Space

There is a vegetative nothingness here, silent, non thinking, non verbal. There is no need to think, no need to do, just this, whatever it is.

Now and then little ripples of "should" arise, "Shouldn't I this," or "Shouldn't I that." But there is no drive behind them -- dregs at the bottom of an empty barrel.

You can tap on the sides and hear the echo of emptiness. The vacuum resounds, and one can say nothing other than "So?"

It is all taken care of, whatever it is. Only what arises to be done will be done. Where that which is to be done arises from is unknown.

How does emptiness communicate? Seekers must go elsewhere to find barrels full -- full of words, full of wisdom, full of something to quench their thirst. It is not to be found here.

Less is more. The lesser grows, and more is more and more disinclined. Peace, restless, knowing nothing about its place in this busy world.

No place for labels to stick, to have their say and take hold. No place for all the doing that labeling wants to push along. No hold in this vacuum to grab.

Space is what is. Space, unending, in which all this passes. Space in which even these words are essentially meaningless. For words are parts, division, and an effort at pointing at what is undivided, whole, and timeless.

Refinements of Consciousness

The word food does not satisfy hunger, nor the word water satisfy thirst. Both are labels only. However, they are pointers to something that is more substantial, actual, and needed for our physical survival.

In the more subtle realms of consciousness, labels are also valid pointers. These, subtle levels, however abstract, may also be pointed to.

Consciousness cannot be denied as it is a basic truth. You are aware and conscious of I am. Yet it becomes a little more circumspect when we begin to refine our terms as to exactly what consciousness is, and how we might understand it better.

When I speak of levels of consciousness it is but a refinement, a tuner of sorts into the subtleness of consciousness. Perhaps a little harder to grasp, but no less real than consciousness itself.

If you are traveling from A to B, no point on the journey is better than another as regards the objective. Each point is but a position between the two.

Just as a landscape has points of perspective, so do the various levels of consciousness. In a landscape, one can point to a bend in the road, a ridge, or a particular view. Just so, in the field of consciousness, points of perspective can be seen, and depending on the definitions used, be labeled and described.

In the refinement of our description of levels of consciousness, perspective is a key. The levels are defined by perspective, including beliefs, attitudes, and positionalities.

The world which appears in consciousness is determined by the positionalities that create the perspective. Though the scale and the demarcation points may be arbitrary, based on how the scale and levels are defined, the labels applied will point to something just as real as consciousness itself.

The levels can be roughly defined as a movement from fear to love. All the corollary attitudes between the two can be laid out. And how the world appears at points on the scale can also be outlined.

Realization and Enlightenment are points on the journey. Different points to be sure, than earlier perspectives which may have included suffering. Perspectives and attitudes prior to enlightenment can then be compared to earlier positions. It is only the difference that allows one to say, "Ah, now things are better."

Consciousness is a continuum. It is not static. Realization and enlightenment are not static states, though many assume that is so. Realization may be a satori that progresses no further, but sometimes it may. Just so, enlightenment is not necessarily static either. It may or may not progress further. In some, there is a further deepening and expansion.

It is due to this continuum that the understanding of realization and enlightenment is confusing. People think that realization or enlightenment is a one shot deal, all inclusive, final. It is not. A cooked goose can be more or less well done, and certainly different in shape and size.

There is a level of consciousness which can be assigned to realization. There is a level of consciousness to which enlightenment may can be assigned. Not an absolute assignment, but certainly indicating a certain level of consciousness. Most would consider it a higher state, or level, than what we would call the normal human condition.

Yet even these, realization, enlightenment, are not carved in stone, static, or final, in the sense that no further revelation may occur. Further development, advancement in understanding may still occur. Sometimes it does.

Consciousness is on a journey. A glorious and messy journey. Call it the play of Lila, or the mess of samsara, most want better than worse, and peace over conflict and suffering.

It is not an error to consider consciousness as a continuum with various levels. We are participants at different different positions, or levels if you will. We call some things good, some bad. We name up and down. To ascribe levels to what we experience in consciousness is not a sin.

We who have sought enlightenment have to admit that it appeared to be a better state, or condition, than what we were in. At least considered it better, perhaps a higher state, and had it as a goal. Perhaps we called it a search for truth, knowing nothing of the term.

Whether seeking truth, or enlightenment, or ultimate peace, we found it more desirable than our present condition. So, for the purposes of pointing, for education, we can say that enlightenment is higher on the scale than misery.

However arbitrary the scale, positions may be ascribed and labels applied. Is not jealousy lower, and unconditional love higher?

Whether or not there is a goal in the Absolute, we in our participation, our journey, perceive higher and lower levels of consciousness. We appear to strive for higher ground. And though there is no Rx, and no path, we are all at different levels.

Food, water, or levels of consciousness, all are words, concepts, yet pointing to something. Levels of consciousness can be described, and labels applied. It's useful for pointing to the subtleties of consciousness. Isn't enlightenment itself a label?

A Quiet Mind

At some point projections end -- most of them, anyway. When they end, peace seems to reign -- stories don't get created, and rumination ceases. It's rather delightful. Some call it peace of mind.

I always thought it silly to try and develop a quiet mind. Somehow, I always knew that a quiet mind, like happiness, was the result of something else -- a side effect.

That something else isn't realization, because, after realization, there is still considerable unraveling to do.

Basically, getting rid of projections is the journey. Projections are 99% based on conditioning. It's what your ego believes can happen, might happen, or will happen. Some of it may be true, most of it is just a nightmare dream-scape.

There isn't some sudden realization that will give you peace of mind, although it may help. Realization shows other possibilities, other options. But then there is still work to do.

Years ago, I could walk into a room, and looking at the people in the room, automatically start myriad, dysfunctional, internal conversations. These internal discussions were based on how each person looked, how old they were, how they stood, etc.

The conversations would go something like this: Well, she's tall and good looking, she must be haughty, spoiled, and hasn't had to think or struggle much. She gets what she wants because she just happens to look good. So I wouldn't like her and there is no point in approaching her.

And that guy there, with the plaid shirt and yellow shorts -- is a likely golfer, and therefore has money, and is probably very conservative. He and I wouldn't have much in common, and tying to talk to him would be pointless.

Well, you get the drift. These automatic conversations were not something under my conscious control, but they certainly were tied to my fears, and therefore ego based. And this over active conflagration tore at me like a dog chasing it's tail.

After much therapy, and a lot of work, those types of stories, just died. I didn't try and stop them, they stopped because the buried fears, assumptions, suppositions and positions, were dropped. The pain that sustained them was felt and released.

Basically, all my shit was sustained by pain I didn't know was there, or rather, was afraid to feel. Unconscious pain was the driving force of my neurosis, and it was unconscious and out of control because it was repressed. The projection of it distorted my whole world.

At one point, the disjointed universe of my projections caused so much pain, that I found it worthwhile to go looking for the real pain. The source being inside, not out there.

I found a good teacher, and I trusted that whatever I was forced to feel -- to acknowledge, I could handle. It wasn't easy, but the amount of pain uncovered was beyond belief.

The result of that work, and much personal inquiry, is a quiet mind. Now I live in the peace. Unwanted internal conversations don't happen. Only what I am looking at, or doing, is what is going on. There are no internal discussions about it. There is freedom. The silence is deafening, and wonderful.

Nondual Logical Proofs

Why are all the logical proofs of nonduality necessary for some, and yet for others, looking at a flower is proof enough.

It amazes me that a particular teacher's logic, that satisfies their mind as to the absoluteness of nonduality, does nothing for me. Leaves me cold.

And yet, for me, the fact of absolute nonduality is just as real. It was for me an intuitive knowing, here since childhood.

It was however, also true, that the knowing was outside the purview of mind. And the mind, as we know, is a stubborn child. It wants proof! So all my searching was to satisfy the mind, that the intuitive knowing was correct.

The drive to satisfy the mind as to what I already knew, drove the search. If that knowing had not been there, what would have driven such a cursed and painful pursuit?

The mind wants to know, to understand and accept, what intuitively, is already known. Without that intuition, there never would have been a search.

What profound insights the search unveiled, trying to help the mind come to terms with what was already known. Granted, the knowing was via some other mechanism -- intuition, which the mind has trouble accepting. Intuition is to the mind, a stubborn and unruly child.

So the intuitive knowing drives the mind, sometimes literally, outside and beside itself. The pain can be immense, for the mind does not easily come into agreement with intuition. Mind, literally must take itself apart. Push itself to the limit, and beyond.

In the process, this bodymind, experienced mystical unitive states of absolute knowing, that the mind could not deny. The absoluteness and authority of the knowing was unquestionable. Yet the mind still wanted to know in it's own way. Over many years, the mind relaxed, Knowing that it could not have proof the way it preferred.

Currently, the knowing is here. Yet I cannot prove it logically, even to myself. Neither can another's logic prove it to me. But the knowing is here.

Listening to the proofs of other's is laughable. Not to deny the fact that such logic may help others by bringing into question their own limited perceptions and positions.

Just for fun, because that is what this is for me now, let me lay down the closest thing to logic that satisfies this particular bodymind regarding nonduality.

All I need, for knowing the fact of nonduality, is that I didn't make myself. This bodymind is a created object, not unlike all the other bodymind objects. Those objects outside of me did not create themselves either.

Logically, I cannot say that awareness and consciousness are in this bodymind individually or exclusively. Other bodyminds speak to me of their perceptions, their awareness too. We can agree on much, such as a chair being in the room, or the sound of a dog barking.

So awareness and consciousness are not exclusive to me. The only aspect of the field that is exclusive to me, is my interpretation of what is perceived. A story so to speak. My story. But you also have a story.

