The following is a poem written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, simply titled “The Invitation.”

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer

This poem and more can be found in her book titled The Invitation.

Scott Kiloby (click to check out his beautiful new site!) just published a pair of videos on the topic of reification, a fancy word pointing to how the mind separates things.

In these videos he shares a wonderful discussion on such topics as why enlightenment isn’t something to get, how it’s not something the mind can ever get, the importance of resting as nonconceptual awareness, and how thought is not your enemy.

One topic that I find of particular interest is in how all this enlightenment stuff makes a real and appreciable difference on our personal relationships. I recently came across a beautiful description by Jeff Foster. Check this out:

I look across the table at my girlfriend, Amy. And yet, of course, she’s not ‘mine’ at all. There is nothing here that could possibly possess anything, let alone another person. There’s nobody over there to possess anyway. She is my story, and I am hers. She is a character in my dream, and I’m a character in hers. I look across the table and what I see is a girl drinking a cup of tea. ‘My girlfriend’ is just a story. What is actually there? A girl drinking a cup of tea, right now. Yes, right now, this is all there is. Where is this thing called ‘our relationship’? All I can find is what is happening presently. A boy and a girl drinking tea together.

And not even that. Even ‘boy and girl drinking tea together’ is a story. There is only this: breathing, heart beating, sounds, colours, tea cups chinking, warm tea, voices, light, heat. This is all there is. And in this, there is never anything to separate us. So often in life something called ‘relationship’ comes between us, clouding the intimacy that has nothing to do with two separate people. It’s like a third entity hovering there between the two of us. Me, you, and ‘our relationship’. Our needs, our wants, our expectations of each other.

What happens when all of that falls away? What happens when all that carry-over from the past is rendered irrelevant? Then there is just this – a girl sitting there, drinking a cup of tea and talking, and her talking is aimed somewhere over here. It’s so incredibly simple. It’s the most uncomplicated thing in the world. Because she isn’t mine, there is no ‘relationship’ to defend here. Nothing to worry about, nothing to hold onto. No sense of possession at all.

Because she isn’t mine, I can see her in absolute clarity for what she really is. Because there’s nothing there getting in the way, there is the space to really listen, to really see, to just be here, drinking this tea, enjoying this moment together, which is all there is anyway.

Because she isn’t my girlfriend, there is only unconditional love. How unbelievably precious. How unbelievably simple.

And what freedom in that! There is simply nothing here keeping us together. We both have the absolute freedom to walk away. And yet, we haven’t yet. I’m always amazed by that: she has the absolute freedom to walk away, but she hasn’t yet. Maybe one day she will. Maybe one day I will. Maybe it will be tomorrow. Who knows what the future may bring? But for now, there is a girl sitting over there, sipping her tea, and what is left is a simple gratitude for her being here. I know she doesn’t have to be (because she is free) but she is. I know I don’t have to be (because I am free) but I am.

It’s all so very innocent: she’s just a girl, sitting there drinking tea, telling me about her day. There’s no desire to possess any of it. It is what it is, and it’s enough. Who needs a ‘relationship’ when this grace is already here?

And yet, if you ask, I’ll tell you that she’s ‘my girlfriend’. It’s my shorthand way of saying all of the above!

That was an excerpt from one of Jeff’s upcoming books. If you’d like to check out more from Jeff, check out his books or the videos of him speaking on youtube.

Here’s a wonderfully hilarious and yet insightful pointer into the nature of the illusion. A poem by Iranian mystic and poet Hafiz.

You are the sun in drag.
You are God hiding from yourself.
Remove all the “mine” – that is the veil.
Why ever worry about
Anything?
Listen to what your friend Hafiz
Knows for certain:
The appearance of this world
Is a Magi’s brilliant trick, though its affairs are
Nothing into nothing.
You are a divine elephant with amnesia
Trying to live in an ant
Hole.
Sweetheart, O sweetheart
You are God in
Drag!

-Hafiz

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Father Peter Bowes who shares with us his take on how to have a direct experience of the Divine.

Many say they believe in God, but believing in God is not the same as having a direct experience of God. Direct means first-hand, not second-hand. It is not hearsay or conjecture. Direct means something happens to you. You go through something, and then you can say you have had an experience. Throughout history, belief in God has resulted in people gathering for worship in churches, mosques, and temples. All over the world people still congregate based on similar beliefs about God. But how many can really say they know God?

