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
Some who are talking about the message of nonduality seem
to be stuck in a kind of impasse, which often appears as frustration and
despair that “the message isn’t working, despite months or years of looking,
listening and inquiry”. This indicates a
probable “misuse” of the message. This is NOT about improving circumstances,
getting better, changing some mental condition or fixing “something wrong”.
That is NOT what this is about.
In a fundamental way nonduality is completely
useless. Rediscovering the truth of what you are has nothing to do with
relative conditions that may be at play, such as problems of relationships, or
health and well being issues of the bodymind organism. In many cases (if not
most) there are other issues at play that need attention, i.e. mental
illness, such as bi-polar disorder of chronic depression. Those are brain chemistry issues that need to
be dealt with in appropriate venues by physical and/or mental health
professionals or counseling.
There needs to be a kind of “readiness” for the message. It is not “anyone’s”
readiness; it is just a natural receptivity to the stark, simple and potent
pointing of what is real and what is not real.
Sri Nisargadatta would sometimes send a seeker off to “meditate”
or “chant mantras, do japa, “or some
other purification practice to remove these
obstacles to receptivity. For example, in “Prior To Consciousness’ he
said,
“What I am expounding is not for the common people, because they have not
reached the stature to understand what I am saying. Therefore I tell them to do
Bhajans, Japa, Meditation. After
doing that, when the purifying takes place, they will be worthy enough to
receive my talks.”
This is how it was here; I started looking into this via
the teachings of Ramana Maharshi in 1974. It was very frustrating and bore no
fruit! In the case of this organism it took thirty years of “conventional
practice” … meditation, mantra repetition, service (GuruSeva), seminars, etc … which happened sporadically … until this
organism was sufficiently purified to begin to imbibe the message as expressed
by John Wheeler and Bob Adamson.
There are many places and possibilities for this
purification, such as “The Art Of Living” of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the Eastern
approach, and “Landmark Education”, a Western approach. These two are available all over the world. If there is any addiction, to substances or alcohol, AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) is just about everywhere. (There are obviously many others; but I have been benefited by those three personally).
And in a surprising number of cases, just
getting a good doctor to diagnose and prescribe for a “chemical imbalance”
sorts it out rather quickly.
The bottom line is, “using” the nondual message to “correct
or modify conditions” is to misapply and misuse the pointers.
So: earnestness, sincerity and self-honesty are hallmarks
of readiness. If your are someone who is “stuck into frustration and persistent
despair, or feeling like you ore on a roller-coaster of emotional highs and
lows, please consider this note and take appropriate steps to manage your well
being.
Q: Wow! Your Podcast with Paul is one of
the clearest and most cutting pointing I have ever come across.
C: That is great to hear! Just let it remove any vestige of
doubt or confusion.
Q: I used to think I was experiencing glimpses of the
Absolute – I know now that glimpses, or contractions, or whatever arises can
only ever be experiences on the Absolute (and made of the Absolute).
Seeking may occur, but it occurs for no one – it is just another appearance -
and never separate from the Absolute.
C: Excellent insight.
Anything and everything appears to come and go in that Absolute
Existence, which is always complete, and self-aware. Anything means anything.
No one is seeking and that is what is uncovered, when the truth of what we are
(unassailable beingness) is made clear.
Q: There is NO answer to what the Absolute is because it is
impossible to objectify it. Your pointer that the Absolute can never
be known because that would imply division from it – is pure gold! I have
heard the same idea a million times, but this time it struck home.
C: Excellent.
Q: How is the Absolute “nothing” if it is already
“everything”? Doesn’t that imply duality? Or Does it actually imply the opposite – that
there could never be duality if it is both nothing and everything?
C: Yes, the latter. Now stay out of the mind; the paradox
of absolute and relative being nondual cannot be grasped. Mind is the wrong
tool. It’s paradoxical to the mind but obvious to the Self (Beingness).
Q: Thanks and Love…
C: And to you. Good seeing. Keep it clean and simple. I
Love You.
