Sunday, November 27, 2005

James Braha's new book on Bob - Living Reality

James Braha’s new book is on the verge of being released early in December.
Take Note:
THIS BOOK WILL BECOME A MODERN CLASSIC REPRESENTATION OF THE MESSAGE
- I received a review copy recently and I wish to share some of my impression on it.
- These comments in full are on the next and more recent note.
It is not a matter of taking it in passively or treating it as a gospel or sacred text.

An aspect of Bob's gift, is that he is a simple man, a westerner who speaks very ordinary language. - The intelligence which shines through what he is saying is unmistakable.
He claims no ownership of it in any way. - He points to the very same intelligence in those who visit him.
I must say I feel some joy and happiness about this book appearing 'out there'.

When I first discovered Bob, I quite naturally wanted everyone to know about him and his clear message.
Well, we know that not everyone, in fact very few are really interested. - Actually, even in spiritual circle, there are very few who really resonate loudly in their authenticity with a true message. - So habitual is the apparent bondage, that they can't let go of the sad stories of being a seeker. - How miserable!
- Most prefer to perpetuate the illusion and will avoid at any cost, the true situation.
Of course there is no entity 'doing' any such thing but it appears that way.
- Even though there is not a single doubt here about it all, it is still a joy to see more and more picking up on Bob's genuine and profound subtle pointing.
Surely all these seekers must eventually get tired of those sacred teachers in their 'get up' and all their 'preciousness'. - In a clearly obvious way, one can easily percieve that Bob has no ego base at all. - That freedom touches the innate freedom in us and something is revealed.
Once revealed, it can never full close over again. In simply seeing, without a reference point in fixating awareness, the shroud of ignorance dissolves completely.
- I advise anyone who is a bit tired of the ‘heavy’ non-dual literature to get this new book.
- It is a welcome sharing of this living reality.

Well done James - Gilbert

The ISBN number is 0-935895-10-8 51995

Living Reality. by James Braha - Printed by Hermetician Press.

Check his website out - http://www.jamesbraha.com/



Gilbert's regular Note on the non dual perplex-ion:

Non Duality discussions are popping up everywhere these days.
What are the essential points for a true understanding on Non Duality?
What is so often overlooked in these Non Duality discussions may be these following points.

The unchanging essential points are:

1. Seeing is happening.

2. Knowing is happening.

Even to say that, it enters into linguistic dualism.
‘Seeing - Knowing’ are unchanging. - Ever present and timeless.
The apparent ‘happening’ is the ever changing parade of what is seen and known or what can be described as the appearance of phenomena.
What is missed so often is the fact that nothing that is seen or known ever compounds into anything called a 'past' or into anything 'other' than...its ever fresh nature of being in ‘appearance’ only. - The nature of energy is to move, therefore all phenomena are fresh and new in appearance even when it appears to be the same as 'a moment ago'.
- There is no duration in pure seeing. What is translated from what is seen appears to have duration, yet that is all simply appearing in the seeing which never budges. - Otherwise how could you say anything about it? - While the mind is engaged in describing some momentary 'past' impressions, seeing is still functioning and all is registering just as it is without words.
Thoughtless reality.

So, seeing IS. - Knowing IS.

What is happening?
Nothing is happening.
For the apparent 'entity', everything is happening.

In your true essence, nothing is happening.
There is silence and a living stillness.

Who will normally accept such outrageous statements?
No one!
Yet seeing is happening. - Knowing is happening.
All objections are in mind process only and are attributed to an owner of those objections.
All of this is ME and my beliefs. - Stories. - Just stories.
Is there understanding there? - Maybe?
Or is it miss-understanding? - Not sure?
Opinions and preferences in memory? - Is that all it is? - 'Who' wants to know?
Awareness is non dual. - The me is a fragmented image of a self which never ever existed in this immediate actuality. - This can be seen clearly as long as there is no 'personal stance' taken in the pure functioning of seeing.

The body mind organism is an instrument of direct cognition.
Without that, there is nothing to See and nothing to Know.
With it, what is seen is also nothing - but it appears as something.
You are prior to all appearances, therefore you see it all.

But you cannot see yourself !

Investigate that !

