Drops, Waves, Ocean ... all are Water

An oft-used metaphor in discussing  the topic of "Advaita"  or "Nondual Spirituality" is the one of the Ocean and the Wave being of single essence: Clearly, both are water. 

This metaphor of ocean and wave is a good one, but it falls short as a pointer to our True Nature, as when there is the appearance of ocean and wave the two are obviously not appearing as separate, as the top picture on the right shows.

Isn't that obvious?

Okay, now let's take a closer look. In the bottom picture we can see many single drops of ocean water. These drops really DO look separate, don't they??

Look closely at a wave and you see it as water but connected to the ocean. Now look closely at a single drop and you see it as separate.

That is the obvious perception; there IS separation between ocean and drop. While clearly both ARE water, the drop APPEARS as separate where the wave does not.

Now let's apply this metaphor to the human condition when the sense of separation is in full swing, as happens at around the age of two or so in virtually every human body-mind machine.

Obviously your body LOOKS to you and other people  like it IS separated from the world around you, from other people, other objects. The assumption driven by this false sense of a separate I or M is, "I am this object in this sea of other objects." Isn't it? Take a look.... Isn't that your PERCEPTION?

And isn't that the "consensus reality" for all these hypnotized objects who now believe they are the case of who they are, whet the do and what they possess? Really look at this. Take some courage in hand and challenge even your most cherished assumption: I AM ME. Is that TRUE? Or just preconceived  preconception and perception given by a lie? Most people never examine this notion of being a separate entity, in fact if you broach this tooic with most people they will steadfastly insist, I am ME and you can NOT tell me otherwise". Ignorance is amazingly dogmatic!

Fingers Pointing to the Moon:

All this is pointing to is a distinguishing of FACT from assumptions, conceived separation and our cherished beliefs and opinions: Perception LIES to us. The mind sees separation where there is none in FACT. This is a product of a sense of separation that was born in you around the age of two. (Remember the phrase, the "Terrible Twos"?)

The upsets of a two year old in a tantrum arise from not only the disquieting sense that "I am separate" but also from the assumption that this separate "I" SHOULD be able to regain the Wholeness. That tantrum went on here for six decades! The bad news is YOU did not CREATE that false sense of being separated form the Wholeness (the Ocean of Love) so whatever you do to attain that wholeness will fail... but only unless it doesn't! The great GOOD news is whatever you do will not PREVENT the return to the Ocean, even if appears that it does! YOU as a hypnotized subject-assumed-entity with a false sense of being a separate thing, a drop apart from the ocean, can neither cause NOR prevent the dissolution of that false dreamlike insubstantial "I" as the Doer, the cause of what is.

Why? Because it IS false. The I is a transparency, it is Consciousness, the Light of the Being YOU REALLY are... APPEARING as separate but in FACT, no more separate from your essence as pure consciousness than that drop is a separate essence from ocean.

It's all water. It's all Consciousness.

Consciousness is all there is. That is not a TRUTH, though; that statement is a POINTER.

Do not mistake the concept for what it points at. Do not mistake the finger pointing to the moon for the splendor of the moon.

What IS a "me"?

What is the "me" that we assume to be our self? Is there actually an independent entity with the power to make changes happen, the power to alter what IS? Looking into what is actually HERE, not from the standpoint of philosophy or religion but hanging out with what is actually just so, can begin to dissolve the false sense of being an entity with control over what happens for the body, mind, in the world. This "me" is only an idea, born around the age of two and a half, and the arrival of that idea comes with an assumption that “I am the responsible party for what happens, who I am, what I do, what I attain or lose." It's MY power that got what I want; or it's MY power that is to blame. 

This Pride/Blame pendulum is ONLY a mechanism, that falsely CLAIMS all the action, the doing, the being, as "mine". "The buck stops with ME". Pride and guilt are the two sides of that mechanism's swings, and it is that which brings about suffering:  But this "me" actually DOES nothing; not even "cause" suffering". It is ONLY a claimer of what happens. A secondary involvement in what happens as the natural unfolding of the Universe. So: When the "me" is "born" then there arises the notion that "I" am in charge and "I must do what it takes to get what I want, and avoid what I do not want." "It's up to ME." And that assumption of being the source of "me and my life” brings pride when "I get my way" and anger when I don't. 

Moreover, this assumption that I am Source" and must control life and living us utterly irrational. For example IT says (mechanistically), I AM the Source and I want to become One with the Source! Craziness. But this craziness is NOT "something wrong". It is NOT a "mistake"" made by you, or God, or the Universe. It is quite simply WHAT IS. It is the perfect functioning of Wholeness. Wholeness excludes nothing, even "separation". Yet it IS possible that a deeper looking into that "sense of me" as the falsely responsible entity that must manage life and living can bring a profound insight. A simple question might point the way: If "I" am the source of my life and living, how is it that I so often fail to get what I want? And so often unwanted stuff happens? What is really operating here? Is this body and mind running the show? Or is there much more to this? 

What if the DNA and subsequent programming of this body is simply structured to do whatever Source is to do THROUGH it? What if the machinery is JUST machinery with no independent power to change what IS? Taking a look at what the source of the breath is, can you see that your body is being breathed by Universal Energy and "you" are not required for that to happen? That there is a power far greater than the idea of me at work functioning as the Whole? Call that Consciousness, Presence, Tao, God, call it whatever you like, there certainly IS an undeniable Universal Power at work manifesting all that is. That means ALL that is. One potent pointer of Nonduality is "Consciousness Is All There Is". Consciousness unmanifest as No Thing and manifest as Everything. That is not a truth to believe, but rather a pointer. Look where that pointer POINTS; what we are pointing TO is Transcendent Knowing sans Knower. It is NON dual, the Always So of illumination.

Do your own investigation; see what is really operating; is it the “me” of an egoic claiming entity doing all the doing, or something infinitely broader and more inclusive of all that is? Imagine for a moment: What was operating that had your father and mother make love? And produce the sperm and egg that formed your body and mind? What was operating that had your great grandparents meet, and live where they lived? Go back to see what the Original Source is; what is It that is functioning THROUGH and appearing AS all that IS? This place is here to support YOUR investigation, and always bring you back to the fundamental seeing: What is the Source of “me and my life?” Is it “me”? Or is it the Whole Totality of Everything at play, functioning THROUGH the body mind apparatus I call “me”. Look deep. Look beyond the obvious to the Source of being and action. As The Buddha said; "Actions happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof." Find out if that is true.

The claim “I am the source and cause of life and living” is worth looking head on at: Ask YOU: “Is that true”?

Links ... Updated 06 Oct 2010

• Wayne Liquorman Advaita Fellowship
• John Greven  Oneness Just That
• JD Hazlewood That Which Always Is 
• Randall Friend You Are Dreaming
• Tony Parsons The Open Secret
• Sailor' Bob Adamson Self-Knowing Awareness 
• John Wheeler  The Natural State
• Nitin Ram (Abide In Self) 
• Leo Hartong Awakening To The Dream
• Annette Nibley What Never Changes
• You Are Awareness Kalyani and Peter
• Maury Lee Enlightenment for No One
• Micheal Thielmann Already Here
• Jeff Foster Life Without A Centre
• Unmani Liza Hyde Not Knowing
• Scott Kiloby Reflections Of the One Life
• Suzanne Foxton Nothing Exists ...
• Mary McGovern Grace Is Now

Whose life is it? What is the Source of all this being, doing, and living?