"The Supreme Subject is unattainable,
unimaginable, undeniable,
ever present, and
– manifest as the thought “I Am.”
Seek the Source of "I Am"." ~John Greven
(John's website is www.onenessjustthat.com.)
"In the
body the consciousness does the witnessing; the behavior is done by the three
gunas. [Forces of nature]. Consciousness is all-pervading, spacelike, without
form. If one has an illness or a pain, is there a form to that? It is only a
movement in consciousness. The knower of consciousness cannot feel the pain,
and it is only because consciousness has identified itself with the body that
the body feels pain. When consciousness is not there, even if the body is cut,
there is no pain. It is not the body which feels pain. When there is a
disturbance in the balance of the five elements, illness comes and the illness
or pain is felt in the consciousness. Just as in the winter the heat gets less
and less, as this identification with the body gets less and less the pain that
is felt gets less and less." ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
This
point is illustrated by being anesthetized for surgery. This body was “out”,
oblivious and totally devoid of any consciousness; not sleeping, not dreaming,
not waking … for six hours… and in that
period the surgeon cut the chest and leg open and grafted veins from the leg to
the heart (it had a quadruple bypass in 2000). The pain is felt ONLY as long as
there is consciousness AND identification “I am the body”. That identity, which
is false, must be recognized AS false. The imaginary body is appearing in
consciousness, like a character on a cinema screen appears in the screen. But
the cinema character is only light, a play of light, and in the same way the
human character is made of the light that arises in consciousness, which is
spacelike, AND as the play of that consciousness, which is all these apparent shapes and
forms. And consciousness is a manifestation of the absolute IS-ness of no thing
what so ever.
Knowing
this is a start toward disidentification with the body. It is ONLY
body-identity of an “I” concept that gives rise to suffering. Dwell as the
consciousness, the knowingness of the I Am before the labeling by the mind. Sit
with that as often as possible; allowing what is to be as it is with no
resistance and no attempting to alter any of it. The dream at night is uncontrollable;
it just happens, and on waking it is seen as “ah, that was just a dream”. In
the same way see this waking dream for what it is … imagination only.
Your
being is never changing in any way, shape or from. Ways, shapes and forms
("process" and "body" etc.) ARE the dream of being. See
them as such. You remain as always, free, open, empty and loving what is as it
is. This is all there is. This. Just here just now. Be that and nothing else
matters.
Q: The sense of being a separate entity appears at times
during the day. Also it may appear suddenly at night usually with a
rapid pulse and sweating.
C: What exactly do you mean by “a sense of being a separate
entity”?
Q: Most of the time there is only a doing without sense of
suffering and at times a deep sense of peace.
C: Okay, So, that is an experiencing in the appearance
of “I Am”. Also the 'fear' and 'sense of being etc.' is the experiencing
arising ... where and for whom? Without that “I Am” could that be there? Look
deeply and see if you can locate the separate entity APART FROM LANGUAGE.
(Feelings are sensations arising in language. Thoughts are sensations arising
in language.)
What does LANGUAGE arise within? The space-like Being that
you are. Even before the empty cognizing of “knowing-I-Am” appears, there is
something indescribable, always fully present, which we can “call” Aliveness,
Just That. What is THAT by which you know this consciousness, awakeness, this I
Am-ness?
Q: I heard that active looking is recommended and I
wonder how this is done while at work or when fears appears at night.
C: Here it gets too simple for mind or language. It is done
naturally, by simply LOOKING with naked Awareness, not resisting or submitting,
not trying to alter or modify what is appearing; just BE with what is
happening. Looking at it like looking at a mirror. Is there anything “wrong”
with a mirror? No. It just reflects appearances. Take your Self to be that
mirror, abide as that, rather than the reflections arising in that mirror.
Q: Maybe there is nothing to do but this could just be a
mental trick of the mind to escape the direct seeing.
C: “You” have never done anything EVER. The trick is just
language. YOU as that mirror is Prior to Language; PRIOR to “consciousness, the
sense of empty being called non-conceptual I am-ness.
