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
This Podcast
consists of highlights of the meeting held here on 27 December 2009 and contains the pure essence
of what is shared here. This sharing is BEYOND religion, spirituality and
philosophy, beyend theism or atheism, and beyond agnosis or gnosis.
Beyond the
"Field of dreams" which we mistakenly we call "reality",
there is an Eternal Stateless Presence which never changes. THAT is what you
really are. There is only That. Seeing That clears away all clouds of both
knowing and unknowing, leaving you as the unchanging Unborn Being at the heart
of all creation.
Click to play
(or right click and save to download):
Thanks for
listening. Feel free to e-mail a comment to non.duality@yahoo.com. Consultations are available, inquire by e-mail, or via Skype message to charliehayes36. You may also call USA +1 580-701-4793 for details. NOTE ... If you are getting value from this Space, we request that you offer a small donation to help defray costs. Thank You!
PS: The post below, "Beyond Spirituality", is a compliment to this Audio and we recommend you read that carefully as well as listening to this Podcast.
From ‘being different’ to Being Reality … the end
of seeking and the dissolution of the “myth of enlightenment”
Q: I have been watching some of your clips on YouTube
and reading some on your blog. And I have a question: A couple of months ago
"I" had this experience of how my true
identity was not me as a person. There was just this nothingness and the
one I thought was me was just seen as an illusory identity. Like a software
program in this mind/body-mechanism to make it able to function in this
physical dimension. But this mechanism had no identity, because, well, it's
just a mechanism. Instead there was NO me at all. NO identity. Or you could also
say that "my" identity was a vast nothingness. I’m not really a
person.
C: Exactly. That is the core insight… the
seeing-knowing that yes, there is no person, and that seeing IS the
timeless reaity. Now, however, you say “there WAS no person”. There still
IS no person, and there never was or could be a real separate “person”; that
was and is only a false assumption taken on board as an identity that never was
more than a mirage, an illusion. But that is ONLY a concept and NO concept is
“true”!
Moreover, the idea “there WAS no person’ is just
presently arising thought in unchanging naked awareness. You ARE that Naked
Awareness. No idea or concept is the Real You. Even to say “You are Naked
Awareness” is in a way, false; or only a pointer. The word is NOT the actual.
Q: And to come to my question; after this it has
been problematic to find the so called "meaning" with anything.
Somehow I can't see the point in anything. Meaning with life? ... I can't
see any such thing. So what if someone becomes "realized",
"enlightened" or whatever? (I don't see how anyone can BECOME
something because it seems we are just eternal awareness/consciousness
anyway.).
C: Quite right, my friend. But remember that the
concept awareness/consciousness is not the actual space-like essence at all. NO
word can capture what is essentially wordless, yet paradoxically, filled with
energy and a very alive presence. "Form is emptiness, emptiness is
form" is a good pointer: These are NOT TWO. This is Non-Duality.
Q: The concept of "meaning" just doesn't
stick to anything anymore. This nothingness seems to be "stuck" in
every aspect of my life.
C: Whose life!? This is a reinforcement of the
false … the return of an assumption held onto that there actually IS a “person”
… and now that “person” claims “there is no person”. That’s why the pointer
“there is no person” really does not get at what we need to get at … the
assumption itself, the preverbal “knowing I am me” that is still operating
here. Your sharing shows that this false assumption is still operating “in deep
background’ and it is that which needs to be challenged, uprooted, and found to
be unreal.
Q: Suddenly everything is nothing. Even emotions.
My emotions seem almost numb somehow. Everything is no neural and in a way
very dull.
C: Yes, that can happen so long as that assumption referenced above
remains fundamentally and directly unchallenged.
As John Wheeler reminded me repeatedly
“Understanding is the key.” Understanding comes form investigation. Get really
curious to see what this I is that claims “there’s no meaning" or
"it’s all empty and numb somehow”. That is “the end game”. Get down to
brass tacks: what IS this assumed sense of life, sense of being, that still
operates as a seemingly separate me-person despite the insight that happened.
Yesterday’s insight has no value at all; it’s dead conceptualizing now.
Presently, what is real? Your Being Itself. That Being remains forever, Unborn.
No thing yet appearing as everything. To paraphrase Sri Nisargadatta, when the
seeing “I am no one” happens there arises wisdom. Bit that is only half of
this. When the seeing is I am everything, that is Love. And this love is the
Reality of your very Being. Which Nisargadatta expressed as, “My silence sings.
My emptiness is full”. So the invitation is to get very very interested in what
it is that “feels numb: and asserts “there is no one”. If there is truly no one
who would be making these claims of some lack or limitation, some apparent
suffering? The false cannot stand up to solid, earnest investigation. The ball
is in your court now my friend. Please feel free to write again as the One
moves that to arise and happen. Meanwhile, BE. Just BE what you already ARE,
Naked Unborn Awareness ... and only That. Seeing into the manifestation with
and from naked Awareness, find out of that assumed sense-of-me is real once and
for all. Thanks for a good question. Cheers and love,
Q: Thanks
a lot Charlie for your very in-depth answer. You have no idea how much this
means to me.... or maybe you have some idea. Anyway, I have some contemplation
to do now.
