Here Now - (& email)

Words come .....and words go.
Moments come ......and moments go.
Hours come ......and hours go.
Days come ......and days go.
Months come ......and months go.
Years come ......and years go.


If you look closely and if you hold that looking for a little longer than you normally do, you will see beyond doubt that you have never gone anywhere and that you are indeed present and aware - seeing is happening - knowing is happening. - There is no going away from THIS.

Happy new moment?

Whatever the 'content' that appears to 'arrive' with each moment, it will pass and the moment remains as what you are. - You can't get out of it.
Nothing to lose and nothing to gain.

The spiritual aspirant imagines that there is something that can be added (or lost) to that which is their natural presence of awareness.
From this basic erroneous belief, all the practices and methods hang like pieces of string flowing in the breeze.
These beliefs appear to be extremely stubborn for so many and they persist for as long as there is no thorough investigation of what is naturally here and now.
Without their infamous ‘journey’ (to nowhere), their story (in time), they feel naked. - They do not realize that that same nakedness contains an utter freedom from all conceptual notions.
In one fraction of a moment, in that naked awareness, what one truly is may reveal itself to the mind. - Devoid of any ‘entity’, there is no claim or ownership and so even though this view may strike a loud chord that reverberates through the whole organism, once the mind flows back to its habitual terrain and its notions of reality (dream) the habitual identified ‘form’, the ‘me’, does not know how to benefit from the so-called ‘event’.
Many have tasted such views and the personality has built an image of being a guru from the memory of it. – There are some well known examples, one I heard just a few days ago being interviewed on the Radio. – The conceited attitude was evident in the first words uttered by this guru. – A friend was also listening and he said “My god, she is totally up herself”.
He had never heard of this guru before. – I said “Do you want to listen to it all?”
“No thanks” was his response.
Why are these gurus so popular? - Because they serve the ego of the seeker so well and they put themselves forward as an example of a self realized being, shamelessly and without reservation. – It is glaringly obvious that their whole ‘teaching’ is just the usual worldly nonsense of self promotion and egoistic preening. – Even though they steal the usual concepts from more reputable teachers the whole persona has a conceitedness which I find rather pathetic. – They all seem to hold up Ramana Maharshi as their ‘idolized one’. – I doubt if Ramana would have ever let them into ‘The Hall’ for more than a few minutes without demolishing their self importance.
Well, all this controversial nonsense is useless. – If the investigation is not done, what is the point of all these practices? - Ramana himself, according to the records, directed ‘seekers’ directly to the self inquiry. – Nisargadatta did the same.
If you are still wandering about, seeking, ask yourself this: “Why do I delay this thorough investigation of the self?”
It only needs to be done once.
As one Tibetan Buddhist expressed it so directly and in so few words:
“Self Liberation through SEEING with Naked Awareness”.
Or as Bob Adamson says:
“What is wrong with right now, if you don’t think about it?”

Email Question:
Dear Gilbert, - What is happening here is Amazing! - It is unfolding in so many wondrous ways (to coin a phrase from You). -It appears that the one dominant fear has to do with having enough money. - I have not worked to any real degree in almost 2 years. - I would like to change careers from Art Director and graphic designer, to a facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie. - Or even more so, to win the lottery, win huge in Las Vegas or by some other means that would allow me the Freedom to do whatever I choose to do. - I have been reviewing the many (I can't believe how many) emails we have traded, and it is obvious to me that you have never led me astray (in them).
I ask you in this instant, what is your advice regarding this matter?
Also, I followed the advice on your site: "If you look closely and if you hold that looking for a little longer than you normally do, you will see beyond doubt that you have never gone anywhere."
I remember what it says on the cover of "I AM THAT" regarding Nisargadatta's claim that it is not important that the body should last long. - And that it will slip off like a discarded garment. - I wonder what happens when this body dies: - Do I have to go through this entire thing again, as a baby, from scratch? - Many fears arise. - At this point, any words of comfort you might provide would be extremely helpful. - Love and Respect – Robert.


Robert, There are apparently two views.
The First view is not 'a view' at all - it is simply the pure function of SEEING. - (It is the potentiality or omnidirectional seeing, with no 'seer' and nothing 'seen'. - However such statements will halt the mind of most readers.)
The 'other view' is from the apparent point of view of an individual, an habitual standpoint in mind and is accompanied by whatever the mind has acquired.
- That 'point of view' is also associated with an identification with being the body. - In Hindu it is referred to as Nama Rupa. - Name and form.
So how to discriminate between these apparent two views?
– Seeing is happening. – The ‘Name’ cannot see. - The form cannot see – it is an apparent instrument of cognition - but since we apparently cannot ‘get out’ of the body, we cannot dissolve that attachment to it. - 'Who' is it that sees?
We canno find the seer. - We cannot deny that seeing is happening.
We can know the habitual identification with the body for what it is.

If one 'goes back' in the direction of seeing - (which is actually Omni directional) - beyond the space immediately behind the eyes - one experiences as an empty space -

The true nature of mind is clear and empty.

Ramana Maharshi would say one should ask the question "who am I?"

Actually one does not even have to do that - Just SEE that this space is vastly empty -
(Clearer than an abandoned church or synagogue - Ha!)
See how easily, even the most minute movements of mind are seen.
Notice the concepts of a 'seer' may arise. - It also 'slips away' un-noticed.
In that pure naked seeing there is no form, no entity, no one with any substance.
(Gate Gate)
If there is no one there NOW - and you see that ever so clearly - could there ever have been anyone there, ever?

Yet it appears that there is - most of the time.
INVESTIGATE these 'things'.
Millions waste time on meditation and secret methods to no avail.
What I am suggesting is direct and immediate.
(Do it and throw your guru of 'practices and promises', promises of 'future deliverance' away).
I am offering this with no payments due. - I don't even ask you to wait for another moment. - No fees. - No glorification of 'ME' as being a superior being.
There is not even an 'I' that offers this opportunity.
You just need to investigate.......hold your attention long enough to see that you are none of these 'things' that you have taken yourself to be and it is 'done'.

One way attention is what we call identification.
It is as if the mind is pinned down in the head.

All of the senses are there as instruments -
Without that living, pulsating intelligence, which is 'behind' it all - it would all amount to nothing. - It is No Thing appearing as everything. (Not two)

Such news can strike fear into the hearts of the bravest men - That is the drama of life.

Love it. - Witness it all.
What to do? - Opportunities come - they go. - Some are taken up and other not. - You imagine that you can choose and do - and as in a dream, you can - But as in a dream you cannot control all that is happening - Life lives you - as you (not two) - and as all apparent others (not two).

I and the Source are ONE - and yet it is clearly evident that there is not even One - as such. - (Know that there is No one that wants to go there! - not even as a conceptual notion - those who say they do are crapping on)

Find out what is beyond the minds activities - It is as though one must come to the place of where seeing is happening - and not fall back into the vast emptiness - and not get pulled forward into the vast emptiness of the drama of life - (It is AS though...is what I said).
‘Who’ wonders what will happen when the body drops or slips away?
This is the mind only – and the mind is time. – Knowing is timeless and always immediately present. – Simple.

You are the timeless, deathless spirit. - Naked Awareness.
It was never born. - So it can never die.
Where is the doubt about this?
See that any doubt can only be a thought, a feeling, that appears in the mind.
Whatever appears, disappears and that which remains is timelessly present.
It is Knowing what is. – The mind is occupied with ‘what is not’ – a dream.
Nothing ever stays in the mind - it can't. - It may circle like a rat around some cheese but it will go - and in its going, make room for the next rat - ad infinitum -you are not that rat or any rat, thought, feeling or state of affairs.
Seeing is not obscured by anything at all. – The open view is always present.
The one caught in the mind is just another pattern. – See it for what it is.

You are present and aware. Full stop.

HERE & NOW - what else is there?

News: The CD's "Shining through the mind" and "One Moment" plus the book "Everything is Clear and Obvious" is available through Amazon (as stocks permit).
Today's Note.
You are present and aware. - That is 'the briefness of it all.
The following is a field of conceptual 'frames' to explore in that presence that you are. - The mind may stall at any moment with a line or concepts but just be aware - (and there is no question of not being aware) - that all these words are just content passing through the 'mind'.