Ponder this from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
“This touch of ‘I
Amness’ is in each being; this beingness has that touch of love for the Absolute
and it is a representation of the Absolute. When you got yourself separated
from the Absolute with this identity ‘I Am’, you felt fragmented, isolated, and
that is why your demands started. In the Absolute there are no needs. Only the
Absolute prevails.”
Stay with this sense of being, “I am”, and ignore all
modifications of that. See the Source if that “I Am” and you will find that
only the Absolute is eternal. Rediscovering that what you are is That and only
That removes all insecurity, vulnerability, and fear of damage or death. You
are the Absolute; do nit oretend to be other than That. That is Self-Love.
Beyond
psychology, philosophy, phenomenality and noumenality
What IS?
Beyond this and
that, beyond that and this
What IS?
Answer it NOT.
Beyond IT IS
and IT IS NOT
What Is “IT”?
What IS?
Aliveness, Just
That
Are you alive?
Who could say no?
Being. Alive.
This is IT. Nowhere to go, nothing to get.
"If
one is awake and alive one can live ten years in two hours on Sunday" -A
Ferrari Racing Team Driver
This website and
our books, consultations and meetings are about Being Awake and Alive and not
needing a race car or any other circumstance to BE that right now. Being is
ALREADY Awake and Alive. Fully whole and ever present. Just now.
Who does not
see that?
Q: Can a
person’s ego learn to "point" good enough from a book or lecture to
convince itself it is Awake? I see lots of good "pointers" doing
satsang and such and yet they are highly reactive to questions and critical
thinking, acting as if attacked. Does not reaction always point to Ego/Mind?
C: The apparent
ego's mechanistic nature can certainly "fool itself". The way I
usually talk about that is, watch for some "claim of being
enlightened" that a fake teacher will make, whether subtle or not so
subtle. One teacher I love a lot says in the "awakening stage" there
can still be a "sense of a me" that has "attained" some
"special state". In true liberation that just is not there. All is
clear and self-evident, that in fact being is all there is, nothing and
everything just being, happening, and there is no duality (despite
appearances!).
Listen to the
real thing, such as a John Wheeler, Bob Adamson, Tony Parsons ... you can get a
sense that there is no one in the machinery any more (yet the use of personal
pronouns, "I" or "me" etc., goes on for "relative
communication" so to speak.)
Getting the
"words right" is dead easy so it takes a deeper kind of listening,
what I call heart to heart, to discern when there is fakery going on!
This is a good
question. Thanks!
NOTE: The January 31st Dallas Meeting, One Heart, One Essence is ON. Go HERE for more info.
A new Consultation with our good friend Amir, who graciously gave his permmission for this to be shared: "I have sure benefitted from listening to others", he says. Click to listen or right click and save to download:
What are you REALLY? Absolute Freedom, fully present as undeniable
presence, indescribable awareness, forever free and clear of any modifications.
This Presence of Awareness is open, serene, and completely free.
This openness is whole, complete and a space we like to call
“nothing wrong”. Is there really anything “wrong” with your being? With that
awake presence? Don’t turn that into some intellectualizing; just notice what
is ever-present and fully aware of whatever appears … right before your eyes,
all is whole, lacking nothing, needing no “more or better or different”
circumstances to be what it already always is.
As has been said since the beginning of the dream of time, you are
that and nothing else. So don’t let the mind lie to you about that. It is just
not true that "Something's wrong and 'I' am not good enough"! It is just NOT true there is something more, something better needed, than your actual awake
beingness. Period.
You are perfect. And the perfect being you are IS absolute
freedom. Don’t lie about that!
Q: It has been a number of
months since our last exchange, things have become clearer to me, I've been
re-reading John Wheeler's pointers.....always very helpful. The reason why I am
writing you again is that there is an apparent obstacle in the form of great,
annihilating fear when I relax in the present and it's seems to become bigger
the more relaxation happens. I let it happen and accept as best as I can but
the fear persists and is coming back again and again for months now and has me
stuck somehow with it. Of course it is not real - however it feels very real in
these particular moments. Do you have any "hands-on" advice or
comment about this "obstacle". As always your efforts on line with
all of your pointers are very much appreciated!
