping you off in commuter traffic, just that is enlightenment. There is no doer, no experiencer, no one who acts. Manifestation emerges, actless, mindless and just that is enlightenment.

People meditate today because it is popular or because they want to have a mystical experience or just relax. The latter reason may actually be the most legitimate for the average person. But no one I know says they meditate because they are deliberately engaging in an actless act, or attempting to resolve a false sense of being into a beingless existence. And of the many meditators out there, I suspect that the majority would be shocked if I told them the guy flipping them off in traffic is more enlightened than they.

The point I'm trying to make and have been trying to make is that enlightenment is so natural and so easy that any attempt at deliberate practice towards it will get you farther from it, yet paradoxically, you have never once not been enlightened and no matter how strained and deliberate your efforts towards it, you never once acted!

So in closing, Enlightenment can be talked about, it can be understood, it is not mysterious nor does it need to be cloaked in a secret "Boy's Only" club language. Enlightenment is the feeling/knowing that no one exists including you and that everything that happens does so spontaneously and perfectly. Enlightenment is the feeling/knowing that what exists is Universe/Consciousness, they are the same, U=C. Existence is itself consciousness and that is why there is something rather than nothing. This is the real state of things and because it is so natural, so simple and so obvious, we miss it daily".

by Steven Norquist

U.G.

"To be yourself is very easy, you don't have to do a thing. No effort is necessary. You don't have to exercise your will, you don't have to do anything to be yourself. But to be something other than what you are, you have to do a lot of things".

U.G.

"You forget that everything you have around you is the creation of thought. You are yourself born out of thought, otherwise you would not be here at all. In that sense thought has a tremendous value, yet it is the very thing that will destroy you".

And then........

"One day the realization comes that within the entire fabric of your being there is no I at all. There never has been an I. There is no coordinator. There is no thinker.
You discover there are thoughts, but no thinker. There are actions, but no actor. There are decisions, but no decision maker. There is movement, but no mover. There is life, but no one who lives. There are trees, but no perceiver".

Never...

“There never was a time when you didn’t exist.
There will never be a time when you will not be.”

Spiritual teachings....

Questioner : "What is the value of spiritual teachings?"
Nisargadatta Maharaj : "They are useful in the beginning, but become a
hindrance in the end. One must know when to discard them..."

Continuity....?

“There can be no continuity in existence. Continuity implies identity in past, present and future. No such identity is possible, for the very means of identification fluctuate and change. Continuity, permanency, these are illusions created by memory, mere mental projections of a pattern where no pattern can be.
Time is in the mind, space is in the mind. In reality time and space exist in you; you do not exist in them. They are modes of perception, but they are not the only ones. Time and space are like words written on paper; the paper is real, the words merely a convention. All existence is imaginary.
Time is endless, though limited, eternity is in the split moment of the now. We miss it because the mind is ever shuttling between the past and the future. It will not stop to focus the now. It can be done with comparative ease, if interest is aroused”.

Conversation...

"God and I in space alone
and nobody else in view.
"And where are the people, O Lord," I said,
"the earth below and the sky o'er head
and the dead whom once I knew?"
"That was a dream," God smiled and said,
"A dream that seemed to be true.
There were no people, living or dead,
there was no earth, and no sky o'er head;
there was only Myself -- in you."

"Why do I feel no fear," I asked,
"meeting You here this way?
For I have sinned I know full well--
and is there heaven, and is there hell,
and is this the Judgment Day?"

"Nay, those were but dreams,"
the Great God said,
"Dreams that have ceased to be.
There are no such things as fear or sin;
there is no you -- you never have been-there is nothing at all
but Me."

Part of the dream...

“It is not so very difficult to understand, at least intellectually, that this universe is a dream, but it is almost impossible to accept that the one who is supposed to understand this is himself part of the dream. This belief in oneself is the only real obstruction to the happening of apperception.”

Mind manifestations...

“You must have a clear understanding that all things are only a manifestation of the mind itself. Everything, everything in this world is nothing but a complex manifestation of one’s mental activities.”

The only thing....

, "The only thing standing between you and
self-realization is the belief that you are not
already fully realized."

Final truth...

“There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement. This is the final truth.”

No entity...

“There is no such thing as an entity. Now you know you are awake because you are here and you have that knowledge. There is nothing else other than this knowledge, no entity.”

Why....?

"Why does It play?
The "because" withers away in the play.
The play is without a "because".
It plays because it plays.
It simply remains a play:
the most elevated and the most profound.
But this "simply" is everything...
the one, the only".

Animals...

“I think I could turn and live with animals ,
they are so placid and self-contained
I stand and look at them long and long .
They do not sweat and whine about their condition ,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins ,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God ,
Not one is dissatisfied ,
not one is demented with the mania of owning things ,
Not one kneels to another ,
nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago ,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth” .

Awakeness...

"Awakeness is inherent
in all things and all beings
everywhere
all the time.
This awakeness relates to every moment
from innocence
from absolute honesty
from a state where you feel
absolutely authentic.
Only from this state
do you realize
that you never really wanted
whatever you thought you wanted.
You realize
that behind all of your desires
was a single desire:
to experience each moment
from your true nature."

My true names.....

"Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow --
even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river,
And I am the bird,
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond,
and I am also the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
And I am the arms Merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion".

Illusion.....

"The illusion is real, the reality is illusion".

Disappointment...

“Enlightenment is the great and final disappointment, the dissolution of all our egoic fantasies and grand hopes.”

Experiencing....

"If you wish to experience fear
Think of the future
If you wish to experience shame and guilt
Think of the past".

On thoughts....

"You think you think your thoughts, but the truth is that thoughts think you. Thoughts are living your life; you live the life of your thoughts".

Nothing can.....

"Nothing can make you happy,
and nothing can prevent you
from being happy."

If I...........

"If I am I because you are you, and if you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you".

U.G.

"That messy thing called 'mind' has created many destructive things. By far the most destructive of them all is God".

U.G.

"There has been no qualitative change in man's thinking; we feel about our neighbours just as the frightened caveman felt towards his. The only thing that has changed is our ability to destroy our neighbor and his property".

Enlightenment for dummies...

“The world is a puppet show with seven billion puppets and one Puppeteer. Enlightenment is when the Puppeteer steps out from behind the curtain and exposes himself to a puppet and then presents the puppet on the stage as an “enlightened” dummy….Nobody is ever enlightened, and nobody is ever free, because there is nobody here, except the Puppeteer.”

I-Amness...

"One must be in the ‘I am’ continuously and effortlessly with the idea- ‘I am not the body’. All unhappiness is caused by claiming ‘doership’ of actions, do not claim ‘doership’ and unhappiness will vanish. Even the ‘I am’ is a mirage, time-bound and would disappear.

