Flaming Canyon by Marc Adamus

It seems that when many people start seeking the Truth, we look for some conceptual collection of ideas to actually BE the Truth. It could be “We are all one” or “Jesus is the son of God” or “We are a spiritual being having a human experience” or “You are the creator of your reality” or whatever else. We want to gather up a whole set of conceptual ideas and call them “The Truth” and it is what ideas should represent the “Truth” that people argue about. This is all very valuable, helpful, and transformative and finding a better set of ideas can very much help change and improve the quality of one’s life experience. For sure.

At the same time, there is something more than the conceptual, so much more. The nonconceptual.

Notice in this moment, awareness is aware. In fact there can be two things happening simultaneously. See if you can tell the difference. There is a) the concept of awareness that exists in the mind and b) nonconceptual awareness that is aware of all concepts of awareness.

Can you differentiate between the two? Being able to do so is KEY. It is a doorway beyond.

In order to go “beyond the mind” as if often said, we have to go beyond the conceptual and recognize the nonconceptual.

Take a moment to notice nonconceptual silence. Stillness.

Take a moment to notice the now moment as it is.

Take a moment to notice nonconceptual being/aliveness/existence/I Am’ness.

Take a moment to notice nonconceptual awareness.

We can read about and study spirituality, metaphysics, religion, psychology, philosophy, and so on all day long in search for the Truth. I’ve done it and I know many of you have as well. It’s all good. This is all typically the domain of the mind, of the conceptual, of temporary ideas that come and go and can be learned or forgotten. It’s all part of the game.

But what about that which is already here and exists without any effort whatsoever? What is so constantly here that like the clothing against our skin, after a while we get used to it and simply overlook it?

The classic finger pointing to the moon is pointing to the nonconceptual. The pointer is conceptual, but that to which the pointer points is nonconceptual.

What is uncreated, unmanifested, unborn, and yet vibrantly and eternally present?

You are that and it is your true nature, and it is right here, right now.

Let’s talk about some of the main differences between the awake state and the asleep state as well as address two traps that keep one falling back into (the experience of) separation.

Awareness: Awake vs. Asleep

Asleep, awareness seems to be no big deal. You can be aware of awareness, but it seems like just another thing to look at like the floor or your thoughts. Nothing special really.

Awake, awareness is seen to be what you are, not as an identity like a parent or child, but as pure presence. Some say Presence prior to name and form, but this exists outside of time entirely, yet not separate from it. This aware presence is expansive, spacious, boundless, unchanging, and free. That which is seen by awareness is intuitively recognized to be not other than awareness and not separate from it.

Awakening is simply a movement of Consciousness. It is a moving away from the identification of being a separate one to the recognition that all of life is a flowering in Consciousness being revealed.

-Cathy Rosewell Jonas

It’s possible to have the experience of vacillating between awake and asleep, something which Adyashanti refers to as a non-abiding awakening. Through simple trial and error and life experience, I’ve found there to be a number of ways to send yourself back into a state of egoic delusion. Here are two such examples:

Owning and Personalizing an Awakening Experience

“I had a spiritual awakening experience.”

While this sounds totally logical to the mind, by trying to take ownership of an awakening or claiming to be the one who experienced it, a personal self gets recreated and that very energy of dividing life into an experience and an experiencer sends one back into the world of separation. It’s like you can allow water to rest in the palm of your hand, but as soon as you try and grasp onto it, it all flows out. It seems that spiritual experiences are something that we must learn to allow to be here as they are and not hold on to or claim as “mine.” This is something that comes naturally with the maturation of awakening, not something necessarily that needs to be forced.

In Reality, all experiences simply arise in the moment. Without a separate experiencer, experiences are experienced with incredible intimacy, for there literally is no separation from or avoidance of the experience. Just pure experiencing within consciousness.

From the perspective of a separate self, things are taken personally and there is a sense of distance from the experience. When we are in love, we try and close that gap. When we go into fear, we try and widen this gap. This is why lovers come together and people may try to run away from their problems. There is a perceived sense of separation between “me” and “what I’m experiencing.”

WHO is experiencing is a very valuable question…

Clinging to an Experience

“I want to maintain this experience.”

Back to good ‘ole attachment and clinging.

