it IS simple - far too simple for the habituated mind

Reply to an email question:
There is NO separation. - All such stuff is belief and in a mind realm called ‘time' - but if you LOOK from this immediacy of right now - you won't find any of it to be there at all.
Have a look! - Now!
Read Bob's first book until every page is alive for you-there are a hundred pointers in it and even before your mind is familiar with them-you will start to recognize what they are pointing out-for yourself - and in your own direct perceptions-then it is YOURS - and no longer theory etc.

My advice is to do that - and that has the potency to deliver you back to the essential nature of your own awareness, which you have never truly left.

Theories are Theories and Knowing is Knowing.

Warm regards - Gilbert
Note:
So, how can this Non Duality stuff be made simple?
Well, it is simple. – All the talk about it is complex because it is all talk and all talk is dualistic by its nature. – The speaker and the listener, the writer and the reader are dual with an apparent means of communication as the mysterious third element. – Words are divisive. - Everything appears from the same source. - The big question is, can something come out of nothing? - 'Transmission' is the great myth that appears out of nowhere and reputations are built on dreams. – The 'Great Gurus' and 'Great Teachers' and their reputations appear to depend on that Wondrous Transmission. (There is no 'great' being to teach - your own heart essence is 'nudging' you all the time but you ignore it)
There is NO teacher, no disciple and no dependency in the Non Dual. – How could there be? - Only the mind appears to divide THAT which can never be divided.
One without a second.
In the relativity of being a seeker, a message ‘hits the mark’ – ‘when’ there is a complete listening, an openness to the essential ‘message’. – In a very direct way my ‘last and final teacher’ (Bob) pointed out to me that there can be nothing more simple than “One without a second”. – He also 'pointed' it out using a hundred other ways of expressing the same essential ‘message’. – After twenty or so years of restless struggle with ‘esoteric teachings’ and little to ‘show’ for it, by the time I got to Bob's I was ‘ready’ to get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ and somehow a resonation, a simple resonation started ‘ringing’ in my ‘heart’.
– There was a resounding, a ‘knowing’ of what was true - and that resonation became ‘a discrimination’, a ‘touch stone’ and ‘then’ what was or had been an elaborate complexity in mind was (is) naturally seen and known for what it was (is), a fanciful dream. – I saw how my mind (had) loved to indulge in ‘knowing about special knowledge’ and I saw how those very same notions were divisive and connected to the primary notions of separation ('me'). – One aspect of this ‘new circumstance’ was (is)that it had (has)an effortless nature of dissolving all beliefs that arose and this ‘happened’ over and over until all beliefs were discarded, not by any choice of mine but, naturally. – This left (leaves) me present and aware with no beliefs at all. – ‘Belief’ was (IS) seen to be unnecessary.
– ‘Knowing’ was (is) found to be the nature of simple awareness. – It needs no foundation and no evidence or data taken from memory.
Knowing is the immediacy of all knowledge - without exception.
– If you contemplate that last line it may reveal ‘something’ which has gone unnoticed yet profoundly potent.
So, that is 'one way' to ‘make’ this ‘available’ for anyone. – However, there are few ‘takers’. – ‘Giving up’ belief and what could be called a ‘self hypnotized state of mind’ is impossible without your true essence, which appears as a natural resonation of what is true in your ‘heart’.
– The dominant ‘head’ is stubborn and just not interested in 'standing aside' because it is 'the throne of the ego', the phantom.
The paradox is that your true essence is already free and there is no ‘getting’ of any message from any great teacher. – A 'true' teacher may appear in your life and he or she will appear to be very relaxed and ordinary. - There will be no airs of being 'holy' or above anyone. - There will be a 'low profile' and no seeking of attention in the media or anywhere at all. - He needs no attention other than his own which is totally 'with what is'.
- The seeker is nothing but a mind realm of ‘seeking’ - it is a restless activity and it has no power of any sort. – It seeks support everywhere and finds none, because it is looking in the wrong direction - 'out there'.
- There is NO waking of the dreamer. – All nonsense about such an 'event' is total nonsense propagated by (fanciful dream) teachers and gurus. – Characters in a dream, who can only, offer in that dream, ‘bigger and better’ dreams. – But the nightmare of a restless mind returns because it is all in the head, all a dream state of mind. – And ‘you’ have mistakenly ‘placed yourself’ in the midst of it. – That ‘you’ is not what you are and that 'you' can only ‘fade away’ as it does every night in deep sleep. - It can fade away right now, all it takes is some attention, some watching of the mind. - Be present and watch what the mind does.
Right now is all there is. – It is unshakable and it does not move or budge from its ‘presence’. – This is what you truly are – Presence Awareness.
It is only in the mind that a ‘conflict of interest’ appears. – Reference points in a realm of belief, with an idea of ‘who I am’ being a central ‘player’ in ‘The Drama of Life’.
‘Who’ is suffering?
“What is wrong with right now?”
Without taking up some thought, any fabricated evidence that something is wrong, all falls apart. – And in that falling apart there is freedom and a view of freedom. – For the stale old 'habituated mind' it may be far to scary to stay with freedom and so the mind reaches for its ‘old ideas’ so it can return to its realm of struggle, restless activities and ‘stories of woe’.
And so, it appears that the drama of life continues.
It does NOT have to be like that.