You should use this power of discrimination always, and find out in truth, whether you really are a person. If you truly inquire you will find that you were never a person at all. Even the ‘Great Cause’ or Creator (‘Ishwara’ or God) finally is only a word. The ‘Great cause’ is the ‘I am’ consciousness".

Stop imagining.....

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

Enjoying the play...

“Many people enjoy the play, because they wish to continue. They continue to identify with their conditions, situations, bank accounts, wives or husbands. As long as you are attached to anything, you cannot find freedom".

Nobody here...

“You'll know there's really nobody doing anything. Most of you will be doing the work that you usually do if you want to do that. You'll appear to be living a human existence, but there's really nobody left to do anything. The doer is gone. There is no doer. The doer has been completely wiped out”.

Keep asking...

“Again the important point to remember is that you should keep asking
yourself questions. Do not make statements. Ask questions to yourself.
The mind hates that”.

The great illusion...

“The great illusion of this life is our idea of a so-called 'self’ that is supposedly living here in life. By name and form, we think that we exist as mortal beings. Have you ever questioned this 'self' that supposedly exists? It is up to you to look and discover the truth or falseness of it. There might or might not be a subjective being within you called 'me.' Perhaps, there is only the wholeness of life that is neither personal nor impersonal”.

Illumination...

“Illumination is simply the dissolution of the illusion which makes you see everything from the point of view of 'me'. Observe the fact of this and break the illusion now and you will discern the greatest secret of all. Metaphorically speaking, it is like a drop of water dissolving into the ocean of life and then discovering it is the living water, itself”.

Becoming free...

“Becoming free is not changing yourself
into someone you think you should be.
Becoming free is understanding that there is nowhere to go,
nothing to do and nobody to be except
exactly who you're being right now”.

IF...

“If there really was a "You"
in control of your thoughts and feelings,
would this "You" ever choose to have
an unhappy thought or emotion”?

Perfect, brilliant stillness....

“There is nothing here that exists in and of itself. What we call the human being is not an independent being, not an originating mechanism, not a transmitter. It is a relay station, a pass-through mechanism for Consciousness, the One Consciousness, All That Is. That is what I am, talking to you. And it is the same One Consciousness listening to this, looking back at me out of those eyes you call your own. What I am when I say “I Am” is exactly the same as what you are when you say “I Am”.

Reincarnation...

"Reincarnation won't help you, if in your next life you still don't know who you are".

Creator or receiver..?

As established by science, man is not the creator of thoughts, but the receiver of thoughts. From consciousness comes an impulse after which activity takes place in the brains. And only after half a second man is aware that he wants something.

Terrified...

“The ego is terrified of the truth. And the truth is that the ego doesn't exist.”

Stopping thoughts...

“See the subtlety here? You said that you stop the thoughts by mentally saying to yourself that 'you don't want that thought'. But what is it that is saying 'I don't want that thought', just another thought of course! You are the Awareness which is prior to ALL thoughts, even those which are trying to stop other thoughts.

The thing is that thoughts are not alive, they are not THE reality. When we were little children and we had unpleasant dreams which upset us, our parents let us know that dreams aren't real, and because they aren't real there is no reason to be upset or scared by them.
Well, the equivalent lesson for an adult is that thoughts are not real, they have no life of their own, they are not the real you... so there is no reason to be overly affected by them either.”

Nisargadatta...

"Find out why you are, what is the cause of your being ‘I am’? Actually you had no knowledge that you are or you were. But at this moment, you know you are. Why is that? Understand its cause. You alone know why you are; why is it offered to you that you are, you alone know. Don’t ask anyone else about it, but inquire by yourself. Don’t bother about others, worry only about yourself. That knowledge ‘I am’ is the product of what, is due to what? How and why? Inquire only into this matter."

Nisargadatta...

"The scriptures say that we have our ‘karma’ and our sin and that is why we are here, but this is for the ignorant masses. One who has realized the self-knowledge ‘I am’ for him these stories are of no use."

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“It is called the “divine hypnosis”. How else can you explain it? All these mind/bodies are staring at it, are bathed in it, are it, and can’t see it. How can you show someone something they are already, especially when it is no-thing and they are no-one? It is all so incredibly simple. There is obviously no one home.”

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“One could say that reality is not at all what it seems or how it appears to be, and that nearly the whole human race is operating under a mass hallucination. One could say this, but it would be greatly inaccurate because the idea that there is a human race, and the idea that there is “one” to say so, are both actually part of the hallucination. These things we call “persons” or “human beings”, along with everything else we can either think of or perceive with our senses, are actually only illusory appearances in one infinite Consciousness, which is all there is.”

What about...?

So here we are, reading all these interesting comments, most of them written by body/mind mechanisms where enlightenment has taken place, so to see. But what about “you” and “me”? We are still fully engaged in this dream-state, thinking that these body/mind mechanisms might be right and reading all this with very much interest, most of the time wishing that this so-called enlightenment would also happen to us one day……… Some of us might also think: Do we really really want this to happen to us? Are we prepared to give up this attachment to the dream-state? Do we really really realize what the consequences are? This is so frustrating……….
I suppose that we, who are reading this have awakened IN the dream, but not yet OUT OF the dream, we want to have the cake and eat it too…………..( or is it eat the cake and have it too ? ).

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Waking up...

"Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion -- are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.

Last year on Spanish television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his son's door. "Jaime," he says, "wake up!" Jaime answers, "I don't want to get up, Papa." The father shouts, "Get up, you have to go to school." Jaime says, "I don't want to go to school." "Why not?" asks the father. "Three reasons," says Jaime. "First, because it's so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school." And the father says, "Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the headmaster." Wake up, wake up! You've grown up. You're too big to be asleep. Wake up! Stop playing with your toys.

Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don't believe them. Don't believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. "Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success." This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That's all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don't really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.

Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It's irritating to be woken up. That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I'm going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, "Wake up!" My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it, fine; if you don't, too bad! As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."

"Control"...

“We are afraid of losing control,
but how can you lose something
you've never had?”

The ego....

"The human mechanism has a built-in mechanism which prevents the human mechanism from seeing its mechanical nature; this built-in mechanism is usually called the ego".

U.G.

"The body does not exist except as a thought. There is one thought. Everything exists in relationship to that one thought. That thought is 'me'. Anything you experience based on thought is illusion".

Thoughts....

"You think you think your thoughts, but the truth is that thoughts think you. Thoughts live your life, you live the life of your thoughts"

The Dreamer...

