Wednesday, May 29, 2013

We're in an Impossible Situation, You & Me

We're in an impossible situation, You and Me.
With no you.
With no me.
With no place to 'situate'.
With no time to exist IN.

There's nothing I can tell you.
With no I.
With words that aren't the thing itself.
With no things.

You'll never hear this.
No one is there to hear.
There's no there, there.
No here, here.

You'll never get this.
The most impossible situation of all.
Nothing to be gotten
Everything to lose.
No one losing it.
No it.

Ok, then.


So....


With acceptance
by the imagined self
who seemingly has something, everything to lose
and insists on a willingness to lose it...

Just See!
In the simplest way possible.
Not "YOU LOOK". 
Instead JUST the looking.  Seeing.  Notice it's just the seeing, happening.
Alive seeing.
Seeing can't be helped!  Can't be stopped.  Can't help itself!
No looker, no director of looking.
Just the display, seeing itself.
Verbing.
Seeing.
Scenery.


And then, too....

This is not understood.
Not with thought. 
Thoughts divert.
Seeing can't be studied, thought through.
Waking up can't be gathered, grasped.

Seeing scenery and it becomes clear.
Seeing needs no seer, and it's the end of you.
Yet that's not quite true.
Endings don't come to something that never was.

Impossible.
The impossibility of it, is itself, impossible.
Because anything's possible.

So give up.
And just (as in "do no more than") look.
Then stop.
Stop.
Where is the you who is frustrated with this nonsense talk, this gibberish?
When did the you begin reading this post?  Before this word?  Or did the "I" appear...

As a single thought.
Appearing.
Just
Now.

Only after the question was asked?



photo credit:  Impossible by Illyism on DeviantArt

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Decide

It seems you have a decision to make.


What exactly is your motive for inquiring into the existence of a self, separate from Life.  Is it because you want to... have to... know the truth?  Or is this a half-hearted attempt relieve your self of misery?  Because remaining on one of those two paths nearly guarantees you'll remain a seeker for a long, long time.

Choose.



photo credit:  The Decision by Contorted Truths on Deviantart

Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Separation that Leads to Freedom




When you strip away all the new age mumbo jumbo and religious
connotations, enlightenment is simply a state of detachment. But detachment from
what? From the ideas and concepts about life that we have come to see as
absolute, permanent truths rather than the subjective, temporary beliefs they are.
That's it. The things you hear about "being one with the universe," "having a
direct experience of God," and the like are merely interpretations of this
detachment and only serve to complicate the concept.

-Blair Warren, The No Nonsense Guide to Enlightenment

Is this true?  Maybe.  But why not test it out?  What if enlightenment wasn't about reaching the state of being 'one with the universe' without first understanding the very practical notion of being able to separate fact from fiction, or concepts about life from Life Itself?  Your first priority should be to simply find out what's true in your own direct experience only.  Then let the rest fall into place as it will.  


photo credit:  photosbykev on deviantart

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Everything You Think



I interrupt this blog to bring you an important message.

"Don't believe everything you think." is likely the single most helpful directive alongside, "Just Look!"  It's also very likely to be overlooked.

So how do you know which thoughts to believe, and which to toss aside as 'mind stuff'?  There's no need to choose.  Because in order to make the decision, what you'll do is to think about thinking.  And then you'll congratulate yourself when you've hit on something you feel is a Spiritually True thought.

There's no such thing.

Instead of thinking about it, let's try something different.  What happens when you do this exercise?  Does the world go anywhere?  Does it collapse without the incessant chatter? 

Is it still all very much there in all its color, texture, vibrancy, and richness?  Or is it even richer than ever?


photo credit:  TaoLife Studio

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Irony of Trusting Your Self

 
 

I sit with each of your emails, each forum post, or message, and wait for a response to come, knowing that anything that ends up written out won't be something "I" determined or decided.  Because of this lack of a controller or doer, the words will just flow.  And if you hear and understand the message, that's not your doing either. 

Anything written here in this blog or in my responses to your inquires is a concept, an idea which will, due to causes and conditions, trigger thoughts in the your experience.  Given the right time and circumstance a message might hit home.  But it will still only be a thought.

As we work through the inquiries and exercises, the only reality you can use as a reference point  is what is gleaned from sensory input.  As you sit there, the senses tell you that the feel of the chair underneath your rear is 'real' when compared to the self.  That chair can be touched or seen.  As you read, background sounds can be heard.  Those things are real to the senses.  Detectable.

There is no sense which detects a self.


At this level of our inquiry, my entire task is to get you to understand the difference between this sensory reality and what exists only within thought and imagination.  Doesn't that seem a simple notion?   It is.  So why does it so often take weeks, months, and sometimes years to see this? 

The answer to that is indeed a paradox. 

Truthfully, you need to trust yourself.  You need to trust your current, immediate exprience and findings above all else, above all the teachings and conditioning that's been introduced from childhood.  You need to defy collective common sense that says there's a You in that body and brain, and see the truth of reality without all of the concepts accumulated through an entire lifetime.  And then you need to trust that this finding is the absolute truth of the state of things, and you need to hold the conviction that your direct experience of reality is more true than the imaginary stories you've been innundated with for years.

But.

"Trust Yourself" doesn't mean there's a self to trust, it means that the sense of self that is currently held going into the inquiry, is the very sense of self which needs to surrender to the simplest of findings.  Finally, it's seen that there was never anyone to surrender.

Trust yourself to get you to see through yourself.



photo credit:  Trust Life a Little Bit by norynn on deviantart