Knowing is the immediacy of all knowledge

Knowing is the immediacy of all knowledge (without exception).
I just listened to an interview with a well known professor of Mathematics from Cambridge University, an expert it seems on the subject of “Infinity”. - He was awarded a million dollars for his ‘work’ and publications on the subject. - Listening to it, it all sounds very entertaining, however within a very short time he introduces different types of infinity and so turns it all into a mind game. - Intellectuals love such mind games, especially when they can get a ‘handle on it’. – This fragmentary approach is typical of science and intellectuals alike. - When the subject is too vast for them, they have to introduce their limited ideas and ‘become’ experts on the hypothetical notions they dream up, thus staying one step ahead of every other intellect.
Infinity is infinity. – Some scientists say that infinity started with the big bang. - How ridiculous is such a statement. – Infinity has no beginning or end, for if it had, it would not be ‘infinity’ that we are talking about. – Even ‘the big bang’ is a theory and it will remain so because that is what it is.
An 'endless universe' is beyond the capacity of any thought bound mind to embrace.
In the same way, non-conceptual awareness, even as a concept, appears to confound the intellectuals. – What could be more obvious than the very ground of all thought, that open and clear nature of mind, which provides the space for thought to appear?
(Let me use the word 'we' for the sake of convenience) 'We' are most familiar with the relative experiences that come and go, simply because we can name them from the past and so a story can build up. – We miss the fact that all experiences appear nowhere else than in this moment of ‘experiencing’. – All so-called knowledge is ‘seemingly’ acquired via immediate knowing. – Memories and experiences are all of the past and can only ever appear in this moment of immediate knowing.
What is more, you have never left this immediate knowing. (Where would you go?)
This immediate space of knowing is all there is.
If you wish to argue over that point, you can only do so in this moment and your argument will be nowhere else then in this immediacy, even if you wait until that famous ‘tomorrow’ (which never comes).
There is an obvious open space in which ‘all that appears’, all observable phenomena appears and disappears, as the active display of ‘life’ - of awareness. – Phenomena, energy, movement, all of it is being witnessed just as it is. – In the relativity if ‘time’ the mind labels as much of it as it does, according to the capacity of ‘its education’ and then says “Yes, I know the world”. – Or “I am an expert on Infinity”. – Give that man a prize!
A biologist will see one kind of world, while an economist will see another kind of world.
A mathematician or a prostitute will see things in a certain light, while a philosopher or a ‘punter’ see ‘the same world’ quite differently. – In the light of their own conditioned mind. - We all see the same world of ‘things’ but these things are interpreted very differently. – Imagine a long row of individuals, all from different cultures and even ‘times’. – All standing in a row looking at a hill with one tree on top. – All see the same impressions (relatively the same) but each may have a different set of words to describe what they see. – Each one may not even be able to discuss with one of the others and so disagreement can’t even come into it. – The scene is just as it is but the diversity of mind translation can vary tremendously.
Any concept we have about ourselves is basically a set of concepts and feelings, colored by the past conditioning and experiences.
This ‘present moment’ is unique. – What can you say about it, without referring to some ‘data’ from memory? - Even simple sensations in the body have been named and these are automatically recalled, superimposed onto the present and maybe a ‘story’ gets attached. – In this way, the uniqueness of this present moment can appear to be obscured.
The ‘story’ takes over. – The opportunity of profound insight may appear to have been lost. – But wait on. – This present moment has not gone away. – The uniqueness is still here. – Let the thought subside for a short ‘time’. – A mystery reveals itself.
The mind will soon start to construct a new ‘story’ about that ‘peaceful experiencing’ (if we can call it that). In being a witness to the mind activity it may well be quiet, long enough to see something subtle, which we miss otherwise.
Life, not only as the dramatic conflicting stuff in the mind, throws up all manner of unexpected events and ‘happenings’. – Thus ‘we’, as a fleeting limited conceptual being, are constantly challenged by that drama of life.
Finding some extended ‘pattern of security’ to hide in, away from the onslaught of life, is something that we call success but it is a fallacy and whatever that pattern of security is, it will crumble one way or another because it is ‘time’ and ‘circumstance’ itself. – Observe a multi-millionaire – Being a slave to the god ‘money’, is not freedom.
– But we digress with such ‘stories’.
As the mind appears to separate this space of knowing into objects, ‘word’ plays its part in that ‘apparent separation’ of what is obviously oneness. – One ‘world’, if you like that word.
As a witness appears, the observed appears. – Duality. - So it is that a ‘seer’ and the ‘seen’ ‘appear’ in this undivided space of knowing.
Since your true nature can never leave this clear and empty space of knowing, the ‘you’ that ‘you think’ you are can never enter into it, with a conceptual notion because it is already appearing in it. – Analogy – How can you enter the house when you are already in it?
In actuality, what you are has never left this space of knowing, neither can you ever leave it and nor will you ever leave it.
‘Who’ does not know this obvious fact?
That conceptual ‘you’, which is mere belief, has apparently ‘become’ something that is addicted to the process of ‘becoming’ - becoming ‘something more’ than it is, by adding more and more concepts to itself. – Take for example, a high official in some church or religious foundation. – How many concepts are needed to maintain that ‘special-ness’ and how distorted is that image of self? – What a burden to bear in the mind.
What is more, such a one spends all its time trying to maintain the illusion and even tries to convince others to copy itself and be like it. – How absurd is that? - It is all conceptual – architecture in the mind and it can crumble at any moment, if life throws some devastation at its tentative structure. (all in the mind).
All spiritual practice is an attempt ‘to become’ something that the practitioner can never be. – Can you be a concept? - Is that what you are?
Whether you know it or not, your true nature is already beyond all practices and all methods as simply that, ‘that-ness’ - what you are.
Nothing can bring what you are to you - nor can anything take it away.
As this revelation reveals itself, effort ceases to inhabit the organism.
The ‘seekers’ realm of unease and constant contrived activity is (can be) seen at the moment that it appears. – (Then) What I am is not fooled by that old habitual nonsense.
The drama of life will still appear as it always does, for and in the mind, but that essence which lies behind all things is known right there in that space of knowing, to be untouched. - It is wakefulness. - It is beyond manipulation by any ‘personality’.
Metaphor: The circus comes to town, sets up the big top, does its thing for awhile and then packs up and leaves town. - So what? - Even the remaining Elephant dung disappears into the ground and no trace is left.
You cannot ‘become’ what you already are. – To believe that there is ‘more’ ‘to get’ is ignorance.
To know that you are complete just as you are is wisdom.
For the hungry mind, the ego-ic sense of self, it is never enough just to be what you are.

