Saturday, October 28, 2006

It is a mystery - no one knows

Email: Dear G -
I thought I would let you know how fond I am of the new CD.
- I've listened to it for 5 mornings in a row and it comes across as fresh and new each time.
- The odd thing is that afterwards I don't really recall the details of what was said, but somehow the message is registering 'somewhere' as I find essential questions are coming up, couched in the terminology from your recording, like: Can there be such a thing as Realization for Knowing, or isn't it that, Knowing is already realized? (ed:Realiz-ING)
Could there be anyone who would know 'Knowing'?
Who would know 'Knowing'?
Isn't Knowing all there really is?
Seems the answers are already there in the formation of the questions.
I've puzzled a bit over the concept of the "First Instant" and think it refers to the immediate moment which is the only Instant I can think of but isn't really even that because it seems that there isn't really any thing or any time. (ed: How do you KNOW that?)
But as I've implied, the details are not sticking, which may not really matter because the general and specific concepts are generating insightful questions when I think about this later in the day.

The word "Knowing" is very riveting and seems to point to the only reality (which IS).
The essential message you are providing seems very clear and precise.
I like your delivery.
Anyway, well done! - and thank you! - Steve – UK.

G: Yes, it works – it’s a mystery (for the rational mind).
– Like that line in a movie about Shakespeare - Q: “What’s the Play about?”
– A: “It’s a mystery – no one knows”.

And yet all there ever is, is Knowing.

What is meant by ‘not knowing’? - Contemplate that.

You may come to see that “Knowing is all there is”.

(An ignorant intellectual does not see that, without that spontaneous 'knowing', all their opinions are worthless and even their biased views would amount to nothing at all.)
The title of my first book “The First Instant” is somewhat puzzling for some but it has a specific meaning which for me expresses something very well - but it is not 'numeric' in any way. - This instant of perceiving right now is it. - It has no qualities of itself except as that movement of cognition.
Douglas Hofstadter's new book, yet to be released, is about an exploration of what we commonly call 'I', from a 'scientific' point of view. - The Germans are making headway in their research in this same field of inquiry.
- In my terminology this ephemeral moment of cognition is 'I' - yet it cannot be said to be an object, thus it remains as a mystery, even though we may use the single letter word a thousand times a day, without ever questioning what it is. - "Know thyself": Self Knowledge is really nothing other than the investigation of the 'I'.
The First and ONLY Instant is the nature of 'I', an Empty Space, that Knowing presence, in which Everything appears.
Like Advaita or "One without a second" - it is not even 'One' - it is not numeric.
The 'first' is One - without a second.
No one occupies that knowing space of the first instant.
It contains all.
It is ever present yet totally invisible because it is not a ‘thing’.
- It is the Knowing presence.
Without it, there is nothing.
The first instant is the first (and only) dynamic movement of awareness as it appears as all things - and they all disappear back into the first instant and NO duration exists in that. - Timeless!
That is just too much for the intellect to deal with but it is clearly obvious for the one who knows their true nature.

The CD: The contents of the CD carefully bypass the minds habitual notions about this and that and deliver 'something' inexplicable. - It is not trickery or devious.
- What is clear, is that what is clearly obvious within what is clearly obvious is clearly obvious! - A mind caught up in details and thoughts misses all the salient points of what is clearly obvious. So, on the CD, some extremely cutting yet subtle points are presented in a gentle manner without presenting a full frontal attack on the ego – which is usually so ‘counter-productive’ – (if you see what I mean).
- So you are left to add the only required element - yourself
– Your own presence of Knowing. – And that is already present, no matter what the circumstances are.
– So you see, it is already done - just needs to be uncovered.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Everything is SEEN without a seer + New Note

I highly recommend a 3 CD set called "Music of the Search" Gurdjieff/ De Hartmann - Music for piano. - These wonderfully expressive musical pieces are played with an equisit sensitivity by one of my first teachers Helen Adie. - Helen was my 'Movements' teacher. - It may be of some interest, to my regular readers, that it was I, myself, who made most of the recordings on these CD’s over a period of many years. - It may sound exaggerated when I say that Helen's playing of Gurdieff's music is by far the best I have ever heard - but I am not exaggerating at all - just spoilt from years of hearing her play live. - When she played everyone stopped whatever they were doing and their attention was drawn to the music in all its details.
- Helen’s playing is unsurpassed and carries with it a depth of feeling one does not meet often in musicians. - You can read some further information about Helen at the website, which takes orders of the CD set.
- Do a g/search for Tomfolio - Helen Adie.

