Anyone can read a book on non-duality and begin talking like an enlightened person.
“It’s all an illusion. None of this is real.”
“There is no me. It’s all the One doing everything.”
“I am All That Is.”
“Love is all there is.”
and that’s all well and good. It’s a great start. It may begin breaking down old ways of seeing the world, sure. But is this it? Are we limited to just knowing the words and going through the motions? There’s gotta be something more. People who’ve woken up don’t need to learn the language of non-duality. There is a deeper wisdom available which allows them to see Reality clearly as it is.
There’s a couple things that I’m finding just aren’t satisfying anymore. In my experience, these don’t bring happiness. Not really…
Having had glimpses of my true nature in the past
Thinking I’m somehow special or part of an elite club because of this
Converting a fresh living truth into a mental belief system of “It is all One. This is it. God is everything and nothing.”
Clinging to my new beliefs, whether realized directly or heard from another, as if holding on to the feeling of “I got it and now I know” will be satisfying
Getting angry at others who are doing the same sort of thing (haaaa, projection!)
Not only knowing the truth, but needing to be right about it
Trying to get enlightened
Trying to force myself to stop the impulse towards more more more
Thinking that happiness will come in the future, not necessarily through the world, but perhaps in some lasting grand spiritual experience
Needing happiness to have a cause. If there is a cause, there can also be an ending to my happiness.
I’m not really buying into the notion anymore that there is something out there, even something called enlightenment, that’ll make me happy. There’s nothing I can attain or experience that will give me lasting happiness. This seems to be simply a delusion of mind.
This has been experienced several times before, and each time it led to a period of depression. You know, “nothing makes me happy! Oh noes! Now what am I gonna do!?” That whole bit.
But as usual, it seems to be a falling away of more mind, a recognition of the false as false, and an opening for what’s true to arise into conscious awareness.
There is also a desire to seem smart, to know ahead of time what I’m experiencing and where I’m going, to be able to put an experience or transition into a larger context so I don’t feel so lost or threatened. This desire to know is based out of fear. It’s a form of self-protection. It’s the idea of “As long as I know where I’m going and as long as I know where I’m going is safe, then I’ll allow myself to go. But I don’t trust the unknown fully as it is. I don’t trust the mystery. I won’t allow myself to fall 100% into the abyss of nothingness. I won’t allow myself to totally lose myself.” This desire to be smart and to know… it’s just another form of fear.
hm, so yeah, just venting a bit, allowing this energy to arise and be released. A way for the false to be seen as false more directly, rather than just a floating blob of thought energy.
Some people advocate believing in God, believing that unconditional love is better than suffering, believing that we’re all one, believing that you are the creator of your own reality, and so on. These belief systems can all have very powerful and helpful effects in your life. You’re probably familiar with the power of the mind and how much of an impact it has upon the reality you experience.
At the same time, other people recommend looking past beliefs entirely because they limit your knowingness. This too can be a very helpful process, and yet it seems to contradict the other way of life which uses beliefs as a tool to really impact your life.
You can believe in your beliefs so strongly that you effectively become them, yet you are not your beliefs if you are not your thoughts. What’s the dealio? If we’re doing the whole spiritual thing, should we have beliefs or not?
Marie Levit, author of Healing God, recently posted a video about this subject, discussing how beliefs fit into one’s spiritual evolution.
It’s very easy to read some wise sounding words by an enlightened guru and turn their teachings into a structured belief system. Heck, that’s basically what happened with mainstream religions like Christianity and Islam, among others.
Jesus said this. Mohammad said that. Ramana said this. Buddha said that.
When we hear things such as “we are all one,” if that’s adopted as just a belief system, it may be “better” than another belief system given that it’s more supportive to life than the idea of separation and a helpful stepping stone along the path, it’s still part of the same game people have been playing for thousands of years: Accepting belief systems on hearsay.
The mind can be convinced of ANYTHING…
Eventually there comes a time when we’re ready to look beyond all beliefs entirely and see what’s been here this whole time. What’s always true, belief or no belief.
Every word you’ve ever heard any enlightened or unenlightened person say, it must be ultimately dropped as if it itself was the Truth. The words you hear are only pointers. Every “Truth” you believe to be true, drop it. If we’re honest with ourselves, when we buy into a spiritual belief system, we’re buying into our own chosen belief systems just as much as the Nazis accepted Hitler’s fear-based beliefs. It’s two sides of the same coin. Believing in love or believing in fear. It’s still belief.
We can rationalize it by saying it’s more heart-centered or it resonates with me more or whatever, but it’s still within the same domain of mind.
Waking up out of the dream state is about going beyond ALL belief systems. PERIOD.
Check out this video where author David Hawkins addresses exactly this topic, the difference between talking about and knowing the truth.
As my friend Scott Kiloby puts it, “Spiritual ideas are like heroin. When you get hooked on any spiritual idea (including oneness, enlightenment, meditation, presence, no self, awareness, consciousness, beingness or any other idea) remember that there will be a weaning off of that idea at some point. Liberation is about the possibility of waking up now to what is looking at all those ideas rather than believing any of them.”
I’ve found for myself that the deeper I go into my own journey, the more subtle things get. Everything other than direct experiential realization and inner knowingness, GONE.
It can feel strange letting go of ideas you’re certain are true, like the idea that you are a divine being or whatever, knowing that you’ll likely wind up coming back to the same conclusions that you already now have accepted. The difference is that you’ll know due to your own inner realization, not due to some accepted belief.
The realization is of what you really are is SO much different than any belief ever could be.
