BTW: Let's be straight, NO BS: There is no "truth" here. There is NO "Advaita Truth". The expression on theeternalstate.org consists of various ways of pointing; poetic non-descriptions of What Always IS. Please believe NOTHING here. If there is "Grace" looking beyond the concepts, and seeing clearly, may well happen. May that be so for all who find this space. Love, Charlie
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NOTE If there is persistent and deep psychological suffering, please make sure there is not a physical component. If you are very depressed, angry, or have thoughts of suicide there may be a mechanical element ... get a good physician and/or psychiatrist (NOT a psychologist) to look at the machine and see if it has some chemical imbalance. Non-duality is NOT a substitute for proper medical assessment and care!
GO BACK
Q: This might sound crazy but somewhere I know that I am missing Life itself by not allowing this knowledge to be fully present and totally lived .. this is the main suffering .. how can one stop pushing Life away when seen that this is what is happening?
C: All those words, all your questions, are intrinsically meaningless thoughts. Notice the unchanging I AM that they appear in. All that is temporal (temporary!). What never changes is what you are. That is Love, accepting all that appears on its own Face, the presence of awareness that IS right here right now. Just see what is fully alive, present ... Read Moreand knowing right now, right here, before 'time', 'Sarita', or 'charlie' concepts appear. You are That which cannot be touched by any word or object. That is what we call being-knowing-love. Remember NO word is the actual! The word love is not Love. Love is WORDLESS yet lovingly allows any and all words, objects, appearances ... without judgment, unaffected ... as the Gita pointed out, That cannot be blown by wind, wetted by rain, burnt by fire. To know yourself as that requires the courage to give up all identification... all identities are false...reality is identity-less ... give up all ideas such as I am this body with this name".
Know this for yourself, here and now: "Before God is, I AM."
Ask this also, who precisely IS this "I" that is "missing life itself by not allowing... etc" ... where is that separate I and is it actually a real thing apart? All the while you are claiming to be missing life, life is happening! Who cannot see this? There is nothing in the way of Life. If you believe you can alter anything in this dream. of being in life itself then stop the next hurricane from hitting Florida! It is our arrogance that claims we can "not allow" anything including realization that we are life itself. Drop it like the hot knife it is that seemingly murders your aliveness right now. All you have to lose is everything you hold dear... your imaginary limited self. Losing everything, the Paradise you never lost is "regained". I Love You.
Q: To keep on pondering the jewels you gave here is what I feel is right as to respect their deep value .. by now in investigation, no one is found as ever present I and at the same time I AM HERE .. Who and where? No answer actually fulfill the question .. so the only thing that remain is the sense of being and the looking ... Meet u in Paradise .. Love You too in Freedom.
Q: You say, “no one is found as ever present I and at the same time I AM HERE …" that is the key insight! What is that I which is here now? The I Consciousness (A'Ham) ... endless beginningless Being. THAT I AM is true reality and love. Notice that THIS I AM is NOT a concept, NOT an idea, NOT even an experience! This I AM is the Paradise we were seeking ... stunningly finding It already fully present as this simple Being-Knowing-Loving. So you have rediscovered Paradise in the simple seeing "there is no separate i and at the same eternal-time I AM. Here and now that I AM endures forever. You carry the whole universe here, in your own heart! So I say welcome back to the Home you never left (the mind lied but now you know that Truth that sets us free in Itself. YAY!)
Another way to point ... the True I IS Ever-Present, Always ON ... in the same way that even when it appears to be dark outside we KNOW that the sun is ever-present, shining despite the appearance that it is not because the earth blocks the physical eye's view of it ... the knowing is naturally, the earth revolves around the sun and it is never not... Read More shining. In this way see that the Light of Being, Awareness-Light, IS always shining and cannot be extinguished despite the appearance of thoughts, ideas and false beliefs that like the earth seems to keep the sun from view seem to keep the Light of the Eternal I from view. YOU are that Pure I that is seen here now, that is the Self of All. Know this now, don't refuse to be That, don't pretend ever again you are not That. That, I AM. There is but ONE I-I BEING the knowing I AM. This is the truth (satyam).
Q: Sometimes I realize I exist (not the conceptual I) and in those moments things are sweet and nice and what is is! It’s like waking up to a beautiful dawn (of course there is no one to wake up). However, suddenly there is suffering and I am back to the little I being ME. I am back to seeking, etc.
