Thursday, November 29, 2018
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
Thank GOD
“You must always keep thanking God for your life.
Always be grateful for as tough as life can seem,
its great that you're here to experience it and to transcend.
We're not here for a joyride.
You're here to transcend the very influences
that came through the mind and
to remember your Self and BE your Self.
That's how you turn earth into Heaven.
Then, you don't have to go to Heaven.
Heaven shows Itself in you.
We didn't come here by accident.
We came here by design, to be here,
to taste the life you're tasting and
to see it from the Highest Place.
Life doesn't change from outside, it changes from inside.
As you are, so life will appear for you.
It is you who can change your world, change your life.
And if you see from the Truthful Place,
it will become the most beautiful place outside,
because all that you see is interpretation.
What we are seeing is what we interpret.
What we conceive, that's what we see.
What is really there is only God.” ~Mooji
Always be grateful for as tough as life can seem,
its great that you're here to experience it and to transcend.
We're not here for a joyride.
You're here to transcend the very influences
that came through the mind and
to remember your Self and BE your Self.
That's how you turn earth into Heaven.
Then, you don't have to go to Heaven.
Heaven shows Itself in you.
We didn't come here by accident.
We came here by design, to be here,
to taste the life you're tasting and
to see it from the Highest Place.
Life doesn't change from outside, it changes from inside.
As you are, so life will appear for you.
It is you who can change your world, change your life.
And if you see from the Truthful Place,
it will become the most beautiful place outside,
because all that you see is interpretation.
What we are seeing is what we interpret.
What we conceive, that's what we see.
What is really there is only God.” ~Mooji
experiencing-spira
Pure Seamless Intimate Experiencing ..............................Rupert Spira
~ ~ ~
It is thoughts alone that divide the seamless intimacy of experiencing
into two apparent things; an inside self and an outside world.
Experience itself knows and says no such thing.
Experience itself knows only this pure seamless intimacy.
~ ~ ~
It is thoughts alone that divide the seamless intimacy of experiencing
into two apparent things; an inside self and an outside world.
Experience itself knows and says no such thing.
Experience itself knows only this pure seamless intimacy.
And all apparent objects, selves, others or world are simply modulations
of this pure, seamless, intimate experiencing.
of this pure, seamless, intimate experiencing.
Try to find something in your experience
that is made out of something other than experiencing:
seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, sensation.
that is made out of something other than experiencing:
seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, sensation.
Try to find something that takes place at a distance,
made out of something other than experiencing.
made out of something other than experiencing.
[...]
Reach out in your actual experience and see, in your experience,
do you find a self, an object, an entity, a world?
Or do you just find yourself: pure intimate experiencing?
No distance, no separation, no inside self, no outside other, no object, no world.
do you find a self, an object, an entity, a world?
Or do you just find yourself: pure intimate experiencing?
No distance, no separation, no inside self, no outside other, no object, no world.
Scan your body.
Do you find a body there?
Do you find something solid and dense?
Or do you just find pure, intimate experiencing?
Do you find a body there?
Do you find something solid and dense?
Or do you just find pure, intimate experiencing?
Do you find a world at a distance from this body?
Or do you just find pure, intimate experiencing?
Or do you just find pure, intimate experiencing?
And who is it that knows experiencing?
Is experiencing known by a separate self?
Is there a separate self or object in experiencing?
Or does experiencing just find itself, alone?
Is experiencing known by a separate self?
Is there a separate self or object in experiencing?
Or does experiencing just find itself, alone?
No body, no thought, no mind, no world;
Just pure intimacy ever-present
always knowing itself, being itself and loving itself
eternally Now.
Just pure intimacy ever-present
always knowing itself, being itself and loving itself
eternally Now.
Nothing-Adams
Robert Adams
Excerpt from: Satsang
You are the Beauty
Do you see this revelation you have? There's no I, there's no body. Then what gets old and dies? What gets sick? What has mental anguish? What becomes depressed? And the answer is, "Nothing."
There's no one to get depressed. There's no one to die. There's no one to have mental anguish. There's no one left to do anything. You're home free.
When you feel this way, there's nowhere to go, because everywhere you go, you are the Self. No thing makes you happier than another thing. It's all the same. You no longer differentiate between objects. All the objects become like a piece of clay that you've taken to make objects out of, but you realize it all comes from the same piece of clay. That's how it is with your life.
There's no one doing anything. There's absolutely nothing to do. When I say there's absolutely nothing to do, I do not necessarily mean you're going to sit still and sit in one chair all day long. This appears paradoxical. Your body will appear to be doing things and yet you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there's no one doing anything. Think about that.
That's a very important point. You will appear to go to the movies, if you have a job to go to work, to come home, to get married, to get divorced, to go swimming, to do whatever you do. Yet you will know no one is doing anything. How can that be? How can you appear to be doing something yet nothing is being done.The sky appears blue and yet upon investigation there's no sky and there's no blue. So you appear to be doing something but there's no doer.
There is really no one who needs to do anything, or does anything. Space and time have been eliminated. You are in an entirely different dimension, where you appear as if you are moving, working, experiencing and there's nothing being done. I admit that state is difficult to think of yet it’s the truth. No one has ever done anything. There's only one, and that one is all-pervading and omnipresent. There's only one. If that one is all-pervading and omnipresent, where is there room to do anything? Think of it this way.