The pivotal point is called ‘The Investigation’.
The essence of the investigation is ‘seeing-knowing’.
These two aspects of awareness are one and are ever prior to the content of investigation.

Many spiritual aspirants are of the opinion that they have already made the investigation.
Yet in their expressions, it is obvious that it is all conceptual additions to thier collected spiritual baggage.
‘Yes I Know’
- is often a response. - Is it a defensive response? - Protection of what?
It is the useless protection of a false idea that ‘I’ have ‘got it’ or -“I am done with it’.
They may say ‘yes it has all been cleared up for me by 'so and so’.
Then they often go on and on with some line of conceptual paraphernalia which demonstrates clearly that miss-understanding is still the centre of gravity in their mental terrain.

However, once this investigation is thoroughly made, then and only then, does the true nature reveal its ultimate revelation.
Now, having said that, do not imagine that this ultimate revelation is belonging to some higher realm of consciousness.
This ultimate revelation is simple ordinary wakefulness.

Now, can you honestly say that wakefulness is not present right now?


Note: The link to Mark West interviews are on the next note page below.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Mark West interviews 1,2,3, 4 & a new note

Note: Anyone who has been experiencing trouble with the ordering of the CD or Book.
The problem seems to have repaired itself.


The Basics:
‘Seeing-Knowing’ are spontaneously happening. - In that there is a direct knowing of all you need to know. - It is the elimination of belief, which uncovers the innate knowing presence, which is your authentic being-ness.
This is effortlessly achieved by resting in the true nature of mind, which is clear and empty.
Usually such direct instructions are rejected all too quickly as being unachievable - by the aspirant. This is simply due to habitual attachments with a mindset, which in itself contains little or no faith in what is authentic.

The following URL is a link to interviews with Mark West.
Mark spent many months with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
It was unusual for Maharaj to allow someone to stay for more than a couple of weeks. - A friendship formed. - I know that many will find some interest in this interview. - There will be a series of interviews with Mark in due course.
More interesting material will follow in due course.
So, take a listen:

http://nisargadattasmessage.blogspot.com/

This modern realm of Non-Duality Teaching is a bit of a joke.
It is as if there is a great pond in which there are a great number of fish.
Some fish are wise and swim freely about and live on the natural food source which is provided by the pond itself. - Many fish are ‘seekers’, hungry for ‘tasty-bits’ or ‘special’ bate which they believe will transform them into the form of an Angel fish.
Many Gurus come to the pond and throw in their lines with bated hooks. - They love to collect these ‘seekers’ and take them back to their private ‘ashram pond’.
All throughout this drama, there is a wise old fish amongst the ‘seekers’. - He ignores all hooks and swims freely. Other fish notice his freedom and follow his example.
Soon enough, they also can laugh at the gurus and their bated hooks.
How many bated hooks have you swallowed, hook line and sinker?
The true teacher moves about in life without an entourage and without any airs of ‘special-ness’. - There is no self-interest in his message, it is natural and clear. - It, by its very nature, destroys the erroneous conceptual ‘stance’ of being a ‘seeker’. - The job is always completed and this is happening effortlessly.

Only 'seekers' are exhausted. And that exhaustion, when complete, will reveal what lays beneath the shroud of unknowing.

These travelling (gurus) conjurers are just like the Pied Piper of Hamlin.
The Pied Piper never finishes the job because of his own self interest. - He always turns before he leaves the township and throws a couple of rats back, so that ‘He’ will still be needed.
My apparent criticism of some teachers recently is just a demonstration of ‘bate on the hook’. As long as you ‘take the bate’, then you are tricking yourself.
Be the wisdom that you truly are. - See through all these personalized patterns of belief. - No one else can do it for you. - And the delusion will continue unless the natural seeing cuts through these beliefs.
AND....SEE right NOW that seeing is cutting through all that appears, without exception.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Ordinary wakefulness is subjugated?

If you have not heard the Interview with Mark West, then do so. The link is on the adjacent page, named as such, which can be found in the notes list.