"ONE: The universe is My dream. Every thing therein, including 'you' and 'me', is an element of that dream - from elephant to virus, from nebula to atom.
TWO: Then each of us dreams a universe? How comes it that we all dream the same universe?
ONE: Each of us does not dream a universe. Only I dream the universe. You all perceive the same universe because you are all elements in My dream.
TWO: Is that concept not - let us say - somewhat egotistic?
ONE: 'Egoism' is a dualistic concept and implies 'non-egoism'. But there is no such thing in reality as non-egoism. Therefore there is no egoism either. There is only I - and nothing else (which would be necessary) to constitute egoism.
TWO: But why is the universe your dream any more than mine?
ONE: I have already told you : 'you' do not exist except as dreamed by Me.
TWO: Supposing I reply that 'you' do not exist except as dreamed by Me?
ONE: That is unnecessary: it goes without saying.
TWO: There is evidently something I have failed to understand.
ONE: That is due to our dualistic language, inadequate to the communication of truth. We have to use the same word to convey several meanings. You are still thinking in terms of identification with a body. You are using the terms 'you' and 'me' in order to indicate the unreal elements of My dream which are holding this conversation. Unreal elements of a dream cannot dream the universe of which they are elements.
TWO: Then who dreams it?
ONE: I do. Anyone who says 'I do'. For that I is the Absolute, Reality, Consciousness Itself, Cosmic Mind, Tao. That I is One - no matter who says it.
TWO: Obscure, very obscure!
ONE: 'Obscure' my foot! It is as clear as daylight, as simple and obvious as anything within the grasp of Mind in manifestation. Only its expression is obscure - for it has been expressed in words.
TWO: So I am everything in this universe, as I am everything in the universe of my sleeping dreams, every elephant, every virus, every nebula, every atom, 'you' and 'I'?
ONE: You have understood."

U.G.

"You have to be saved from the very idea that you have to be saved. You must be saved from the saviors, redeemed from the redeemers".

U.G.

"What I am trying to say is that there is no individual there at all. There is only a certain gathering of knowledge--which is thought--but no individuality there".

Happy....

"My life has no purpose....
My life has no direction...no aim..
no meaning...and yet, I'm happy...
I can't figure it out.....
What am I doing right?"

Whatever...

"Be wherever you like,
do whatever you choose,
remember this well
that all what you do is known to Me.
I am the Inner Ruler of all
and seated in their hearts.
I envelope all the creatures,
the movable and immovable world.
I am the Controller
the wire-puller of the show of this universe.
I am the Mother, origin of all beings
the harmony of three gunas,
the propeller of all senses,
the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer.
Nothing will harm him,
who turns his attention towards Me,
but maya will lash or whip him who forgets Me.
All the insects, ants, the visible, movable and immovable world,
is My body or form..."

When....

“When one awakens, it is seen that the whole process of ego mind has blinded them from seeing what has always been before us, as us. All the words drop away, the “me” is seen through, it is not a matter of "I am one with reality", there is just This. It cannot be named because it is seen beyond the abstraction of language, concepts, such as something or nothing, living or dying, being or not being, which are all just ideas. No idea is real”.

Maya.....

"In Maya's house are many mansions;in Maya's prison are many cells."

Reason why...........

“Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity; but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our “biography”, our partners, family, home, job, friends, credit cards…It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?
Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn’t that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own.”

Attachment.......

“There are many persons who have a great attachment to their own individuality. They want first and foremost to remain as an individual and then search, for they are not prepared to lose that individuality. While retaining their identity, they want to find out what is the truth.
But in this process, you must get rid of the identity itself. If you really find out what you are, you will see that you are not an individual, you are not a person, you are not a body. And people who cling to their body identity are not fit for this knowledge.”

Enlightenment...

"The totality of manifestation is an appearance in consciousness, like a dream. Its functioning is an impersonal and selfgenerated process in phenominality. The billions of sentient beings are merely the instruments (dreamed characters without volition) through which this impersonal process takes place.
The clear apperception of this truth means enlightenment."

On Liberation......

“Liberation is not an acquisition nor an achievement.
It is the disappearance of the illusion that there is a
higher spiritual goal to be achieved, that you are not
“there” yet.
That this moment isn’t right enough.
How can this moment not be right enough.
This moment is all there is.”

The "I"....

"It seems that I know that I know. What I would like to see is the 'I' that knows me when I know that I know that I know."

A stream of.....

“Realize that whatever you think yourself to be is just a stream of events; that while all happens, comes and goes, you alone are, the changeless among the changeful, the self-evident among the inferred. Separate the observed from the observer and abandon false identifications”.

Perfect brilliant stillness...

“There is only One. There is not ever in any sense many, or even two. All perception of distinction and separation, of duality, and therefore of what is known as physical reality, is a mind-created illusion, of the nature of a dream. What you think you are, a separate individual entity, is part of this illusion. You are not the doer of any action or the thinker of any thought. Events happen, but there is no doer. All there is, is Consciousness. That is what You truly are.”

Nothing is...

“Is there a world outside your knowledge? Can you go beyond what you know? You may postulate a world beyond the mind, but it will remain a concept, unproved and unprovable. Your experience is your proof, and it is valid for you only. Who else can have your experience, when the other person is only as real as he appears in your experience?
In reality nothing happens, there is no past nor future; all appears and nothing is”.

Meditation...

"There are many techniques that people call meditation.
But ultimately, if you are doing some activity to get somewhere,
even if it is to get silent, you are missing what is already here,
because you are trying to get somewhere else.
Truth is already here, now".

Stabilize in....

“Because of your existence, because you know that you are, you know also that the world is. So this consciousness, because of which you experience the world, is not unimportant; in fact, it is very important.
So why not stabilize there? Meditate on that consciousness itself, and find out how this "I-am-ness" has appeared. What was its cause? And from what did this consciousness develop? Try to find out, go right to the source”!

"Teacher".......

"Life always gives us the “teacher” we need at that moment. It can be any fly, any bad luck, any red traffic light, any nasty boss, any disease, any moment of joy or sorrow, any addiction, any garbage, every breath.
Any moment is the “guru”."

View on...

"It is not reality that makes you suffer.
It is your own view on reality that does".

The Truth...

“The Truth is the opposite of everything you have learned. Things are not as they seem nor as you have been led to believe. Thinking is not your normal state. Personal involvement is not your natural state. Even something as “sacred” and elevated as what you call “love” is not your natural state. Trying, caring, longing, desiring, having beliefs, having opinions, needing to defend those positions, needing anything at all; none of these are your original nature, your true being. All these are learned, conditioned behaviors, hypnosis to keep you asleep in the dream. The conditioning goes so deep, you think it is your true nature, but it is not. Go back. Your Self is prior to everything that you think you know is true or real.”

U.G.