Down to Zero

Taoist, Lao Tzu says:
“Desire-less, one may behold the mystery:
Desiring, one may see the manifestations.
Both are mysteries – Depth within depth – The threshold of all secrets”.
In a discourse on the I Ching, Wang Pi says:
“Symbols serve to express ideas.
- Words serve to explain symbols.
- For a complete expression of ideas there is nothing like symbols
– and for the complete explanation of symbols there is nothing like words.
– By examining the words one may perceive the symbols.
– By examining the symbols one may perceive the ideas.
– The ideas are completely expressed by the symbols and the symbols are explained by words. – Once the symbols have been grasped, the words may be forgotten.
– Once the ideas have been grasped, the symbols may be forgotten.
Therefore he who clings to words does not get the symbols and he who clings to symbols does not get the ideas. – Thus by forgetting the words one gets the symbols; by forgetting the symbols one gets the ideas.
The acquisition of the ideas depends upon forgetting the symbols and the acquisition of the symbols depends upon forgetting the words”.

I will venture, with respect, to add the following:
By forgetting the ideas, all ideas, one is still present and aware - naked awareness.
- Do we really need an idea of being present, to be present?
All ‘meaning’ is like an ephemeral series of connecting ‘lines’ between ideas or thoughts, ‘seemingly’ constructing a meaningful ‘reality’ for the individuated consciousness, which we commonly call 'me' or ‘I’.
- Such 'stuff' is like an 'agent', a representative but it is not the original 'presence'.
– However true understanding is not diverted through any such pattern of belief.
– When the ‘I’ concept is forgotten, then direct cognition is un-obscured and the pure senses and functions of presence are clearly 'no longer' ‘seemingly’ hidden within phenomena of body-mind or ‘world’.
In the profound ‘liberation’ of free flowing self realization, there is no ‘form’ called ‘I’.
– This is, of course, no benefit for the identified consciousness (person) and so a natural avoidance of emptiness is the ‘cause’ of a restless mind.
– The seeker occupies itself with constant seeking yet it longs for its own fulfillment. - Paradoxically its own completion by ‘finding’, is actually its own demise.
– How can a ‘seeker’ be a finder?
The transformation of the unsatisfied seeker into the satiated finder is the dissolution of that seeking desire and in that ‘space’ is the recognition of what has always been.
– A mirage contains no water, just as a ‘seeker’ contains no substance apart from an apparent ‘reaching or pulling’, a divergent motion away from what is naturally restful and complete.
When all words, ideas and symbols fade in the mind, all that is left is what was always there, pure seeing – pure knowing.
These pure functions only ‘seem’ to depend on concepts for the one that has seemingly given their true identity to a concept called ‘me’.
The effortless pure function of ‘seeing’ is not different from pure knowing – these (apparently relative) aspects are always present as presence itself. - Time appears in the time-less.
As long as you take yourself to be ‘a person’ in 'time' - how can these natural functions inform the mind of the true nature of things?

