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.

Buddha Mind

That we are all "Buddha Mind" is true. Many understand this intellectually, but have not felt the touch of "Buddha Mind?"

The touch of that is Satori, it is an "Aha," experience. It is subjective, for there is only One. The touch of that aha is a world of difference from the mere mental knowledge of that.

The aha is a direct knowing, a unitive experience of oneness with Buddha mind though no more in the Buddha Mind than before. With aha, one is no longer just in it, but one with it.

While knowledge about is a beginning, joining is the goal. Understanding with the mind, is just an itch. The bitten will scratch until there is direct knowing.

What seekers are seeking is not just intellectual understanding. They sense that. The true teacher knows that intellectual understanding is not enough.

It may be easy for a teacher to say, "If you would just stop seeking, you would be free." Yet there are thousands who do not search, they don't know, and they do not itch. The student knows that these do not have what is being sought .

Those not seeking may be divided into two camps: those who don't know that seeking exists, and those who have sought and found. The first group doesn't know that they don't know and does't care. The second group knows that that they know.

Students are not searching for those who don't know that they don't know, and never looked. Students are looking for the ones who have sought and found.

Seeking seems to be a precursor to Buddha Mind. Recall that Jesus said, "Seek and you will find." And Nisargadatta said, "Be earnest."

The student is looking for the rare ones who know they know. There is something intuitively felt around those who know that is not experienced around others. In the end having sought, or not sought, all are in Buddha Mind. But some know and experience that, the rest do not.

It is the direct, subjective, unitive experience that establishes the knower. Yet this does not change the fact that those who never sought, and never found, are also in Buddha Mind.

Metaphorically, a fish that doesn't know he lives in water cannot help. The fish that knows he is in water can. Most of us are like fish, not knowing; not knowing what water is. The herd follows itself just fine.

The stragglers, those outside the school, know they are in water, and before they follow the school, they want to know, "What is this water I find myself in?

The blind man and the sighted man see differently, yet both are in the same physical world.

All men are in Buddha Mind. Most function just fine, but few are they that know they are home.

Only the one who has asked will find. Only the one who has found can teach.

No Mind the Tree

Who or what is now thinking about "No mind?" Do you need to think about "No mind?" Do you get to "No mind," by thinking about "No mind?"

Is a tree, a tree, before you label it? Is it separate from the ground, or just a emanation from the ground? Do Its roots not go deep into the earth, and its branches reach for the sun?

How separate is the tree from the sun, when that which was sun a minute ago is now absorbed in the leaf? Is not the universe joined from sun to tree by streaming ribbons of light? Father sun, mother earth.

Is the leaf separate from the branch, the tree? When it falls, is it separate then? When the ground absorbs it, is it separate then? It sprang from the earth, did it not?

Perhaps we, and trees, are just aspects of the Oneness: fractal appearances in the energy field, particles in the wave of light.

This body is so earth! I cannot live without taking in earth air many times a minute, and earth water every day. So how separate am I?

This body is just one part of the unending flow of light. An unending whole. A picture fractal, a flow, leaving and returning into One.

I cannot be separate except in mind. Is it not my senses, my labeling, my interpretation, that separates? This labeling objectifies, and separates, and personalizes what is one.

Can you see the flow? From sun to tree. From earth to tree. From tree to fruit. From fruit to you. One unending, unrestricted, flow of light, forming this, then that, in one Self reflecting connected stream.

Surrendering to this Oneness is the only way to no mind."

Enlightenment Is Like Thirst

Most in whom awakening is acknowledged will agree that there are universal, fundamental similarities. And there is much acknowledgment that some who attained awakening were corrupted by power.

Some newly awakened rant and rave that there is no such thing as enlightenment, because the awakening exposes the non separateness of the individual. And yet, one easily sees that enlightened words come from one "apparent' person, yet not from the rest of humanity. This makes it rather difficult for the common man to understand.

Perhaps a distinction needs to be made regarding gurus speaking of their impersonal condition, and the person seen speaking. For what is fact for the observer, there is a person there, despite whatever protests the guru may made. Even the guru must admit that there is a body the needs to eat, sleep, and have shelter.

