The error is only a repetition - a mechanical life - a 'wooden life' of belief.
The basic error is in belief - which is a repetition of patterns in mind.
In holding onto 'old' second hand stuff, we miss what is so obvious, what is so clearly obvious - and 'we go with' what the mind throws up from the past and we believe that that is reality.
We are taught with a basic assumption that ‘addition’ is the way to success. - If we do such and such, we will be successful and we will attain what is desired.
When the desire is satisfied, it springs forth with new vigour, wanting more and more.
The image of being a spiritual 'person' is a 'major' obstacle - one that is skirted around endlessly - because it is so confronting to face the fact that that image is only just an image and nothing more than an image. - If that image of yourself is your 'major concern' then you best leave this note right now - there is nothing here for you.
(There are plenty of teachers who cater for the enhancement of the self image - You can find them easily enough, because they look very special and behave in a most sacred manner.)
What we are taught - mechanically by those who don't know: -
The simplicity of what is true is not found by addition – ‘what is’ is revealed through the negation of ‘what is not’. - Unconscious belief is recognized for what it is not - by that which ‘is’ - by conscious presence. – Everything appears in wakefulness – absolutely everything – objects, sounds, thoughts, ideas, images and any thing you can conceive of – it ALL appears in or on that wakefulness that you are.
It is not individualised or personal. – It is the habituated mind that attempts to personalize the impartial presence of natural wakefulness. – In that mind game, there is no way out – except to stop and see – see from a clear space of knowing – see that everything does appear in this clear wakefulness. – In this knowing presence the whole charade evaporates – taste this long enough and the mind will never again trap your into the realm of belief.
– Knowing transcends every belief – there are no exceptions in this.
The story about a journey, 'a spiritual journey' is erroneous and has only a pedagogical value, a value which is only realized in the moments of its dissolution – in the actuality of seeing through the mind’s stories and in the knowing them for what they are, or more correctly, for what they are not. – In seeing them disolve, one knows that they have no being whatsoever – they are stories and they are all about ‘time’ – thus they exist nowhere but in the mind, as content of mind. – They only have an apparent life because they are believed in.
In SEEING: -
In the elimination or the seeing through of conceptual frameworks, which are only mind constructs, the ground of simplicity reveals itself naturally as ‘that’ which is seeing. - Some believe, quite erroneously, that this is achieved by meditation or in some method of quietening the mind. - That is a subtle belief and the concept of ‘time’ is woven throughout its fabric.
- It is believed that through some activity, however subtle it may be, one can achieve the prescribed goal. - That basic assumption is actually an obvious error, it is an ignoring of what is already present – an ignoring of one's own natural state of wakefulness.
- This error is extremely common simply because the natural state is not detectable for the mind as an objective ‘thing’ - it is the seeing-knowing - forever unseen and unknown as an object.
THAT, that wakefulness, is what you are, it is your own ‘self’, which this actual seeing happening now – knowing is happening now.
The mind is always adding and subtracting:
What is added to that is concepts and so it appears that one gets diverted away from immediate knowing, into a realm of concepts – but is it true – have you ever ‘gone’ anywhere? - Have you truly been lost in concepts? - As long as there is a search for the natural state, how can you possibly find it? – It is not an objective ‘thing’. - In the effortless 'retention of being conscious' (for the mind) in this moment, in not going with whatever the mind is presenting, in staying in and as this immediacy of presence awareness, then this knowing presence that you are, includes the knowing that it can never be known as an object, simply because the ‘place’ of knowing and of seeing is known to be empty.
It is empty - yet full of ‘what is’ – what is, is forever fresh and new. - There is no attachment, no time, no duration, no separation in that clear space of knowing. - This is totally radical for the mind and beyond its capacity. - The mind has no being and knowing is actually from beyond body and mind. - Therefore, in this actuality of knowing, in this conscious presence, there is an 'all inclusiveness', it is known that everything is ‘an appearance’ and that all of it is insubstantial. – There are no exceptions.
- Practitioners of traditional spiritual methods can only rationalize these points, whenever they come up.
– The problem is ‘time’ and investment – basically it is all belief and as long as there is a resistance to going beyond the mind and its beliefs, then that mind will perpetuate its erroneous beliefs, ad infinitum.
