What Is Reality ... REALLY?

In the tradition of the Zen Koan, such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping”?, or, "What was your face before your parents were born”?, if there is a deep looking head on at the QUESTION without succumbing to the programmed brain’s addiction to getting “the answer” then perhaps, the assumption that there IS an answer will snap – and along with it, the question-ER might just snap or fade as there simply IS no question without a questioner, and no questioner without a question.

In that snap life is seen to be utterly and absolutely meaningless yet filled with an Energy of Aliveness. Perhaps THAT could be called the No Thing of Everything – Energy. But without language where is THAT?

Answers are all irrelevant. What you are is beyond all language, all questions, all questioning, all of it and even what you are is prior to this “Nothing” that “Everything is made of.

Undoing the "knot of the me"

M.P. Writes, I am neck deep in the juicy stuff Charlie and have been indulging my ego with this is this and that is that and your opening line alone was enough to pull me up short. I started questioning the whole darn story and more and more space was noticable as the knot unwound. thanks Charlie :-)

C: That's great news, M! much love to you.

M: Love you back, Charlie, big time!

This a follow-up to "Question until there is no questioner left"

All happens in the Presence-Awareness that You ARE

What is a Who?

Q: I am asking "..who am I?" 24/7 as much as I can…

C: Okay: Now there is just one tiny question ... What is asking 'who am i'? All arises from out of no where - to whom? And who asks this? Love asks for itself to be known yet it is already here already now already forever for noperson everywhere now. Love!

Ponder this from "Paradise Found" – Chapter 75:

Q: Awareness of I AM seems to be the key that unlocks the door that isn't really there. Staying with the Awareness I AM seems to be so simple, pure and natural. But then along comes an identification with some event or aspect of "the story" and whoosh a trap door seems to open into the jungle of thought and confusion. No light in that jungle. A complete "forgetting." Round and round I go trying to see and sort it out (suffering) until finally I give up (Surrender). That Surrender seems to lead back into the light.

C. And ALL of that happens in this Presence of Awareness. This Awareness is NOT a “thing” that comes and goes. IT IS.  And this Isness registers all the comings and goings of thoughts, sensations, identifications with a story, feelings, sensations … sentience appears in That and THAT is what NEVER changes. You cannot escape That. IT IS, Being-Awareness-Aliveness, present and clear prior to and during and after all movements of thoughts feelings etc. Surrender? Who is there to do that? Dissolution of the false happens when there arises an investigation into the nature of the I or me we have mistakenly taken our self to be.

Q: How to stay in the Awareness of I AM and let the story flow?

C. You cannot escape that. Wanting to “stay in That” is happening IN that. It is like water to the fish: So clear and obvious that it is overlooked (but the analogy falls short because Awareness, unlike water, is NOT a thing you can grasp or know.) Awareness is the Silence of Stillness knowing; the knower and known are illusions arising IN that Being-Awake-And-Aware Aliveness that is the Real. THAT is non-conceptual and therefore cannot be grasped by the “I” which is itself only another concept. That I can never “know Oneness.” You are NOT that I-thought which tries to stay with I AM. Being IS and that you are. Attempting to stay in That is a flip strategy for avoiding That.

~  ~  ~

Q: Thank you.

C: De Nada!

Question until there's no questioner left

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

Request For Support

Recently I have encountered much unexpected expense, for the computer system, and physical health. There have been a boatload of medical expenses which were only partly covered by medicare and a procedure is needed that is not covered at all. And alas,my old 1998 Jeep needs some work too in addition to my 1936 bodymind :-) ... So while I hate to ask, I must again make a gentle request for assistance: We can only continue the living expression (the newsletter, the blog, podcasts and videos) if there is monetary support, given health and finance circumstances. Rent just went up again. Internet access, bandwidth, hardware, and other costs, are ever increasing while income decreases. This is a NON-Profit site; all revenue goes back into resources for the Expression. So, IF you are able to help, and you feel in the heart that you are getting value from this space, please make a donation of any amount that is comfortable for you, to help keep this Message from Self to Self "live on line". I know these are tough time for many, so great thanks in advance!

And A BIG thank you to those of you who have already responded; your contributions make a real difference! Your love and support is VERY moving!