C: It's
my pleasure! Stay in touch. Let's nail this down once and for good.
Q: There still seems to exist a duality in
"me". Even though that duality can't be real. On the one hand,
the person is not there and instead there is nothing, a vast vacuum or space or
eternal sea where no ripple can be created. Focusing on that is
blissful.
C: Well perhaps but that is a pendulum swing and the
other side of it is suffering! Blissful states are temporary. All states are
temporary and NOT what we are pointing to as your True Self!
Q: I like that expression, "EternalSea where no
ripple can be created".
C: That’s really not all that clear. The ripples are the
same essence of water as the sea: This is NOT TWO. In the same way that your
essence of pure Awareness and all the seemingly separate appearances are ALL
that same essence. Not Two.
Q: And on the other hand it is not being understood
or seen how this space, nothingness or whatever is also
everything. "Form is emptiness and emptiness is form". That doesn't
quite compute here for some reason. The nothingness is more like. Well,
just simply nothing, and not even nothing because nothing is just a word. How
the everything is the same as that, or one with it, is not seen.
C: Can there be two no things? Oneness IS No Thing NOT
Two... Also, “everything” is also just a word, a concept. NO concept can ever
capture or define what you are! The No Thing is NOT a thing that the mind can
grasp or own; Awareness, No Thing, is NOT personal and NOT an object with
properties. It appears that there is still a subtle fixation on being “someone”
who is somehow defective because “it is not being understood”. Do you need to
understand this to BE? Awareness is absolutely no thing and that means NO thing.
Yet is, that No Thing, is infused with Freedom and Aliveness; we call that
Aliveness ... Simple Being! Life Being Life. Your Real Self.
Please start out from the one FACT you cannot escape or
deny: You ARE. Being IS! Irrefutable. Or Awareness IS. That true nature is
never not here and never touched by any concept or object. But to make "no
thing" into an object will also lead to making “everything” into ANOTHER
separate object. This will keep the tacitly assumed self-center (the pre-verbal
“I AM the me” assumption) in place and keep the mind spinning in this
confusion. But the idea of being someone is ONLY a passing fancy and a learned
notion adopted by a two-year-old’s brain and imbedded and it kind of has turned
solid. But it is NOT actually solid when looked directly into. This is why
investigation must happen to root out the false assumption that “there IS a
‘me’ and that ‘me’ IS real”. It’s a belief and NOT what actually IS. It takes
discrimination and looking, rather than stopping at some assertion like “I am
no thing” because that statement will just become another definition pasted
onto your true indefinable nature.
Q: But is there really a need for that understanding? I
mean, who is trying to understand it?
C: What is needed is the understanding of A) what you ARE
and B) the mechanics of suffering and assumed separation. That's is essential.
That's what is shared here.
Q: And I notice how I put that in the terms of "on
the one hand...and on the other hand", like there are two
separate things when in fact there is not. But still that understanding is not
being felt and understood here... or is that just the fake person sneaking
up from the shadows like a zombie creating a kind of separation?
C: No explanation will satisfy because what wants an explanation
is a false self that has no more real existence than Santa Claus. And who is
this “I” that says “I notice?” “I put…” etc? Where is it? What is that
I-assumption, that self-center, actually made of? Presently arising thoughts,
appearing in the empty space of your true nature of Awareness.
The crucial point is that the culprit is that an
intrinsically meaningless I-thought being given an “assumed reality”. It is a
kind of spiritual immaturity; like still believing is Santa Claus who once the
child is a few years older is seen to be a totally false assumption. This is no
different! See through this by looking in at the mind’s chatter from your
natural timeless state of aware presence. That is never missing and there is
never anything wrong in and as That. Abide as That and LOOK...
Shine the natural light of that naked “I AM” Awareness on
the false belief. It’s like sneaking downstairs and seeing that there is no
Santa Claus; seeing daddy putting the presents out under the tree, and
mommy drinking the mike you left out, and eating the cookies… where in the past
you took the presents and the remaining crumbs and empty milk glass as your
“proof” of the existence of Santa.
Also, take NO identification on board, EVEN an identity
called “I am no thing” OR I am everything. And look at this from another angle
now:
Seeking "Wholeness, Completion, Happiness, Love or
"Liberation" from “Another”, whether that "revered other"
be a "Guru, Guide, Lover, or Friend", is a perfect way to avoid Paradise. Paradise is THIS.
Just as it Is and just as it Isn’t.
All seeking "out there" is a dream of a “me”,
foolishly knocking on the door to Paradise, from inside
Paradise. Paradise is only lost
in seeking it. This Loving Oneness Cannot Be Known.
To “know” Oneness there would have to be a sense of
separation FROM Oneness. Who cannot see the fault in that logic?
WHO assumes there is a defective "me" that
lacks some understanding? Ask this until the falseness of that assumption is
seen clearly: What IS this “I” or “me” that “wants to understand and/or
experience itself as being everything?” Where is that thing? IS that a thing,
with a beginning, middle and end? Find out; see for yourself, that the
ignorance-assumption of separateness, of a "me", is merely a thought-assumption
construct made of air. What is that “thing” that wants more than naked
awareness? That true self is freedom itself. WHO wants more than freedom?
