Notes from May 08 - Part 1.

Gilbert is in Sydney ‘for a little awhile’. - Sydney ‘seekers’, who wish to contact him can request a phone number via email to arrange contact: gilbert.schultz at gmail.com – (replace ‘at’ with @)

There is a massive ammount of misleading information on the net about non duality - some of it by so-called experts - some spread about by self professed 'gurus' and adhock teachers. - If any information requires you to believe rather than KNOW, then it is useless. - The 'truth' (what is clearly obvious) is totally available right now - for anyone.

Today’s Note:
Part 1.
At the core of all the major religions, lies a direct ‘pointing’ to our true nature. – Those words are there for anyone to read – understanding it clearly only happens when there is some reciprocal experience present. - All of the major religions have been ‘added to' with various conditional concepts and these proliferate into a thousand beliefs, which all lead away from the simplicity of what is true.
Most teachings promote a lot of beliefs and they endorse labourious practices and so many methods for the adherent to use, in order to achieve the desired ‘result’. – It is all misleading and completely unnecessary but this fact is not examined closely by anyone. - Belief is NOT Knowing and belief will never be Knowing! - Knowing is immediate and belief is 'time bound notions'.
Rare teachings point directly at what is clearly true and present, at what we have ignored – and so what is completely and immediately ‘free’, our true essence, may be tasted directly. – The long and protracted commitment to any teacher or any teaching is not necessary – but this fact will not be mentioned by ‘the teachers of time trodden paths’.
What is not so easily recognized is that no teaching contains the truth. - The best that a so-called teaching can do is point directly at what is true and THAT is nothing other than your own essential being. – It is this essential true nature that dispenses with erroneous beliefs. – The ‘resonation’ of this being-ness is ‘truth’ and nothing ‘false’ or erroneous can withstand its ‘presence’.
Direct and immediate experiencing is uninterrupted. - This direct and immediate experiencing ‘happening’ right now, is ‘all there is’. - It never ‘becomes’ anything other than what it is. This ‘direct and immediate experiencing’ remains, while everything we know of, without exception, is composed of energy patterns, subtle and gross, which merely appear within, or ‘pass through’ this ‘experiencing presence’. - What the so-called ‘mind’ does is to collect ‘experiences’ and ‘store’ them away as ‘memories’ – at least that is how it may be explained in ordinary language. - All such ‘things’ are questionable and yet we never question them because it is a ‘general agreement’ that our life is made up of experiences and conditioning, which apparently make us what we are. – At least it appears to be so.
What ‘I am’ is presence, un-interrupted presence, awareness. What ‘I am’ can never be reduced to mere concepts or words. – So it is that what ‘I am’ remains indescribable and beyond the grasp of the habitual mind’s so-called ‘understanding’.
All memories and all so-called conditioning can only ever ‘appear’ in THIS experiencing of ‘right now’. – Does a memory ever appear ‘yesterday’ or ‘tomorrow’? - Does a memory appear five minutes ago or five minutes in the future?
Such notions about ‘time’ are purely conceptual and such notions can only ever appear in this ‘right now’. – This ‘right now’ is not a series of consecutive moments, as we may seem to believe. – That miss understanding is due to the nature of belief in conceptualising notions. – I am not speaking about something that is anywhere else than right here, right now. - This ‘right now’ is ‘presence’ and presence does not deviate from what it IS. – How could it? - Where could it go? - What would or could replace ‘this presence’ except ‘this presence’? - If it could be replaced, then ‘when’ could it be replaced, except right here ‘with-in’ this ‘right now’? – See such things for what they are – mere concepts.
Nothing could ever replace it, except itself, and that cannot be termed as ‘a replacement’ at all. – We cannot replace the ocean with water – it is all ‘water’. – The notion of there being a continuum is still a time-based notion, so that word fails to embrace the wholeness of what is. - All such notions are concepts and this presence is never divided or separated into any parts whatsoever.
What gives ‘the appearance of separation’ and deviation, is the dualistic nature of ‘mind’.
Mind is restlessly vibrating between the ‘pairs of opposites’. – Thoughts are ephemeral ‘appearances’ and they do not have any substance or location that you can pinpoint or grasp. – This may appear to be far too subtle and yet it is extremely obvious, since it is the nature of awareness to be so. – The nature of mind is ‘transient appearances’.
By the nature of belief, the personalized drama of a personal life ‘appears to be added’ to those believed in thoughts. – In that drama, argument may follow and even bruised egos and bloody noses etc. – Such things appear to make the world go round.
Take a break – have a closer look into things. - Have you ever questioned what ‘belief’ is? - Have you ever looked closely at your own beliefs to see if they have any true or intrinsic value?

Notes from May 08 - Part 2.

Part 2.
All beliefs are equal if only in ‘the fact’ that they are ‘beliefs’. - Is it not a fact that a belief, by its very nature, has the status of being so, only because the evidence is not there to support it (the ‘subject’ of belief) as being a fact? - The Moon is not made of cheese, even though a million ‘people’ may believe it is made of cheese. Belief is belief and facts are facts. Many ‘people’ will fight ‘tooth and nail’ for their beliefs and will be willing to die for them. - What meaning can such a life have? Are such attributed meanings, merely more beliefs? What supports belief, any belief?
Investigate this.
Struggling seekers never ‘become heroes’ except in dreams. - A ‘seeker’ is a dream only. The seekers struggle and battle is all for nothing and the suffering is completely unnecessary – however, because of resistance to what is true, the ‘seeker’ does not want to hear such news. - They bravely forge their own ‘story’ everyday, avoid their ‘enemies’ if possible and repeat the same old ‘ideas’ much like a wind up toy mechanically goes through its motions. - They may punish their bodies with yogic practices and a strict diet while imagining that they are purifying themselves in order to be worthy of enlightenment. - Such ignorance is based on BELIEF only. - No fact has ever proved that anyone ever purified themselves in such a way. - How can you perceive perfection in ‘another being’ if you do not see or recognize it in yourself first? - ‘We’ project our imaginary notions (about perfect beings) and believe that those projections are reality. - Then ‘we’ may wonder why we can never achieve such perfection ourselves. - We continue the farce by taking on methods and practices which only bind that ‘self-image’ to TIME – and TIME can never be this actuality of THIS immediate PRESENCE.
From the perspective of the body, all we are made of is of the five basic elements. Space, water, fire, earth and air. - These elements can be arranged in all manner of combinations and they are – it is called ‘The Universe’.
In no uncertain terms the message comes – “You are not the body – nor are you the mind”. - How is such a ‘pointer’ ignored? - Why do so many by pass this pointer?
Have you ever found the ‘self’? - Is it in the body somewhere?
What we truly are has never been soiled or damaged, nor is it in need of any repair or in need of any rearrangement. - The believed in battle between body and soul is a complete fiction projected by the mind. - The drama of life appears to depend on such fiction. It is all stories only. - They are ‘believed in habitual stories’ and so the suffering goes on, moment by moment, year after year and these ‘poor souls’ never seem to reach any state of purification or true peace. - Yet they all appear nowhere other than in THIS immediacy of presence awareness. - Why are they not recognized for what they are?
Contemplate this.
Untold numbers of medals of honour and bravery, never worn by any ‘living hero’, fade away and tarnish in dusty forgotten drawers. - The stories can go on and on till ‘time stands still’ - and they do. - What is truly achieved?
Are you truly interested in seeing through ‘the mirage’ of being a seeker?
Is it an ego wanting to secure itself or is it something much deeper?
What are you doing here and what do you wish to achieve? - Do you know ‘why’ you exist? - Endless explanations just tire ‘the mind’ – is that all we have – endless explanations?
Explanations are just conceptual frameworks that appear in or on awareness. - One may be satisfied by their belief in an explanation and another may not.
What is belief?
You ‘know’ that you exist – that is a fact – THAT is NOT a belief. - Do you truly, truly, truly see the difference between knowing and belief? – Is the knowing of this without the slightest doubt? Is it just another belief?

Notes from May 08 - Part 3.

Part 3.
In the ‘appearance’ and in ‘time’, belief is one ‘thing’ that keeps millions upon millions in bondage for their entire lives. - What is it all about? Opinions are opinions and we are all entitled to our opinions and bloody wars are fought over mere opinions.
There is an old saying that says 'The truth hurts'. - It could be said that ‘the actuality’ (the truth) undermines all that is ‘false’ without exception. - A mirage of water is a false apprehension. - There is no water in a mirage – fact. - The belief that there is water ‘in the image’ is insubstantial and upon investigation the misapprehension vanishes by itself, not because of anything the observer ‘does’ – it vanishes because ‘the fact’ is that there is no water there and that fact reveals itself spontaneously on close examination. - This equation applies to ALL beliefs without exception.
One need not live in ignorance. - The ‘bondage of self’ is unnecessary.
There is no reason for suffering, except the reasoning that supports the belief ‘in being someone suffering’. “Yes but…..” – add your own story here.
In THIS actuality of PRESENCE there is no one suffering, so why tell a story about someone suffering? Be THIS actuality and drop the stories.
‘Seekers of truth’ only ‘appear’ to remain in a ‘state of seeking’ and ‘what is true’, what is real, continues to evade them, only because ‘what they truly are’ does not investigate those erroneous beliefs closely enough. Is it simply a question of being present with ‘what is’? – Not as an entity – but as what you ARE – presence itself. – Surely it ‘makes sense’. What is true reverberates with livingness – what is false is shallow and hollow, a misapprehension.
What ‘each and every one of us is’, is this most genuine ‘fact of existence’ itself, THIS authentic nature of ‘being-awareness’ is ‘True’ and cannot be otherwise. - Reality IS.
Whatever you truly ARE - must BE Real.
Our imaginary problems belong to a dream, a habit of ignoring ‘what is’ – it can be broken just like any habit can be broken.
What you imagine or consider this 'you' to be is based on conceptual notions and memory – all of which is ‘an appearance in mind’ –and that can only be a believed in concept. – Everything or anything can only appear in this immediacy – and since awareness is this immediacy and it cannot be NOTHING but THAT, then everything is clear and obvious. Remove the belief in that ‘something’ that ‘habitual self image’ and what you truly are does not disappear – why? Because what you truly are is not dependant on concepts or any ‘thing’ at all.
All arguments against such facts are basically resistance to letting go of habitual beliefs – that is bondage.
My pity for the seeker is useless – all that can be done is to point at what is true as clearly as possible, without embellishment – no stories. Just like you, the one reading this, in this very moment, ‘I’, the writer, have ‘no choice’ in this activity. - The core of this activity is KNOWING.
There is only ONE knowing presence pervading the whole universe – it is totally nameless and indescribable.
Your inner most secret name is ‘I AM’ – it is also God’s name.
Both GOD and your inner most secret name are ‘conceptual appearances’ in THIS nameless PRESENCE – this singular BEING. - THIS is sometimes called Non Duality.

