Three States - One Reality

The waking state is the ego looking out and experiencing the world. For most of humanity the ego assumes that it is the doer, enjoying or suffering experience.

The dream state is the unconscious projecting its position via dream symbols and a story line. Dreams are different from the waking experience because the ego position is dormant, or only a partial player. The ego is not in charge of the dream state.

In deep dreamless sleep the ego is dormant and the unconscious is dormant. In this state there is true rest as the mind is absent.

Awareness is present in all these states. How do we know that awareness is present in deep sleep? There are two answers. One is that upon awakening one knows that one had deep restful sleep. The other answer, which seems to be the better one, is that if a loud noise or other external event occurs, one is immediately awake. If awareness were not present, one would not hear or feel the event and one would remain asleep.

When examined closely, it becomes clear that awareness is the background of all these states. Deep sleep is the best representation for awareness as potential; the blank screen on which the waking and dream states play out their scenes.

As soon as any experience appears in the waking or dream state, the object becomes conscious. Thus awareness becomes consciousness. Sometimes awareness is described as "pure consciousness."

Awareness is the primal fact, the holder of all potential experience, the vessel in which all consciousness is contained. Since anything one can experience is consciousness, one can say that "all is consciousness." Yet all consciousness is contained in, or dependent on, awareness.

For this reason, when one identifies with awareness, all experience is but a show, characters on a screen. One then wears the world lightly. The world is just a garment one lays down easily, without regret. It's like a movie. When the show is over, there is no dismay at leaving the theater.

Awareness is primary. That is what one is. Awareness doesn't suffer. Examine how one knows experience and see if you are not awareness. "That thou art. Now you have become peace.

Thinking is a Thorny Issue.

Thinking is a thorny issue. Sometimes our thinking drives us crazy. Sometimes we like our thoughts - enjoy them immensely. When thoughts are driving us crazy we want to be rid of them, but that does not seem to be possible. If we could control our thoughts we might come to like them very much. But they seem to have the run of the house, "My thoughts ran away with me."

If one accidentally steps on a thorn and it pierces deeply into your flesh, it hurts. You hate the thorn and its effect. But if there is nothing available but more thorns, you use another thorn to remove the first one. This metaphor speaks to the problem of thought.

Thought is a thorn when it has its way, worrying and tormenting. But, like using a thorn to remove a thorn, right thought, true thought, removes worries and fears. Tormenting thought can be removed by true thought. Untrue thoughts are the enemy, not thought per se.

True thoughts, used as pointers, remove untrue thought. True thoughts can be discovered because they bring peace. True thought brings light into the dark. The untrue is then seen as the dark that light disperses.

True thoughts dismantle false thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions. The mountain of untrue thoughts which seemed insurmountable begins to dissipate. At some point, the mountain is no more. One beholds few or no thoughts. There comes a time when even true thoughts are no longer needed.

There is only peace and silence as all that is.  

The problem of first cause

Obviously the big bang does not answer the question of first cause. The big bang is just the evidence perceivable to science -- the first measurable evidence of a beginning.

There must be an energy that is not measurable currently by science. That energy is that which spiritual traditions call the "Unmanifest." As unmanifested, it is outside of time. A reality that does not have a beginning, or an end.

For example, in the experiments where paired particles are separated by thousands of miles, a change in the spin of one particle is immediately reflected in the spin of its separated twin. This happens faster than the speed of light. Faster than any measurable time.

So we have evidence of power, or energy, that is not currently measurable by science. That this energy is not perceivable by science does not equal its non existence.

This unmanifested power is the first cause. Spiritual traditions have called it God. Although difficult to describe in linear terms, it is knowable. The mystics of all ages have proclaimed intimate knowledge of this power. It is the underlying reality, the first cause of all that exists.

The Eastern spiritual traditions have called the manifest world "Maya," which is described as illusion, or the apparently real. It does exist, it is measurable, but it is not the ultimate reality.

If you define reality as that which never changes, one can begin to see it as the screen on which everything appears. Reality is the unchanging screen and first cause of all that apparently exists. The operating principle for the screen is awareness. That awareness allows anything and everything to be experienced, or known. What we are aware of we call consciousness.