Look at it this way. If you were the only one in the universe, and you were the size of the universe, all of the planets, the stars, the moon, the earth, people, places and things would be within you. You would have no space to do anything. Yet everything is being done within yourself. It's the same thing. This is really the truth about you.
You are the microcosm and the macrocosm. When you are working in duality, in ignorance, you appear to be a small human being and you look around you and you see billions of human beings just like you. You argue with them. You fight with them. You love them. You do all kinds of activities with fellow human beings. But as you work on yourself, and as you begin to rise in consciousness, something tells you that there's only one. There is not you and I. There's only the I and the I doesn't exist. Therefore there is no thing that you can comprehend that exists. There's no such thing as existence. There is no God that creates the universe. There is no being that causes anything to happen. The highest truth is, nothing is happening.
So you say, "That may be true Robert but I'm suffering. I have mental anguish. I appear to be ill. I have difficulty with people." Why? Simply because of wrong identification. You are identifying with the apparent existence. As long as you identify with existence you're going to appear to exist. And if you exist you're going to have problems. For every human being that's born has a problem. There are no exceptions. As long as you believe you were born, you've got a problem. Therefore, somehow you have to get rid of the notion that you were born. You have to get rid of the notion that you exist, and you have to get rid of the notion that you've got a problem. In other words, you have to wake up! You have to wake up to your reality. No birth, no death, no problem. Nobody dies because nobody was born.
I can go on and on like this but if you're not experiencing what I'm talking about, how can you believe me? I know some of you here have had a glimpse of this reality, so you know it's so. But most of us have not. How can we accept this? You have to experiment within yourself. That is the only way you can ever wake up.
Do not experiment in the world. How do you experiment in the world? When you believe those trees are beautiful, beautiful sunset, beautiful sunrise, beautiful flowers, beautiful people. As good as it may sound, this keeps you back from awakening. Why? Because you are identifying with an external cause that does not exist. You do not realize that the beautiful tree comes from your mind. The beautiful sunset is in your mind. All of the beauty and all of the ugliness that you perceive is all within your Self.
You are that Self. So the person who wants to awaken, when they look at beauty, they realize that they are projecting it. When they look at ugliness, they realize that they are projecting it. They are both impostors. Two sides of the same coin. And you start to inquire, "To whom has this come?" Think about that. When you behold all the beauty outside of the window, instead of being in awe and admiring it, ask, "Who sees this?' In other words, the beauty that you see out there really comes from in here. You are the beauty. It only exists out there because you exist over here.
Excerpt from: Satsang
You are the Beauty
Do you see this revelation you have? There's no I, there's no body. Then what gets old and dies? What gets sick? What has mental anguish? What becomes depressed? And the answer is, "Nothing."
There's no one to get depressed. There's no one to die. There's no one to have mental anguish. There's no one left to do anything. You're home free.
When you feel this way, there's nowhere to go, because everywhere you go, you are the Self. No thing makes you happier than another thing. It's all the same. You no longer differentiate between objects. All the objects become like a piece of clay that you've taken to make objects out of, but you realize it all comes from the same piece of clay. That's how it is with your life.
There's no one doing anything. There's absolutely nothing to do. When I say there's absolutely nothing to do, I do not necessarily mean you're going to sit still and sit in one chair all day long. This appears paradoxical. Your body will appear to be doing things and yet you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there's no one doing anything. Think about that.
That's a very important point. You will appear to go to the movies, if you have a job to go to work, to come home, to get married, to get divorced, to go swimming, to do whatever you do. Yet you will know no one is doing anything. How can that be? How can you appear to be doing something yet nothing is being done.The sky appears blue and yet upon investigation there's no sky and there's no blue. So you appear to be doing something but there's no doer.
There is really no one who needs to do anything, or does anything. Space and time have been eliminated. You are in an entirely different dimension, where you appear as if you are moving, working, experiencing and there's nothing being done. I admit that state is difficult to think of yet it’s the truth. No one has ever done anything. There's only one, and that one is all-pervading and omnipresent. There's only one. If that one is all-pervading and omnipresent, where is there room to do anything? Think of it this way.
Look at it this way. If you were the only one in the universe, and you were the size of the universe, all of the planets, the stars, the moon, the earth, people, places and things would be within you. You would have no space to do anything. Yet everything is being done within yourself. It's the same thing. This is really the truth about you.
You are the microcosm and the macrocosm. When you are working in duality, in ignorance, you appear to be a small human being and you look around you and you see billions of human beings just like you. You argue with them. You fight with them. You love them. You do all kinds of activities with fellow human beings. But as you work on yourself, and as you begin to rise in consciousness, something tells you that there's only one. There is not you and I. There's only the I and the I doesn't exist. Therefore there is no thing that you can comprehend that exists. There's no such thing as existence. There is no God that creates the universe. There is no being that causes anything to happen. The highest truth is, nothing is happening.
So you say, "That may be true Robert but I'm suffering. I have mental anguish. I appear to be ill. I have difficulty with people." Why? Simply because of wrong identification. You are identifying with the apparent existence. As long as you identify with existence you're going to appear to exist. And if you exist you're going to have problems. For every human being that's born has a problem. There are no exceptions. As long as you believe you were born, you've got a problem. Therefore, somehow you have to get rid of the notion that you were born. You have to get rid of the notion that you exist, and you have to get rid of the notion that you've got a problem. In other words, you have to wake up! You have to wake up to your reality. No birth, no death, no problem. Nobody dies because nobody was born.