Bottom line is YOU are NOT a thing and yet Awareness ...
Being-Aliveness … your True Nature … IS. Always. Just. So.
And, the “I” is a word that refers to ... what? Nothing!
Non-Objective Being, appearing as the Consciousness-Presence, conceptualized as
“I AM” But YOU are That which is PRIOR TO that “I AM” concept and even prior to
the Consciousness-Knowingness Itself! YOU are Pure Being that does not know
that it is. THIS is Nonduality… One-No-Other.
Your actual NON-conceptual Being is not an object with
properties therefore It cannot be attained, described or defined. See that
clearly right now and the search is done.
Q:
Wow...Thanks so much for all this. I have never spoken to anyone who
have ever been able to help like this and provide answers or pointers like
this to the kind of questions that are appearing from this apparent person
called Björn. Basically, everyone would think that I'm just getting crazy
(if I told them about it). But it seems on the contrary to be very sane. Or
actually.. there is no one thinking I am getting crazy, rather there are
programmed conditioned minds on autopilot spitting out whatever has been
programmed in there.
Anyways...
This body/mind mechanism called Björn has a habit of recording videos
of blabbering about non-duality. I recorded a video where I was asking all
these questions and coming with statements about how paradoxical It all seems
and how futile it is even to be asking those questions and recording it.
I then
went back again to your email and did some contemplation. Then I watched the
video again that I just recorded and it struck me that all this
blabbering is just verbal expressions of thoughts arising in awareness.
Like there is someone trying and needing to get a definite answer to
them. And the very trying and needing to get answers to these thoughts is
a step away...they are just something arising in the beingness/awareness, no
need to identify with them. Awareness is already always there. It would
be like someone trying to find his home through leaving it! Or
like you said... knocking on the door to paradise while you are actually IN
paradise.
And yet
the word awareness IS just a word and concept. Even putting the word
"awareness" in place is to distort it. And yet it is not an IT.
And even the thought arrising saying "yay – I’m getting somewhere" IS
just an arrising thought and to attach to that is also like a step out of true
awareness. To think that you are getting somewhere has to be false. There is no
one who can get anywhere. It's surely seductive to the mind though because it
LOVES being something. It seems even the question "Who am I?",
although being a very potent and beneficial question, acting like like caustic
soda, IS just a question arising in awareness.
There are
thoughts, emotions etc arising that brings back the illusion of an individual
self. But it seems effective to ask WHO is thinking this? or WHO is feeling
this etc. It seems to "disarm" it all again. An answer is never
actually found. But it seems like it's making the very question invalid. Like
they are all trick questions.
C: You
are getting down to the essence now. Just seeing that ALL of it ... thoughts,
emotions, body, mind, is ALL nothing but appearance IN this I AM-ness, your
very Being, empty Awareness, or whatever descriptive label we use. This
presence-awareness is never OFF, is it? (Except in deep sleep where it appears
to be "off" but the evidence that it is NOT "off' is the fact
that the body's heart beats, breathing arises etc without no need for a
"me" to claim the doing of it.
Keep it
real simple, my friend. You are. Being IS. That ... Being ... is a
"cognizing emptiness" which you know in the world as "I
AM". No one can claim "I am NOT". Being is required and that is
what You are.
Make no
compromise with That! Speak only from and as the FACT ... Being is a
"brute fact" and CANNOT be denied or escaped. Everything else is
linguistic imagination, stories or speculations. Or opinions. And the come
directly "in tune" with the FACT that "Being IS and I Am
That" and refusing to entertain any definition or identification of this
Infinite Self that You are is to end the search. Right HERE. RIGHT NOW. You Are
That. Before any "thing" is, YOU are. Stay with that and let the
Awareness show you the absolute depth of its fullness, and the breadth of its
emptiness.
Being is
knowing, without the false assumption of a person which you now know in direct
practical experience cannot be found. So it boils down to this: There is NO
person to attain any state, no special state to attain; the whole thing was a
myth; and dispelling the myth is no more complex than getting real about what
IS TRUE... knowing the Truth of what you are and refusing any compromise the
mind wants to use to paste some imagined limitation onto that Timeless
Awareness.
Realizing
that the "I" is a CONCEPT with NO ACTUAL reality, and that
"time" is ONLY another mental concept, pulls the plug on the illusion
once and for good.
Looking directly at what IS from/AS Naked Awareness, seeing directly the Source
of the "I Am", the freedom you are comes naturally back to the
foreground. And life goes on in effortless joy and there is as Nisargadatta put
it, "nothing wrong any more." Seeing that ALL ideas of who or what we
are are absolutely FALSE, the deal is done.
So in the
end it is as it is before the beginning: You Are Unborn. Absolute freedom. The
natural, or Eternal, Being-That-You-Are!
As all the
sages have pointed out, it all boils down to knowing what you are as
non-conceptual-izable. That keeps it basic and simple.
Good to
interact with you my friend.... from I AM to I AM, with Love! Stay in touch as
the One moves that and just remember, YOU were never bound, never limited, it
was all a myth, believed in innocence and ignorance. Now you know better!