The common denominator of my consciousness and other's, is awareness. I can see that as created objects, my bodymind and other bodyminds are participants only. Awareness is common to all, impersonal. The personal is only an interpretation.

Awareness is impersonal. Consciousness is just the personalized aspect of it. I partake, as do you. And also the cat, the dog, the sheep and the donkey.

A second proof for me, is to simply look at a flower. The shear amazement that it exists, as it does, and that I see it, is enough. The beauty of it does not allow me to deny the power, the creativity, the absolute authority, of the beingness behind it.

The proofs above do it for me. But they are really just aperitifs for the mind. Not really necessary to the truth. Intuitive knowing is, and was, already there. The mind just needed to be massaged and put to bed.

Five Thousand Fingers

Five thousand fingers pointing to the moon, each in a different direction. If you stood them all together, it would look like a waving field of grain. The only place they could be pointing, would be everywhere. Including exactly right here.

Best to keep your own head, for those that would like to chop it off are a dime a dozen. Spiritual naiveté is no excuse. Best place no head above your own.

When you follow out of resonance, be sure to realize that it was your decision. No one drags you to the end of any particular finger. If it's the middle finger, best take the hit, you did it to yourself.

Guru worship is a sin. When you follow, follow what resonates within yourself. Place yourself in the top position so you can only blame yourself. Wolves in sheep clothing come a dime a dozen.

So many fingers waving in the sun, pointing to the top of the mountain, but the Zen you find up there is what you carried with you.

So many fingers pointing to the moon, each to it's own antenna, make for dangerous traveling. Find your own finger, your own antenna. Keep on your toes until you collapse from finger following into your own deep well.

Keep in mind that when you get there, you will see that there was nowhere to get, only what you overlooked.

Prism Breakout

Who among us really sees what is? We are too busy with our stories, too embedded in our positions, our own prism of light. Our light is broken, parted, placing the whole in shadows.

We see content only, selected content. We see only through our personal light. Like rose colored glasses. It reflects only our story, in our selected light.

We do not see the big picture with the whole spectrum of light. We are out of context, separated, seeking to make the world conform.

The true picture is hidden in the colors we do not see. We demand the world come to us in our version of light. So we are lost, alienated from the whole. It won't conform. We claim the world has left us all alone, abandoned, strangers in a strange land.

But it is we who insist on our own personal view. It is our own narcissistic demand that alienates. It is we who have abandoned the whole, preferring to see it our way. It is we ourselves who have refused to see without judgment, without condemnation.

What is, is. If we would look at the world as it is, without our positions, allowing the whole spectrum of light, we might see something different. If we allowed the whole context, in which we are only a small part, to come into view, we might find ourselves embraced.

Between the Lines

I like the deep, profound thoughts of solitary men, because they point best beyond themselves. Like poetry that uses few words, and re-arranges them so the shock takes you beyond them.

Oh yes, this is it! But, who shall point to it with ordinary words? That which is beyond the words, ineffable, is waiting for you to stumble off them, and fall between the lines. There, in that empty space is everything.

The enlightenment-disease/

http://www.mushin.eu/en/blog/beyond-the-enlightenment-disease/

Karma or Choice

We are not here for our own individual purposes. All you have done is discovered that you are here. Granted, that makes you innocent.

However, if you are a soul who travels in and out of body life cycles, perhaps you are bringing unknown Karma with you? Your innocence may be mistaken.

Did you arrive trailing clouds of glory, with a little Karmic inheritance to fulfill? Perhaps an unknown agenda to live out? There may be choices to be made, a range that expands or constricts, depending on what you do.

Do you fall into temptation, or do you strive for some inner knowing? Do you hesitate? Or do you reach toward the light? Is seeking really a curse, or is it a choice you made, to claw and scrape beneath the surface?

On what grounds can you defend your seeking? Hasn't all your seeking been a response to this? Have you been driving or has it been driving you?

Intuitively you know your agenda is unique. It has informed your entire life. Your uniqueness is more than genes, more than nurture.

Your seeking pivots on an unknown source. The fulcrum is somewhere out of sight. But it drives you. Somewhere, deep inside, you know you chose it.

Language, Symbols, Words

What is language that we should pay it any mind? Language gives us the ability to step outside ourselves, to observe ourselves, to become the observer.

It is due to this ability, our naming, our symbols, that we step outside ourselves and know time, know eternity, know death.

It is this ability which gives us our greatest joy, our greatest sorrow. It is this ability, thinking, that was our fall in the Garden of Eden.

But this was a necessary fall, necessary for consciousness to know itself.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

or

In the beginning was consciousness, and the Word was consciousness, and consciousness was God.

The Ocean

Waves arise on the ocean,
traveling they know not where.

Waves arise on the ocean,
traveling near and far.

Waves arise and fall,
collapse and merge.

The lighthouse is steady
on the shore.

The light shines for
one and all.

Waves are moving on the Ocean.
All are going home.

Each has its journey unplanned,
back to the sea.

One

One and one is two,
in the linear world.

One and one is ONE,
in the nonlinear world.

One and many are multiple
in the linear world.

One and many is a field of ONE,
in the nonlinear world.

The world of ONE is full of ones.
One and one and one are ONE.

Unbidden, Freedom Came Knocking

Unbidden, freedom came knocking. Just walking into the kitchen, taking a break from writing, simple freedom came walking too. It walked right in and sat down, easily.

The freedom was noticed, lightly, just here. It was breezy. It didn't need to do anything. It had no agenda. Ah, so easy to go with it.

The feeling is simple, and simplifies everything. Freedom is free, and it is not out there. It is here, right here. It doesn't bind the personality, it sets it free.

I don't care if I'm enlightened or not. I don't care if I'm eternal or not. I don't care if what I write pisses someone off. I just don't care. It doesn't bother me that there are a lot of "I"s in this paragraph.

The untouchable I is free. It doesn't matter whether a teacher, friend or foe is angered. I am free of those sentiments, those judgments. I am free to contradict myself. And surely will.

If I feel separate I will play with it. If only One is here, I am that. The big play is on, just like the little play. The dance is all.

The Open Teacher

There are a lot of teachers out there that get one thing, and poof, they're off to the races. I can read, or listen to some, and yet, whatever it is, they don't have it. Many don't speak to me. Many don't have it for me. And some are dangerous. Not dangerous in a good way.

Speaking mildly, there are a lot of teachers out there that are full of crap. They had some experience, their ego grabbed it, they crowned themselves and set up shop. They can't see their ignorance, and neither can the naive student. Caveat Emptor!

Getting one thing doesn't make one enlightened. It's a little more subtle than that. I've said before, a couple whami satoris doesn't cut it. A bird with one wing can sit on a stool, but he can't fly.

A true teacher will have authority, but it will be tempered with humility. Look for a light heart. If they don't laugh, if they don't have a sense of humor, run for the hills!

I've woken up at night from a bad nightmare, but I've never been awake in a dream. In daylight, I'm pretty awake, and crap looks like crap. I avoid it.

There seem to be two major groups of Advaita, one group says you don't exist, the other group says you do. One group insists that you are nothing, have no freedom, and no choice. The other says we do exist and have the responsibility of growth.

One group tends to sees things rather simply, the other group seems more nuanced. The later group accepts that people do exist, that enlightened teachers exist, that there is Karma, and there is some freedom within Karma. There are teachers in both groups that ring true.

If all is one, it can be easily said that the individual does not exist, is nothing, a fleeting image at best. Being nothing, free from responsibility, appears to be quite liberating. This group celebrates no individual, no meaning, no purpose, no goal. Yet, can you trust a teacher who has no meaning, no responsibility, no goal? If neither he nor you exist, why bother?

In the day to day lives we lead, in this appearance, freedom has never been separated from responsibility. Is it different than above? Is "As above, so below," a myth? Go ahead, try being free without responsibility in this appearance. It won't last long.

Both groups can agree on oneness, unity, and eternity. It is the individual which poses the difference. Is the individual real or not? Does the individual have one appearance and merge into the One at death? Or does the individual have many lives, and limited choice due to Karma, and join the One as a soul after death?

If you read the stories and books on the near death experience, it becomes pretty clear that consciousness as an individual can and does exist outside the body.

My own brother, fell from a bridge one winter day, hit the river, broke through the ice and sank. He tells how he floated up the river bank looking at his body under the water. He began yelling at it, "If you don't move, you're dead."

He could see all around. He watched his buddies get out of the pickup truck, scramble down the bank, reach under the ice and pull his body out by the hair. When they dragged him back into the truck, suddenly he was back in the body, cold and shivering.

My voice mail from him said, "I drowned, but I'm alive." He was so amazed! I also work with a guy who was in a near fatal car wreck. He was revived in the emergency room. He too can speak about being out of the body, conscious, as an individual.

Of course, those without the experience, or without an open mind, can dismiss these as hallucinations. To dismiss these accounts they will use whatever suites them. This does not however prove NDE's invalid. Studies show that an out of the body experience does not change the person very much, but an NDE does.

I marvel at the complexity of life -- the creativity and outrageousness of it. So, although the simple answer is easier to grasp, the outrageous that rings true, seems more like what I see around me.

Since I appear to be here, and sense that I am is here, I don't deny it. Will I merge with the One after this life, or after many lives? Is there a progression of lives, and Karma to be dealt with, or not? The end result is the same. Eternity reigns. The One is.

Is this appearance as an individual a lie? Can I discount it with impunity? I admit I didn't create myself personally as an individual, so I must be part of a larger whole. A part, expressing a part of the whole, is still not separate.

Are their levels of consciousness? Levels of enlightenment? Can a teacher, like the rest of us get stuck on one idea? Are some teachers more open after awakening than others? Does growth stop in the teacher?