What substance has it got? : -
In seeing that everything has no substance, (the intrinsic nature of phenomena is emptiness) what possible meaning can the practices of purification have, except for a belief, a ‘me’ who is attached to those practices? - The blockage is obvious and I see it so often in ‘seekers’ – the resistance is almost palpable. – All one can say is ‘Don’t believe in what I am saying - take a look yourself – there is no water in the mirage’. – It is the investment in believing in a self-centre – an image - that is the problem.
'Who' is interested in investigating that?
It appears that only those who experience intense suffering are willing, as a last resort, to take a look. – Then, in taking a close look, ‘hey presto’ – the suffering vanishes.
- As the old saying goes - “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”.
- The one essence appears as the whole – the multiplicity. - It is undifferentiated. - This 'singular essence' is not (spiritually) biased. - The beings appearing within it are not segregated into angels and devils. - Everyone is THAT essence and however they appear (to you) to be, whatever their behaviour appears as, in the moment, it cannot be separate from the essence that it is the expression of.
- Who is to judge? - Who is to condemn? -It is the misunderstanding of ‘men’ that has contaminated religion. - It is the ignorance of men that has introduced ‘Thou shalt not’, which is nothing more than a political manoeuvre. - Yet it is all just happening in the appearance of ‘things’.
Common belief:
Some say that the relative life of being ‘someone’ is real – that the ‘person’ is real. -That is merely a belief – an un-investigated belief and to base one’s understanding on an un-investigated notion is nothing but ignorance. - But the mind does not want to ‘go too near the truth’ because it begins to fall apart and to become transparent.
- When the mind is transparent, what is left of ‘me’?
- Only conscious presence and the mind cannot make that into anything with a concept. - Conscious presence does not need a concept – it is non conceptual – it is the potency of presence itself. ‘People’ imagine that they can be cured from their ‘personal mess’ by psychology.
– All of it is valid - but only ‘in the appearance’, as that which is transient and that is the story of ‘me’ – it is not ‘being’. No matter what anyone says, psychology is a mind maze of endless postulations. Any argument about that is just another postulation, held by an intellect.
The imagination most commonly believed in, is that through the mind I will find an answer. That is not an issue, in this discussion, when it comes to practical, everyday ‘stuff’ but when we approach ‘the big questions’ of why I suffer? - Who am I? - What am I? – ‘The truth’ is hidden from us. - Why? Because the truth, if we can use that word at all, is actually what we truly are.
Are you seeking whatever you truly are - your own authenticity?
You are already that - how could you not be that?The word ‘truth’ is interchangeable with ‘presence’.
Reality is the totality of what is.
The appearance is 'what appears to be' and that is also an aspect of 'what is'.
The elusive obvious: -
What is most obvious is this clear presence that I am, that you are, yet it is bypassed over and over. - How can that happen? - It is simply because of a mere concept – an ephemeral appearance in the mind. - It is one that has been adhered to, without question and so it is a habit, unnoticed because the common mind has no place for it in language except for the concept of zero or emptiness.
Who wants to enter into that emptiness?As the mind approaches emptiness, it dissolves into that emptiness – yet what you are does not vanish – what you truly are, is still present, shining. - This ever present shining, presence awareness, is not negotiable, it cannot be negated. - One this is re-discovered it remains invisible and although one cannot see it in oneself, one can recognize it in every being, no matter how dim it may appear to be shining, it is there.
- The limited conceptual beliefs have no power to put that light out or even to obscure it.
When the ‘news’ is heard, in hearing the message, that shining presence is resonating and its potency is an immediate response, is the experience of an expansion of conscious presence. - It is an elimination of beliefs.The habitual patterns of belief will re-appear as a flowing back over the clear wakefulness but once enough of a taste 'has been had', nothing can stop the expansion into this ‘all inclusive presence’ – this natural awareness – this natural state.
The mind will certainly 'appear' to 'try' and regain its old habitual grounds - but it cannot stand up on its own - it has NO being whatsoever.- The concepts of being separate cannot stand up to conscious presence. - Nothing is achieved anyone.
All you can say is that there is no doubt in this natural presence - you know that there is nothing wrong with right now, even if you do think about it.