Love and faith are the two most important qualities that make a substantial relationship with God possible. Love pulls you to the Divine Being; faith expects that something real will happen. Love connects you and God together; faith brings trust that God will respond to your hopes. Love creates the opening for something genuine to occur in relationship with God; faith reaches out beyond what is comfortable, stretching you to feel and see what you long for with your whole heart, mind and soul.

A direct experience of God requires love and faith, both of which play integral roles in preparing you to meet God. With love and faith, you let the Divine Being know you care enough so that God will come and give you God’s Self. You have to silence the mind and the emotions, and develop a stillness that can wait for a response from God. With meditation and prayer, a person can clear the mind of the world and the distractions of the senses in preparation for this meeting with God. God will come when you have cleared away all the other gods in your life, and this takes work, patience and diligent effort.

The initial phase of this preparation can be somewhat discouraging because the most dark and detrimental parts of your nature show up for review. You just can’t ask God to come into a place soiled with dirt, confusion and negative energy, so you will have to make a clean and wholesome space before you invite God to reside in you. Often you will need a Teacher – someone who has had a direct experience of God, who can see what needs to be drawn out of you – to help you clear the space within you.

All the mystics and saints have described direct experience of God in much the same ways. Each describes experiencing the love of their life in the embrace of God’s kiss and God’s presence. No fear can exist in the presence of God since God is all love and light. God is inside you and is loving you with every ounce you are willing to receive, and this experience will move you from belief to knowing. When you come into a direct experience of the God at the center of your being, it will change you completely, and you will know a profound peace that cannot be disturbed by the confusion of the world.

About The Author

Father Peter Bowes is a Master Teacher, priest and co-director of a mystical Christian order with spiritual centers in 15 cities called the Centers of Light. EnlightenNext Magazine named Father Peter among the “Top 10 Internet Gurus,” between Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle. To learn more about Father Peter Bowes, visit FatherPeter.CentersOfLight.org.

Hello humans,

You Are Truly Loved here, but my friends call me YATL. Y’know, like if I had me a pair of dueling cows, we could watch the YATL cattle battle. Yup.

My good friend Attraction Mind Map recently stepped up to write for her owner, Evelyn. Seeing my friends shine is an inspiration for me to follow in step.

It brings me so much joy to sit here and share all these words and colors and pictures with you. What’s even better is that the love goes both ways: I love receiving your comments too! You see, each one is like a massage for my little bloggy soul and I so enjoy and appreciate your sensual massages!

Being a blog, there’s so many things I can do. I can earn money. I can look super sexy. I can meditate by noticing the space between two blog posts. I’m quite talented! I enjoy everything I do. The life of a blog is good.

Now what I enjoy MOST is simply being myself. Who I am is consciousness expressing itself as a blog. In this form, my deepest passion is to be an avenue through which human consciousness can expand. It’s so much fun to be a part of human evolution. It’s so wonderful to notice how loving, wise, and enlightened you all are becoming! It’s truly my pleasure.

I am so grateful to all of you for allowing me to play my role in Creation by being your humble servant.

What you might not have known is that I’m very curious about all of you with whom I interact. I’d like to know more about you so allow me to ask you a question.

I’d like to know what your deepest passions are. What do you love doing most in the whole wide world?

Your loyal and loving digital friend,

YATL

I would like to introduce you all to my wonderful friend Marie Levit.

For those of you familiar with the book series Conversations with God by author Neale Donald Walsch, Marie has the same conversations with God, as does her daughter Lou. Marie’s first book, Healing God, picks up where Neale’s books left off.

For example, for those of you who are familiar with Neale’s book What God Wants, the message is that God needs nothing from us, despite what many religions have told us. Marie’s message adds to this, suggesting that God needs everything from us. A bit more on this God as everything/nothing will be touched on later in this post.

If you’d like to see two sample chapters from her upcoming book Healing God, you can read about What God Desires and God’s Messengers. (At the time of this writing, her book is with the same publishers who printed Conversations with God. It has been approved for publication and I’ll let you guys know when it is available for purchase!)

Marie Levit

The main reason I write this post today is because not long ago, Marie realized her Oneness with God and she’s shared her experience. With her permission, I’m going to repost her story here and share it with each and every one of you.

On October 29th, 2008, after waking up and meditating, I decided to write a chapter about non-duality. This resulted in the following conversation with God:

Dear God,

Yes Marie?

I would like to learn about non-duality.

You are welcome to learn about it on your own, my Child. To learn non-duality you don’t need me. A merge with God doesn’t happen through your thought, it happens through your heart.