"You can stop it in you. Free yourself from that social structure that is operating in you without becoming anti-social, without becoming a reformer, without becoming anti-this, anti-that. You can throw the whole thing out of your system and free yourself from the burden of this culture, for yourself and by yourself. Whether it has any usefulness for society or not is not your concern. If there is one individual who walks free, you don't have anymore the choking feeling of what this horrible culture has done to you. It's neither East nor West, it's all the same. Human nature is exactly the same, there's no difference".

You cannot.......

"You are not sick, and you cannot die. But you can confuse yourself with things that do".

What It is..........

"None of this is an ideal—it’s the end of ideals. None of this is holiness; it’s the end of holiness. It’s the beginning of wholeness. None of this is something to achieve, because it’s not achievable. It’s simply what is in the truth of your being. It’s just what is. You can’t attain what’s naturally so. And nobody anywhere can ever tell you when or why, or to what degree you’ll let go of untruth; you will let go when you let go, usually when nothing else works".

Bad dreams and good dreams...

“Suffering just means you’re having a bad dream.
Happiness means you’re having a good dream.
Enlightenment means getting out of the dream altogether”.

The end...................

It has been a long journey; and I must say that the journey itself was far more interesting than the destination.
This is the end of the search; there is nothing to look for anymore, there has never been cause it has been here all the time. This site was meant as a sort of "help" for starters on this "path". I wish you, visitor, the strength and courage to dare to wake up in the dreamstate and if possible out of it!

Greater than...

“Greater than the greatest good in life is to know who we are.”

Interfering...

“The one who has fully investigated himself, the one who has come to Understand, will never try to interfere with the play of Consciousness.”

Formless, timeless...

“Please understand that there is only one thing to be understood, and that is that you are the formless, timeless unborn.”

Unreal...

“It is all the mind can do – discover the unreal as unreal. The problem is only mental. Abandon false ideas, that is all. There is no need of true ideas. There aren’t any.”

The essential...

“The essential basis of self realization is the total rejection of the individual as an independent entity, whether it comes as a spontaneous understanding or through an utter surrender of one’s individual existence.”

The Understanding...

“The essential Understanding is that in reality nothing is. This is so obvious that it is not perceived.”

Not a person...

“Realization is of the fact that you are not a person…Personal entity and enlightenment cannot go together.”

Investigating the "me"...

# Does it, the 'me', exist at all?
# If the 'me' appears to exists - where is it exactly?
# Can I find it? Where is the 'me' located?
# Where does it start and where does it end?
# Does the 'me' have any substance to it? Is there anything more to it than the content of thought?
# Does the 'me' have any awareness in its own right - separate from the Awareness that you are?
# Can you find anything that you can point to and say "This is me"?
# If I can find the 'me', then who is aware of that?
# Is there anything separate from the Aliveness that I feel?

The captain...

"I was flying through a storm
The plane lurching and swerving
Lesser pilots would have bit the dust
Like John F. Kennedy Jr.
How cleverly I maneuvered
Thru lightening and 50 MPH gusts
I landed safely with great relief
My chest swollen with pride (well deserved I might add)
Until I realized I had been on automatic pilot."

Ideas...

“From the perspective of the infinite it is obvious that the individual self absolutely does not exist. The idea that we have a self that controls, arbritrates, or is the doer behind our actions, is absurd. The individual self is nothing but an idea of who we are. Ideas are ideas – and nothing more.”

Self-inquiry....

“What is my true nature?
Who am I?
What is Life?
What is the meaning of this existence?
These questions arise sooner or later in every human being; you can say that they are deeply written in us and by analyzing them we finally become the spectator of the whole spectacle.
The centre of all this always seems to be the “I”, and that “I” seems to play different roles: “I walk”, “I am cold”, “Can I talk to you?”, “I remember”, “I imagine”, “I wish”, “I am depressed”, etc. etc.
So there is always an identification with either the body or the mental.
Living from an “I”, it becomes clear that I am in a situation where I live with objects and where my actions completely depend upon the contacts with these objects: they are pleasant or unpleasant. I am nothing but REACTIONS.
Through fear and desire I project a world in which people are very busy, while I am looking for a grip, a way to distinguish me from them and to find myself, and so to separate myself.
These are mechanisms which we have to see very clearly at the moment, with a serene lucidity, without any personal concern.
This gives the necessary impulse for an honest and serious inquiry and the discovery of the real “I”, the Self.”

How...?

"I cannot know what I am,
For that would need a knower to know it.
I can only be; unconscious of being at all?
But then there would still be an I, an I that is,
And that is unconscious of something that is
And is called being.
How could there be any thing at all,
Either being or I?
Where could there be for any thing to be
Extended in space?
When could there be for anything to be
Extended in time?"

Who...?

"I cannot say it,
I cannot know it,
I cannot be it.Because I am it,
And all it is I am".

"Earthquake"....

"When your ego believes you're in control of things and you are in charge of your life and you are in charge of your environment; then an earthquake comes along and lets you know differently. Doesn't it? When you feel an earthquake, don't you feel small and you have no power? You feel very limited. This goes to show you who do you think you are? You are nobody. In one instant you could be wiped out.
Therefore, why not turn within and leave the world alone? I know there are many redeemers of the world. Many fanatics and many good people want to bring peace to this world. I tell you this is impossible. The world is as it is. It is Maya--a dream only. It is duality. There are good times, there are bad times. This is the nature of this world".

Without....

"Who are you without your ideas about who you are?"

Face to face...

“ The face to face thing is the biggest lie that ever was and is universal”.

Asking questions...

“As long as you ask questions you are breaking through, but the moment you begin to accept, you are psychologically dead. So right through life don't accept a thing, but inquire, investigate. Then you will find that your mind is something really extraordinary, it has no end, and to such a mind there is no death”.

Self-acceptance...

“The first steps in self-acceptance are not at all pleasant, for what one sees is not a happy sight. One needs all the courage to go further. What helps is silence. Look at yourself in total silence, do not describe yourself”.

Two centers...

“So you have two centers. One center you come with, which is given by existence itself. That is the self. And the other center, which is created by the society, is the ego. It is a false thing - and it is a very great trick. Through the ego the society is controlling you. You have to behave in a certain way, because only then does the society appreciate you. You have to walk in a certain way; you have to laugh in a certain way; you have to follow certain manners, a morality, a code. Only then will the society appreciate you, and if it doesn't, you ego will be shaken. And when the ego is shaken, you don't know where you are, who you are”.

Relax...

“Relax - nothing is under control”.

A do-er...?

Your eyes don’t see, your ears don’t hear, your tongue doesn’t taste and your nose doesn’t smell; it’s consciousness that is doing it all. When a boxer goes knock-out, there is nothing wrong with his eyes and ears, yet without consciousness the senses aren’t doing anything. Only when the boxer regains consciousness the senses function again.

The "I-maker"...