C: You say "I" let
it happen, and "I" accept as best "I" can but what exactly
IS this "I"? Moreover what is this that you call fear? What are these
things called "I" and "fear" MADE of? What is their
substance? Are these things at all?
What Is A “Me”?
We say this is me, you know
me or you don’t know me, we say this is mine and that is not mine – all as
though this me or I that claims to be “myself” is a THING.
Okay, fair enough. But what
IS the “thing” you and I call “me”?
If “me” is a thing, what is
that thing made of?
Things have properties and
are made of some essential thing -- like snow is made of water – like wind is
made of air, like appearing text and white space on your computer is made of
ones and zeros, like the rug is made of wool. So what exactly is “me” made of?
What is the essence, the fundamental or “elemental” nature if you like, of a
“me”?
Do you know that in actual
fact, you do not know? Is it clear that while we say me and mine, as though we
are a thing that owns other things, that we do not know what that me-thing
really is? And if we don’t know what it is how do we know there really IS a
“thing called me”?
Again I ask us, what is this
me made of? Can we describe this me as we might describe a cloud (well, it’s
puffy, white and gray, sort of semi-transparent, and it’s changing shape
slightly as I look at it)?
Describe your “me” right now.
How is it described? Who is that doing the describing? Isn’t that “me”
describing “me”? Isn’t “me” going around in circles – me describes me – and
what is the describer? The knower of this me describing me? What proves the
existence of this me? Isn’t it all a self-reference, energetically and
convincingly proving it is real by referring to itself as a thing apart from
all other things, over and over? Some call that a vicious circle of conceptual
thought referring to a self-avowed existence filled with an energy of emotions,
feelings, and desires (always desiring what is NOT present already, present
here and now, wanting or fearing a “future” and damning or desiring a “past”).
Isn’t that just another description? What is that description made of?
Look into your own sense of
being a me. Look directly without attempting to alter that me, or change it in
any way. Does that bring up some "fear"? What is that which is
afraid? What IS "fear"? Other than energy with a concept labeling it?
Whose "energy" is that? Now see if this me is an “it” at all. Is your
sense of me an object with properties? Is that me really an object and does it
call itself the subject? Isn't that idea of a subject observer of other objects
or even other subjects actually substantial? If you say it is then tell me what
it is made of, what IS its substance? Be precise.
Again what is that seeming
“subject-me” made up OF? What is its essence? Be precise in describing the
essence of this me. For example: “This ME -- it is a bubble of energy, it is a
membrane of sorts, a veil, between nothing and the world, it’s a sensation, a
vibration -- it’s a – ummm – I cant really nail down its properties, but I know
it is and it’s me – what is it made of? I guess I have to admit I don’t really
know what me is made of – oh but wait, me is this body, solid, real, apart from
all the other bodes, all the other objects – what is the body made of? What is
the essence of this body”?
Look into the body and see
what it consists of. Water, air, earth (food), fire (heat), these are the
essential properties or substance of the body, right? But what is all of THAT
made of? Isn’t it all energy imbued with a subtle intelligence that allows that
energy to form a beating heart, a brain with the knowing of how to walk, how to
speak? Now what is the substance of that which observes, describes, and defines
itself as that body?
That is more difficult to
nail down, isn’t it?
Have a good look! What is ME
made up of?
This body? Omigod -- body and
all those descriptions of its essence -- just thoughts! Me? I’m just a thought!
A thought! An idea of being. Is the idea of being really my being? If so then I
am born and I die every few moments as I don’t know I am me unless I happen to
think about me! Am I a thought? What is a thought made of? Now we’re back to
the beginning of this ponderation! What is a me? A thought form, forming a
self-image, a picture show with sounds and images. Self image! Image – is an
image of a thing the actual thing? Is the movie on the screen made of real
solid characters and buildings and cars and trees etc? What is the movie made
of? What is the screen made of? What about the light that illuminates it all?
What is that light made of?
