I Am.

It’s so simple. The mind loves seeking, learning, exploring, understanding, and this is all just the beautiful play of the mind. It’s all “food for thought.” It seems that all our reading and learning is great for academia. It makes us excellent students who can say the right words and come up with the right answers when it’s time to take the test. However, it may not be the best strategy when it comes to Self-realization. We need not gain more understanding to go beyond the mind.

“You are too full of gibberish, you know too much. Because of your borrowed knowledge and too many words moving inside you, you cannot see the wordless beauty that can only be experienced in silence.”

-Osho

I Am. Focus on that. It’s simple. So simple. That brings awareness back to its Source, rather than focusing it upon its infinite manifestations.

When your consciousness is directed outward, mind and world arise. When it is directed inward, it realizes its own Source and returns home into the Unmanifested.

-Eckhart Tolle

Make a friend with the I Am. Spend time with it. Nothing need be created. You don’t need to become anything new. Just be. The inner guru will awaken on its own and you will intuitively begin knowing all that prolific spiritual wisdom we previously sought answers for from books, teachers, and gurus.

“When you stop searching and you calm down and you put your books away, and you confront yourself and see what you are all about, that will bring about bliss faster than anything you can ever imagine or ever do.”

-Robert Adams

I Am.

The “I Am” literally is what you ARE. I Am That I Am, and so are you.

Just Be.

Let’s look at several explanations by different teachers who all point to basically the same thing, being with the “I Am.” This takes us right to the heart of spiritual practice.

Nirmala describes Self-inquiry

It does not need to be complicated. Just simply sense your self and do not worry about inside or outside or going deeper. Sense that you exist right now, and then stay with that sense of “I” or “me”. But do not worry about whether it is the right way of sensing your self. Simply sense your self just as you are right now.

Once you sense your self just as you are right now, simply stay with that sense of your self. If a thought or feeling arises, notice who is having the thought or feeling. Obviously “I” am having the thought or feeling. And so then you just return to staying with that sense of “I.”

That is all you need to do. Just rest while sensing your self. Everything else is up to divine grace, and it is taking good care of you.

-Nirmala

Nisargadatta on Focusing upon the ‘I Am’

When I met my Guru, he told me: “You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense ‘I am’, find your real Self.” I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon!

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense ‘I am’ tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am — unbound.

I simply followed (my teacher’s) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being ‘I am’, and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the ‘I am’ in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared — myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

Mooji on Focusing up the Self

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4MtmRkiW_U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jl5op2g1zw

If you want a practice, if you want a meditation, if you want something to do, there ya go. Just be.

mk guys and gals, here’s a homework assignment for you. I’d like for you guys to do this and then report back in with your results in the forum comments.

Meditate without trying to accomplish anything.

Set aside some time to just go sit and be.

Don’t try to do a good job meditating, don’t try to be super still, don’t try to get enlightened, don’t control your breathing, don’t try to maintain a proper posture, don’t worry about what to do, don’t try to be successful, don’t try to experience deeper states of peace, don’t try to raise your level of consciousness, don’t try to destress, don’t try to make anything happen, don’t try to quiet your mind, don’t have any expectations for any results whatsoever… literally nothing, ya dig?

See what happens and share with us what you find.

Whether nothing happens at all, whether your have some super spectacular grand revelation, whether you decide instead to go pick your nose, or whether you become the next living Buddha, whatever. There’s no such thing as a wrong answer or a failed attempt. How can there be if there’s no goal?

No expectations. No right or wrong.

Just stop.

and Be.

Enlightenment. It’s basically your vibration raising up to the point where your consciousness has a broad enough perspective to realize that everything is “connected,” that everything is One.

It’s like progressively taking off the blinders of limitation.

Now, along with the realization of Oneness comes a natural application of actions stemming from Oneness. We could say that these actions operate on a higher level of consciousness than actions which stem from the illusion of separation.

Typically, though, the actions feel quite ordinary. They’re common, natural, and plain. It’s not about walking on water or anything, but simply being yourself, your true self. As the saying goes: Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

There are many many ways to apply the principles of Oneness in our everyday lives. Keep in mind that there is no right way, no correct way, no guaranteed way, and no definitively proper way of acting that can be turned into an external set of rules, guidelines, or laws to be followed. It must all come from within, arise spontaneously, and be a natural expression of the Oneness that you are.

That Sneaky Ego

Any external rule, when it’s not backed up by the consciousness from within, can be turned around to be used by the ego.

You tell people “Thou shall not kill” and their egos will turn it around, find a way to justify the exact opposite idea, and engage in holy wars.

Face-palm.