All of this today is to keep things clear. No one has all the answers. No one has the one answer pinned down. It is still up to the individual to determine what resonates. The truth will set you free, but only if you experience subjectively.

What is Enlightenment?

Words are not adequate. They do not touch what is. Words cannot describe the experience of satori because they are too limited. They cannot describe enlightenment. But words can point. Some better than others. Presently, let me try and fail again.

In one satori, I realized that I had to let it go because there was no I there. No personal I. No Maury. It was an exquisite experience. The message received was that I was surrounded by absolute beauty, always had been, and always would be, whether I was aware of it or not. It was a clear message from absolute authority.

It was letting me know that after the experience, and the little I returned, that the beauty would still be there. It let me know that though the veil would return, and the beauty would be hidden, in truth it was there. In fact for weeks afterwards I cried at the beauty of many things. Yet, the beauty faded.

Currently, I am not as aware of beauty as I was during that satori. Have I lost something? Or have I just become habituated? I can recall the experience. But how does a personal I recall an experience in which there was no personal I? A conundrum to be sure.

Can we say that there is actually only One Subjective I? All other I's just emanations of that One? Can that Singular One, the One and Only I, not have an experience? Does the One have to have little ones to experience? My inclination is that the Great Subjective Single I, can and does experience itself.

When the little I dissolves into the Big One, there is only the Great Single I experiencing itself. Awareness becomes aware of itself. It experiences the little I as well, feeling the little I dissolve, feeling the absence of the little I's presence. It experiences the Oneness of itself.

All of this to say that enlightenment is not a satori or two. It is Awareness becoming aware of itself permanently. For a form, a person, to know itself as background, a manifestation only in the field of awareness, to know Awareness is the ground, the being, the Only One, that perhaps is enlightenment.

Where Is One After Satori

After a satori or two, many think they are enlightened. Is that so? The Unitive Experience, which always comes unbidden, arrives like a tsunami with overflowing ecstasy, overpowering oneness, and explicit absolute authority. There is no desire, wish, or possibility of challenge.

Many a satori lasts for only seconds, yet in those seconds it is eternity which is known. It is eternity one knows. Sometimes the unitive effect lasts for days, and giving and receiving are the same word. One and another are not separate -- separate appearance, separate form, but not separate in reality.

Yet long or short, satori doesn't last. Does one or two of these make one enlightened? After one of these, does the ego come back and grab it, like a crown.

Are you now anointed? Does one place this experience in the ego's treasure chest and pronounce oneself, enlightened, teacher, knower?

And how does one live one's life when this satori, this experience dissipates? How does one live when the normal state returns? When in comparison, normal seems so much less. When normal has lost it's meaning. When it is pale in comparison, with no blood, no life, no truth.

It's like being an existentialist, yet knowing better. Like being in the wasteland, having tasted paradise. The taste of paradise, like a beacon, a lighthouse, known but not seen. There is nothing to grab.

Here and now, the field seems dull, slow, passable. But nothing in comparison to the taste. There is a waiting, a wondering. Why the taste? Why the knowing? One seems unnecessarily placed in the position of eating the cake and wanting it too. No middle ground. There was a taste, now only these dregs remain.

Untasted paradise leaves no measure for God. The existentialist may feel the hero. But when paradise has been tasted, there is a measure for God. Then what? This here, this now, so doesn't measure up.

Only trust remains. Trust in the unknown, trust in having known. Trust that Oneness is, though ungrasped. Only humility may reign, only submission, surrender, asking for revelation.

The Spiral Staircase

The spiral staircase goes round and round. Take two steps up and one step down. Take a rest now and then. The railing is there.

The earthquake is calling. You fall. In the darkness going down, you see light at the bottom of the shaft, and realize that in the tumult, your bearings were lost, and you are hurling up, not down.

You pop out the top, into the light. You have landed on solid ground. You look down the spiral staircase and notice that it is nothing but a shaft of light.

Mark Your Territory

Mark your territory, like a dog. Let yourself be sniffed out. Stand your ground. Bang your gong. Mark your spot.

Be king of the hill. Manipulate the field. Bribe the feeding tube. Smother your friends in flattery. Smile at your superiority.

Just know that the sticky web you have built is your own prison, and will soon begin to stink. You have turned yourself into a toy, a cartoon image.

So mark your territory well. The sooner the better. For only then will you discover that it doesn't satisfy. Only then will you take off wandering the pathless path, leaving no trace.

The Sovereign Heart

You cannot be in service of an idea if your are in service to your heart. For the heart is beyond ideas, even good ideas. It knows what the mind can never grasp.

The full heart risks the mind, breaches its walls, and sets itself free. Love reigns, for the sovereign heart beats in all.

The Other Side of Nothing

Since all is one, there is in truth, no duality. So this thing, this body, this mind, is part of the non separation. We have already established that any separation is false.

There is nothing wrong with being a person, being a mind, having a personality, having therapy, working through a depression. All this is an expression of the One.

There is nothing but this. And what is this? It is fullness, and overflowing, and spawning endless fullness. Life in all forms, seething, writhing, jumping, cavorting.

One expression of fullness is personality. Billions of personalities. All important, none separate from the whole, none separate from the One.

Every single expression is That. Every single expression is one of the One, part of the wholeness. Each perfect in its expression and path.

Source is no thing in particular, but everything in its entirety. So nothing is everything. You can stand with the empty glass side, or stand with the full glass side. Either way, it's all the same.

I don't always enjoy my personality. But I certainly enjoy watching it. I get caught up in it and wallow in self pity, or get a big head about something I've done.

Then I step back and see what's been going on and have a good laugh. As a non separate part of the whole, I have to love the personality, don't I? It's doing the best it can.

Love is simply wanting the personality to reach its full potential. And perhaps have as much fun as possible doing it. Love doesn't mean I have to like every part of the personality, or even support all the parts. But having compassion for the ugly parts is love.

I can have compassion for people I can't help. I can have compassion for people I don't even want to help. And when I'm well aware of how much I dislike someone, and avoid them, I forgive myself. For "discretion is the better part of valor."

Each one of us is stumbling down the path, drunk with a small mind, and Everything is watching over us. We are our Friend.

Forget about Not Knowing

Forget about "not knowing." Not knowing is actually your natural state. Go take a walk in the garden, look at the grass, the flowers, the birds. You do not know anything about them. You do not know how or why they are.

You already know that scientific reductionism is sterile. One answered question brings up ten new ones. Each answered question opens the door ever wider to what is unknown.

You are already prepared for the next moment. When driving your car on a country road unfamiliar to you, without even thinking, you go left when the road turns left, and right when it goes right. You slow down for the unexpected deer.

You can know a lot of things. The earth is no longer flat. All your knowing is tentative. Labeling and defining helps one maneuver, but does not define what is.

Trying to get rid of knowing is an ego trip. The bars just changed from black to white. This kind of effort is not needed. Ask, who is doing the undoing? Slip into the background and just watch.

Acknowledge that all knowing is tentative. Only a fanatic holds onto beliefs as if they were crucial to life. Only a fanatic would insist on not knowing.

Not knowing is the actual state of affairs. Awareness is always present. It accepts belief and non belief. It accepts knowing and not knowing. Where your mind goes, it is already there waiting.

Awareness is already present, open, ready, willing, without prescription. It is prior to your knowing and forgetting. Your definitions and labels, useful or not, are pointers only.

The body-mind is a vehicle only, roving the field. What it knows is useful to it, or harmful, but all its knowing is temporary and subject to change.

Just step back from what the body-mind sees, and thinks, and feels. You are already awareness which doesn't know. See this and you need no longer worry about knowing or not knowing.

Awareness doesn't need to know anything. That is what you are. Forget about knowing or not knowing. You are prior to that.

Only Now, Always This

If you could just settle down into not knowing, and not caring that you don't know, and really getting a feel for that, then you would be close.

You are already close because what is, is already here, as all that is. All your thoughts and ideas are obstacles to seeing.

Let the not knowing overtake you, and unmotivate you, to the point that you just give up. Surrender to not knowing and drop off the cliff to nowhere.

You won't gain anything. You will loose the sense of I that thinks it had something, or lost something. You simply overlooked the obstacle -- yourself.

A subjective feeling, a knowing you can't shake, will overtake you. It is not bliss. Just ordinary truth. You can't grasp it, and you can't hold it.

The truth that sets you free gets rid of you. Not the body, not the mind, but the "I sense" of separateness.

Nowhere is everywhere. And you are here. One without a second, Awareness, Consciousness. You are that.

Where did the little you go? It was never really here. It was only a thought. Now there is only this. Only here. Only now, always and forever.

Beyond Voluntary Simplicity

Imagine a rainbow that needed to be told that it was beautiful, that needed to be told it was the most beautiful of all rainbows, that needed to be told it was special. That's the kind of image the ego holds for itself.

Because the ego is an image, a bundle of self defining concepts, unnecessary things are needed to support it. It seeks compliments. It seeks entertainment. It creates complexity in its effort to support the image.

However, as the ego dissolves and recedes into the background, all the energy that went into defense and self promotion becomes unnecessary. No need to try and drop effort, there is nothing left to support any effort. Effortlessness is what is left.

When understanding comes, simplicity has an appeal that it didn't have before. It's like the mother bird, finding her nest empty.

Who's Playing on the field?

The phantom character takes a position based on conditioning, beliefs, and genetic tendencies. We don't have to list the other five thousand unexamined causes.

None of the reasons for taking a position is important, it's only important to examine who is taking the position.

The bodymind takes positions, and later discards them. They're not permanent things. Positions are taken on and discarded like partners on the dance floor.