We talk about life generally as "my life, my body, my mind, my world". Right? This is the ordinary way humans talk. Both out loud and to themselves in the head in thoughts. "What will happen to me if this sickness goes on and is not cured" for example, takes false ownership of a body and its sickness. But whose life is it? Is the life that clearly IS, existing here and now, "yours" or "mine"?

We will not supply the answer here! Only the suggestion to ask the question, whose life is it? What is it that claims "this is my life?" Is it telling the truth, whatever "it" is? And what is the source of the claim of ownership?

Another angle on the looking could be, the body I call my self is doing stuff constantly. It is breathing, thinking, drinking, walking, peeing, sitting, eating, crapping, sleeping, dreaming etc ... unquestionably all that stuff is going on. If, as the Sages point out, "there is no doer, actions happen, deeds are done but there is no individual doer anywhere", than an awful lot of doing IS STILL getting done. The question might be this one:

What is the source of the doing?

Doping is happening. That's self evident. Arguing that there is no doer is yet another doing! WHAT is the actual SOURCE of that doing? Take another step BACK: Being, obviously, IS. There IS Being. No one can argue with any logic or reason that there is no Being; no one can accurately assert "I am NOT". "There is no me" is not a fixed truth; and as an assertion it's insane.

Being obviously IS. Now the question is, what is the SOURCE of Being?

Is the source of being and all the doing "you" as that mind-body-spirit amalgam? That apparatus we call "me": Is it really the Source? Or is that Source an unnamable force we cannot know as it is but only as its manifest effects? It's like a toaster makes toast, seemingly it does that. But without the power, electricity, it does nothing. Unplug from the electricity and it is just a dead inert object. In the same way these machines called people are like a toaster or a dryer or an oven or a tape player. All have separate functions, unique doings. But all are dependent upon and operated by electricity. Their doing is ANIMATED by electricity, without which they are as good as dead.

In that same way all these billions of people all have unique functions. Some drive racing cars. Others lead countries. Still others keep house. Others are doing an endless variety of job functions. Writing books. Creating software. Building buildings. Healing the sick. Saving loves. Killing people. Writing songs. Fighting wars. Hugging trees. Playing music, acting in films and on and on; the list is endless. Interestingly, ALL of them BREATHE. Breathing is universal, everybody does it! Now the question is, what is the source of all the doing, breathing etc.? Is the source of toast a toaster? Is the source of breathing the body-mind machine? Akin to electricity, some Power does the breathing, living, doing ... THROUGH "you and me". What IS THAT? Is it a thing at all? Looking into this may provide a seeing-apperceiving, a knowing sans knower, that "I" am NIT the Source of what I am, what I do and what I have.

What is the Source of doing? And what IS the Source of Source?

What is enlightenment? How does one attain that?

Get the answer to the first question and the second one will make you smile.

Sharpening the "Crest Jewel of Discrimination"

A friend writes today, "I am glad you had a restful day after we left. I feel a new purpose and direction for the me. We will see if it is ready to get out of the way and make the switch to Being."

(I had two friends here for the 4th, "seasoned seekers" both and great pals and supporters of this Message. Naturally a discussion of Advaita Nonduality ensued (that is the nature of this organism!)

I replied:

After a long sleep, a long Reiki and meditation,  and some home cooked proteins, SURPRISE!! Energy is happening to write to you, dear friend!

You wrote, "We will see if it [the me] is ready to get out of the way and make the switch to Being." ... Yes, we shall see what happens next ... yet ... there's  a little confusion of these pointers we might want to clear with a sharpening of the discrimination ... what is it that "will see'? if a "switch to Being" happens!??

This "makes" Being-Consciousness-Aliveness (Sat-Chit-Ananda) into an "object" (albeit a really BIG object") that the assumed"Pseudo-subject" or  FALSE  sense of the authoring self (mind-body) can GET ... someday! But what IS already IS! NOW.

Imagine the CAR you drove here in wanting to "get" that it is not a car!! LOL!!

What is it that waits on a shift into being? Is it REAL? Or only a thought PUT there by Source? Shift from what exactly? Is it not obvious that Being already IS? NON-objective Aware Consciousness!? And that Being INCLUDES the seeking for it, which IT  ... NOT the mind-body vehicle ...  authors (in a way of saying something that describes a process happening, a describing WHAT IS?)

You are doing great... and it is a real pleasure always to BE ... with YOU... and whomever else you might like to drag along on the 25th (preferably NOT "newbies to Nonduality though!) (On July 25th I will be celebrating Guru Purnima in honor of Source and the freedom from suffering here, and those what are interested in the possibility that their own seeking can lessen or expire are invited to attend. Whether is actually HAPPENS or not, well, let;'s see if The Totality that IS agrees and in fact the body is well enough! Please pre book if interested and call pr write to confirm that all is well on the 24th!)

Meanwhile look nakedly at What IS ... INCLUDING the movement and process of seeking "ascendancy to being" when it is a FACT that Being-knowing-Seeing is TRANSCENDENT... it IS, and THAT IS NOT some believed or mental understanding! ... as Spirit moves that naked looking at What IS then perhaps the inauthentic seeker-mechanism will simply ... expire.

But as always THAT is not in any mind's or body's control. Source put the hypnosis in you. Source must do the DE-hypnosis. To look at the hypnotic and FALSE assumption "I as this mind-body instrument AM the Authoring, Directing Source" and ASK, "Is that TRUE"? may prove to weaken and dissolve the hypnosis. As always, we shall just have to see what happens as This What IS unfolds Itself in Perfect Freedom!

See you on the 25th, IF The Universal Source That IS ... agrees!!

PS here is a VERY POWERFUL public free Talk by Wayne. Worth a few listens! Each time the mind-body structure hears this IT (Source) CAN erase the false more and more till there is nothing and no one left to BE Erased!

It has a part that clearly points out what had Wayne "tell charlie not to come back to his house!" This organism hurt that organism's feelings and that one did not want to be hurt by this one again! Perfectly appropriate in What IS as WHAT IS! Listen to it ALL, INCLUDING the no-talking bits. There can be great Resonance in those parts as well!

It is not "detachment"; because in FACT there is no one TO "detach!"

PPS You feel moved to share this, if so please feel free to pass it along!

The LINK can be found at:

http://charliehayes36.tripod.com/w.html

SO: If it hits home terrific! If not, go ye forth and read all my books, then come back and listen again. This audio perfectly sums up the entirety of these  teachings. So, if the Source so moves, go for it! ...

Now, the sickly old gut of this body is kicking up a fuss again so it's off the rest it. Over and Out ... R.I.P.!