If you define a guru as someone whose always blissed out, whose eyes glow with a faraway look, who doesn't have fear, and leaves ashes on objects he touches, we've certainly lost our way. If we had enough people fall into this condition we'd have a highly dysfunctional society, covered in ash, waiting to die out.

For the rest, for making it clear that although their basic experience is of non separation, impersonal experience, that there is in fact

May years ago I wrote a benchmark of guruship. It was picked up and placed on several major Hindu sites, so it must have had some universal application. You can verify this by clicking on these links. It is below.

Enlightenment experienced in a person cannot stay in the blissed out, ecstatic condition very easily and survive. In the West in particular you can end up in a mental institution, as did Robert Persig, the author of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He is fine now, enlightened, but certainly not dysfunctional.

Ramana Maharshi didn't speak for several years, and was near death when people started taking care of him. That does happen. But that is not the process for all gurus.

Is enlightenment just an idea, or does it have some basis in fact, in experience. Just like thirst, it can be spoken of, it can be experienced, but can you find it anywhere?

Purpose Driven Life

We are often very purpose driven. We set goals, benchmarks, keys for success. This is all based on a judgment system. As you may recall, Jesus asked that we not judge.

As long as we believe that we are an individual, we will have goals, agendas, beliefs to coordinate our lives to. And there is certainly a place for this, especially in the early part of our lives. We need to discover what this body is and how it functions. We need to develop our small self, and come to know our likes, dislikes, and abilities.

If our conditioning has been severe, and unhealthy, therapy may be a good avenue of endeavor, for a while. It's pretty hard to see clearly, to feel clearly, when one is very neurotic. A little cleanup is in order.

One benefit that may ensue, if therapy is successful, is that we come to clearly see that we can change, and how difficult that is. We may also come to see that which we cannot change, and come to terms with those aspects of ourselves.

Once we have established that we can change, it may dawn on one that who we are is not static. Our bodies may be static in form, but our mind is a program, and programs can change.

If our program, our conditioning, our idea of ourself can change, then who we are as a person is not substantive, but more like ephemeral image. How tightly we hold on to this image may determine how much suffering we bring to our life experience.

With the knowledge of our changing personal self, further insight might become natural. Here comes the great inquiry, "Who am I?" This is the end game.

When the person is examined deeply enough, we may not even call it a who, but a what. What is this thing? And who is looking at it? If this is pursued long enough, the who that you think you are dissolves into an ephemeral, ghostlike thing. You use it to move about the world, and function, but it is no longer who you are.

So, now that you are looking from the outside at the illusory self, and you know that that self is something you see and use, much like any other tool, who are you?

You can only be that Awareness that is looking. It uses your body/mind and all other body/minds for it's own reasons. On what grounds then is the individual self going to have its own purpose driven life? Perhaps only as a soul, with Karma delineating the choices. Still, ultimately, The One.

The Means is Now

The means is now, and the result is now. There is no future in which the result bears fruit. The result is now, and always is.

"The end justifies the means," is a thoroughly arrogant statement. The results have always been disastrous. In this scenario anything can be justified, and anything justified in this manner will come home to roost.

It seems far more insightful to say that "The means you use become the result." And the result is now, and now, and now. You can't escape the means.

As you go about your day, consider the means. And if love, kindness, and patience, are the means you use, your life will reflect it. Now.

How to Improve Your Ego

There is one sure way to develop your ego: refuse love. Yes, it is really that simple.

As one matures spiritually and looks back upon one's life, it readily becomes apparent that the simple refusal of love was the simplest, the most expedient way to juice the ego, to bolster it, to make it real.

But, of course, as the years go by one sees all the times love was offered and refused. And what was the purpose of that refusal? Who did you put down in that refusal? Who did you aggrandize? Yourself of course.

The simple practice of observing yourself throughout the day as you refuse love can really open one's eyes. For we are surrounded by love, and only in refusing to see can we avoid it.

So what shall it be today? Love or ego?

The Call of the Future

Since many of us know and feel the call of the future, can we then also deny destiny? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, the future is not set in stone. The future is a direction, a projectory.