That is All or 10-20-30-40 years of useless practice.

It would 'appear' to some that those who have been practicing methods for many, many years have at least a slight advantage over any new comers to the spiritual ‘scene’. – After so much effort and so much ‘time’ and 'investment', a glimpse that nothing is achieved by any of it, can have an 'apparent effect' of dropping the ‘effort’ altogether. – Therefore the habitual ground of the seeker vanishes, if only for an appartent 'fractional moment'. – It is more than enough to reveal most profoundly 'that' which appears to have been hidden for so long.
(After that, there may arise a natural desire to investigate whatever it is that seemingly obscures that open view)
This old belief in and of some benefit coming from those longer term practices is actually a fiction. – The essential nature of total freedom is not 'in time' at all.
– It is 'what you are' - and all that you may 'think' that you are, is just time bound conceptual nonsense - a story.
- Do you ever notice that when you tell your 'life stories', it is all about the past, from memory, or about the (unknown) future and all its thinly disguised hopes and fears? - All phantasy.
The one who appears, from 'time to time', to be in need of letting go of all of that is a fiction itself also.
Therefore ‘when’ all the ‘time bound concepts’ fall away, or are seen through, it is nothing less or more than the pure function of seeing, which is that knowing-ness, totally free of whatever is 'seen' and free of the conceptual notion of being a 'seer'.
– You cannot arrange this ‘state of affairs’ simply because it 'already is' present - just not noticed by the mind. - The habituated mind can never know it.
– All 'additions' or acquisitions are 'mind content' and can only be transient appearances, concepts, thoughts, feelings or states of mind and all such things are completely without foundation or substance and are powerless. – Without that pure living function of seeing-knowing, they would not be 'appearing' to ‘happen’ at all.
You, as that ‘essence’, may at some 'point' from 'beyond time', see and know, without a doubt, what it is that all these 'teachings on Non Duality' are ‘pointing to'. – Not as ‘something’(an object) but as that space of knowing – your true nature.
The paradox repeatedly ‘appears’ as reference points in conflict, all in the mind, because the mind only 'deals with' objects and divisions of space and time and of itself it cannot see or know anything. - (To think on emptiness or no thing actually still the mind) – Mind is basically thought and/or image.
- It cannot know anything beyond such 'things', especially that space-less space and timeless time, in which itself appears (in or upon).
Therefore I say, anyone who says ‘I got it’ or ‘I have it' or 'I am a self realized being’ is no doubt ‘pulling your leg’ - and their own.
If one can say it, then all can say it, because it is 'one without a second'.
What meaning can it have if all are self realizing, equally? - It is thus, meaningless, since a difference must be drawn between some separated ‘things’ that are only conceptually separated in that mind and in truth there is no separation anywhere and there are no 'things' as such. - Things 'appear to be'.
THAT is ALL.

Even a spiritual beggar is That.