I can go on and on like this but if you're not experiencing what I'm talking about, how can you believe me? I know some of you here have had a glimpse of this reality, so you know it's so. But most of us have not. How can we accept this? You have to experiment within yourself. That is the only way you can ever wake up.
Do not experiment in the world. How do you experiment in the world? When you believe those trees are beautiful, beautiful sunset, beautiful sunrise, beautiful flowers, beautiful people. As good as it may sound, this keeps you back from awakening. Why? Because you are identifying with an external cause that does not exist. You do not realize that the beautiful tree comes from your mind. The beautiful sunset is in your mind. All of the beauty and all of the ugliness that you perceive is all within your Self.
You are that Self. So the person who wants to awaken, when they look at beauty, they realize that they are projecting it. When they look at ugliness, they realize that they are projecting it. They are both impostors. Two sides of the same coin. And you start to inquire, "To whom has this come?" Think about that. When you behold all the beauty outside of the window, instead of being in awe and admiring it, ask, "Who sees this?' In other words, the beauty that you see out there really comes from in here. You are the beauty. It only exists out there because you exist over here.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Nonsense-Adams
Robert Adams
Excerpt from: Satsang
Nonsense
Excerpt from: Satsang
Nonsense
Realization will come to you when you empty yourself out of all these burdens that you've carried so long. It will come by itself. But in the meantime, don't walk around saying, "The world is an illusion," or "the world doesn't exist," when you're feeling the world for you're talking nonsense. When you discover the world is an illusion, you will have nothing to say about it. There will be absolutely nothing to say! For you will have become that.
In the meanwhile, practice loving kindness, compassion. Help your fellow man all you can. Do good deeds and work on yourself continuously, twenty-four hours a day. By working on yourself I mean, know the truth about yourself. Say to yourself something like this, "The world I see seems real. My body appears to be real. My mind appears to be real. My thoughts have hold of me. My body has a hold of me and tells me I'm this, I'm that. But I know there's something else, something more profound, something more beautiful than I can ever imagine.
There is something beyond my thoughts, beyond my feelings, beyond my body. Perhaps I have not discovered what it is as yet, but I know it exists."
And give yourself examples. Say to yourself something like this, "The water in the mirage seems real enough, but upon close investigation you realize that it's a mirage. It's not real at all. The snake and the rope seems real enough, but upon investigation I find out it's only a rope. It's not a snake at all. The sky is blue seems real enough. But upon investigation there is no sky and it's not blue. These are all optical illusions, if these are optical illusions then my body must be an optical illusion also. The world I see and believe in must be an optical illusion because it keeps changing all the time. It's never the same. What can I call real in this world? What is real? Everything changes, nothing is real?"
Then you can ask yourself, "Then who am I? If nothing is real and everything is an optical illusion, am I also an optical illusion? Yet I can think. I can reason. Where do thoughts come from? To whom do they come? Who thinks them? What is their source?" As you keep prodding this way day after day, as you keep pondering these things day after day, the day is going to come when you find release from all this. It will! You'll find total release, total freedom. And you will laugh at yourself so much for you'll understand what this world is, a dream, nothing but a dream.
But again, if you're feeling the world do not say it's a dream. It's not a dream to you if you're feeling it and it upsets you, its real. And I'm not going to convince you it's not? I will not tell you it's an illusion at all because you're feeling it! I can only tell you to go within yourself and find out for yourself. What is the truth about yourself? Find out. The answers are all within you. Yes the day will come when you realize there is no body but until it does practice your sadhana. Forget about the spiritual games and spiritual entertainment. This is your life. Work on yourself.
Do whatever is necessary to make your environment better so you can have more time to work on yourself. If something is disturbing you put an end to it once and for all. If you hold on to those disturbances that happened fifty years ago, thirty years ago, twenty years ago, or even yesterday this keeps you back from spiritual advancement. For your mind is contemplating the foolishness that you think is so important. Somebody hit your car and drove away and now you've got to pay for repairs. What happened? That's the way it is. Do not dwell on this. Do what has to be done and get it over with and continue. Go forward. Never dwell on a problem! It expands the problem in your mind and builds up your ego! Dwell only on God. How do you dwell on God? By surrendering all your stuff to God. Giving up all of the misery, all the attitudes, all the anger, depression. Give it all up to God! God will chew it up and spit it out and you'll be free of it.
Try to remember that your life is more than the body that appears to you right now. We forget about who we were before we were born. We have many experiences but we've forgotten all these things. We're so wrapped up with our life right now that we think it's so important. We're forgetting there was a before and there will be an after. It's up to you what happens. You have been around for millions of years. You've been around forever! You have many experiences as other people. You've had many experiences. So why should this one worry you and bother you? This is only another experience, that's all it is. In universal time you're here today and gone tomorrow. You're only here for a few seconds in universal time. You did not come here to get involved in circumstances and predicaments. You came here to find yourself, discover your real nature.
Now what are you doing to make this happen? It's up to you. I can lead you to the gold mine but I can't do the digging for you. You have to dig for yourself. I share with you my experiences. I can assure you that this world does not exist. Not because I read it in a book some place or somebody told me about it. It has been my experience! There is no world and yet it appears. The question, therefore, is: "To whom does it appear?" Not, "Why does it appear?" but "To whom does it appear?" Find out!