The conclusion is that unmanifested source, call it God, is the first and only cause. Awareness is the knowing principle of source which underlies all knowing. Science itself knows only via awareness, and therefore must bow to the reality of the unchanging unmanifest source as the ultimate reality.

Who is Hiding the Light

Who is hiding the light? You are - with your thoughts, your feelings, your prejudices, your likes and dislikes. You are the clouds hiding the sun.

You could think of clouds as being opinions, emotions, reactivity. These impositions form the clouds of ignorance that hide the light.

The light is love, for it accepts all things. It shines on the so-called good, and the so-called bad alike. It doesn't discriminate.

But you discriminate. You judge. You don't accept. You hide the light with your personal drama, forming the clouds that obscure the light.

No one is hiding the light from you. The clouds are of your own making. The clouds are nothing but your own ignorance, obscuring the light.

Ignorance is simply putting your own spin on things. And the clouds will persist as long you insist on maintaining your own spin on things.

But the world is not here to be according to your likes and dislikes. It is what it is. The best you can do is clear away your ignorance by stepping aside.

The light is simply Awareness. You, as a body-mind, are but a reflecting focal point of that awareness. And you are experiencing according to your likes and dislikes.

Ignorance will keep you in the darkness as long as you insist on believing things should be as you expect. But sun is shinning.

The light is Awareness. It has the potential to experience any and all things. Any like or dislike, any emotion, good or bad, all is fodder for the light.

Enough suffering will get you to take a look at why the clouds are forming, and why they remain. Do you ever wonder what would remove them?

Knowledge of who, or rather what,  you really are, will dissipate the clouds. As Awareness, you know the body-mind, but as Awareness, you are not the body-mind.

As Awareness, I experience the body-mind, but I am not the body-mind. The body-mind is an appearance only. From this knowledge dispassion arises, and freedom is known.

When you see that you are not the body-mind, but pure Awareness itself, the clouds will dissapate. The light will shine, as it always has, And you are free.

Not of This World

How well I do in the world and how contented I am, has nothing to do with the world at all. For the world is an effect, the result of a dream. What goes on in here, the silence creates. The world is but an out-picturing of choices made.

A contentment covers all, not touched by what appears. And what seems uncalled for, really was called. I would have known it, had I been paying attention. A lesson to be learned.

Where I am unconscious, still I create. Any suffering is to be listened to. How did I call it into being? From the silence, where all things originate.

We may look for cause and effect here, but it comes from there.

I do not live in the same world as you, because we see different, and call out different. Awareness brings light, and with it, what was called is seen. It is all effect. I know not to turn away.

Contentment seems uncaused. It is not of this world. It came from intention, surrender, and manifests here. How sweet to see myself here, reflected in the mirror.

The Natural State

"I determine nothing; I do not comprehend things; I suspend judgment; I examine." In his essays he compared primitive society to civilized society and found that natural society surpasses what man has wrought in many respects, that "pre-civilized man is possessed of natural virtues which civilization has obscured, perverted, or destroyed ..."

~Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Many call enlightenment "The Natural State." We might say that the natural state is the state prior to the original sin, which was the knowledge of Good and Evil, or judgment. To judge without suspending belief even for a moment, is the royal road to your own private mental prison.

The sages speak of discernment, not of judgment or condemnation. To see without judgment opens vast vistas of uncharted territory. To be in that open space is a joy, a relief, a contentment.

Discernment enables a quality of being which is able to grasp and comprehend that which is obscure. That which is obscure, has simply been covered up. It would be helpful to take care with our thoughts, looking at them from a space that suspends judgment. It is a means of seeing the truth.

The "Natural State" implies something that was always there -- before it got covered up.

The human condition seems to be one in which we are born into obscuration, the original error, a process of judgment which quickly veils the Natural State. Our judgments may help the body survive, but it is the royal road to suffering.

If we could take every act of perceiving and hold it without judgment, we might be able to discern what is usually missed. Suspending our own prejudices opens a door to pristine territory.

Our lack of discernment leads to disastrous choices. At minimum it leads to an unexamined life. Socrates said "An unexamined life is not worth living." Yet the Natural State is eternal and the fear of death is undone.