Notes from May 08 - Part 4.

Part 4.
The complete evidence of ‘what you truly are’ cannot be hidden from you – it is totally obvious – what (only) seemingly hides it from you is ‘mind content and erroneous beliefs’.
Many beliefs are harmless and do not need to be questioned. - Some beliefs however are a continuous ‘cause’ of trouble for ‘us’. - Quite often these very beliefs are the ones that ‘appear’ to be surrounded by a very tenacious defence mechanism.
Over the years I have met many seekers who have remained searching, some of them have been seeking for over thirty years. - Nothing has really helped. - It is a pitiful situation and ‘the fact’ that these ‘poor souls’ are still ‘searching (looking) in the wrong places’ does not present itself to them clearly. - Having invested so many years in ‘the search’, the simplicity of ‘what is true and obvious’ is discounted and even scoffed at. - “What to do?” Often they feel insulted if they are asked to look at certain beliefs. - A spiritual ‘self –image’ appears to have almost crystallized in them and for them that image held to be ‘sacred’ by them. - It is ignorance to believe in an image while what is real is blindingly obvious. An appearance is an appearance. It is that appearance, that same ‘self-image’, that only appears to bring them so little satisfaction in a ‘personal life’ dominated by unnecessary suffering – and further more, how dare anyone suggest that that ‘sacred self-image’ may be the main culprit, the ‘cause’, of their suffering.
Frankly I find it almost useless to talk with them. - Their indulgence in ‘being someone special’ has almost suffocated them - and yet they continue to ‘parade’ about like a peacock. - They imagine that they hide their suffering under a thin disguise but it is far too obvious (for those who see clearly) and if only they knew how obvious it is they may well give it up instantly.
In this ‘instant of seeing’, in this ‘present moment’ (which is all there ever is) a lifetime of erroneous beliefs can be penetrated and those beliefs can fall away, never to return. -
With such a clear and precise insight (seeing) there is no indulgence in any story of ‘I am now enlightened’.
Such notions are instantly recognized for what they are. - Only those who have partial insights tell stories about “I am enlightened’ or allow other to tell such stories ‘about them’.
The ‘time has come’ to put aside false teachers. - ‘You have one chance in this life’ – so don’t waste it on ‘false prophets’ and ‘self-indulgent merchants of the truth’.
The sense of belonging is a common factor amongst ‘seekers’.
The most profound teacher from any eon is only needed for ‘the duration’ of recognizing and absorbing the fullness of the ‘message’. - The message is always simple – far too simple for most. - We expect it to be complex and so we look for unnecessary complexities and they merely keep us ‘in the mind’ and forever searching.
In realizing your own true nature, ‘stories about enlightenment’, unnecessary complexities and a sense of ‘belonging’ are not needed. - Once you receive the required ‘accurate information’ about your true nature, then you no longer need anything from ‘outside’ of yourself and, in fact, it is recognized that everything ‘appears’ within your own true nature. - Even that accurate information only ‘appears’ to come from ‘outside’ – the recognition and resounding nature of what is true, is and can only ever belong to what you truly ARE. - The words “I am That’ has many ‘meanings’ – one meaning is that it is an expression of the above mentioned fact, that ‘everything, without exception, appears within the boundless-ness of what you are’. Awareness.

Other words that ‘point’ to this fact are: ‘Advaita. - One without a second’. - ‘Non Duality’.
‘There is no duality in Non Duality’.
All these words are appearing within awareness RIGHT NOW. - These words ARE ‘awareness’ appearing as words. - Nothing recognizes them but awareness itself. -
Like an arrow piercing into the darkness of night – ‘no one knows’ where it lands, not even the bowman.
But in the instant the arrow strikes its target, the target ‘knows’ without a doubt.


. -

Notes from May 08 - Part 5

Part 5.
The basic nature of what we call mind is clear and empty, like a crystal ball. - It is flawless and totally empty. - It is so obviously so, we miss it. - This is because our habit is to approach everything with habitual conceptualising. - In hearing about this the habit of thinking is quick to translate ‘that clear and empty nature of mind’ into ever more concepts and even into a denial of the clear and obvious fact. - Non-conceptual awareness is never a concept.
“I spend an hour every day meditating and only ever have brief moments of clarity” is often expressed by those addicted to convoluted practices and methods. - We are so used to going with what ‘the mind’ tells us, we do not recognize that the mind is only a ‘tool’ – in being a tool, it could serve us well if only we recognize it for what it is. -
The subtle fact is that what we call ‘mind’ is only a transient appearance ‘in or on’ awareness. - The mind is not aware of anything – it, the mind, is ‘the past’ and it is also the home of the ‘self-image’, which is, in its basic nature, a conceptually based notion and nothing more than that.
The ‘problem’ is that there are so many erroneous beliefs that spring into the picture at the slightest provocation and they are not recognized for what they are. - These beliefs continue, only because they are not questioned or looked into. - The mechanical nature of a mind, operating with belief, is very obvious but this fact is missed by the one caught up in ‘habitual mind stuff’. - That ‘someone’ has no possibility to wake up at all and it cannot see or know anything at all. - It is entirely made up from conceptual stuff – mind-content. - Some traditions name that condition as ‘waking sleep’. - In the ‘appearance of things’ any apparent attempts to wake someone from such ‘sleep’ is most usually fervently defended by the ‘sleeper’. - Awareness does not sleep. - The body-mind organism sleeps.
The clear and empty nature of ‘mind’ is obvious in sleep but there is no one there to recognize it as being so.
What is your opinion about this? Is it merely a belief? Is there a ‘knowing’ without doubt?
That ‘knowing’ is not reliant upon any beliefs whatsoever. - It relies on nothing at all. -
It is the first and foremost nature of your own existence. - Recognize that.
In re-cognising that cognition replaces re-cognition instantly.
This ‘direct and immediate cognising’ may have a sense of coming home to it. -

Conversely, it ‘appears’ that belief, by its nature, must defend itself in order to continue the habitually believed in fiction.
The only thing that can recognize anything at all is ‘awareness’ – THAT is ‘what you are’. -
With a resonating urge to inquire into what is really going on, so things are recognized for what they are. - If this does not happen then the mechanical nature of mind and belief will continue to turn on a ‘dead spot’.
The ‘character’ that appears to be caught up in such a drama is a complete fiction. - It only seems to be real because it is supported by habitual belief. - None of it can stand on its own – it cannot withstand a direct and immediate inquiry.
Some teachers suggest that “any form of investigation is just more seeking” - but that is just an ignorant statement and a denial of the potentiality (that each of us is).
The innate capacity of pure knowing belongs to our true nature and it lies at the core of what we are. - What we truly ARE is not depending on anything at all. - It needs no time to find completion – it requires no method to adhere to and it requires no concept at all. -
Its nature is NON conceptual. - Recognize that.
In seeing through our habitual beliefs, they are let go of. - The core essence of pure knowing itself ‘cuts through’ every belief and renders them inactive. - If such direct insights are conceptualised as being a ‘new event happening to someone’ then the mind quickly builds a story around such insights – but recognize that this can only ever be merely ‘more thought patterns appearing’ - these must be recognised for what they are. - An ‘insight’ is not an ‘event’ at all – the essence of an insight is ‘seeing’ - and seeing unconditionally belongs to our true nature - which is timelessly present and free of all time realms and free of all burdens. What joyous news it is for those who hear it clearly. - How annoying it is for those who resist what is true.

Notes from May 08 - Part 6

Part 6.
Why is it said that we will never find an answer in the mind?
Could it be because all that the ‘mind’ is, is thoughts, concepts, memories and images?
Are these nothing more than mere content that appears nowhere other than ‘in’ or ‘on’ awareness?
The very notion that there is a thing called ‘mind’ is insubstantial – no one has ever found something with any substance or location that they can call ‘the mind’. - The brightest scientist has only theories to offer on this mystery. -
Do any of the transient appearances in ‘mind’ have, of themselves, the capacity of cognition or knowing?
What is it in us that knows anything?
Naked awareness is ‘knowing’. -
There is nothing more subtle than ‘knowing’.
The very notion of something more subtle than ‘knowing’ would depend on ‘knowing’ for its apprehension.
Now, it is not difficult to see that the extremely subtle nature of knowing itself is not found in the expressions called thoughts or concepts. - These ‘things’ only appear and disappear and they are ‘known’ by the ‘activity of knowing’. -
That which is ‘knowing’ can never be found by the mind because it is always beyond the grasp of any observer or witness. - We could ‘name it – give it a conceptual framework’ and say that awareness is ‘a formless witness’, yet such a description quickly leads to additional concepts and so it is inaccurate.
The observer is really only composed of ‘the reflective nature of awareness’ and this nature is what we commonly call ‘mind’, which is nothing but translations, concepts, thoughts etc. - All such things are easily observable and we miss the subtleness of ‘what it is that is seeing these things’.
Some repetition is necessary – hammer it home – ‘something subtle’ sinks in and the chains of bondage loosen.
We have bound ourselves with concepts and it is concepts that release the bondage. -
Thinking about this is a challenge for ‘mind’ because the mind is a constant activity and the subtle nature of knowing is not contained in that activity – it is always ‘prior’ or ‘beyond’ that activity. - Or we could say that the ‘knowing’ contains all these activities.