I can also assure you and tell you that no matter what experiences you're going through right now, what is worrying you or disturbing you, if anything, this too shall pass. Therefore, cut through the jungle of maya. Remove all the fears from yourself. There is absolutely nothing to fear, nothing to change, nothing to fix, no body to straighten out.
This whole world is preordained, predestined. Everything that happens is supposed to happen but you're not supposed to react to it. It is true that you're absolute reality. It is true that you are sat-chit-ananda, Brahman. It is true that you are pure awareness, but you have to have the experience. And again, you cannot have the experience if your mind is filled with all the garbage of this world. If you think about it, it makes sense.
How can you entertain the soap operas of this world and expect to have realization! You can have one or the other! The choice is yours! You can vehemently make up your mind that from this day on you are not going to judge by appearances whether in your life or somebody else's life. Just going to watch, to be aware, look and let go, or you can stay the way you are and keep worrying and keep fretting. The choice is yours again, it's always your choice. Yet if you will find out who you are and let go of this world awhile, you will be surprised what happens. Find out who you are. Spend the time doing that. Are you really this body that appears to be a man or a woman, a boy or a girl? Are you really this person? Find out! Who are you? You have been given all the tools to work with. The factory of intelligence is within you. All you have to do is dive down and check it out. And you will be amazed what you find.
So in conclusion, the world is both real and unreal, depending on where you're coming from. It makes no difference what I tell you or what anybody else tells you. You're the one who needs to have the experience for yourself. You can run all over the world, visit many gurus, Sages, teachers, read many books, yet until you're ready to give all this up and do some serious work within yourself you will only build up your intelligence, that's all. That's all you will do. You will know about the different traditions, spiritual traditions.
You know all about spiritual life and yet you have not experienced this and in the end you go crazy, true, I've seen many people do that. They've read so much, seen so many teachers, they went mad.
Yet spiritual life is the easiest thing you could ever do. All you have to do is sit by yourself in the silence, keep still and watch your thoughts. That's all you have to do. Observe your thoughts. What could be easier than that? As you con- tinue to observe your thoughts, you automatically go deeper and deeper and deeper within yourself until you begin to question, "Who am I? Where is this I? Who does this I belong to? Where is the source of it? It's not me. It never was me." And everything will take care of itself. Everything will happen by itself. Become free, for you're already free. Peace. (tape ends)
Monday, November 19, 2018
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Monday, November 12, 2018
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Monday, November 5, 2018
Indifference - Spira
Rupert : Krishnamurti once said - 'I've one secret in life. I don't care what happens'. So, he shares your indifference to what happens in time and space. So, if it is true indifference and not simply a passive resignation to what is happening ... but true indifference, then that's perfect. That is the position Awareness is always in.
My Teacher sometimes used to qualify it as benevolent indifference. Just make sure that there is no rejection in the indifference ... no resignation. But it is indifference that is totally allowing and open. No vested interests for or against. Disinterested not uninterested. (pointing to the translator) It is a test for him.
To be disinterested is to have no vested interest in the outcome. You can still be very interested in it. But you have no investment in the outcome. So, it is not in any way removal of ourself from life. That would be rejection posing as indifference. We can be freely engaged in life but at the same time right at the heart of life, completely free of consequences of what happens.
Seeker: So, in some situations and occasions there is less indifference or detachment like for example in family affairs and at work but in other, on the other hand in other situations and moments I can detach myself more from what happens.
Rupert : Yes, Family situations are the real test of our indifference. Normal, everyday circumstances are like the very gentle Yoga postures where we just turn to the left slightly or turn to the right. But, Family situations are when we are standing on our head or on one toe. It is called Family Asana. But they are very valuable Asanas precisely because they test our equanimity and our experiential understanding. So next time a conflict arises in your family or your relationship, colleague at work, or someone close to you, in your heart be grateful. Can this situation pull you out of yourself ? Can it cloud the peace that is ever present in your Heart ?
Thoughts-Spira
Liberating Our Thoughts from the Tyranny of the Illusory Self
~ ~ ~
Q: Would you say that thoughts are things, as bodies are?
R: Thoughts are what I call ‘objects’. Anything that has an objective quality, I call objects. By objective quality, I don’t just mean physical objects. A feeling, a feeling of loneliness, has an objective quality to it. It’s not the taste of tea. It’s the feeling of loneliness. It has distinguishing features. Yes? Those distinguishing features are objective. We know them. ‘I feel lonely.’ The feeling of loneliness has a particular quality that is observable or feel-able, knowable. The taste of tea has other particular qualities that are knowable or perceivable. So, yes, in that sense, thoughts are objects.
Q: So, my relationship to thought can be much the same to my relationship to the world…
R: Yes.
Q: …in that I can’t control what happens in the world and I really can’t control what thoughts come in. I think that there’s a tendency to kind of, you know, identify my quality of Being by the thoughts that arise.
R: No. No. Identify the quality of Being just by the quality of Being. The screen doesn’t derive its qualities from the image. Your relationship to thoughts and perceptions is the same as the relationship between a screen and an image. In other words, the screen is intimately one with the image; it’s closer than close to the image…, but at the same time, it is completely independent of it. That is You.