You are here ‘now’. – Yes?
Of course! - Can’t deny it. – Pointless in denying it.
What is the source of this being-ness that appears now?
The usual view of such things is based on conceptual notions which imply that you are somehow inferior and a subject ‘to and of’ some God or Absolute Superior Being – by who’s grace you have your place in the scheme of ‘things’. – In relativity, we do not usually question these notions until we are introduced to concepts that imply some other view of it all.
These are all conceptual by their nature and are all relative.
Sideline Analogy thrown in: Because 'the stage' remains stationary, 'the dancers' can dance freely with confidence. - If the stage were to move about at random, the dancers would find it tedious or impossible to avoid being thrown to the floor.
Your 'essence' is 'the stage' and the 'personality' is a dancer, an actor. - That is just an analogy, it may makes sense for some.

There is intelligence at the basis of all ‘things’, concepts and even dreams.
All 'conceptual views', in mind, are not 'the pure function of seeing' or what I call 'direct cognition' - unmediated knowing.
- The former is based on memory and the later is ever fresh awareness.
This 'pure function' of seeing is happening now as you read these words.
Although there is no such thing as indirect cognition - and as Bob points out "the word is not the real" - Those points may seem disjointed, they are not, just different views of the same phenomena - which is all that the mind has in any moment. - That may seem too abstract for some.
Cognition is ceaseless.
The mind is apparently stimulated by the words and (then)‘meaning’ appears quite spontaneously. - You cannot drive a thin bladed thought between the registering and the apparent response of 'meaning'.
It may all 'appear' to move smoothly until some words or meaning 'jar' with the consciousness or something is questioned, or whatever.
(What is all this? - Some sort of intellectual Gymnastic display! - Stay with it)

- 'All' is 'the actuality' of intelligence in action, so to speak.
How can one know intelligence? - How can it be known and by that same intelligence unless it is split into some sort of two-ness? - Mirror of the mind?
- In fact intelligence is never split, although it may appear to be.

Can you know the self that you are?
- All are seemingly useful questions in this so-called self inquiry - but have you ever found 'something' that you can truly call 'your own'?
‘Who’ is the owner and can you find ‘it’ in this now? - Have a look now!
- ‘Who’ is looking for the owner?
Is the apparent terrain of the mind divided into ‘me and mine’ and ‘not me and not mine’? - is it all apparently 'material existence' of some sort?
In this 'clear space of now', can you truly find any such things?
When we really look, they are not here and yet in memory we may be convinced that they ‘were there’ at some ‘time’. - All such notions are as if transparent in that seeing-knowing presence. - There is a subtleness to this 'pointing' which can be easily bypassed. - In being direct, all that is not real, is exposed or seen through.
– Mind is time and time is mind. – Is ‘mind’ an aspect of ‘mine-ness’?
What is this now-ness? - Do you know it? - Truly?
If you say that you know it, that implies a duality.
'Now' - & 'one that knows this now'. - (Not two)
Some so-called teacher’s talk about teaching 'you' how to 'enter' the 'now'.
How utterly absurd is that? - But 'people' flock to such 'teachers' by the thousands. - Then they get caught in conceptual 'progress' towards an ever receding conceptual 'now' - and so it is unattainable, even though no one has ever been 'out of the now' - Even a 'dreamer' cannot appear anywhere but in this now.
There are NO enlightened 'persons' and anyone who encourages you to believe such nonsense is a fraud - And a fraud in of the most devious kind.
How vague and absurd is 'the seeker' and how easily satisfied is it, with nonsense and adoration for a guru? - and yet it never gets truly satisfied at all, except as passing moments of indulgent thought patterns and self image preening.

Have you ever known yourself to be ‘out’ of this now?
Is this ‘now’ an object?
Don’t all presently known objects appear in this now?
In this ‘open view’ from this presence, this now, all of the so-called ‘past’ is memory and nothing more.
All of the so-called ‘future’ is nothing but anticipation or expectation.
All of it depends on there being 'a thought' about it.
Are there any objects in the future? - You can’t think about the future without some concepts about what 'it' is or 'will be', and yet you do not and never have known the future.
It ‘is not’ directly observable, since it is not an object and it can never be what you ‘think’ it will be.
Know this: - The future has never arrived! - It is a concept.
If even one concept were to actually ARRIVE in this now and settle in as something substantial, your world would be crushed.
Don't be afraid, it will never happen!
The NOW! - is an absence of anything substantial or continuous, except that which is 'knowing'. - Is it the now that is knowing itself?
Have you ever been separate from the now?
Such talk makes this 'now' sound like it is 'an object' but it is neither an object nor a non-object.
Is there a subject?
Well, I can say and know that I am.
Is this now what I am?
Can the mind separate now-ness from I am-ness?
Which came first?
The now is free of all of it.
This ‘space like awareness is here, there and everywhere, without there being any degree of separation ‘in it’.
- See this: Thought cannot separate or divide this space like awareness that I am.

Does this ‘here’, which you cannot 'get out of', have any boundary?
Is it a place?
If you were or are on a small deserted island, it may appear to be clear that there is an obvious boundary to 'here'.
One may say that where the water meets the sand is the boundary of ‘here’.
But hang on, the water penetrates the sand and probably right on through and below all the surface of the ‘island’. - The waterlogged sand also reaches out below the water line deep into the ocean and on as the same terrain re-immerges one way or another as every shoreline on this planet.
So, where is the boundary of ‘here’?
Even in ordinary consensus reality, if you put your hand into the Ocean or wade about in it, you are directly connected molecule to molecule with most of the water on this planet.
You can say "I am here" - no doubt about that!
So where does doubt enter? - In mind as conflicting content of mind.
That is no trivial point to pass by without further contemplation.
The air you breathe is connected to the whole atmosphere of this planet.
How separate are you? - Is any 'here' separated from any 'there' anywhere?
All is here and here is all.
Anything and everything that one could point to is phenomena and this phenomenon, by its own nature is changeful. - Energy. - Movement.
Without this intelligence and its vast array of movement, however gross or subtle, you could not know anything.
- Zero degrees of separation.
The first movement is that stirring of consciousness called ‘I am’ - just as it appears in the morning when you wake from sleep.
Without that wakefulness, there is nothing perceivable here at all.
In deep sleep, there is no witness and yet knowing remains and it, itself is no thing that is perceivable. - (It is in fact your own self.)
- Boundless presence.
All phenomena are nothing but the dynamic expression of awareness itself.
An ignorant one will ask why does awareness do that?
There is no 'doing', no 'time' and no ‘why’.
- It just IS.
Everything that you know of arises from the unlimited potentiality that you 'are' and that is awareness - the (unseen) light of knowing.
You are THAT. – No choice.
- What is this 'game' that you play of ‘not knowing’?
It is only time bound notions that occupy the mind with ignorant dreams of things that 'are not' - and these ALL are nothing but appearances which appear nowhere else than in this ‘space of knowing’ that 'you are' - No doubt!
In dropping these notions or in the 'full stop' of no thought or in not feeding thought with belief, they will be drained of energy and they will fold away into nothing. - This space of knowing remains as it ever does. – There is no ‘person’ in it or beside it or anywhere at all.
See that you are truly not a 'person' at all. – Where did that notion of being a person come from? - From a dream? - From ‘others’? – Conditioned mind?
In this immediate, pure space of Now, a concept comes in and a fascination with it attracts you to it and you associate with it. - A dream happens.
Is there a problem? - For whom?
This merging of 'space like awareness', which is one's true identity, with the 'dynamic aspect of awareness', which is phenomena, does it always turns into something unexpected?
– It is forever changing. - Suffering comes about or appears to come about because of a tension between two or more ‘points’ of reference. – One of these points is always the self-centered notion of being a ‘me’.
– You, as that 'appearance of being a ‘me’, adds to the equation a 'want' or a 'need'. - A need to escape or change that circumstantial ‘energy pattern’, the ‘appearance’, because of the discomfort, the tension, which is unbearable - for the 'me'.
But hang on, have you only apparently given 'yourself' over to this circumstantial pattern via associated thought patterns? - concepts and ideas or is it by 'notions' of mistaken identity? - Or has it happened at all? - All there is is Now.
Look Now. - This point I am getting at is so elusive and yet so profound.
You can never 'enter into it' - because you ARE it. - A clear space like presence in which all appears and disappears.
Have you really changed in essence, in this pure space of now?
I am telling you that it is clearly obvious right now, that you are free.
Only a belief pattern can appear to be disturbed or threatened by any notions of freedom.
Is it not strange that you could ever possibly believe that you do not know this?
- However, there is no one here or there that knows this.
As you take yourself to be a ‘me’, this unmediated knowing may appear to be unavailable to 'you'.
See and know directly that it is your very NATURE 'to know'.