There are zero degrees of separation in what you ARE.
In holding onto 'old' second hand stuff, we miss what is so obvious, what is so clearly obvious - and 'we go with' what the mind throws up from the past and we believe that that is reality.
We are taught with a basic assumption that ‘addition’ is the way to success. - If we do such and such, we will be successful and we will attain what is desired.
When the desire is satisfied, it springs forth with new vigour, wanting more and more.
The image of being a spiritual 'person' is a 'major' obstacle - one that is skirted around endlessly - because it is so confronting to face the fact that that image is only just an image and nothing more than an image. - If that image of yourself is your 'major concern' then you best leave this note right now - there is nothing here for you.
(There are plenty of teachers who cater for the enhancement of the self image - You can find them easily enough, because they look very special and behave in a most sacred manner.)
What we are taught - mechanically by those who don't know: -
The simplicity of what is true is not found by addition – ‘what is’ is revealed through the negation of ‘what is not’. - Unconscious belief is recognized for what it is not - by that which ‘is’ - by conscious presence. – Everything appears in wakefulness – absolutely everything – objects, sounds, thoughts, ideas, images and any thing you can conceive of – it ALL appears in or on that wakefulness that you are.
It is not individualised or personal. – It is the habituated mind that attempts to personalize the impartial presence of natural wakefulness. – In that mind game, there is no way out – except to stop and see – see from a clear space of knowing – see that everything does appear in this clear wakefulness. – In this knowing presence the whole charade evaporates – taste this long enough and the mind will never again trap your into the realm of belief.
– Knowing transcends every belief – there are no exceptions in this.
The story about a journey, 'a spiritual journey' is erroneous and has only a pedagogical value, a value which is only realized in the moments of its dissolution – in the actuality of seeing through the mind’s stories and in the knowing them for what they are, or more correctly, for what they are not. – In seeing them disolve, one knows that they have no being whatsoever – they are stories and they are all about ‘time’ – thus they exist nowhere but in the mind, as content of mind. – They only have an apparent life because they are believed in.
In SEEING: -
In the elimination or the seeing through of conceptual frameworks, which are only mind constructs, the ground of simplicity reveals itself naturally as ‘that’ which is seeing. - Some believe, quite erroneously, that this is achieved by meditation or in some method of quietening the mind. - That is a subtle belief and the concept of ‘time’ is woven throughout its fabric.
- It is believed that through some activity, however subtle it may be, one can achieve the prescribed goal. - That basic assumption is actually an obvious error, it is an ignoring of what is already present – an ignoring of one's own natural state of wakefulness.
- This error is extremely common simply because the natural state is not detectable for the mind as an objective ‘thing’ - it is the seeing-knowing - forever unseen and unknown as an object.
THAT, that wakefulness, is what you are, it is your own ‘self’, which this actual seeing happening now – knowing is happening now.
The mind is always adding and subtracting:
What is added to that is concepts and so it appears that one gets diverted away from immediate knowing, into a realm of concepts – but is it true – have you ever ‘gone’ anywhere? - Have you truly been lost in concepts? - As long as there is a search for the natural state, how can you possibly find it? – It is not an objective ‘thing’. - In the effortless 'retention of being conscious' (for the mind) in this moment, in not going with whatever the mind is presenting, in staying in and as this immediacy of presence awareness, then this knowing presence that you are, includes the knowing that it can never be known as an object, simply because the ‘place’ of knowing and of seeing is known to be empty.
It is empty - yet full of ‘what is’ – what is, is forever fresh and new. - There is no attachment, no time, no duration, no separation in that clear space of knowing. - This is totally radical for the mind and beyond its capacity. - The mind has no being and knowing is actually from beyond body and mind. - Therefore, in this actuality of knowing, in this conscious presence, there is an 'all inclusiveness', it is known that everything is ‘an appearance’ and that all of it is insubstantial. – There are no exceptions.
- Practitioners of traditional spiritual methods can only rationalize these points, whenever they come up.
– The problem is ‘time’ and investment – basically it is all belief and as long as there is a resistance to going beyond the mind and its beliefs, then that mind will perpetuate its erroneous beliefs, ad infinitum.