C: But where IS this I”? In deep sleep “you” are not there, yet the life of that organism lives without your being there at all. The exact same is happening in the waking and dreaming states, with the trivial exception of a thought coming and going, which out of insecurity or fear we attach to and identify with. That “I” thought DOES represent something. What does that “I” point to? Undeniably, YOU ARE and prior to any thought, that existingness IS. It's the most obvious clarity. Overlooking that in favor of a thought story of an I is the cause of all suffering.
Q: I have been baffled as to how you do self inquiry. I know you can ask, 'who am I' but I still am unsure if it’s an intellectual question or if it’s something to drop into presence during still moments. After reading the chapter on, 'how do I do self inquiry' in your book 'Paradise Found'. I asked myself, 'who’s asking' and then tried going deeper but I come down to being just IT or the BRAIN. This is where I get stuck. There is the sense that I am the brain and operating consciously from that and observing its thinking. Any ideas?
C: Read your own message again. Watch your own mind go I-I-I-I-I-I! Listen to your “little self-identity” and look right now: Is it real? Or is it a THOUGHT? Can a thought do anything? That “I” cannot really do self inquiry! How could a thought find it is not real? It’s tail chasing. Where is an "it" or a "brain" without words, concepts? All of which just come and go in Infinite Awareness, which you cannot "know" because you ARE That...
Settle in with the pointers rather than try to “do” your way out. There is ultimately NO way out for a "you" that is unreal to start with! That said, if some inquiry or whatever comes up by itself, fine. This is not about rejecting practice, nor about the “I” understanding its true nature. The “I” doesn’t HAVE a “true nature”!
Again WHERE is this separate entity with the label “I” that “gets stuck”?
There is no one in there so who would “do” some “practice"? Look at this: When you assume that what you are is a limited finite person, that you represent in language as "I", "me", you reinforce that assumed identity by taking up this or that practice to perfect this finite persona. But if that practice assumes you are a separate identity how could that practice allow you to transcend that false persona? That is like turning the dirty cop in the precinct out to catch the dirty cop in the precinct. And yet it appears to happen. That’s the paradox of this, which the mind cannot ever grasp because the “mind" is only a thought! Can a thought grasp thought?
Q: Also, I have been thinking of meeting you. I know you live far away (I am in MD) and was wondering if it is possible to meet you in person some day?
C: You are welcome to come any time. However there may be no particular advantage in a face to face ... I found on meeting John Wheeler that his writings were actually more potent in a way owing to the absence of perceptive distractions! But I am still alays happy to hang out with John; he is a great guy.
Shall we?eep this real simple? You say "I exist" but in actual FACT, can you find, in REAL and actual nonconceptual experience, any such existing entity? This is a deeper look into this. Where is any I that exists - ACTUALLY? In simply terms, "you" do NOT exist. Yet existence appears as all of this - space and apparent content of space - in the timeless Dream Of Oneness.
The final question sometimes appears as "who is asking 'who am I'?" But that question has NO answer. That blankness you describe IS the actuality of infinite being, infinite space, infinite love.
Who or what is claiming a flip flop, me-and-BE? These are but energy arising as thoughts in Silence and these are never apart from The Silence, are they? This Silence is the Heart, the Substrate, of Consciousness, arising as that life force that makes the body live. Your problem is that you persist in identifying Consciousness as that body-brain-mind machine with it's, thoughts, feelings, experiences, senses, and perceptions. Of course again we come to a paradox: You don't do that! If you were doing it you would assuredly STOP doing it as it brings suffering!
So WHO or WHAT IS doing all this? That is the unanswerable question. Ask YOUR SELF, "What is That which I don't know that I don't know"?
Ponder this from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: "What makes you consider yourself a person [with its flip flops etc.]? Your identification with the body. Will this individual personality last? It will remain only so long as long as the identification with the body remains. But once there is a firm conviction that you are not the body, then that individuality is lost. It is the simplest thing, as soon as you have this conviction that you are not the body, then automatically, instantaneously, you become the manifest totality."
That manifest totality IS your Original nature, already complete and Presencing as the space-like Awareness IN which all that is manifest appears. The point being that Space and Its Content are of Single Essence - Aliveness arising from Nowhere and translated by language as I am, I exist.
Ponder this: You do not exist, and yet, YOU ARE. Nothing/Everything, Wisdom/Love.
And your Original Nature is that which is Prior to language. The closest language can come to That is, Being - What I don't know that I don't know.
(This is also an excerpt from the upcoming book, “You Are Unborn”, scheduled for publication in November 2009).