What is a thought form made
of other that light and shadow? What is LIGHT made of? What!?
WHO CARES?
What’s for lunch?
Q: Thank you for your
reminder, "I" took something for real which is not and, as anything
unreal, the fear has passed and it can or will come back, but that's irrelevant
- what is important is that what is real... Your collection of pointers snapped
me right out of that dream - I needed
that slap to "sober up" :-)
From John Wheeler's recent
pointers:" The only issue is — do you know beyond any doubt whatsoever
what you are? Also, is there any tendency to believe in yourself as a separate
self apart from reality? If either of these points is not clear, the suffering
and doubts will go on, no matter what else is understood and how clearly the
pointers are expressed or understood at a verbal level." It's time to stop
playing around and to know once and for all what I am! Hey, it's way too easy
for my "sophisticated" mind - LOL. Let me steam with
that............... Thank you so much.
C: You are very welcome. Stay
in touch, as Oneness moves that happening.
The
essence of what we share here is extremely simple. The innate sense of being a
person with "stuff to deal with" is NOT what we really are. That
"sense of me" which is pointed to as "the knowing that I
AM" is just another appearance of the empty space of being, the
"nature of which" is self-luminous, pure Light, pure Existence
Itself, which is the irrevocable unavoidable infinite background which allows
for "I am" to be recognized and known. In essence, all our
"knowing" is actually untrue. While it can be pointed out that
"being is knowing" (i.e. knowing-I-AM), abiding in and as the
ultimate IS which is prior to appearance, language, and experience, and also
PRIOR TO KNOWING, is "more true". Why? Because it must be really
obvious that for anything to appear, there must be a field, a realm, IN which
the happening of being is made possible. In short, the Light of Pure being is
the necessary and incontrovertible "conditionlessness" for ANYTHING
"else" to arise!
Seeing
what we are, this ever-shining Light of Isness, and seeing what we are not,
namely a separate self apart from that Light, is the death of birth and death
and the end of becoming. It is that Light which you are that is the Realm of
Possibility, a conditionless space wherein and as, ANYTHING is possible.
In
a realm called "anything is possible", is there ever anything
"wrong"? Anything "missing"? Not unless you say so. To say
and accept assertions of being limited is the delusion that language, unexamined
and accepted at face value, brings forth as suffering. The pure Possibility of
Being, the Absolute Freedom which you actually are, becomes "tainted"
by languaging limitations that are simply NOT TRUE.
What
is TRUE? What is REAL? ONLY a space that never shifts, changes or moves
anywhere is real. The reality is, you are that which is before language and
language has the capacity to either "limit" possibilities OR
“invent" possibilities. Which would be empowering in This Presence and which would elicit suffering? Take a good look at this.
It
has been said that the mind (or consciousness, being the "I am"
appearing in and as the world, is a great servant but a terrible master. If
that is true, then what if the correct use of consciousness-mind is to
challenge all assumed identities, regardless of how lousy or limiting OR how
high and holy? Moreover when the stand one takes is what one is is NEITHER One
nor Many, neither "being I am" nor NOT "being I am", then
it's clear that all there is is now and here-ness, right?
Starting
form the stand that what we are is that which is PRIOR to any idea, experience,
or knowingness, AND deconstructing the "me" sense and abiding as the
Light of empty Light, is freedom, love and peace.
Why
would we ever settle for less?
Once
pointed out, it is clear. Let the clearing YOU are be That of Anything Is
Possible!
Why
NOT?
(Please
review our Podcasts
with John Wheeler and other audios if there remains any doubt or confusion
about what is being shared here.)
John Wheeler’s new 2010 Podcast, #8, “The Practical Value of This”,
is a follow-up to our 2009 series, and answers the fundamental “issue” at the heart
of questions that have arisen from those who have heard the earlier Podcasts.
This session brings the expression back to the real point of this pointing; the
real and practical value for our being in the world. To take the teachings on
as an intellectual exercise, just adding to our set of beliefs about what is
real and what we are, is of no actual value. What IS "real value"? One example: Experiencing freedom,
happiness and peace of mind in the midst of some potentially "serious bodymind issues” …. !