The ego is the “I-maker”. It puts the “I” in front of everything. When a thought arises, the ego creates the idea “I think”; when a feeling arises, the ego creates the idea “I feel”; when a choice is made, the ego creates the idea “I choose”.
“I” is a thought, it’s just an idea.

Source of all thoughts...

"Well ego is a thought that arises too. It is different from any other thought, because it is the source of all other thoughts. But it, too, arises "in" something. This that it arises in is your self: it is the goal of all you are seeking; and it can be found only at the core of ego. That is where it is to be found. So we set ego on the task of looking for itself, of sinking its attention into its own nature, of holding attention on itself only, of refusing to attend to any of the magnificent expressions that it spews out. This search for ego, by ego, is the essence of self-investigation".

Nisargadatta...

"Just see the transient as transient, the unreal as unreal, the false as false, and you will realize your true nature. You have mentioned your grief. Have you ever looked at 'grief' in the face and tried to understand what it really is?"

Nisargadatta...

"Ah! Now we shall come to the truth. Please understand as truth, that you are not an individual, a 'person'. The person, that one thinks one is, is only a product of imagination and the self is the victim of this illusion. 'Person' cannot exist in its own right. It is the self, consciousness, that mistakenly believes that there is a person and is conscious of being it. Change your viewpoint."

Nisargadatta...

"When you were in deep sleep, did the phenomenal world exist for you? Can you not intuitively and naturally visualize your pristine state - your original being - before this body-consciousness condition intruded upon you unasked, unaided? In that state, were you conscious of your 'existence'? Certainly not."

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“Any answers to the questions concerning human existence will themselves be part of the problem conditioned by and arising from the same situation which they seek to explain.”

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“Such is the case with the Understanding. It is not of this human condition; it comes from “outside”, it is completely other than or prior to all of human experience and comprehending. But of course as such, it is inherently incomprehensible; since it arises outside of human thought and experience, it cannot be put into, limited to, or captured by human concepts and words. While it can be learned, it cannot be taught. While it can in itself be in-seen, apperceived, or if you will intuited, it cannot be directly talked about or even for that matter thought of in linguistically structured thoughts or ideas or concepts. Does exist. Cannot be expressed.”

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“And of those in whom the Understanding of What Is does occur, what can be said? They are the inverse; awake to what the world is asleep to and asleep to what the world is awake to. Little about them will make sense to the regular person, even to those well versed in spiritual things. The awakened mind is turned upside down and does not accord even with the Buddha-wisdom.”

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“There is an agreed upon, consensus reality which almost the entire human race shares. The world has been around a long time; it is ancient. Into this world, you are born as an individual; you grow, learn, experience life, and die. There is some disagreement concerning what happens after that, except that for everyone else, life will go on – until they also die. Everybody thinks they know this – or some local variation of this. But in fact when you were “born” you did not know this. You learned this. Everyone else learned it too and so it is an almost universally shared idea. But everybody believing something doesn’t make it true.”

Perfect brilliant stillness...

“The Truth is the opposite of everything you have learned. Things are not as they seem nor as you have been led to believe. Thinking is not your normal state. Personal involvement is not your natural state. Even something as “sacred” and elevated as what you call “love” is not your natural state. Trying, caring, longing, desiring, having beliefs, having opinions, needing to defend those positions, needing anything at all; none of these are your original nature, your true being. All these are learned, conditioned behaviors, hypnosis to keep you asleep in the dream. The conditioning goes so deep you think it is your true nature, but I assure you it is not. Go back. Your Self is prior to everything that you think you know is true or real”.

I know....

"It seems that I know that I know. What I would like to see is the 'I' that knows me when I know that I know that I know."

Two "problems"...

"There are two "problems": Either there is something we don't want, or we want something that is not there".

Gesponsorde koppelingen

Vertaling

Wei Wu Wei...

“When you give a shilling to a beggar
do you realize that you are giving it to yourself?
When you help a lame dog over a stile
do you realize that you yourself are being helped?
When you kick a man when he is down
do you realize that you are kicking yourself?
Give him another kick - if you deserve it!”

“Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role!”

“Reality alone exists - and that we are. All the rest is only a dream, a dream of the One Mind, which is our mind without the 'our'. Is it so hard to accept? Is it so difficult to assimilate and to live?”

“We do not possess an 'ego'. We are possessed by the idea of one.”

“A myriad bubbles were floating on the surface of a stream.
'What are you?' I cried to them as they drifted by.
'I am a bubble, of course' nearly a myriad bubbles answered,
and there was surprise and indignation in their voices as they passed.
But, here and there, a lonely bubble answered,
'We are this stream', and there was neither surprise nor indignation in their voices,
but just a quiet certitude.”





“What do you have to do?
Pack your bags,
Go to the station without them,
Catch the train,
And leave your self behind.”

“The practice of meditation is represented by the three monkeys,
who cover their eyes, ears and mouths so as to avoid the phenomenal world.”

“Destroy 'the ego', hound it, beat it, snub it, tell it where it gets off?
Great fun, no doubt, but where is it? Must you not find it first?
Isn't there a word about catching your goose before you can cook it?
The great difficulty here is that there isn't one.”

“Are we not wasps who spend all day in a fruitless attempt to traverse a window-pane - while the other half of the window is wide open?”

Gaining and losing.....

"When we believe in the world outside of ourselves, gain is often perceived as good and loss as bad. When we stop believing in a world extern to self, that reverses: gain becomes bad and loss becomes good. Nothing we can ever lose was ours in the first place. All we can ever lose is illusion".

True nature.....

"Get back to basics with this stuff. Do you know what your true nature is? You obviously exist. So is it clear what you are? If this is not clear, any amount of other pursuits will only be temporary palliatives that may sooth the symptoms of seeking, suffering and doubt. But since the resolution is only temporary, those things will return again. The resolution lies in clear self-knowledge, that is, knowing what you are without any doubts. This has nothing to do with any teaching, path or practice, but getting down to brass tacks and answering the question, "What am I?", not in terms of concepts or mental assertions, but in direct experience for yourself. What progress have you made in this essential, core pursuit? Is what you are clear at this point? Yes or no?"

Same stuff...

“We are made of the same stuff
dreams are made of”.

Thinking mind....

"When we are in the world of the thinking mind, we are somewhere in the remembered past or in the imagined future.
We are in a world of thought, memory, concept, idea, opinion and belief. We are not here now. What we are experiencing is not of the present moment. It is not real.
We are in a world of illusion ( “Maya”) and yet we have come to believe that it is real. Almost the entire human population is lost in this illusion. It is the sole source of our suffering”.

The invisible man...

“Religion has really convinced people that there is an invisible man, living high in the skies, who is watching literally everything you are doing, every single moment of the day. And that invisible man has a special list of ten things which you may not do. And if you do one of those things, then he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning things and pain and fear, and he will send you there to live and to suffer and to burn and to suffocate and to scream and cry till the end of times………….yet he does love you!”