Note for today:
It may be of interest to some, to know that what I see now, is an ever diminishing interest (in myself) in ‘seekers’ and their ‘wants’. -So very few are genuine and most just want to argue a point and hang onto a personal point of view. - Non Dual chat room have become a cess-pit of intellectual babble.
In contrast, what I notice is that in ordinary life, there is simplicity without the intense self-centred focus of being ‘spiritually special’ in those I meet and speak with.
It is also significant that there is no longer percieved any substantial separation to any of it.
However, all this focus on ‘special teachers’ and their ‘grace’ etc, is just more delusion and counter productive. - It supports the belief in being ‘special’. - Ordinary wakefulness is apparently superimposed with more and more concepts (for these infamous seekers).
The self-centred pursuit of a goal in ‘time’ and through personalized ‘expectations’ - and all these ‘conceptual constructs’ are actually the very antithesis of the non dual realization.
So few seem to get past all that rigmarole.
Even promising candidates slip back into the mind realm and sprout more and more garbage in the non dual jargon which has now become so sickening to read or hear.
I have had many conversations with those who have supposedly transcended the illusion.
-In all cases except one, there is an obvious series of personalized beliefs.
I have read the words of many ‘famous’ and popular teachers. - Almost all the current ones are speaking in riddles and contradictions. - They appear to borrow wisdom from here and there and sprout it, mixed with personal views. - Their followers are equally confused and demonstrate egoistic gravitation. - The shock needed to knock them out of their eccentric orbit is bound to be unpleasant. - Yet they are not willing to accept even a mild knock to their ego base beliefs. -Their ‘special guru’ feeds them what they want, which is mostly bullshit. - Why should I care? - I don't! - I am 'over it'. - Why stick your head in a bucket of sh..t?
My recent expose of some of these teachers has most fortuitously scared off many seekers.
Now, there is more space without, these mosquito’s buzzing around with their needy personas.

The bottom line of it all is so simple.
The ‘personalized’ preferences of the seeker must be cleared away.
- Until then, the message will not settle in the heart.

As the Gita says: “Of all the seekers, there is only one who knows me in my true nature”.
I say that the seeker knows nothing.
- It is the heart essence that knows and it is not a seeker.
- It is free as it always is.

Who knows that?

Sunday, November 06, 2005

What you seek – you already are !

What is true or simply ‘what is’ cannot be reduced to a conceptual expression.
Attempts to add to ‘what is true’ is futile, since all additions, whether deemed to be true or false are simply an aspect of this immediate expression - of 'what is'. - The expression is IN 'what is' and so the expression cannot contain or encompass the ‘medium’ of that expression, which is ‘what is’.
One could say the ‘what is true’ is complete and needs nor can have any additions as such.
Or one could say that all apparent additions to ‘what is true’ are true no matter what coloration they have - negative or positive. - Nothing is actually added at all. - It matters little, which-ever way it expresses itself. - To ‘whom’ does it matter?

This ‘equation’ is equal with your apparent situation as an individual.
No concept can really reveal what you are.
Your authenticity is complete. - All attempts to add to it are conceptually biased and from a limited view point in mind and these are futile. - They are mere reference points in mind.

Note: For the practical life of the so-called individual, methods appear to be useful for all kinds on endeavours and these are not what is being questioned or talked about here.

In the understanding of life’s so-called meaning and in finding ones true identity, no method is needed.
If all methods are dropped and if all attempts to conceptualize it, or add to it are dropped, then it leaves you present and aware.
In this openness there may arise an awareness of the fact that there never was a time when you were not present and aware, even in the midst of so-called heavy drama.
This unconditioned, pure knowing is of the immediate essential nature of all things which of course includes oneself. It is ONE.
This knowing is ever-prior to all language and is not from the known realm of past knowledge. - It is direct and not of time, either past present or future.
Some may wish to exclude 'the present' from that prior sentence. - The 'present' in time is not presence. - It is a process of mind which is named and projected out onto the immediacy - but it is already 'past' due to the process ‘time’ of the mind. - It is a mere conceptual re-present-ation.
- The intellect is slow. - Intelligence is instant.
That may be too subtle for some to grasp.
- This is not significant because the knowing intelligence that you are is forever instantly here.
- KNOWING is instant, unmediated cognition. -Can you truly deny that it is happening right now?