To contribute (any amount that is comfortable for you) GO HERE:

http://charliehayes36.tripod.com/

Enlightenment - what IS it?

"Enlightenment" is NOT transformation, not change, not "ascension", not "buddha-mind", not some sort of "energetic shift", not some "transmission", not any change whatsoever. These are all stories that are told by idiots that believe THEY are enlightened and YOU are NOT! There is nowhere to go and no one to go; the seeker-persona is a MYTH and nothing more. Those who tell stories abut "an energetic contraction" are simply misleading the seeker by reinforcing the totally false notion of dualism, the assumption that there IS a "person" for whom there is something wrong! There is no person in Reality; only in the delusion of language that some "gurus" use to get attendees to meetings! Warning: There is no food for such egos here.

My friends: This is definitely not a "saintly state". It is not a "personality modification. It is not a 'shift". It is NOTHING. And nothing cannot be attained by nothing! You as what-you-ARE cannot ever ATTAIN what-you-already-are. It would be like the sky trying to grasp itself. Like the knife trying to cut itself. The "Sage" does NOT undergo some magical mystical transformation from something to no thing; rather the ideation and conviction that there is some "one" (an individual) somehow separated from and different than no thing simply gets squelched by that no thing which the sage is and, dear reader, which YOU already always Are. To accept the intellectual understanding that you are no thing may be a start but it is not the ultimate Full Moon of Reality, because so long as there is  "me" accepting, then that same "me" will also reject it when the going gets tough e.g. when illness or hard financial times or loss of a love etc. happen. This was my experience; so long as the understanding was superficial, i.e at the level of a deep belief but not the actual apperception, then life is a roller coaster. The point of nonduality is to share what takes one off the roller coaster altogether, not to keep one up on some "peak high". The "Advaita High" is no different than another drug like experience; it always passes and you crash. Have you not seen that yet?

All attempts to gain some state of self-realization WILL fail. Bad news, eh? Nah! That is the good news! Because if it is deeply apperceived that there is no one separated from wholeness to get whole, that there is no point in a phantom belief in a "me" to make endless efforts to become "no me" (OR to STOP all efforts to become "no me") well then by God there might just happen to be Grace; the Grace that comes from no thing no where (IE from Who-You-Really-ARE) and removes the delusion of a mind split ONLY by language and falsely convicted to a life in a conceptual prison. Grace can pardon the convict in a heartbeat. However watch now: Do you have some belief lurking in deep back-story that "you" (or ANY "me") can MANUFACTURE Grace? Lotsa luck with that. That one will keep you on the hamster wheel forever. Who cannot see the arrogance in the notion that this little ego-thought of separateness, of "me", can somehow make the universe and one's life better?? As the poet Leonard Cohen wrote, "There is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man putting the universe in order".

Recently one of my teachers, the modern Sage Wayne Liquorman, wrote: "The ever practical brain wants to know what earthly good is such esoteric understanding? How does it help us grow more and better grass? How does it feed us? How can it enrich us? The answer is that it is of no practical value. It does not help us to manage life better. But its mystical value is immeasurable. It enables us to be at peace even when our minds and bodies are in turmoil...not as an act of skill, not as an achievement but as an act of Grace. May it find you now!"

Full Stop and Amen!! 

PS: Now please remember: ALL words are conceptual POINTERS. Those who believe the words of any teacher or teaching, no matter who, or where they are, are simply deluding themselves. So don't bother spouting out "well so and so says xyz and so you are obviously wrong. EVERY teaching is wrong inasmuch as they are all concepts that ONLY POINT. These pointers are NOT representing or describing! Do not believe any of it; rather, LOOK at where the pointing is pointing (to the Non-conceptual Eternal Love that you really are!) Pure Apperception of that (i.e. know-ING sans know-ER or thing-known) is enlightenment ... for no one. And all the while YOU remain as You Are, have always been and will always be in this dream of spacetime: PRESENT AND AWARE.

Is Awareness 'The Absolute'?

Q: I have a question regarding what has been referred to as the "Absolute" or the Supreme State. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said that we are the changeless awareness that illumines the infinite content of consciousness.

C: I stand by that for sure!