Q (2
Months Later): It has been more than 2 months now since the previous email.
Just thought I would send you an update.
What has been happening since then
is like dust settling after a whirlwind. Naturally, there was a bit of
confusion at first, but now it's all much clearer. What is so striking now is
the simplicity of it all.
Before I used to think about what
enlightenment was. I was sure it was an advanced and complicated state that
could be reached by an individual. All that has all been turned on it's head
now. I used to think that so called realized people claiming that the
individual self was never true...well these people had actually had an
individual self at first and then because of their extensive practices it had
been dissolved. But as it is seen now, there REALLY ISN'T any individual self
to begin with! That IS the truth...REALLY! That has become so
clear. And that has turned many old beliefs on it's head. Even the spiritual
ones I was convinced of being true.
Enlightenment as it is usually
taught is to me no more than a myth.
Hehe, I used to be angry with so
called realized people. Because to me, all they where doing was describing
their own state. How they had been dissolved and so on, but that was not
helping at all for ME. They couldn't help ME to reach that. Well... no
wonder they couldn't... I was not even THERE ! *laughter*
Many things are now the opposite
of what was believed before. For example. I used to believe that the so
called "state" where there is no identity was a very complicated
state. But that is only the natural effortless state. The really complicated
state is in fact the state of separation! That state is filled with effort and
illusion.
C: This
is really beautifully put! Nothing much to add! Now you know that this direct
concept-free knowing, the natural statelessness of what is real and forever
unchanging, is the home we never left. VERY well done, my friend. Much Love to
you!
It
has been pointed out by ancient and living “sages” alike: Who you are
is No Thing”. “Who You Are is Empty, and Meaningless”. "Who You Are is
‘space-like awareness’.” “Who you are is ‘cognizing emptiness’.”
All are true in the absolute sense, whereas the “absolute sense" means, these words point to the facts, just the facts, ma’am.
But as Werner Erhard said, “The truth believed is a lie”.
So
I propose that the “absolute truth” and the “truth of daily life” AKA
“the relative” arise in entirely different “domains of Isness”. In
other words the Absolute IS the absolute and the relative is (or more
accurately perhaps, APPEARS as) the relative. And it’s said in many
ways by many a “sage”, that Absolute and Relative cannot meet. Ever.
That’s stated (declared as) a fact. “No thing” cannot meet “thingness”.
Or can it?
Maybe No thing IS ALSO “thingness”? That’s what “Nonduality” declares … that no thing and things are “not two”. “Advaita”, which translates as “Not Two" from the Sanskrit.
Okay, so what has that got to do with the price of eggs at Walmart?
Just
this: In the empty domain of No Thing, AKA Who You Are, anything is
possible. Anything. The relative is apparently constituted by past
(story about a time behind me), present (story about me now) and future
than cannot be known period yet is speculated about (story told in the
present). That constitutional paradigm of “being-human” is a bringing
“what we know” into the future we “live into” i.e. “believe will
probably happen.”
The
point is, absolute and relative are BOTH what’s so. And dealing with
what’s so in the domain of the relative is how we manage the “Life for
I, or We, or Us” ... whether we believe that or not. In this domain of
the relative, what has things work is “coming from nothing”. That is
not “true”. It is just something I say
And, the relative I AND the Absolute No-Thing-I meet and share a hug here.
Which
brings me to the point of this: in the relative, what are we? Starting
g from the fact that our Being IS the Unchanging IS AKA No Thing At
All, how does the relative Isness of “being-human” get articulated? In
other words Who Am I as a relative related-to-humanity (apparent)
entity-with-language?
I
suggest this: who we are is who we say we are. Literally who we are as
“persons” is the declared beingness (I AM that I AM, for starters…) so
now: what if we say, “who I am is Pure Possibility", AND inside that
context, that space, I SAY that "who I AM is a relative future like a
possibility called ‘anything is possible’", and out of THAT ‘who I am is’
… being whatever I declare?
Here
is what I say (NOT a truth, but what I committedly SAY: Who I Am is the
possibility of the transformation of humanity. ALL humanity. Self AS
Humanity; Absolute AS Relative. I stand in the space I call “all people
being whole, complete, and fulfilled, living lives they love with joy
and peace of mind”.
Notice I didn’t say HOW that might arise. Nor “when”. This “future" is NOW and NOW and NOW.
How
and when (relatively speaking here)? On that score, the TRUTH is I do
not know. And, I say with conviction, NOT knowing is an “access” to the
future of "anything’s possible and that means anything.”
Don’t
follow? No sweat. No need to follow like “comprehend”. It is not a
conceptual “truth to believe”. It is just a saying I find empowers me
and others in the relative world of being-related-with-you as Who We
Are. But I am not “Just sayin’’ like in “talk is cheap.” As Martin
Luther might have said, "Here I stand. I can do no other.” My love for
humanity, for you and me and everyone, has a grip that I welcome with
all my heart, mind, body and soul (sole).