All these words here are just concepts.
Know that - and know that this 'knowing' itself is NOT a concept.
This apparent discrimination, between concept and knowing is a fulcrum for the mind.
A kind of still point, which sees the duality and its swinging activity.
All apparent identities are 'content' of mind.
Knowing is beyond duality and discriminating mind and so the obvious is obvious, obviously. (How annoying for the intellectuals!)
- In that space of knowing, nothing 'more' is needed and nothing is truly divided.
It may dawn on you that you are free of all of it.
It is impossible to put it into words but I am trying my best to do it.
(In relativity, I risk being branded as a madman ranting about nonsense in a public place - who cares? - Why do I do it? - It just happens but I know what it is like, now only in memory, to feel that ache, that longing for reunion with oneself)
In the divergent mindscape, all this may seem to be beyond your understanding.
In that drama of life, the ‘personalized' consciousness, has seemingly 'taken sides' and apparently entered into duality.
It is only the way things 'appear' to be. – All the uneasiness is for that phantom, that ‘me’. It is out on the pendulum, swinging about, complaining about not 'getting it' and looking for peace of mind, like a monkey on a stick.
As an open space of freedom from thought 'opens' one may notice the restless activity of the mind edging to get back to its habitual activity.
Watch closely and see how it operates. - A glimpse of something may be informative in that watching. - You may notice something that you have been overlooking.
As one appears to slip back to the old ways - a sense of freedom may 'appear' to have been lost - but for whom?
It is NOT your true nature that is lost in phenomena. - You have truly never left this moment - never gone into time, ever.
There is nothing and no one that could ever be lost in phenomena or time.
It is all yourself anyway.
Why do you punish yourself with these old drama stories - all based on memory and a 'past' that is gone and dead?
Have you ever found another who can bear to hear your dramatic stories of that dramatic life? - Who really cares? - It’s your story and if you stop telling it to yourself and to others, it will subside of itself.
- This space, this clear space of NOW will reveal itself - not as a 'thing' but as that which all things come and go in - Just as it ever IS.
Do you have a choice? – have you ever had a choice?
In this pure space of now, there is no drama at all. - See and know that and know it without the need of any thought to support it.
Nothing touches this essential nature – that pure awareness that I am.
(Note added: I am reminded of a passage in the Bible which Bob Adamson once quoted to me and this passage, for me, expresses very efficiently what I have been attempting to convey in the above note. It is this: "A thousand may fall at your left side (by no doing of your own - passive)- ten thousand by thy right hand (by your own 'doing'- active) - but NONE shall come nigh thy dwelling place".

What is so subtle and yet so obvious is this 'space of knowing' - presence awareness - which is "the peace beyond all understanding".
Everything that appears, appears nowhere else than in this space.
The substance of 'that which appears' is equal to that space in which it appears.
It is full of knowing and yet it is no thing.
I am That.
e notions until we are introduced to concepts that imply some other view of it all.
These are all conceptual by their nature and are all relative.
Sideline Analogythrown in: Because 'the stage' remains stationary, 'the dancers' can dance freely with confidence. - If the stage were to move about at random, the dancers would find it tedious or impossible to avoid being thrown to the floor.
Your 'essence' is 'the stage' and the 'personality' is a dancer, an actor. - That is just an analogy, it may makes sense for some.

There is intelligence at the basis of all ‘things’, concepts and even dreams.
All 'conceptual views', in mind, are not 'the pure function of seeing' or what I call 'direct cognition' - unmediated knowing.
- The former is based on memory and the later is ever fresh awareness.
This 'pure function' of seeing is happening now as you read these words.
Although there is no such thing as indirect cognition - and as Bob points out "the word is not the real" - Those points may seem disjointed, they are not, just different views of the same phenomena - which is all that the mind has in any moment. - That may seem too abstract for some.
Cognition is ceaseless.
The mind is apparently stimulated by the words and (then)‘meaning’ appears quite spontaneously. - You cannot drive a thin bladed thought between the registering and the apparent response of 'meaning'.
It may all 'appear' to move smoothly until some words or meaning 'jarr' with the consciousness or something is questioned, or whatever.
(What is all this? - Some sort of intellectual Gymnastic display! - Stay with it)

- 'All' is 'the actuality' of intelligence in action, so to speak.
How can one know intelligence? - How can it be known and by that same intelligence unless it is split into some sort of two-ness? - Mirror of the mind?
- In fact intelligence is never split, although it may appear to be.

Can you know the self that you are?
- All are seemingly useful questions in this so-called self inquiry - but have you ever found 'something' that you can truly call 'your own'?
‘Who’ is the owner and can you find ‘it’ in this now? - Have a look now!
- ‘Who’ is looking for the owner?
Is the apparent terrain of the mind divided into ‘me and mine’ and ‘not me and not mine’? - is it all apparently 'material existence' of some sort?
In this 'clear space of now', can you truly find any such things?
When we really look, they are not here and yet in memory we may be convinced that they ‘were there’ at some ‘time’. - All such notions are as if transparent in that seeing-knowing presence. - There is a subtleness to this 'pointing' which can be easily bypassed. - In being direct, all that is not real, is exposed or seen through.
– Mind is time and time is mind. – Is ‘mind’ an aspect of ‘mine-ness’?
What is this now-ness? - Do you know it? - Truly?
If you say that you know it, that implies a duality.
'Now' - & 'one that knows this now'. - (Not two)
Some so-called teacher’s talk about teaching 'you' how to 'enter' the 'now'.
How utterly absurd is that? - But 'people' flock to such 'teachers' by the thousands. - Then they get caught in conceptual 'progress' towards an ever receding conceptual 'now' - and so it is unattainable, even though no one has ever been 'out of the now' - Even a 'dreamer' cannot appear anywhere but in this now.
There are NO enlightened 'persons' and anyone who encourages you to believe such nonsense is a fraud - And a fraud in of the most devious kind.
How vague and absurd is 'the seeker' and how easily satisfied is it, with nonsense and adoration for a guru? - and yet it never gets truly satisfied at all, except as passing moments of indulgent thought patterns and self image preening.

Have you ever known yourself to be ‘out’ of this now?
Is this ‘now’ an object?
Don’t all presently known objects appear in this now?
In this ‘open view’ from this presence, this now, all of the so-called ‘past’ is memory and nothing more.
All of the so-called ‘future’ is nothing but anticipation or expectation.
All of it depends on there being 'a thought' about it.
Are there any objects in the future? - You can’t think about the future without some concepts about what 'it' is or 'will be', and yet you do not and never have known the future.
It ‘is not’ directly observable, since it is not an object and it can never be what you ‘think’ it will be.
Know this: - The future has never arrived! - It is a concept.
If even one concept were to actually ARRIVE in this now and settle in as something substantial, your world would be crushed.
Don't be afraid, it will never happen!
The NOW! - is an absence of anything substantial or continuous, except that which is 'knowing'. - Is it the now that is knowing itself?
Have you ever been separate from the now?
Such talk makes this 'now' sound like it is 'an object' but it is neither an object nor a non-object.
Is there a subject?
Well, I can say and know that I am.
Is this now what I am?
Can the mind separate now-ness from I am-ness?
Which came first?
The now is free of all of it.
This ‘space like awareness is here, there and everywhere, without there being any degree of separation ‘in it’.
- See this: Thought cannot separate or divide this space like awareness that I am.