In a similar manner ‘being’ appears ‘in or on’ that which is ‘non-being’. -
What we call ‘the inner most experience’ is not ‘something’ that has any substance. -
The ‘outer life’ is that which registers on the inner most experiencing.
‘People’ are lost and are searching for something missing in their lives.
The richness of this innermost life has been ‘lost’ to them only because they ignore it. -
They constantly gravitate to the grossness of ‘materialism and appearances’, ‘that’ which registers or ‘that’ upon which the impressions register, is ignored because it is very subtle.
THAT can never be ‘named’ and so it can only be ‘pointed at’. -
In re-discovering this innermost life, this ‘natural state’, then a new balance takes place. -
The grossness of ‘outer things’ loses its hold over ‘the mind’ and ‘the mind’ is released from its unbalanced ‘concerns’.
The so-called ‘mind’ is a functional aspect of awareness and it’s ‘thinking’ is merely one of many senses. - Like hearing and tasting, thinking has its place and thinking functions very well when the unnecessary ‘weight’ is taken off it.
The boundary between inner and outer disappears because it is only a ‘point of view’.
All fragments of relativity are an appearance in the absolute. - Therefore they must be absolute also. -
You are present and aware in this moment – that is an absolute fact. - Where is the doubt?
Why does the mind raise objections?
See that all thoughts are only appearances in ‘the awareness that you ARE’. -
Awareness is awareness. - We are not talking about ‘awareness of’ here. -
‘Awareness of’ is dualistic and that contains the habitual ‘entity’ or witness. -
Speaking in relative terms - the ‘unfortunate’ situation is that so many ‘teachers’ are NOT pointing directly at what is true. - They are far too concerned with their own ‘image’ and ‘self importance’ and so their ‘advice’ is always coloured by a falsehood. -
However, in relative terms, ‘this situation’ appears to be changing in ‘recent times’. - Many are seeing through these teachers and ‘the guru game’. - So many more are now finding what they need and are ‘hearing’ a very direct message and so the ‘fruit’ of that ‘hearing’ is that many are truly realizing their ‘true nature’. -
In the appearance of relativity, for many centuries, the secret beyond all secrets was ‘hidden away’ from ‘common people’. -
It is true that common people ‘trample over flower beds’ and do not value things they do not understand. - Yet it is ‘everyone’s right’ to ‘know what is true’ and ‘in coming to know what is true’, the impulse to ignore what is true is vanquished in them. -
Of course much of this written note is relative and could be criticised by others. -
What is beyond question or criticism is that inner most experiencing which ‘each one of us’ is. -
It matters little what it is that ‘inspires’ us to examine the ‘place’ where knowing is happening. -
Once that ‘inner flame’ starts to burn, once the resonation ‘starts to hum in your being’, it consumes every obstacle in its path. - That clear light of knowing reveals everything for ‘what it is’ without ‘it’ ever ‘becoming’ anything other than ‘what it is’. -
It is only the ‘appearance’ that changes and that is its nature. -
THAT which never changes, never will change – it simply IS. -
Be what you ARE. -Is-ness - IS. -

Non Duality is never divided.

There is no problem in 'the Actuality'. - What we are is naturally THAT. - What we conceive ourselves to be is a fiction.

One of the most common 'problems' for 'seekers' is the addition of a 'spiritual self-image'. - This 'image' is a 'self reference point', which is totally fabricated in the imagination. - It is this 'image' that clouds the 'mind' and prevents a clear 'hearing' of the 'message' - because it 'resists' any information that undermines its foundations - even though such foundations are merely belief and fiction, the resistance persists and a self-indulgence in that 'image' takes on gross proportions to the point of absurdity.

Tip # 1: The Urban Guru Cafe is an excellent podcast - it is not worth missing for anyone 'interested' in Non Duality. - It is having record numbers of downloads and is on the increase daily. - Have a listen and tell a friend.

Tip # 2: There is an excellent podcast series called Radiolab - from New York Public Radio - many programs to listen to - they are curious guys who delve into things that capture our imagination - ask difficult questions. Click here to download or listen on line to a podcast on "Who am I?" - a semi-scientific exploration.

Back to the Urban Guru: - Check out Randall's interviews, they are excellent. - You may think you have 'heard it all' - these two programs may change your view on that. - I think the younger generation will respond well to these.

Note: I perceive, after many encounters, that the younger generation are significantly 'more open' to 'the message' - maybe because the 'believed in conditioning' has not 'crystalized' in them. - Therefore there is a plan 'here' to address this younger generation - in a way that they are more accustomed to. - In the 'older generation' it seems that those 'old habits' need to be 'hammered' at from 'inside' - or from 'outside' especially since the resistance to examining their beliefs is quite 'ingrained' - so it would seem. - The simple fact is that in dropping thought, all conditioning vanishes and yet this fact is not often recognized. - Pause a thought now. - What conditioning is there without thinking about it?

Check out the Randall Friend interview now - Part 1 & 2.

Emails:

Gilbert, - Ha! “Everything is Clear & Obvious” . . . just read the free version online -Thank You! - Listened to the Urban Guru Cafe too but it was definitely the above that offered the renewed "aha" moment-s! - J - in Sydney.

Email: Hello Gilbert, - I write now after listening and reading several of your writings and talks. - While I have found accord with what you have said I feel very alone in my interest in self realization. - There is nobody in my circle of friends to whom I can express my interest in self-realization. - Often I feel I am play acting all day.

I go to work, talk to people, do things and then I wonder who is doing all this. - I look in the mirror and see a face. - I remember things that happened to that face and yet when I am still and turn attention to that me, that person, aside from memories I cannot find a me that I could point to as an entity. - I feel like I am living as I have always lived but now it is as if the ground beneath me is shifting.

-Everything is as it was and yet it is not. - I realize that all my life I have been looking for the story of the truth as if it was something out there that if I touched would change me, that it was just a matter of searching, recognizing the truth and doing what was required. - I now realize at least mentally that this is just a another story I have imagined, the story of the unhappy me and the happy blissful enlightened me.

I really don’t know anything for sure least of all what the me is. - What I am writing here is more imagination.

I imagine I am here, you are there, you and others have something I do not and I need to get it, why? - I don’t know. - For some forty years I have imagined there is something called enlightenment - a state different from what I am now, that it was/is some variation of some pleasurable experience I have. - It was out there if I could only find out how to get it. - I still feel I don’t like what I am now and want to get to this imaginary state. - The only difference is that at times I see that it is just more circular mind stuff, that I am blinded by mind stuff. - I am not looking for advice or encouragement.- I believe it is as Nisargadatta said that self awareness is not the result of effort or practice. - Still, I would be grateful if you had the inclination to write.

Thank you for what you have published, I have found it encouraging.

- Jeffrey

Reply:

Whatever appears to happen is NOT IT. - Reality is THAT which never changes.

One could say that all motion is a movement of 'forms' (large and minute, subtle and gross) - it is all moving upon this emptiness - this stillness. - You can find these two aspects 'in yourself' quite easily. - What you need to recognize is that all that can be noticed is the movement, the forms, the play of the elements. - What it all 'registers upon' is this KNOWING. - This knowing is 'absolute knowing', it is not 'a belief' and it is not 'made of anything'. - No one (no form) can claim it as their own property and such claims are obviously fraudulent.

Behind that 'oh so familiar face' there is 'a space' which is clear and empty.

See that this is truly the case. - Hearing about it is not enough. - It must be tasted directly in the immediacy of BEING - not 'becoming' or 'memory'. - All forms are appearances 'appearing' nowhere else than 'in this immediacy - they MUST and can only appear in 'this moment' - IN that 'space-like awareness' - and that includes the body and all of its regular functions. - Include the body in the cognizing - see it as an appearance.

Many 'things' start to unfold once this factor is recognized - but it cannot be a theory held in the mind - that is useless and it is where many stay stuck - theoretical understanding is useless (in this case). - The activity of 'knowing' is 'from beyond' the form - (this is so obvious we miss it). - That knowing-ness, itself, is formless, colorless, tasteless. - All these aspects, forms, colors, flavors etc. are all appearances in the knowing which is obviously prior to these transient appearances. - Yesterdays flavors have gone. - The taste is always NOW.
Nothing that 'spills out' of the singular source, that formless-ness, ever touches the source of those forms.
Those forms are in fact empty and that fact needs to be recognized.
Everything we believe in is 'supported' by a fundamental belief in being a form, a someone, a 'me'.
There may 'appear' a great resistance to uncovering that 'me'.
The story of the man who found God's house and erred at knocking on the door is symbolic of that resistance.
That 'door' is non existent yet one could say it is that space from which you are looking out from.
As Nisargdatta says (paraphrasing): "You think you are in the world - (wrong) the world 'appears' in you".
The courage to SEE what needs to be seen is with you - it is your own true nature.
What you truly ARE is reality.
What the mind 'tells' you is just conceptualization - it all appears and disappears.
Many believe that they have 'arrived' at the 'Understanding' and yet they are bent on 'changing the world' and their minds are plagued with the 'drama of life'.
Right NOW before any thought arises, there is a clear 'knowing' there - it is not 'the cogs of the wheel' it is the still fulcrum from which everything is relative to - there is no 'me' in that.
The 'me' appears on the turning wheel and it appears to 'do' things to alter things - yet nothing needs to be done.
All we need to 'do' is 'come back' to the first instant, the only instant that there IS.
This instant is full of clear knowing - it is not something that comes out of the mind.
There is NO answer in the mind ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
You are not 'in the mind' - or the body.
All these things, mind and body, objects and world, all these appear within the nature of what you are.
Forget about "Who am I?" - It can only be a transient story.
'People' are full of their own story, that is what they are attached to. - Prising them from their story is useless.
Forget about 'others' - find out what you ARE.
It is simple yet very subtle.
I am often accused of being 'false' and in each case the accuser is obviously not seeing their own bias.
Anyone who imagines that I get some satisfaction from all this stuff, is deluded.
I, like anyone else, am just an appearance in THIS - this cognizing emptiness.
Stop looking for answers and just relax into this presence that you Are.