You tell people to Love one another and the ego jumps in trying to own others, bringing in energies of neediness and lust, totally missing the true meaning of Love. Perhaps they try to control others and override their free will because “they know better.”

Whenever you have an external mental “rule” to follow, the creative ego is ALWAYS able to spin and misinterpret something for its own selfish purposes.

From Beyond the Ego

With that said, can you think of some heart-centered actions you could take that might be representative of actions that stem from Oneness?

Off the top of my head, there’s:

• Loving others as yourself
• Uplifting yourself and uplifting others
• Being yourself to the fullest extent possible
• Not taking fears seriously
• Allowing yourself to be a whole being, guided by your Higher Self instead of your limited physical mind
• Replacing ideas of segregation with understandings of shared humanity
• Accepting others fully as they are, the way same Creation accepts us fully as we are
• Changing scientific perspectives to come from a place of Oneness
• Recognizing that all experiences are valid, for they all generate self-validating realities. No experience is inherently better or worse than any other. They simply have different consequences.
• Sharing food, shelter, blood, time, attention, or even a listening ear with those in need
• Becoming enlightened
• Helping others (more of yourself) awaken to their true nature
• Recognizing yourself as Love, realizing there’s nothing but Love in the universe, and thus automatically Loving all others unconditionally

These are many of the ways I’m applying it, and I’m sure many of you are already using many of these ideas as well and many more.

I’d love for you guys to help me add to this list. How else do you find your relationship with others changing now that you are coming to understand that everything is One?

The Sun’s Fortress by Marc Adamus

Alright, let’s get straight to the point. How do you actually do this? How do you get enlightened?

There’s so many gurus we can follow, all of whom give similar instructions, but they’re all variations on a theme. What’s the best path? The fastest path? The path that’s most appropriate for me? Is there even a best/fastest/right path at all?

How do you get enlightened? Let’s strip away the fluff and look at the core instructions on exactly HOW to do it as instructed from a variety of teachers:

Ramana Maharshi

Repeatedly perform self-inquiry by asking the question “Who am I?” over and over until the ‘I’ falls away. The thought “Who am I?” is not meant to come up with an ultimate answer the mind can accept. Rather, it will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Hold on to the sense ‘I am’ tenaciously and do not swerve from it even for a moment.

Michael Langford

Turn awareness back upon itself so that awareness is watching awareness. Add nothing else to the process. Expect nothing. Just be aware of awareness.

Adyashanti

Allow everything to be as it is and then perform meditative self-inquiry, asking the question “Who am I?”

David Hawkins

Surrender the ego’s desires, proclivities, and positionalities to God. Surrender your very life, all fears, and sense of self to God. Allow God to do with you what he will.

Buddha

Meditate. Know and practice the four noble truths. Follow the noble eightfold path.

Gangaji

Stop everything. Just be. Drop all activities, all attempts to get something or achieve something that’s not already here. See what’s always here. Just stop.

Eckhart Tolle

Be in the Now. Listen to the silence.

It’s interesting to note that he didn’t awaken by constantly being present. His ego just kinda collapsed overnight spontaneously.

Neale Donald Walsch

The reason people are enlightened is because they say they are.

(Note: Neale isn’t actually enlightened. He’s simply sharing his understandings as received from God while writing his books, Conversations with God.)

T. Harv Eker

If you want instant enlightenment, don’t believe a thought you think.

(Note: Harv isn’t enlightened either, but his suggestion nevertheless ties in well.)

Bashar

If you want to be enlightened, just lighten up! Follow your highest excitement to continue finding more and more of yourself. Know that you are the One and the All.

Neo-Advaita

There’s nothing to do and no one to do anything. Just be still and allow the Self to realize itSelf.

Jesus Christ

You reach Salvation by reaching for the Christ Consciousness and Unconditional Love, following the path modeled by Jesus. Like Bhakti Yoga, it involves devotion to God.

Karma Yoga

You can reach moksha by doing God’s work instead of your own, by performing good deeds and tasks.

Jnana Yoga

Explore the sacred Hindu scriptures, typically with the aid of a guru.

Raja Yoga

Contemplation and meditation.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Meditate with a straight posture while looking up at the third eye, the center of Christ Consciousness, without straining your eyes. Be still and know.

_____________________________________________________

As you can see, there are a multitude of paths, yet even this is not by any means an all-inclusive list. There are many more recommended ways such as by receiving the grace of a guru as a form of energy transmission, by repeatedly chanting mantras, by performing various physical activities to activate certain energies within the body, by overcoming the enemy (ego) through a holy war (jihad), and more.

Spiritual Practices

What is the value of spiritual practices?

Freedom can only be realized when you don’t do anything to realize it. It must happen on its own.