Most ‘people’ don’t give two figs about Non Duality.
Most ‘people’ have no interest beyond their own fixations in mind; of their own self-centered activities and what is more this is seen to be quite normal and even acceptable as long as it does not ‘step over the line’. - Most ‘people’ 'appear' not to have the capacity of any expansion of mind beyond its own fixated ‘content’ of thought, emotion etc.....because that is all it is - content.
(How can the meat in a butchershop window know anything about the butchershop or the butcher?)
No interest therein, or any impulse, to investigate itself beyond the usual superficial looking that happens. – In fact it would appear that all avenues are taken just to avoid that direction or ‘place’ of inquiry.
Where is there an impulse to investigate those habitual notions, which apparently limit the mind so much? – One could say that there 'may be' only one in a multitude that could ever be interested in such an investigation. - Just too scary for the 'me'.
– Maybe for some, a kind of inner conflict reaches a point where an escape from the conflict is desired.
– One could say that, that impulse for investigation is happening only because of a glimmering ‘seed’ of intelligence, which somehow in the appearance of time, it has survived the constant onslaught of the drama of life. - However, seeing is happening already (for everyone) and the essence of any investigation is by its very nature 'seeing'. - So, one could say that realization is happening just as it is.
'Who' has a problem or conflict with that?
(That seeing is an aspect of a 'timeless - ever shining' - the presence of what you are.)
It may appear to shine ever so faintly through the ‘outer façade’ of personalized consciousness or what we commonly call ‘personality’.
Even the darkest shroud of ignorance has no power over, or any resistance to, that glimmering shining light. – Yet your true nature is even beyond that shining and one can know that simply because one is aware of it.
–That shining is not different to what you are - it is simply a movement ‘in’ what you are.
Most spiritual teachings appear to feed the shroud of ignorance (ego) and the self centered activities of the ‘common man’. – All such feeding appears to lend some meaning to ones existence and yet that time bound sense of self never really reaching fulfillment. – Any pattern that forms or appears to arise out of it will dissolve in what you are. - This is happening constantly and you can know this beyond any doubt just by stretching your attention ever so slightly and seeing these 'things' dissolve before you or within you. - They will not be seen as objects but you will know them to be transient appearances.
-What 'seekers', as identified mind, usually always miss is that all those 'time bound teachings' qualify and quantify how life should be and how you should be in order to achieve what they prescribe.
The ‘true teaching’ says straight away that you are THAT realizing principle.
In those time bound teachings, rules and regulations are conceptualized and propagated and a religious community is formed. – All dream like and the game of seeking never ends by these teachings that are always so full of promises. - Some idealized notion of ‘what I should be’ is pushed onto ‘my’ consciousness by ‘others’. – Strangely enough, none of these 'others' have actually ‘reached’ that idealized state which they ‘push and push’ for.
That mythical 'state', which is never known by the seeker,(it knows nothing)ever remains as an object in mind, always so admired and sort after yet completely unattainable.
– The seeker is perpetually left in a state of ‘wanting’. -'Who' cares?
– Is it not ‘Hell’ all dressed up in the spiritual garments of holiness.
Is it Corruption? - It is just how it ‘appears’ to be for a mind bound to concepts and ‘time’. – Nothing in ‘the appearance’ or ‘time based phenomena’ is real.
–You are real but not as you ‘think’ you are. – You cannot know 'what' you are, you can only be what you are and that is 'the actual' – 'the immediate' and in that not even the concept of ‘I’ is there.
In the relative life, as one comes across some more or less ‘pure information’ of a teaching which is from ‘beyond’ those limited and limiting conceptual notions, it is most likely to resonate throughout ones whole being in such a way that it contrasts quite dramatically (or subtly) with the more usual shallow façade interface, which we call the ‘person’.
Reality is what is. – Actuality! – It needs nothing because it is already complete just as it is. - All relativity, if we can say such a thing exists, it could exist nowhere ‘other’ than in this actuality. – There is nowhere else than THIS.
Absolute reality cannot be known other than as this ‘right here, right now’.
Nothing is separate. – As I put it – Zero degrees of separation.
Absolute reality and relativity are one and the same.
For the mind this is not so simple. - All we have are concepts to use to point to that which is not a concept. - That which is beyond all concepts.
If there is an absolute reality, then it must penetrate all time and all space.
Therefore it must penetrate or permeate the mind also.
All you have is this 'experiencing' right now. – Every experience appears nowhere else than in this experiencing. – Time is an apparent 'flow' of experiences in this undivided, ever-present experiencing. - When we speak about it, we necessarily objectify it even though it is never an object.
So it is, that this paradox for the mind cannot be resolved.
Beyond such concepts, it resolves itself each moment whether I want it to or not.
Where does that leave me?
Present and aware.
There is nothing outside this all inclusive presence and this presence is the totality which is never an object, yet it 'appears as' all objects, without preference or favor.
Who knows this?
There is not one teacher or seeker - nor even one head of any glorified religious foundation that knows that.
Yet even a roadside beggar can say “I am That” and no one could truly deny it.

See it for YOURSELF & note on 'Tone of Voice'

Once this clear message ‘hit home’ (for me) there came many expressions ‘seemingly’ from that clear seeing. – I had no choice in the matter and this seeing was more or less unabating. – At first it seemed to be unbearable from time to time but things settled down. - I started writing some of the insights down onto scraps of paper and later, typing them into my computer. – There was no idea of letting anyone see the writings. – However, I did send one or two to friends etc and the response was that I should publish them. – Eventually I had enough for a small book and I had it printed under the name “The First Instant”. – Then a blogsite was suggested and started and that seemed to be quite quickly popular, possibly because I wrote and published new notes more or less every other day. – Then after things ‘settled in’, if one can say that, I composed a second book called “Everything is Clear and obvious”. – Sooner or later a third book, possibly the last, called “Zero Degrees of Separation” will be published, in which it is my intention to outline some very specific and undeniable facts about what is unspeakable.


An email that arrived today: Hi Gilbert,

I was reading your book "Everything is Clear and Obvious" as I often do before going to sleep. - I thought, this time, I'd start at the beginning as I most often just open it at any page. - I read "The Message" and "The core of your own being is the heart essence of this teaching" and whilst reading the message FINALLY hit the mark! (Let me qualify that - I also know there is no ‘finality’ anywhere)

I – appearing as the ego has no substance! – (it appears as) I am a thought pattern!
(With no identification, or even with it happening, it is clear that) - I am Presence Itself!