What positions the bodymind takes is not important. It's only important to see who is taking them on, and who is discarding them.

When you look it becomes apparent that this process is just a covering for the mind, like clothes are to the body.

To get down to brass tacks, stop looking at your positions, your judgments, of self and others, and look for what they are appearing on.

There is a blank mind on which a lot of trash has been dumped. You need to stop looking in the trash, and see who's looking.

At some point you look beyond the mind. You see the screen on which it is appearing, and realize that pure awareness is what you really are.

Pure awareness is the playing field in which conscious comes to play. Your bodymind is just one player on the field.

Be the field and enjoy the game.

Take No Position

To deeply trust the way things are, without fear, has the perfume of truth.

You can't change what is, as you are part and parcel of it. You can only stop taking a position about it.

Not much more to do. Just don't look for bells or whistles. The ordinary becomes extraordinary when expectations drop.

Hold no head above your own, as no description of satori or bliss prescribes.

Whatever is, is totally subjective. How could it be otherwise? The subject is, I. One.

Hold on to nothing, as no thing is everywhere.

Advaita Shorts

An I, identified as a seeker,
set off to find the Truth.
He never came back.

-----------------------

A seeker set a goal,
but never arrived.

------------------------

The tiger's mouth was scary,
but the belly of the beast
was warm.

-------------------

Truth bubbles up through the cracks
in your prison of belief,
and light slips in between the bars.

The Night Watchman

Truth tiptoes by in the night,
when most are sleeping,
having spent most of the
day at the parade.

Only the night watchman
sees the apparition,
and follows it
out of town.

Circle of One

The air we breathe travels through
the lion and the sheep.

The earth we eat,
like every living thing.

We leave behind what the
Dung Beatle calls his feast.

Our bodies lay to final rest,
and other forms take the vest.

The circle is unbroken,
playing on the field of One.

Nothing Never Changes

Once you have the ultimate self doubt, the house of cards falls. Only then do you realize you were always safe.

If, all you are is this, what else is needed? Where can you escape to? What can you find?

You were always already this, and already always that. Here is there, and now is then, in a future that always was.

Everlasting Source was, is, and remains. You are that which never changes, reading this.

In his autobiography,"Living to Tell the Tale," Gabriel Garcia Marquez, had this to say:

"I needed this old age without remorse to understand that the misfortune of my grand-parents in the house in Cataca was that they were always mired in their nostalgic memories, and the more they insisted on conjuring them the deeper they sank."

Now how enlightened in that? Isn't this one of the most poetic statements about our stories you've ever heard? Reading it just thrills my soul.

Great literature must touch on truth. It's the truth that carries the invisible carrier wave. It comes from the power of the words, and even from between the lines.

Seems there have always been enlightened souls. They just didn't go to Advaita groups, or have torturous definitions of what they were up to. They just knew.

Honoring the Self

Granted, that the personal self is just as illusory as the clouds in the sky and the chair I am sitting on. The chair is only a chair conceptually, though it has a material substance. And the material itself as known by me, is an interpretation of the light passing through my eyes and my sense of touch.

Insistence on the illusory nature of the personal self is not the best ground on which to understand the non dual nature of the universe. All objects are illusory--interpretations of the senses.

For all practical purposes, the personal self should no more be denied than other useful objects, while due consideration is given to the fact that all is one.

In all humility, honoring the self, is also honoring the Source. Dishonoring the self, even for the sake of spiritual pursuit, is just another form of self flagellation. It certainly doesn't honor the Impersonal Self

A true foundation for honoring the non dual nature of life is simply to acknowledge the Impersonal Self behind all manifestation. To know this is to honor all, including the personal self.

Ultimately, The One and the many are one. Any separation is not the ultimate truth, but apparent separation is the nature of manifestation.

Therefore, to honor the personal self, as well as the Impersonal Self, is not only practical, but wise. Duality and non duality are one and the same.

Who Is What Is

Someone did a search on Google.com for this quote:
"The one who makes it has no need for it. The one who buys it has no personal use for it. The one who uses it can neither see nor feel it and couldn't care less. What am I?"

They ended up here. I don't know if they were looking for an answer, or who the author was. The answer to both is Awareness.

Crude Markings Only

You can't describe the taste of the unknown. It would then be known. The closest I can come to a description of the position one must take, is that one no longer insists on knowing. It is futile.

Do not depend on the idea of a final knowing. One cannot do it. Ask for revelation. One cannot figure it out. If one insists on knowing, then, in humility ask for revelation.

Things will remain the same until they don't. Satori, or an ecstatic unitive experience will not stay. You will not find a permanent state of bliss. You may, however, over time, find one doesn't react as one used to.

Unitive or ecstatic experience, comes and goes. It only leaves a taste - a remembrance of the truth. The taste provides faith. The authoritative experience has left. Now trust as you wander around in the unknown.

You may live an easy but dry existence. Completely go with the dry experience. Go to the depth of the dry. Heaven and hell are only an inch apart -- so they say.

The jump or leap may never come. It might be more like a mist rising in the far off hills. Realize it is you who is looking for a leap or jump. It is not a requirement. You cannot put that expectation on what is.

Hanging on to the idea of a jump or a leap is a way to hold off seeing what is. What is, is already present. Expectations may be a block.

All these words are pointers only. They are not the truth. All words about truth and enlightenment are crude markings on a map. The map is not the territory, and neither are these words.

Beyond Thought and Feeling

"My understanding has been only intellectual & theoretical.."

Both intellect and the heart are paths. Both are valid. I suspect those with a strong intellect follow that path, and those with strong feeling follow the heart. Neither is better. Neither one is superior.

Nothing will so break the intellect as feeling. And thinking often unseats or stirs up great feeling. In the end, feeling and thought merge, and one feels one's thoughts and thinks one's feelings.

If your thinking mind comes to realize its limit; knows it cannot "get" this, then there can be a relaxation into something outside the constraints of thought.

A great anxiety may need to be experienced when thought is revealed to be inadequate. But, then again, if one considers that thought never did contain Truth, one might be able to move on, knowing that the security thought seemed to provide was never real.

Since thought never was adequate, one realizes that one did survive the illusion! The security was false, but survival was still the fact. In this manner, thinking, though not adequate, provides the proof that one can survive quite well with false security.

This realization may provide some relief in letting go of intellectual understanding, as one sees that it never was adequate, and so your dependency on it was never the security you thought it was.

"I am at a loss where the next step is."

There isn't a next step. You have simply reached the end of finding any security in thinking. Feeling is not going to provide the understanding either.

There is something else. It is called the unknown. It's not something one usually envisions as a place to rest. But in the end, when your mind is spent, and your emotions are spent, the unknown may be the only place you can find to rest. If you embrace the unknown, at least it is sure. It will remain unknown.

One realizes that one acted and reacted in unknowing, even when one thought one knew. It's like loosing your security blanket. It never really protected you from anything. You just thought it did.

After the unknown, a few lucky souls experience something else, a subjective knowing beyond thinking or feeling. It is a knowing that is unshakable. In the Christian tradition it has been described as "The peace that passeth understanding."

This knowing is not assailable by thought, because it is beyond it. It is not assailable by feeling either. The mystics called these experiences "unitive." Oneness with God is another description. The East calls these satori.

Keep in mind that the ecstasies of the the subjective experience, or satori, also do not last. But the taste provides a foundation in unknowing knowing. One is then neither happy nor sad, but just O.K. Just O.K. is a good thing. No more searching after high or low. Just this.

Soon enough one finds that one can rest, even function in unknowing. Thoughts may come and go, but they are not held on to. Feeling states come and go, but they are not held on to.

Charlie Hayes says “The difference between an intellectual understanding and AWARENESS noticing itself is incredible “

I would ask Charlie. He may be able to provide clarification. He is speaking from beyond the little mind trying to grasp. It's called non dual understanding. Simple, but apparently not simple to come by.

"I am groping in the dark."

That's not a bad thing. It is your mind that feels in the dark. Your feelings may also be groping in the dark. So what is beyond these two? The unknown. Let the unknown become your friend. Peace can be found there.

Lastly, consider these words of the great Sufi poet, Rumi.

"Out beyond ideas of Wrongdoing and Right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, and even the phrase 'each other' doesn't make any sense."
-Rumi, c. 532 A.D.

There is no "next step."

God bless.

No Forward, and No Reverse

No forward, and no reverse means there is only now. When only now is important, that is where attention lies. If now requires something in the apparent future, then that is attended to. But it's really not in the future.

My memory is fading because the past is not important. Memory is fading because it has no meaning. In fact, so much of what I would have fought and died for, has lost its meaning.

Why? It appears to be because there is less and less of me. I cry, laugh, feel sad, even depressed, but it has no root. These feelings are not the be all and end all that they used to be.

To live in the world and not have the same sense of things as what I used to call normal, is difficult. It's difficult because of all the expectations. But when there is no belief in the expectations, when the underlying assumptions are all gone, one feels like an impostor, an actor, playing a game.

The term "egojis" was given by a hermit to all those he was avoiding. I understand. When egos are not taken as fact, when they are seen as unreal, having to put energy into responding drains one.

The will seems to be pulled out from under one, and one does what needs to be done, only. Any more than that seems a waste. Much of normal human behavior seems a waste.

Loss of meaning has results. One can't get into looking at the past. That normal behavior is gone. When memory has no meaning, what becomes of old family pictures, graduation books, the stories you once believed?

When any meaning in the past goes, how to you relate to the rest of the world? You become tolerant or run screaming to a cave.

One's life becomes simply what do I want now, and what do I need now? No future. No plans, or as few as possible seems best. Energy for planning just isn't there. One somehow intuitively knows that if one is supposed to go somewhere, it will happen. More than that is just too difficult.