Does this ‘here’, which you cannot 'get out of', have any boundary?
Is it a place?
If you were or are on a small deserted island, it may appear to be clear that there is an obvious boundary to 'here'.
One may say that where the water meets the sand is the boundary of ‘here’.
But hang on, the water penetrates the sand and probably right on through and below all the surface of the ‘island’. - The waterlogged sand also reaches out below the water line deep into the ocean and on as the same terrain re-immerges one way or another as every shoreline on this planet.
So, where is the boundary of ‘here’?
Even in ordinary concensus reality, if you put your hand into the Ocean or wade about in it, you are directly connected molecule to molecule with most of the water on this planet.
You can say "I am here" - no doubt about that!
So where does doubt enter? - In mind as conflicting content of mind.
That is no trivial point to pass by without further contemplation.
The air you breathe is connected to the whole atmosphere of this planet.
How separate are you? - Is any 'here' separated from any 'there' anywhere?
All is here and here is all.
Anything and everything that one could point to is phenomena and this phenomena, by its own nature is changeful. - Energy. - Movement.
Without this intelligence and its vast array of movement, however gross or subtle, you could not know anything.
- Zero degrees of separation.
The first movement is that stirring of consciousness called ‘I am’ - just as it appears in the morning when you wake from sleep.
Without that wakefulness, there is nothing perceivable here at all.
In deep sleep, there is no witness and yet knowing remains and it, itself is no thing that is perceivable. - (It is in fact your own self.)
- Boundless presence.
All phenomena is nothing but the dynamic expression of awareness itself.
An ignorant one will ask why does awareness do that?
There is no 'doing', no 'time' and no ‘why’.
- It just IS.
Everything that you know of arises from the unlimited potentiality that you 'are' and that is awareness - the (unseen) light of knowing.
You are THAT. – No choice.
- What is this 'game' that you play of ‘not knowing’?
It is only time bound notions that occupy the mind with ignorant dreams of things that 'are not' - and these ALL are nothing but appearances which appear nowhere else than in this ‘space of knowing’ that 'you are' - No doubt!
In dropping these notions or in the 'full stop' of no thought or in not feeding thought with belief, they will be drained of energy and they will fold away into nothing. - This space of knowing remains as it ever does. – There is no ‘person’ in it or beside it or anywhere at all.
See that you are truly not a 'person' at all. – Where did that notion of being a person come from? - From a dream? - From ‘others’? – Conditioned mind?
In this immediate, pure space of Now, a concept comes in and a fascination with it attracts you to it and you associate with it. - A dream happens.
Is there a problem? - For whom?
This merging of 'space like awareness', which is one's true identity, with the 'dynamic aspect of awareness', which is phenomena, does it always turns into something unexpected?
– It is forever changing. - Suffering comes about or appears to come about because of a tension between two or more ‘points’ of reference. – One of these points is always the self-centered notion of being a ‘me’.
– You, as that 'appearance of being a ‘me’, adds to the equation a 'want' or a 'need'. - A need to escape or change that circumstantial ‘energy pattern’, the ‘appearance’, because of the discomfort, the tension, which is unbearable - for the 'me'.
But hang on, have you only apparently given 'yourself' over to this circumstantial pattern via associated thought patterns? - concepts and ideas or is it by 'notions' of mistaken identity? - Or has it happened at all? - All there is is Now.
Look Now. - This point I am getting at is so elusive and yet so profound.
You can never 'enter into it' - because you ARE it. - A clear space like presence in which all appears and disappears.
Have you really changed in essence, in this pure space of now?
I am telling you that it is clearly obvious right now, that you are free.
Only a belief pattern can appear to be disturbed or threatened by any notions of freedom.
Is it not strange that you could ever possibly believe that you do not know this?
- However, there is no one here or there that knows this.
As you take yourself to be a ‘me’, this unmediated knowing may appear to be unavailable to 'you'.
See and know directly that it is your very NATURE 'to know'.

All these words here are just concepts.
Know that - and know that this 'knowing' itself is NOT a concept.
This apparent discrimination, between concept and knowing is a fulcrum for the mind.
A kind of still point, which sees the duality and its swinging activity.
All apparent identities are 'content' of mind.
Knowing is beyond duality and discriminating mind and so the obvious is obvious, obviously. (How annoying for the intellectuals!)
- In that space of knowing, nothing 'more' is needed and nothing is truly divided.
It may dawn on you that you are free of all of it.
It is impossible to put it into words but I am trying my best to do it.
(In relativity, I risk being branded as a madman ranting about nonsense in a public place - who cares? - Why do I do it? - It just happens but I know what it is like, now only in memory, to feel that ache, that longing for reunion with oneself)
In the divergent mindscape, all this may seem to be beyond your understanding.
In that drama of life, the ‘personalized' consciousness, has seemingly 'taken sides' and apparently entered into duality.
It is only the way things 'appear' to be. – All the uneasiness is for that phantom, that ‘me’. It is out on the pendulum, swinging about, complaining about not 'getting it' and looking for peace of mind, like a monkey on a stick.
As an open space of freedom from thought 'opens' one may notice the restless activity of the mind edging to get back to its habitual activity.
Watch closely and see how it operates. - A glimpse of something may be informative in that watching. - You may notice something that you have been overlooking.
As one appears to slip back to the old ways - a sense of freedom may 'appear' to have been lost - but for whom?
It is NOT your true nature that is lost in phenomena. - You have truly never left this moment - never gone into time, ever.
There is nothing and no one that could ever be lost in phenomena or time.
It is all yourself anyway.
Why do you punish yourself with these old drama stories - all based on memory and a 'past' that is gone and dead?
Have you ever found another who can bear to hear your dramatic stories of that dramatic life? - Who really cares? - It’s your story and if you stop telling it to yourself and to others, it will subside of itself.
- This space, this clear space of NOW will reveal itself - not as a 'thing' but as that which all things come and go in - Just as it ever IS.
Do you have a choice? – have you ever had a choice?
In this pure space of now, there is no drama at all. - See and know that and know it without the need of any thought to support it.
Nothing touches this essential nature – that pure awareness that I am.
(Note added: I am reminded of a passage in the Bible which Bob Adamson once quoted to me and this passage, for me, expresses very efficiently what I have been attempting to convey in the above note. It is this: "A thousand may fall at your left side (by no doing of your own - passive)- ten thousand by thy right hand (by your own 'doing'- active) - but NONE shall come nigh thy dwelling place".

What is so subtle and yet so obvious is this 'space of knowing' - presence awareness - which is "the peace beyond all understanding".
Everything that appears, appears nowhere else than in this space.
The substance of 'that which appears' is equal to that space in which it appears.
It is full of knowing and yet it is no thing.
I am That.

Mind Twister for no one.