You-this-experience-of-being-aware are totally intimate with all your experience, every experience you have. That is, every so-called inside feeling, but also every so-called outside perception are this close. [Brings two hands together with fingers inter-lacing] Not even intimate, because there are not two things there to begin with. There isn’t a screen and an image. It’s just You; just Knowing.
So, in that sense You are intimate with all experience; equally intimate. Not more intimate with this [taps his knees] than you are with this [holds drinking glass] …, equally intimate with all experience. And at the same time, You-the-experiencer-simply-being-aware are absolutely independent of all experience. So, it’s this mixture of total intimacy and total freedom.
Q: I think I have an easier time with…, you know, you made a comment earlier about ‘The world is reflected as we are. As we believe ourselves and life to be, that’s what we see’. You didn’t exactly say that, but it is that, right?
R: Yes. As we understand ourselves, so we see the world. If we think, in other words, that ‘I am a finite, temporary self that shares the limits of the body’…, if we think that ‘I am a temporary, finite object’…, then our experience will appear in conformity with that belief. In other words, your experience will be a multiplicity and diversity of finite objects. You will feel that you are separate from everyone and everything, related to them through an act of knowing, feeling or perceiving. ‘I know such-and-such. I love you. I see the tree.’ These are the three channels: knowing, feeling and perceiving…, through which the inside self, the subject, the apparent subject, is connected to the outside object, other or world. That’s if you believe you are a temporary, finite subject made out of mind, living in the body.
But if you know that You are simply this un-qualified experience of being aware, then you find yourself equally pervading all experience.
You cannot say ‘I’m closer to my thoughts than I am to the sound of that car’. Thoughts are made out of thinking; the sound of the car is made out of hearing. Both appear equally in Me. And when I try to touch the stuff that they are made of, all I find is this empty Knowing.
Q: That’s true…
R: But…? [Chuckles]
Q: No, really, Rupert, I have that experience. But I have thoughts that are in direct contradiction to that…, even in the midst of that experience.
R: So, you have to re-condition your mind as well as your body. That’s part of what we do here. It’s one thing to understand that (and you obviously understand it) but just understanding it is not enough. Because your mind and your body have been laboring for decades, serving for decades the demands and the fears and the neuroses of an illusory, finite self.
So, just the recognition of your true nature is not enough to put an end to those habits. They come back with a vengeance; very often stronger than they were before because the separate self feels, quite rightly, that it is threatened, its existence is threatened by our new understanding. It IS threatened. Its days are numbered. [Chuckles] And it’s going to do everything it can to prevent itself disappearing. So, this tidal wave of thoughts (and more importantly, feelings) are going to come back and assail you and try to persuade you of the validity of the separate self.
So, much of what we do here is not just about the recognition of our true nature. It is about the re-alignment of our thoughts, feelings, activities, relationships and perceptions with that understanding.
So, when these thoughts keep coming back, you have to be firm with them. When a thought appears on behalf of the separate self, before doing what the thought wants you to do…, (the thought is going to take you off down a journey of activity or relationship, whatever it is)…, before doing what the thought tells you to do, QUESTION the self on whose behalf that thought is arising: “Who are you representing?” Ask the thought: “On whose behalf do you come to me?” And if it is a thought that is based on being a temporary, finite self…, then instead of following the thought, question the validity of the self on whose behalf that thought is arising.
Be relentless about that. Every thought that rises on behalf of a separate self, question it…, rather than doing what the thought wants you to do. And eventually you will erode this old habit of the mind rising on behalf of an illusory self. And the mind, more and more, will begin to rise on behalf of the qualities of the true and only Self, of Your Awareness.
You won’t stop having thoughts, but your thoughts will be an expression of what you truly Are…, not what you previously imagined yourself to be. So, it’s not a ‘getting rid of’ thoughts. It’s a liberation of our thoughts (and indeed, our feelings and perceptions) from the tyranny of a non-existent, finite self.
Q: So, do you ever have thoughts that you just have to say ‘No’ to?
R: Yes. Occasionally an old thought arises in me based on an old habit of believing myself to be a finite self, and I do exactly what I’ve just suggested to you.
To begin with, when a thought rises on behalf of a finite self, it takes us maybe 20 minutes to question the ‘I’ around whom that thought revolves. And we might have to take some time, slowly walking ourselves back to find the true ‘I’ of simply Aware Being. That may take some time. The first time, we may do it 20 minutes, and then the second time 15 minutes, and the third time 10 minutes. Then as we become more practiced at this, we find short cuts. We don’t have to go every single step; plod, plod, plod. Because we’ve done it before, we can go quicker. We find short cuts. And in the end, we find that when that thought arises on behalf of the finite self, it doesn’t really require time anymore to walk ourselves back. It’s just like an instant recognition [snaps fingers] and it falls.
Q: There’s often a physical resistance along with the thought, or there’s a physical thing along with the thought.
R: Yes, yes. We’ll spend a lot of time this week exploring just that. Because the separate self, the apparently-temporary, finite consciousness that is the separate self is not just concealed in our thoughts as beliefs. More importantly, it is concealed in our body as feelings. That, in fact, is the deeper root of the separate self. In fact, long after the separate self has been flushed out of our beliefs, it remains present, hiding in our feelings. And in this approach, we spend a lot of time (as you know) exploring this deeper root of the sense of separation. First of all, exposing the sense of ‘me’ in the body, gradually encouraging it to come up out of its hiding places…, and then gradually allowing it to dissolve.