The experience of awakening (which can come and go) is actually not the same thing as awakeness itself (which is eternal and literally here right now no matter how awake or asleep you are.)

The mind has a tendency of seeking the first while overlooking the second which is putting the cart before the horse. When the ego arises to create and/or maintain something that can be lost, it’s focusing upon that which is bound in time and thus not resting in the eternal and the permanent. It’s seeking to make the impermanent permanent rather than recognizing that which is already permanent and thus can’t be lost and doesn’t need to be maintained.

While logically it would make sense that one would want to maintain a pleasurable experience, the way that experience is maintained is ironically by allowing the Self (and the experience as well) to fully be as it IS. In the same way as you let the air all around you to be as it is, the One must also be allowed to be as it is. Don’t try and grasp the air. Don’t try and grasp the Self. Don’t try and grasp the experience. No grasping. Allow it all to be as it is.

Adyashanti Elaborates

Adyashanti has a program titled The End of Your World which focuses upon non-abiding awakenings and some of the traps I’ve listed above. It’s one of my absolute favorites. Below is a pair of youtube clips, excerpts from the aforementioned program where he discusses these two traps and goes into more detail.

There’s a tremendous freedom in letting go of our expectations.

With expectations, we have this inner need for something or someone to be a certain way so that we feel happy, loved, safe, or whatever else, and so we make our way through life requiring it to show up in a certain way or else we will subtly or overtly reject it.

Without expectations we go into events and experiences with tremendous freedom and openness. How will things turn out? We literally have no idea, and that’s totally okay! and the ironic thing is that when we give the world its freedom, we find ours. By giving the world its freedom to be as it is, we allow people to blossom in their own way and it’s so much easier for the world to manifest itself in a way that is in alignment with love, freedom, truth, and joy, in a way that is an expression of the highest good for all concerned, yourself included!

mmm, yes

I’ve been spending some time with someone recently who I really enjoy being with. One of the cool things is that she is able to pick up on the expectations I’ve been bringing to the table (and not been wanting to admit to), can point them out while accepting me fully as I am anyways (so healing, my goodness…), and helps me let go of so many unconscious patterns of thought that I’ve been living out for years.

Many of you guys have probably experienced this as well, but I’m finding that when I go into things with a mental story I’m trying to live into and super-impose a made-up story of “us” onto what is, it actually inhibits the natural flow of life. On the other hand, when I let go of my need for things to show up a certain way and just be authentic and get REAL, our experience of each other can be pretty incredible…

With some people you’re compatible and with others you aren’t. Totally normal. How wonderful it is when both people drop their masks and find that who they are within already clicks with who another is within and they don’t have to do any of that nonsense as far as trying to impress the other, make them happy, or any of that. You just enjoy yourself for who you are and the other for who they are while simultaneously shedding every false thought you’ve ever had about yourself or the world, as discussed in Conversations with God.

Conscious relationships are such a wonderful opportunity for expansion and growth…

Expectations as Definitions

When we seek to define ourselves, we actually limit ourselves. “I am THIS and not THAT.” Instant limitation. Why don’t we just be ourselves without needing to define ourselves at all? Just be yourself, however you happen to show up. Who cares what words define you?

In this context, defining yourself includes such definitions as “spiritual” or “loving,” as well as the attempts to strive to live up to some mental ideal such as perfect, masculine, strong, or whatever else. Just be YOU. Maybe you’ll find out that who you naturally are is already enough.

Now, by doing this, you can no longer control the outcome (or at least give yourself the illusion of control). Yes you can try to control the outcome by pretending to be this or that, but when you drop all the games, you find you have zero control over situations or other people. Here you are and here they are and that’s that. You expose yourself for who you really are, pure and naked. Is this vulnerable and scary? Sure… but so liberating!!

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

-Anais Nin

When we drop all our expectations about one another, what would that look like? Let’s allow Jeff Foster to share his experience of this with us:

Note: This has been previously shared here before, but I feel it’s worth bringing up again.

In the mind we may have this idea of finally arriving somewhere, being done, and achieving a sense of completion, whatever that means to us… but that sense of lasting and ultimate completion can never actually be achieved in this world.

Let’s look at this from both the perspective of the relative and the perspective of the absolute and see why this is the case.