I
AM the word. I honor that. So I assert that The Absolute Self I AM/YOU
ARE am is No Thing. AND: The relative self I AM/YOU ARE is The Word. As
in, “In the beginning IS The Word”. Beginning a Future beyond what is
predictable, even assured, lives in Word, declared possibilities, and
being committed to that Word ... as in Martin Luther King’s “I Have A
Dream” or Ghandi’s "British Leave India Non-Violently". Not knowing how,
yet giving “word and sacred honor” to the possibility we declare out of
nowhere nowhen AKA HERE, NOW with 100% commitment and 0% attachment to
outcome or means.
And
giving up that we know what is really gonna happen, because THAT would
of necessity be a product of our past, our history. In an invented
future there is like NO knowing, NO story, NO “how”. And this is not
"something said in order to gain something for me, or manipulate the
situation of the world, or just to get approval or be liked". None of
that is worth an ounce of spit!
And if that isn’t a fair definition of Freedom, I don’t know what is!
I am indebted to Werner Erhard, Laurel Scheaf, Landmark Education, Laurence Platt, 'Saoilor' Bob Adamson, John Wheeler and Sri Nisargadaatta Maharaj, who inspired this essay. More at http://outrageouspossibilities.blogspot.com/.
Every now and then we receive an e-mail message from a seriously depressed and very angry "spiritual seeker", a very sick person who has completely misinterpreted the message shared here and elsewhere. This is an open response to all such unfortunate people, and "seekers" in general:
YOU and YOU ALONE are responsible for your well being. Occasional suggestions to seek professional medical help are grounded in a statement on this site wherein we make it very clear that Nonduality is NOT a substitute for medical care. If you find yourself in this trap: I
hope you find peace and well being. But do NOT blame others for your
own issues of mental or physical health. As long as you are blaming
others, including these nondual expressions, or your own doctors and medications, or anyone or anything else, you will never know peace.
The Disclaimer, found here at the footer of this blog ...
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 to
look at the that body-mind machine and see if it has some chemical
imbalance or othet medical issue that requires attention.
BE VERY CLEAR that Non-duality is NOT a substitute for proper medical
assessment and care! By using this website, reading our writings and /
or speaking with us, you are agreeing to be solely responsible and
accountable for your own well being.
"The Final Truth", Podcast 7 with John Wheeler, completes the current series. This set of talks with John have great potential to end any seeking for wholeness in seeing what you already are. As Lao Tzu said in his Tao Te Ching, "To know the Always So is to be Illumined".
John's editorial description: "Looking more deeply at who we are; the nature of consciousness;
prior to consciousness; non-conceptual reality; the non-duality of
consciousness and the absolute; one's true nature as non-conceptual,
ever-present awareness and peace."
John's website is www.thenaturalstate.org. He offers meetings, books and consulttions and all are highly recommended.
"One Heart" Meeting in Oklahoma 27 Dec 2009 "The Peace Of Nothing Wrong"
This short meeting is a possibility and opportunity for the end of
seeking. When? Now. Where? Here. For WHOM?
For YOU. This is the recognition that there's Nothing Wrong ... and
never was. For Details Click HERE.
Q: I have a question, if
I may ask you. If I keep to the fact that "I AM," are the qualities
of Being-ness then self revealing?
C: Beingness has no
qualities as such, yet there is the experience of being no thing. But that is
beyond description! The answer is NOT found in language.
Q: I have the impression
when I listen to you and John that once it is seen all these qualities reveal
themselves. Or John has said to be very curious about this sense of Being and
ask, what are its qualities.
C: That is a pointer, an
‘interim’ bit of pointing to look at exactly WHAT the being I am really is. The
essence of the beingness that you are is that it has no ‘describable
qualities’. NO description applies. What is needed is the distinction between
actual experience and the concept or story about the actual. It is the simple
yet profound difference between the menu and the meal. The picture of the salad
in say, an Applebee’s menu: is that the actual salad? In the same way: Is the
description and picture of being the actual being that you are? Experience is
direct and immediate and NO concept can capture that.
Q: I can read what you
say the qualities are and at times have some sense of this but it is only going
to be of value when seen clearly here.
C: What is that which
accepts some notion that this is not already ‘seen clearly here’? Are
you a concept? A thing that doesn’t see clearly here? No. What you are
is the seeing itself, and to get that there is no entity apart from seeing that
‘needs to see this clearly’ is fundamental to an authentic understanding of
this stuff.
Q: Sorry for the
denseness. Thank you again for the Podcasts.
C: That’s okay! Believe
me, I can relate! Your apparent 'dilemma' regarding perceiving and the
assumption of some 'denseness' was exactly as it was for me: when I first met
John Wheeler, the initial burst of clarity was amazing. It was so utterly
obvious that I had been looking for some answer the mind could grasp, while all
that time the being I AM was already clearly HERE NOW.
But I wanted ‘an answer
for the mind’, and sought some conceptual structure, some objective
'explanation' or some clear 'interpretation', in other words some CONCEPT to
hold onto as who I am. What I was ignoring, out of the brain's programmed
habit, was the empty space or aware presence IN which that conceptualizing was
arising and subsiding. The core of that was the absolute conviction that
'something IS wrong'. In short 'who I am is something is wrong’ was the unseen
paradigm. That was the invisible 'box' that the identity was, like the 'box'
humanity was centuries ago called ‘the earth IS flat'. Only thoughts that
agreed with that paradigm were allowed. It was not possible to ‘think outside
that box’ until that paradigm was seen and demolished by the brave souls who
ventured out beyond the horizon and returned with riches from faraway lands,
disproving the paradigm.