Clearly, awareness cannot know itself as a "thing apart". It is not an object to itself, any more than being is an object to itself. You ARE yourself. That fact cannot be doubted at any time. That doubtless fact is the basis of all subsequent experiencing. Awareness is self-shining, self-radiant, self-existent. Even before "knowing I am", I must be there as that to which that recognition happens. It is like the eye. It can never see itself. Yet one does not doubt having eyes. Non-conceptual being-awareness is similar. It can never be known as an object. On the other hand, it cannot be unknown either, also because it is not object. Yet no one ever doubts himself or herself in the equation. All the states and appearances, even sleep, the moments between thoughts, etc., happen in what you are. Even consciousness and unconsciousness are states rotating through the constancy of your undeniable existence. It is the ever-present space or backdrop for everything. The "everything" has no substance or independent existence outside of this, so in essence the "everything" is this also. It is so obvious, simple and self-evident that we keep overlooking it. It is the radiant space in which all of life appears.
Q: For many years, my background was in Christianity, but for the last few years I have been steeped in non-duality...reading books, listening to audio downloads, watching videos. I realize that my true nature is awareness and that my old identity just doesn't exist.
C. You do NOT “have” a True nature. You still seem to think you are a separate entity that owns something called a True nature. That is a common pitfall in these so called “teachings” and is very misleading.
Q: What has been bothering me lately is what is it that survives death? I realize that my true nature (awareness) survives of course, but is that it? Do we recognize ourselves at all after death? Or do we just fall asleep, have a good dream, and never wake up?
Just who is this that would die or be born, survive or not, dream or not? WHO? There is no reality to the assumed identity, EVEN an assumed identity called “I am Awareness”. Or "I am everything" or I am all there is". ALL identities are false, clouds of energy assuming a solidity that just ain't there in FACT...It’s all a derma, all a mirage, a lake with no water. The Universe-Appearance is just NO thing LOOKING like everything! Like the mirage lake in the desert LOOKS like water but on closer looking is seen to be absolutely NOTHING.
Q: I sure would appreciate some clarity about this, and I was hoping you could help me out some. I've read all your books, but I just don't find much information that solves my question.
C. Okay, to directly answer the question the way you framed it, in the context in which it is asked:
NOTHING SURVIVES DEATH.
NO THING HAS ETERNAL EXISTENCE! ONLY No Thing!
That means, NO THING.
And YOU ARE that … No Thing.
So, the answer IS pointed to, in the books … notice what is repeated over and over. Always the mind is challenged to investigate its assumed identity as a “thing” with a solid separate existence. It is the answer the mind gets when the question is asked, “WHO asks the question? Looking at that right now, what “answerer is there? There is no answer, no one to answer, no thing at all, just emptiness, spacelike, yet awake and aware as Being-Consciousness Itself … and what IS is The Eternal Nothingness PRIOR to “Consciousness." And you will NEVER "know" This ... The Eternal No Thing ... because you ARE This Eternal No Thing (appearing as every thing as ALL is ONE Essence of Being Not-A-Something yet Everything. IMPOSSIBLE to grasp. Give that up! Trying to grasp the essence is a loser's game, my friend.
The answer is NOT in or for the mind!
So: There absolutely is NO answer; there IS no “you” that was born and can therefore die. And that IS the answer. All that is born is a false idea of an “I” apart from everything/nothing. That is born and dies. Moment by moment.
As the questioner is always brought back to look, WHO asks this? WHO wants to know? WHO is concerned with this question?
Find that there IS no answer and the question dissolves along with the questioner. And liberation happens, but not for “you”. This is liberation from “you” and not for “you”.
All there is, is already liberation, already freedom. And so long as there is that veil of assumption, this liberation is forever denied to you. As long as you look for freedom that very freedom that IS remains forever beyond your grasp. But if the frustration with failing to find what you seek becomes potent enough, then there may be a fading of the seeker and a seeing directly for no one that there is nothing to attain, nothing to find, because there never was a “person’ who wad NOT free. If that happens, then we might call that … Grace. But no one can make Grace happen!
The bottom line is Nothing Survives Death. And you are THAT … No THING.
And That is Compassion, and Love, my friend. So BE as you are … No Thing appearing as Every thing. And that is all there is for no one to get!
Follow-up:
Q: Wow! Thanks so much. That question was answered so completely and it is very much appreciated. Your answer will take a few readings, but it sure cleared up things nicely. Love and appreciation, and P.S. Thanks for not holding back!
C. You are very welcome, my friend. Stay in touch as and when The One moves that to happen!
I am reposting this one again: This a great authentic expression of the One Heart, from a down to earth guy whose clarity and love of Being are unmistakable. Enjoy!.