What substance has it got? : -
In seeing that everything has no substance, (the intrinsic nature of phenomena is emptiness) what possible meaning can the practices of purification have, except for a belief, a ‘me’ who is attached to those practices? - The blockage is obvious and I see it so often in ‘seekers’ – the resistance is almost palpable. – All one can say is ‘Don’t believe in what I am saying - take a look yourself – there is no water in the mirage’. – It is the investment in believing in a self-centre – an image - that is the problem.
'Who' is interested in investigating that?
It appears that only those who experience intense suffering are willing, as a last resort, to take a look. – Then, in taking a close look, ‘hey presto’ – the suffering vanishes.
- As the old saying goes - “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”.
- The one essence appears as the whole – the multiplicity. - It is undifferentiated. - This 'singular essence' is not (spiritually) biased. - The beings appearing within it are not segregated into angels and devils. - Everyone is THAT essence and however they appear (to you) to be, whatever their behaviour appears as, in the moment, it cannot be separate from the essence that it is the expression of.
- Who is to judge? - Who is to condemn? -It is the misunderstanding of ‘men’ that has contaminated religion. - It is the ignorance of men that has introduced ‘Thou shalt not’, which is nothing more than a political manoeuvre. - Yet it is all just happening in the appearance of ‘things’.
Common belief:
Some say that the relative life of being ‘someone’ is real – that the ‘person’ is real. -That is merely a belief – an un-investigated belief and to base one’s understanding on an un-investigated notion is nothing but ignorance. - But the mind does not want to ‘go too near the truth’ because it begins to fall apart and to become transparent.
- When the mind is transparent, what is left of ‘me’?
- Only conscious presence and the mind cannot make that into anything with a concept. - Conscious presence does not need a concept – it is non conceptual – it is the potency of presence itself. ‘People’ imagine that they can be cured from their ‘personal mess’ by psychology.
– All of it is valid - but only ‘in the appearance’, as that which is transient and that is the story of ‘me’ – it is not ‘being’. No matter what anyone says, psychology is a mind maze of endless postulations. Any argument about that is just another postulation, held by an intellect.
The imagination most commonly believed in, is that through the mind I will find an answer. That is not an issue, in this discussion, when it comes to practical, everyday ‘stuff’ but when we approach ‘the big questions’ of why I suffer? - Who am I? - What am I? – ‘The truth’ is hidden from us. - Why? Because the truth, if we can use that word at all, is actually what we truly are.
Are you seeking whatever you truly are - your own authenticity?
You are already that - how could you not be that?The word ‘truth’ is interchangeable with ‘presence’.
Reality is the totality of what is.
The appearance is 'what appears to be' and that is also an aspect of 'what is'.
The elusive obvious: -
What is most obvious is this clear presence that I am, that you are, yet it is bypassed over and over. - How can that happen? - It is simply because of a mere concept – an ephemeral appearance in the mind. - It is one that has been adhered to, without question and so it is a habit, unnoticed because the common mind has no place for it in language except for the concept of zero or emptiness.
Who wants to enter into that emptiness?As the mind approaches emptiness, it dissolves into that emptiness – yet what you are does not vanish – what you truly are, is still present, shining. - This ever present shining, presence awareness, is not negotiable, it cannot be negated. - One this is re-discovered it remains invisible and although one cannot see it in oneself, one can recognize it in every being, no matter how dim it may appear to be shining, it is there.
- The limited conceptual beliefs have no power to put that light out or even to obscure it.
When the ‘news’ is heard, in hearing the message, that shining presence is resonating and its potency is an immediate response, is the experience of an expansion of conscious presence. - It is an elimination of beliefs.The habitual patterns of belief will re-appear as a flowing back over the clear wakefulness but once enough of a taste 'has been had', nothing can stop the expansion into this ‘all inclusive presence’ – this natural awareness – this natural state.
The mind will certainly 'appear' to 'try' and regain its old habitual grounds - but it cannot stand up on its own - it has NO being whatsoever.- The concepts of being separate cannot stand up to conscious presence. - Nothing is achieved anyone.
All you can say is that there is no doubt in this natural presence - you know that there is nothing wrong with right now, even if you do think about it.
There are zero degrees of separation in what you ARE.
posted by Gilbert Schultz at Friday, August 10, 2007
<< Home