Who am I.....

"The intention that is required of you, and this is all that is required of you, is the utterly serious determination to know the actuality of your identity. Nothing else. Not the intention to gain enlightenment. Not the intention to gain realization. Not the intention to be finished with ignorance and suffering. The desire to be finished with suffering is what got you as far as you are now. Now that can be thrown away. Retain only the intention to discover the actuality of your identity for yourself. This, no one can give you. No one. Hold only the intention in this life, finally to be finished chippying around and to answer the only question that matters: Who am I? Really!

I suspect all human lives ignore this question and pretend that it is something known, pretend that "I know who I am": I am the one who's doing all this stuff. I am the one who runs this body and this life". It is amazing to me, in retrospect, that the utter ignorance that is the reality of our relationship with any true sense of our identity is so taken for granted. So ignored. So denied".

Assumption...........

"The whole of human interaction and human society is based on the
assumption that there are separate individuals everywhere, each of
whom is responsible for his or her own actions. Western-style society,
law, and economic organization would be impossible without this
fundamental premise. Only a very few realize the truth that no such
individual persons ever existed in reality and that the notion of individuality
itself is nothing more than a convention. If this truth ever
became widely known and accepted, human society could hardly exist
in its current form.
“I” is misunderstood and misinterpreted. The ordinary conception of
“I,” referring to an individual personality, is so far from the truth that
it becomes almost absurd to speak about it. This “I” is purely conventional,
a creation of the functioning of mind and memory. And yet the
everyday world revolves around it and caters to its desires as though it
had some real existence."

Just realize.......

"Just realize you are dreaming a dream you call the world and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs to be done."

Nothing to practice...

" There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking".

Nobody...

“I’m nobody
Who are you?
Are you nobody too?”

Source of all thoughts...

"Well ego is a thought that arises too. It is different from any other thought, because it is the source of all other thoughts. But it, too, arises "in" something. This that it arises in is your self: it is the goal of all you are seeking; and it can be found only at the core of ego. That is where it is to be found. So we set ego on the task of looking for itself, of sinking its attention into its own nature, of holding attention on itself only, of refusing to attend to any of the magnificent expressions that it spews out. This search for ego, by ego, is the essence of self-investigation."

What's wrong...?

"What's wrong with right Now
unless you think about it"?

No "me"....

"No ‘me’ over here
No ‘you’ over there
No person who can ‘be aware’
Liberation is here right now
No-one can possibly teach you how
To the restless mind this will never be clear
It’s beyond the reach of mortal ear
Being is found in the still, quiet space
Bearing witness of itself in every place
Yet there’s nowhere that it cannot be found
It’s both the silence and the sound.
It has many names, like ‘God’ or ‘Being’
Talked about in ‘glimpses’ and ‘seeing’
But all the while there’s no-thing to ‘see’
It’s simply found where there’s no-one to BE".

"Person"......

"There is no such thing as a person. There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the person. The person merely appears to be, like the space within the pot appears to have the shape and volume and smell of the pot".

Dream....

"The apparent self in our dreams believes in himself; the sea or motor-car in front of him is real, dangerous, powerful or whatever it may be, and the people, some of them to us long dead, are as real as they were when we knew them. The mind that dreams our dreams dreams as convincingly as the mind that dreams our so-called waking life. When we awaken, our critical mind, applying its waking standards, sees the dream personages as unreal, as distorted, as fantastic, as what it calls 'figments of the imagination'.
And those who awaken from their 'waking' dream, from the dream of 'daily life', can we doubt that they see their 'waking' dream personages as we see those of our sleeping dreams, i.e. as unreal, distorted, fantastic, as figments of the imagination? From their words it seems clear that they do, and that so it is.
Neither dream, and there are other kinds of dream experienced in other states, to which the same applies, is one with more or less reality than the other, for both, all, are mind-manifestations experienced by consciousness in different conditions.
The only reality in either, in any kind of dream, of mind-manifestation, is Mind Itself."

Feeling hopeless...

“Do not get lost in feeling hopeless because you think Enlightenment is so far beyond you. Right this very moment you are truly awake, you just do not realize it. And do not let those who have not awakened tell you there is no such thing. Enlightenment is real; it is the ego process that is no”.

But.........

"I Am That - but … I need to take responsibility, heal my life, go deeper, become more aware, be here now, enter the stillness, save the planet, express my emotions, think positively, become the witness, be blissful, find a guru, be useful, find the meaning of life, calm my thoughts, do good works, get rid of the ego, enter manhood or womanhood, be more practical, get enlightened, find my soul-mate, perform a ceremony, become initiated, get in touch with my feelings ...

Maybe you do. How can I disagree? While you’re busy with all that, I’ll go and have a cup of tea and read the paper."

You are not....

"You can watch the body,
so you are not the body.
You can watch the breath,
so you are not the vital breath.
In the same way, you are not the consciousness;
but you have to become one with the consciousness.
As you stabilize in the consciousness,
dispassion for the body
and for the expressions through the body
occurs spontaneously.
It is a natural renunciation, not a deliberate one.
It does not mean that you should neglect your worldly duties;
carry these out with full zest."

U.G.

"Man has already messed up his life, and religion has made it worse. It is religion that really made a mess of man's life".

U.G.

"Religion", "God", "Soul" and so on are all just words, ideas to keep your psychological continuity intact. When these thoughts are not there, what is left is the simple, harmonious physical functioning of the organism".

What is...

"The dreamer dreams. Billions and billions of dreams are dreamt by the dreamer: my dreams, your dreams, all dreams, at the same time, now, always, and always in the now. There does not exist another moment.
We have forgotten that we are not the player in the dream, nor the total of the dreams, though the dreamer himself.
The dreamer knows no problems and knows no suffering. Suffering is caused when we think that we are a person “out there” in the dream.
Persons suffer, the dreamer does not suffer, cause he knows that the reality at which you are looking out there is nothing but a dream without any reality.
“In here” is nothingness in which the dreams origin. Nothingness, Consciousness, God, The Great Director, they are all names for the same one: that one neutral dreamer.
All that is needed is to see that what seems real out there is nothing but illusion and that only the quietness, the nothingness, the dreamer in here, is real.
The dream is the play with Myself, in Myself, for Myself. As nothingness I create all, nothing is all and all is well as it is, nothing needs to be changed.
That is what-is!"

In the beginning....

"In the beginning there was nothing. God said, "Let there be light!" And there was light.
There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better".

Awakening...

“Awakening does not mean that you can’t feel desire, hurt, pain, joy, happiness, suffering or sorrow. You can still feel all of those; they just don’t convince you.”

Nothing is...