What is offered here is just a 'pointing' - No big fees to pay and no 'service' to the guru. - No gratitude is expected in return. - 'My reward' has already been delivered, so to speak. - For some unknown 'reason' I am moved to share these simple things - and I have witnessed the fact that it works - it is no big deal but some lives have changed significantly - yet the underlying 'truth' remains undisturbed as it always IS.

Psychological suffering is unnecessary. - Leave it behind you - and 'don't go back' to pick it up.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Jeffrey writes again:

Thank you for writing back. - I read your message several times and what you say rings true for me even though I do not yet know it. - I have contemplated Nisargadatta’s words:

"You think you are in the world – where the world 'appears' in you" many times. I am fascinated by the idea that the accepted view of an objective world access through sensory organs is in reality the inverse of the way it really is. - If the world is in me it follows that there can only be one thing, one awareness….this is the point that my thinking cannot go beyond, I cannot imagine it.

The only way I can relate to the awareness you and Nisargadatta speak of is in contemplating my experience of nighttime sleep. - In nighttime sleep everything and everyone that is so real including your-self is seen as insubstantial and imaginary when one awakes. - It is as if others are awake in the room where you sleep. - They talk to you and tell you that you are asleep, that all that seems real to you, even that there is a you has no independent existence and that this will be clear when you awaken from the dream. - They tell you that while they have awakened they cannot do anything to awaken you and further there is nothing you can do to cause yourself to awaken and yet it happens. - While they speak to you from outside your dream, within your dream they appear the same as everyone else in your dream. - Others in your dream may tell you these people are deceiving themselves , that the dream is reality and it is all there is. - Still you feel something is about the dream is false. - In nighttime sleep when one wakes up the dream suddenly ends and all the concerns and things that felt so important are just as suddenly irrelevant. - What puzzles me is that if as Nisargadatta says that ultimately ‘there is no one else’ why would one such as Nisargadatta who has awakened to a greater awareness be concerned about the helping people awaken that existed only as part of a his former dream. - Perhaps I am trying to ‘explain’ something that if I ‘knew’ would not need explanation.

I am curious about your experience if it could be called that. - Do you remember what it was like before your awareness expanded? - Did it just come upon you or did you search make effort and anticipate as I have done?

- Jeffrey

Reply: - Because of ignorance the apparent separate one searches for completeness - we ignore the first instant of being-ness, which is this 'presence' - this emptiness. - We ignore it because it is No Thing and we look for 'things'.
That No Thing is reality, the un-manifest. - It is that which is unknowable and yet full of clear knowing.
No Thing is the source of all things - they appear and disappear.
Each thing is actually no thing in essence - its life and duration are only an appearance.
Now, it is impossible for anyone to enter that No Thing - the dream of being someone cannot survive its own dissolution. - and as stated earlier everything disappears back into No Thing.
No Thing is the original and authentic 'identity' for everything.
There never was a 'person' - included in that 'never was' is the term 'enlightened person'.
There 'never was' anything.
Now, this is only known to be true through direct experience-ING.
Neti neti is one way to negate everything and realize what you are.
Thoughtless reality is presently evident yet we ignore it and we go with any thought that arises and we believe in 'the thinker' - and 'the thought' - the thinker is nothing but a habitual 'identity' that appears as an extra thought added onto other thoughts.

What thinker is there if you don't think about it?
What 'I' is there if you don't think about it?
What 'me' is there if you don't think about it?
What 'creation' is there if you don't think about it?
What 'time' is there if you don't think about it?

You see that everything we believe in is based on ideas, thoughts.
The ONLY place a thought can appear is in the 'space of immediate knowing'. - the 'space' itself is also an appearance.
Cast it all aside and what is left? - KNOWING.

You can't go beyond KNOWING. - pure thoughtless knowing is this 'presence'.

Everything 'passes through' this - as appearances.

In relative terms, yes I was a 'seeker' and it appears that I found the answer - after many years of searching.
But it is clearly known that I was overlooking the Obvious - the Present empty nature of pure knowing.

My book is called Everything is clear and obvious - my dear friends laughed at my apparent arrogance - since they could see that everything is not clear and obvious - But the 'last laugh is mine' because it is absolutely true that I see that everything is clear and obvious. - It is they who hold onto opinions and seemingly obscure their view - clouding the obvious.
By insisting on being 'someone' we place an obstacle before us. - one that could easily be walked around or cast aside - but it seems that we need to be told about it. - told many times - it seems.
Resonation happens when the message is heard.
Nature resonates in us, a flower, a tree, a flowing river or anything at all - a child singing, a bird.
That resonation is IT.
IT appears as everything - yet if we are already 'gone' with belief and thoughts, we miss that direct connection.
Make some space to simply be.
Drop the thoughts over and over -they will abate - just be.
There is only One Being....and it is Timelessly Here - always available.
There is no hero worship here for Nisargadatta and no claims to be like him.
I can read his words and they resonate clearly. - and what he says is known without having to work on it.
One teacher claims to be in the same state as Nisargadatta - that is crap - Nisargadatta was not in a state - even if he called it a state, it was only a description of something indescribable.
The wisdom that flowed from him could only come from ‘One Place’ – and that place is our ‘true essence’ and THAT is totally available to everyone.
There is NO need to ride on the back of dead gurus.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Todays' Note:

THERE IS NO DUALITY IN NON DUALITY.

That fact appears to by pass everyone....especially the intellectuals.

All that is ever seen, by anyone at all, belongs to 'phenomena' - that which 'appears to BE'.

That which IS is non-dual and THAT is never divided - it is this un-mediated knowing - the fact of being - Knowing that you are - that you exist is IT. - Not knowing that 'I' exist as 'someone' or 'something' - just knowing. - That knowing is empty - not a void - it is the fullness of being.

All of our talk belongs to the appearance - where it emerges from is the 'unknown'.

You can't 'go there' - what you truly are is THAT unknown.

In the 'Appearance' there are some folks who display a belief that they are experts on Non Duality or Advaita.

There are many so-called ‘teachers’ who pride themselves on being ‘a gift’ to ‘seekers’ and spent a lot of energy in ‘promoting themselves’ as being ‘rare’ and even ‘holy incarnations’. – It is all imaginary nonsense and self-indulgence.

Some of these ‘rarefied beings’ appear to behave as extra special ‘beings’.

They ‘conceptually’ divide Non Duality, through ‘mentation only’, into categories and make distinctions about the so-called Teachings of Non Duality.

- There are in fact NO teachings of Non Duality but this fact eludes these ‘experts’ and they do not even suspect that they are ‘going down a dead end street’. – This activity of theirs is a kind of madness, a fanaticism and nothing but an intellectual exercise, which is really, in the most basic sense, a misunderstanding and nothing more than that.

Non-Duality or Advaita means ONE without a second.

Dividing Advaita (Non Duality) into Traditional Advaita and Neo-Advaita is simply a conceptual division and that belongs to ‘dualistic mind’.

It is nothing but conceptualization. - The ‘thinker’, the ‘expert’ is just a believed in ‘entity’, a concept - and when it is explored thoroughly it is found that that entity knows nothing at all. – In that imagination there is a belief that they are doing ‘everyone’ a favor by explaining their complex ‘mind matrix’ and they can talk endlessly in circles about their favorite 'toy'.

It all belongs to dualistic mind. - The bare fact is that no word or words can ever express the essential nature of Non Duality.

All that is possible is a direct ‘pointing’ which may or may not convey to the recipient their own naked presence - this presence of ‘pure knowing’ – this immediate presence of ‘space-like awareness’. - That is not a thing - it is not a concept.

Within this ‘space-like awareness' ‘everything’ appears – there is no exception to this – everything that can be seen or witnessed is an ‘appearance’, appearing nowhere else than in this ‘space-like awareness’.

No matter what concept, no matter how profound or profane it may be – it is nothing but a concept and all concepts are equal – they are all appearances bar none.

Knowing that to be the case is not a ‘knowing made by any entity’.

It is pure knowing – not ‘knowing this’ or ‘knowing that’.

The so-called ‘knower’ and the ‘known’ are simply objectified ‘references’ that appear and disappear quite naturally in this knowing presence.

Neither the knower nor the known can exist ‘outside’ of this knowing.

Nothing useful can be arrived at by reading the words of these ‘experts’, in fact it only brings confusion – and that confusion is an unnecessary conflict in the mind.

Of course the ‘intentions’ of the ‘experts’ is ‘good’.

Many ‘good people’ do ‘good deeds’ and often it brings about more havoc than if they had not done anything at all yet it all belongs to the 'appearance' only - That which 'appears to be'.

The equation does not vary.

There is only ONE without a second – No concept ever divided THAT.

There is NO duality in Non Duality.

Explorations into Emptiness - an interview with Gilbert.

Topic: "No time, nothing happening".

Q: Can we talk about time, how there is no time and how there is nothing happening?

G: Sure.

Q: Why is that that nothing is happening? - When you are in that nothing space, nothing is happening. - How can anything happen from nothing?

G: When you say ‘when you’re in that nothing space’, you are creating a concept of time – a time when you are in it and time when you are not in it - and the fact is that you’re never out of it.

Q: If I am believing that something is happening I have lost that sense of knowing-ness that nothing is happening; - have re-engaged with my mind and I am starting to believe again that there is something happening. - But it is not, nothing is happening because in the end I am that nothingness anyway and I know that.