So, from all this, you may re-cognize that ‘you’ need not search for some special knowledge -since you ARE the knowing presence, which is not loaded down with details and knowledge, time or conditioning.
Seeing this as the present and immediate evidence that you are, then what a relief for the intellectually bound. - It all vanishes into thin air.
- However, most intellectuals are repelled from such a view, so long as the self-centre pre-dominates the minds activities. -This is simply 'fixation'. See it, don't be it.
That intellect is not what you are. - It is simply a tool, an instrument of intelligence.
The authentic is forever authentic and is not touched by the self-centred activities.

All this is not about mental gymnastics. - Seeing IS happening.
- Simply SEE that all appears and disappears, yet you remain.

It is so simple, no one suspects it - it is just a matter of seeing directly from the authenticity that you ARE. - It matters little what is seen. - You are not that.
- You are (the) unmediated Seeing.
- You ARE - Seeing IS happening = Not two.

As Bob Adamson points out: "What you seek – you already are".

I receive many emails, some I share with you from time to time. - This is (an edited) one to share:
Dear Gilbert, Like warm rain on the opened and tenderly raw wounded-ness of a farmers' field prepared, planted and waiting Openly Vulnerable, grace showered.
- Both field and sky smiled, the same Smile. - Thank you gentle brother for your warm reception and open ended invitation to interact with you. - You are one of the very, very few "teachers" I have ever met ( and those are legion in number after over 30 years!) who have actually been approachable and available. - I feel grateful and relieved.
- I just know that you are NOT bullshitting us! - You are That by which you Know...and you know it. - You are that which IS the very nature of what I strangely imagine is distant from me when all the while it is closer to me than breath.
- Once for several minutes back in the mid '80's I suddenly knew that the ‘me’ was an appearance in the Actual Knowing Presence. - The most amazing wonder was how on earth could something so patently Obvious seem to be apparently obscured.
- The obscuration seemed more perplexing, and even impossible, than the Obvious.
- Like in a dream, when one awakens, the character he was while in the dream, is gone and yet nothing is lost in the going of it. - Those type of experiences, of shorter duration, occurred off an on over the years. - How amazing to see the mind is not needed to think or speak - yet, wonder of wonders thought didn't stop!! - From that day forward I never once again tried any of the "stop-the-thinking" exercises; once you know you have never been the thinker or do-er, that dumps a lot of the spiritual exercises!
- Do please understand that I know these are experiences as they come and go or came and went. - More recently, there is THIS of which I can say nothing. - Peace, Stillness, Silence come close, but I am not in some bliss-ed out state and don't seem to be focused on anything at all. - I feel distant and present all at the same time. - I feel it in your Presence when I read your e-mails or read The First Instant or listen to the CD.
- If ever I get a chance I will sit with you in person, but I know that it is not really needed, though it can perhaps make illusory me less dense. - Too, it would just be a great delight and a great celebration. - I am almost finished with Presence Awareness by the Sailor and it too, is awesome; also, I am reading a transcription of some of the dialogues with Karl Renz, a wonderfully rascally German who comes to the USA on occasion and who doesn't mind sweet slappin' me around either!!
- We flew out to Los Angeles to see him a few weeks ago.
- He is way too "radical", like you! for a lot o' folk. - Keep in Touch - Bev

Everything you see is awareness

Oneness is not playing games with itself.
- It does not love to indulge in thinking it is 'many' at all. - Oneness is Oneness - full stop.
- So called teachers of Oneness love to play games with seekers of Oneness, that is more like it.
And some of these teacher's have the audacity to suggest that they themselves are the only one who speaks clearly or 'has' the Clarity that they parrot on about endlessly. They say that all other teachers are in error or only have an intellectual grasp of this clarity. Utter garbage.
There truly is no intellectual understanding of it and there is NO ONE to have an intellectual understanding of it, even in their own terms and teaching. So our non dual teacher fails to see his own error and judgment. - Maybe the 'concept of clarity' has disturbed the mind too much.
Clarity IS. -It is not an acquisition and it does not matter what appears in clarity.
- The one who is caught as an entity in conceptual mind stuff is nothing other than mind stuff itself.
- There is no possibility of 'someone' 'getting' Clarity or selling it for 'ten quid' on Sundays.