Still searching for that bright insight? - Maybe you are overlooking some very basic facts.
The fact that you are looking for ‘something special’ and possibly feel a lack of ‘it’ is the apparent problem.
There is NO problem.
Who is looking? - And for what?
A phenomenal object cannot find its own source because that source for it is nothing. - No thing.
Now, that may mean something to you. - However, that function of knowing, understanding or seeing is actually beyond the instrument that it ‘appears’ in.
Or does the instrument itself 'appear' in that spaceous knowing presence?
The mind pattern called a 'seeker' can never ‘get fulfilled’ because it can never acquire what it seeks. - What it seeks is its own Antithesis. - Do the polar opposites of mind appear to play a game of hide and seek?
Is there a difference between knowing that and not knowing that? - And for whom?
Beyond the polaric 'knowing' and the 'not knowing', is that knowing essence, which never starts or ends.
Whatever circumstances you believe you are ‘in’, are they not 'perfection’ just as 'it is'. - 'Who' has a problem?
- Neither right nor wrong, don't they simply 'appear' as the ever changing dance of right and wrong, for the mind? - Is it not obviously so?
- There is no 'separate entity' that observes this or anything and yet seeing is happening in that empty space of cognition. -We can call it pure cognition but that implies that there is something that is not pure outside of it.
Zero degrees of separation.
To perceive a problem is to take on board that there is a problem, even though it has no existence at all, except as a time/space pattern in the appearance of 'things'.
As long as you seek the company of so-called enlightened souls, you will continue to ignore the light that shines forth from the source that you ARE.
There is only One source.
which ‘appears’ as this universe and so expresses itself as everything perceivable and imaginable and at the same ‘time’ in what I call the ‘first instant’ (the only instant of now) it is empty of, and beyond, all words. - It is Oneness or the true nature of awareness.
How does one demonstrate Oneness? -How can one show, to a seeming ‘other’ it’s (this other’s) own true nature? - Or it’s own? -Isn’t it One and the same?
Where is the need to show or reveal and to whom?
The so-called ‘need’ can only be in the mind, because one’s ‘true nature’ is already true and naturally in need of nothing, nothing ‘more or less’ of anything at all.
How can a seemingly ‘different point of perception’ of another – an ‘other’, merge with ‘this’ (the explainer), a different ‘point’, and so reach agreement by eliminating the apparent separation through words? -It is ‘word’ that has seemingly brought about the separation or at least the sense of separation.
- Do ‘you’ detect the apparent paradox? - Where is the paradox except in the mind, via conflicting concepts or paradigms?
We apparently need points of reference before any thought framework can appear.
This, as well as what is written here, is of course all conceptual by its nature.
We may feel that we can’t communicate all that well without concepts.
Is there such a thing as communication happening? - (Good question but annoying for the intellect.)
Do ‘concepts’ limit the nature of ‘things’?
The words ‘sky’ is not engraved in big letters on that blueness above.
In fact the word ‘sky’ appeared long ‘after’ the sky itself appeared, in relative terms and in the ordinary way of general consensus reality.
Reality is not confined by words at all. -Reality is neither enhanced, nor limited by words. - Thoughtless reality is obvious, yet we rarely appreciate that fact.
Oneness. - What can we say about it? - Like a ripple on the shores edge, what effect can it have on the ocean? - One must imagine it as being separate from the ocean in some way, before we can entertain the concept that that ripple could ever have an effect on the ocean. -It is the ocean – water. - Or if one wants to be scientific, one could say that the ripple is an energy pattern flowing through the water.
The pulse of life is flowing through that body of yours right now. - Is there a separation between the apparent two?
The universe is like one molecule, which appears to contain all molecules. - The universe is one point, which contains all points.
Am I getting through? - Is there communication? - Is there a subtle stimulation?
Or is it already known? - What knows? - Is it a form, a personality that knows?
Whatever you believe about that, there is an expression flowing out here and this may register well with you or not so well. - Some may even think that I am waffling on about a bunch of nonsense. - No problem here about any of it.
One thing that I am totally sure of is this: - Cognition is happening (with you) and this is actually prior to any conditioning that you may believe that you have. - It is also prior to anything in memory or acquired mind (all you have learned – personalized knowledge).
Now, the point may not be appreciated (by you) and it most probably may be a point of contrition. - Bear with me, if you will.
All of our senses, hearing, tasting etc. are indivisible at the ‘point’ of perception (or cognition).
How do you differ from that point of cognition? - Are you not that?
If not, what could you be?
We cannot deny that hearing is different from seeing but is it true at the ‘point’ of cognition?
In that pure space of cognition, we cannot divide anything and seeing and hearing are of one essence.
Now, this is extremely significant in no uncertain way. - Or is it? - You tell me.
From the point of view of mind, it is significant, if it is not recognized clearly.
It is only in ‘mind process’ that any argument about this can take place.
Recognize this fact: - Any such argument (or agreement) is registering with the ‘point’ of cognition. - In fact, everything is registering there with equal measure (although, I imagine, few would agree).
Well, I have referred to that place of cognition as being a ‘point’.
In fact it has no known dimensions at all. - It is beyond the known (because it is the ‘knowing’).
A ‘point’ is zero dimensions. -Insubstantial.
Even though it is insubstantial and has no known dimension, it contains the whole universe. - There is no ‘time’ that can be applied to it because it contains all time.
What I am saying is so obvious, we have, most probably, not even given it a thought.
So, where does all this lead us? - Nowhere at all.
You are present and aware in That and AS That.
Recognize that it is true. - To deny this pure ‘point’ of cognition is really just divergent indulgence and that will go around and around endlessly, with no escape, for that apparent individual.
If you are drowning and someone throws you a rope, you take hold of it and so you are pulled out of the rough seas (of confused mind).
Our true identity is not limited by what the mind throws up, although it seems that it is, for the identified ‘form’ called ‘me’.
Now, I realize that what I have expressed here may well have missed the mark for many, possible, readers.
I must say without being rude, it is not my problem. - I have dealt with what we term as the ‘conditioned mind’. - Whatever condition that you believe you have, is not my doing. - You must deal with it yourself. - To say such things may appear to be rather blunt or even arrogant but that is not my intention. - The sensitive ‘ego’ will not survive that death of the body but if the ‘ground’ that it appears to reside on is totally revealed to be non existent before that ‘death’, then death can’t touch that which remains as the natural state, presence awareness.
However you perceive or translate what I am saying, it is not my intention to add data for any conditioned mind to immerse itself in. - The impulse is to point to that open space of cognition.
A road sign may say “ London ”, “ Paris ” or “Timbucktoo”. - The place it is pointing to is not confined to the sign. - It merely points the direction to go in.
(If you want to go to that place).
With this ‘pointing’ you don’t even have to take one step because you are that space of cognition.
Now, this space cannot be divided by any thought, concept or state of affairs.
Thought, concepts, states and conditions can only appear in it.
This clear space is actually unchanging.
It is the nature of all that appears in it, to change. - The content of awareness is changeful. - Awareness is timeless and unchanging. - That which appears is forever changing and that is the nature of energy – moving patterns of seeming solid, substantial or subtle matter.
Yesterday’s mood is gone. - You are not that. - Yesterday’s identified states are gone. - You are not those. - The thought that appears right now is not what you are.
You are the source of that light by which you see and know all ‘things’.
Can you say that you are anything ‘more’ than that?
‘Who’ emerges out of that ‘pure’ space of knowing and ‘who’ is it that gets lost in phenomena?
‘Who’ could answer such a question?

- Merry Christmas. 2006

A Salient Point for Contemplation

This is just a reminder for those who may be interested in the new material from Nisargadatta, which we have now made available as the book “Gleanings from Nisargadatta”. – It is an extraordinary book and will be appreciated by anyone that holds “I am That” as being a classic piece of literature.

*Recently I have been receiving email questions again and some can be read along with their replies in the notes listed below. - If you wish to comment or ask a so-called 'serious question', write to me at gilbertschultz (at) yahoo (dot) com. - I won't necessarily give you what you 'want' in an answer but I will answer any genuine enquiry.

Here is the gentle note for today.
There may be some subtle points in the following note, which may require some contemplation or re-reading.
In the, what shall we say, the average way things appear to be and are, regarding certain information being transmitted to a seeker, it seems that one who knows must clearly present clear information to the one who does not know.
From the point of view of ‘mind’, there is evidence that shows that the mind does have a capacity to align itself more fully with pure intelligence. - This is via the elimination of erroneous beliefs.
However, the pure function of knowing is already present – not for the ‘seeker’, as such, but ‘as’ the natural state of intelligence, that pure being, which this pure presence ‘is’, which is prior to - or ‘behind’, the façade of being a seeker.
The ‘seeker’ is simply a conceptual ‘form’ (have you ever seen it?) which has no being whatsoever of itself and is only a secondary 'poor cousin' or incomplete representative of this living, immediate presence awareness.
In the thorough investigation of one’s own consciousness, what is clearly evident reveals itself naturally and the ‘old’ belief in being a seeker is ‘replaced’ by uncontrived, unmediated, knowing.
It must be emphasised that this is not an acquisition, because this knowing is already present. - One can call it wakefulness. - If this wakefulness was not present with you, there would be no possibility of knowing anything at all.
It remains at all ‘times’ free of the known and free of the knower.
In the light of such ‘knowledge’ one could say that the ‘seeker’ is a kind of stupidity.
It is a kind of ignorance of what is naturally present.
- Many so-called gurus and teachers take advantage of that stupidity or vagueness of mind called the seeker.