G: Who knows it?

Q: Well true. - Who knows it? - Um. - So what did I say? - I said ‘I know it.’- How would I say that? (Laughing at self.)

G: Is there anyone to say it?

Q: Well….?

G: Is there anything that needs to be said?

Q: Not really, no.

G: But talking happens.

Q: Yes.

G: The nature of language is dualistic, so every time we open our mouths we are seemingly creating concepts but when we are talking about non-duality we are talking about something that is not a concept. - What we are talking about is something that contains everything, so as soon as we start particularizing by describing it we are dividing that oneness into multiplicity and the imagination or the expectation is that if we get all these multiple bits together in the right pattern they will reflect that oneness perfectly and (snapping his fingers) we will have it – ‘I’ve got it!’ But that is delusion.

Q: Is it about thinking that there is no entity there?

G: That would be erroneous because who is it that is thinking there is not an entity there.

Q: Yeah.

G: Thoughts appear on that awareness and all thoughts are equal in their emptiness. - The basic nature of all phenomena is emptiness. - That is obvious but the mind cannot cope with that because the mind is nothing but 'content' and content is an appearance in (or on) this space-like awareness. - Space-like awareness is not 'the mind' - although you could say that is all the mind really is - awareness. - Awareness never appears - it is un-manifest, clear and empty - But that is not what we are talking about in this context when we say mind. - What we are talking about here is the content…

Q: Thought.

G: .. of the mind. - And we may believe in whatever that content is or we may not believe in it. - But the point is that the knowing is not touched or altered by belief or disbelief.

What is seemingly necessary is to see or have a look for this separate self and it appears that the mind has to take a part in that seeming process. - In seeing that there is no separate entity, what happens, I would say, is that the mind content is seen from beyond the mind because seeing is not in the mind. - The mind of itself is not seeing anything at all. - It is not the function of seeing. - We must KNOW this as a fact - as direct experiencing - not as hearsay or theoretical knowledge.

The mind is only content - and 'this' that is seeing is un-mediated awareness. - Seeing and awareness are just two different words for the same non-thing, space-like awareness. - So when the content is recognized to be only content which is all transient, that is, that it appears and disappears, that recognition is from beyond that content. - We KNOW this!!! - and so it has to be re-cognized - because it was seemingly forgotten - clouded over by beliefs, concepts and mind stuff.

If there is a seeming entity that is 'lost in the content', nothing has really been seen clearly - and that is what we can call 'identified consciousness'. - But that is just another story as well and many get stuck on that story for a whole lifetime. - So in essence what we have 'to do' is come back to the immediacy and, of course, that is a dualistic concept, for 'who' is it that can coming back to the immediacy?
The naked fact is: - You cannot get out of the immediacy.

Q: Yes, when have you ever left it?

G: But, it seems that people, so-called people, need to hear it put into certain terms that their mind is used to. - You could say that the mind only ‘knows’ what it has labels for. - It is used to being in the dualistic condition because that is what it is – it is that dualistic view which contains a 'seer' and the 'seen' - Duality.
Seeing or Awareness itself is non-dual.

Q: The mind is used to thinking like that.

G: The mind is nothing but thought. - There is no 'non-dual language', so we can only speak dualistically - so let me continue with the idea of going back to the immediacy. - When you come back to the immediacy the mind content is seen for what it is and the realization is, ‘Ah, I am ‘this’ presence – this seeing, I’m not that content.’ - That is a so-called moment of pure seeing and that moment can only ever BE THIS moment.
And This Moment is not a moment at all - it is Pure Presence - KNOWING.
When have you ever not been THIS?

Your true identity reveals itself without becoming ‘something’, without becoming an object. - It is not a 'subject' and it is not actually any-thing because it is no thing, empty - Look at what Bob Adamson tells us: - that "The only way out of the mind is full stop" – that is, stopping the mind content. - The pathetic response of the intellectual is "How can I do that?"
Well, you have believed that you have been 'doing' all these other things, year after year, things that have not brought any results - why not try this? - Don't get all hung up on concepts and excuses.
In that full stop, all that the mind is doing stops and there is a ‘clear space of knowing’, that is what I call it, which is always there but it is (appearing to be) more clearly obvious that …

Q: That is what you are!

G: Yeah. - And so,I see that whatever I thought I was a moment ago has gone. - Whatever my mind was seemingly engaged in, has gone, it has disappeared. - But right here, right now, there is clarity, there is (an) emptiness.

It is what the Buddhists call ‘awakened mind’. - That is another concept - (all we have to work with is concepts and 'pointing') awakened mind immediately suggests a non-awakened mind! - All our talking is with concepts and everything has its opposite, HOWEVER, in that full stop, when thought ceases, there is nothing you can say about that subtle experiencing - without re-engaging the mind. - There is nothing right or wrong in that clear space - no question of right or wrong - it is known that 'right and wrong' belong to dualistic mind.

The mind is only concepts, memories, labels and stories and, of course, as soon as you start up all that stuff, which is ‘past’, old - stuff learned in ‘acquired’ mind - and so we dump that onto this immediate clear and empty presence, so there is a seeming obscuration of that clarity. - In actuality, that does not matter either but it is what commonly occurs and keeps you trapped in a never ending circle. - What seems to need to happen is for you to stabilize yourself or establish yourself as that emptiness (of course, this is just a concept and you are truly already that) and realize, KNOW that is what you are. - It is pure knowing.

In that knowing, it is known that that is what I am and it is also known that it does not matter what the mind does. - It does not matter whether there is a lot of conceptualizing, chatter going on or whether there is silence. - It does not matter because there is a knowing that I am not that stuff. - I am, you are, the knowing and that knowing is not conditional, it is not negotiable. – It is never lost, turned off nor is it ever suddenly arriving.

Some teachers refer to the essence of being as being ‘unconditional love’, which is like the idea I expressed that this knowing is not conditional, but the terms can be misleading if they are not clearly understood. - Unconditional love! - It is a dualistic notion - there is conditional love and something called unconditional love. - But we know what they are talking about. - We know what they mean. - They are referring to that uncaused joy of livingness, a loving to be. - That is what they are pointing at when they are using the expression ‘unconditional love.’ - It is better expressed as: ‘love of being, beyond the dualistic love/hate concepts – pure being’

Using such terms as unconditional love can be misleading for the mind. - Everything is potentially misleading for the mind.

Q: With the notion of unconditional love, I would say that the problem arises when I start thinking that it is me, the entity, who is experiencing unconditional love.

G: Yeah.

Q: The mind has come into the picture again when I start to think that I am an entity feeling unconditional love and I have actually lost what you were talking about, that emptiness, because there is no entity to feel that unconditional love.

G: You see how we personalize it? - If we go back and look at what you just expressed, it is personalized. - It is highly suggestive, that there is still some entity there that can do or not do something. - That is the subtle habit – where we get caught. - The one that is getting caught is only a transient appearance. - It is not what you truly are. - So that is why this so-called teaching is significantly different to many other teachings because it is a negation of everything. - As Bob (Adamson) says, ‘Start with the fact that you are that.’ - That sense of presence cannot be negated. - You can negate anything, any concept that somebody puts up, but you cannot negate that sense of presence.

Q: As you were talking, that awareness, that (I am that) emptiness, is there. - There is no thought in that saying ‘I am not my thoughts.’

G: It does not matter if there is thought there, of any kind, because the realization is that all phenomena, no matter what it is, whether a bird flying in the sky, a cloud, a planet, a galaxy, a thought, an emotion, a feeling or whatever, can only be spontaneously appearing. - An atom or an electron cannot grasp the space in which it appears – it can only move upon that emptiness – just like all phenomena does – nothing touches that emptiness and nothing touches anything else - because it is ONE all inclusive presence – I am THAT - there is no separation, anywhere. - That is NOT a concept – separation is a concept. - Knowing that simple fact is enough. - This presence is ALL presence and there is NO time and NO entity here. - Everything appears spontaneously in THAT.

Whatever appears, it is not caused by a previous moment. - This reality is difficult (impossible) for the intellect to grasp because the intellect is based on some matrix of logic and reason and according to the mind everything is happening for a reason which is actually just a projection of the mind into time– past, present and future – but if you examine what is really happening (or not happening) you realize there is only now, and even ‘now’ is just a notion, a concept. - The word ‘now’ is just a word for 'something' (no thing) that is always 'presence'.

Q: Ever present.

G: Ever present. - It is timeless. - It is timelessly present – it is all Presence. - There is no time in it but we are so familiar with this ‘now’ because there has never been a so-called moment when we have not been 'in' this or 'as' this ‘now’, this presence. - The mind can only compare and since 'now is all there is', what can it compare this now with except memories and anticipation? - both of those can only 'appear' in this NOW!

This presence is all there is really. - It is always 'here' and it is not a particular thing. - It is actually everything - as ‘the appearance’. - But because it is not something that comes and goes we do not recognize it even though it is there before our hearts beat. - It was there before the sperm and ovum came together to create that body you call your own.

But who is this one that says: ‘This is my body. - This is my awareness. - I am enlightened?’ - There can be no one who is enlightened! - One without a second means exactly that – one without a second. - So, no matter what this awareness, including whatever this mind is doing - the oneness is not divided. - There is no separation.

The oneness of things is absolutely obvious. - If you drop all your thoughts, what you are seeing, no matter where you are, no matter what you are looking at, you are seeing oneness – no thing. - It is only the thought that particularizes and that is not a problem until the ‘me’ pops up.

Q: Yep. And it is just that continual habit that we have developed since, like Bob says, the age two and a half, of believing in the mind content and it is that which seemingly creates separation.

G: Yeah, but even that is oneness – appearing as these patterns.

Q: I understand.

G: The belief and habit is only seemingly dividing something that cannot be divided. - It is like when the sperm and ovum came together and that ovum divided into two. - Where is the division? - Out of that seeming division comes a whole body – a totally integrated, living organism that is not separate from the living organic life on the surface of this planet.