New book (A6 size) by Robin Dale is a gem. - It is called "Empty Thoughts".
Some years ago, Robin and I (and others) used to sit in Bob's meetings as we threw questions at Bob and had our doubts cleared away.
Now, it is known that there are no grounds for any questions left. - Nothing sticks.
Robin has a gift for prose and his expressions in this small book are potent little pills. - Give yourself a gift - get it. - You will find a link to him on my recommended reading page.


Email from Mark West, living disciple of Nisargadatta Maharaj:
"Dear G,
In regard to your first book The First Instant , in your crystal clear seeing, you declare that “everything IS this first instant of knowing”. I now share with you a quote that resonates perfectly with your most profound insight.
It is from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: "Understand this first moment, when we understood "we are"- the first moment of the body, when it understood "it is".
Recognize that very first moment.
Once you grasp this, then you are the highest of the gods, the point at which everything arises.
At that very point, everything also sets: the source and the end are the same point.
Nobody tries to understand this happening of the self, the happening of this "I am-ness.
"Once it is understood - I, the Absolute, am not this "I am-ness".

- Mark West

Today's Note:
Everything is clear and obvious.
'Who' is it that can't see that?
My first teacher, George Adie (who had been a pupil of G.I. Gurdjieff), said on one occasion, many years ago, that “everything is seen”.
The manner in which he made this singular announcement was a shock to hear and stimulated the consciousness.
It was meant to be a shock. - Gurdjieff was a master at delivering 'shocks'.
His teaching contains 'shocks' as in integral part of 'the system'.
In this particular case it stripped the mind stuff back, giving an opportunity to see from a new perspective, if only briefly.
At the time, for myself, I remember that it revealed for me some mind games that were going on.
Spiritual mind games: Who do we think we are fooling?
Decades can be wasted on spiritual games and self-image nonsense. - Self-indulgent mind games and erroneous feelings of superiority.
In our ignorance, we imagine that we hide behind a projected façade or image that we intentionally put up for others to see.
It is a foolish game.
We can cut it all away instantly and free the mind from such games.
Most do not have that inclination - better to keep the dream alive.
- Unfortunately for many, that is all they appear to possess – Spiritual games and dreams.
Egoistic and conceited teachers attract the same elements in their followers and so it all goes round and round like a pathetic donkey on a treadmill.
For the clear sighted, nothing of it is obscuring the pure seeing at all and the apparent 'seer' is known to be nothing other than the pure function of Seeing.

Siddharameshwar said: “Do not try to look through someone else’s eyes”.
All of our complications in mind stuff, are mostly based on ‘things’ that ‘are not’.
Woven stories around images and they, themselves, are more or less totally imaginary.
If any facts are in them, they are usually grossly exaggerated or distorted with biased self-centered notions.
They are all flimsy and elusive when inquired into. - They reveal their nature via pure seeing.
Yet these things are what bring us so much trouble and (seemingly) cut us off from what is real. - We are never truly any of these 'things' that appear in our notions and beliefs.
This ‘teaching’, if we can call it by that name, is nothing other than the pure functions of seeing-knowing.
It is so direct, it needs no support from concepts at all – yet it appears that we need clear and precise concepts to eliminate less clear and precise concepts.
This apparent 'process' of elimination goes on until the natural clarity of our pure functions have eliminated the minds indulgences in, or identification with, concepts.
Why am I telling you all this?

– It is a mystery.

Email:
Dear G,
I am very grateful to you for writing this fabulous book:
“Everything Is Clear and Obvious”.
I have just completed an order for three further copies, for my many "seeking" friends.
I would like to help pass your "clear pointers" on to others. - D.


NEWS: - We have streamlined the ordering process and have added new ways to purchase the books and CD's etc, other than through paypal. - This is good news for some who avoid p/p. - Paypal still opperates of course for those who wish to use it. - It works fine for most.
Due to repeated requests, the CD “Shining through the mind” will be re-released in a couple of weeks or so.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

“…And in the writing of books, there is no end.”