Q: Thank you.
~ ~ ~
.
.
.
Rupert Spira
Liberating Our Thoughts from the Tyranny of the Illusory Self
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H656H4pWtzk
~ ~ ~
Q: Would you say that thoughts are things, as bodies are?
R: Thoughts are what I call ‘objects’. Anything that has an objective quality, I call objects. By objective quality, I don’t just mean physical objects. A feeling, a feeling of loneliness, has an objective quality to it. It’s not the taste of tea. It’s the feeling of loneliness. It has distinguishing features. Yes? Those distinguishing features are objective. We know them. ‘I feel lonely.’ The feeling of loneliness has a particular quality that is observable or feel-able, knowable. The taste of tea has other particular qualities that are knowable or perceivable. So, yes, in that sense, thoughts are objects.
Q: So, my relationship to thought can be much the same to my relationship to the world…
R: Yes.
Q: …in that I can’t control what happens in the world and I really can’t control what thoughts come in. I think that there’s a tendency to kind of, you know, identify my quality of Being by the thoughts that arise.
R: No. No. Identify the quality of Being just by the quality of Being. The screen doesn’t derive its qualities from the image. Your relationship to thoughts and perceptions is the same as the relationship between a screen and an image. In other words, the screen is intimately one with the image; it’s closer than close to the image…, but at the same time, it is completely independent of it. That is You.
You-this-experience-of-being-aware are totally intimate with all your experience, every experience you have. That is, every so-called inside feeling, but also every so-called outside perception are this close. [Brings two hands together with fingers inter-lacing] Not even intimate, because there are not two things there to begin with. There isn’t a screen and an image. It’s just You; just Knowing.
So, in that sense You are intimate with all experience; equally intimate. Not more intimate with this [taps his knees] than you are with this [holds drinking glass] …, equally intimate with all experience. And at the same time, You-the-experiencer-simply-being-aware are absolutely independent of all experience. So, it’s this mixture of total intimacy and total freedom.
Q: I think I have an easier time with…, you know, you made a comment earlier about ‘The world is reflected as we are. As we believe ourselves and life to be, that’s what we see’. You didn’t exactly say that, but it is that, right?
R: Yes. As we understand ourselves, so we see the world. If we think, in other words, that ‘I am a finite, temporary self that shares the limits of the body’…, if we think that ‘I am a temporary, finite object’…, then our experience will appear in conformity with that belief. In other words, your experience will be a multiplicity and diversity of finite objects. You will feel that you are separate from everyone and everything, related to them through an act of knowing, feeling or perceiving. ‘I know such-and-such. I love you. I see the tree.’ These are the three channels: knowing, feeling and perceiving…, through which the inside self, the subject, the apparent subject, is connected to the outside object, other or world. That’s if you believe you are a temporary, finite subject made out of mind, living in the body.
But if you know that You are simply this un-qualified experience of being aware, then you find yourself equally pervading all experience.
You cannot say ‘I’m closer to my thoughts than I am to the sound of that car’. Thoughts are made out of thinking; the sound of the car is made out of hearing. Both appear equally in Me. And when I try to touch the stuff that they are made of, all I find is this empty Knowing.
Q: That’s true…
R: But…? [Chuckles]
Q: No, really, Rupert, I have that experience. But I have thoughts that are in direct contradiction to that…, even in the midst of that experience.
R: So, you have to re-condition your mind as well as your body. That’s part of what we do here. It’s one thing to understand that (and you obviously understand it) but just understanding it is not enough. Because your mind and your body have been laboring for decades, serving for decades the demands and the fears and the neuroses of an illusory, finite self.
So, just the recognition of your true nature is not enough to put an end to those habits. They come back with a vengeance; very often stronger than they were before because the separate self feels, quite rightly, that it is threatened, its existence is threatened by our new understanding. It IS threatened. Its days are numbered. [Chuckles] And it’s going to do everything it can to prevent itself disappearing. So, this tidal wave of thoughts (and more importantly, feelings) are going to come back and assail you and try to persuade you of the validity of the separate self.
So, much of what we do here is not just about the recognition of our true nature. It is about the re-alignment of our thoughts, feelings, activities, relationships and perceptions with that understanding.
So, when these thoughts keep coming back, you have to be firm with them. When a thought appears on behalf of the separate self, before doing what the thought wants you to do…, (the thought is going to take you off down a journey of activity or relationship, whatever it is)…, before doing what the thought tells you to do, QUESTION the self on whose behalf that thought is arising: “Who are you representing?” Ask the thought: “On whose behalf do you come to me?” And if it is a thought that is based on being a temporary, finite self…, then instead of following the thought, question the validity of the self on whose behalf that thought is arising.
Be relentless about that. Every thought that rises on behalf of a separate self, question it…, rather than doing what the thought wants you to do. And eventually you will erode this old habit of the mind rising on behalf of an illusory self. And the mind, more and more, will begin to rise on behalf of the qualities of the true and only Self, of Your Awareness.