Relative Destination

From the perspective of the relative, you are always expanding, always growing, always becoming aware of more of the infinite. As Abraham says, you can never get it done. Despite the temporary feeling of success at the achievement of any goal, no matter how much success you have, there’s always a desire for more, a natural part of the unfoldment of creation.

As is often said, life is about the journey, not the destination, for we spend 99.9999% of our time on the journey and whatever’s left at our destination… only to have a desire for yet another destination and so we leave our previous destination.

No matter how enlightened or conscious we become, dead or alive life still goes on, and we still do our stuff.

Absolute Destination

From the perspective of the absolute, you can never “get there” because you’re already there. You’re here, right now, and this is it. This moment. How can you possibly arrive where you already are? How can you arrive to a place you never left? From the perspective of the absolute, you can never “get to your destination” either.

It’s simple.

More More More

There is no destination you can ever reach and be “through” with your journey. You can never get to the end of infinity.

Even if you were to get fully enlightened and to realize there exists nothing beyond this moment, there may or may not be more love you wish to bring into this world, more nothingness to be, more enjoyment of the Self to be had, more people to help awaken, or whatever else creatively flows through this unique presence that you are.

Even if you die, there’s more lives to experience, and perhaps even other realities outside of this Earth to experience. Who knows?

Living Life Now

It’s not about finally arriving anywhere ultimately, but about walking the path right here, realizing you’re already here, and yet strangely walking a path anyways by allowing life to unfold as it does here and now.

It’s kinda like walking an eternal treadmill, transforming the energy all around us and giving us the appearance of things changing, but we never literally go anywhere.

We never get “there.” Ever. There is nowhere else to go. There is simply the living of life, here and now.

The paradox is that it is only by seeing through the false idea of “getting there” and letting go of ever trying to “get there” that we finally get the experience of “being there.”

The energy of “trying to get there” only creates more experience of “trying to get there and not actually being there.” When we let go of that energy, we “magically” find ourselves right here.

The notion of finally arriving somewhere in the future is simply a product of the egoic mind and actually doesn’t have much, if any, rooting in how this thing called life actually works. The destination is the carrot on the stick. Quit running after it. It’s not gonna run away from you if you stop running.

Life is about the journey, not the destination.

Being Present

It’s not about getting somewhere by reading this post, but about the experience of reading this post itself. The reading and writing of this post IS the point of this post. Experiencing creation. The post itself is the point of this post. It’s about the experience of this post, not where this post actually takes us, wherever that may be, such as closer to enlightenment or whatever.

This is the whole premise of “being present” or “being in the now.”

We may try to “be in the moment” thinking that this spiritual practice will make us more conscious or help us achieve a goal called enlightenment.

Baloney!

Being in the moment IS the point! Keep it simple! There is no goal that conscious awareness is really trying to help you achieve, although the mind may see it this way.

It’s when you really toss out that whole notion of trying to get anywhere that you find yourself automatically in the moment and amazingly exactly where you were “trying to get” in the first place.

This moment. This is it. There is no destination outside of this moment. Really. Truthfully. Honestly.

Stop the search for anything outside of this moment. You’ll never get there in time. Be here. Be now. Be yourself.

Love.

Something that seems to be developing over the last week or so is the progressive shutting down of the mind. Not that it’s somehow damaged and broken, but it seems trying to access thoughts and memories feels a lot like trying to crank an engine that just won’t start. There’s the attempted whirring of the engine, but this mind just doesn’t work the old way anymore.

Heaven’s Gates by Marc Adamus

I was at an event today and we were supposed to think of a memory that shaped our lives, and I just couldn’t get this mind to think of anything. (Assuming the “me” is the personality, I guess…)

Anyways, you know all those grudges and resentments that we carry around? Those are all falling away on their own. (Thank God.. heh)

But it’s not just the “bad” stuff that’s falling away. The “good” things are going too, though there’s no attachment to them as if I’ll somehow be less without my old good memories. They’re all just dropping away too.

Emotions, Presence, and Peace

What’s becoming increasingly prevalent in the wake of disintegrating thought is simply this moment, this present moment, and the energy arising in this moment.

If there’s resistance to this moment and a desire to somehow flee and get away from what’s arising, there’s a sort of discomfort and dis-ease. There’s a knot in this stomach.