Beliefs such as “I am God” or “I am Love” or “I am that I am.” If it’s just a belief, throw it out. If you want the truth, throw it out. As totally valid and accurate as any mental concept may be, holding on to spiritual truths as beliefs does nothing but transfer you from one dream state experience to another.
If you choose to cling onto dead words, you may wind up like those who clutch onto their holy scriptures as if the books themselves were literally what’s valuable, not realizing that ALL of life is EQUALLY valuable, the sinner and the saint, the king and the peasant. Remember that whole unconditional love thing? This is why. Everything is equally the divine in expression.
True realization is a living Truth, hundreds of time more real than anything the mind could imagine or could ever be put down into words.
The mind doubts and believes. Who you really are just knows.
When you know, you KNOW, and you KNOW that you know. It’s not that you believe really strongly or it makes logical sense or it sounds like a good idea or it’s what I choose to believe because it works for me and gets me what I want. No, you KNOW because you ARE it. You come from expressing the Truth of your very being.
Again, there’s nothing wrong choosing to adopt spiritual beliefs. No judgment. Many people are choosing to play this game, giving All That Is yet another experience of itself. This is certainly a higher level than some of the alternative less conscious options available. Certainly. It has its place.
Yet for those of you who are ready to smash out of the dream state, DROP ALL YOUR BELIEFS. Everything that you’ve ever read, it’s just a pointer. It’s not the Truth.
Truth isn’t found by finding the right belief system or the right religion.
Do you think you’re God? You just are what you are, regardless of that thought. Who would you be without that thought that you are God?
Everything you believe to be the Truth, drop it. See what remains.
David Hobby, a photographic lighting blogger at Strobist does this nifty thing he calls speedlinks. Basically he periodically shares a collection of cool links that are worth checking out. What a great idea. Let’s do the same thing here.
Each of these people talk about related topics, but they do from a slightly different angle with varying contexts and experiences. Appreciating their unique qualities is much like enjoying all the ingredients in a delicious pie. Oh sweet variety!
So with that, let’s dive right in!
Davidya has a great post titled The End of Ignorance where he talks about the flashes of awakening and the progressive dissolution of egoic identification. The sword of Truth at work!
Kenton Whitman brings up some funny points about being happy and being sad, and suggests that we take a look at what’s right about our emotions rather than what’s wrong about them.
Evelyn brings up a very important topic about how the pain we feel is can often be the pain of others. Recognizing this, the ability to surrender and allow the pain to pass through you without trying to ‘fix’ the problem becomes that much more important, for there’s nothing ‘wrong’ that happened other than the energy of someone else’s pain being resisted and then getting stuck within your own body. Nifty concept, eh?
Avani-Mehta discusses how to claim your personal power and learn to say no and feel good about it while coming from a place of integrity and self-respect. This is important because acceptance of what is doesn’t mean you somehow give up the ability to say no.
Irene addresses the topic of synchronicity, sharing some personal experiences of hers as well as what those synchronistic events have taught her. Synchronicity is such a fun topic and you can tell she is enjoying her ‘coincidental’ experiences in the process.
Steve Pavlina explains and illustrates how soulful relationships work when you choose to come from a place of Oneness and Unconditional Love rather than separation and fear.
Have you found some more cool spiritual articles worth checking out? Feel free to share ‘em with us down in the comments section below.
Gangaji, an awakened woman whose teachings are very similar to those of Ramana Maharshi, has an excellent video about her core message of Silent Awareness.
In this video, she discusses:
The Silent Awareness that is always alive in you
Non-dualistic silence
Dropping all beliefs
Realizing who you are rather than Believing who you are
How we’ve heard Truth, but haven’t Discovered it directly yet
What’s your impression of her teachings and her message?
Every belief is equally true in that every belief will generate a self-validating reality here in the physical world. If you believe that people are inherently good, for example, you will tend to attract that reality towards yourself. That will be your experience and it’s the subjective experience that is what matters for there is no objective reality outside yourself.
If you believe that people are inherently evil, that reality will be true for you and life will reflect back to you this reality, thus giving you evidence to support your existing belief.
So each belief is true in that it can be backed up by personal life experience if the belief is truly believed in.
Beliefs are False
Paradoxically, every belief is equally false in that it’s not literally True, but more like a pointer towards Truth. A belief is nothing more than a repeated thought that’s bought into such as “ice cream is delicious,” but the belief is not the deliciousness of ice cream itself. A belief is simply a thought.
No belief is ultimately true in and of itself. Your reflection in the mirror has no weight, no solidity. In the same way, the reflection you see back from the world which shows you your beliefs has no weight to it as well. It’s just a reflection so be careful not to get caught in thinking that your experience of the world is ACTUALLY the way things are.
The question has been coming up repeatedly the past few months: If I let go of all the emotional turbulence surrounding my issues by using techniques such as EFT, TAT, The Sedona Method, surrender, or any other technique that literally dissolves all the emotion that’s tied into our problems, will I no longer learn life’s important lessons?
To find out the answer to this question, I’ve experimented with all of these techniques personally and repeatedly had great results from each and every one of them, sat down with a whole group of therapists who teach EFT and picked their brains to learn about their experiences and results with their patients and with themselves, tried a variety of other techniques myself for comparison, and leaned into my own fears both with and without applying these techniques.
Here’s my findings, with a little foundational background first.
You Are Truly Loved features content designed to guide people towards enlightenment, unconditional love, and living a life of joy through Self-realization and proper application of the Law of Attraction.
David Hobby, a photographic lighting blogger at 
Every belief is equally true in that every belief will generate a self-validating reality here in the physical world. If you believe that people are inherently good, for example, you will tend to attract that reality towards yourself. That will be your experience and it’s the subjective experience that is what matters for there is no objective reality outside yourself.