There is just the thinnest film of organic life on this rock (Earth) flying through space. - It is like a fungus mold on the surface of an orange - and it is feeding off the light from the sun, and off other organisms within this film, and so within this realm seeming separate individuals are born and die. - How many billions of human beings, so-called human beings, have lived on this planet? - Why am I so important out of all those? - If there is an indulgence in believing that I am extra special, I am enlightened, what kind of delusion is that? - It can only be a story I tell myself and attempt to convince 'others' into believing. - Support for my delusion.

Q: And how can you suppose yourself to be separate from 'the whole?'

G: And how arrogant to say, "I am enlightened". - I stand above the rest of them. - "Do what I tell you to do".’

Q: In the ancient Zen text it says ‘this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space. - In it a single thought is ten thousand years.’ - Can you say something about this?

G: Well, the appearance is Relativity. - All fragments of the relative are actually the Absolute - can't be anything else - it is all the Absolute appearing as the relative - I call it "One Moment of eternal self-realization" - and there is no difference between a moment ago and ten thousand years ago.

Q: Not in essence.

G: Because ten thousand years ago is what we call the past - and all there is, is the living immediacy. - A moment ago or five minutes ago, of that seeming happening, it ‘was’ the immediacy. - It still is this immediacy.

Q: It still is the immediacy. - It still is the immediacy.

G: It can’t be anything but that – yet, for mind it is still a moment ‘in the past’, memories of a moment that has seemingly 'gone away', (where?) - it is one source. - That ever-present underlying fundamental ‘note’ is ‘presence’. - THAT is expressing itself as a multiplicity of patterns that are constantly changing but the source, the essence, does not change. - We imagine that one particular expression was perfect or better than another. - We worship spiritual 'idols' and ignore our own naturally perfect presence.

Q: But take the example of this conversation that we are having now where one word is followed by another word, followed by another word – there is apparent continuity in the way we are speaking.

G: Yeah.

Q: So there is the recollection of the former thought or word, so really all thought is going to take you into a sense of there being time.

G: Let us examine that. - Say there is a Persian carpet on the floor that has a pattern on it. - You can see the whole pattern or you can go into the details. - If you look closely at it you can look at the intricate detail of this pattern but all the while the whole pattern is there. - So these words that are coming out in some kind of order, they are a pattern. - The pattern is already there. - You are not choosing those words before they come out, necessarily, and there is no entity to choose them anyway. - Even the idea that there is an entity is just that, an idea. - So that is part of the pattern as well.

The whole universe appears 'in or on' awareness and for the mind, it is this incredible matrix of patterns expressing itself in every possible way but not ‘all at once’ for the perceiver, so to speak. - It appears as an unfolding along with this believed in 'thing' called 'time' but this thing called time is only ever now.

Eternity, you could say, is all time, all possibilities that have been actualized in this now, and there is no difference between a thousand years into the future and ten thousand years in the past except in the pattern that is being expressed in that particular moment, or so-called moment, but that moment is not being divided into different moments. - That is subtle yet so obvious we miss it!

You can tie your mind in knots with this sort of stuff but you cannot negate the fact that you are present and aware and that is the key. - Seeing is happening, knowing is happening, and in that appear all these patterns. - And then we try to make sense out of those patterns with the mind for ‘me’ so that ‘I will understand.’ - That is misunderstanding. - 'People' imagine there is a great understanding that has to be achieved. - That is erroneous because ordinary, everyday understanding is always there. - If I hold these glasses up to you, you understand exactly what they are.

Q: And I do not have to think about it.

G: Without having to refer to memory you know what they are. - And actually, that applies to everything that you are seeing all the time. - In seeing the ocean you do not have to wait for the mind to find the words. - You know what everything is without thinking about it. - You do not have to put a label on something to understand it.
This fact can have a remarkable 'impact' once it is recognized.

That ordinary, everyday understanding is no different to everyday, ordinary awareness - but we overlook it because we believe in a bunch of concepts, including the concept that there is 'a great understanding' possible - because somebody is pretending to have that great understanding.

Q: Quite apart from this pretense of people claiming to be gurus and enlightened and there being some special state of understanding, the notion of an ‘I’ is a mind construct. - It is just a thought. - With such a thought the mind ends up chasing to see itself but the mind can never see itself because the mind is appearing on what it is looking for. - And the mind cannot see it.

G: The mind cannot see anything.

Q: No.

G: The seeing and the knowing are not of the mind so that is where the error is. - In the so-called 'mind' there appears this character that thinks it sees and knows and it does not matter how much it jumps up and down and beats its drum it is never going to be the knowing and the seeing because the seeing and knowing is prior to it.

A: And the mind has just become …….. it is so arrogant. Along the lines of what you are saying, Nissargadata said that the mind is a good servant but it is a bad master.

G: Yes. It will serve you. - It serves you well. - Memory serves you well as long as 'it' is not using you.

Q: So then the mind starts to come back in and thinks that it is the master of the ship and that it is going to see something, thought is going to see something. - But logically, how can thought see anything?

G: That is where people get caught up. - And the so-called person is a mirage. -So there has to be an investigation.

From the mind’s point of view it has to investigate itself. - It needs to examine ‘What am I?’ not ‘Who am I?’ - To the question of ‘Who am I?’ the response can be ‘I’m Sherlock Holmes’ or whom ever. - Always a fictitious character! - It needs to ask, ‘What am I?’ - What am I? - And in looking at that, in seriously looking and investigating what is referred to as, ‘my own consciousness,’ ‘my own awareness,’ everything reveals itself to be conceptual. - And the 'space' in which that content is appearing seemingly becomes more prevalent. - It was always there. - You can call it clarity if you want. - It does not matter what you call it. - It is always there.

Q: What you said reminds me of the analogy of the mirror that Bob uses. - The mirror (the clarity you are referring to) is constantly reflecting objects (mind content) and it does not matter how many objects or what objects appear on that, the mirror is still pristine and untouched. - In other words, none of those images, thoughts, suffering or any of that is going to soil that clarity (the mirror).

G: Yeah

Q: So it is the same.

G: The mirror analogy is talking about awareness. - Awareness is like the mirror, you know, and it is registering all the impressions.

Q: Including any suffering.

G: Including everything!

Q: I suggested suffering because that seems to be what people are trying to escape a lot of the time.

G: Yeah but the character is just a reflection appearing ‘in or on the awareness’ so how can it escape. - It cannot escape or do anything at all. - It is just a reflection. - It has no power whatsoever. - It is just imagination, a believed in thing. - So everything appears in the awareness and the awareness does not care one way or the other whether it is a dead dog laying on the street, an elephant trampling over tourists or a gentle lapping wave on a 'distant shore'.

Q: But that does not mean that there is no compassion in that though because compassion can appear in that. -When you say that it does not care, I guess it is neutral. - It is like the mirror in that it is just reflecting.

G: Well you can say that all caring and all not caring appear in awareness. - They are totally balanced because there is no duality in non-duality. - There is no character only an appearance of a character. - There is no character anywhere! - I mean look at the Buddha. - Buddhism, one of the big religions of this planet, came out of an ordinary guy who sat under a tree and realized that he was formless. - "I am formless". - In other words, like Nisagardatta says, ‘You’re not the body, you’re not the mind.’

Well, if I am not the body and I’m not the mind, what the hell am I? - I must be this awareness which is formless and this formless contains all the appearances of forms – all the multiplicity appears in this singular space of knowing. - Of itself, there is no taste and there is no color, it is not made of anything discernable and yet it contains all the qualities of all things – ‘signature aurorum’ - 'the signature in all things' is this Singular Essence - the personalized signature is worthless without that signature of all things behind it.


Q: And at that point the mind will jump in and start saying ‘I want to see awareness’. And that is the problem, right?

G: Yeah, well, how can the seeing see itself? - You can only see what is appearing. - It is one awareness appearing as multiplicity. - Every set of eyes of any creature anywhere is only an instrument for that seeing to register on the emptiness that lies behind everything.

Q: So, stay with the ‘I am’.

G: Nisargadatta’s guru, Siddharameshwar, told him to stay with that ‘I am’ and that is what Nisargadatta did. - It is a simple instruction. - Very simple! - And yet people complicate it. - But see how simple that is. - Basically that is it, it is not the words ‘I am’ – the presence!

Here was a so-called young man who did as his guru suggested and everything fell away. - One could say that he realized what he was. - (Have you?) - First of all he believed what his guru told him because it resonated so strongly with him. He did not doubt it. - And secondly, he did what his guru told him to do, he stayed with that ‘I am’, that ‘I am-ness’. - It is not the words ‘I am.’ - You don’t sit there and say ‘I am, I am, I am’. - It is that sense of presence, which the words only describe. - You just sit with that as that. - That is being, it is not 'becoming'.

You know, all seekers are trying to become something. - They may hear the story about Nisargardatta and they think ‘Oh, yeah, I want to be like that,’ and then they complicate it by adding things to it instead of peeling it all back. He said sit with the ‘I am.’ - Sit with that sense of presence AS that presence only. - It is very simple - and so no method is applicable. - A method is 'mind' and pure awareness is no mind, never was a mind.

(That appears to depend on what you define 'mind' as.)

Q: And so, in sitting with that presence, you will have ideas that start to bubble up that start to say ‘Oh no, tomorrow I’m going to hate work because I’ve got this and this to do’ or ‘Oh no, I’ve got a dinner engagement with someone and I hate this person.’

G: Yeah, but you have already taken the bait with it, you know. - If you are sitting, so-called sitting with that awareness, sitting in that awareness, you are that awareness. - Like Bob says ‘Start from the fact that you are that.’ - You are that awareness. - So, there is a kind of sitting with that and this description of it is just a concept - it is an expression of that sitting with ‘I am the awareness.’ - Then no matter what thought comes up, it is seen for what it is before the bait is taken.