The shell of the ego is still there. It may be a structure without foundation, but like the human skeleton, the structure remains.

So, one has to deal with what is known as guilt. But it is a funny guilt, because it's more like a feeling of, "I should feel this way or that. I should have feelings about this or that." But this is just the dregs of past conditioning.

It's like being one thing for many years and then discovering that you are not that thing. That thing drops away and you are this other. And this other doesn't relate. The hold of the past, the story, holds no weight.

There is a sense of meaning, feelings, and ideas just dropping away. Not being forced away, but a seeing that just doesn't allow for holding them any longer.

Pangs of guilt occur about not caring anymore about things one used to care about. And there are consequences when others perceive one as off. But if they can't sense the loss you have experienced, they can't know. They are innocent, yet their expectations can't be met.

The many want you to be one of them, but in the end, there is only one.

Morality

There really isn't any morality to This. Just love. If I was supposed to be in the heart of Africa saving starving children, I would be there. I haven't gotten that call, so I'm just here. Of course I could be tapped on the shoulder tomorrow to go, There really wouldn't be any choice about it would there?

The starving children aren't separate from this. I can't understand it. But I don't need to understand it, do I? I don't need to understand it to do something about it. Neither do I need to understand to not do anything about it.

This is pretty sad. But then again, it's the way it IS. And the way it is is not something I can do anything about. Unless I do. Apparently my place right now is not to. Why? I don't know.

I am where I am because that is the way it is. I can think about things and do nothing. Most of the time anyway. Sometimes I do something about what I think is wrong. But I don't know I'm going to do it until I do.

Morality is a fine thing for apparent persons. Especially when it's a morality that works.

Lording it over others with righteous arrogance isn't a very good morality, but it seems to be the norm. Pat yourself on the back.

I didn't know I was going to sit down and write about morality. It just happened. And I don't know anything about it anyway.

The Mystery

I am the Mystery. But I don't know anything about it. As soon as I want to know more about it, I'm trying to step away from it, but I can't, because I am the Mystery. The Mystery and I are not separate, though I can feel that I am separate from it, and must remind myself that it is not the truth.

I am the Mystery, and any thought about it just deepens the Mystery. There is no mastery of this, only the end of searching.

I am the Mystery. Each apparent person writes a chapter or two of this Mystery. But the Mystery is never solved. It doesn't need to be solved. You could say it was already solved before you thought it was a Mystery.

I am the Mystery, and if I try and find the answer, it's only the mystery playing another round. There is nowhere to go. Nothing to find. Finding is already here, present and accounted for.

The Mystery is all there is. So what are you looking for? Really, you should just start laughing. It's really funny. You cant' find what's already here, can you?

There isn't really any mystery to it if you just accept the Mystery. Then it's just floating with it. Or really within it. Or really just It.

Silence

This is just a note that my mind seems to have dropped into silence and nothing seems important enough to say. All is already OK as it is.

One Essence

If there is only One, then choice or no choice, free will or no free will, has no ground. There is only this.

When you speak, I hear it over here. So where is the separation?

When I turn and see you, I experience the seeing here, so how can you be over there?

When I touch your body, I experience it in me. So where is the boundary?

Unconditional love is simply the recognition that all emanates from the One Essence, expressing itself without judgment.

All that the apparent person can experience is nothing other than the One Essence experiencing a focal point.

Only the body mind sees good and bad. And there is nothing wrong with that. But it is a limitation!

Right and wrong have their place. It lets one protect the body. Remember that only the body, and the desire to keep and enjoy it, create right and wrong.

Right and wrong keeps culture intact and markets functioning. All to keep our bodies sheltered and fed. The mind is just a memory bank of how to do that.

But the mind gets stuck in its culture, in its milieu, and in protecting itself, comes to believe it is the only game in town.

There is nothing wrong with this self protection. There is nothing wrong with right or wrong. It's just a condition imposed by the body. A limitation, a contraction of the One.

Knowing this, one acknowledges right and wrong, but one also knows that it is not the truth of the One. Awareness knows no right or wrong. It is unconditional. It is always love.

I am Everywhere

I am is everywhere, yet sometimes thinks it's this or that. All the personal work has its use in undoing conditioning.

First there was contraction, then openness. The yin and yang of experience.

We were before we thought, and are after thinking is done. Curiosity killed the cat, and curiosity took this one down as well. So what was the harm in thinking?

The true mind knows it's limits. The true mind knows something is beyond. The true mind knows it can relax and let things be. The rest is just play.

I was the one before I knew I was the one. So who was I when I thought I was someone? The One of course. Who else could I have been?

Personality thought it was the root, but turns out it wasn't. Resonance lead elsewhere.

When chaos and randomness fall into Being, nothing is left out of place.

The Liberated Mind

What is the state or non state when seeking for deeper understanding is going on, but there is no one doing the seeking?

Who is doing the search for deeper understanding when there is no sense of someone doing the seeking?

When there is seeking, or non seeking, and in either case there is no one seeking, who is seeking? Is anyone seeking, or is this just the mind tripping along trying to understand, because it is it's nature to do so?

Does the mind, when liberated, go on seeking its limits, exploring the boundaries of its limitation? Can it actually enjoy this search for the boundary and limit of itself? Or is there something deeper, some wholeness, that enjoys the mind finding it's limit?

That is the sense here. There is not seeking for The Answer. But there is enjoyment of letting the mind play, watching the mind play. This mind thing likes to play with thought, likes to watch it soar and crash.

That is the sense here. That there is joy in creating a deeper facility through the mind with words, in order to describe the indescribable, to describe what is, with no one here.

It's just a game. The mind knows only so much. It knows that it is limited, but it still enjoys the push to see deeper, to describe more adeptly what cannot be captured.

So it is a game. The end is already assured, whether the mind gets a final answer or not. This character is playing the tune it hears, that it likes sometimes, and not others.

This character is playing the part of its conditioning, while knowing it is conditioned. It also knows that the character is only part of a painting. Yet what I am is the painting, and the wall, and the building, and the city, and the world, and the universe.

Bus Line Meditation

ATA Bus line Meditation

I recall a conversation with a guru in which a student complained about wanting to meditate, but a car garage was below his flat, so there was constant noise. The guru told him to move.

Perhaps the guru had this guy figured out and wanted him to move out of the neighborhood so he wouldn't ask any more stupid questions. Easier to get him to move than throw him out.

For this one, the place I am most alone is riding the bus to work. There is no place that is quieter for me. But the bus is noisy, and there is banter among the talkers that congregate at the back.

No one has created a pattern of sitting next to me, and no one has decided I was the one they needed to talk to. Perhaps I have an aura that says, "Leave this guy alone."

So the bus ride to work is the best meditation time I have. Since I don't really know anyone, any judgments I have are surface only, they have no roots. The scenery I know by heart. Car lanes don't particularly inspire me to keep my eyes open.

I can read the paper on the bus before it starts to move, but once it gets going, reading is not very pleasant. I close my eyes, and begin to meditate. Before I experience two minutes passing, the thirty-five minute bus ride is over.

Meanwhile, during the lapse of time, I have traveled inside my body, pronounced it healthy, forgiven my fellow bus riders for being superficial, and blessed my enemies. By the time the bus stops downtown, I am forgiven. What a blessed way to begin the day.

Riding the bus has provided me more meditation time than anything I've ever tried. I don't like to sit and meditate at home. There was always something else I'd rather do, like get up and have some coffee.

So providence (the word for today) provided the bus; my personal vehicle just for meditation. I've begun to suspect though, that providence is efficient, because I've noticed a few others, head bowed, eyes closed, but not asleep. Perhaps they're praying the heart out too.

Helpful Gurus

There are a number of enlightened folk around these days. Some are more helpful than others.

There are many that say we are all enlightened and there's nothing to be done. At a certain level of awareness this may be true? But is it helpful?

The non dual police will now say, "Helpful to who?" They know there is ultimately no one to help?

However, there are still millions of apparent poor souls out there searching, wanting help. Who will help them?

In this body-mind's search I can only say that of the hundreds of books I've read, and the teachers I've met, some were helpful, some not.

I can hear it again. Helpful to whom? Helpful to this apparent body-mind, this illusion, this seeker, this whatever you want to call it.

Pain can be helpful. Granted. But pain and anguish can also demoralize and destroy, and where pain can be assuaged, or sidestepped, it's a good thing.

Where pain is already established, and can't be ignored, then it's necessary and good to feel it. And it must be felt and experienced down to the core.

I have wailed and cried, and screamed till I was horse. I have felt pain that I did not think I could bare. But this body-mind, this apparent self, this illusion, did benefit.

From intense therapy, and intense feeling of pain, I was able to leave it behind. Suffering to a large degree stopped. Would I like to have avoided it, yes! Could I be who I am if I had not felt it? No. If I had found a way around it, would I have benefited? Who knows?

Real or unreal, illusion or not, I avoid suffering where I can. To those who helped me avoid further suffering, by helping me get in touch with my pain so I could feel it, I am ever grateful.

As much as I like abstract theory, esoteric spirituality, and enlightenment, I also like what works! I'll take what works over non dual theory any day. Call it practical enlightenment if you wish.

Some teachers are helpful and some aren't. A suffering person can be called an illusion, an apparent energy field, whatever. That doesn't lessen the suffering. It doesn't help.

If there is suffering, help is called for. If there is suffering and I can help, I want to help. I could care less whether the suffering person is illusory or not. I could care less if the sufferer is only an illusory energy field.

Duality and non duality are part and parcel of the same oneness. There is no separation. But if separation is felt, and someone is in pain, those that are helpful, seem to me, more in touch with the One Love.