“I can assure you there is no such thing as God. There’s no such thing as creation, and there’s no such thing as the universe. So there’s no such thing as the world, and there’s no such thing as you. There’s no such thing as “I”.

Swinging door...

“What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all… there is nothing: no “I”, no world, no mind or body; just a swinging door.”

Abandon....

"For one instant, abandon all labels, concepts, answers, explanations, all efforts to improve or achieve a result of any kind. What remains?
Sensations, sounds of traffic, smell of exhaust, smell of rain, hum of a vacuum cleaner, cheeping of a bird, breathing, seeing, hearing. Nothing special or grandiose. Just this, as it is.
Thought divides it up into form and emptiness, mind and body, seer and seen, self and not-self, relative and absolute, spiritual and mundane, enlightenment and delusion. By the way that it describes and labels things, thought literally creates a mirage world (like a dream or a movie) that comes to seem completely believable and real.
In this dream world, it appears that there is a separate, solid, autonomous 'me,' the experiencer and doer of 'my' life. This 'me' appears to be on its own in a frightening, alien universe. Something always seems to be missing. The phantom 'me' seeks happiness and enlightenment in the future, chases after bigger and better experiences, compares itself to others, and tries desperately to 'get it,' whether 'it' is a new car, a better job, or enlightenment.
But is this 'me' real, or is it a mental image with no substance? Is there actually a central agent at the helm steering the ship, or do 'your' thoughts and actions appear out of nowhere, just as the brain, the breath, the wind, the clouds, the trees, and the galaxies appear out of nowhere? Is there really a problem that needs fixing, or is there simply weather, appearing and disappearing?
If there is no one to 'have' a problem, then what problem remains? True freedom is right here in the absolute simplicity of what is."

Prison....

"Within the prison of your world appears a man who tells you that the
world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is neither
continuous nor permanent and is based on a misapprehension. He pleads
with you to get out of it, by the same way by which you got into it.
You got into it by forgetting what you are and you will get out of it
by knowing yourself as you are".

For WHO...??

Q: "So how about freewill, does that exist at all?

A: There is no 'individual you'. You are not the Thinking Mechanism which you have up until now been identifying with. This is what's meant by there is 'no one there'. IT'S JUST A THINKING MECHANISM. So, once it is seen that there is just a Thinking Mechanism which IS thinking BUT there is no separate entity or 'thinker' there, then that changes the understanding of everything. Where is the question of 'freewill'
when it is understood that there is no one there?
Freewill, FOR WHO"?

"Others".....

"When you look at yourself and you see yourself, do not think of you as a mere human being. Do not think of yourself as a person. Do not think of yourself as someone who needs help. Someone who is alone in this world. That's not really you. You are the One that has always existed, the One that will always exist. That One that never had a problem. That One that is healthy and happy and peaceful. There are no others."

The "Game".....

"Imagine that you are about to participate in an
interactive roll-playing game. There are rules in this
game that everyone agrees to: what goes up must come
down, day is followed by night, if you touch a flame it
will burn you, etc. etc. You get to choose the
character you play beforehand; shall I be black or
white, Australian or American, male or female? You
might even choose to meet up with others in the game,
which is tricky because you won’t necessarily remember
them when you see them.

To enter the game, you must be “born” and become
completely helpless. You must forget everything you
know and start all over again. You are given sets of
rules by the “older” players that you learn as you go
along. After a given time, you are declared an “adult”
by the other players and are sent out on your own.

The thing is, you become so involved in this character
that you are playing in this game, that you forget who
you really are. Then you forget that you’re even in a
game, and you think the game is all there is. Now, you
still get to decide everything that happens to this
character, which you do constantly, but as a player
you think everything is happening by “chance” or
“fate”.

When the character you play goes to sleep, you return
to your real self. This is when you get the chance to
plan ahead and manifest his/her desires and wishes;
the character later wakes up and thinks he/she was
“dreaming”.

Some players, realizing that there has to be more than
just this game will start searching for answers. Some
conclude that someone must have invented this game,
and probably all the players in it. They begin to
worship this mysterious “someone” who obviously must
be much smarter than they are, and invent more rules
that they insist were made by the original
game-creator.

The only way to leave this game is called dying. You
remember who you really are and you meet up with your
other friends - some of whom were in the game with
you, some who were involved with other games - and
share your experiences. The game, you conclude was
fun, adventurous and a great learning experience and
you decide you’d like to play again; this time in a
different setting."

Not in......

" You are not in the body, the body is in you! The mind is in you. They happen to you. They are there because you find them interesting".

The "I".....

"The "I" in "I think", "I like","I am sad", is as real as the "it" in "it rains", "it is hot", "it is late"."

Puppets on a string......

Puppets on a string
Puppet 1 : Why are we quarreling anyway? We don’t even exist!
Puppet 2 : What are you talking about? Of course we do exist! I can see you, can’t I ?
Puppet 1 : We only seem to exist as individual persons. As a matter of fact there is nothing else but the
One; and that One is moving both the imaginary “you” as the imaginary “I”.
Puppet 2 : That’s total nonsense, unless you know something that I don’t know.
Puppet 1 : There is no “I” who knows something that you don’t know!
Puppet 2 : So you do admit that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Puppet 1 : It is the One in me that plays Puppet 1 who knows. It’s the same energy that’s playing you
and that is pretending not to know.
Puppet 2 : So what you’re saying is that I’m just pretending.
Puppet 1 : No I am not saying anything; what is being said here is that neither I nor you exist. We are
an illusion. SOMETHING is pretending to be both you and I.
Puppet 2 : Sorry, I can’t follow you; now you’re talking pure nonsense. If we don’t exist, how could we
be having this conversation now? I think you’re trying to confuse me because you were
starting to lose this discussion. Why don’t we talk about things that REALLY matter like…………

Silence...

"Silence is the language "God" speaks.
And everything else
is a bad translation".

The "journey".....

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

Mind vs mind....

“Now, what faculty do you have to look into yourself? You look at the mind with the mind. One part of the mind is looking at another part of the mind and trying to correct it. That will never happen. The mind is like a thief. It will go on deceiving you. It will create the problem; it will offer the solution. It will take the solution and create a deeper problem. It is an endless trick. So looking inward you need some other kind of faculty. You need to evolve something else within you”.

Knowledge.....

“That which is unbounded, that which is omnipresent, cannot be understood with the mind. It can only be experienced. You can merge with it, you can be one with it, you can experience the joy of being with it, but it is not something that you can grasp with your mind. If people really want to know the truth, they must come to terms with what they do not know. It's difficult for people to say “I don't know,” but “I don't know” is the only beginning for knowledge”.

The hard problem....

“The hard problem is the question of how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience “.

U.G....