On the other hand, when I recognize that I am here projecting this consciousness into this physical reality in order to EXPERIENCE the energies that simply aren’t available in the non-physical, when I ALLOW myself to experience whatever is arising, good OR bad, it’s like the energies simply dissolve just like that.

Through non-resistance, the energies present now dissolve now.

A lasting resentment, or what some people would call a grudge being held from something in the “past” actually has NOTHING to do with the past. There is no past. The energy now is present simply because it keeps being created and recreated Now Now Now and Now. As soon as it’s experienced fully, without judgment or resistance, but fully embraced and experienced in all its juiciness, it fades.

It’s the fear of experiencing and the running from the experience that causes emotional pain and suffering.

All there is is Here. All there is is Now.

There are a variety of energies arising Here and Now, and the “best” (if we can use that word) way it seems to handle the present moment is to simply allow it to be as it is, without resistance, and without trying to spin it around in the mind in any way.

No labeling, no understanding, no fixing, no changing, none of that… Just this moment. This is it.

In a way, it’s kinda like developing a sense of amnesia, without the sense of debilitation. What you need to know, you somehow just know. What you don’t need to know, you don’t know. So it’s not about turning into a mindless vegetable, but in having the mind go still, allowing for a deeper vehicle to awaken. Some knowingness may be memory, sure, but there is a source of wisdom beyond the mind that is opening up as well.

This isn’t some sort of technique to quiet my mind or stop the mind. If anything, it’s just happening and I’m here noticing it. In fact I’m having trouble using this mind even when I want to.

And it’s okay! It’s perfectly okay! There’s resistance arising from what’s left of the mind as it’s losing its former leadership role in my life, yet simultaneously there is a mysterious sense of freedom and lightness that is arising. It is the freedom of going beyond mind, of not being constantly at the effect of it emotionally, and in the resting in being, being that is beyond mind altogether.

I could say it’s quite beautiful in a strange sort of way, but really it’s not in that it simply can not be described by any word in duality, good or bad. It’s not any word you can think of. It just is what it is.

It’s not an emotional state. It’s not happiness. It’s not sadness. It’s somehow devoid of all of that. It’s empty. It’s not even something that would be considered desirable in a traditional sense for there’s nothing to “gain” from this. If anything it seems like a huge loss. It’s being flushed out. It is nothing.

This Isn’t Necessary

I want to add a quick addendum based on feedback I’ve been getting from this post.

First and foremost, what I’ve described above IS NOT NECESSARY in order for one to awaken. You could be totally awake and have your mind talking just as much as before, and yet you’d still be awake.

Look out for the false notion that this exact experience (or any other experience for that matter) has to happen to you as well in order for you to get wherever you’re trying to go. No no, this is just one of the many ways that the superficial level of experience can arise within the domain of being.

Everything changes, and this mental stage is not it. It too is just another passing feather in the wind, and yet I remain.

Consider this: From the linear perspective of time, with your five senses you can not perceive what is actually arising in the present moment. It’s technically impossible.

Everything you’re seeing happened a fraction of a second ago or more. It takes time for light to travel from what you’re looking at to your eyes. Thus, you are not actually seeing the present, but the past. You’re seeing something as it existed some time ago.

When you look up in the sky at the sun, you’re not looking at where the sun is now, but where the sun was 8 minutes ago. When you look up at the stars at night, you’re not looking in the direction of where the stars are now (if they even still exist and haven’t exploded since), but where they were hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years ago!

The same applies for sound. It takes time for sound to travel through the air and vibrate your ear drums. So again, you are not perceiving the present, but the past.

What about taste and touch? Perhaps they’re different because in order to experience those senses, you have to be in physical contact with the object. Thus there’s no delay as the vibration travels through space to your body.

Well, it takes time for the nerve’s impulses to travel through your body to your brain so that they may be perceived by the mind. This process too takes time.

To recognize this more clearly, why is it that when you touch a hot stove, you almost instantly pull your hand back? That’s right. Reflexes. Your body knows to pull your hand away before the signal makes it up to your brain, is processed as pain and danger, and the brain then sends a signal back to your arm to pull your hand away. Thanks to our reflexes, physical responses can happen even before mental perception.

Perception takes time. What we perceive is actually the past. You can not perceive the present moment with your physical senses. It’s physically impossible.