Love,
Charlie

Phone: 1.580.701.4793
Skype: charliehayes36
Facebook: Charlie Hayes
Web www.theeternalstate.org
~

This Week's Quote: "Self Inquiry"

"Asking 'Who Am I?' is ultimately a ridiculous enterprise since it is clear that the mind can never know itself. But despite its very futility, the process of examining, the process of setting the mind to know itself sometimes leads to what is known in computerdom as a crash of the program. That's the value of the Zen koan or the inquiry 'Who am I? What is my true nature?' What sometimes occurs is what Wei Wu Wei called 'apperception', which is perception without a perceiver, knowing without a knower-non-dualistic perception. Of course, when you look into that, it is nonsense; it,s meaningless. You can't possibly comprehend perception without a perceiver or knowing without a knower. The minute you know it, you know it as an object knowing something else. That's not the kind of knowing we're talking about.

"So there is recognition by those of us toiling in the fields of the absurd, which is what this teaching non-duality is-truly toiling in the fields of the absurd-because what we're saying is not the truth. It is simply part of a process that is a minute aspect of 'what is'." ~ Wayne Liquorman, in "Never Mind"

Pointers

How could mind attain its absence? Yet, this Absence is What Is.

There is only Being, NO becoming is real, just imaginary; only This Nondual Presence is real. It is forever, One Ocean, waving and still; but the metaphor breaks down because THAT is NOT any object whatsoever,  nothing and everything and less than that. No word gets near it. No description "fits". Gaps come and go. What is That which does NOT come and go? That Thou Art.

So the question at this juncture for you might be, what is the Source of the seeing-witnessing? Are YOU as that assumed egoic "I entity" the CAUSE of either the seer OR the seeing? The witnessing and/ OR the witnessed? (And: Are these really "two?)

Have a deep look: Are "you" the script writer and/or the director of your movie show of seeing an seen? 

Deeper looking may uncover a startling fact that reality is NOT in "your" egoic control, not at all!

An old Zen pointer I like to paraphrase:

In the beginning mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. The search begins and “seeing” happens, and now mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers (that is to say they are “seen” as Consciousness at play or Ocean Waving or other poetic pointing-expressions, still in duality).

Then in the end mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.

In shorthand, what is IS and what ain’t Ain’t. And That’s THAT.

If you like, Read This One: "The Great Way"

Let go of that Knowledge which binds you in time

Knowledge is a trap. What does that mean? 

Hanging onto some concept of "True Nature" or ANY other idea of an identity, even a really huge identity such as "I am Everything" is just another trap that keeps you stuck in ideas of a me. We make a concept "holy" and "spiritual" and that is just not going to last. Any identity you take as your self, you will lose. It will go! So what is that which is the a prior IS that cannot be perceived or conceived? What is That which gives out the knowing I am? What that is no one can say. It is identity-LESS, yet it certainly is; just notice that all knowledge is temporal, mind stuff, programming of a brain's DNA and whatever has happened in it's carrier (body) since birth.

To paraphrase Nisargadatta, "Forget the tenth month and all that followed. What were you in tne womb?" How did the body form from a single cell? What is the Source of that single cell and the subsequent dividing and reforming that went on for those nine months? There must be a Natural Eternal Power that makes the formless into form. Is the form actually other than formless Being Itself? Your sense of I AM ... was it even there in the single cell? From where did that single cell come? It was one of  thousands that arrived in the womb from one moment of ecstasy. But what formed the thousands, oe of which became what you call "you"?

What if that cell was actually formed out of Nothing, in the womb, and didn't that I Am multiply the cell into billions of ever changing cells and erupt after the nine months? But who were YOU PRIOR to the moment of  the two body ecstasy?

Who are you? Are you that single cell or are you That which IS, everywhere and nowhere and beyond both being and non being?

Words are NOT the actual. The Eternal is NOT a really long time. The Totality is not a really gigantic OBJECT. DROP all "knowing and see what IS.

Who are You? Find out and you will have a good laugh.

Everthing works, always did, always will

Point Counterpoint: It has been said here, "Nothing Works" It was also said that that is not true (nor is it false). It is ONLY a Pointer.

Here is the opposite concept, which also neither true NOR false:

Everything works!

Whatever you are led by Oneness to do, is perfect for you. Whatever you seem to choose, Oneness chooses, and  then you say "I chose". So if you like to meditate, read, chant, or whatever you like to do  on the pathless path, it's all good!

Some do self inquiry. Waking out of the dream happens. Then they say, "it happened BECAUSE I self-inquired". Others meditate and say it happened BECAUSE I meditated. But many, many others will tell us "I meditated or self-inquired for 30 years and still it has not happened. Or "I did selfless service (Seva) for 27 years and still I suffer". One might well say deep investigation into the self centered idea of a me worked. Therefore "investigation WORKS!" Like an absolute blanket prescription! But there are no absolutes in this (OR there is ONLY the One Absolute in this!) But that is NOT a universal prescription! If it was, anyone who did that would be free of suffering and the majority are not! So all one could say is, it seemed to work ... HERE. (Not for "me" because the realization is IMPERSONAL, and the "I: does NOT "become free".) So all the suggestions and words that seem to point to some "way" are descriptions of what happened in a particular case, and often are utterly contradictory (as in nothing works and everything worked), The understanding is these pointers are NOT "prescriptions" but merely descriptions of a happening in one case. There is NO "universal path!" The path is made by your walking, and your walking is not designed by YOU. It is all Being Lived, whatever appears to happen that either brings freedom OR brings more suffering!)

So what REALLY "worked"? Whether we say nothing worked or everything worked, we are attaching False Cause to an arbitrary selection of discrete events and IGNORING that everything that IS, the Totality, had to be in agreement and alignment for ANYTHING to happen.

Isn't it a bit strange to assume that one thing we do brought forth the awakening and THAT one is obviously the RIGHT one ad "you should just do that, it worked for me". Isn't it obvious that this is irrational thinking? Look at the evidence.

So the point is, whatever you do is what God or Totality is doing through you and in a poetic way of speaking, what you are doing IS what God wants you to be doing. It simply could NOT be otherwise.

So to reduce all this to a simple pointer: (Albeit one the mind cannot understand!)

Nothing works, AND everything works.

Meanwhile, Home is where The Heart is.

Noticing . . .

What is noticing that reading is happening here now? What is seeing that there are objects all around your body, and what is seeing the sense of a person called "me"?

What is noticing this noticing? Is that a "thing" at all? If so where is it located? What color is it? What is its shape? Does That which IS ever HAVE a shape, a location? Where and when does THAT begin? Where and when does THAT end?

If there is a subtle conviction that "I" am some "thing", "this person" "ME", and somehow "I" am more than that open space of being-consciousness-silence, examining that notion may reveal something normally hidden from view: The false sense of a personal controlling "entity" with independent power and a sense of being separate from the space and all the other objects appearing around you. Is that who you are?

Taking a good deep look at that assumption, all the while noticing that the Space of Presence, open and free, just  IS, and That is NOT an object. Are you an object? Or something far, far LESS?

This is pointing to No Thing. Also called True-Nature. Call it God. Self. Being. Awareness. Whatever term you like. BUT: No name is IT. IT HAS no name and no form yet assumes ALL names and forms. IT IS yet it is not a thing that is graspable. There is no representation in language for IT. In short, what you ARE is IT, and since you are, you are already IT. You are what you seek already. Game Over!

