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The Confusion of Everything Being Now

So people say things like “The Future is Now” or “The Past and Future are Illusions” or “The Now Moment is the only moment that exists.” And yet this can still seem kinda out there, y’know? It doesn’t really make sense. While we may say those things and hear others say it, it may not fully resonate with the very core of our being, in every fiber of our body. There may still be an element of “I understand that you’re saying that everything exists now, but I’m still experiencing past and future!”

Instead of trying to see timelessness from the perspective of time, let’s see how timelessness sees time. Let’s see if we can bring some clarity to the idea that “Everything Exists Now.”

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How Old Are You?

So how old are you?

Does your physical age define or limit you? Is there something more?

All my life people have told me stuff like “You’re so lucky to be getting this stuff so early in life.” or “You’re only XYZ years old? How do you know all this so young?”

To be honest, the age of this physical body has little do with the age that I feel I am, and this is probably true for many of us, isn’t it? Yet it’s what people see nonetheless.

How old are we? Let’s take a look at that question by diving deeper into both the seen and the unseen.

It seems that by starting with the physical age and exploring beyond, there’s many different ways we could look at age:

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Do We Go Unconscious When We Sleep?

Scientists like to explore the idea of consciousness as if it’s something that a physical being has. You know, people have a consciousness and when hit in the head, can lose consciousness. Rocks don’t have a consciousness. They have a physical existence, but presumably no conscious awareness of their own existence. Pysicality is taken to be primary and consciousness is taken to be some sort of optional secondary manifestation that may or may not arise from physicality. What causes consciousness? Perhaps it’s a chemical reaction in the brain, a product of our biology… it’s somehow a functioning of physicality.

This is further evidenced by the fact that we can seemingly lose consciousness, and we even go unconscious when we sleep at night. Clearly our bodies still exist, and other people can confirm this for us, but we have no sense of self-awareness, and so it seems like physicality comes first, while consciousness comes second. If anything, the body, as temporary as it is, seems more continuous and experientially permanent than consciousness. From this perspective, it’s only natural that we perceive ourselves to be this physicalized being. At the same time, there’s “my” consciousness and “your” consciousness.

I’m sitting here reading through a copy of I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj and he just brought up something (Chapter 18) which shot right through the heart of a deep confusion and misunderstanding within me and triggered a big ‘aha’. In the book a questioner sits down with Nisargadatta and brings up the points and enters into a dialogue about this subject.

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The Freedom of Awareness

When we believe our thoughts, then perhaps out a love for truth or a sincere desire to finally end our suffering, we can begin inquiring into our own thoughts. Byron Katie offers a wonderful method.

Is this thought true?
Do we know absolutely for sure that it is true?
How do we feel when we believe this thought?
Who would we be without this thought?
Is the opposite thought as true as or perhaps more true than the original thought?

As we systematically begin letting go of untruths and misunderstandings, more and more we begin to discover ourselves to be not our thoughts, but actually this empty, spacious, expansive, boundless, and inherently free awareness.

That which is aware of these words. That which is aware of what it feels like to be a separate person who believes their thoughts and then inquires about their thoughts. Not some conceptual mysterious invisible Infinite Self thingy that we have to go find, but just this awareness that’s so clearly right HERE!

As awareness, somehow there is love, adoration, affection, and overflowing appreciation for all that is witnessed, and oddly enough, somehow that which is witnessed is not felt to be separate from or other than awareness. Freedom as awareness, with nothing to grab onto, not even a spiritual nondual idea or belief system to call the truth. Nothing to grab onto. Just being what you naturally are…

The gift of Truth, it is then discovered, is not contained in a mental conceptual encapsulation of some ideas or collection of thoughts that are “the right answer,” but in the living conscious realization of what you truly are.

This is the end of the search and perhaps the beginning of truly living. This is the revelation of the Divine equally in every ordinary and extraordinary moment. The two are one and the same. Summiting a mountain or sipping a cup of tea, both are seen to be ordinary and extraordinary. All is radiantly alive, and this aliveness is what you are, seeing yourself in and as All That Is.

Infinite Love and Joyous Freedom beyond the mind, as awareness, here and now.

Dying Dying Dying, Dying to Live…

Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practise this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.

-Anthony de Mello

Have you ever gotten used to a person or place to the point where it loses its magic and spark and you begin taking it for granted? It often isn’t until we stop and recognize that this could all be gone tomorrow,really,  ’till we let this sink in and allow ourselves to live from this space, that we truly begin to appreciate what we have right now.

Many people fear death, and yet it’s the recognition that everything in the world is disappearing and dying literally as we speak that helps us be that much more alive! Interesting… Death, it inspires us to really be alive!

(Embedding is disabled in the official Adyashanti version, so if you prefer you can click here to watch this same video on youtube w/o hebrew subtitles.)

The other day a spectacular opportunity has literally just fallen into my lap, a culmination of many of my biggest passions and a crystal clear manifestation that makes me feel grateful for all the things that happened and all the things that didn’t. It’s like I can see WHY certain things I thought I wanted to happen didn’t (and thank goodness they didn’t!), and I am incredibly grateful for being able to see how perfectly everything has unfolded for me in my time here in Colorado. It makes me so grateful for everything that is happening now and even what is yet to come, seeing how well it’s all being so utterly mind-boggling perfectly orchestrated…

So now I am tying up loose ends here in Boulder (ie. closing down my PO box, cancelling my gym membership which allowed me to shower, picking up boxes of stuff I’d temporarily dropped off at a friend’s place, saying goodbye to friends I’ve made here, etc.) and getting ready to head west yet again, this time to California. While I don’t want to go into the details of it quite yet as there’s lots of cool stuff that’s still in the beginning stages, let’s just say that this could be huuuuuge…

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Recognizing Arrogance and Looking Down Upon Lower Levels

The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop and overheard a conversation by some high schoolers, probably juniors or seniors. They were talking about how sophomores would look down upon the freshman and say things like, “stupid freshman,” and these kids were taken aback by this statement, pointing out these sophomores were freshman too not too long ago, and now they had turned against what used to be their own kind.

This pattern is pretty common, isn’t it? Although being a freshman is a necessary bridge that leads to being a sophomore, like all stepping stones they are needed until they no longer are. But what good does it do to invalidate that stepping stone just because you are no longer there?

If you like where you are now, why not simply recognize that that stepping stone, that bridge was necessary to get to where you are now. In this recognition, there is a feeling of gratitude and a sense of respect towards others who are walking the path you, too, once walked.

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ISness, Undivided

Noticing all the various spiritual points of view like the absolute and the relative, the individual, the one, the infinite, and so on.. we may find that these actually wind up being ways to divide up ISness, pure being. In this video, we explore this topic as we point towards what IS behind all these ways of speaking about what is:

Affectionate Awareness

Been rockin’ out some talks on video lately as I travel around.

Here’s one on the nature of awareness, affectionate awareness.