A Permanent State of Bliss

Ah, to have that permanent state of bliss. Don't you want it?

We want that unshakable assurance that we know. The kind of assurance that can't be questioned because the authority of it is so profound, and the experience so subjectively felt, that we cannot doubt it. An experience that is so far beyond logic, that no argument could even begin to lap at its feet.

We may be programmed to want this - to search for this. We don't get this desire from reading books. However, books or a teacher may make us aware that such a desire was already nascent in us.

A touch of spiritual insight just uncovers that desire. Then the search is on! We don't get this desire for profound assurance from reading. It is our true nature. Our true Self wants this. Our true nature is sure. Somehow, that allness wants to experience itself through through us.

As for such high experiences coming and going? It appears to be a normal progression. Cyclical, like most of nature.

There are gurus who express what they know from an assurance of permanence. Mooji often says "I don't understand how you say you got it, and then..., and then.... What is this and then?" Obviously Mooji is implying, if you get it, it should be permanent.

My own experience is that I have had the complete and total experience of oneness and meaning so profound that all normal feeling and experience is meaningless in comparison. And yet that state, experiences of that state, don't remain permanent in this body/mind.

This doesn't mean that I am not changed radically from having had such experiences. I had to let these states go because I just couldn't function in this world and remain in such states. More likely it wasn't a choice. I just couldn't stay there. And I couldn't stay there because there was no "me" there.

Would I like to be able to stay in a state of bliss, without fear, in total oneness, and assurance that it was permanent? Of Course I would. Could I? Who knows?

What helped me a lot with this question of states of bliss and oneness and their lack of permanence was reading "The Experience of No Self," by Bernadette Roberts. She describes high states that come and go. Then even higher states that come and go. Her point is that once one is in a new experiential state for awhile, one gets used to it, so it is no longer experienced as a "high." It becomes the norm.

The bottom line is to know what you know, but remain in the unknowing of what you don't know, even acknowledging that you don't know what you don't know.

If extremely high states are not permanent, then there is more work to do, or such a permanent state is not in the cards for you. It's the journey that matters.

Our intellect does want as much understanding of the mystical as possible. Even though spiritual experience is beyond the intellect and logic, the intellect does want as much understanding as possible.

It seeks a level of satisfaction. If it can get a level of understanding, it actually relaxes. And that relaxation may allow the spiritual seeker to really let go, since with enough feeding, the intellect sees its own limits and accepts them.

Permanence and impermanence are in a dance. We are the dancers. Enjoy the dance.

Let's Go Play

If one knows that one is Source appearing, and Source is eternal, what does that do to time? Sort of makes it irrelevant. Well, in the Big picture anyway.

So, here we are, sitting in the Big picture. The eternal has no beginning and no end. With no beginning, and no end, there is only now. So time becomes irrelevant.

Who cares? The apparent body cares. It is programmed to want to live, and therefore to eat and sleep and have shelter, and few other joys.

Can there then be peace while the body-mind goes about getting its needs met? Perhaps, if one actually grasps the fact of being eternal. If the mind acts on that, perhaps it can do all the things necessary, to be on time, for work, dental appointments, etc., and yet do it all peacefully, because ultimately, we have all the time in the world.

But, if we have a soul, and that soul also has a place in eternity, then perhaps it does make a difference in how we go about getting our food and shelter. Perhaps if we do so lovingly, our eternal place may be different.

Some say this is a school, some say only a playground. Perhaps it's a playground for Source, but a school for us.

Perhaps Source doesn't care how we perform, but does reward accordingly. Perhaps not. Some say we are punished by our sins, not for our sins. Seems fair to me.

If we can see that some people are far more conscious than others. If we can see that some are at peace with everything. And if, as Hawkins points out, there are levels of consciousness, and those with a higher level of consciousness are more at peace. Then perhaps it does make a difference here, and in the ever after.

I certainly see growth in myself and in others. I certainly prefer to be around people who are more highly evolved, more conscious, more loving, more peaceful, more open, more forgiving. And if that's a higher level of consciousness, I prefer to be around those.

As to the consequences of this (levels of consciousness) in the afterlife, why would it be any different there than here? If we can have one life in a body, it makes sense that we could have another, unless of course, if we are just a body.

But, if we are spirit, and just inhabiting a body for a time, then we could inhabit another one here, or another one in some other dimension. And if we are individuated here, we probably will be individuated there.

Of course, this doesn't mean that we are not all one and all Source only. It's just that if we can appear separate here, we can appear separate there, or anywhere. This dimension or any other.

If we are not individuated in the next life as well. Who is going to play? How else does the play of Lila go on?

I suspect that in all this play, there is also growth. I suspect that the growth of the individual spirit does happen. I suspect that I am spirit and not just a body. And I suspect that in the next dimension (since life is actually eternal) I will also have the opportunity to play and to grow.

Most games have rules. We just don't know what the Big rules are. I do know that it's a lot more fun to play when you know you really can't die. It's certainly less stressful.

I have only found one Big rule, and that is love. OK, boys and girls, lets go play!

Advaita Round Robin

Advaitists tell us that:

Enlightenment means realizing that, "You are not the doer."
Enlightenment means realizing that, "The Absolute is the only doer."
Enlightenment means realizing that, "You are That."
So - enlightenment leaves you back as the doer after all!

~ John Wren-Lewis ~


So, we are back again, in the world, as the doer. How does that feel? Does it feel enlightened?

Any way you look at it, you end up being the doer. It's just that depending on the level of awareness, one is either a personal doer, or an impersonal doer.

One could say, "Whatever I do is the will of Source," and absolve oneself of any responsibility. Notice however, that this absolution is aligned with the small self, making excuses for the small self to do whatever it desires to do.

Perhaps, as awareness increases, one surrenders the little doer for the bigger one. One may find oneself repeating lines from the Lord's Prayer. "Thy will be done."

Would not a true sense of the larger self ask, "What is thy will?"

The higher level of awareness actually takes more responsibility, not less. Whereas the gang-banger selling drugs on the street corner, does not think about what is good for anyone else.

So perhaps one needs to consider the level of responsibility one takes for oneself, and the world, as an indication of how enlightened one actually is.

This of course, does not preclude surrender, as in "Thy will be done."

Thus one is in the position of "Thy will be done," and here is my contribution. I give what I can give, without taking on responsibility for the results.

Perfectionism

Perfectionism is an ego position that makes oneself and others imperfect. The bad news of your judgment travels fast, condemning all who come in contact.

Only the perfectionist knows how poorly we all perform. The perfectionist's glasses are not rose colored, they are black. The world becomes black and white, right and wrong.

Perfectionism is a form of limitation. It sees lack everywhere. And where there is lack, there is suffering. It keeps one from trying anything new. We are such a failure already.

The perfectionist sees the imperfection of everything, in family, friends, and nature. The imperfect flower, the broken tree, the potholes in the road.

I will leave the perfectionists to count the potholes. I will enjoy the bouncing ride and the completeness of the rose in half bloom.

The Message

You can't keep from sending out the message of who you are. You are broadcasting the truth of you 24/7.

There are energy fields, many as yet unnamed, picking up and returning to you, what you send out. Your sending is 24/7 and your receiving is 24/7. And what you send will come back to you, yeasted and risen, ten fold.

The bigger part of your broadcast is not even seen, but the message is sent anyway. It is broadcast in unseen ways, beyond your facial expressions, beyond your body language.

The energy fields of your mind and heart signal silently, like a beacon, bringing to you like signals only. And you wonder why you keep getting the same response.

The grid knows what signal you are sending, and it will pick up signals from the other side of the world, and drop them in your lap.

You don't need to worry about your doing. Who you are, what you have become, will take care of that. For who you have become is the broadcast, and the interchange with what comes back determines the scope of what you will do.

Who you are, and what you have become, will be doing the truth of you 24/7. It will take care of all your doing. You may think the world is limiting you, but it is just responding to your signal.

You do not need to shout your message. You only need whisper, because who you are is shouting all the time. And those whose antenna is tuned to your frequency, will find you, and give it back to you, full, and running over.

The grid, the matrix, connects us all. No barrier exists. It is all a matter of tuning. Each antenna broadcasts at its frequency. Before the signal is even sent, those tuned in, are already receiving it. Your reply will be swift.

The messenger who arrives is only bringing your message back to you. Don't begrudge him, revile him, or disparage him. Receive the message you have sent.

The grid moves all thought, feeling, attitude, around the globe outside of time. It has no barriers. Those with a grand view, an open landscape, and taller antenna, get the finer bandwidths, receiving the finer messages.

The message is only limited by the receiver. And it was limited by the message you sent. The field of messages is infinite, and the choice is yours.

The open channel broadcasts to all, but the high message is heard by few. The returning signal from those few, brings the messages from higher beings, and the music is celestial.

Ripples of I AM

"I am," he said, "forevermore."

"I am this, and I am that, and I am everywhere."

All of natures speaks "I am." Silently as the fish glides, loud as a lion's road, laughingly as a hyena.

I am is here, and there, and everywhere. All the lands express I am, silently. Here and there are different textures only. The land and sea know no here and there.

The wind howls about the globe, flickering in the leaves, and on the grass, breezily whispering, "I am. The wind knows neither here nor there.

The sea rises and falls, touching every land. It powerfully knows and shows, "I am." But the sea knows neither here nor there.

Children seem to know "I am." They're just not very good at knowing who. Imagination calls them into being anything they wish.

Who and where are just ripples on the surface of "I am."

Who's Looking

Who designed the way we imbibe stories? Who made the innocent hardware that writes the stories' bits to memory?

Who is the I that has to live the bits prescribed? Am I the organizing principle, the result of the script titled "ego?"