How many times has this been heard and not quite clearly seen! (?) - Countless.
It was the 'I', the thought pattern that (appears as a) thought, thinking that it understood.
There have been many "glimpses" and moments of peaceful silence. (Ego appears to have no access to these moments)

Some dramas have been occurring lately and ‘I’ have been "staying in the shade", which has helped with the dramas enormously and may have also assisted in this final seeing that I Am the Shade (so to speak). - Once the ego is seen through there's nothing left - which is peace itself.

I sent a message to you that ‘I would treasure this book’ after I received the book. - That ‘I’ has been seen through and (I) can only say the book IS a treasure. - It seems as if it's being read for the first time from Presence to Presence, how crystal clear and very obvious it is!
- It is a great title! (Everything is Clear and Obvious)

Love - S

Note: - You will not find any of my books in your local bookshop because of the nature of the material is just not acceptable to the ‘worldly views’ of common consensus reality. - If you are moved to do it, you can order the book 'Everything' from a link on my website. - Be warned that any sacred concepts about yourself, which you may treasure, could be dissolved. - Your essential being is already free, so there is no danger to any of it. - Wandering about under the influence of erroneous teachings and time bound ideas of deliverance is really quite useless but you have to see that clearly yourself.


Warning! - Controversial Piece - avoid it if you are apt to getting disturbed by some of my more vigorous notes:
"Tone of voice".
Much can be recognized by the tone of voice and the attitude of any speaker. - An idea has presented itself in me, about making a short sound file, in which the tone of voice of many of these popular gurus, who are surrounded by hypnotized or infatuated seekers, can be compared to the voice of an ordinary healthy person, one who shows no signs of pretension etc.
- In other words, a down to earth type compared with a flighty spiritualized ego, ‘a chosen one’. – In the subject of Non Duality, such self centered nonsense is clearly misleading, to say the least.
I have heard, just by chance, many examples of these gurus and teachers speaking and it is so very blatantly obvious that they are grossly indulging in a very special ‘self-image’, of being an extremely special person – all uninvestigated ‘self importance’ - All on display for all to see and hear.
– This is of course demonstrative of their missing the essential message themselves. – Ego has grabbed the prize and runs with it and ‘woe be tide’ anyone who challenges their ‘ground’.
This shows how a teaching gets distorted by the very one who is supposed to distribute the teaching in a precise and clear manner.
- It may be a rather controversial exercise and cause a stirring ‘out there’ and some may desperately want to ‘shut me up’.
- The only point that could be raised against it is that it takes the attention away from the direct ‘message’ and so it is unnecessary.
– Those who hear a clear message and respond, do so and those who are attracted to egoistic teachers are those who just want to enhance their own egos, so all is OK, just as it is. - "Water finds its own level".
- Some fortunate ones have been drawn away from those popular teachers after hearing a clearer message via one who is not obsessed with their own self-image.