What is needed is to not just listen and “learn” this stuff but
rather to VERIFY the truth of what is shared in our own actual daily experience
of being present and alive IN THE WORLD.
Staying with these pointers and using them to look directly at
what is actually present before any conceptual grasping makes a huge difference,
as is shared herein. It would be wise to apply and verify rather than just take
up some “ivory tower” intellectual, spiritual, or philosophical knowledge.
As John points out, this is not for intellectuals! This is not
just theoretical! Get the real and practical value of this by looking and
verifying, for yourself. Happiness and
Peace is an inside job!
Click the link below to listen or right click to download:
Perhaps we can begin wit a but of trust; we TRUST that these
pointers are showing something absolutely valid and free of suffering. But as a
U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, may have said, “Trust, AND Verify”. Because it
is about the very real possibility of YOUR
freedom, happiness and peace of mind. Where? Here. When? Now. And THAT
is a possibility worthy of our commitment, isn’t it!?
After this happened, we received a followup e-mail ... this very kind and generous lady, who gave her permission to post her consultation audio, shared,
"Thank you so much. I started really noticing last night that my brain
was always looking for the next bad thing, just like you said and it
became very clear. Then tonight I just asked myself What am I and
suddenly I realized what I am. I am not conning myself or you about
this. It is very clear now. Thank you so much dear Charlie. It was listening to you that started the clarity. It wasn't clear at all at the time, but now is. Love, K"
This one is about seeing the inauthentic identity ("Id-Entity") AS inauthentic; thereby transcending the false belief in that identity, NOT "trying to get rid of it. As this dawns on you, freedom is seen to be what we really are.
Click the link below to listen or right click and save to download:
In
the Tibetan Buddhist teachings of "The Great Perfection" [Dzogchen] a pointer comes:
"It
is not only the mere conception of an '1' that is just thinking '1';
in addition there is the unnoticed thought 'I am important,' which is
the 'attachment to the 1'. Simultaneously the conception of an '1' admits of
ignorance and haziness, because the 'I' is not realized as being false." *
That
is a fine "bottom line" pointer to what might be called a
"potent yet illusory obstruction" to realizing the natural state of
ordinary primordial awareness ... the infinite Self of all.
This
moment, there is awareness. There is presence. Yes? That is the undeniable
eternal nature of your very being. That awareness is "on" even in deep
dreamless sleep. Coming into contact with "the mind of 'I'," and the
notion of "self importance", seems to overshadow the aware presence.
But what seems so is not what IS so. Seeing that the natural awareness,
ordinary presence, is absolutely never absent, the Great Perfection of timeless
stillness is no longer obscured. And when no longer obscured, (orseeing that
obviously that it never really was), as time fades out into the endlessness of
being, what is ever present is the innate freedom of your being ... called
nonconceptual presence- awareness. This is the Great Perfection, and the
greatest news is, you have never noit been that. Search over! Done and done!
And
now, always now, life is living itself as the ocean of timeless peace appearing
as chaos and order, up and down, empty and full, forever in time and timeless.
And
there is simply "nothing wrong" any more, just life, life-ing as
freedom, possibility and joy.
Q: Would you mind telling me, again...the difference between pain and suffering? Or when does pain become suffering?
C: Sure. First off:
Pain is a happening, and every bodymind will have pain from time to time. The suffering kicks in when that pain is "taken on board", ie considered by the false sense of self to be MY pain. Along with that there is the deep conviction that what is SHOULD NOT BE ie there should not be pain (which is the insanity of the false ego-entity because ,well, when there is pain there IS pain. It is the interpretation of pain as MINE and Should Not Be that is added to the simple experiencing. The Self is the Emptiness meaningless or Absolute ... Consciousness-at-rest ... AND the experience-ING ie relative or Consciousness-in-motion.
