Q: Hi Charlie - your writings are of great help for me.
C: I am happy to hear that!
Q: My interest about spirituality started about 12 years ago. I was in spiritual group for about 10 years. I was not happy in this group and I left. After some time I have found these teachings I must say that the non-dual pointers are very direct, simple and liberating.
C: Yes. Taking up the two basic pointers with unswerving commitment just WORKS - maybe not always - but often enough to make it worth the shot for the ending of your suffering:
1. I Am, and that I Am is a simple and indisputable fact
2. I Am NOT anything other than That. If I think I still am separate, asking, "WHO thinks that" often works to burn the false belief away. Ask, "Who Am I?" THAT is a question that counts.
Q: After short time of inquiry, the understanding of the simple truth that I am awareness is clear, and it is great relief for me. But this dream character sometimes believes …
C: Yes. Now watch as the ego-mind pops right back up like a jack-in the-box and claims, "I know I Am That, Presence-Awareness, … B U T" …! That is why the inquiry must continue until there is no one left to ask any questions whatsoever.
That “But” is the actually false ego protesting against being "killed" by the inquiry. That is all. And that ego is actually non-existent – it is not solid or real. Yet all that "I – me – ego" IS is a thought arising IN presence-Awareness, like a cloud in the empty sky. It is only a thought believed in as "what I really am." WHO believes? Ask that believer-thought: “Who are you? What are you really?” See that IT IS ONLY A THOUGHT.
Q: But this dream character sometimes believes that this entity and the world are real, and this false belief is a cause for arising of fear, jealousy suffering... In the moment when the fear is arising I forget about this simple fact that I am not this fear, and the suffering is reaction of this misunderstanding.
C: So, at the end of forgetting ASK who forgot? Who needs to remember? RIGHT NOW, look at this one! What does all forgetting arise within? BEING. You ARE. Being is always ON. Forgetting is an occurring within that same Awareness. If you are not being then where could forgetting happen? This teaching is not about remembering ANYTHING.
Q: Thank you.
C: It is my pleasure. Thanks for a great, heart felt, and sincere question.
Follow-up Q: Charlie thank you for your beautiful and clear response. It is true that false ego protesting against his death. He wants to control the thoughts. This entity who wants to take control is another thought. He wants to know everything, and is afraid of not knowing. Not knowing is the death of the false, and what is left? Nothing.
C: Well said. This clear seeing of what is false, along with the undeniable seeing that the pure Awareness, "I Am" before the thought I am arises, is in your True-Nature, is all that is needed. Welcome Back to Timeless Being - the Home you never really left.
"Stay with that which lovingly allows for everything to appear in peace that cannot be disturbed. Allow it to show you the depth of its void and the fullness of its emptiness." ~John Greven
"Human beings actually have no more independence or autonomy in living their lives than do the characters in a dream. Neither do they have anything to do with the creation of the dream or anything in it. They are simply being lived along with everything else in this living dream of the manifested universe. The entire dream is unreal. Only the dreamer is real, and that is Consciousness itself." ~Ramesh Balsekar
"Don't fight with what you take to be obstacles on your way. Just be interested in them, watch them, observe, inquire. Let anything happen - good or bad. But don't let yourself be submerged by what happens. The mind must learn that beyond the moving mind there is the background of awareness, which does not change. The mind must come to know the true self and respect it and cease covering it up, like the moon which obscures the sun during solar eclipse. Just realize that nothing observable, or experience-able is you, or binds you. Take no notice of what is not yourself. You are aware anyhow, you need not try to be. What you need is to be aware of being aware. Be aware deliberately and consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious." ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