It is Karma that set the directory, the trajectory, and it is only our choices in this lifetime that alter its course. Our direction is like North. There are a lot of paths North, or South, East or West.

All rivers run to the sea. All souls are headed home, we just don't know when. But our previous lives have set the tone, the power, and accuracy of the direction.

And that's where resonance comes in. Our path, our destiny is the result of previous lives, of previous choices. And this determines resonance. For when we enter this world, our level of consciouness is already there. What we resonate with in the Akashic field, the nonlocal, information arena, in which we are all immersed, is already set.

Like a fish in water, we cannot escape the field. It is everywhere present, everywhere available, knowing every thought, every feeling, every act.

The level of our consciousness, like the tuner of a radio, the crystal, set to a certain wavelength, tunes us to and directs us on our path.

The level of our tuner attracts everything in that field. It will bring us habits, attitudes, friends and foes. The resonance with all that matches our notch on the tuner sets our path.

So we bring with us trails of glory, and trails of pain. Our past pushes and our future pulls, and we are the tension, riding on the wave.

Due to the field we see, because that is what we are tuned to, choices arise. And how we choose makes all the difference.

So we don't need to claim free will in it's entirety, nor are we condemned totally to destiny. We are held between the two with loving arms.

For love is giving us the power to choose. It gives us the power to rise, and it will let us fall if we so choose.

In the end, all is as it should be, no more, no less. And there is harmony, but to see it we must really look, with eyes wide open.

The Brain Bliss

When I don't have to go to work, and I have a good night's sleep, I often awake with a physical sense of bliss in my brain. I like the feeling of it.

It feels physical. It's as if I feel directly my whole physical brain inside my skull, and the feeling is exquisite. It's peaceful, it's just plain goodness.

This doesn't happen on week days when I wake to the alarm and have to transition into going to work. There is no space in that mode for sleeping in, laying till the body-mind is rested.

It makes one wonder what the modern world and its slavery to time has done to our natural state. J. Krishnamurti got it right when he talked about the violence of every day life. There is a violence to time, an imposition on the natural state.

This waking to physical bliss in the brain is something that just happens. I don't look for it; don't expect it. It just happens, and when it does, I always have a good day. Everything goes slow and easy.

What is it? I don't know.

An Inside Job

The search for enlightenment is an inside job. You travel alone, sort of, except that Source is with you all the way. You may never even notice your guardian angels

And you discover that the Zen you get at the top of the mountain is the Zen you brought with you. There is no one at the top or at the bottom to give you accolades.

Satori doesn't last, and the birds don't always sing. And once ambrosia has been tasted, everything else tastes false. Beware, the Ides of March, turn into years.

No one sees what you are doing, knows or cares. Except perhaps the One. There is little to measure, and less and less to know.

Every time you stumble and fall, no one notices. Except perhaps the One. And the way things fall, seems more random than random. But the call doesn't stop.

Be still my heart, be patient. The end is now, and now, and now.

Karma and Freedom

Karma does not absolve one from action. Karma delineates the range of choices available, but it does not release one from the responsibility of the choice. Though the range may be limited, your freedom lies in the choices you make.

You may not be free to fly without taking an airplane, but you have the choice to smile at the person boarding with you. You may not be a spiritual genius, but can humbly accept the teaching of one with whom you resonate.

Every step you take is recorded forever in the Akashic field. And every choice for the positive, for the good of mankind, makes your future choices vastly different.

You may start out in a mental desert, devoid of hope, but even there, persistence in the direction of the good, your own, your family's, your neighbor's, points you in the direction out.

Yes, in this embodied form there are limits. But this is temporary, and cyclical. Your future is in your hands, Karma is just the path you trod.

Intuiting Home

There is always the scientific debate to arrive at the final answer. However, if the water is in the field next door, you have to leave the field you are in, to get there.

Science will eventually get there, but it will only be after much fussing and fuming, and grinding of teeth. You see, the First Cause is not in the physical world, and cannot be explained by Newtonian, linear thought.