The core of suffering could be pointed to as "owning" ie making what is both "mine" and "wrong". It's the habitual false identification with the bodymind object whilst ignoring the Absolute Space-like Subject that brings and reinforces pain in a kind of vicious circle. As many have said a good "intervention" is a VERY simple pause-and-look with the question, "To whom is this experience appearing?" That fact that there is the perceiving of the experience shows that there is something that never changes ie the pure Subject which is the perceive-ING (Absolute Subject) and NOT the "perceived" (object).
These concepts are pointing back to the sense of false identity that operates in deep background, invisibly, until it's really looked at directly, and simply: "To whom does this appearance (whatever appears) appear?" "To ME" is the blatantly obvious realization. Then realizing that this "me" word POINTS to The Absolute, there is a flash of nothingness that knows itself as The Infinite unbounded elf. "Repeated" flashed demolish the false sense of separation and ownership (or "authorship!). Not like a practice, just a looking in the instant when there is any sense that what is should not be as it is.
Basically, pain is a signal that something is not working in the organism. Dogs have pain. Humans have pain. But the dog does not suffer — because the dog does not have a sense of being a separate psychological entity that takes ownership of the pain— and as the owner, that entity adds the secondary idea that the pain “should not be.”
The sage Nisargadatta Maharaj pointed to this perfectly. Late in his life his body was wracked with pain from cancer. One time a visitor asked him as he saw him wincing, “Maharaj, are you in great pain?” The sage replied, “There IS great pain.”
This is quite illuminating when looked into. “There IS great pain” acknowledges a condition of the body but makes no claim to owning that pain. In Presence Awareness, anything can arise. But it is NOT “taken on board.” When Charlie's back or arthritis hurts It is not MY pain. There is no suffering unless there the FASLE me-mine split in the thought-story.
All that arises is simply what IS... and is not a personal matter. Once it is seen that what we ARE is Presence Awareness and what we are NOT is “an individual,” the game is over; you can no longer believe that pain is personal - any more than you can believe the earth is flat.
It may take some deep looking for this to be seen... especially if there is severe pain. For example, being wracked by spasms of coughing may seem to take the attention so completely to the body that the awareness appears to have been “forgotten.” But in actual fact is the awareness ever really missing? No. It cannot be.
Possibly what is needed in these instances is to look, as soon as possible, into what it is that is in pain or suffering about there being a wracking cough. We say or think, “I am coughing. I am in pain.” We add on to the awareness “I Am” and say I am in pain. Making a sharp distinction between this “I Am” awareness and that which has pain... the body-mind organism... does the trick. When the sword of razor sharp discrimination is brought to bear on this business of the thought story “I am in pain,” then it is seen... effortlessly... that FIRST is I. I is just Awareness. Oneness. I-I, as the sage Ramana Maharshi referred to it. Then next comes I AM... Awareness, arising as Consciousness. Pure knowingness, no subject-object split; just the knowing Existence Is and I Am That.
THEN comes the mischief made of the thought machinery... the mind. The MIND says I am this BODY, and that is taken on board by the I Am as a belief in something real called “my body.”
That’s the trigger for suffering, as the mind adds on, “I am in pain, I don’t like that, I want that to change, why is this happening to me? Poor me! Etc.”
Notice that all this is pinned to a core belief in the identification with the body! And yet, where is the body except in a thought story appearing presently?
Making the distinction between the pure I Am, Awareness-Presence, and the thoughts that arise IN that Awareness, makes all the difference in seeing that while there may well be pain for one who has seen his or her True Nature, there is NO suffering, because suffering is only possible for the fictional person. Once that “person” has been seen to be nothing more than thoughts, based on a belief in a separate “me” thing identified as a body with a name, etc., the game is over.
The End of Suffering:
When you find out that the earth is round you no longer buy into the story that you dare not sail out too far or you’ll fall off... once you know beyond doubt that the phantom is a ghost and is not real, the energy of belief no longer goes into that phantom “me” and its stories. Therein lies authentic freedom from all psychological suffering
The end of suffering is simple: Investigate who sees, who thinks, who you are, and see the false nature of the “one who suffers.” Then remain as you are... Presence Awareness, just that. Simple and natural. Home.