When I look at the hardware and software of who I am, who's looking?

When I think of revising the script, am I the ego?

If I don't like what the ego is doing, how it looks, and how it feels, who is the I that doesn't like what it sees? Who's the boss here anyway?

"Whooo, whooo, are you?" screeches the owl, as it flies off silently without answering.

Down the road the rain has stopped. The sun is glimmering through a rainbow. The beauty is self evident. No one sees the beauty, but it is there.

Stand and Wait

"He also serves who only stands and waits."
~ John Milton ~

Why is this one standing? Why is this one waiting? What is he waiting for?

One cannot stand patiently without hope. One cannot wait without faith. Hope and faith stand and wait because that which is unseen is being born. The unseen will soon become seen.

Standing and waiting in faith and hope brings forth things unseen into the dream, manifesting in ways unknown. You are the dreamer within the dream, the play within the play. And just as all that Is, came by word out of nothing, so you too create.

Those who stand and wait do not go out into the world to save it. The world is changed by what they have become, not by what they do. Doing is like praying in the public square, but standing and waiting is done in private.

Those standing and waiting, the awakened ones, know all is One -- all is consciousness.

What one places in consciousness himself has its appointed hour, its appointed time. It will come.

All that is, was brought out from nothing when the Word went out. The unseen became seen. Just so, he who stands and waits brings forth as well. He stands in waiting for the blossoms at their appointed hour.

The world reflects what you are. All your thoughts, memes, attitudes, and positions, create the world you live in. They produce after their kind. They are more powerful than armies.

The few who are cleansed in mind and thought, who stand and wait, serve well, for what they have changed within themselves is working, day and night, in unseen ways.

Receptive souls in every land, receive that helping hand; lifting them, and holding them in the light.

Consciousness creates and sends that which is held in mind, faster than light, faster than time. Though the sender seems to be standing and waiting only, the unseen is seen. He who is standing in hope and faith knows the bloom will manifest.

This world is a dream, and within the dream, we also are dreamers. We have freedom unknown, yet sleep. To awaken within the dream is enlightenment.

In this awakening, what we have become does all the work. Stand without moving, waiting, for the quickening is happening.

"Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind." ~ John Milton~

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Memes: Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

Creation, Freedom, and Responsibility

Freedom and responsibility are always in perfect balance. You can't escape it. Those who try to live with license find that others will take care of their freedom for them. Balance wins every time.

This creation was imagined into being. Freedom and responsibility came with the manifestation. For in the beginning was the Word, and it did not come back empty handed.

So where is the creator now? Is he just watching the show, set in motion like the pendulum of a clock? Or is he participating? Perhaps we are carrying the creation forward, creating consciously or unconsciously, as the case may be. For don't we carry the Christ consciousness within? Being those he created in his image.

Why do we take the creation to be only as the five senses portray it, forgetting our own creative power? Why do we accept the physical manifestation as the only reality? Why do we proceed to manipulate it physically, taking lots of energy? When did we forget the power of the Word?

We forget what we were imagined into existence. We forget that we are created in God's image. And then we go about creating unconsciously. We proceed to do with our hands what could be done with the internal Word.

We spend much time undoing what we create unconsciously with our thoughts. For
we have forgotten that we are the sons and daughters of the Great Creator. We create as well. And it is our freedom that allows us to create, project and manifest into this world we live in. When do we wake up?

God is not a passive creator, but an active one. He is creating through us day and night, and we do not know it. We just live with the effects, and wonder what the hell happened. We are not the unjust recipients of bad effects, but the unknowing creators and reapers of our thoughts.

We are not punished for our sins, but by our sins. As ye sew, so shall you reap. We look for the evidence in the world of our senses, and try to discern the cause in the physical world. But what we see is just the effect. We created it with our thoughts, or seemingly innocent thoughts.

We look in the physical world. But the cause is not there. The physical world is the world of results, not the cause. I once heard that if there was enough love in the world, there would be no accidents. Perhaps she was right.

Where is the cause? Where do the effects come from? It is in our own unconscious thoughts pouring out in a stream from us as that creates the effects. We are enormous creative beings, forming what we expereince every day. We are the energy that creates our world.

Since we do not recognize ourselves as the source, we look for the cause out there in the world. Being unconscious of own creations, we become experts in the blame game. We point our fingers across our living room, across town, and to our neighbors overseas. But the cause is closer than our breath, nearer than our chakras. It is our own unconscious stream of thought, imagining the world we live in 24/7 that is to blame.

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word is in us, and its creative power does not come back empty handed. It comes into manifestation full blown with great effect. We can point and we can blame, but it only points out how unconscious we really are.

If we knew our own freedom, do you think we would have wars? If we knew our own freedom, would we project hate all around us? Would we bring death and destruction upon ourselves and our neighbors? It is our very freedom that creates this world as we know it. Yet we do not own our freedom. For we do not know our freedom. We are unconscious of it.

Responsibility and freedom go together. We remain unconscious of our responsibility at our own peril. We must become conscious to raise the Christ Consciousness. We must take ownership for the world daily, as we create it, minute by minute.

When we wake up to what our thoughts create, and take responsibility for what we create, we can begin to question what we are doing. If we watch what is going on in our minds, and take into account that they are the creative Word, we will soon know why the world is the way it is. When we see it, we can change it. Then our freedom will be known.

The world does not have to be the way it is. The world does not have to be full of our hateful effects. We have the power to change it. Our freedom and responsibility are tied together hand and foot. Only as long as we refuse to acknowledge our responsibility, can we not see our freedom.

For the Word went out and it did not come back empty handed. No, it came back with all the effects. We are created in the image of God, and our Word goes out, consciously or unconsciously. Which will it be?

The Play within the Play

Creation is already finished because there is no time in eternity. There is no time in eternity because there is no beginning and no end.

All is in this moment now. The sequence of events is just a story. A story dependent on time. The story is created by limits of perception, and whatever assumptions you carry. This defines the range of your story.

It is all the same story, just different versions. The creation is finished. All possibilities are already made. What you pull from the hat is up to you.

The hologram contains itself in all its parts. The Big Magician and the little magician are mirror images. It is up to you to decide what piece you play. For it is all a play.

You are the stage and the actor, the stagehand, the set designer, and the costume director, the writer and the audience. What part don't you play?

It is a play within a play. The big stage and the little stage are one and the same. The yin and yang are all in balance. The entry and exits, stage right or left are provided. What entry, what exit will you take? What part will you play?

You audition every day with every thought and every feeling, writing the text that is yours to play. You the star. What did you write today?

For you will act the part of every thought and every feeling, if not today, tomorrow. And as the author of the play, you will reap the joy or pain of being in it, reading every line, acting every part.

The world's a stage, but we are not just actors in it. We are the play within a play. Having written our part, today, or yesterday, consciously or unconsciously, we will play it. Every entrance, every exit, we rehearsed it, and we will play it to the bitter end.

And if you do not like the play, and you do not like your part? And if you say, "What did I do?" Be patient. You will see the play from every angle, of every part, and from every member of the audience.

At play's end, on your last exit, your life will play in golden light, and you will know every assumption you ever held, every fleeting thought, every feeling, and what effect it had.

Now and forever your story will be told, revealed in eternal light.

I Subjective

I. The first cause. I, the awareness of infinite potential, the first cause of all things. I, awareness in which all things appear.

I am. I am that which is all things. I am all things seen and unseen. I am that.

I subjective, the only One, decree all that follows into form. And all that flows from me into consciousness, I am.

All that flows from I, says, I am. All created beings say I am. Yet all remain only the One I am. I, having created all that is, give my "I am" to each.

The great sages know I am. They do not crave for this I am, or that I am, but only I. Like Moses, they can say, "I am has sent me."

All that appears, I created. And all that appears, appears within my consciousness. Your interpretation is but an angle, a cut portion of what I have made, of what I am.

Everything that is seen appears in my consciousness. For I alone am all consciousness, whether it be abstract thought, or physical manifestation, I am its creator.

You who say, I am man, have forgotten who I am. The feast is on the table and you are satisfied with taking crumbs.

Do you wonder from where your longing comes? Do you? It comes from me, the I of you. For at your very heart, I am.

Before you were, I was. Before time, I was. Before now I was. In the future, I am. For I Am always. For me time does not exist.

Your longing is to know I. The I of your I am. Your longing is to know I deeper than this or that form. For your true I, is formless awareness. I am that Awareness.

As there is only one cause, all that follows is of the same substance. Like is attracted to like. So your longing is mine. Your longing is to return to I. The One.

Your longing is justified. I hid myself in you. And you could not have this longing if you could not find me.

I am I. And that I is hidden in you. I am hidden as not this, not that. For I am formless, and everywhere. Closer than your breath, nearer than your heart, I am.

Your longing is but the proof of my existence. Trust your longing. Trust the proof. You have run from your longing long enough. Know your longing is me. I am here.

Comparative Notes to Ron Marson's Observations

1. Ron: Loving 'nothing' paradoxically places me in the flow of life, serving the need of each new moment. Attending to 'nothing' serves up a beautiful, conscious, creative, joyful dream.

Maury: What is joyful, loving, of good report, why not? It's better than the alternative. If everything is a dream, then the dream is reality. What is realty other than what is? So, if all is a dream, then the dream is reality. If God is love, then that is the truth, and anything that strays from that is untruth.

2. Ron: 'Nothing' first appeared to come and go as peak experience. Now it appears as continuous background, always here. These are ways my mind experiences 'nothing' in translation. Perhaps it is better to say 'nothing' simply IS, neither continuous nor discontinuous.

Maury: I don't often have the experience of nothing. In an ecstatic state I experienced that I was not there, and because I was not there, I did not know how I could stay there and still have me? I had to let it go.