YOU are BEING. Simply being. Try to NOT BE. Cannot be done. So the simple pointer is, what you are is THIS ... all there is is This, what is Real is Timeless Being. Just That! This ... BE-ING... is POINTED TO in language with concepts like Impersonal Consciousness; Awareness, Emptiness, No Thing ... or just, Being ... YOU are just THIS ... prior to the mind's language-construct or translation into the thought I Am and I am this or that.
THIS is Impossible to know, impossible to gain, impossible to lose, and if this is "understood", that ... understanding ... is NOT This.
"Understanding" is of no value here. Understanding is, quite simply, the Booby Prize!
You are NOT an "individual." There are NO "individuals" anywhere except in unreal stories. The idea of a separate person is a fiction, a mind-construction, a house of cards, as the story tries to say, “I’m ME! (Unsuccessfully!) This idea of a "me" is be a false claim ... an assertion devoid of authentic evidence ... made by a machine, linguistic machinery ... to it's own separate existence. This ever-changing idea of a person is simply unreal. WHO says "I'm Me?" The mind. To be blunt, it's bullshit. The whole fabricated story of me is pure bullshit: all stories of “individuals” is actually a fiction. As Shakespeare said, it’s a tale told by an idiot, filled with sound and fury, signifying … NOTHING. It's all made uop ... by no one!
Where is there any "person"? The "person" is merely a temporary appearance that arises ONLY in "thoughts", subtle words, language. Thoughts come and go. What you ARE NEVER comes and goes anywhere. It is (You Are) fully Here Now and Eternally Free and Clear, the One Eternal Presence.
Look and see that there IS BEING. Being IS, Being is Eternally No Thing, BEING IS, even before the mentally constructed temporal notions of "here" or "now".
BEING IS. Just THIS as-it-is. There is NO someday when “you” will “get enlightened.” It's what you are right now. There is no other than THIS. BEING IS. One Not Two. No Thing appearing as everything. There is nowhere else, there is no one else, there is ONLY BEING. ONLY This. As It IS....
Wherever you go you are ... Here. Whatever the 'timepiece' indicates, it is ... Now. Here and Now. Now and Here. (NoWHere). What's wrong with Now? What's missing in Here? This Here-Now is Presence, Awareness, Emptiness ... Loving what IS.
What IS, Is. And That's THAT. ..... The pointer comes, "I Am That; Thou Art That, there is ONLY That". What IS That? THAT IS. Just IS. And so ... Here and Now: That's THAT.
That's What? Everything. EVERYTHING .... Just That.
It is often said "being is knowing". In fact that is what this blog is called (got to call it something, I suppose). But the more potent expression might be a question: "What is beyond knowing"? ANY answer stops the seeing and is just impotent and irrelevant... what is that which IS, beyond seeing, knowing, even beyond being? No answer. Open question, open secret.
Q: Okay, I have asked who am I, what am I, like Ramana Maharshi's and Nisargadatta Maharaj's books say I need to do. You also mention that kind of investigation in your books. There doesn't seem tto be any answer. All I get is an empty silence. So now my question is, WHAT AM I really and truly and how come I can't find an answer?
C: Good question, First off, the end of seeking consists in not knowing any answer. So NO answer is THE answer. It is in the failure to grasp any answer that the natural Seeing is unconcealed.
Secondly: The concept for what is seen directly is, what you are is the Space IN which both the question and the assumed question-ER appear and disappear. That Space ... Being-seeing-Knowing-ness ... never changes ever. You are not the concept space. You are the ACTUAL Space. THAT is the essence and formless energy that appears as all that is, THAT is both empty and filled with joy and aliveness, love and vitality. In a Zen way of pointing That is both everything ad nothing. Full stop.
To paraphrase 'Sailor' Bob Adamson, the questioner is the question. They cancel each other out. What remains? space, this bare naked presence-awareness. You are That and everything is That.
I am reposting Podcast # 05 here because it is SO clear! Don't overlook this one! This clear and potent expression comes out from Rodney Stevens, a gentle, humble guy who, while a "newcomer" to the "Advaita Nonduality" scene, shares the exact same timeless message that has come through the True Sages from the beginning of time. This Talk is straight from the Heart, the Self. Listen over and over until any and all doubts are erased by this Reality of what IS. Let this one break down the apparent "stone walls" surrounding the Truth of what YOU are. Seeing the walls as insubstantial, just clouds that Love burns away, like the sun burns away the fog and clouds in the sky of this dream-world, ends all doubts, questions and suffering right now....