See that is what happens. - 'People' do not recognize that the thought is arising in that awareness and the habit is to go with the thought and believe the thought. But it is just a thought. - And the believed in entity has taken the bait. It has already appeared as a form. - But as the Buddha says ‘I am formless.’ - I am that formless, deathless spirit. - I am not this character that appears and disappears. - That character is not there all the time.

Q: And the idea of that character is always changing anyway. - I mean the idea of what that character is.

G: Of course. - It is a phenomenon and all phenomena are constantly changing. - But if you look for that which does not change in yourself, in your so-called self, if you really look, it is obvious. - It is absolutely obvious. - It is the peace beyond all understanding because it is not mind. - The nature of the mind is restlessness. - Its nature is always to be restless; it is always active and looking for something 'other' that 'what is'.

Q: Dividing.

G: Dividing things.

Q: Separating.

G: Telling stories about so and so did this to me, etcetera, and I’ll never forgive them and so on.

Q: And the mind only just separates and divides. - That is all it ever does.

G: It does not divide anything. - It only appears to.

Q: I’m just going along with what you are saying with the mind.

G: It appears to divide. - It has no power what so ever. - It is just like two mirrors back to back. - They seemingly divide the view into two different parts but actually that view is not divided. - It is one. - It always was ‘one’. - It can’t be anything but ‘one’ – in fact it is it is not even ‘one’. - Any apparent division appearing in the one is contained within the one so it is not divided. It is like that fertilized ovum when it divides into two. - It is not really dividing anything. - It is just a seeming growth within the wholeness of not just the so-called individual, but also the whole universe because that body cannot exist without the organic life on Earth, the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. - The fact is that nothing in this manifestation can exist without the rest of it because every particle is of this singular matrix - of 'the appearance'. - It all 'appears to be' - it is not the BEING.

Q: The language that we have got creates the division because it is like we have knowledge…

G: It does not create division. - It merely appears to divide…..

Q: It creates the division in our perception or in our belief. - It creates the believed in separation, if you want me to be clear. - That is what I am saying.

G: Yeah, but it is more correct to say it appears to create something. - If you say that it creates something, you are affirming that it is creating something. - It is not creating anything. - It is not created. - It is the unborn Buddha mind.

As Bankei says, everything is resolved in the unborn Buddha mind. He used the word ‘Buddha’ which simply means 'awake'. - That is all the word ‘Buddha’ means. - So everything is resolved in the unborn, awake mind.

Q: The essence of it is that it is non-conceptual awareness.

G: The essence of what?

Q: Advaita. - It is about knowing that what you are is prior to concept. - It is not the thought that appears, it is prior to that. So how do I know that nothing is happening?

G: Well, how do you know that something is happening?

Q: For me, nothing is happening.

G: Yeah but, how do you know something is happening?

Q: The mind is telling me something is happening.

G: The mind only interprets what is happening. - Impressions are registering on that space-like awareness and 'the mind' interprets those impressions as objects, ideas etc: the world and the universe and internal sensations, feelings, all that sort of stuff. - So, it is those impressions that tell you that something is happening. - But those happenings are an appearance on that absolutely stable emptiness that is not a happening. - So if you are that emptiness, you know that there is nothing happening, there is just an appearance of happening.

Like Bob says, start with the fact that you are that. - You do not have to take on some mental posture to start from the fact that you are that. - It is like you have to drop everything and just be what you are which does not require you doing anything. - The question for the mind is not 'who am I?' - it is ‘What am I?’ - When you have a look at ‘What am I?’ what do you find?

Q: Nothing.

G: No thing. - It is seemingly different in every case and everyone will have a different story. - In peeling it all back and realizing that I am present and aware and that everything that arises in the mind is transient – it appears and disappears – in realizing I am this absolute motionless stability of emptiness, there is a knowing that nothing is really happening. - It is just appearing to happen. - And there is no one here that is attached to what is appearing to happen.

So in dropping thought or in the full stop, when thought ceases, there is a peace there that is obviously not depending on anything. - Know that fully and that peace does not actually disappear. - You have to discover this yourself. It does not disappear just because a thought arises. - There is a knowing that whatever thought is appearing it is just an appearance that comes and goes and it is not what I am and so the energy of belief is not going into the thought and investing it with identity. - That is what identified consciousness really is, phenomena invested with identity. - Even though it is not something that is real, it ‘appears to be’ when you are giving your identify to it.

Q: To some thought.

G: So it is this habit ‘pathway of energy’ that runs into concepts and makes them seem real. - And in starting from the fact, that you are that space-like awareness, you sit there, you see these pathways, these habitual pathways open up - but you do not believe in that stuff anymore. - So the energy stays with the seeing, with the presence, pure presence. - It does not flow into these old ideas and these ideas are seen to be transparent and impotent. - They have no power whatsoever.

You are the potentiality. - You are the potency yourself - but not as an entity. - And that is ‘one without a second’. - There is no individual anywhere that is enlightened or not enlightened. - As the highest teachings of Buddhism, the Dzogchen teaching, it says "there is no difference between a Buddha and an ordinary being" - because it is one without a second. - One BEING - not multiple beings.

It is one awareness, one consciousness, one being-ness. - You know it is all different words for the one. - In the cosmology of Hinduism it says something like; in the beginning there was One and the one became many and in that 'becoming many' it became ignorant in order for that ignorance to rediscover itself as being One.

Q: I love that story.

G: Ha, yes and everyone loves a story. - So if you look, although it is just a conceptual expression, it does have a meaning that 'many' can relate to. - The relative is IT but not how it appears - it appears as diversity yet it is one essence. - To me, the timeless aspect of what 'it means' is that this moment of right now is 'awareness realizing itself' not only as this particular pattern here (pointing to self), but as every other pattern, every so-called individual, every pair of eyes, every mind, every brained being and every non-brained being and particle and organism. - Everything is that 'One' realizing itself in all its multiplicity in THIS immediacy. - The expression is THIS instant which is never 'in time'. - It is not divided at all. - That is boggling for the mind - in looking at it from the 'mind' we are already taking the position of a 'looker', a 'thinker' and so the view is a reflection - not the original view, so to speak. - This is not the normal way 'we think about things'. - Recognizing it as being this immediate cognition 'takes you' to this miraculous wonder of 'Is-ness'.

When I was twelve years old, my schoolteacher, in my first science class in high school, I think, said that the universe was endless. - And I had not heard of such a thing before and that night after the evening meal I went outside and it was dark. - In Tasmania, where 'I grew up' the night sky is really cool and clear and you can see the Milky Way very clearly (it is milky) and I just looked up into that vast space with this new interest, provided by this new concept I had been given, of the universe being endless, and it just filled me with an inexpressible sense of wonder. - And I have never truly lost that sense of wonder.

That sense of wonder is always there. - Of course, it is not always at the front of what is seemingly happening - it is like something was touched, it is like some truth was touched upon for a young twelve-year-old brain. - There 'were' many other 'moments' in my so-called life when that same wonder revealed itself. - But it is not contained by anything. - It is that which contains everything. - The whole universe appears in that 'sense'.

Q: And then when thoughts appear you still know you are it.

G: You do not have to think I am it or I am that. - It is just ‘knowing’. - Knowing is always there. - You can’t start it, you can’t stop it. - Like Bob says, you do not have to kick start that knowing or that seeing. - You know, in the morning, in those first few moments when you wake up, there is just wakefulness and then what commonly happens is the thoughts about who I am, start coming up. - And if I have got some issue or problem from the day before, pretty soon, it kicks off and I am back up to my neck in it, seemingly.

The point is one has to investigate this so-called entity that gets lost in phenomena or emotions or drama. - Who is that- the answer is ‘me’. - And what is this me? - This me needs to be investigated. - It has to be revealed for what it is in order for the energy of belief to cease giving it apparent reality. - It is the same as when you see through a mirage. - You see that there is no water in the mirage. - You do not actually do anything in that revelation because seeing is happening. - You might walk towards the mirage of water but it reveals itself without any doing on your part. - The seeing is ‘Ah ha, there was never any water there’- And the next time you see a mirage you are not going to believe there is water there.

It is not just one pattern of the mirage that catches us; there are multiple patterns, multiple habitual things that we seemingly get caught up in. - And it is as though every single one has to be exposed but actually that is not true because if you just investigate this idea of being a separate entity that is the tap root for the whole thing and if you sever that tap or pull it out of the so-called ground, the ground of being in which everything appears, if you pull that root system out it can never sprout another branch or leaf or twig ever again.
So it is a matter of being thorough, having a look - can you find a self-center? - But you know (for many) there appears to be a tremendous resistance to making this investigation. - I see it all the time. - 'People' have convinced themselves that they themselves they have seen through the ‘me’ and then ironically there will be a story about how caught up they are in life.
It does appear that only a few 'hear' the message - yet it is clearly made available to everyone who 'stumbles upon it' - Only when it resonates does it provide a 'clearing' for SEEING - to see what is really going on.
The pure functions of hearing - seeing - knowing are complete in themselves and nothing can be added or taken away from 'them' - realization is that resonance of knowing - not the content - 'the known' or 'the knower'.
That is the great perfection - the great liberation which everyone seeks, not realizing that all their concepts and efforts are nothing but beliefs, content of mind.
Each one of those concepts or efforts are simply appearances which actually disappear no matter how stuck they may seem to be - they ALL vanish in deep sleep.
Awareness does not disappear - it can't - all that happens is that the mind ceases to translate - it rests and also disappears into the natural state.
What 'I am' is invisible - totally invisible and so, even logically, it cannot disappear.

Have a closer look into 'things'.

Check out the Urban Guru Cafe if you have not already done so. - Click HERE.

Email:

Hi Gilbert,

I see that the one being driven on is just a concept being driven on by another concept in the mind. - Meanwhile there is a constant seeing observing the process. - Every time I focus on the I-thought there is a changing of the point of view from which the observing is done. - Is there really a "point" of view at all? Whatever "I" do, the seeing seems to be happening from a "point" "behind" "me". - Almost in the same way that one can´t see one´s own head.