That state was absolutely ecstatic. I certainly saw no way to remain in that state and be in the world. I knew that I would not be able to work. There would be no reason. All was already complete. When the state left, I felt an emptiness, but not nothingness. I felt the absence of the Oneness, in which, I as Maury, was not.

What you describe as nothing is similar to what Nisargadatta spoke of, "the nothing that is everything." Nisargadatta said something along the lines of "When I am nothing, then I am everything, and when I am everything, there is love."

What I experience is either more or less of The Presence. When there is more presence, I feel good. When there is less Presence, I have doubt, uneasiness. I Am is complete presence.

3. Ron: My experience of self (mind) is of discontinuity, a blinking off and on within 'nothing'. 'Off' is free attention untranslated by mind. 'On' is conditioned attention mediated by mind. Off/on can be noticed cycling up to several times a second, and over much longer periods too. Free attention (off) of short duration it is more subtle than subtle. Free attention (off) of longer duration is flow ('doing' God's will).

Maury: I don't know about blinking on and off. I do know that years ago my mind was very, very busy. I wanted nothing more than to slow my thoughts down, but I could not. It was painful. I believe I was trying to outrun my painful emotions by out thinking them -- an impossible task. After rigorous Gestalt work, and the experience of the pain, my mind quited down. Now my mind is mostly quiet.

My meditation has always been reading. When I find a book I resonate with, it is a joy. As I've progressed, fewer and fewer works do that. The pathless path does have levels of understanding and awareness. The path is unique to each, and each must travel their own path. And yet, there is the Presence that travels with you, and beside you, until you realize that it is within, and never left.

4. Ron: Everything moves in and out of 'nothing'. Everything turns out to be the dream. 'Nothing' turns out to be reality. This is immediate and obvious anytime I STOP (turn off) and look.

Maury: Again, if everything is a dream, then the dream is reality. I am willing to agree that all is in the mind of God, his dream, his dreaming. And we are in God's dream. And as we are part of the hologram, we also are the Sons of God, and our dreams become reality as well. We are one and the same. The same substance, the same dream.

5. Ron: In 'nothing' (stopping, off) there is no story of I, no past, no present, no future, no opposites, no guilt, no fear, no experience, no becoming, no drama, no life, no death, no nothing. Everything still appears, moving in and out of 'nothing' (as quantum physicists say).

Maury: At some level we get the sense of no past, no future, nothing to do -- we are touching the stillness of the ground of being. If we are in that state permanently, ready to stay there, I am not sure that one would remain in the world for long. That merging would probably be the signal that we were done with this personal drama in apparent physical life. At that point, most would just leave the body as there would be nothing more here to do.

6. Ron: The way I seemingly choose to suffer these days is wanting more of 'nothing.' How sweet these never-ending antics of my mind, working to keep me safe and secure and separate.

Maury: I think the longing for God is not a chosen suffering. I don't think we purposely choose suffering. I think we suffer because we don't know how to let go and let God. It takes awhile to get there. I do think that we are born with the pull towards God. It's like we come here in a cloud of forgetting. It's designed that way.

The longing is inborn as we know we have forgotten something. But we don't know what we forgot. We don't even know where to look, or how to look. But, we can't help looking. It's like thirst. If we didn't need water, there wouldn't be thirst. If we didn't need food, there wouldn't be hunger. How is the longing of God any different? The longing is the proof!

As we find our unique path, we begin to know the way. Each person's path is different. Just as all roads lead to Rome, so all paths lead to God. We, each of us, just need to find our path, our way, and put all that we have into following that path. And when we get to the end, we find that we are the path, the truth and the light.

Conscious Creativity

I felt some conundrums immediately after writing the piece "The Reflective Universe. Just so you know, I had been reading Neville Goddard during the previous days. http://nevillegoddard.wwwhubs.com

I can only respond by saying that duality and non duality are aspects of the same One. Perhaps I am beyond ego to a great extent. I have less suffering than when I was completely identified with my ego. Either way, as long as I am on this earth, I have a body to deal with. It requires food, shelter, and some satisfaction of desires. With less ego, my desires may be less, but none the less, some remain.

So, being that there is a body here, and desires, why not the best possible existence? Even if this is a dream, an illusion, why not the best dream, the best illusion possible?

If this is all in the mind of God, and I am part of that mind, then like the Source, I also have the ability to create. In fact I can do nothing but create! The problem is whether I do it consciously or unconsciously.

The major issue for me is that the creating is continuous, God's creation, and by extension, my creation. What I believe tends to manifest, whether it is believed consciously, or believed unconsciously! Since the creation appears, created by both my conscious intention and unconscious intention, hadn't I better create to the best of my ability, rather than passively let what still is unconscious in me create willy nilly all kinds of crap.

Most of this world is created by our unconscious. Why? Because we are mostly unconscious! The creating doesn't stop because we're unconscious! It's there and it creates. In fact, I may not even know what all I project from my lack of consciousness.

I could of course, spend all my time trying to bring up everything in my unconscious. I could spend all my time observing the effects "out there" so I could see what is "in here."

But, it seems to me, that the easier way to affect my life in the world, would be to at least spend time creating what I do know to be good, know to be true, know to be kind, know to be helpful, etc. Why not actively create all the good I can, rather than passively accept what I may be creating unconsciously.

I think anyone that has gone deep spiritually, realizes that "all there is, is Consciousness." In the case of me and you, there is also the unconscious. The curse of all of us is the "unexamined life." To know thyself is the great commandment. I suspect though, that we could pursue this commandment all our life and not get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, I could regret what I was still creating due to what remains in my unconscious. But I feel that rather than being harsh with myself for what I still do not know about myself, my time would be better spent consciously creating what I have come to understand as good. "Whatever is kind, whatever is just, whatever is beautiful, think on these things."

I can know that all is One. Being human, I don't necessarily always behave with that knowing. I can know that duality and non duality are aspects of the One. But I can still behave as if duality was the only truth.

If God is the creative force of the universe, and I am made in God's image, then I too am a creator. I do not believe that God is an unconscious creator, and I don't want to be an unconscious creator either. Am I not more Godlike if I create? Am I not more Godlike if I consciously create?

Duality is a way of experiencing the world. Non duality is a way of experiencing the world. I experience both, mostly on the duality side. I do however know that both are experiences. Since I experience physically being here, and I can experience both good things and bad things, why not create the best I can? Why not choose all the conscious good that I can, to the best of my ability and understanding?

To passively accept whatever my unconscious creates doesn't seem like freedom. If I create my own world, consciously or unconsciously, I choose to do it consciously -- at least to the best of my ability, and with humility.

The Reflective Universe

The reality of our universe seems very static, unmovable, until we discover that our beliefs work at a deeper level than Newtonian Physics.

Beliefs can remain unconscious for years until life brings them into focus. Our life as it is, is a reflection, like a mirror when we walk in front of it. When we see what life is reflecting back to us, and we don't like it, it's a wakeup call.

We often don't know what we believe until they are reflected in the reality around us. Beliefs are abstract, often unconscious, and therefore not ponderable, until our actions bring them into sharp focus.

Perhaps Newtonian Physics is only the base structure on which we begin our journey. We learn the basics quickly. We see quickly the basic laws of gravity, and the simple concepts of up and down. We learn to manipulate physical objects with our hands.

The world changes slowly when we use force. Force uses a lot of physical effort. But when we learn that there is a deeper reality, which works at a deeper level than Newtonian Physics, we enter the Quantum world, a world of possibilities.

The world of possibilities begins with belief and imagination, with faith in things unseen. We learn to create with imagination and feeling, another world, alternate situations, with different results. Persistence in this moves the physical universe around like a play thing, a toy.

We are given a perfect example of the user's manual every night when we go to sleep. The dream state is very real and entirely believable. It is the perfect reminder every single night that a virtual world is possible and entirely believable. No different, while we are in it, than our waking state.

We wake up once every morning, but we forget to wake up during the day. Day to night is no different than birth and death. Only the length of time is different. Yet we open the manual every night, experience the truth it, and immediately forget it upon waking in the morning. Just as the dream state is virtual, so to is our so-called daytime life.

We simply don't wake up as easily from our daytime dreaming. We are still asleep in our daylight ours, and the days turn into a lifetime, with death the only waking from the dream.

But do we have to wait that long? Can we become awake in the dream, and like lucid dreaming, create a life that is not unconscious, not the program we inherited unconsciously from our parents, our family?

The world seems very real, and normal consciousness knows it takes a lot of energy to change it even a little bit.
But there is another power available if we wake up that takes a lot less effort. It is conscious imagination, conscious creativity. It works at the Quantum level, and has a power multitudes greater than Newtonian physics.

So, what is our responsibility when we begin to have glimpses into the actual state of affairs: to the virtual reality that is our life? Our responsibility is to wake up. And the only way to wake up is to use the manual.

Some people play with lucid dreaming. But this doesn't go far enough. If we are in a dream state, believing it entirely different from our sleeping dream state, then we are missing the message. We need to wake up to the fact that our daily life is a second dream state, and that the our nighttime dreaming is just a hint.

So our responsibility is to play with our waking dream state and learn the rules? There are a few.

1. Use your imagination to create an alternate picture for the universe to mirror. You don't have to discover and change all your old beliefs, just make new ones.

2. Get into and experience the feelings of newly imagined results. Make the feelings real.

3. Expect your new result. Relax, you do not need to know how the new results will come about. Just watch for the signs. They will appear everywhere, out of the blue.

4. Know that the mirror is flawless. As the signs increase, and the results increase, you know that the power of belief is real, and that the virtual world is yours.