The Theory of Everything ( ToE ) is actually easy to come by. God did it! Substitute for God any term you like, Source, The One, The Force. Scientific reductionism will never explain this first principle.

The first cause will always remain unexplainable by science. The Big Bang is a concept. God is not a concept. Explanations will change, become more sophisticated, but only the truly ignorant will be satisfied.

In the book of Genesis, it says, we are "created in the image of God." The mystics knew this long ago. But science doesn't know its limitations and thus can't see this.

We who know meaning is not defined by Newtonian logic, and know that there is more to this world than meets the eye, know God to be eternal. And we intuit that, made in the image of God, we too are eternal.

The ground of being is unmanifest. It is not an object, as all objects are immersed in It. God being unmanifest, so too are we. The only reasons we can even intuit that God is real, is that it is true. And we know this beyond reason, beyond logic, beyond labels.

To know is not to be able to prove. As David Hawkins says, in the non linear domain, truth is knowable, but not provable. Scientific theories can be proven true or false. Not so with the unmanifest.

Karma is complete nonsense to those who have not glimpsed or felt the unmanifest. But once one has taken a step beyond science, beyond logic, into the unknown, one can begin to see that Karma is real.

Karma is not often mentioned in the Jewish Christian traditions. It is, nevertheless implied. And when Karma is acknowledged, much in life that seems absurd, becomes acceptable. Eventually, it is seen as the key that makes the harmony.

The assumption that we are our bodies fades as we get older. All that we cannot explain gets surrendered to God. And the more we surrender, the more peace comes in to blanket us.

This is not to be understood with the mind. In fact it cannot be understood with the mind. And once you have a satori or two, experience mystical union, even for a minute, you are hooked, for there is nothing in the scientific, linear world that will strike you with as much authority.

Because the authority one experiences is not provable, neither is it disprovable. In fact, there is no explaining it. But, once you know that you are eternal spirit, your path is sure.

The part is essential to the whole. The whole is eternal. And we are here, temporarily embodied, only for awhile. Our home is eternal. We only left for awhile to experience this.

The path is narrow, that leads to the goal. You are drawn to it. Even though for much of your life you didn't know what it was that was calling. But the still small voice gets louder, and the peace greater, and the joy brings you home.

The Other

I have a very subtle feeling that someone is watching me read this book. It is not a person, but it is enjoying watching me read, watching me smile, watching me savor a good line.

This Other is here with me, but there is no person in the room with me. It is not another person who is watching. It is an unknowable watcher, formless, tasteless, but it tastes what I taste, feels what I feel, knows what I know. And it enjoys it.

Since I have given up knowing, the watcher has appeared. Perhaps it is the humility of giving up, of letting go, that allows this Other to be felt. I know that it watches over me, protects me.

It's not that this Other will keep things from happening to me, but that this Presence is there, and by it's presence, I am safe.

Waking up may simply be becoming aware of this Other. The Other is always there. In fact, it is so there, and been there so long, and so taken for granted, that I didn't notice it. I was too busy being myself to notice.

While we are busy being ourselves, our focus is narrow, limited. Any sense of any other is dimmed. Others are just a means to an end. We may get what we are focused on, but miss everything else.

In our busyness we forget we have excluded others. The downside is that we miss Otherness, and the big Other of others, is the One.

The Other doesn't tap you on the shoulder. It doesn't say, "Hey, here I am. See me?" No, it is a very humble presence. It is presence that is willing to stay on the sidelines, unnoticed, until you look.

When we are busy with trying to understand, assuage our egos, protecting our positions, we don't notice any other, especially a quiet, subtle Other. The Other has infinite patience and will wait as long as we live, and longer, perhaps many lifetimes.

Lately, having given up knowing, praying only for revelation, perhaps I opened the door to the Other, just a crack. But that little crack has revealed a presence. And it's fun to notice the Presence. It's interesting to be aware of It.

I am just walking down the hall at my office and I am aware of something other walking with me, knowing I am walking, knowing I am aware of It. There is a confidence in the person when I know I am not alone.