Grok in fullness!

What is being pointed to?

Q: What are all these pointers trying to point to? That there is no objective reality?

C: YES. 

Q: In non-duality, I see incredible emphasis placed upon the 'witness', 'seer' or 'that which can perceive, but it itself cannot be perceived'.

C: That which perceives and that which is perceived are two movements of One Energy of The Living Essence, which are not separate. The Ocean and the Wave are not two essence, both are water. The appearance and the "seer" of the appearance are booth of single essence, one Aliveness IN which both life and death appear but it is ALL Life, happening. Often there is still a dualistic proposition that there is a SEPARATE seer. Who might THAT be?

Totality is WHAT IS. Seer and seen are NOT TWO.

Who is a witness? What is there that claims to be "witnessing?" Still dualism!

This is the myth of many a spiritual teacher whose own search still is not complete. But if the Teacher is for real, even then, sometimes in addressing a particular seeker there can be some paradoxical confusing statements. It is essential to realize ALL concepts are only temporary pointers; as Ramana Maharshi said, a thorn (call it thorn 2) used to remove an embedded thorn (false sense of a separate controlling doer or "authoring source" of what is).  Once the false concept (thorn 1) is removed thorns 1 AND 2 (the pointer-concept) are both discarded. But the seeker gets attached and says oh boy thorn 2, that was the REAL deal. And he wants to hang on to it, so he puts it in his other foot! And the suffering kicks back in (no pun intended!)

That can go on a long time until it finally dawns that NO concept is "right" (OR wrong). And the bad news is that dawning is NOT in your control. It HAPPENS, or not, the last thorn is removed by Source. So the bad news is you cannot remove the False Sense of Control that is part of the organism’s current structure or programming, and the good news is you cannot prevent it either. So, sorts of tools and pointers can show up in the space where you are, and some may weaken the false Sense of Separation, and the suffering eases; others may STRENGTHEN it and the suffering increase. Nobody knows.

Nail this down: All concepts are only pointers, used then discarded. Hold onto NO pointer, rather, just use to LOOK, look,  and immediately discard. Hang on to nothing (you can take THAT one two ways.)     :-)

The pointing is toward the non-objective Reality PRIOR to Consciousness, PRIOR to "I AM", beyond or TRANSCENDING both Being and Non-Being. This is Totality (Not Two, Advaita). But your mind can only comprehend OBJECTS while the Totality of What IS is NOT an object. The mind can only think of Totality as a really IMMENSE "object". That is the dividing mechanism I call the False Sense of Separation. Or, what Wayne Liquorman calls the False Sense of Authorship (FSA).  Have a look at:

http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/2010/06/another-angle.html

and

http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-video-who-bleep.html

This was a really good question! Now it might arise to ask yourself, WHO is asking this question? Who is answering?

The answer, when and if it comes, will make you laugh out loud.

Look at that one, if you like. I am not about to give an answer; that would be a disservice. This is just to support YOU in looking deeper, back behind the wall of concepts and assumptions and spiritual myths.

Much Love,

Charlie

Softening up??

Q: Charlie, seems to me you have softened up a bunch over the last year or so. What have you been doing? I want that too! 

C: The "self-improvement" of an organism whose tendencies were to be rude sometimes(often?!)  are NOT anything in anyone's control. When it happens, as the Understanding deepens so to speak, it is a real blessing from the Divine Totality. I wish I could say "I" caused the transformation of this programmed personality. I cannot. Because I know (and I would bet that YOU know) it is just not TRUE! Just to be clear! This is just another ocean wave, an instrument thorough which Universal Awareness-Consciousness functions. It is certainly not MY design! If it was I never would have been "nasty" to begin with. Isn't that obvious? Most people knows it feels lousy to be a jerk. And they ignore that attempts to change never seem to have a lasting effect. Can it be because "we" are NOT in CHARGE? Take a look...

I AM grateful to Source for the change, that is for sure. So are the people I interact with in daily life as well as in Consults and Talks! The message is really of the Heart in any case and behavior, nice or nasty, does not affect that. But it is easier on the "newbie" when things are pleasant! And I must say I also prefer it! No shame or guilt in any case but it IS a preference that has become a welcome part of the programming of this particular wave form of the "Ocean Of One". Of course there is no way to know what will happen next, ever. But for now it's quite nice.

New Video: Who The Bleep ....

See Also:
Totally Natural Realization

Look deeply at the assumption of "being the source"

Q: Charlie, for whom is the search and who mistakes itself to be a separate identity, and on whom it finally is to dawn that the separation is a illusion, it all seems EMPTY and MEANINGLESS, still it is not complete , please help....

C: That is what YOU must ASK YOU. There is NO answer to that inquest; THAT IS the "answer". If that feels "empty etc" then there is still a false self that wants some answer, some "help". That is what you need to dig in and look at: "I am the Source and must discover the Source and merge with Source". That is the illogical oxymoron the mind or false center of me produces!

What CAN happen is investigating in the ways Wayne Liquorman, John Greven, John Wheeler, myself, and others I link to point out. All the while there is one certain fact: You ARE. That awareness of being is what allows for whatever appears, including feelings of emptiness. But FOR WHOM is that concept and its correlate feeling arising? Where is the self you claim feels or thinks this? Looking to see if this false self center or "False Sense of Authorship" is REAL is pretty well inescapable. YOU must do the looking. The only "help" available in Truth is the pointing to what is making suffering appear and the encouragement to LOOK for yourself. Watch the video I just linked to. It is very potent for undermining that false assumption that "me myself" is cause in the matter. This notion, the buck stops with ME, it is MY fault I don't get it, and "I" must find a better way" ALL needs to be deeply challenged. That most cherished assumption, I am cause in the matter of my life", is the root of all suffering. The feeling empty and meaningless is a great place to LOOK DEEPER: WHO is this that CLAIMS "this is me and mine?"

While it is true that there is nothing that works "out here" or "in there", THAT MUST be uncovered by looking to see if the statement "I am the source of what appears" is TRUE, or not. LOOK. Use Wayne's videos to prompt a far deeper digging into this "False Sense of Authorship" or false belief in YOU being cause of what is. What IS, IS. There is no author to be found but the looking can happen if there is "Grace". Then no one discovers the false self center to BE false, leaving What IS shining in full view

A great place to look: When there is feeling or notion of guilt or shame, that is the signal that a false self center is still being assumed to be what you are. Guilt signifies "I" did really create and design actions that hurt others and "I: should NOT have done that. The false self center lives in "should", shame and guilt are symptoms of that core belief not being examined.

"I am cause" is what the self center thinks and believes. IS THAT TRUE? If you were cause in the matter would you design life such that there is suffering for you? Or anyone else for that matter?!?

Don't overlook this basic point. Challenge the assumption that you are the source of who you are, what you do, what you have, and what you think, believe and know.

Is it TRUE that you are separate from Totality?

Look deeply.

To support your looking: Please view the following videos...

Never Mind with Wayne

Natural Self Realization with Charlie

What Is The FSA? With Wayne

What is the Source of action and the body-mind's doing or non-doing?