“We are not created for any grander purpose than the ants that are there or the flies that are hovering us or the mosquitoes that are sucking our blood; we are no more purposeful or meaningful than any other thing on this planet”.

U.G....

“The plain fact is that if you don’t have a problem, you create one; if you don’t have a problem you don’t feel that you are living”.

U.G...

“A Messiah is the one who leaves a mess behind him in this world”.

U.G...

“You have to touch life at a point where nobody has touched it before; nobody can teach you that”.

U.G...

“Society is built on a foundation of conflict, and you are society; therefore you must always be in conflict with society”.

U.G...

“It would be more interesting to learn from children, than try to teach them how to behave, how to live and how to function”.

U.G...

“Food, clothing and shelter, these are the basic needs; beyond that, if you want anything, it is the beginning of self-deception”.

Nisargadatta...

"The nature of the consciousness has to be understood. This consciousness can arise only in the physical body, and the physical body is the essence of the five elements. It is because of the association with the physical body that there is suffering. Most people who come here will not be able to accept this type of knowledge, because it is on a strictly fundamental level. But some persons who apply themeselves and can accept such a point of view, will really understand. They will be totally free from the impact of pain and unhappiness, if they understand that the latter can only result from the consciousness which has identified itself with the physical body and suffers as an individual. In that case, suffering must inevitably result. But, what is the individual?"

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“There is only One. There is not ever in any sense many, or even two. All perception of distinction and separation, of duality, and therefore of what is known as physical reality, is a mind-created illusion, of the nature of a dream. What you think you are, a separate individual entity, is part of this illusion. You are not the doer of any action or the thinker of any thought. Events happen, but there is no doer. All there is, is Consciousness. That is what You truly are.”

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“From eternity, without time, I Am, the unborn. Just as a dream begins at some point during sleep, so “at some point” That which I Am appears as Consciousness here, and this world comes into being. I open my eyes: there is experiencing of life in this apparent body/mind. After a certain span of experiencing, I close my eyes: the world ceases to be, and from eternity I Am, the unborn.”

"Perfect, brilliant stillness..."

“In fact, quite frankly, it’s all crap. Eventually all ideas, all experiences, all words, all books, all teachings are beside the point. Eventually all there is, is complete letting go and going beyond; going, completed, beyond. Then everything will cease, everything will have never been, and there is only Understanding, and the Peace that passes all understanding.”

Free will...

“Free will asumes that we can choose our thoughts; if we can choose our thoughts, why do we have thoughts that we don’t want? Free will asumes that we can choose our feelings; if we can choose our feelings, why do we have feelings that we don’t want? Free will asumes that we can choose our actions; if we can choose our actions, why do we do things that we don’t want to do?”

Exercises on free will...

“To choose means to have control over choice.
Try to stop thinking for 30 seconds; were you successful?
Try to stop feeling for 30 seconds; were you successful?
Try to stop sensing for 30 seconds; were you successful?
Try to stop all muscle actions for 30 seconds; were you successful?
If “we” can’t control our thoughts, feelings, sensations and actions, what CAN “we” control?”

Self-inquiry...

“Self-inquiry is the investigation of the true “I”.
• Ask: What is it that is aware? Then try to find it.
• If you find it, what is it that finds it? ( Anything that can be found cannot be what finds it ).
• If you can’t find it, but you know that you are aware, what are you?”

Scientist talking....

“Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based on our perceptions.
What we perceive depends on what we look for.
What we look for depends on what we think.
What we think depends on what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our reality”.

(David Bohm)

Animals...

“I think I could turn and live with animals ,
they are so placid and self-contained
I stand and look at them long and long .
They do not sweat and whine about their condition ,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins ,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God ,
Not one is dissatisfied ,
not one is demented with the mania of owning things ,
Not one kneels to another ,
nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago ,
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth” .
(Walt Whitman)

Delusions...

“When one individual is suffering from delusions it is called insanity; when many individuals are suffering at the same time from delusions it is called religion”.

Bible...

“If nowadays a person would follow the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal; and if he would follow those from the New Testament he would be insane”.

Logical conclusion...

“Since it is impossible for all religions to be right, it is the most logical conclusion that they are all wrong”.

There you go again...

“When someone asks me who they are or what God is, I smile inside and whisper to the Light: “There you go again pretending.”

Dear human being...

"Dear Human Being:
You are here on this earth this moment but not through your own choosing. You were created by the thought or emotion of a man and woman who decided to get together and have sexual intercourse. Nine months or so later you were born from the womb of a woman. Perhaps you do not even know their names, perhaps you do, and call them by the conceptual words 'mother and father.' In either case you were born and are here.
You were given a name, or perhaps a few names. You were told you are a person. You were told you are unique. You were given food, shown how to eat and you grew physically and mentally. You were told what to believe, how to feel, how to act. You were told what religion to practice or not, told what to wear and what schools to attend. In school you were told facts and figures and that you should get good grades so that you can get into college or get a good job. Then you were told by advertisers what products to eat, what clothes to wear, what car to drive, what music to listen to. You were told by your peers perhaps what drugs to take, what drinks to drink, what words to say. You are still being told what to do, how to think, how to feel. Magazines tell you who is pretty and who is not, who are rich and who are poor, who is successful and who is not. Priests, Imams and Rabbis tell you how to be good, what they believe is true and how you should live your life and what you must do to go to heaven. Psychologists tell you if they think you are well or sick in your mind. Governments tell you how you should feel about your country. In short everything you think, do and say is because you were told by another human being how to think, how to do and what to say. And all this has been generated by human thought and concepts.
But what about "you" my friend? What if in this moment all that you ever learned, knew and believed suddenly disappeared. What would happen if all the experiences, memories and dreams vanished into thin air. Then "who" would you be? Or would you be at all? Or is there really a "you" at all? Is there really a someone there? Is there an individual at all? Or are "you" just a collector of experiences as they happen? This is very profound yet important knowledge if you wish to be free, if you wish to live your life happily and sanely. You must discover the "you", the real "you." You must face the truth of these questions.
Perhaps, after reading the above, you will continue on as before. But if something in the above has jarred something somewhere inside, then I invite you to further investigate if there really is such a thing as individuality or individual, if there really is a "thing" called you. And in that process of investigation is there anything definitive you can say that "you" really are? The answer is there my dear friend: it is there in the pure silence at the core of your being itself. That is where you should look. Look into that silent space itself and find what is there. Find what is always there. Maybe for the first time in your life you may discover that "you" do not need to be told anything. Maybe, for the first time in your life you can let go of all that you have ever learned and experienced and really see what is present in this moment, right now. Maybe you will come to understand that there is nothing "you" really need, or want or have except this moment. In this you may just find reality, as it is. Wouldn't that be something!
From "me" to "you", with love!"