The one who speaks of what is true, will never lead another astray into the imaginary realms of time bound concepts.
- Concepts of a future deliverance and all manner of methods and practices are not uttered by one who is totally free, unless it is to point out the uselessness of such ‘things’.
Conditional requirements are only placed before a seeker by those who are building an empire or who are ignorant themselves.
The timeless freedom of the one that ‘appears’ as what I will call 'a true teacher', acts like a directing ‘arrow’ or as a magnet, drawing or pointing the attention of the ‘seeker’ back to the actuality of their own presence awareness.
This is a rarity and only one out of hundreds, or thousands of teachers may 'have' or 'be' such an ‘ability’.
- I was fortunate to come across one and he has demonstrated the same 'ability' to those who can recognise his profound 'outlining' of the 'situation'.
- If you don't know who I am referring to, then explore my website further.

Here is the 'sticky' note for today:
Some 'sensitive types' may not approve of what I am about to tell.
When I read the words of many of the popular teachers and gurus, it is so obvious that they have themselves, missed the point.
– It often shows up in the first lines of their fancy words.
- They have obviously missed the essential message or maybe they have never heard it in the first instant.
– Imitating a guru and setting oneself up as a guru is fairly common in the last ten years or so in the West. – Many have a photo of Ramana beside them during their so-called ‘Satsangs’. - How so many get sucked in by these ‘gurus’ is quite amazing.
Almost all of them rattle on about unconditional love, which works like a ‘drug’ for those who feel lost or alienated by life and/or their own dramatic personal history.
They often hold 'Intensive weekends' where you pay a big fee to attend. - These revenue raisers are so obviously contrived.
- They ensure that it is a dynamic weekend, so that you go home feeling elated - until it all fades away in a day or two and have to book in for 'another one' which is already scheduled in a month or so. - Alikhabam - Sheeshkababa!
Other feeble teachers say - "There is nothing you can do". - This shows that they have not got a clue about much at all. - Most of them are just entertainers at best. - Well, that is fine because most seekers just want entertainment - Few really want to go past their comfort zone of being semi-conscious anyway.
It also shows how conditioned seekers are to the same old ‘sales pitch’.
The franchise mentality of all these gurus and teachers is so glaringly obvious.
Any teacher that encourages you to relate to complex conceptual notions about a future time is just keeping you in his or her own trap.
The touch of freedom is freedom not bondage.
– Conditional promises of a future freedom, after you pass certain tests is really just a 'con job'.
So, having said all that, it should be followed by a pointing to what is true.
So, I suggest that you re-read the first 'gentle' note again.

No 'Person' wants to Know - No person Can know.

During one's life, there may be points where one contemplates things in a broader sense.
Some drama may force one to re-assess things.
If I say “I don’t know why all this is happening to me”, what could that really mean?
Is there really ‘someone’ that ‘things’ are happening to?
Of course, it appears that there is but is it really true?
You won’t find many to discuss such a subject with.
Everyone takes themselves to be a ‘person’ because that is what they have been told, more or less.
To suggest that there is no ‘person’ is a preposterous suggestion and will be quickly dismissed as the ranting of a madman. - No one wants to investigate such ideas or facts.
However, this question of being a person or not actually cuts to the core of things.
To be told that there is no person is a highly potent ‘pointer’ but it is also a very threatening suggestion.
The standard belief system is undermined or shaken up.
Who is going to explore such fundamental beliefs?
It is a destination that no one ‘buys a ticket’ for.
What does all of your personal history amount to in this moment, right now?
The mind will immediately start to recall memories of this and that.
But I am speaking about this moment, not the past of memory.
Is any of it actually needed right now?
If you don’t refer to those memories or give it some thought, does it have any bearing on this moment at all?
The ever present freshness of simply being present, right now, has no discernible foundations on the past.
All past experience is no longer present.
Is the past just an echo of the present?
When all those experiences were the actual, as they happened, it was the present, because nothing can happen except in the present.
What is a person? Is a person conscious?
Or is there an awareness of the apparent person and all its memories?
Such questions can be rather interesting to explore but not for everyone.
Are you an echo of the past?
Or are you the actuality of this moment?
Without a thought, you are still present and aware.
Thoughts come and thoughts go.
States come and states go.
Are you any of them?
Or all of them?
Whatever happens you remain as a witness to them all.
You are also aware of the process of witnessing.

Email: Good morning Gilbert,
I am always happy to receive e-mails from you, which is not only a response to my mails, but also a further help, in dissolving more of the ‘me’ that's still left or seems to re-establish itself. - You’re honest and direct and I appreciate that very much.

Your fresh pointers are setting me straight!
"Not a member of a special club” - “no endless fees nor homage’s
required to an earth-bound egoistic teacher”.
I also liked your sentence in your book "The First Instant”:
Accept the message and GET OVER ( forget about) the MESSENGER!

This natural response of gratitude to the teacher and then wanting to worship him, this devotional spirit is so deeply engrained in some of us - however I do understand, see the
truth of what you are writing in your books.
The true teachers, not seeking to collect followers, sets his pupils free!
- Free to BE.
A deep respect and honoring of the teacher remains, however!
Thank you so much! – D, in Canada.

Hallo D, in Canada.
Yes, I see that you recognize some of the salient points well enough.
The ones you mention have a flavor added from your background, in that you change some words slightly, words that I doubt that I actually wrote or said in the same way.
I am not being rude in pointing this out.
– It shows how the mind translates things into what is familiar and remembers the translation, which slightly obscures the original impression or what was said.
Earth bound egoistic teacher - implies a teacher higher up in a System.
This is a subtle holding on to old religious beliefs.
The mind will assert its old notions repeatedly - as if it needs to survive in tact.
The dissolution of such beliefs is a threat.
Many get offended by the rawness of life.
When one goes to a third world country, the impact of the rawness of life is often overwhelming.
The old conditioned view of things is useless there and one may feel exposed and anxious.
A relaxation may happen and we may discover the richness of life in the freshness of each moment.
The apparent rawness turns out to be the livingness which we have sought, and have hidden from, for so long.
The same applies to hearing the clear message, the clear 'pointing' to what is true (in oneself).
In the 'appearance' of being separate individuals, most of us don't want to 'go there' because it is too threatening to our habitual and uncomfortable way of being semi-conscious.
Therefore, my books (including similar books by others) may only find a few readers and fewer still may realize this freedom from all 'things'.
The 'cutting to the core' reveals that there is no 'person' that is separate or alone.
The space like awareness which we all are, is not divided up into parts.
(It is) One without a second.
No teacher! No teaching!
No Higher Being or lower being.
One is ALL.
You are That.
Zero degrees of separation!

Email: Dear Gilbert,

I have a question? - I know questions are what keep me here in the trance yet….
Even though I believe (yet haven’t experienced) that all is One, I find it annoying that others seem to see the ‘light’ at a much younger age and have a seemingly unfair advantage because they have lead ‘princess’ type lives anyway etc. - I have a ‘heavy’ storyline of woe in me. - This and that happened, so I have problems trusting that there is a sense/experience of belonging and a connectedness to all. - So I would like to know why some folks appear to just fall into non-duality so much more easily (than I). - And why would one handicap oneself with a ‘heavy’ storyline before birth so to speak? - I hope this makes some sense. - Thanks, - Pauline.

Dear Pauline,
Even though I address you as a seeming separate ‘person’ - There is actually NO separate individual with any independence.
All these apparent ‘others’ are only appearances ‘in what you are’. – What can you say about ‘before birth’? – In this immediacy, why postulate about some time in the past and so entertain concepts about ‘things’ that are not present. - If you believe that any such conditioning exists, then the time to explore it is now. – Consciously invite it to come forward.
– You will see that it is nothing but concepts based on memories or imagination. – Those who go on about past lives are entertaining themselves with nonsense.
– Grandiose stories or ‘poor me’ stories have no power over pure seeing. – Direct cognition cuts through them instantly. – However, very few can discriminate between cognition and re-cognition or what the mind is bringing up from memory or imagination etc.
- This discrimination is necessary for knowing what is, as opposed to what is not.
Where the pure function of seeing is actually happening - is from beyond phenomena - appearances. – This is very clearly obvious but few seem to grasp that fact.
-Why? - Because they are caught in mind stuff and the ‘bit’ that is caught is a habitual reference point called ‘me’.
Your true essence is free of all phenomena. - That may seem rather fanciful but I assure you it is not.
It is only identified consciousness that refuses to acknowledge such ‘pointing’.
In that pure and empty space like awareness, everything is witnessed without there being any substantial ‘form’ called a witness, as such. – In recognizing that, some have ventured to call it liberation. – That label becomes another trap for seekers, because it is a conceptual postulation for the seeker and it lies somewhere in the future for them. – It will never come any closer than the perpetual ‘tomorrow’, which you may have noticed, it never arrives. – At the stroke of midnight, this moment of now remains as it is. – It is One Moment.
A story is a story. – Heavy or otherwise, it is still a bunch of thoughts. - They are all space-time patterns appearing in and on (your) awareness.