It is a soft presence. And I wonder why it has come now? I can only guess it is because I know that I cannot do this understanding alone. It is not my understanding, but the understanding of the Other.

I cannot figure this out myself, for myself. No, I have to submit to It. For I, a person, an idea, built of experience in this body, did not create myself. I am a created being. To understand, I have to give myself to the Other.

As long as I am defending my ego, feeling that I am going to figure this out myself, with my own mind, my own effort, I could not sense the Other. How could I?

This body/mind is a product, a program through which something greater than myself experiences. That greater power, that greater consciousness, is the Other.

This body/mind is just the container of content, limited content. And when I focus on the limited content, I get limited results. If I want to know Otherness, the context must be included.

Context is the greater, the broader, the Other. I the person/body/mind am a vehicle only. One among many vehicles. As long as I believe I am the driver, I have lost the larger context. For I am a created being, a product of something greater.

I am the driver, experiencer in appearance only. The Other is the real driver, for he created the vehicle, and the space, and all the others. This experience of being in a body and having a mind is really His.

I am the content, the object through which the Other experiences. My miss perception, that me, myself, is the experiencer is only eclipsed when I become aware of the Other.

That Other is looking through my eyes, and through my neighbor's eyes, and through my boss's eyes.

I am in the play, unconscious that I am an actor, until I am willing to admit that I know nothing. When I know I know nothing, then I am open to what is really here. And what is really here is this Other, this creator, this force, this Source.

My only prayer is "Source, reveal yourself to me, so that I may merge with you. Reveal yourself to me, for I cannot find you. I can only ask for revelation, so reveal what I cannot find and understand."

And with this prayer, made in earnest, I begin to sense the Other. And in this Other's presence, I can merge. And only in merging can I know.

Intuitively We Know Nothing

"...I wanted to cry with joy and just lay with him in the bed and stay that way for hours, saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing, thinking nothing, just loving him and becoming nothing but one nothing inside another nothing and that nothing not bothering with anything."

~ Denise Chavez ~ from her novel Loving Pedro Infante.

I like light reading sometimes, especially if it's funny, raw, and well written. Escaping into this novel, I was surprised to run across the lines above. Who doesn't know this? Who hasn't experienced the above when madly in love.

What this tells me is that we DO know this. We just don't stay there. This is what enlightenment is all about, that merging into nothingness. Nisargadatta stated that "When I am nothing, then I am everything."

When it comes to enlightenment, at the end, one finally admits that "I can't do this." Perhaps this is getting close. It doesn't mean you don't want enlightenment. It doesn't mean your longing has ceased. I just means that you know YOU can't do it. You can't remain an individual separate self and do this.

The only thing left to do is pray, and that prayer goes something like this, "Lord, you know I want this, don't want to live without this, but I can't do it. I know I can't do it. Lord have mercy on me and take me there, into that nothing that is everything where I can be at peace."

Peace is only in the oneness that is everything. Since that is the natural state, it is not too much to ask. But you really have to want it, and you have to know that you as a person, a mind, can't do it, can't go there. Give it up.

Endearment

First you fall in love
because you are blinded by
your own projected light.

When you pull back your light
and the projection ends,
you can choose to love.

Choose to see past your ego,
your judgments and condemnations,
which block the light.

And if you keep on choosing love,
and seeing where you are not love,
Endearment can only come

Beliefs and Nonduality

Belief is a position, a perspective. Truth simply is. Our beliefs about it are simply limitations. If one listed all one’s beliefs and then tossed them out, would you still exist? Where would you be standing? What would you be standing on? Wouldn’t you simply be awareness, open, willing, waiting to see what came next? Wouldn’t you simply react without choice? Wouldn’t that be pure action?

Without belief, what is there not to love? Without belief, wouldn’t there be less conflict, less violence?

Pure awareness is when all mental positions and beliefs are set aside. Then there is more space, more openness, more peace. In that space, love becomes easy.

Without beliefs, without the need for positions, the background in which all of these play is seen, perhaps for the first time. That awareness then may experience itself. That recognition is non duality, or oneness. The non dual recognition is unshakable. It does not need to be maintained. Truth is when all else is left behind.