Q: To me it is obvious that I am, and that there is this eternal, never-changing presence of awareness in the background - my question is regarding whether or not this awareness is actually what I am in the very deepest sense.

C: Yes, you are that Light of Awareness that shines forth as Consciousness (I AM).

Q: Although Maharaj and many others say that you are this awareness, he also mentions that you are the Absolute, which is "beyond awareness", beyond the sense of "I am", and that the absolute transcends birth, being, and death.

C: Here you kind of get hung up on the semantics or languaging of what IS and PRIOR to language and semantics. Using a word - “Awareness" - to point to The Absolute is just that – a pointer. Awareness is the objectless Subjectless Light of Being. Consciousness is the KNOWING “I am", there IS existence, consciousness, aliveness.

Q: It is also stated that beingness or "I am" is dependent upon the body-mind and disappears when the body dies.

C: Correct. The body-mind is like the candle and consciousness is like the flame that consumes the candle, whereupon as the last bit of fuel is exhausted the flame goes out. But the Light that IS cannot be extinguished because That is NOT an object. Call it a Flameless Light if you like. But bear in mind that no word can ever capture it because it is That which gives essence and appearance to the presence and the absence of the body-mind and consciousness.

Q: Is there a difference between the changeless in which everything, even the "I am", happens, and the Absolute?

C: Yes and no. The changeless is not an object that comes and goes and therefore IS The Absolute. Yet that Absolute appears AS everything, arising here and now in this timeless moment, so to speak…

Q: I guess what I'm getting at is whether or not I'm actually aware of the Absolute,

C: NO! You ARE the Absolute so to “be aware” of that you would have to be separated from that and there is no separation between you as consciousness (I AM) and The Absolute. These are, as is forever POINTED to, NOT Two. Or, “One without a second”.

Q: Because I feel a strong need to abide fully in the state I was in before I was born and that is unaffected by death.

C: You already do abide as That. Trying to recover that seems to obscure that. Pause thought right now for a timeless instant: Here and now you ARE and already always abide AS that. You are just trying to capture it as if you were separated from that. That is a fool’s errand!

Q: Is this simple, ever-present presence of awareness that I feel the Absolute, or is even this just a transient state that disappears sooner or later, and if so how does one realize the Absolute?

C: “One” does NOT “realize the absolute”! Who is there to do that? Where is any separate entity that is NOT already whole and complete, not already The Absolute? This is the ignorance of a mind that takes itself to be separate – yet that mind is just a notion, an idea of a person apart from The Absolute. Do a bit of looking for that so called person with a separate substantial existence apart from Being, Awareness, Aliveness itself and see what you find. I promise you will come up empty handed. And in that cognizing emptiness you are as you already always are will be have forever been – the Living Buddha-Nature, this Absolute arising as Being.

The bottom line is, YOU ARE THAT. Full Stop. 

What Face?

A Zen “koan” goes, “What was your face before your parents were born?” In other words, what is your true nature, PRE Face? Before-Face (it could be said) is NO Face. That might point to what is called “Truth of Natural Being”… AKA No Thing, or Self unaware of Its Self. Like the Sun, shining not knowing its Light until the appearance of some object that reflects Its Light back to Itself.

There is, prior to Face, No Face. No Thing. Eternal Light of Unchanging Being, Prior to both being AND Not-being. It’s unknowable yet IT IS. The Latin word for that is ‘est’. But what we are offering here is, There Is NO Is. That No-Is, thou art! Tat Tvam Asi.

What you and I are is the Pre-Face of that which is Source, the One-Source of Life itself; the a priori empty Light of Timelessness, eternal Being and nothing but That. Pre-Face, You and I ARE... but NOT as “You And me”, rather as One-Unchanging Is/Not Is.

From "Being, Awake and live"

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Where is "I AM" Loctaed?

Where IS ‘I AM’ Located?

Q: Firstly, a word of thanks for your writings and videos....I really do appreciate you taking the time to point out to all the truth of non-duality.

C: You are most welcome. I enjoy sharing this enormously!

Q: Your pointing resonates with me, however I am not sure where I AM located.

C: NOWHERE. This Awareness that You actually ARE HAS no "location" and no beginning, no end. Where does NOW start? When did HERE begin?

Q: My body/mind is here in north east England but I don't understand that I was never born and will never die and that I am non-local.