A lack of discernment may result in the inability to know a true friend -- to be a true friend to ourself. A lack of discernment leads to the failure to see who we really are. Who among us knows the Natural State?

Enlightenment is the Natural State. It can only be discovered. It is not new, it is not alien. That is why when the Natural State occurs, it is known as coming home.

 

Surrender Leaves Nothing But Love

This body is here and I am well aware of it, but I am not this body. I have a body. It is not the same body I had years ago, so it is obvious that it is not who I am.

And this personality that I seem to be stuck with is here, but it is not who I am. It used to be different, not so subtle, more critical, and not as forgiving as it is now - both of self and others.

No matter where I look I don't seem to be able to pinpoint myself. Where am I but everywhere?

No perfection in this bodymind from the human perspective, yet perfection is here and all around.

Surrender leaves nothing but love. Can't you feel it?

Abide as yourself

As a particular body-mind expressing yourself at the highest level of truth currently known, you serve the world. You do not need to go on adventures to find a better place to express yourself. Right here, right now is good enough.

At the highest expression of consciousness you are capable, be yourself now, here, where you are, This is all you need do. Going around anxiously trying to change the world abruptly expresses disgrace.

Wherever you find yourself, it is enough to be love and peace there. You do not need to find a different place where you think you are needed more. You will only create drama. Abide in yourself, as you are, you are already one with all.

Loving Light

The world is full of sleepers and dreamers, and the dream seems real, even in waking life.

The drama plays, the egos whirl, the winds howl and wind chimes sound.

While the dreamers dream their walking sleep, you take a look behind the curtain and there is only you, only love.

All the dreams and all the fuss were only to this end. To awaken love and go out to play.

This is the Great School of the Blind. It teaches light.

The darkness is not a substance, but only the lack of light. It immediately gives way to light, for darkness has no power. It is only the absence of light.

In the presence of love there is no darkness, but only light. And the light is awake, and alive, and present when the dreaming stops.

The awakened one walks always in the light, for wherever he travels, love is there. Darkness he sees, but does not take seriously.

The dream is in the dark, but love is in the light. So love does not fear, and it does not hide.

Being the love and being the light is all that is asked. Waking is all it takes.

Spiritual Boot Camp

There is a continual dieing until dead. We are not talking about death of the body, but the death of ego, persona -- the little self that wasn't, can't be, and isn't.

As that little self dies it leaves a trail of dusty memories that seem like fantasies, a trail of habits that seem unusable, a trail of something that used to be that just can't be found anymore.

When the little self is seen through as dust glittering under the lamp shade light, what signifies the dust? What causes are there to be examined and analyzed?

Change the world? Save the world? To what end? If this is a training ground, and not a Monopoly game, is it not perfect already?

If this is where we come to evolve, to find meaning in apparent chaos, is this not the perfect place? If we are here to choose amongst unknown results by doing the right thing, is this not perfection in action?

Existential angst is part of the course. At twenty, it has its place -- at forty-five, still being there is a travesty. It is but a right of passage.

This world was never meant to satisfy. It is only a pointer, pointing beyond itself. It points to spirit, to the unmanifest, to awareness. It requires the evolution consciousness; to rising above effects. 

As wisdom teaches, we are responsible for the effort, not  the result. That leaves only the moral high ground, which we must choose, and choose again.

We save the world only by changing ourselves. Do not discount the effect of doing the inner work. The work of each of us is to become what we want the world to be. The world does not change until we do.

We are the evolution of consciousness. The world is our own projection and the necessary change is inside, not outside. The perfection of our inner world is the only hope to a brighter future. The world need not change, but each of us is responsible for ours.

Does the world seem hard? It was meant to be that way. It points beyond itself, and that beyond resides in you. Don't look out there, it is only a reflection of in here.

The world is perfect as it is -- boot camp for the evolution of consciousness. You are the only one required to graduate. Look within and all that need be changed is there.

Remaining Knots - Kundalini

Dear Anonymous,

Funny that you should ask. Some symptoms remain. Just lately the nerves in my right arm were inflamed and causing problems, mostly at night. It seems to run along the nerves inside the muscle and surfaces in small sores. Could be kundalini, but it could also be too much use of the mouse at work. Anyone's guess.