Stay in that empty space of knowing ‘long enough’ without fixating on anything and you will see that nothing of the story is real. – The mind may feel uncomfortable and resist by grasping at familiar, habitual concepts. – Watch the mind and relax into seeing whatever arises.
There is nothing to achieve and nothing to get. – There is no one to get anything.
All the usual spiritual proper gander is propagated nonsense - spread about by ignorant gurus who are in love with their own self-image - but that is all in the appearance of ‘things’ only.

There are two aspects to what you are.
The empty 'space', or No Thing-ness, which is suffused with Knowing - and then there is all of the manifestation that appears in THAT, including the body, mind, thoughts, emotions, states and what have you.
These apparent ‘two’ aspects are actually One in essence.
You cannot separate them except conceptually.
Understand that the stories are all dependant on your attention. – If you see through their foundations, they can no longer infiltrate your natural presence in the same way.
Belief in them is naturally cut off simply because you have seen them for what they are. – To identify with them, there must be the energy of belief flowing into them.
Once known clearly, why would you give them any validity at all.
All we need is to UNDERSTAND what thought is and what it apparently does - then thought can serve us and do what it is meant to do – simply translate ‘what is’.
Imagination is a useful thing at times but it so easily deteriorates into self-destructive notions, when it meets and is challenged by the apparent ‘forces of a selfish, self-centred world’.
The mind only ‘appears’ to divide That One, that which can never be actually divided.
Oneness is registering in that knowing presence ( that you are) just ‘as it is’ – ‘before’ the ‘time bound’ processes of mind translates those impressions into the habitual notions of what is real.
What is real is never a notion or concept. – They can only ‘appear to be’ and the only place and time that they can appear is NOW.
Knowing THAT fact is all you need to know.
You are the light by which you see and know – and nothing other than that.
What story do you need?
Get behind the translations of mind - that is where you are anyway - then the identified consciousness loses its apparent hold over you.
It is so simple – effortless - but near impossible to convey to another - all we can do is point and say FULL STOP.
I will let you into a little secret. - Some of my friends think I am a bit of a loony and they write me off as not knowing anything worth knowing. – They avoid reading any of my books and my website. – I am not phased one bit by that. - In fact it is rather amusing but I must not laugh in their presence about that. - They get very annoyed.
What they miss is that they are making judgments about me based on their own habitual views.
This freedom is inexplicable and it ‘appears’, as things go, that only a rare one can clearly recognize what is being pointed out. – Even so, I KNOW that this is totally available to everyone, no matter what their circumstances may be. – All that seemingly prevents its recognition is a resistance to ‘what is’ and that resistance must be tackled from within and dismantled. – A shock from ‘outside’ may deliver something that is necessary but it must be met with by an equal force of presence. - Otherwise it just flows round and round in the old habitual space-time patterns.

In that space - one sees that without thought, I do not fall apart - the pure functioning remains - untouched.
I am THAT - (You are That).

Warm regards - Gilbert

Obvious clarity of simply being

Feedback on the recently published book "Everything is Clear and Obvious":
Hi G,
Blow me down, everything is, indeed, clear and obvious.
What a breath of fresh air!
What seeming effortless and scintillating prose!
It has the exquisite flavour of a Dzogchen text.
This is an utterly singular work in a class of its own.
Thank you, - Warm Regards, - John.

Email 2: Michael wrote:
Dear G,
When I bought your latest CD 'One Moment" some weeks back, you were kind enough to offer that I might come back with follow-up questions.
- I have decided to take you up on it.
I can see that everything appears in awareness.
- I can also see that awareness proceeds on its own without any effort by anyone in the same way that my hair grows without any effort on "my" part.
- The person Michael and his various characteristics and even "his" body are all appearances in awareness.
- It seems, however, that "I" am able to change the course of the appearances - during my days of work or leisure, for example, substantial planning seems to pay off in terms of at least partially predictable outcomes - and it does seem as if "I, Michael" has something fundamental to do with it and that my ability to do this is closely linked to my history background, education etc. , i.e. what I normally would call "myself".
- Deciding to do regular exercise, for example, seems to change the way the body feels and
looks - my intuition tells me that the whole thing rolls along without any doer-ship, but the realization hasn't penetrated beyond the mind - I would appreciate any reaction or advice you might have to this. - Warm regards, Michael.

G Replies:
The basic nature of insight or knowing is intelligence and seeing.
The nature of everything is intelligence.
"Remark the intricacies of the spider's web" - Marcus Aurelius
A spiral galaxy, a minute organism or a billion examples of intelligence at play.
The faculty of recognizing or cognizing any of these things requires intelligence (surely one can agree on that point).
Insight is simply seeing into things, a revelation of the obvious.
- It is a mystery for the usual mindset, or dullness of mind, which can only label it as a 'special talent' that others possess.
Pure 'Seeing' is instant and from beyond matter for all of us but that point will not sit well with a stubborn intellectual type.
- I don't usually mention 'the Third Eye' because so much hocus pocus has been woven around those words.
The Third eye is SEEING with the whole being, which of course includes all the senses.

If you try and find your 'self', you can't.
In such a case 'Who' is looking for whom?
You may see that you are indeed invisible and yet very present, or mindful.
- 'Seeing' may be realized to be nothing 'other' than this functioning presence that I am.
Am I the 'doer'? - It seems so.
Volition? - Events happen. - Where is the choice maker? - Do you know it?
Now, if we do not understand ‘what we are’ most thoroughly, how can we determine that we have volition? - Who decides what?

Now, the problem is that if we do not understand ourselves and know what we are, then we must be running on assumptions.
Everything flows as it does and then we make up 'laws' to explain it all.
They are man made theories based on observation.
Now, this so-called ‘teaching’ says that we must make an investigation.
- A very ‘personal’ investigation of our ‘own’ consciousness.
There is a wondrous intelligence totally available to us. - It is in fact what we are.
No step is needed, into any mind realm to ‘get to it’. – It is our very ‘substance’ or better put, our apparent substance emerges ‘immediately’ from That – Intelligence Energy.

Who has a problem?
The one with a problem is just a pattern of energy – a belief.
Even that is intelligence energy appearing as that pattern and the belief that it is real.
What I am is impartial and that appears as the partial – which is a paradox for the mind.
We are emptiness and fullness – These apparent two different apparent states are not ‘two’. - One is ‘the appearance’ and the other is invisible.

Profound insight is here as the pure awareness.
Pure Awareness is what we truly are.
In the mind, there may be belief that, that awareness is conditioned somehow.
'Relativity' and 'the Absolute' are actually One, although the intellect can never resolve that truth. - It IS, no matter what the intellect decides. - One could say that truth is ruthless.
It, the intellect is quite naturally biased, due to its own nature of being ‘thought based’.

Awareness is thoughtless, or better put, it contains 'no thought' and 'thought' equally without preference.
- It is sometimes called ‘non-conceptual awareness’.
When all the mindscape is seen through - what is seeing?
It is not some special 'state of seeing' that has been acquired.
It is indeed, the very same seeing that is happening right now (with you and everyone).
With profound insight, the mind is simply not getting caught on its habitual mindscape and so everything is seen clearly.
Speaking from the normal worldly view: - The environmental challenges we face as a Global Community require profoundly clear sight.
One has 'done' many things as a 'me' in the appearance.
The investigation is basically the mind exploring itself - and eliminating what has been erroneously believed in. - This pareing back to the basics is highly informative for the mind.
The so-called 'me' appears to be taking part in this investigation. - Then at some point that reference point called 'me' is seen for what it is. - This insight is from beyond our normal psychological realm of thoughts etc.
So, even though the 'me' appears to be a part of the investigation, it loses its hold over what we truly are and it is known that I am free of that erroneous reference point. - Like a breath of fresh air, it feels invigorating. - One needs to be vigilant at this point, because the mind will come back in and all it has is memory based material to attempt to explain what has happened.
By watching everything, this 'time' can be a very rich period of insight.
In fact, we do not have to take up any 'old views' again. - In seeing it all clearly, the mind is freed from attachments based on the past.
In this freedom, there is no impulse to make a big deal out of it all.
- Those who do make a big deal out of it, like these 'special egos' called western gurus, have simply gone back into mind games. - These gurus cannot direct anyone to real freedom, because they missed it themselves, preferring to grasp at an egoistic self image, in being a 'holy person'.
Many have 'fallen' recently. - Their game is exposed and nothing they can say can redeem their 'old reputation' of being holy and above us all.
Don't trust anyone who sits on a platform and refuses to converse with you openly one to one.
- A genuine desire to find what it true deserves an equally genuine response, does it not?