Practices to help you hone your mind, to learn how to better focus or surrender are of value in that they can help you focus on the Self and withdraw attention from the pull of egoic thoughts.

If a practice serves the purpose of quieting the mind, it is of great help.

The Truth of who we are is Here and Now. All our practices are ways of searching for what is already here. They are designed to help us come back home to who we truly are.

Any practice which is based on the idea that you are someone in particular who does something in particular to achieve something in particular, any such practice is an obstruction because it is based upon the false belief that you are not already there. It’s an ego game. Don’t strive to achieve enlightenment. Just be. The ego achieves. The Self is.

Rather than trying to make yourself enlightened, look to how you are unenlightening yourself and stop doing that.

Enlightenment is like revealing the light of the sun. It’s not something to search for. Rather, you dissolve the clouds (egoic identification) preventing you from seeing the light that’s already present and has been the whole time.

Look for what does not need to be practiced to exist. Look for what is always here, eternally present. Focus attention there. Allow beingness to be. Let go of the “me” and all the stories involving it.

Boiling It Down

In a nutshell, what’s ultimately necessary is to quiet the mind and let go of identification with anything. Instead, we look at what’s always here, underneath mental chatter, prior to and during all thought. Enlightenment is found in the stillness. You can’t take Heaven (aka Enlightenment/Nirvana) by force. You must surrender into the silence and allow it to happen on its own.

“Be still and know that I am” points directly to it. Simply be still, drop all egoic movement, and be who you truly are, without anything else added.

Be Still and Know That I Am.

Something I realized the other day is that when it comes to the Law of Attraction, what most of us don’t realize at first is that what it is we want to manifest is actually SECONDARY!

Song of the Tides by Marc Adamus

There’s something much more profound going on here. What the LoA is really teaching you to do is to blend all aspects of your being, to be your whole self, to unite the physical you with the non-physical you in thought, word, and deed. Call it raising your vibration, expanding your consciousness, integrating your being, whatever you want. It’s a way to experience Creation and growth in a way that is in full alignment with All That Is, without requiring All That Is to be any certain way.

The LoA is a wonderful little game. It’s the famous sales line, “Sell ‘em what they want. Give ‘em what they need.”

Remember in the movie Karate Kid when Mr. Miyagi had Daniel-san painting the fence, sanding the floor, doing wax-on wax-off? It’s a lot like that.

Old School

How many times have you wanted something really badly and struggled and grunted your way there. Sure, maybe you eventually got there after a lot of hard work, but when you finally got there, the feeling of success was short-lived at best. Heck, maybe it even felt like a disappointing let down compared to what you were expecting.

So 99.9% of your time was spent getting somewhere else, not enjoying or accepting where you are now, and the remaining 0.1% of the time at the end is spent actually experiencing the thing, but not even fully enjoying that either!

Doesn’t something sound wrong with the picture here? There must be a better way.

There is.

Lighten Up!

What the LoA is really about is using these things you desire as a place to simply focus your attention. It is by focusing your attention on what it is you desire that you can start using them as a means to be your whole Self NOW. THAT is the Primary focus here.

That’s what’s really going on slightly beneath the surface.

As was pointed out yesterday, the world doesn’t really need another painting, but it sure can be fun to paint it and feel the flow of creative life energy flowing through you as you paint.

Getting attached to a desire and needing it to happen is totally missing the point.

As Abraham points out over and over, there is nothing more important than that you feel good because when you are feeling good, that feeling is representative of the fact that you are integrating and being the whole being you were born to be.

So while awareness may be focused on better feeling thoughts, something you desire in the future, what’s wonderful now, what you appreciate, the opening of your heart, the state of being felt in meditation, or whatever tool you’re using to raise your vibration, aka “feel better,” the deeper spiritual purpose behind the Law of Attraction is about uniting the various aspects of yourself to be your Whole True Self.

Whatever process you use to realize that who you are is really the One and the All, whether you use various meditation practices to become enlightened, whether you are applying the principles of the Law of Attraction, whether you are studying the teachings of some enlightened guru who has realized a deeper truth and is sharing his or her realizations with you, whether you’re using quantum physics, or whether you’re using some other vehicle, you’ll notice that all of these vehicles, at their core, are geared towards a unification process, of realizing via any means possible what is Real, the Truth of Who You Are.

What we’re witnessing here is Reality using Reality to awaken itself to itself. It’s all One Reality. You and I are the same One Self.

On a deeper level, the Law of Attraction isn’t about getting what you think you want, whether it’s a new car, a better relationship, improved health, or whatever else. On the surface that’s what it is, but that is being used almost as delicious bait to move you towards a process of unification, to know and be who you truly are.