I continue to have a feeling of fullness, pressure, and fogginess in my head. It is as if I can feel my brain physically in my skull. It feels like there is much going on physically, but no thinking. The physical reaction to the pressure in my head leads to resistance and therefore a stiff neck. Going to the Chiropractor every couple weeks helps a lot.

When spiritual work is intense, the intent is conscious, but all that is being worked on may not be. This may be why my dreams have been waking me up and becoming conscious. I have related some of them to a wonderful madman who remembers my dreams from thirty years ago. To him they are dreams of individuation. My experience is that there is almost no one here at all.

The ongoing spirit work leaves little left for engagement with the world. I go to work every day and function well, but it has little meaning. There is a physical tiredness. Dealing with the world is a drag and contributes to feeling tired. Of course, this could be just getting older.

It seems that what people say is coming from a distance, through a veil. Not just like being hard of hearing, but as if they are speaking in some other language that I am unfamiliar with. Makes me feel like I am slow to respond.

Having no expectations seems to exacerbate this.
No other knots, or symptoms that I am really aware of.

I have not written on my my blog in several months as there seems nothing to say. Opinions don't matter. The truth is already present and nothing is really happening anyway.

My mind is silent. So silent, if I didn't have a physical body, I wouldn't know I was here. The silence is full, like completeness that has already happened. There is no useful pursuit of meaning in the world.

As far as gurus go. I have some correspondence with several. All are my teachers. The most profound for me are the works of Dr. David Hawkins. I can go back to his books, "The Eye of the I," and "I: Reality and Subjectivity repeatedly. A few pages is enough to unconsciously contemplate during an entire day, or even a week. I have met Dr. Hawkins and he is the genuine article.

I have no compunction to write at all. Responding to a question seems appropriate. God bless.

The Seekers Last Prayer

What is left are the tattered rags of a flag at half mast. Nothing left but the dregs from the bottom of the barrel.

The old wine has long been drained. This vessel is empty, needing to be refilled.

There is no will left to cross over. The other side is only dimly in view. A world away. Only grace will do.

Fill this empty vessel with new wine. Fill it to the brim with divine fuel. Let it overflow.

Stuff this newly filled vessel with these tattered rags. Shake this bottle and soak these rags.

Light this broken hearted Molotov cocktail and burn it with your love. Let divine light burn brightly evermore.

Free as a Bird

As long as the ego, the person, is in the foreground, free will appears to be there. For a person, "free will" is highly prized, and regarded as essential.

I remember a few years ago, while out to lunch with a couple of associates, having a conversation about free will. I was explaining that from my personal investigation, there was none. Well, you can imagine, this did not go over well.

In fact, the other two could not even believe that I was serious. "How could you not believe in free will," they said.

One of them, quite seriously said, "If I thought I had no "free will" I would get a gun and shoot myself."

I replied, "You wouldn't even be able to stop yourself because your ego couldn't abide the thought. Where is your freedom in that?"

My two associates just shook their heads and looked at me as if I was from another planet.

I knew of course, that from the position of a normal person, to not believe in "free will" was absurd. If you don't believe in free will, how can you be a separate person?

No "free will" pretty much assures that one is part of a whole, a spoke in a wheel, a cog in a giant machine. The ego is not going to accept that.

It didn't bother me not having free will. In fact, I was at peace with this position because I was committed to truth. My conclusion that there was no free will was arrived at through painstaking consideration and contemplation.

I can agree that on first realizing that there was no free will, there was period of angst and a long period of adjustment. To be sure, if one's meaning is tied to being a person, free will is essential. Discovering that you have none is a rather existential moment. Loss of meaning is not only possible, but highly likely.

In time, however, instead of seeing myself as a little being with no free will, living out a proscribed life, I came to see that I was bigger than a little body, and a little mind.

I came to see that if I had no free will, no independence, no choice, then I must be part of, or at one with, something much larger. How could I be separate from that?

On examination I could see that the larger self could be nothing but the whole thing. If there were no separate independent parts, everything was an integral part of the whole.