Note in reference to recent events 'out there'.
Can you imagine 'God' ( and these fallen gurus have been playing 'the role' of being God ) refusing to answer certain questions and then saying "My lawyer has advised me not to speak about this matter with anyone"? - What the *x#+# bleep?
- When your chickens come home to roost, you might find that they are shifty foxes instead.
- Describing your partner as being 'a dog' is a little over the top and rather revealing isn't it?
- Then trying to make a profit from doing workshops on the whole 'tragedy' is a bit like the money lenders in the synagog isn't it?
The guru who is too busy keeping up their own appearances, of being special, and trying to protect that failing reputation, has nothing much to offer someone who has a genuine desire to find what is true.
- The truth is not conditional. - It is obvious!
- Trying to hide things, just reveals the game playing that has been there all along.
- These gurus expect their followers to come clean and expose all their own dirty laundry but when it comes to 'coming clean' themselves, the table quickly turns.

Something different

What is man’s place in the universe?
Any answer to such a question is most likely to be heavily biased and relative.
Without going into religious beliefs or stale old concepts, what evidence is there to make such a judgment?
From 'where' is such a judgment made and based on what data? - Second hand information is not good enough. - Surely I can delve into it and ponder it myself.
Am I biased? - What do I see when I gaze into the night sky? - What words could adequately describe it?
Can a description contain no bias whatsoever? - What is my reference point?
Just like the question of your own existence, there is no absolute objective answer.
Is it all too obvious? - Insight into the true nature of things is rare for most of us.
We are far too busy to contemplate such things.
When an insight does open up, it often seems obvious and we may wonder how we did not see it before.
Is it so strange that we miss what is clear and obvious?
With the mind filled with a constant parade of concepts and reference points, what is obvious is just so often not noticed or it is dismissed as not being anything of significance.
The identified states of mind, seemingly cover the pure awareness, which makes all experiences possible. - THAT is unexplorable - it is not separate from the essence of any exploration.
- Ever fresh in each apparently separate moment. - Where is my 'place' in that, if I do not realize that I am THAT?

Man’s place in the universe?
What scale do we use? - Our own scale and view of 'above and below' is inescapable in the normal considerations in our normal reasoning and organic condition.
Is this planet just a hurtling rock traveling through space?
- Is it merely a 'dumb' rock covered by a thin layer of living substances, organic life forms?
In 1969 my brother was working on the Moon landing project.
- He posted to me, a copy of the first ever photo of the Earth rising above the Moon’s horizon. - Magnificent!
- Like millions of others who saw that photo, it made an instant deep impression on me, something far more spiritual than attending a church service.
- It is an impression that touches the core of our collective, mysterious, situation.
Even though the image is a second hand image, a mere photo taken by an astronaut, not direct experience for most of us, it still reaches into our deepest interior regions – our inner space, each time one sees that photo.
So, this planet along with the whole solar system is moving through space at some extraordinary speed, at least that is what we are told. - On a cloudless day, the stillness of a clear blue sky, we can be forgiven for imagining that nothing is moving at all.
Where is this planet going? - Is there a five year plan? - Is there a definite destination?
How does yesterday or a million years ago, bear upon this moment and this motion through space?
- Evolution is a relative concept and what difference could there be in a distant view of this planet, between now and ten million years ago or twenty million years in the future?
For us, we so-called humans, we are indoctrinated by information which is highly biased and subjective. - The weight of the past is thrust upon us, at least conceptually, and the mystery of the future is reduced to theoretical postulations, for the most part.
Like our infamous journalists, are we just too far entrenched in ‘things’ and ‘events’, that we are almost never touched by our apparent 'collective mysterious journey' through space?
Are we truly not much more than crawling things on a living rock, roaming about like ants?

In 1966 or 67, my brother and I, built a telescope based on a design using a 12 inch reflective mirror. - We hand ground glass on glass, ( two thick discs) using a series of abrasive compounds, to achieve the curvature required. - It took weeks to do and then we had it silvered. - We posted the single, inch thick, glass item away, to a specialized company for the silvering process. - The waiting for its return was a tad tedious, as I remember it.
- Constructing the telescope was a careful task and everything had to be arranged correctly and properly. - My brother was meticulous in everything he did and the telescope was a resounding success. - I was a few years younger and as I remember it, a little less patient. - It was all worth the effort.
I doubt I will ever forget my first view of the Moon through this instrument.
The Moon filled the eye piece with amazing details. - A short time later, Saturn with its rings sent a thrill through my organism and to such a degree that only such mysterious impressions directly perceived can do.
- I was no longer looking at a photo or a graphic representation of Saturn. - This was directly perceived with only empty space between the telescope and Saturn. - Having to adjust the telescope every now and then, due to the Earth’s rotation was just part of the whole wonderous experience.
If we look the other way, down into matter, we find equally arresting and wonderful impressions of life.
I remember looking at a common drop of water, from the kitchen tap, through a brand new microscope. - Watching the hundreds of living creatures, life forms, actively moving about is something not easily dismissed as being trivial. - Even a highly trained biologist must often be struck by those vivid impressions of life - in that microscopic world.
The wonder of it all.
On another scale, Sunrise and Sunset often catch our attention and transpose our mundane thought patterns into a sense of the miraculous.
- The sense of natural beauty instantly brings immediacy to our own presence as a living being.
For a lot of us, from what I see in this busy city, what comes between sunrise and sunset, which we always seem to miss seeing, is often all too hazy or too dull to even contemplate.
- Home for a meal and a bit of TV and then to bed.
When our inquisitive mind is turned towards the heavens, the night sky, or towards the micro world, our sense of scale is informed by direct impressions of a living presence far greater than anything we can imagine.
Where is your ‘place’ in all of this?
To paraphrase Nisargadatta: "You take yourself to be in a world. - Because you identify with being a body in time and space – you do not recognize that the world appears in what you are."

Energy, matter, galaxies, stars and planets etc, all appear in empty space.
- We can easily calculate that there must be, almost infinitely, more space than there is matter.
That is easily observed when you look into a clear night sky.
- Even the apparent size and proximity of the Moon is dwarfed by the space that surrounds it.

All the sensations of the body, the thoughts and states of mind appear in spaciousness, a spaciousness that is totally available to be explored in every detail.
- That fact should or could indicate something profound, something about our true nature and the nature of awareness itself. - Words can't convey it though. - It must be a direct experiencing.
All of your knowledge and all of your experiences and memories are appearances in what can be called a 'non conceptual space of pure awareness' which is unchangingly present right now.
We notice the changing and miss that which does not change.
The identified consciousness, the apparent ‘entity’ can never jump from its ‘position’ ( as an object) into that emptiness of pure knowing ( No thing) .
Therefore all seekers never find and all practices and all methods are useless for that apparent entity in its pursuit of the unattainable.
When all the efforts are exhausted, the organism may well collapse into a relaxed state.
- At that moment, (which is always now) what is always obvious may well make itself known, not as an object but as the ever knowing presence that it is (and that it always has been).

When the mind is turned towards the heavens, the night sky, or towards the microscopic world, our sense of scale is altered in the face of direct evidence - in direct, present experiencing.

Well, there you have it. - Something different?
Different to what? - Non Duality is simple - but somehow all the talk about it is just a foggy mist floating about in the minds of men.