So ‘something’s wrong’ is
the ‘box’, the core assumption. BUT: What is the CORE OF THAT CORE? The
root of that root? The core of the ‘box’ ‘something’s wrong here’? In other
words, what (or ‘who’) is it that ‘something is wrong' FOR?
The ‘core’ is this: A
root-identity called 'I' ... the self-assumed entity described by the thought
'I'. But that, the 'I' assumed to be this 'self', this 'me', is ONLY AN IDEA.
And that ideation is not even there a lot of the time, when we are engaged in
an absorbing activity, for example. Or in deep dreamless sleep. We sleep, then
a dream arises and there seems to be a self, an 'I', in the dream. Then we
wake, and there seems to be an 'I', a 'me', that is awake. But wakefulness or
consciousness is empty of any identity. It's only an assumed belief or
conviction that there IS an 'I' that thinks it is separate and therefore
suffering and seeking. And, the self-reinforcing, merely linguistic, assumption
(false!) that the ‘I’ is itself a real, solid, thing.
Then that 'I' takes up
the habit of judging itself and other appearances to be 'good' or 'bad’,
‘right' or 'wrong' etc, all inside the ‘box’ … ‘I am ME and ‘by god something
IS wrong period And no one can tell me otherwise’ (the earth IS flat!).
But IS that 'I' idea what
YOU are? NO. This part must be understood. As Nisargadatta Maharaj said,
'Understanding is ALL'. That means, in a way, that the Real Self That You Are
must, so to speak, ‘give up’ its false self, which is consisting and surviving
only as this insubstantial powerless ‘box’ of false beliefs and convictions.
There must be a commitment to BEING what is real. BEING what is obviously and
clearly permanent, as this immediate immaculately empty knowing presence.
And there also must be an
obstinate refusal to believe the mind's unprovable assertions that 'I am not
whole, still missing it, etc., thereby accepting false limitations to our
infinite presence of being. As a writer, Richard Bach, once said, ‘Argue for
your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours’. The same fellow also said,
“The original sin [mistake] is to limit The Is. Don’t’. Potent stuff, that!
You can surely see right
now that the obstinate refusal to believe the earth is flat led to the
dissolution of that belief. Right? Like that: Let your refusal to accept the
limits of that box of false ideas dissolve the belief in being a limited little
thing apart from the wholeness that you are.
It takes a firm refusal
to 'be' an 'idea' which is temporary and the taking of a firm stand that 'what
I am is not a thing that thoughts can know, grasp or explain’. What ALWAYS IS,
is awareness. What APPEARS is all passing, coming and going before the glowing
empty screen of the light of actual Awareness, which is behind and gives rise
to this consciousness of being, known by all as ‘I Am’.
So: The answer is NOT in
thoughts, feelings, beliefs, NOT available as language; the Real is beyond or
prior to language. Language is the abode of meaning and the brain is a
meaning-making machine that adds irrelevant interpretations to all perceived
and unperceived, all that is and is not. And the interpretation is NOT who we
are. It is ONLY an afterthought or 'overlay' of concepts on emptiness. YOU are
that emptiness. Take your stand there (here) and abide as That and Nothing Else
But That!
Does this sound hard? It
is not. The natural state is the uncaused joy of simple being, being as itself
with nothing added; no description, no story, no interpretation. The bottom
line is that ALL of those concepts shared to point to the indescribable isness
are only provisional pointers. LOOK where they POINT (to space, being,
nothingness).Don' get fixated on any concept, no matter how 'true' it sounds!
Being as you are is the
seeing without a seer, knowing without a knower. Seer and knower are conceptual
and essentially empty and meaningless. And that pointer doesn't mean anything
either!
Finally, staring in at
your sense of being, being alive, being awake, being present, rather than
looking for 'qualities you can describe', and simply see what is ACTUALLY
always present and alive, right here. BEYOND language, BEYOND any description, BEYOND
any concept. Drop into that naked seeing; let that emptiness reveal its
NON-CONCEPTUAL light and love. DO NOT let the WORDS 'light' and 'love'
overshadow the ACTUALITY. Stop trying to 'figure it out. Because, what you ARE
is that present awake being that is absolutely un-figure-outable.
Stare head on at what IS
with no labels and no words. Seeing is obvious and always shining before
language arises. Being THAT there is nothing wrong any more.
Give the first
three Podcasts with John a fresh listen; then give #6
a two or three more good, undistracted listens. Then if you like we can chat by
phone to deal with any remaining confusion.
Podcast # 6
in our current series with John Wheeler is here. We call this one “Nothing’s
Wrong Any More”.
John writes about this one, " The nature of appearances;
consciousness and reality; inability of concepts to describe the actual;
pointers as tools; form and emptiness; the “I” notion as the root of all
concepts; standing as the reality; the joy of nothing wrong anymore."
