What Is The Observer

The observer is always present. It is the very screen the mind is projected on. But who notices the movie screen? It takes some subtle looking and contemplating to see that awareness is the background of everything. It is hard to see because it doesn't judge, and it isn't mind content. Like the movie screen, whatever is projected on it, it reveals. It doesn't have thoughts about the movie, it just reveals the content. If you truly stand as awareness you can discover that which is unconditional. There's a lot of freedom in that.

Let the Magic Pass

While the illusory images do pass, while they last they do exist. Since all existence is an expression of that which is, we cannot dismiss it. Enjoy it while it lasts; while your bodymind lasts. Just keep in mind that all coming and going is in you, and that existence itself is beyond coming and going. 

Thought Is Not The Problem

Some have said "You cannot use thought to resolve your problems in life; it has created them." It is also said that you have to kill thought to be enlightened. I don't find any validity in such statements, and I don't think not thinking will make you enlightened.

No. It is not thought that is the problem. Granted, there are terrible thoughts and noble thoughts. The problem is ignorance of your true nature. Advaita Vedanta has laid the problem out beautifully and provided the solution. Advaita uses words to remove ignorance and replace it with knowledge. The words of Advaita Vedanta, nonduality, have lessened the suffering of many. It uses words skillfully, which leads to knowledge which removes ignorance. Contemplation by the intellect is one of the greatest gifts we have. Advaita is the best example of this that I have ever encountered.

Realization & Individual Expression

It has been shown that in countries that have successfully implemented policies that promote equal gender opportunities, the differences between men and women flourish. This was an unexpected result and therefore additional surveys were conducted which verified the results. In other words, the natural interests and attributes of gender were free to arise and express.

It seems to me that the same can be said for awakening/realization. When someone realizes their true Self, and therefore have more internal freedom, the individuality of the realizer flowers.

In both cases (equal gender opportunity and realization), personal and gender expression flourishes.

It seems paradoxical that realization of the "impersonal Self" releases individual expressiveness. It is similar to the effect that equal opportunity for male and female persons increases gender differences.

The French have the expression, "vive la difference." Maybe they were on to something. Freedom brings out the best in us, and lets us be different. It is the realization of our oneness that gives us the freedom to be ourselves. We are not better than another, ultimately, just different.

It seems beautiful to me that freedom releases individuality and gender to express more naturally.

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Gender Differences Enhanced

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-times-are-good-the-gender-gap-grows/


https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/the-more-gender-equality-the-fewer-women-in-stem/553592/

Automatic Value Judgements

The best definition of emotions is that they are "automatic value judgements." This definition clearly shows that judgements picked up in childhood, school, and church, have become automatic. This is conditioning 101. If you then decide that all your emotions are valid, you will never be clear and never free. Your whole life will be a series of reactions with no path out.

Realization for Free

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." I have found that this is perfectly true. I would add that a personal teacher is not necessary. It is helpful I am sure. My search was intense, but I was also a householder, so I did not go on retreats. I never felt I needed a personal spiritual teacher. I always felt that the seeking was guiding me and the light was in me. I needed to search, and I did. But I never felt I had to have a personal teacher. I needed to know what they said, how they lived, what they did, but this was available in books. I did spend a lot of money on books and it was very rewarding. A book could be read and reread many times. I studied many great teachers. When the Internet arrived I got on forums. Sometimes a teacher would be reading the forums and I had several jump in and send me personal emails suggesting a book I was ready for. This is how I came to read Nisargadatta before he was well known. When I tuned in and resonated with a book by a great teacher, I felt no separation. Reading them to me was like being there. When truth resonated, it filled my soul with joy, peace, and sometimes teachers. I remember reading Nisargadatta. He was there in the chair with me. When I read about his funeral there were tears streaming down my cheeks. Yet he had died years before. Now we have the Internet and youtube. When I watch a batgap video, it is as if I am in the room with them. I feel no separation. How could there be? If they are speaking truth and I am attuned to truth, it will resonate. I have been to several lectures by David Hawkins. Most were free, but I did pay to go to an all day conference in Sedona to hear him. I did not get more out of the personal presence than I did out of his books. If I have enjoyed a book by a current teacher I have never found that if I emailed them I did not get a response. I have called several and just talked. I did not pay to talk, and I have not felt inclined to talk to spiritual teachers that charge. I am not against a popular teacher charging. But there are teachers with just as much truth that do not.

The energy of truth is not limited by proximity to a body. Truth is everywhere and unlimited. If the text you are reading is true, or the video is full of truth, and you are open, truth will resonate in you and rain on you with grace. Bottom line. I don't think as a spiritual person, a seeker, that we can complain. There is so much that is free, you couldn't read it all! There are youtube videos by and about all the great teachers. If a person's search is genuine, there is enough available free spiritual material to gain the insight you need. Because there is also a lot of BS out there, you will learn discernment. If you are serious, that discernment will develop and you will not be led astray. We will get out of our search what we put into it. Period.

Hope

Hope is a pointer that pain and suffering is not all there is. Hope tells us there is something we are missing. Hope tells us that what is missing can be found. In the end, we do find that what we are searching for is what we are, but it is hope that leads us down the path. It was always hope that allowed me to feel my pain, which I was avoiding. So hope gave me the strength to feel my pain and let it go. The other side is beautiful.

True Knowledge

It seems to me the problem is that so many people are not happy with their current experience of life.  If so many weren't suffering in their current experience, teachers wouldn't have an audience. Bad teachers thrive because so many are longing for something outside their current experience and they have no clue what the problem is.

We tend to live our lives based on experience. It does not register with most that their experience would change if they had the knowledge and understanding of their true position, ie, as the Self.

Teachers that teach experience as the way to truth will probably keep students for a lifetime. At least until they see they will never have the experience being espoused. Knowledge however, can be taught, and knowledge pursued can be gained. Experience tells us something is missing. Experience tells us there is something more. But, it is understanding that sets us free.

Experience comes and goes, but true knowledge lasts forever. In other words, the right understanding will deliver the experience of peace and satisfaction. But chasing experience is a dead end. 

Faith Is Not Necessary

The intuition that God is, and is all, is because the Absolute is all there is. How could faith be necessary? Thirst tells us there is water. Hunger tells us there is food. Longing for the Absolute tells us God is.

Desirelessness

The search for enlightenment is not a search for desirelessness. Dharma is not opposed to the desire for liberation. In fact, the desire for liberation needs to be a burning desire. Enlightenment does convey a strong sense of satisfaction and peace resulting in a lessening of desires. However, killing desires is not the prescription for enlightenment. In the spiritual world the effects of Realization are often misinterpreted as the cause. Whatever the practice or method, the goal is to see that the essence of the person is non different from the essence of the universe. With identification with the Absolute, the personal self recedes into the background. The absolute, experienced as presence awareness, existence without end, has a sense of satisfaction that is complete. With this understanding, desires are less, and conditioning begins to unravel in the pure light.