Perceiving in Time and Space

With your senses, you’re clearly not perceiving the entire universe at once. It’s like you’re only perceiving a tiny fraction of all of time and space at a time.

What you perceive at any moment depends both on where you are and when you are there.

If you change when you are in a particular location or space, what you perceive in that space changes. You can’t just be in the right place, but you have to be at the right place at the right time.

Similarly, if you change where you are physically relative to any object, what you experience about that object at any point in time will be different. For example, if you’re far away from a loud noise, you’ll hear it later in time than if you were really close to it. Thus, when you experience something totally depends on where you are in space.

Time and space are inseparable. They truly depend on one another. This is why people call physical reality a time/space reality or refer to time more accurately as spacetime. You can’t have one without another.

What you are perceiving at any particular moment in time is not actually what is arising in the present, but your own version of the universe, depending on where in time and space you happen to exist at any moment. It’s almost like being in your own little world!

Thus, if you want to experience the Now as it is in its pure and undistorted essence, if you want to see Reality as it actually is, a deeper part of yourself must be awakened, a part of you that exists beyond time and space. It is what is Here and Now.

Awareness, Here and Now

As long as we approach the the Present moment through the content that arises in the present, we will always perceive the past. We won’t be experiencing the Now.

Even if we think about the future, we’re looking at a thought that arose in the past, but we’re looking at it now. The looking happens now. What we are looking at happened in the past.

Let me repeat this because this is so important.

The looking happens now.

What we are looking at happened in the past.

As long as we look to experiences, memories, or perceptions, we’re not seeing the Now itself, but rather the mind’s stuff that happened in the past. The mind exists in past and future, and yet awareness is seeing whatever it is seeing, right now.

The content was created in the past, but awareness is seeing it now.

Right now, Awareness is looking at these words, regardless of when they were typed or when they showed up on your computer screen.

Awareness is aware of this moment. There is a big difference between awareness which is aware, here and now, and the content and experiences that arise within awareness.

Awareness is present. Awareness is always present. It is impossible for awareness to not be present.

The only thing awareness can be aware of is what is, here and now.

It’s not something to think about. It’s not something to understand. Thinking and understanding are all more mind-stuff that arise within time, are subject to time, and exist simply as passing content within awareness.

All satori moments, glimpses into your true nature, sudden realizations, feelings of oneness or love.. they’re all experiences that arise within awareness. None of that is what you are. None of that is it.

Connecting with Who You Are

To connect with who and what you truly are,  just be.

Be still.

Rest as awareness.

It sounds utterly simple, and it really is.

Just rest as the timeless awareness that is here and now, for that is what you already are anyways.

By looking consciousness straight in the eye, it will come to know itself clearly.

This remembrance, this reconnection to the I Am that I Am, this is the foundation of awakening.

Consciousness is peering into this world, but it is not of this world.

Awareness is like this witnessing presence that is looking through this body/mind, like a watcher of a movie looks at the screen of a movie and is immersed in the sounds and colors.

But awareness is completely independent of the movie.

Rest as awareness.

There is nothing to understand. There is nothing to figure out. Just simply be. Be who you really are. Be still. Be.

Being. It’s one of those spiritual words that’s tossed around like presence, meditation, nirvana, and so on. Not exactly one of the words that’s commonly used in day-to-day life, but is still vitally important in the whole spiritual game that can be played.

So, being. What is it anyways?

Let’s start this post off with Adyashanti going up to bat first. Batter up!

Adyashanti – What Is Being?

(Can’t embed this video, so you gotta clicka the linka.)

He describes being as the You you’ve always been. The You that you really really are, regardless of how old you are, if you’re enlightened or not, if even you’re doing the whole spiritual shebang or not.

One critical thing he points out is that “being” is “form without a particular attribute.”

This is so key.

Being vs. A Being

Typically when we think of being, we think of a being. For example, a person is a type of being. Cats are beings. Dogs are beings. There are lots of living beings and maybe even some non-physical beings running around this place like ghosts or guardian angels and whatnot.

So the word “being” is thought of as a pointer to a particular creature of some sort. An individual.

But this is not what the word “being” is pointing to when we talk about what you really are. It’s not about this being or that being. In fact, it’s not about any particular being at all!