You won’t stop having thoughts, but your thoughts will be an expression of what you truly Are…, not what you previously imagined yourself to be. So, it’s not a ‘getting rid of’ thoughts. It’s a liberation of our thoughts (and indeed, our feelings and perceptions) from the tyranny of a non-existent, finite self.
Q: So, do you ever have thoughts that you just have to say ‘No’ to?
R: Yes. Occasionally an old thought arises in me based on an old habit of believing myself to be a finite self, and I do exactly what I’ve just suggested to you.
To begin with, when a thought rises on behalf of a finite self, it takes us maybe 20 minutes to question the ‘I’ around whom that thought revolves. And we might have to take some time, slowly walking ourselves back to find the true ‘I’ of simply Aware Being. That may take some time. The first time, we may do it 20 minutes, and then the second time 15 minutes, and the third time 10 minutes. Then as we become more practiced at this, we find short cuts. We don’t have to go every single step; plod, plod, plod. Because we’ve done it before, we can go quicker. We find short cuts. And in the end, we find that when that thought arises on behalf of the finite self, it doesn’t really require time anymore to walk ourselves back. It’s just like an instant recognition [snaps fingers] and it falls.
Q: There’s often a physical resistance along with the thought, or there’s a physical thing along with the thought.
R: Yes, yes. We’ll spend a lot of time this week exploring just that. Because the separate self, the apparently-temporary, finite consciousness that is the separate self is not just concealed in our thoughts as beliefs. More importantly, it is concealed in our body as feelings. That, in fact, is the deeper root of the separate self. In fact, long after the separate self has been flushed out of our beliefs, it remains present, hiding in our feelings. And in this approach, we spend a lot of time (as you know) exploring this deeper root of the sense of separation. First of all, exposing the sense of ‘me’ in the body, gradually encouraging it to come up out of its hiding places…, and then gradually allowing it to dissolve.
Q: Thank you.
~ ~ ~
.
.
.
Rupert Spira
Liberating Our Thoughts from the Tyranny of the Illusory Self
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H656H4pWtzk
I Am -Spira
i am
I move but am motionless
I see but cannot be seen
I hear but cannot be heard
I taste but cannot be tasted
I smell but cannot be smelt
I touch but cannot be touched
I smile
Whatever appears appears in Me but I never appear
I am the silence in music and the music in silence
I am concealed in the world but reveal the world
I am the womb and the tomb of all that exists
I offer and contain in one gesture like an open bowl
I give Myself unconditionally to all things
I receive all things without choice
I am empty
I am the knowing in all that is known
I am the experiencing in all that is experienced
I am the allowing of all seeming things
I am pure sensitivity, openess and availability
I am the sun in the moon
I am the friendship of friends
I am knowing and unknowing
I am dark in the day and bright at night
I am luminous
~ Rupert Spira
(Part of the poem 'I Am')
I move but am motionless
I see but cannot be seen
I hear but cannot be heard
I taste but cannot be tasted
I smell but cannot be smelt
I touch but cannot be touched
I smile
Whatever appears appears in Me but I never appear
I am the silence in music and the music in silence
I am concealed in the world but reveal the world
I am the womb and the tomb of all that exists
I offer and contain in one gesture like an open bowl
I give Myself unconditionally to all things
I receive all things without choice
I am empty
I am the knowing in all that is known
I am the experiencing in all that is experienced
I am the allowing of all seeming things
I am pure sensitivity, openess and availability
I am the sun in the moon
I am the friendship of friends
I am knowing and unknowing
I am dark in the day and bright at night
I am luminous
~ Rupert Spira
(Part of the poem 'I Am')
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Awareness-spira
Our True Nature is Immediately Available
~ ~ ~
Go back to your basic experience. See that you are That which is aware. First of all, see that your mind is just the current thought and image. Your body is just the current sensation and (if your eyes are open) perception. Now, having Seen that, See that You are That which is aware of the current thought, image, sensation and perception.
It’s easiest to see it with your thoughts. A thought has yet to appear. You are Present. The thought appears, You know it. It disappear; You remain. The next thought appears; You know it. It disappears; You remain. The next sensation appears; You know it. The sensation disappears; You remain. The sound of the airplane appears; You know it. In time it will disappear, but You remain. You, the knower of your experience, always remain. Thoughts are intermittent, images are intermittent, sensations and perceptions are intermittent, but You remain throughout. You are not made out of an intermittent thought, feeling, sensation or perception. You are just made out of this pure ‘substance’ called Knowing or Awareness.
You’re present and You’re aware; hence, Awareness. That’s the name. But don’t go too quickly to the name, don’t just pay lip service to the name. You really have to go there in your experience. Try not to give it a name. See, in your experience ‘Yes, I am obviously That.’ (Let’s just call it ‘That.’) ‘Whatever it is, I am That which knows or is aware of my experience.’ It’s not made out of a thought; it’s not made out of a feeling or sensation or perception. All these are coming and going. But That has always been with you. In fact, not ‘with’ you. That Is You. You’ve never ceased to be That. Although you may have mistaken yourself temporarily for a cluster of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions; but even when you were mistaking yourself for that (or rather, even when thoughts and feelings were mistaking you for that) even then, You were still only That which is aware of those thoughts and feelings.
That’s the first step to realize: I Am That which is both Present and Aware. And that is not made out of sensation or perception.