Q: I  have a bad habit of procrastination which consists of putting off doing housework & even seemingly important things like my taxes till the last minute . I have tried self-help methods to overcome the habit & addiction however they never seem to work long term . And unfortunately the taxman won’t wait for anyone no matter what their petty excuses. Also I am a bit confused about the non-duality pointer about there being no ‘doer” – then how does doing anything get done ?

C: The question is, what us the force or power BEHIND these habits? Habits like procrastination essentially a function of the organism's "programming" ... DNA and subsequent since-birth conditioning. That all comes from a vast, innumerable and eons-long process of so called evolution.

This vast array of forces is what is called Totality. Totality means EVERYTHING, all that IS, or as some call it, God, or Source, or ... Tao... call it whatever you like, the one certain FACT is,  it IS, and the pointer is that IT IS ALL that is. What is this Everything made up of? Being-Consciousness. And Being-Consciousness is all there is... but that ain't TRUE, it's a POINTER. Look where the finger points..

Now: That organism you call "you", like all organisms, started out as one single cell. That cell divided again and again and formed the body with its programmed brain which also had the capacity of learning. It learned! How to eat, how to walk, etc.  But there was no “self center” wondering “why can’t I walk faster” or “when is dinner” or “why do not do more and better at coloring or finger painting”? There was only the natural functioning of impersonal Being, wake and alive, being lived by Being-Consciousness.

Then around the age of 2-1/2 it was imbued with a sense of "I AM, and then "I AM the designer of my life, the author of the doing that the body does; the organism is the actor"; that's the hypnosis. But who or what hypnotized you? Did YOU do that? Or did YOU design that? Do YOU create that "script of my story of being the actor, and now a procrastinating actor?" Look into that assumption. Is that which Wayne Liquorman calls the "False Sense of Authorship ("FSA"). Is it TRUE that YOU are cause in the matter your procrastinating and avoiding tasks you don’t like and favoring watching TV or surfing the net instead? Is there suffering arising from the idea that what IS “should be different” than IT IS? That is the false self-center opining ABOUT, complaining that God isn’t doing me MY way! That self: Is it REAL? We assume "I am the author, I am the entity that controls some stuff and cannot control other stuff." Is that true? Really LOOK at that one.

The one who hypnotized you may DE-hypnotize you. That remains to be seen. but meanwhile there is the possibility of deeper investigation into what is really the heart of the matter. If there is what we might call “Grace”; the motivation to look comes from the Totality pf this Universal Impersonal Energy  or “Source” that arises as everything. And Infinite Energy, manifesting in and as the Totality, is NOT a “thing”. It is NOT an object despite what the mind is programmed to think. But that is not true either; it is a POINTER.

The false self center believes it has some control and wants MORE control. It’s power-hungry and believes in its ability to transform its life. But test it out. Is it reliable? CAN you stop your tendencies despite all the self help programs we have all tried? Take a good look.

Being in control is like "pregnant". It is all or nothing. You is or you ain't! Either you have absolute power or you are powerless. Which is TRUE? Look deep

Certainly something real is "driving" all the doing, acting, procrastination or working, typing, questioning, thinking, emoting, living; all of it is driven by the vast sum of all that IS. Everything happens as a holistic appearance of an Undivided Energy that cannot be seen but whose effects are seen, like gravity cannot be seen but its effects can. That Energy is The Totality.

So, dear One: This is suggesting a deeper looking than simply trying to figure out how to not procrastinate! If procrastination is happening, that is the absolutely natural functioning. YOU did NOT decide and then design the organism to be they way it is,did you? If so why is itt that “you” don’t do a better job it it?

Clearly there is suffering around that. So would YOU do that to yourself? IS there a real "author" of Life? Or is Life simply happening, then that false self CLAIMS to be the one who is in charge. But the evidence is really overwhelming that its claim IS FALSE. You already know "self-improvement" never works because it does not address the root case, the false idea of your being in charge of life and living!

Check it out!

That hypnotic assumed self or False Sense of Authorship does nothing; it is just a claiming "mechanism". Essentially it is no more real than the water in a mirage is real.

Now look: Regarding doing, these organisms do all kinds of stuff! Doing is in inescapable function of all body-minds. The question I like best currently is where is the "author" of that doing? IS there such a thing or have we falsely assumed the bodymind is the author of the doing!? I am the author of my life: IS THAT TRUE? How do you know? Isn’t it just repeated mental programming that has that assumption be held onto? And if you could let it go YOU WOULD. So what IS the Source of the “programming” from which there is no way out? Remember, Source is NOT an object. To the brain it looks like Nothing. Yet, IT IS….

So what IS the Source of any and all actions or lack thereof? Isn’t it “Totality?”. Can you see that Totality functions through you as a procrastinator and also through the tax man who makes demands on you to file your return in a timely way? Isn’t it all a seamless Whole?

This is not intended to be an "answer" to whatever is arising, rather, to encourage YOU to look deeper than you have at this assumption that there is an authoring creating entity in you, or that the author of the doing is your body-mind-appearance. Doing is happening all the time! What is the SOURCE of that doingness?

All you are is nothingness being form and that form is nothingness. That is a pointer and NOT an answer. Nothing I say is to be taken as some dogmatic TRUTH. Let’s say that the Real Truth is simply Naked Being-consciousness. That is also ONLY a pointer! What does the word point AT?

You must look for yourself to see what is actually true and real. When this looking happens, that is the functioning of the Entirety, or "God". When the looking fructifies as the dissolution of the False Sense of Authoring all the stuff, That IS THE FUNCTIONING OF totality. IN SHORT, all there is Totality; there is not Totality plus “you”! But for God's (YOUR) sake do not believe that agree with that or accept that either.

This Teaching is not a doctrine; it is simply a pointing to a larger whole than the sense of a me with control or power to affect or alter what is.

Look deeply. Question the assumed “authority” of that false sense of control (authoring). Is it real? Or only a false assumption that dissolves on closer examination? I encourage you to take this down to the root. Right now. IF you can.

We'll just have to SEE.

Love to you!

Nothing works, never did, never will

[Update 29  June 2010: Just to clarify the pointers, these are only different angles from which to LOOK at what actually IS, as It is. Awareness, Consciousness, Peace, whatever pointer-label you prefer, is What Is.

That IS-ness is never absent nor obscured in (or BY)  any way shape or form. All these forms are permeated by and are in substance Formless Being, nothing is independent of the Being that always JUST IS. All waves and drops are Ocean. All forms and appearances are Consciousness. Consciousness is ALL there IS.  That statement is NOT some dogmatic truth to be believed! It, as all concepts, is a POINTER. Look at what the pointer points TO. Some call That "Timeless Eternal Being" (and remember, that's just another CONCEPT!)

A concept to make this absolutely clear: Awareness is already present in full, at all times in all relative "states". So wed offer the pointer "nothing works" in the light of the FACT that awareness is never missing ever, so attempts to ATTAIN That are obviously always going be fail! 

There is ONLY The One Awareness. .. Not Two. And. as the old timers said and the Living Teachings reaffirm in a trillion ways, THAT is what you are. Only That.