This one hour
talk reveals the absolute truth of what you are and lays bare the exact nature
of the source of suffering, which leaves the already perfect state of being as
you are. In this state, which is the True Self that everyone already IS, it's
the experience of being alive with absolutely nothing wrong.
The essence
of the message is that who you are, and who absolutely everyone IS, is that
there is nothing wrong and never was. This leaves one living life smiling at
nothing and being at peace for no reason.
We do
recommends that if you have not done so, you listen to the previous Podcasts
before this one, especially the first three. Yet you will also find that this
one can stand alone as the most lively and clear sharing of the absolute truth
of what we all really are.
Yo can visit
John’s website at www.thenaturalstate.org.
He offers several fine books as well as regular meetings and consultations. All
are highly recommended.
We are
focusing with John because the best approach, in my experience, is to “dig in
one spot”. See if there is any problem or question in your Being. Finding once
and for all that there truly is nothing missing in your aware being leaves you
in the timeless peace of simply being as you are.
"Nothing is exactly as it
seems, nor is it otherwise". Zen
“T” Writes,
Thank you so much for making your wonderful conversations with John Wheeler
available; they are a gift that cannot be put into words. I also greatly
appreciated your editorial, which offered a cogent summary of many of the
points the two of you covered in your conversations. Having met a number of
"professional spiritual teachers" in recent years, who both helped
and confused me, I am excited beyond belief to have encountered Bob, John, and
yourself. It is like being set on fire with truth. I am also deeply moved that
you and John have made these discussions available for download, without asking
anything in return. This is generosity beyond belief.
It has been
such a pleasure to "tune in" to your website and find a new
conversation between the two of you available for the last five weeks or so!
Christmas truly came early. As one who was in a great deal of pain even a few
months ago, and in possession of a great deal of problems and quandaries, I
thank you from the bottom of my heart. What grace to know that the unchanging,
luminous knowing that is always present is what the sages were pointing to all
along. My mind had always construed the pointers to be leading to something
more grandiose, with a sky full of spiritual fireworks. Like so many "spiritual
types," I was unaware that what I am is already fully present, fully
awake, and totally free. What grace to have the entire spiritual landscape
exposed as a cheap shell game that in no way obstructs my nature. Thank you
very much.
C: This is the sort
of message that really "makes my day”. Thanks so much for the open heart
and clear seeing expressed in this ...
John Wheeler’s Podcast #6 will be posted soon, enjoy it! (By the way, for the record the "editorials" on the first five were written by John himself!)
Thanks again for writing … Much Love to you my friend.
The sole purpose of nonduality is to rediscover the truth of what you are, beyond any concept or even any experience. Those things, all "things", come and go IN the space of what you are. There is no attaining, OR escaping, the simple being that is always fully awake and present here now. And even in deep sleep, the being which you are is still fully alive as an intelligent, creative energy that beats that heart all night with no 'you' there to cause or even observe that.
Take a look in the mirror at your own eyeball. Ponder, what is that eyeball made up of? Where was that eyeball at the moment of the sperm meeting the egg? What is it made of really? What is that which is seeing that eyeball? In what does that eyeball, and the seeing OF that eyeball, appear?
Consider the possibility that the eyeball is made of nothing at all. And out of nothing came an eyeball! Isn't that an incomprehensible miracle?
Now, isn't it plainly evident that what you are is that unchanging "no thing" which is presently manifesting as the always-changing everything? Seeing that clearly, which anyone can do right now, is the whole point; knowing your Self as this empty presence that is filled with energy, aliveness, vitality and love. You are and that is-ness is incontrovertible. Just know your Self as that and all "problems" melt away in the space of being no thing. That's the whole game in a nutshell.
This takes no time or process: isn't it immediately clear when pointed out? Keep it simple!
"Death
does not exist in a timeless, spaceless world. In the end, even Einstein
admitted, ‘Now Besso’ (an old friend) ‘has departed from this strange world a
little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us...know that the
distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent
illusion.’ Immortality doesn't mean a perpetual existence in time without end,
but rather resides outside of time altogether."
Is there
actually a separate “I” that stands outside of your aware being? If you believe
that there is, then take a look and describe exactly where that is. You will
fail, simply because in the final analysis it’s obvious that there cannot be
anything appearing at all outside of being, awareness, or your pure naked
presence. But the word is not what the word points to. Don’t turn the pointer
into a truth! Let the natural seeing emerge as you look at the here-and-now
which the pointer points TO. This ends the delusions of both “bondage” and “liberation”
straight away. This is Life, lived as the natural freedom, power and joy that
you always are. Endless and beginningless, you are that and have never not been
that.
~
Watch the
sense of ‘being me’ and see if it is actually a real ‘entity’. Is it? Or isn’t
that ‘sense of being me’ merely an empty, meaningless thought-sense or
‘feeling-sense’. Notice that aware space in which that sense-thought or
perception arises. That which is forever real is no concept; no thing at all.