The only thing left to do was to discover what embraces the whole world? Or, another way to look at it, what is the world made of?  What perceives everything, from any angle, from any position? Can it be anything other than conscious awareness?

That which creates the universe and perceives it does not have an issue with bondage or freedom because it is everything. It enjoys the varied perceptions from the many beings it creates.

That which is everything must certainly enjoy the varied egoic positions and viewpoints of each human being. But, it is not limited by any particular form, perception, or egoic pattern.

As I am That, freedom or bondage is not an issue. I am That, which is everything, free as a bird, a tree, a star, a universe.

Always That

Everything you experience is That. To go looking for an experience of the Self has to be self defeating because you cannot find what you already are. You cannot experience anything that is not the Self, so where can you go to find it? What is really required is recognition, often called realization.

Realization is an understanding, and the beauty of this understanding, is that you don't have to be experiencing oneness or bliss to know who you are. This is why Vedanta is considered knowledge, and why it is the knowledge that ends the search.

Of course, if you want to pursue experience, you can find ones that are blissful and unitary. Experiences of mystical union, however short, can have profound effects. There is probably nothing that feels better than the ecstasy of the experience of oneness. These experiences, however wonderful, may not lead to understanding.

To chase after the experience of oneness can be frustrating, because, as an experience, it doesn't last. And if you make the error that the experience of oneness is enlightenment, you will set yourself up for a lifetime of searching, because no experience lasts.

Experiences of oneness, bliss, and ecstasy can, however, point to understanding. They become part of your understanding. They can contribute to the knowledge you need to understand who you are. It is a boon to experience oneness, as opposed to the limited experience we typically have.

When the experience of oneness is gone, understanding is what keeps you on an even keel. What really helps is firm conviction and sureness as to our real being. The knowledge of our actual beingness as Awareness. One with all that is.

Knowing oneself as Awareness keeps one from continually looking for a particular experience. With understanding, one doesn't mind the particular experiences of a limited human form. They are just an experience, not who you are.

Awareness sees through many forms, and experiences what is particular to that form. Awareness, as John Doe, picks up the qualities and positions that make up John Doe. This is experience, and it may feel limited, but it is not who you are.

To get beyond limitation requires understanding. It requires an understanding that is deep and broad, seeing that the whole world is but a myriad of local focal points superimposed on oneness. Only understanding will take you beyond experience.

The understanding is twofold. The first is to see that everything is a form of the One. The second is to see that you are That One. Seeing this is understanding.

Being Awareness

Interestingly, being awareness is a big picture, yet it does not deny the body, nor the mind. The bodymind simply recedes into the background, a shift in perspective, a change of gestalt.

Knowing one is awareness does not alter the presence of a body, nor personality. So, one may say that as awareness I do not suffer, yet the body, the personality may still do so.

Granted, from the perspective of awareness, the bodymind seems to be at a distance; not as close or as personal as it once was. So, suffering may be lessened as identity does not reside with it.

The bodymind does not disappear, yet in some respects the presence of it may be more noticeable because one is able to see it more objectively, more dispassionately.

When the bodymind becomes an object in the field, just as other objects in the field, one is aware of it as any object, although of course, it has greater sublety.

Obviously, awareness allows anything in the field to appear. Anything may happen. The bodymind will still like or dislike according to its preferences, but the preferences will have less hold.

As awareness, the demands of the bodymind certainly have less drive. The bodymind may well be amazed at the lack of drive -- gone, like a leaf in the fall, dropping from a tree.

As awareness, the distinction between needs and desires is greatly increased. The balance of needs versus desires changes in favor of a few simple needs. Desires drop as if on their own. They are seen to be unable to satisfy.

Awareness, being what it is, is good at just observing. It has little to say. Egos playing, appear to be in a dream, and who can interfere with other's dreams? It becomes easy to be silent. It's like observing a joke that no one gets.

Awareness doesn't hold on to others, and others can become extremely irritated when one doesn't seem to hold on to them as they expect. They may even suspect that one is cold.

There is no going back. Awareness, once realized, cannot be let go. It is basic, like dirt. Basic, because one already is that. It is only a realization, a waking up.