See below* for added pointers... and more NEW Comments]

Okay, you have been a “seeker” for as long as you have. Whether 3 months, 3 years, or 33 years, it doesn’t matter in the least. Because right now, if you are seeking love, peace, enlightenment, liberation etc. and engaged in any “investigation, practice, inquiry, meditation, contemplation, spiritual study, etc." as a function of your spiritual seeking then you will seek forever. And in seeking you will NEVER “find”.

Why can this elusive peace never be attained? Why can you never get that much longed for “final truth?” Why does enlightenment tease you with moments of bliss and freedom then beat it out the door and leave you suffering?

Because, and here comes the bad news: NOTHING WORKS.

Be honest: Haven’t you tried all sorts of things to “gain awakening” or know thy Self? Which seminars worked? Any of them? What Guru worked? Any of them? What practice worked? Any of them? Was any "attainment" PERMANENT? Didn't think so ...

Maybe there came a moment’s peace but what if that was just the mind exhausting itself beating its head against the wall and knocking itself out for a few moments or hours or days? But didn’t the seeking/suffering come right back in after a short or long time of no seeking? Begin to confront that brutal fact of seeking "spiritual enlightenment": NOTHING WORKS.

Does this sound hopeless to you? I really hope so! Because it is hope of “becoming better” or “getting awakened soon” or simply put the HOPE for a better ME, an enlightened ME that IS the bondage you seek to transcend!

So really get down and dirty now: SEE beyond a trace or smidge of any doubt that nothing you have ever done or ever will do or anything some teacher type tells you to do will ever actually “work”.

That said it IS true that well meaning teachers or friends will suggest all sorts of things, out of THEIR experience of having done what they suggest and out of a sincere belief that those things “made a difference” or even that those things worked for them. I am not saying there is anything wrong with any of that. Not at all! The teachers who write, share and blog about this are sincere for the most part. But there is a flaw in the premise, and that flaw is simply a totally bullshit assumption that “cause and effect” is actually real! It goes “if you do that then that will follow”. But this is where we gotta get straight with this spiritual crap! Honestly, IS there a causal relationship between events and do these endless teachings and books etc at infinitum really get the job done of ending your seeking for peace-love-eternal-blissy things?

So let us get real. NOTHING WORKS. That means, NOTHING.

Maybe if it’s REALLY seen that Nothing Works the seeking will come to s stop like a train hitting a sheer rock face of a mountain of iron. But more likely NOT. NO HOPE here! YOU will not drive your train into a rock face.

Now if you are saying yeah, BUT  it could happen, maybe so but it won;t happen to you or for you and YOU will not be the driver! No cause and effect for trains hitting walls so DROP all hope. When there's hope it's bloody HOPELESS. When hope dies, so does hopelessness. It happens or it doesn't; the end comes or it doesn't. No false cause proposed here!

There is NO way out. This Is IT. 

So at long last can we confront the fact that despite our insanely great efforts to “awaken ourselves” that it has NOT happened? And NEVER WILL happen so long as thou shall live?

Now before you scream that this contradicts every word ever written here and in my books, remember what I always say about all this kafuffle:

BELIEVE NOTHING. There is no True OR false here. Just tonight’s rant about NOTHING.

So do not accept, agree, or take ANY  of this to be real .That would be to get into a hope of becoming again: “Well if I get that This Is It, there is no way, no path, no possibility and it really IS hopeless (!) then THAT will be it. NO!

Now: EVEN This Is It is not “it”.

There ain’t no IT.

Nothing works, never did and never will. If you do something that will not work. if you do nothing that will not work. Got it?

So: Let's go get something to eat. What’s at the movies tonight?

Update 14 June 2010:  Some great comments have been posted. And one fundamental question has been raised: In the wonderful Nisargadatta Maharaj DVD "The Lost Satsang",

Maharaj said many times in many ways "stay put in the I AM". He also said "Try what the Sages tell you and see if it works".

The obvious question is, WHY would Maharaj say that? Is that TRUE" He's an authority figure, right? Must be true than, correcyt? As is said above, nothing works, never did, never will? Is THAT True? Be you OWN authority!

Here is the classic problem in the mind (ONLY in the mind) ... the paradox of a true teaching or pointing. To summarize, there is no person and the person must find out there is no person. Makes NO sense, does it? It never will, to the mind (ideas and identity).

So these concepts, wherever they appear and whatever organism the are expressed though, MUST be taken ONLY as pointers. To attempt to resolve a paradox is crazy making. The brain is NOT wired to figure this out! What in essence is No Thing and not even THAT can never be captured in words or thought. The words that point, that Truth that can be "told", is NOT the Eternal Truth or Forever State, the word is NOT, as Lao Tsu said, that which the word points at.

So we say with confidence here that nothing works. That is NOT TRUE. NOR is it NOT Not True. It is NEITHER True NOR False. The idea of I which we label "mind" cannot come within a trillion trillion miles of this. What can an idea DO? Nothing. That's what we offer with the pointer "nothing works"... because for the mind, nothing ever will.

In any event, whatever happens is simply happening with no "one" doing any of it; all that appears to happen in this "strange dream of being"  is just a part of the natural functioning of the Whole Enchilada. Anything is possible in a dream. That means: ANYTHING. To paraphrase Nisargadatta: See the dream AS a dream. That is enough. So while no one can "do" that seeing, this may well happen in the illusion of all illusions. Being disillusioned, here and now, no one sees what IS.

This is freedom from the delusion of being something and even of being no thing. Did it happen? It's like dying. Who knows? All that appears is I AM. 

Dead people talking.

There is only Being, NO becoming is real, just imaginary; only This Nondual Presence is real. It is forever, One Ocean, waving and still; but the metaphor breaks down because THAI is NOT any object whatsoever,  nothing and everything and less that that. No word gets near it. No description "fits". Gaps come and go. What is That which does NOT come and go? That Thou Art.

An old Zen pointer I like to paraphrase:

In the beginning mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. The search begins and “seeing” happens, and now mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers (that is to say they are “seen” as Consciousness at play or Ocean Waving or other poetic pointing-expressions, still in duality).

Then in the end mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.

What IS, IS.

* 6.29.10: 

Acceptance of What Is comnes and goes in the "process of seeking". It would be very nice if "we" could "manufacture acceptance. Put some effort into accepting and you see pretty quickly that it's impossible! It happens whet it happens and doesn't when it doesn't!

Acceptance is a kind of "Grace", and no ego can manufacture Grace. it is a gift. The recognition that you cannot make acceptance (or anything else) happen IS acceptance of what is. Acceptance cuts off the horizontal time-bound involvement by the sense of personal doer-ship, and that absence of the false notion that "I am in control" is authentic peace. It comes unbidden ... JUST like everything else that happens in this livingness of life itself...

For more go to Fact vs. Imagination and Basically.

The wisdom of not knowing

The beginning of wisdom consists in “I don’t know any more”. Before, we were so sure we were “on the right track”, then we got disillusioned and want after another better Guru and another different Guru for years and decades all to no avail. Can you let the insight in that NO path or process is needed to BE?