It’s through being who you are regardless of what happens outside of you that all that you would want to manifest happens automatically on its own! It’s all taken care of for you!

How magnificent!

Life in its natural and healthy state is spontaneous, intuitive, and synchronistic. It is open to change at all times, without attachment to what was or what might be.

Not everyone experiences life this way at all times. We all have habits, conditioned ways of being, that may work for us or may not.

Either way, we can recognize that by getting stuck in a pattern and therefore resisting change, we limit the possibility for growth and opportunity.

Habitual actions, unlike actions based off of intuition and inspiration, stem from thoughts that we believe to be true.

So take a look at your habits and ask yourself, “What thoughts would I have to believe to take this action?”

A habit is simply something you’re not aware you’re doing. When you’re aware of what you’re doing, the action then becomes a conscious choice.

The action is clearly serving you in some way or else you wouldn’t be doing it. Deep down you feel it’s the best choice because it affords you the greatest opportunity for pleasure among all known options.

When you find the root thought that drives the habit, you’re no longer unconscious of the cause and it then releases you from its grip automatically. See, what you resist persists, but what you look at disappears.

Once you’ve been released from the unconscious belief that was driving the habit, you’re now simply down to a choice: do the behavior or not. The difference is that you’re now fully conscious of the choice that’s being made. It doesn’t have the same control over you it did before.

By letting go of old habits and being willing to make the choice to move in a different direction, you open yourself up to life supporting you more fully in the ways it can best do so.

When we were very young and just learning to speak, we learned our names and began referring to ourselves in the third person. “Bobby is hungry.”

Then we eventually learned to use pronouns such as “I” or “me” and changed our speaking to reflect this by instead saying “I am hungry.”

This shift to using pronouns made our speech easier, but it reflected a key error: A misperception of who “I” am and a resulting misuse of the word “I.”

We are all taught, growing up, that “I” am a separate individual self over here and “you” are another separate individual self over there. This seems fine and dandy on the level of appearances, but when we are ready to grow spiritually, this deeply ingrained speech pattern is something that eventually must be transcended. We must come to totally redefine what is meant by the word “I” and one of the first steps is to stop using the word incorrectly.

What is experienced in life is not something to be identified with, but simply phenomena that is arising within your awareness, like a cloud rolling through the skies. It’s not you. It’s simply arising phenomena.

The Disassociation Game

• Instead of referring to what you ARE, refer to what you are EXPERIENCING.

Instead of saying, “I am hungry,” say, “The body that I have is hungry.”

Instead of saying, “I think that’s a good idea,” say, “The mind I have thinks that’s a good idea.”

Instead of saying, “I am happy,” say, “I am experiencing happiness.”

What this will do is it will quickly differentiate what you ARE with what is being EXPERIENCED in the moment.

• Refer to yourself in the third person.

Instead of saying, “I am hungry,” say, “The body that Ariel has is hungry.”

Instead of saying, “I think that’s a good idea,” say, “The mind Ariel has thinks that’s a good idea.”

Instead of saying, “I am happy,” say, “Ariel is experiencing happiness.”

In reality, it’s not “you” experiencing these things because a separate and individual “you” doesn’t exist in the first place. Try dropping the word “I” altogether. By referring to yourself in the third person, it will quickly become very clear that YOU are simply the one aware of all this phenomena arising, but you will not be identified with it.

DISIDENTIFICATION is the key!

George likes his chicken spicy!

People may find it silly to hear “you” speaking in such a way and “you” may find it more comfortable to start off talking only to yourself in the third person.

Nevertheless, this simple game will help bring awareness back to the fact that you are not the one associated with all these things happening in the world, but simply the witness of that.

I have a very special gift for you today.

I’d like to share with you a simple technique to really connect to your own heart. It’s called heart breathing.

Often times we spend so much time in our heads thinking without really getting in touch with this moment and what’s going on in our own bodies. What are we really feeling? How often do we neglect even our own selves?

Let’s honor ourselves and spend a little time coming to know what feelings are really being experienced just below the surface. Let’s accept this often overlooked area of ourselves.

Heart Breathing

• Place both hands over your heart
• Close your eyes
• Relax your body and your face
• Now breathe deeply into your heart and out through your heart
• Really connect to and feel your own heart

Do this for 2 minutes. You may certainly notice changes within even the first few breaths, but keep going and allow yourself to be in this space for a longer period of time. Don’t run away or cut yourself short. Remain in this space and offer yourself this gift.

Here’s a fun little dialogue/monologue that went on in my head just now as I kept questioning my beliefs. The beliefs that pop up within me aren’t really taken all that seriously these days…

A: “I know what God is. God is infinity.”