Trouble in Paradise

(Tongue in cheek) - I hear news that I am a bit of an infamous ‘celebrity’ in Santa Cruz Café’s recently (California). - More than one reports about hearing my name and something of what I have said on my website, being argued about - and with vigor.
– Being a place where so many so-called Non Duality aspirants hang out, it is not surprising that some of the points being made in my notes, from time to time, appear to cause some friction in that Non Duality Hot Spot. - So many seekers and no finders?
- There was even one ‘character' who went out of their way to try and ‘shut me down’ and encouraged, via emails, many of the ‘Non Duality Gurus’ to drop their links to my website. – What a messed up dualistic piece of 'work' that one must be.
- One of Adi's devoted 'time bound seekers' I believe. - There are thousands of them apparently, 'waiting for the postman' (deliverance).
- According to my good sources of info, the place is full of ‘people’ who have been convinced, by one teacher or another, that they have ‘awoken’ (through some teachers influence) and they only need to wait for deliverance into the full self realized state.
– Many of these ‘awakened souls’ are still suffering, although they have to try and hide it from others, because they have to be seen to behave in specific ways, in order to fool not only their comrades but above all, themselves also.
(How so many ‘seekers’ take grandiose egoistic behavior in these teachers mistakenly for ‘self realization’ is absurd to say the least.)
So, I will repeat one point that really cuts to the core of it all.
Any teacher, guru or ‘person’ that suggests openly or by inference that they have ‘gained’ a ‘state’ of permanent awakening is no doubt a fraud and the freedom they promise is just a conceptual projection in their own mind. – If they cannot introduce you to your own freedom within the space of an hour, they must be playing games of building an empire.
One character in N.Z. is rather 'disturbing' to listen to, if only because of the gross misuse of his apparent influence over those he has attracted and his crazy mind constructs. – He obviously believes he is some sort of New Savior with exalted powers of all sorts. – Many such characters, once they have puffed themselves up enough, claim that they are actually Jesus or some other famous 'entity' in a new body. - Bollocks and balderdash.
- Some very unstable characters thrive on the ignorance of simplistic seekers. – History shows us that many of these cases end in tragedy.
- How can they offer a 'freedom', which they have objectified as a ‘thing’ which they have gained and then offer it to another and then this not be seen for the hoax that it is?
- The seeker places trust in that one, who appears to be confident and who convinces them with displays of a loving countenance and ever more complex conceptual constructs.
(Note: the true pointers of Non Duality are always simple)
- What’s more, these 'prophets' offer all their contrived nonsense as a possible ‘future reality’ for the seeker and then ask the gathered group of seekers to ‘do’ certain things to ‘prepare’ themselves for receiving that objectified ‘something’.
- (Note: Reality IS - there is no 'future reality')
- Then they say it will take ‘time’ being ‘with them’ and with his expertise and guidance.
- It is often said that it will take five or ten years to accomplish deliverance.
(Many of these teachers have been around for twenty or thirty years and the seekers either drift off to other teachers or on their own, or hang in there as an habitual creature of seeking, bound to the guru like some old garment.
– It is all hogwash and only ‘worthy’ as a door to door sales pitch for a double ended toilet brush.
– Anyone who studies the pure message of non duality can easily determine, even logically, that ‘time’ has nothing to do with realization at all.
Realization is HAPPENING just as it is. - 'Who' has a problem with that?
Another point is this: - How can one who is totally free ask ‘another’ to go the ‘long way’ and to also indulge in all those mind structures, those endless conceptual nonsensical beliefs?
– Not only that, but then these glorified teachers compose complex methods and practices to ensnare the mind of the seeker so as to occupy the seekers attention and seemingly adhere that enthused ‘entity’ into identifying with all those ‘time bound activities’ on a daily basis.
It is clearly known by anyone with a bare minimum of intelligence, that the path of acquisition practices and methods has nothing to do with Non Duality. - Only a 'time bound' teacher will insist that another must 'do the practice'.

Clear and Obvious: - One who is clearly free cannot ask another to enter into any deluded notions about methods or time bound concepts at all.
The vivid awareness of the so-called teacher is 'pointing' to itself (in you) at all times.
(History tells us that some teacher's even 'taught' in silence.)
In truth there is no teacher and no pupil. - Non Duality.
Why would a teacher ask you to believe in his time bound notions, if he was free of them himself?
- If you look closely at a clear 'teaching', you will see that ‘time’ is rarely mentioned and the pointing is always 'from this present' to ‘this present’, this clear open space of presence awareness. - Not two.
It is already here, complete in itself just as it is, no matter how it appears to 'be'.
– It is only a concept that can ‘seemingly’ obscure this naked awareness.
– However, even though you may well believe otherwise, everything is appearing in the seeing- just as it is.
– This seeing is already happening and it is totally effortless. - No concept of being an 'entity' is needed to make 'seeing' happen.
– No one can, or need, teach you 'how to see'.
That may be too subtle for some but if you look into the immediate present moment, you can see and know, without a doubt, that you are present and aware. – There are NO ‘levels’ of consciousness anywhere to be seen or known. – All such things are concepts.
These deluded teachers rely on many subtle concepts to hold their ‘stories’ together and they will tell you it is very, very complex (inferring that they understand it all and that you are stupid not to see it clearly and so you NEED them to ‘show you the way’.)
How many steps do you have to take to be in the present?
What do you have to do to turn on the ‘knowing’?
Isn’t it already so?
How far away is the Now? - It is not even a millionth of a millimeter away from right here. – Freedom is not acquired.
- Bondage is simply seen to be a fiction.