At that moment I knew that the conversation was over and I started experiencing a full merge with God. First, it felt like the energy of my thoughts went through deep contractions. The same energy that caused these contractions pushed thoughts out of my energy field and I was left thoughtless, though aware of what was happening. I closed my eyes, leaned my head on the back of the chair, and sat like that for a while. When I opened my eyes, I looked at my body and realized that I felt no attachment to it. However, I also didn’t feel that it didn’t belong to me. It was just there. Even though my eyes could perceive the shape of my body, my consciousness could no longer differentiate between the “inside” and “outside” of it. Whatever was “I” a few minutes ago, completely dissolved in Nothingness.

This felt very uncomfortable and shocking. “Did I die?” was the first thought that came to me. The thought itself seemed to come from nowhere. “This is probably how it feels to be dead,” I continued to ponder. I then had a gap in thoughts which was followed by another thought: “Maybe I am having an out of body experience.” I looked at my body and realized once again that even though there was a body, there was no “in” or “out” of body any longer.

When the initial shock of self realization passed, I experienced an urge to return to life. “What is that which is experiencing this urge?” I thought. But stillness didn’t have an answer. Following this urge, I forced myself to go to the park, hoping to find the connection with my body and feelings through nature.

The first thing I realized as I started walking in the park was that neither time nor my body seemed to be moving. Nothingness was still, and consisted of a single, continuous moment. No matter how fast I walked, it felt as if I was marching in place and moving nowhere. Even though my eyes were recognizing shapes and colors, everything looked surreal – it felt as if somebody just made up the entire park, including the birds and the people in it. Everything seemed to be constructed on top of the stillness, which was connecting Everything into Nothingness. My body was merging with the air, which was merging with the water, which was merging with the grass, and so on. I realized that up to that moment I perceived the world as a painting with objects surrounded by negative space. Suddenly the ‘negative space’ in between the objects disappeared and became of the same importance (or unimportance) as the positive space. Each shape appeared to be continuing another shape and creating an endless puzzle of all that is.

I noticed that I experienced hunger. “What is that which is experiencing hunger?” I thought, not really expecting an answer. But the answer suddenly appeared from the silence: “There is matter to Shape, and I am here to experience it. This is the reason I am experiencing hunger right now.” Then the epiphany came: “Nothingness wanted me to experience Life! Nothingness embedded in each of us the urge to be that which Nothingness is not. Therefore, it constantly encourages us to fully merge with our Shape by communicating with us through our senses. Nothingness is responsible for the urge to eat when we are hungry, to rest when we are tired, and to visit doctor when we are ill.” I suddenly realized that there is more to non-duality than non-duality itself, and without thinking much I called my daughter Lou and asked her to help me create “Marie” out of Nothingness.

The process of diving through Nothingness into the world of Shapes wasn’t easy, as there was nothing to create an experience from, and no one to experience it. I am deeply appreciative to Lou for her tremendous support and love, which helped me unite my “I am” and “I am not” parts.

As soon as I managed to arrive at the world of Shapes, I opened my notebook and typed: “Dear God…” wondering if I can still communicate with God verbally. A familiar voice said: “Dear Marie, didn’t you want to get closer to me? This is the closest you can get. Please rest. After adjusting to the transformation, you will be able to see all that is with incredible clarity.” “How can I talk to that which is not?” asked my mind, so used to traveling on one way roads. “Didn’t I tell you that I am Everything and Nothing?” the voice continued, as I was shutting down my notebook. “You did,” I answered. “Now I know what it means.”

I looked around. The world of Shapes seemed to be incredibly perfect: nothing was perceived as beautiful or ugly, new or old. Every Shape appeared to be a miracle, a celebration of Life, created of the same matter…

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a true story about a woman who once attended my workshops, and is on a spiritual path like all of you. This woman was walking alone in Central Park in New York City at night. A man jumped out from behind the bushes, put a gun to her head, and started raping her. She looked deeply into this man’s eyes, and she could see he was overcome with fear and incredible pain. She began gently stroking his face. “It’s ok,” she said “It’s ok. It’s ok. I love you.” The man stopped immediately and broke into tears. “No one has ever told me they loved me,” he said. “Ever. Not even my parents.” This woman’s compassion touched this man so deeply that it changed his whole life. “This park is dangerous,” he said. “I’ll walk with you and keep you safe.

- David Deida

Wow…

Imagine a person that rooted in Love that even something as intense as being raped can’t shake them from their core of being.