Do you need another book?
No! - But to recognize your own natural freedom, you may well need some clear 'pointers'. - Sailor Bob Adamson's two books are profoundly simple and direct.
The influence of his pointing clearly shows in my second book but it is not a rehash of Bob's words. - That intelligence (in me) which appeared to be so bound up in seeking, was freed and it expresses itself, to my own amazement, in a fresh way over and over.
- In understanding all the usual traps of the mind, I witnessed a series of expressions being written by myself and somehow the expressions glide past the old traps and lead the attention back to its own source - living presence.
And that is what 'comes through' for the reader in this new book "Everything is Clear and Obvious".
The simple view ‘through’ the old mindset is, in most cases, what brings insight.
Sharing those sometimes happens as a consequential expression in written words. - It is a sharing of 'something known', something fleeting in something absolutely stable.
- Life is just like that. - Fleeting moments of indistinct duration in timeless presence.
Need another book? - It is all being made available to apparently assist others, to 'see through' their own mindsets and realize the freedom of their own essential natural presence.
That ‘process’ ‘here’ appears to have stopped now. - I have recorded many of these insights for the apparent benefit of others.
Now, seeing is constantly present, as it always was but it is no longer being diverted into conceptual realms.
Some teachers say impotent things like: “There is nothing you can do.”
I know beyond any doubt that that guiding comment is useless.
Also, those teachers who talk about 5 or 10 year deliverance are also equally deluded, no matter how popular they may appear to be. - It is more or less conclusive that no one listening to these teachers will ever see through the binding concepts. - However, nothing is absolutely impossible.
I know first hand that this direct pointing works, not only because it worked for me when Bob Adamson pointed it all out for me but because subsequent clear evidence from my own ‘pointing it out’ to others has worked.
It may appear to be mysterious but it is actually very simple. - It well may feel like a ‘magical event’ as the innate freedom reveals itself to be present but that initial impression subsides and it is recognized that this freedom was always present.
The natural state underlies whatever appears on the surface.
As seekers, we were seduced into believing all sorts of erroneous stuff, beliefs and because they were never questioned, they quite naturally perpetuate themselves.
They have no power to survive in the face of a simple and direct inquiry.
Pure seeing, which is already functioning, cuts through all mind content and non conceptual awareness reveals itself (to no one).
That core essence is ones own 'unmediated presence' and that is 'That which cannot be negated'.

Most seekers avoid the direct message because it is far too simple or far too dangerous to the belief system. - And so they continue to suffer and plod on believing in erroneous information handed out by ignorant ‘teachers’.
It is all so unnecessary, yet it can never be anything other than an appearance in THAT knowing presence that you are.
Everything is clear and obvious.

You are THAT seeing knowing presence

Email:
Dear G, thank you very much for your advice. - I have re-read your e-mails several times and they catapulted me instantly into a state of profound silence, lasting over an hour each and only the ringing of a cell-phone brought me back.
Am also continuing reading in your book. - It is really helpful and clears up more illusions of the mind.
We went out for supper to a restaurant and living in this silent place is really strange, there were so many voices and conversations around us, yet total stillness in my mind.
The only voices I heard were those of the other people. - This was all really strange.
Could you explain to me about "Loyalty to a specific Teacher"? - There is something I don't understand about it.
Our Christian teacher spoke about it once and asked us to be loyal to the teaching. - Like being loyal in a marriage.
I do love the teachings (pointers) of Sailor Bob very much, as I seem to resonate and understand what he says - as I also like your book right now.
By doing so, am I committing some insult to a prior teacher?
Which (whom) I also love very much? - Is there competition in the lineages?
I would really like to understand, so I am not disrespectful to anyone.
thank you very much, many greetings from us. - D.