You ARE and about that there is never any doubt. Frustration arises when there is an expectation of getting something special for the person. The literature, the free-seeming damnably cheerful Gurus, all seem to hold out that promise. But the promise is never fulfilled because the one who expects fulfillment is a ghost-like apparition, a conceptual self image that is no more real than the water in a mirage. That water sure looked real until we got close enough to see its illusory nature. Now you are coming on to a solid pointing out that what you are is not in hiding, merely ignored in favor of the mind’s thought stories of separation.No water! Mo Mirage! Have a LOOK!

The fixation remains until it is finally obvious that the mind is NEVER going to get what it wants and expects, and in some organisms also figures it has somehow earned what cannot be attained, though decades of effort, struggle and suffering. Never gonna happen. Them's the facts.

When hope starts to die despair arises. Let it BE. Let it show you that the mind, thoughts etc., will simply NEVER get it. It IS hopeless to the mind. Within hope there is the opposite of despair. A friend once said that "hope is icing on a turd". Spot on. So: These are two are movements of the same energy of belief in separation. When that dies, hopelessness and hope both die. But there is no way around, only into and through. Taste it Eat it. Chew it. Swallow it. Let it permeate every cell. 

Resistance is futile, in fact resistance keeps it fueled up and energized for another round of seeking and never finding. So: Love your despair, it’s the gateless gate! No way out! Only IN. Let it own you and it will kill you. When the I dies into Life Itself, so to speak (that "I" was actually never born like there is no water actually in that mirage!) ..... and "you” are dead ..... then (NOW) You are Here, the impersonal and immortal (non-mortal, non-form) Absolute Presence, awake and alive with no remnant of a person believed in any more. And that is always the TRUE case,, even NOW (AND ONLY NOW). 

Only Right NOW You Are before the next thought of any “I” arises and complains about its plight! Return over and over to I AM and refuse all other identity thoughts and stories!

Has it not occurred to look at that sense of "I" or "me", "myself", and question its assumed existence? Is the thought “I” really YOU? Do you believe that this one-letter thought is really you? Mistaken Identity! That assumed to be real and separate “I” is the fundamental LIE that you have believed since you were three or so. You repeat it and thereby reinforce it …and that is what needs to be looked at head on. What exactly IS this “I:” and where the hell is it when the body is in deep dreamless sleep?

Has it not occurred to look at that sense of "I" or "me", "myself", and question its assumed existence? Is the thought “I” really YOU? Do you believe that this one-letter thought is really you? Mistaken Identity! That assumed to be real and separate “I” is the fundamental LIE that you have believed since you were three or so. You repeat it and thereby reinforce it …and that is what needs to be looked at head on. What exactly IS this “I:” and where the hell is it when the body is in deep dreamless sleep?

When it is pointed out that nothing works, this CAN allow for the nonconceptual Seeing and Knowing that the mind is only an appearance that comes and goes, therefore there is nothing IT can do to gain enlightenment. Seeing that, the mind just gives up the ghost. But that is no more in "your" control" than the weather is in your control! Whatever comes Self welcomes it, so stay with that I AM - Presence which You truly are, which allows it all to come and go in inconceivable Peace. That is all there is for no one to get!

“Die before you die. Then do what you like”.  -Zen Master Bankei

"I hope you die soon".- Richard Sylvester

About this expression

Charlie Hayes, a former world class professional racing driver, met the great Baba Muktananda in 1974. After 28 years of meditation and study with Baba as well as Baba's friend Werner Erhard,  and Baba's  successor Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Charlie happened to meet His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and had a huge breakthrough into Being-Oneness.  As that faded (as all such experiences do) , Charlie met Wayne Liquorman and was powerfully introduced to "Advaita Nonduality". Two years Later he met Tony Parsons (by phone) and John Wheeler and 'Sailor' Bob Adamson (in person).

Hayes, who is retired from the auto business, moved to Enid Oklahoma, home of "Oneness" author John Greven, who, along with John Wheeler and Wayne, gave those final pushes off the cliff.

In the words of Wayne's  "No Way"  by "Ram Tzu" ... "You stand at the edge, ready to throw yourself in. What a shock to discover there is nowhere to go and no one to throw."

Charlie offers books, audios and one to one consultations on Nonduality, by phone, on Skype, and in person at his Oklahoma home.

Totally Natural Self Realization

New Video: "No Authority Needed"

Basically ....

A conceptual pointer to illustrate (only illustrate) mental; confusion: The word is NOT what the word represents (or points to). Can the word water nourish a plant? Can the word food feed a starving woman? Is the word illusion just another pointer to a play of light? Is the word awareness actually aware? The word is NOT the Real. (Or, NO WORD IS the Real.)

Is the description of Nonduality really Nondual? Who claims to know and who claims to not know? All words. All brain erputions of synapses firing off creating the illusion of reality in words (thoughts). What is overlooked? Synapses fire, that takes energy. What IS that energy? Where is it? What is its source? How is it that a single drop of sperm became "you"? A body appears, a corpse really, yet dreamingly infused with Presence-Aliveness. Where did all that come from? Anywhere? Nowhere?

Who is looking? No one here no one there so what is looking at what? The Grand Illusion, "Maya", the amazing play of light that makes the manifest appearance look So Damn Real!

What IS Reality? Is it not known fully as Presence? Just an impersonal boundless Presence?

I AM. This Presence is known by mind as I AM. Yet even I AM is saying way too much.

What allows for I AM to BE? That is The real. Only That is NOT a That. Unborn Being IS. I AM appears ... appears IN that AS the appearing shadow of That..

Words! Stop reading here. What IS? Presence. There is NO I in Presence.

Mind back in play now? Go to "Nothing Works".....

abide in silence

What is REAL? Is there ever NOT Silence? Is it possible for sounds to arise unless silence is abiding and present first? "Silence is golden". What does that mean? Silence is a gold standard of peace, freedom and natural love. In silence all things come to pass. In that brilliant stillness-silence there is nothing but your Self. This is pointing to what cannot be observed yet IS. In the words of a friend, David Carse, "Does exist, cannot be expresses". Call That which exists by any name at all, it just ... IS. Silence is a word that does NOT express That or describe That. The word is only a pointer. Now. Here. Look. Is it possible that silence is not present? No. Notice that! So, dear Ones, Abide as silence*. That is truly what you are.

Another word that piints to That is "Essence". To paraphrase a great Sage ** . . .  What IS is 'One Essence appearing as everything'. The dictionary defines Essence this way:

1.    The intrinsic or indispensable properties that serve to characterize or identify something.
2.    The most important ingredient; the crucial element.
3.    The inherent, unchanging nature of a thing or class of things.

Here is is. Not the word, yet It Is. You are That and ONLY That IS.

(Inspired by pointers from my friends *Gurumayi Chidvilasanada) and **'Sailor' Bob Adamson

Understanding Wayne Liquorman's pointer, "the False Sense of Authorship"

[Updated 12 June with new comments]

The nonduality teacher Wayne Liquorman has made a very elegant and sharp distinction regarding the dilemma of the well known pointer that "Actions happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof" (attributed to The Buddha.)  Great pointer, right? But quite a few who are approaching these teachings with sincerity and earnestness find themselves "stuck" on a point that seems irresolvable: They have heard (perhaps many, many times) that the "culprit" or the root cause of suffering is a sense of a separate self with the belief that this self is the doer. While this may be true, in my sense of things sometimes this occurs as simply an insufficiently precise definition of the root of suffering. 