This following fact cuts through it all:
Awareness is NON DUAL.
Awareness is ever present and always immediate - unmediated.
The true ‘path’ of any non dual pointing is through negation.
If all thought or concepts ceased for a moment what is left?
Naked Awareness.
What must be seen clearly is that a ‘seeker’ is a time bound concept itself.
It can never attain what it seeks.
– That is precisely why no seeker ever becomes a finder.
There is no becoming in non dual awareness.
All is as it is right now, as it ever is.
The ‘seeker’ is seen through and that which is complete and ever present reveals itself, even though it was never hidden.
The activity of seeking, seemingly obscures the subtle freedom on what is called the natural state.
Thoughtless reality is nothing less than naked awareness.
How can you acquire the most subtle, natural gift of presence awareness?
No one can offer it to you or ask you to ‘pay’ for it in time, energy or money - or even to wait one minute for it. - It already IS. - Just look - see and know.
Seeing and knowing are not two 'things'.
You can't 'get behind' those pure functions - You ARE THAT.
No time bound concept or 'path' can lead to where you already ARE.
– No conditions can bar your 'way' IN this natural presence.
– There is NO path 'to it' or 'away from it'. - THIS is it!
It is what you are. – Simply know that as the fact that it is and I can guarantee that ‘everything will fall into place’ for the mind.
All the problems of being a ‘seeker’ along with ‘the seeker’ itself are just reference points in mind.
There you have it - now a few sorry souls in Santa Cruz can have something NEW to argue over in their famous Non Duality Cafe’s.
P.S. - Thank heavens that they have John Wheeler in Santa Cruz, so at least as these seekers wake up to their own 'gurus game', there is someone right there to ‘point’ them to the natural presence of themselves, without any unnecassary ‘time delays’.
- What a relief for any tired seeker. - The good news is that freedom is totally available right now. - It is only the mind that seemingly covers it over.

– What is wrong with right now, if you don’t think about it somehow?

Email response: (Thank you) For clearly shining a light thru the fog of so many mind constructs. - Your words feel like coming home... after reading so many "non-duality" teachers' websites. - So much ego, so little real pointing. - Thank you - Lori Simpsonville, SC USA

Shakin' the Monkey tree

Many teachers postulate that there is something that must be done to bring the organism (your body/mind) into a new set of circumstances and condition.
- Higher consciousness is a popular subject matter, in this regard mentioned.
– I, myself was engaged in such an esoteric teaching for many years.
My ex-companions of that ‘school’, if they imagine that I have attained some ‘special new way of being’ attribute that to all the ‘work’ I did under the guidance of the said ‘school’ and its teacher.
However, this is quite erroneous and that same teacher showed me the essence of why it is so. – I listened closely as he privately alluded through a simple expression, to the simplicity of ‘This Moment’.
– One may take that to be an initiation of the most secret of all secrets.
– However it is so obvious that no one notices it. – I have included that same expression in one of my books. – I will not repeat it here.
In the appearance of ‘things’ and the apparent ‘journey’ which all spiritual aspirants believe they are taking, the seemingly hidden ‘goal’ is ever present. – From the perspective of a habitually identified mind, it is only when the shroud of the 'mind content' and its divergent nature is dropped, even if only for a moment, that the ever present reveals its pristine nature.
What the seeker ignores is that its very nature of restless seeking is simply obscuring that which it seeks.
– Paradoxically for the mind, that pattern of energy called the seeker can never acquire what it seeks.
The seeker is a fraud. – All the sweetness and the spiritual philandering is just a pest.
Anyone who is deadly serious about cutting through the crap usually cannot stand to be around the usual spiritual pretenders and that includes some of the most popular gurus.
See how they want to change the world or save the world. – See how they put themselves up as saviors.
Now if these highly developed souls have acquired all the powers that they pretend to have, why don’t they just change the world in a flash?
The truth is that they have just joined the merchants and sell themselves, their ideas and their books to a witless mass of ignorant seekers, who are caught in belief of a future paradise or one step away from believing in fairies and goblins. – All this activity is under a banner of ‘being Awake’ and being an advanced soul.
‘People’ just love concepts of progress and the world is full of experts who will take their money and give them an expensive, pretentious cure, which if it appears to do anything at all, it usually fades away ever so quickly, leaving the seeker frustrated or in a state of self blame. – “It’s my fault, I am just not developed enough”.
It is all nothing but crap. – Self appointed experts sit around stroking each others egos and write appraisals for each others books as they look down their compassionate noses at their poor lost followers. – Energy experts and Chakra cleansing Gurus, or whatever, all taking the seeker for a ride on a 'spiritual donkey' which just goes around and around the same old trap.
The essence of THIS moment is free of all such nonsense.
- It is always free of it.
Finding the freedom of this moment is the easiest, most effortless thing.
But.....it is not enough for a hungry mind that is full of erroneous beliefs and which expects all those 'things' that the guru has predicted for it.
It is nothing but bondage of a conceptual notion of 'me' caught in more conceptual nonsense, emphasised and pushed onto them by a self serving egoistic teacher. - How strange that so few ever escape from this realm of suggestion and hypnotic trances!
It is up to you as it always was and is. - Belief is useless, when it comes to liberating the mind from its habitual nonsense.
The only way ‘out of it’ (however, you were never truly 'in it') is through a thorough investigation of one’s own consciousness.
No one can do it for you.
Some can show you how to proceed and point with clear expressions which come directly from their own direct experience in THIS moment.
There lies the essential difference between a teacher who relies on a self-promoted reputation with its dead experiences from the past - and one who is free and speaks directly from freedom without need of any support from any thing at all.

Bob Adamson is one who is clearly offering such ‘pointing’.