The true and authentic essence that you are - is not in 'time' or 'place'.
This is apparently re-discovered by an apparent process of negation.
I am not this or this or that etc. By eliminating the assignment of identity to these concepts etc. then ones natural state is revealed to itself without identification.
Oneness is of a singular essence.
Nothing divides this wholeness into any realms of ‘time’ or ‘separation’.
- Without any need of a concept or a translation in ‘mind processes’, it is clearly evident that everything is spontaneously present. Seeing is happening. Hearing is happening.
- It has always been this way.
- The first Instant of being is Knowing.
- It is ONE moment of direct-cognition.
It has never been divided into anything ‘other’ than what it IS.
A simple way to describe it is – it is ‘What IS’.
The 'story' of a life continues to ‘play’ itself out in the 'appearance' - Lila.

None of it is anything ‘other’ than THIS directness of immediate livingness.
Nothing can stand between you and THIS.
YOU ARE THIS! - There is no realm of any ‘between’ except in mind stuff.
One could say that awareness arises between being and non-being but this is just a pedagogical statement to assist the investigation. - It is all pure directness.
- Even the word ‘directness’ is incomplete in expressing THIS profound-ness that you ARE.
Unmediated knowing, immediate and endless.
Absolutely everything IS this essence of your own self.

You are present and aware. - You are awareness. - Everything you see is awareness.
Where is the boundary of separation?
There truly is no boundary.
THIS endless infinite universe is the phenomenal aspect of your own being-ness.
The clear and empty nature of this unmediated knowing - is the pure potentiality of your non-being-ness.
These two aspects are actually One. - Right there, right now, there is just THIS IS-NESS. Inexpressible in words - it is this immediate, vast and everlasting expression of living-ness. When have you truly been anything 'other' than THIS? - It is always IMMEDIATE!
It is always OBVIOUS! To think about it takes you into apparent 'otherness'.
Just be quiet, watch and SEE.

An email: Dear Gilbert, Congratulations on your recent publication of The First Instant.
-I love the no-holds-barred radical absoluteness about This, being here always. -Always available because It is what we ARE. -Take away belief and you take away limitation and temporal placement and freedom is all there is. -The simplicity of your message is SO refreshing in this complex market place for spiritual seekers. -I also just read an entry on your website ("Read Bob's Books" I think it was) and really enjoyed hearing about your experiences with Bob when you first went to listen to him and then what followed as the understanding eliminated the unnecessary suffering of a seemingly separate self.
-I especially liked hearing about your beginnings as an instrument for this Understanding, as that seems to be what I'm dealing with now. -I went to see Bob last November and came away clear as a bell and finished off it seemed....... What is Real is the Openness without limit full of the light without limit, one simple changeless Well-Beingness-regardless of any passing thought or movement of a body or a universe. -What is really important HERE is the simple formless completeness. - There is a feeling and knowing that nothing that happens can affect or touch what I am. - Another thing I'm really aware of right now is that it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks either, if you know what I mean. -There is no outer authority for what you are (what I am). - A teacher or book can point to what we are but I now see the absolute necessity of looking - and being what we are inside, so to speak, before any concepts, learned teaching, or form. - This Knowingness is here in everyone the same. The only thing that gums up the works seemingly is attachment to thought(belief).
- From a fellow lover of Nisargadatta and Bob's teaching, for which I am extremely grateful, with Love -Bill

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Email question - No Slaves!

Email:
Hi, Gilbert,
It is Sampa here and for quite a while all that appears in awareness makes sense until some one ask me this. - "If the person is within awareness and is knocked unconscious, only 'his' awareness is gone and that of others remains. - Does this not show awareness remains within the person?" - When a person dies, he is not aware of his death. -
Also if the illusionary person, Gilbert or me is dream like, then the script in the dream determines the destiny of these characters and there is in fact NO free will - for even the thoughts just appear in awareness without a thinker. - As only awareness knows the thoughts, why then it is the body that responds as the body is the known and not the knower.
- It is the awareness that knows hunger and pain and yet it is the body that seeks out food and treatment for the pain. As you mentioned awareness is always present, yet in deep sleep, I could not recall anything, even such things as darkness and silence.
Please help . Warmest regards - Sampa