B: “Oh? God is the word infinity?”

A: “No, God is that which infinity points to. It’s everything I can imagine.”

B: “You can imagine everything in the universe?”

A: “Oh, well, God is all the stuff I can’t imagine too.”

B: “Well if God includes all the stuff you can’t imagine, all the stuff you don’t know, how can you say you know God?”

This is just a friendly reminder to keep questioning your understandings.

Let’s talk about something awesome.

Feeling amazing! Raising your vibes! Improving your mood! Raising your level of consciousness!

I encourage you to try out the ones which excite you the most, try them out and let your experience guide you towards which methods are most conducive to your own joy and happiness.

1) Love

• Place your hands on your heart and really love yourself
• Name 10 things you love about yourself
• Tell your friends and family you love them, both through your words and your actions
• If you have a pet, hold them, pet them, stroke them, enjoy them
• With your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend, spend time in gentle embrace

2) Appreciation

• Thank yourself for being exactly who you are
• Write out a page-long list of things you’re grateful for
• Feel appreciation for life exactly as it is now
• Thank the Universe for supporting you in all that you do
• Feel grateful for having the opportunity to create what you want
• Feel appreciation towards everything you desire

3) Do something you enjoy

• Find something you really enjoy doing and do it, even if it’s something small
• Treat yourself to something special
• Do something you’ve always wanted to do
• Find an activity that feels very ‘you’ and do it
• Perform a random act of kindness to a complete stranger
• If you enjoy creating, enter a state of flow and allow creation to flow through you

4) Meditate

• Spend time meditating in silence
• Find the peaceful stillness within
• Allow the world to be as it is while you dedicate this moment to meditation
• Feel the inner peace that is always present at your core

5) Breathe deeply

• Breathe deeply, fully into your belly
• Breathe slowly
• Notice the breath going in and out of your body
• Breathing deeply will make it literally impossible to be anxious

6) Center yourself

• Feel present in this moment
• Feel the inside of your body
• Meditation and deep breathing are also forms of centering yourself
• Focus yourself into the Now without resisting the mind in any way
• Notice what’s being registered by all 5 senses

7) Spend time in silence

• Go for a walk in the woods, or barefoot out in nature
• Gaze at a flower
• Spend some quality time with yourself, just yourself
• Pay attention to the silence from which all sound arises and falls back into

8) Watch something funny

• Put on a funny movie and spend time laughing and enjoying yourself
• Watch some funny videos online
• Share jokes with your friends

9) Smile

• Smile radiantly, genuinely, joyfully
• Feel the smile overflowing and flooding your whole body
• Feel all the cells in your body smiling
• Put a smile inside your heart

10) Say YES to what is

• Look around the room and allow everything to be just as it is
• Look at your life and, just for now, allow things to be the way they are
• Say “YES” to yourself while you observe various aspects of your life
• Offer no resistance to anything in life
• Accept yourself and others

11) Listen to good music

• Put on some good music
• Upbeat energetic music is excellent
• Classical music is fantastic too
• Avoid depressing, angry, or violent music

12) Exercise

• Give your body a work-out
• Run, lift weights, bike, swim, play sports, or do whichever activities you prefer
• Get the blood flowing through the body
• Feel the energy pulsating within the body

13) Dance

• Go out to a dance club and have a great time, without worrying what other people think
• Grab a partner and dance freely with him or her
• Put on some music and dance wildly in private, with nobody watching
• Be completely and totally liberated with your dancing

14) Sing

• Put on your favorite song and sing along
• If necessary, close the door and some headphones, but sing sing sing
• Singing in the car is a perfect place to sing. Who cares if you look like a nut?

15) Choose to heal yourself or others

• Allow your body’s natural intelligence to work its magic
• Encourage the desired healing to take place
• Help another on the road to recovery
• Support the feelings of wellness and well-being

16) Pray

• Focus your attention on what you desire to experience in life
• Invite the Divine energy to join you and be a part of your life
• Ask for guidance and wisdom in your life
• Pray for safety and well-being for yourself and your loved ones
• Bless the world
• Get involved in group prayer for even more effectiveness

17) Read quality books

• Immerse yourself in high consciousness writings
• Fill your mind with thoughts and ideas that resonate with your soul
• Learn new skills
• Develop your understandings regarding spirituality

18) Intend to raise your vibration

• Simply set the intention to become happier, more free, higher vibing, and more in alignment
• Your intention is one of the most powerful tools you have

19) You tell me

• This last one I’m leaving up to you
• Share with us your favorite strategies for feeling phenomenal and raising your vibes