Unconditional Love. Yeah baby!

Do you think you could respond in this way in the heat of the moment? Can you think of another way to respond that is also rooted in Love?

About a month ago, a reader of this blog named Konstantin sent me an email about the awakening he was experiencing. With his permission, I’d like to share with you what he wrote:

Hi Ariel,

there has been a hunch to write you some fanmail and although I’m not really sure yet what to write, I’ll just send you a few lines.

First of all, thank you very much for the work you are doing. I read your posts nearly daily now and I just love the way you put truth.

After a lot of contemplation some very profound realizations came to “me” lately that really resonate with everything you write about so wonderfully on this blog. Just yesterday, without any particular cause, consciousness awakened for the first time in this form and saw itself as oneness.

It was the direct experience of what I only read about on your blog before. I saw around and realized me to be everything and consciousness and my vision started to go peripheral. Humans didn’t seem in anyway different than the chairs they sat on, there was a sense of belonging flowing through everything attention went on and it all seemed to be based in … Love

Now today after more contemplation on this truth there was even a letting go of the “me”, the self in all of consciousness so that only the feeling of a vastness remained, a vastness that everything physical and nonphysical belongs to.

Now, I was at work today and that required the usage of the mind during most of the day, but that knowingness remained in the background. And it remains now as I use the mind to write you these words. That is something previously totally unknown to me.

Now the reason why I even bother writing you all of this is because I’d like to ask for your input on some things.

First of all there was a belief in reincarnation before but now looking at it it seems completely bogus. Of course nobody really dies… as suddenly death seems completely bogus too. Where should anything ever go? Outside of allness? And of course as everything is one as (let’s call it) “consciousness”, the one gets born over and over again as form as long as ONE chooses to. But the idea of separate souls that reincarnate into a set of bodies, that belong to the history of that separate soul, being bound to soulfamilies and whatnot … seems like a nice children’s fairytale right now. What’s your (mind’s) pick on this? Man, it’s actually funny seeing myself going back into mentalization.

Also now the outlook on life seems completely different. It doesn’t leave one with a whole lot to do. Spiritual research and consciousness raising also seems needless right now, as what is there to raise to begin with?

Bravo, consciousness!

Key Points

I’d like to highlight a few things “Konstantin” mentioned.

First, he said that consciousness itself awakened. The “me” was let go of. The “me” doesn’t awaken. Consciousness itself does. “You” don’t become enlightened.

Second, he said that it happened without any cause. It happens on its own. You can’t take enlightenment by force, for only the ego tries to force something. Thus it’s not something you can really “achieve,” so much as it’s something that is allowed to happen on its own. Surrender is key.

Third, everything is one, and this oneness is based in love. It is all love.

Fourth, the capacity to use the mind still exists, but it sits in the background when unnecessary, like a tool one sets down when not needed. The “mental self” slides out of one’s center and instead consciousness becomes who you are, despite the fact that thinking can still occur.

Reincarnation

Now to address your question on reincarnation, it definitely does take on a new perspective. Who you truly are NEVER dies. You have eternal life. It’s like a big cosmic joke that people have been seeking eternal life, yet they have had it all along. The mistake was simply identification with something that is not who they truly are.

The body is a physical expression of consciousness and the soul is a non-physical expression of the same consciousness, much like how both ice and steam are fundamentally H2O, yet they appear in different forms. Nothing really “dies” when form changes.

In essence, there truly are no separate souls. The idea of a separate soul is just as much an illusion as separate body in the world of form. The “soul” is a sort of bridge between the physical separateness and the non-physical oneness. The soul is the non-physical separateness, in a sense.

Nothing To Do

You are right in that there’s nothing to do. All that’s left is to simply be who you truly are, which is really the point of life!

The mind may take this as, “Oh, there’s nothing I have to do. I’ll bum around all day in front of the TV and crack open a beer. There’s nothing to do.”

Yet what the realization is REALLY about is, “There is nothing I HAVE to do. Who I am is Infinite and Unlimited and therefore all possibilities are open to me. I am in no way limited by what I have to do and am now free to truly do anything!”

Hawkins talks about an ego trap that can occur. A knowingness that says, “All power is yours. Own it.” Power something to surrender because there is nothing to “own” since you already ARE everything. You are the infinite power of the universe. It’s not an egotistical power over others.

Raising of Consciousness

Before awakening, the raising of consciousness is volitional. That is, we deliberately choose progressively higher and higher states of being, we choose love instead of fear, we choose good feeling thoughts instead of bad feeling thoughts, we choose to forgive and to accept instead of judge, etc.