It’s just about being. Not individualized or part of any particular living thing.

It’s not so much a thing, like a human being, but more a presence. It’s existence. It’s just here, whatever the heck it is. It’s just here.

Look to your own experience. This is easily confirmed and verified if you look within and see for yourself instead of trying to wrap your mind around some words and theory.

Look within.

Exploring Being

Being is here within.

Does it have any attributes that make it human? Do you own a human being as opposed to a cat being? Where does being end? Does it have any boundaries that you can locate? Does it have an age? Does it have a size? A color? A shape?

The living beingness that is here is formless. It is nameless. It’s just a presence that is here. and it’s always here.

It’s so obviously here that it’s totally overlooked as we make our way through life.

Connecting With Another

It is what is seen when you gaze into the eyes of any other living being. Again, being not as in an object with any particular attributes, history, personality, or any of that superficial stuff… but just living beingness. Aliveness. It is Life itself peering through the eyes of another.

Looking into the eyes of another, when you do this without labeling, categorizing, or in any way adding additional mental processing, you’re seeing Life itself. It is Life connecting with Life. Awareness seeing Awareness. Being being with Being.

No identity is necessary. No person. No man. No woman. No story superimposed upon what arises. None of that. Just Being.

There is no separation when Being connects with Being.

There’s no “me” in the way of being. There is nothing to cloud the unification.

There is simply Being with Being.

This unity we call Love.

It is One without a second.

When we talk about the idea of “living in the moment,” so often the emphasis is on being in the moment. On being present in the now. How ’bout the other half of that statement? LIVING in the moment. Fully. PASSIONATELY!

I go out hiking 1-2 times a week minimum these days. Water hikes are my favorite. Where I went today, at the top of the waterfalls there was this rope swing. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to ride one of those! For this one you climb up a tree, swing from a branch, and get launched towards the water at least a good 15 feet up above the surface. Basically, AWESOME. Did I do it?

YOU BET I DID! Over and over and over again!

To be honest, I’m getting tired of trying to be spiritual all the time and living up to some ideal called loving, non-attached, peaceful, open to what is, or whatever the heck we’re “supposed” to be when we’ve gone beyond our ego. If whatever this is is our natural state, why the heck am I trying so hard to accomplish it!? Seriously!

The transition I’m making now is to really EXPERIENCE life. FEEL it. Let it MOVE me.

Emotions

If you’re happy, be ecstatic! Why the heck would you half-ass it? Really.. WHY?

If you’re upset, be angry! Let the anger show you what you’re not okay with, what really IS NOT YOU, what you tend to overlook when things feel honky dory. In the forums I was recently doing just that, and BOY was it helpful for me to get clear on where I’m out of integrity.

If you’re feeling emotional, cry! As a guy, it feels GOOD to cry! I tear up at movies now which I haven’t done for YEARS and it makes for such a RICHER experience of life. I’ve been missing this aspect of emotional expression for far too long…

If you want to judge, judge the heck out of people, Byron Katie style. If you KNOW that everything you’re judging about others is really something about YOU, the more you can judge others and then consciously look at how YOU are not at peace with those energies. Then everyone who pisses you off and gets under your skin suddenly becomes your greatest teachers! Thank God for idiots, assholes, and retards!

If you want to be peaceful, allow yourself to be peaceful. Nothing outside of you has to change. You can just be. at peace. Set everything down and meditate quietly or pick up whatever you want and bring peaceful energy into that. Whatever. Just be the presence of peace in whatever you do.

If you’re feeling insecure in public, allow yourself to be the most insecure person ever. Maybe it’s reverse psychology or something, but when you allow your ego to be itself without resisting it, somehow its crap just dissolves right then and there before your very eyes and you naturally wind up at rest again.

Holding Back, Letting Go

I could get into how society doesn’t expect us to embrace ourselves fully. “How are you? Fine.” or “Don’t cry! Suck it up and don’t do whine around me. Be a big boy or girl!” I could talk about the tendency to not be too happy in case it makes other people uncomfortable with their own crap. But it’s not about that. It’s about ME taking FULL responsibility for who I choose to be.