Although I understand all this on some level the sense of "I" is still very strong. - There is still this powerful urge to DO something to travel further along the "path", to move closer to the "goal". Will this urge ever lose its´power?

These insights seem very intellectual to me and has not really changed anything in my life. But maybe that´s all more of the same "seeking-business" that the "I" loves so dearly. - How can I quit it?

I feel really tired sometimes and just want to drop this whole thing.

Once again thank you for taking the time.

Best regards J in Europe

Reply:

It will drop off by itself.
The intellect has NO power at all. - The believed in 'entity' is a fabrication - there never was a 'you' that 'did' anything. - The 'thinker' - the 'doer' - the 'believer' are all thought based - appearances in/on awareness.
Only belief makes it all seem real.
Is there an 'I' if you don't think about it?
That 'idea' of being 'someone' is just another idea, yet it has been believed in for 'so long'.
So-called society has this core belief of their being 'individuals' and so a lot of 'feedback' supports that idea - it is all dream like and it cannot 'stand alone' in the light of SEEING.

It is seen through.

Even though it is radical to point it out, 'Society' is just another idea.

Society is a concept about multiplicity - separate individuals in groups etc.

What we are talking about is Non Duality. - There is NO duality in Non Duality.

Everything appears as seemingly separate things within the WHOLE.

Everything MOVES upon emptiness.
The reference points 'of view' appear' and disappear, they are replaced constantly.
The SEEING does not need a reference point, the 'mind' does - that is what mind is - reference points.
That is what mind is - reference points in a spacious (no) thing we call or name as 'mind', which is actually awareness - the idea that there is such a thing as mind, is merely another idea and ALL ideas appear and disappear in or ON Awareness.
You are that which never changes - that is so obvious, yet for the mind it is far too subtle - it can only 'know' what it has named - that 'knowing' is fabricated knowing and is ALL from the 'past', even though there is no past as such.
Impressions register ON awareness and then they are translated by the acquired mind - and that is what is believed in - the translation - and the direct and immediate SEEING is only SEEMINGLY obscured.
Look closely and SEE that it is all 'an appearance' - all appearing in what you ARE.
What you ARE is 'space-like' - emptiness which is the KNOWING of every movement and every appearance.
Your account shows that there is indeed this experienc-ING of THAT (what I describe).
The experiencing is not creating a 'you' - an experienc-er - or any experiences.

The ACTUALITY is only this immediacy - it does not change - and there is no room or time for any entity to take form in THIS actuality.

This is extremely subtle and yet it is totally available to KNOW this - putting concepts upon it is where the deviations of mind come into the picture.

It may seem like a razors edge. - Yet what you truly are has never existed anywhere other than AS this immediacy. - No one ever enters the now - nor leaves it.

THIS direct and immediate experienc-ing is all there ever IS.

Stay 'with it' and SEE the truth of what I am saying - KNOW that this space-like awareness has no boundary and NO center.
That is the decisive experiencing - AND the KNOWING of that, without 'having to become' a FORM (habit of 'ME') is what they call the Great Perfection - Non Conceptual Awareness.
No One can claim it - those who attempt to claim or brag about owning it are just insubstantial appearances - dream like notions and should be ignored.

"Let no man come between you and your God" - The Bible

Drop the (you) me concept and drop the God concept and just BE.

Just SEE - be the SEEING only.

The whole matrix will slip and slide, undo itself and in witnessing, even the slightest undoing of it will be significant - yet you must remain as the undisturbed witness - then the witness will also dissolve before your open view - a boundless view with NO point of reference.
It is impossible to describe, yet I have describe it quite well, at least for those who have tasted this freedom.
For the others, they cling to their beliefs like a child to a security blanket.
What can be done?
By whom?
There is no problem - that is not an idea or a concept.
Those who insist that there is a problem are the maintainers of the belief in the problem.
'Who' has a problem?
Conflict starts in the mind and energized by belief - it appears as a perpetuating mechanism which may lead to a bloody mess or not.
And YET all such appearances (beliefs) actually disappear by themselves if they are left alone - and they do.

Strange and wondrous.
The point is that psychological suffering is not necessary.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Mike writes:

Are you aware while asleep? - Or do you require the mind-body to be aware? The only experience we seem to have is through this mind-body. - To speak, or think of a deeper awareness is difficult for me. - If I am what all this appears on, then it makes sense that "I" should be able to automatically know that (I want to say "experience", but I know there's no-one who experiences). - It all sounds so simple, yet even when I think of nothing and just know "I am", well there's just no great truth revealed to me, or I don't get the "a ha" moment. - Do you know what I'm trying to say?

Thanks, - Mike

Reply:

Awareness is non dual - it is timeless. It does not sleep.
The sleep state appears in it - for the body to regenerate - it is nature.
The IDEA of being someone disappears in sleep.
THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE.
Awareness is PRESENCE - how can it leave?
There is an idea that the experiencing is because of, and THROUGH, the body.
The body and the content of mind are appearances and are obviously KNOWN from beyond them.
That is the significant factor.
As long as there is a belief in the transitory reference points of view that appear in the mind, then it will remain a mystery.
One must witness the mechanics of the mind clearly.
There are long standing habits, some appear to be very subtle.
It is as though one must catch them, see them and witness them disappearing.
In that experiencing, there is a FACT - that fact is that I remain and what I thought I was has disappeared.
That KNOWING is what can be called a 'decisive experiencing'.
It is first hand information that cannot be given by another - or read about or passed on by some guru or teacher.
First hand, immediate Knowing - not a concept, idea or image.
It is SEEING and SEEING is KNOWING.
The problem is all seekers have so many concepts to play with and they play endlessly with them - and they IGNORE what is so obvious - the fact of their own being - the natural 'state' which is wordless, thoughtless.

How can anyone convince you of this?
You must look closely yourself.

The essence of this investigation is NOT seeking - it is SEEING.
Arrogance of believing that I am 'someone' - someone special is the problem.
That is why so many gurus and teachers are 'bad news' - because of their own ignorance they display that 'special-ness' as if it were the prize that everyone is looking for. - That is the irony of the trap of seeking.
Be cautious of who you take on as a teacher.
A teacher worth his salt will not keep you bound - his job is to set you free as soon as possible.

Warm regards - G.

Can THIS immediate presence be postponed?

If you have not done it already then check this out - click here. - The Urban Guru Cafe - a podcast 'radio' style program packed with 'direct pointers'.

There are many website on Non Duality but few that I feel an inclination to recommend. - There is a list of recommended ones on my Links Page on the main website. - One highly recommended site is Bob Adamson's site. - Another is Randall's site.

Randall is a young fella who 'fell out of the mind's trap' - He is 'on the ball' and is clearly expressing things well - check it out he has some 'new tech' stuff happening also. - Click here to visit his blog.

Regular Notes:

Email: Hey Gilbert.
I just finished the e-book of yours,"Everything is clear and obvious"....Wow! - I don't know but, well, after that, there is no need to read anything. - I have never read a text before where IT is possible to happen.

There appears that there is a 'reason' why non-duality will never be popular. - It's because it leaves you with nothing, and now....who wants that?

Well, Osho once said that you have got to put some sugar on the truth , otherwise nobody will take it.

Anyway, thank you for the e-book. - I am going to read it forever. - I am 'behind' the lines.- regards Roshi

Reply:

Hi Roshi, The e-book is clear and precise with NO sugar. - One could say that that is intentional, even though I do know that if I added some sugar it would be a lot more popular - but my 'privacy' would then be crowded by seekers wanting more and more sugar. - It is interesting to note that Osho had hundreds and hundreds of followers around him constantly, yet few ever got to speak with him 'one to one'.
Osho put lots of sugar on the truth - he was seductive a story teller - a very popular one - popular because of his charisma, the sugar and his ability to entertain and make seekers swoon in a 'temporary' blissful state. - The seduction and the devotional aspect is so sticky and binding for the mind and 'heart'....and 'ego' sense.
Charismatic teachers seem to collect seekers, not set them free. - Only a clear teacher has freedom to move about without being surrounded by seekers, decade after decade. - How this situation is mistaken for a way to freedom is mystifying. - When speaking with such devotees, it is obvious how fragile their beliefs are and how the truth is avoided at all costs.

Osho collected many stories from many traditions and was also an accomplished student of philosophy etc. - He had a bright intellect, that is for certain.

My comments may offend a few, (nothing new in that) and the fact that the 'thing' that is offended is actually the obstacle that keeps them bound - that 'factor' is the thing that needs to be investigated. - Old ideas and old attachments are stale - they keep one from SEEING what is immediately obvious.

I have enjoyed some of his writings many years ago – today I see that he is very clear at times and at other times his words are expressing confusion and so they are merely entertainment for the mind. - So many of his devotees are still wandering about seeking without finding. - I know of none that ever went beyond seeking.

There is ONLY this moment of KNOWING - and even the notion that there is a 'moment' is just another concept, an 'appearance' IN this 'knowing' that I AM – The truth is that I AM THIS unchanging presence.
The unfolding patterns of life do not stop - the emptiness is full and IT over flows and appears as THIS immediate LIFE and what you ARE is the KNOWING of it – so you are prior to all appearances.
Yes, you are behind it all - beyond it all - but there is nothing you can say about it in objective terms - all expressions are spilling out of that space of knowing - you are THAT.

In listening to your own voice, can you find where the words are arising from?

Please feel free to write whenever you wish.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

P.S. The e-book mentioned is download-able from the main website - top right hand side of screen.

Second email from Roshi:

Hi Gilbert!
I have a question about the statement Bob says: “Start with the fact that you are that”.
But how can you start with "that" if you don't Know (aware of) That? - If you are you are already there?

That statement has a tremendous importance for me, it's a way to go around the concept of me - may be!

Roshi