So Wayne invented the distinction "False Sense pf Authorship" (FSA for short) which, in my experience,  makes a new clean severing of two "aspects" of the separate self, one of which is the fact of there being a body, a personality, and a history that is unique and IS an individual entity with one-off DNA and one-off conditioning installed by nature of environment, upbringing, peers etc.  All of that could be called the sense of self which an organism must have to function. 

For a brief intro to the "FSA" Go HERE 

A classic example is that if you addressed the Sage Nisargadatta Maharaj by name and said good morning, he would know you were talking to him and not the fellow sitting next to him.  And would respond back to you and not the lady sitting behind you. That is the natural identity that enables the natural functioning of these organisms. You, and me.

Now Wayne sharpens up the seeing of this self-entity in two notional aspects: The normal everyday self called by a name with a form which is functioning in the Totality as an aspect of that Totality, like the wave is an aspect of the ocean, AND that the cause of suffering is that there is a false sense of being the AUTHOR of what actions happen, deeds are done etc.
Yes, the wave is an individual entity in the ocean. Still made of ocean water yet certainly individuated.  And the individual is an individual entity in Totality, yet made of the same Beingness as all that IS in Totality. As in the popular pointer “Consciousness is all there is”.

An analogy may be helpful: Consider the actor in a movie. Say, Tom Hanks, in "Forrest Gump" Hanks did a heck of a lot of DOING in the film, yes? A great deal of doing was happening. He was doing the doing. Any question about that?

But what was the author of his doing? The writers. The actor does what is on the page. So in the same way these organisms are programmed to act, and do, until they drop. But does the organism AUTHOR the doing? It is the sense of being the author of the doing, i.e. taking on the belief that I as the body and mind am the author (or designer, or writer) of the action I take as a bodymind, and so I feel guilty when I don't do it they way I should because I screwed up my authoring.

This take is just a pointer to ponder. Maybe if there is no longer the rejection of the doer-idea and a deeper distinction is drawn between doing and authoring, that stockiness can get loosened up. Works for me!

To really get this straight from the horses mouth click here and buy the download from Wayne's site for ten bucks. It is worth many times that in terms of easing any remaining stuckness or suffering that you may still be putting up with or trying to "get beyond".

Let me know what you see and experience out of this if you like. I look forward to hearing from you if you are moved to write a question or a comment. E-mail non.duality@yahoo.com; I answer as many as possible.

Much Love to all and to all a good day, or night!

Is This all Illusion? Go HERE for another video on this notion.

JD Hazlewood says ...

Commenting on "Nothing Works, Never Did, Never Will",  a very dear and true friend, JD Hazlewood, author of "That Which Always Is' and "Peace Of No Mind" says:

Hitting the proverbial nail on the head as usual Charlie.

Listen folks, Charlie is pointing to the pure essence of your true being. The reason nothing works is because in reality nothing is wrong to begin with. There's an assumption that there exists a person and said person has problems, thus begins the search. Only in the seeing of this is freedom known.

Someone mentioned that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj expressed that you must put a lot of effort into it. If you've read "I Am That", you will note that he says different things to different seekers. His words, and just talking about nonduality in general is full of seeming contradictions. They contradict common sense and logicical thought, why? Because the answer is not in the so called mind, which is made up of only thoughts.

Someone mentioned that there's no need to pay Charlie or anyone else if nothing will help. Dude, you wouldn't pay anyone even if they handed you the universe on a silver platter. The message is there, but blindness to it from some vendictive stir up some sort of contraveresy keeps you in the mind searching, instead of seeing what is being pointed to, that is, if there is an sincerity at all.

Charlie puts this message out there, and if you can stop focusing on the finger, it will be seen what the finger is pointing to.

Right here, right now, nothing is wrong. There seem to be all sorts of problems going on in a dream, but in the waking state, no such problems exist, they are specifically tailored to the dream life, but telling that to the dream character doesn't help, only in waking from the imagination is it seen that it never was real, and all the efforts of the dream character to fix her/his seeming problems were in vein. There's nothing "you" can do to be who You Are, and there's nothing that needs to be done for You to be who You Are.

Note also that the dream character doesn't awaken, it's not real, and the dreamer was never the dream character, so there was never any awakening for the seeker in the dream.

Love ya Charlie!

JD Hazlewood

VERY well said, JD.

Let all who find their way here remain HERE, anchored in the steady abidance of Silence-Stillness.

Love ya back, JD. Your nonjudgmental approach is a breath of fresh air! 

(JD's books are HIGHLY recommended: Go HERE or click image to preview and order  Print copies).

Go HERE for Downloads.

The Self is the only "actor"

If you have no job and "time on your hands" maybe you watch a lot of TV. If so you may notice that you see the same actor in different roles on different channels. One day the tall skinny guy with a goatee is a lawyer, next day a drug addict wasted on Heroin, next day he's a cowboy rodeo rider. How's THAT for dissimilarity?

Yet the same body-mind apparatus appears as both those apparently diverse characters.

Now expand the metaphor. There is, as all the true sages have told us, ONLY ONE SELF appearance as the billions of human forms and everything else in the dream of life, apparently awake or dreaming or asleep. The ONLY "actor" is that One Self. That's all there is; this is stated as FACT by the Seers, the Jnanis, and that must be realized for there to be any authentic freedom from human suffering.

Who is it that sees this? YOU. But not the "you" you believe you are. Look outsde the mind. The mind is machinery, like a clock that ticks until the spring winds down. But there must be Space for the clock to appear within; no Space no clock. Take the stand that The Space of Being is what is real. Any object must have Space to appear, right? Take note of the Space that IS and ignore the content of that Space. If the focus goes onto content there is pleasure and pain, suffering. If the focus fades the The Real is patently obvious. It always IS! Just unnoticed when the mind is all about "me and mine".

While it is true that nothing works and there is no one home in the mind, if the assumption of a "me" is still in play and bothersome, then for God's (YOUR) sake try it.

What do you have to lose? Everything. What will you gain? Nothing. But that, nothing, is truly sacred.  "Only a fool would give up everything he has for nothing". - Ram Tzu

Be that FOOL. Know NOTHING. For all that "you know" is absolute false. The True is Real and ever present and always clear and utterly obvious.  All you know is lies. The Truth sets "you" free of that "you".

BE the Fool, dear One.

Appearance is an advertisement for awareness-consciousness

To paraphrase Nisargadatta Maharaj, speaking in the amazing DVD "The Lost Satsang:" Highly recommended!

"Maya (the appearance of all that is manifestly present) is just the advertisement for Consciousness. But we confuse the advertisement with Consciousness itself. "

Consciousness arises from Being. It is translated as "I Am. In many cases Maharaj pointed seekers back to the eternal essence and strongly suggested to "stay with that I AM."

Who are you? I AM. Who am I? I AM. Nothing to it!  What IS is prior to I AM. Prior to words. Formless and open. Nowhere.At. All.

Hello!??

(Click HERE or on the image to read my review on Amazon.)