C: This CANNOT be "understood." This Awareness TRANSCENDS the mind of language and identity, and the seeing is, 'there is  no me, and yet, I AM". All that was "born" was an IDEA of "being me". THAT idea dies into deep sleep at night and is "born" of a morning on "waking". The Unborn is Being Itself! THAT is the Aliveness that beats the heart in that deep sleep.

Dear One: You cannot get it; you ARE it. One-With-No-Other. One without a second. Oneness just that. These words point to That which is PRIOR to language. You are THAT.

Q: I would appreciate it if you would help me out here. I would love to share a couple of beers with you.

C: Help who? I see no person there who need help nor do I see a person here who would offer help. This is a dream; you dream you are a person and dream there is a dream teacher who would help you understand you are dreaming. But if it is ALL one, ALL One Dream, who would be either awake OR asleep?

Follow-up:

Q: Thanks again Charlie.

No center ..... no boundary.

No self .... no other.

No inside or outside.

No past or future.

Pure awareness in which all is appearing unbidden.

Warmly welcoming.

Pure emptiness....vastly filled.

No past...no future.  No here or there.

C: Bingo!

What Is THAT Which Knows "I Am?"

Perhaps the habit is to identify your self as the thought “I” ... as in “I Am”.

Notice right now if the Presence behind the I thought has been overlooked.

Break into the habit, being aware of That Presence as your True Identity. 

This takes neither time nor practice. It's just a natural seeing, right here, right now. 

And that's the end of seeking; the Natural, Eternal State has been found to be never missing. 

~ From “You Are Unborn”

" Changes are inevitable in the changeful, but you are not subject to them. You are the changeless background, against which changes are perceived." 

 ~Sri Nisargadatta 

Pain Distinct From Suffering (Redux)

* Please note: the following story does not depict any actual persons or events!*

:-))

Q:  I do wish you would let me know what is going on with the body, but you seem to think it too unimportant to mention.  I agree it isn't who you are at all, but would like to know all the same. 

C: Once upon a time there was an old man in Oklahoma named charlie. At the end of 2009 he was hit with a raft of symptoms; nearly unable to swallow, a lot of gas, bloating, stomach pains, chest pains and more. After over a year of many tests at the hospitals, and much prodding, poking and medicating by the three best doctors in his town, the symptoms continue to come and go. There are pains, certainly. There is frustration that there appears to be no cure, of course. But charlie knows he is not the body and so there is a backdrop of aware presence and that is where his focus is. The old man is 74 now, and understands the integration of life from a single cell that formed a body and its opposite on the pendulum swings of nature, dis-integration and returning to the elements, the five-element dance of Life, that is in the process of removing the appearance of a charlie from the great elegant play of awareness-consciousness-peace. When charlie is asked "how are you" he replies "I am fine. The bodymind machinery, though, is quite another matter!" Thirteen months into this what "mostpeople" call "illness", he remains as he always was, unchanged being-aware-here-now! He laughs and cries, is happy and sad, is accepting and resistant, pissed about the expenses of health care (co-pays mount up indeed) all within the awareness of what is for all, being-just-that. So he tries his best to ignore requests for the story of some "person" who is either in pain or not, and tries (too often in vain) to point to the essential DISTINCTION between "pain" and "suffering". However, once in a while the awaring-awareness prompts a brain to spout through fingers tapping little black squares creating squiggles of black (or maybe dark blue) on white space. This is one of those times, apparently!

The End.

_________________________________________________________

My beloved Friend,

I am asked about this from time to time. Not long ago I write a complete essay on this. Here is what came out:

A Previous Q: Dave and I enjoyed our day with you on Saturday.  Thank you!  Would you mind telling me, again...the difference between pain and suffering.  Or when does pain become suffering?  I think I remember you summing this up in just a few sentences.

C: 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.

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 Self. "Repeated" flashes 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 asi it is.

Hope that helps.

Also re-read ............

Chapter10. Suffering Is Distinct From Pain

(From "I Am to I Am, With Love")

Suffering and pain are distinct.  How?

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 FALSE  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.

Q: Tremendously helpful. Thank you!!!

C: My pleasure!

(See Also: http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/2011/01/thank-you.html)