And on one level, this character is not really who I am in my very essence. “Ariel, you used the word me. But, but, there is no me there! AHHHH!” I know that. Blah blah blah. Don’t miss what’s being said because it conflicts with some spiritual idea. I’m talking about how deeply is life LIVING itself in this moment? How freely is your energy flowing without self-imposed limitations?

Is this the ideal way of living when we’re super enlightened and walking on water? I don’t really care. This is how this energy wants to experience itself now and by golly it feels great to let go of yet another layer of bullshit and limitation.

Am I the most passionate person on the planet now? I don’t care! Doesn’t matter one way or another. I’m just experiencing whatever life has to offer right here, right now.

Am I fully open? I’ve noticed more and more areas in life that I still have yet to open up to and embrace, definitely, but it’s not about the past. It’s about NOW. Is there openness to life IN THIS MOMENT?

Is the way I’m living right now what I’m recommending to you? Nope. You do what you want. It’s your life and you are wherever you are on your path. This is simply where I’m at now.

Could my perspective change in the next moment? Sure!

Could I discover one day in the future that we’re meant to be totally zombied out, experiencing no extremes in emotion whatsoever, positive or negative? Sure! I’m totally open to experiencing life in new ways, discarding my old truths, and discovering something deeper. There’s no attachment to what I’m experiencing now or how it’s being experienced. It’s simply another way.

I don’t care about what’s to come in the future. Right NOW it’s about NOW. Nothing to accomplish or realize. Nothing to become, including enlightened! Just experiencing life NOW. It’s THAT SIMPLE.

LIVING NOW.

Thank you and goodnight.

Freedom. Liberation. Is it really something to achieve?

When you say, “I want to be free,” WHO wants to be free? If it’s suddenly realized that there’s no one to be free and there’s nothing other than what you are to be free of, what then?

photo credit: Michele Catania

Awareness

There is awareness. There is awareness.

For some reason there is the belief in the human mind that physical reality is what’s real, but it is nothing more than just a belief. It’s the illusion.

When awareness gets amped up and it’s realized there is nothing but awareness, the content that awareness focuses on feels so… empty and light.

Everything is nothing.

What’s the difference between physical reality, imagination, the dream world we visit at night, wherever we go after we die, locations experienced when astrally projecting, experiences that arise in deep states of meditation, and everything else?

The rules are different. Certain laws, like the laws of physics, may apply in one place and not another. Certain colors and forms and shapes appear in one and not another, but that’s about it. They’re all just different illusions appearing within awareness. They’re all like different movies that awareness can watch.

Awareness is.

and awareness is SO much more real than any observable reality.

Finding Yourself

Who you are is not found in something that can be observed, but in what does the observing. (Yet a deeper realization is that the observer and the observed are one and the same, for there exists only one presence.)

It is what can not put into a box because it is that which witnesses the box.

Your true nature can not be labeled because it is that which is aware of the label.

It is what the mind can not wrap itself around because it is the infinity in which the mind does the wrapping.

It is not found in thought because it is that which watches the thoughts.

It is not found in form because it is the formless spaciousness that allows form to be.

It is not your consciousness because it is that which is conscious of a “you” who could be conscious or have a consciousness in the first place. Rather, it is consciousness itself, directly.

It’s All One

The Infinite are One. The One is Infinite.

We experience synchronicity, where we see the same thing showing up repeatedly in multiple times, in multiple locations, and in a variety of ways.

We experience the Law of Attraction, where we see the correlation between our thoughts and what manifests.

We experience the world reflecting back to us our own state of being and our own level of consciousness, much like a mirror.

Why is this?

Because it’s ALL ONE.

See Awareness

This. This.

What is in this moment, right here and now, exists everywhere and is everpresent. The eternal presence of Here.

The awareness behind the thought.

The awareness behind the mind that looks for truth in beliefs or in evidence.

The awareness that witnesses scientific reason and religious faith.

The awareness that is so close that it’s so easily overlooked.

The awareness that witnesses the ego.

The awareness that witnesses the seeking and the clinging.

The awareness that is “found” during spiritual awakenings and “lost” if identification with form resumes.

The awareness that is aware of unenlightenment and the awareness that is aware of enlightenment.

The awareness that witnesses the most unconscious of actions and states.

The awareness that witnesses the most conscious and loving expressions.

Awareness.

Is awareness aware of itself?

Allow awareness to be aware of awareness.