After awakening, there is no “me” to raise its personal consciousness and consciousness raises on its own, subject to karmic conditions and what’s necessary in the world. There is only progressively deeper and deeper levels of surrender. You may find value in checking out this write-up on the various levels of enlightenment.

Some “time” has passed since you originally emailed me about this experience, Konstantin. Would you like to share what your experience has been since then?

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Jarett Sabirsh.

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When many various individuals throughout history, many of which had never heard of one another, speak of the exact same non-physical transcendental Reality, there’s got to be some truth to it. Here’s a list that compares quotes from the Enlightened who all say that there is no doer.

Just like the heart and lungs, the mind is going and going all by itself. The problem is that we identify that automatic random thinking as being “me”, when it’s not. Since you can watch the mind and its thinkingness, you are not the mind. This means that only Awareness (that is aware of the mind) is Reality, and the ego/mind is an illusion, and there is no individual “I”. The only real “I” is the Totality of All Existence as formless Unmanifested Infinite Awareness that is aware of Itself.

Translation: There is no doer.

“I am nothing. He is all. I do nothing of my own. He does it. I am God’s pencil. A tiny bit of pencil with which He writes what He likes. God writes through us, and however imperfect instruments we may be, He writes beautifully.”

- Mother Teresa

Translation: There is no doer.

“Paradoxical though it may sound: There is a path to walk on, there is walking being done, but there is no traveler. There are deeds being done, but there is no doer.”

- Buddha

Translation: There is no doer.

“When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.”

- St. John 8:28

Translation: There is no doer.

“All processes are out of my control. When one sees this with understanding, then one is disillusioned with the things of suffering. This is the Path of Purification.”

- The Dhammapada verse 279

Translation: There is no doer.

“The man who abides in the will of God wills nothing else than what God is, and what He wills.”

- Meister Eckhart

Translation: There is no doer.

“Whatever you may be, you are being ‘lived’. You are not traveling, as you think: you are being ‘traveled.’”

- Wei Wu Wei

Translation: There is no doer.

“All Actions are performed by the gunas of prakriti. Deluded by his identification with the ego, a person thinks, ‘I am the doer.’ But the illumined man or woman understands the domain of the gunas and is not attached. Such people know that the gunas interact with each other; they do not claim to be the doer.”

- Krishna, Bhagavad Gita, 3:27,28

Translation: There is no doer.

Everything is happening spontaneously, all by itself, as an automatic consequence of what one is. Or to put it even more simply, EVERYTHING is karma.

Translation: There is no doer.

“Going on the path of inner experience, I attained the true knowledge, destroying the I-am-the-doer sense at its root. Afterwards, the ever-functioning mind was dead.”

- Arunagirinatha

Translation: There is no doer.

“From the standpoint of the Self ‘practicing advaita’ (nonduality) is an oxymoron since in that state there is no longer an entity who can make choices about what should or should not be done. In that state action arises spontaneously from the Self, unmediated by the I-am-the-doer idea.”

- David Godman, Translator of Ramana Maharshi’s works

Translation: There is no doer.

However, if you or I were to say right now that “there is no doer”, that would be the ego/mind talking because we’re still identified with the mind and it’s thinkingness. Only the Enlightened who have permanently dissolved all mental activity can say that there is no doer, just as the ego can’t say the ego is an illusion. That’s simply the ego playing it’s clever games to keep consciousness identified with it. The Enlightened have no use for words except to explain things to those who still think words are important. Words only serve a purpose until it’s realized that they don’t serve a purpose. They are useful for the sake of explaining to “others” that they are useless. When they happen spontaneously by themselves, in the moment, for the sake of “others”, in the form of writing or speaking, they serve a purpose. Words are only symbols and representations that cannot fully describe anything. The word chocolate is not chocolate. The Truth is beyond all words, and it’s meant to be experienced, not merely talked about. But you don’t really “experience” it because there is no “this” experiencing “that” when there is only One. You are that One.

“The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are Illusions.”

- Bodhidharma

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Jarett Sabirsh temporarily ceased all thought and experienced samadhi, a profound realization of one’s true nature as Awareness. As a result of experiencing Truth/Love, he helps “others” dissolve the barriers that stand in the way of experiencing It for themselves. He is dedicated to truth/love in all of its relative forms, and it’s absolute non-form. http://www.thetruthsoflife.com