Yet that is a full and open loving presence that has never been missing, only
overlooked. We simply stop ignoring that awake presence. Then the seeker fades
into the space of your own ever present being and concepts such as ‘me’,
‘enlightenment’, bondage’ etc simply drip out of the picture altogether. What
is always so? Always here? You awake beingness. That is what you are. Don’t
settle for dry concepts or fleeting feelings as your identity. Take your stand
outside of all that, and be as you are. Simple, since you already are and that
is incontrovertible!
~
Please
listen to John
Wheeler’s Podcast #5 a few times. It’s the clearest and most potent
pointing to your natural reality ever. Being in the presence of the Living
Reality shared by John is a gift of enormous value. Don’t underestimate that
gift!
A ‘former
seeker’ writes: Thanks Charlie, your work has enabled me to realize the
futility of trying to approach this subject from an intellectual
point of view! The answers are truly simple but the imaginary human being
approaches everything this way and attempts to measure their progress in time
and space. Once we realize the seeker doesn't exist we see we were never bound
nor could we ever be bound!
C: That is beautiful!
Thanks for opening your heart to
the Original Message. Great news!
It’s Here Now, John
Wheeler Podcast #5, recorded on 4 Dec. 2009, points out
with crystal clarity that you are already that freedom and love which you seek.
This is an
hour of pure nondual dynamite! The newest talk in our series with John Wheeler,
this one underscores the ease of seeing the truth of what you already ARE, your own natural, unlimited
Being, with no waiting, no practice, no process. The truth of what you are is
self-evident: RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW.
This Talk is
about the one fact, that fact of the already always presence of what is
absolute, unencumbered, REAL.
It is
recommended that you listen to John Wheeler Podcasts # 1 through # 4 before
this one, if you have not already done so.
Really hear
the message of these five talks and they’ll end any “spiritual seeking”, remove
any doubts and resolve any questions about who you really are. Isn’t this the
perfect season for the birth of truth and the end of suffering? Let it be!
John’s Website is http://www.thenaturalstate.org/ Feel free to comment or ask a question here; either by e-mail to non.duality@yahoo.com
or by using the “comments” link directly below (free Google account required).
Happy Holidays! May Freedom and
Joy reign supreme in your life.
“Editorial”
Any
sense of some identity with a problem (such as 'energetic contraction') or some
need for an 'event' (such as some describe) keeps the seeker seeking. It took
three years (after first talking with John and then traveling to Australia to be
with 'Sailor' Bob) for me to really clarify this and to see that these
"teachers" were not really delivering a pure, simple message. My
standard (and this is my own and only my own standard) is represented in the
five recent Podcasts on my site, with John Wheeler.
In the
past I have interviewed (or been interviewed by) many others, some of who have
great pointers to offer, but I find that after a few years of 'seasoning' (for
want of a better term) that DAMN FEW ACTUALLY deliver the quality of pure
message that Bob and John are offering. My message has been refined over the
years (as Bob's was and is) to better mirror the reality of the FACT that your
Being is already free and no event is needed to 'resolve any issue' nor is
there any such real thing as a seeker with problems or issues ... IN ACTUAL
FACT.
Bare
Naked presence is simply NEVER missing! Until THAT gets clearly pointed to ...
and finally 'noticed' ... well, the BS can go on for a very long time.
That
said, there is NO 'problem as such' with ANY expression: There is gold in them
there hills, even if the hills themselves are covered with dead trees (false
concepts)... if one can learn how to dig the gold can be mined. BUT: Why would
anyone endorse or promote a teacher type who has a 'professional spiritual
teacher' game going? And who muddies the water with unnecessary conceptual
"spiritual noise?"
I say
that the original message of there being only already freedom, that who we are
is that freedom and absolutely nothing is needed to "attain" what is
ALREADY fully present here and now... for absolutely everyone.... that most
usually gets distorted, in the typical "spiritual marketplace", not
because there is malice aforethought, but because the ‘teacher’ does not REALLY
understand what works, which is simple pointing devoid of conceptual baggage!
One
last thing: to make the claim "there is no person THEREFORE there is
nothing to be done is a flat contradiction to what the true sages (i.e. Ramana,
Nisargadatta) have pointed out. What there IS to be done is a cogent
investigation into what is REAL and the discarding of any and all concepts of
identity. The cleaner the pointers the quicker that happens, in my experience.
Just my
take. And none if it is to be believed, accepted, or taken on board as some
'truth'.
The truth that is told is NOT The Real Truth full stop! The simpler the
pointing the more potent and THAT is why so few expressions get linked at
present on my site. Willy-nilly linking to any half-baked teaching is in this
view (outside all viewpoints) a disservice. That said, again there ain't nothin’
wrong here there or anywhere. But I am a big fan of discrimination, in the vein
of Adi Shankara and those of that ilk, currently Bob, and John Wheeler. Sorry
to say, I find damn few others who stick to the real message with no baggage!
If the
adherent to some ‘professional spiritual teachers’ really listen again to Podcast #5 I feel
something one may still be a bit blind to can be recognized about all this... Anyway,
being alive, awake, and the infinite possibility of communication,
transformation and absolute freedom, I AM that I AM, and THAT is ... LOVE!
Enough said. Let's pull the plug now.