G replies:
There are no rules in or to THIS.
If there is a natural respect for ones teacher or teachers, then that is what is.
There is a natural gratitude that one feels for the one who delivers the message.
Teachers who place restrictive commands ‘into place’ are not really worthy of the name 'teacher'.
What you have stumbled upon, with this new input, is beyond the general realm of teachers and teachings etc.
This 'lineage' is a Living Freedom manifesting as a teacher - in essence it is freedom itself, which is your own true nature. (So you see it is Not two - Unmediated knowing)
So you may see from this that the apparent cycle is only in appearance - a loop.
Self reference via concepts. - Isn't that what is happening? - Building an image of a self with all its reference points.
When those conceptual appearances are seen through, as all mind content is seen through, then one KNOWS that this presence that I AM is all there IS.
All else is in Appearance only. There is no ‘other’.
Make no mistake about this!

This ‘teaching’ is way beyond what ‘people’ call teaching.
It is impossible to express it as a whole because it is beyond words.
Yet some have a gift to use words to bring the mind back to its empty nature - which is always present - presence.
All is seen without there being a seer. -Or the apparent seer is seen yet nothing is seen. - Everything is clear and obvious.
You already have direct experiencing happening and your note confirms it is on the right track - so stick with it - read Bob’s books and/or mine until there is no longer a need to read them.
I would not advise reading a mixture of words by teachers from outside of this clear ‘teaching’. – That can bring confusion due to sloppy conceptual usage.
You will find that the interest in reading about this will probably disappear all by itself. - I, myself, can’t read anything about it these days - maybe a paragraph or two once in awhile. - No point. - I am THAT knowing space like awareness. - What more do I need to know? - Nothing.
Everything unfolds as it does.
Warm regards - gilbert

D replies:
Good morning and thank you, G.
Understanding of your pointers is instantaneous.
Thanks for clearing up the "Teacher" issues and helping "me" to release myself from a guilt trip, that others in the appearance like to reinforce.
Most of the night i stayed up and read in your book. - It is awesome and sinks in straight away - love it. - I hold you to your promise: stay with THIS and It will be Seen! - It's happening even so "nothing" is seen. What really struck home was your question in the book: "What is it you are still looking for?" - What more do you want?"
It stunned me, and the mind delivered this message from source: "Entertainment!"
After so many years of escaping THIS (reality) into books, the path? - there is NOW a VACUUM left.
Silence, Peace, that after some time changes into Boredom with what is, a restlessness again, and the desire for another book arises. - Just like an alcoholic or a smoker, after STOPPING, never seem to loose the craving totally.
- My cycle was, six months on, six months off the books, but no total ending yet.
Do I just stay with and in Nothingness? - Trance like states can go on for hours. - Just total silence and aliveness. - Much of the old memories are history now. – Awake-ness and seeing and understanding in the Moment is there. - Wakefulness. - Then daily activities and renewed profound deep silent states.
Am now half way through your book and can't wait to get back to it.

Also your question to me: if you know that you are this awareness, what else could you be looking for in more books? - More stuff?
This really hit me like a thunderbolt and had instant results.
It is a pleasure to know you and thanks for answering e-mails and addressing specific problems. (blockages in comprehension that are still remaining).
love D.

G’s Reply: In that No Thing state, which is not a state, there is no one - just pure awareness.
'You' of 'old habitual mind' have no say in it and never had a say at all, ever.
It is all unfolding.
By not taking a stand in any thing - for or against any thing - no problem can arise.
While watching the mind, it cannot appear to divide Oneness.
Life goes on - or appears to go on – unfolds as it does.

There is No separation.
Understanding is not apart from seeing-knowing - these 3 are ONE and the same.

You ARE that knowing presence. - How could you not be That?


The mind apparently wants entertainment. - There are many teachers who do just that and little else.

Watch the mind - it will inform you of everything it is up to.
You already have direct experiencing of it happening there, from what you say.
Don't be tempted to make a big deal out of it - just be simple.
The mind will weave stories around it - so watch it.

You are the seeing-knowing presence and nothing other than THAT.


Later on:
"Good morning Gilbert,
Your book delivered the FINAL BLOW!-?
THANK YOU - D."

G:
"There is no ‘final’ blow – although it may ‘appear’ as such but that is really a new story being told by the mind.

Nothing final anywhere. - That is so obvious that everyone misses it.
No beginning - no ending. - Ditto

THIS is IT - without it ever being an ‘IT’.

Thoughtless Reality.
Non-conceptual presence."


Love - G.