Then, you pause there. Put thoughts and sensations at a distance; just for a while. Put them at a distance, which gives you the time and the space to really look at this that you have discovered that You Are. ‘I’ve discovered that I Am Awareness, I Am That which is aware. Now what are Its qualities? Its qualities are My qualities. What is essential to It? What cannot be removed from It? Thoughts can be removed from It; feelings can be removed from It. What can’t be removed from It?’
Being and Knowing are the first two. It is ever-present and It’s a Knowing Presence or an Aware Presence. But then, we have to go further than that and discover these three essential qualities that it has:
It is ever-present.
It is unlimited.
It is im-perturb-able.
Those are the three. Take time; pause here. Put the body/mind/world at a distance; give your attention to the Knower of the experience, not the known, and discover that in Its experience of ItSelf, is ever-present, it never finds a limit in itself and It cannot be disturbed. Its nature is peace or happiness.
That’s the most important one: Its nature is peace.
Your nature, under all circumstances, is peace.
Then, when or as that becomes clear, then go back to the thoughts, sensations and perceptions and explore them in the context of this new-found discovery.
~ ~ ~
.
.
.
Rupert Spira
From compilation video entitled: Our True Nature is Immediately Available
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrzCqkcDljw&t=18s
Times: From 0:00 to 4:47
~ ~ ~
Go back to your basic experience. See that you are That which is aware. First of all, see that your mind is just the current thought and image. Your body is just the current sensation and (if your eyes are open) perception. Now, having Seen that, See that You are That which is aware of the current thought, image, sensation and perception.
It’s easiest to see it with your thoughts. A thought has yet to appear. You are Present. The thought appears, You know it. It disappear; You remain. The next thought appears; You know it. It disappears; You remain. The next sensation appears; You know it. The sensation disappears; You remain. The sound of the airplane appears; You know it. In time it will disappear, but You remain. You, the knower of your experience, always remain. Thoughts are intermittent, images are intermittent, sensations and perceptions are intermittent, but You remain throughout. You are not made out of an intermittent thought, feeling, sensation or perception. You are just made out of this pure ‘substance’ called Knowing or Awareness.
You’re present and You’re aware; hence, Awareness. That’s the name. But don’t go too quickly to the name, don’t just pay lip service to the name. You really have to go there in your experience. Try not to give it a name. See, in your experience ‘Yes, I am obviously That.’ (Let’s just call it ‘That.’) ‘Whatever it is, I am That which knows or is aware of my experience.’ It’s not made out of a thought; it’s not made out of a feeling or sensation or perception. All these are coming and going. But That has always been with you. In fact, not ‘with’ you. That Is You. You’ve never ceased to be That. Although you may have mistaken yourself temporarily for a cluster of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions; but even when you were mistaking yourself for that (or rather, even when thoughts and feelings were mistaking you for that) even then, You were still only That which is aware of those thoughts and feelings.
That’s the first step to realize: I Am That which is both Present and Aware. And that is not made out of sensation or perception.
Then, you pause there. Put thoughts and sensations at a distance; just for a while. Put them at a distance, which gives you the time and the space to really look at this that you have discovered that You Are. ‘I’ve discovered that I Am Awareness, I Am That which is aware. Now what are Its qualities? Its qualities are My qualities. What is essential to It? What cannot be removed from It? Thoughts can be removed from It; feelings can be removed from It. What can’t be removed from It?’
Being and Knowing are the first two. It is ever-present and It’s a Knowing Presence or an Aware Presence. But then, we have to go further than that and discover these three essential qualities that it has:
It is ever-present.
It is unlimited.
It is im-perturb-able.
Those are the three. Take time; pause here. Put the body/mind/world at a distance; give your attention to the Knower of the experience, not the known, and discover that in Its experience of ItSelf, is ever-present, it never finds a limit in itself and It cannot be disturbed. Its nature is peace or happiness.
That’s the most important one: Its nature is peace.
Your nature, under all circumstances, is peace.
Then, when or as that becomes clear, then go back to the thoughts, sensations and perceptions and explore them in the context of this new-found discovery.
~ ~ ~
.
.
.
Rupert Spira
From compilation video entitled: Our True Nature is Immediately Available
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrzCqkcDljw&t=18s
Times: From 0:00 to 4:47
Friday, November 2, 2018
God is
The Workbook puts it this way about the two words that speak the absolute truth, '...We say "God is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.'
Of course the phrase "God is" must be taken in the light of pure non-dualism. God is, and nothing else is. It's easy enough for people to get the first part of that statement, that God is. It's very difficult to accept the second part, that nothing else is. That's why we cease to speak, because there is nothing else.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
anybody - adams
The good thing about all this, is that anybody
can become liberated, at any moment. But this
is because you are already liberated. If you were not liberated, you would never be able to
become liberated. But because you are already liberated, all you're really doing is taking off the
stuff that makes you think you are not liberated
dark clouds, the layers and layers of nonsense,
garbage, that you covered yourself with all these years. The thought 'I am important, I am
somebody.' This is what keeps you in bondage.
can become liberated, at any moment. But this
is because you are already liberated. If you were not liberated, you would never be able to
become liberated. But because you are already liberated, all you're really doing is taking off the
stuff that makes you think you are not liberated
dark clouds, the layers and layers of nonsense,
garbage, that you covered yourself with all these years. The thought 'I am important, I am
somebody.' This is what keeps you in bondage.
Robert Adams
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