Reply:
We are talking about Advaita, No?
It means - One without a second. ALL mind body organisms are inclusive in this Timeless Oneness. It IS non-dual Universal Awareness. - It is the Knowing. -The individual knows nothing except by a trickle of reflective knowing which gets distorted in the mind. - The egositic 'me' thinks it is seeing and knowing. - It is fearful of death because in that trickle of knowing, there is access to its own nothingness. - It runs and hides from this.
-It will never face the true nature because it is only a facade floating in front of pure seeing and pure knowing. - It is not your authentic being-ness. - It is time bound and only reflective by nature. Like the moon glows in the night sky, it appears to have its own light.
- Without the Sun, the moon would not even be, let alone shine. - One could postulate about it all but the message is clear. - No point in a debate on that point. - When it is daytime here - many walk around and are active. - It is night on the other side of this singular globe (ONE sphere of being) and many sleep and are in-active. - All your points are from the limited view of being ‘someone’ in a body, with experiences. - Logically one tries to make sense of it all but logic has its limits. - Direct knowing does not submit to the laws of logic. - Logic is for practical life and is very useful in the appearance. - Who can doubt that?
Of course it appears like such and such for the one who thinks he is limited by logic and is IN a body. - Awareness is not limited to the body. - The true situation is that the whole universe appears in your true nature... It is awareness....it is non-dual....it is thoughtless reality.
- You think you can understand it all with the intellect....it is dualistic.
- ONLY the intelligence Knows!
There is NO individual anywhere!
All thoughts appear --- and they disappear --- yet you remain.
Even in deep sleep...if someone knocks on the door loud enough, or if there is an earthquake, you will be aroused and get up.
Awareness IS.
When 'you' are in deep sleep - there is nothing to know. - The senses are abating, lulled into a passivity. - In deep sleep, you as the authentic essence, have receded into your true nature- the singular Source!
In the morning you are replenished.
Do you need to connect the battery before awareness is there?
It is there before you open your eyes. - It never left! - It is what you ARE.
- Once up, you move about and soon you unconsciously put on your mask and a limited identity and the drama of life unfolds once more. - One must 'enter' into ones nothingness, consciously to realize THIS singular truth. Non-Conceptual Awareness.
I am THAT by which I Know I AM.
Where is there any doubt?
Only in a dualistic mind can doubt appear. - You are prior to dualism. - Even though you appear as Sampa and I as Gilbert – ‘we’ are One.
Advaita = ONE without a second.

I AM THAT.

Here is a piece from the as yet unpublished book "Everything is Clear and Obvious".
A short extract:

"Why wait in the conceptual realms for freedom to come and get you?"

Shake me - wake me from this dream of penance!
So many hold Ramana Maharshi up as a perfect example. - Or it may very well be some other Holy Guru. - The so-called true realized guru or teacher knows intimately that there is only One Source—One light of knowing. - He or she points to this fact over and over in many ways for the aspirant. -
The guru knows that (they) you are the Source and that it cannot be otherwise.
- They, in the appearance and drama of life, may believe that they have forgotten this factual knowledge. So it is pointed out over and over until it is known fully. - Doubt is transcended. However so many will not let go of a relationship with erroneous beliefs. Unworthiness - or impurity is often the self-feeling behind a resistance to ‘letting it all go’.
-Lack of trust in oneself through attachment to ones apparent history and conditioning is the apparent problem. - Historic conditioning, co-depend-ing, call it what you want. - The Guru may appear to make you feel purer in his presence yet this appears to turn into an addiction for many. - Service and endless payment in one form or another.
- It is not freedom – it is bondage! - A mirage. The ‘true Guru’, the one that has transcended the body and mind, is FREE and has no interest in wanting the company of seekers or ‘hangers on’ - no slaves! - There is a spontaneous and natural interest (in him) in setting you free as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Why would you place your trust in a Guru that does not have such an approach? - What immediate benefit is there in such a contractual bondage? If he lives and knows freedom completely, then his very action and speech point you to the natural freedom that you are.
- It is your light that he reveals to you - Not his.
- Stop worshiping gurus and BE what you ARE.
- It is your authentic being which will guide you to the right help if it is needed.