The Urban Guru Cafe - Virtual reality?

Brief Note:
Even though seeing and knowing are 'thought' to be different, they are the same and only 'appear' to be different through conceptualizing.
This moment right now is the ONLY moment there ever is - and 'these' pure functions of seeing-knowing are not 'of the mind'. - Mind is 'time' and everything that appears in the so-called 'mind' is only ever an immediate appearance - there is no other 'time' where anything can appear. - The belief in the existence of 'time' itself, as if it were an 'objective thing' is one of the most 'sticky' concepts - and yet it has no independent existence whatsoever. - Look now into your own 'mind' and see if there is something there that you can call 'time'. - What is self-evident is a clear space of immediate knowing. - That may be far too subtle at first glimpse - but look again as often as you can and a familiarity will be there - that clarity of view is the very (non) thing you have overlooked 'time and time again'. - Gilbert

News Flash! ! ! - Cameron from The Advaita Show has asked Eliot and Gilbert to take care of business regarding the podcast. - You can hear the latest addition by going to the site - click here - and another excellent podcast is about to make it onto the net - The Urban Guru Cafe (a new 'Advaita style Radio Show') - is 'Just around the corner' - metaphorically speaking - so stay tuned. Calling it 'radio' is just a sentimental thing. ('Podcast' sounds odd to my ears.)
If I can slip into a moment of prediction "You will be pleasantly surprised" with what the program offers. - No hints, as to what it contains, sorry. - You will just have to listen.

New stock of Bob Adamson's new book "One Essence appearing as Everything" have arrived. - See details of how to order it on Bob's website - a link is on my website links page. - It truly is a wonderfully compact and potent expose of 'his teaching' or to put it more clearly 'his pointing' at the Non Dual nature of your own existence.
I am of the opinion that it surpasses the previous two books and clearly represents the manner in which Bob is speaking about it all most recently.

Someone sent me this note which I had posted on my blog-site sometime ago. - Reading it again, I see that it is pretty damn 'spot on' and so I will share it once again:-

There is absolutely NO reason why anyone must suggest that you should commit yourself to any spiritual program or practice. - What is 'forever true' and always available is more immediate than your next breath.

The mind does not need to be trained, no matter what anyone may say about that.
The essential nature of what the Buddha discovered was his own formlessness.
That is the essential nature of realization. - Knowing free of any substantial 'knower' - no self-center is actually present in pure knowing. - That is what the Buddha discovered (as I understand it).
- All the rest (content of mind) is concepts and 'time' based beliefs - all postponements for the mind. . . a mental 'indulgence' in stuff that is not actually of this immediate presence - except as content of mind.

All there is, is being – seeing – knowing.

These three aspects, being, seeing, knowing, are not different things – they are one and the same.

There is no story line being pushed onto you here. - No deliverance impending. - No learning ‘how’ to be enlightened – or learning 'how' to live an enlightened life with enlightened relationships. - All such things are contrived nonsense, promoted by the ignorant passing themselves off as a teacher or a guru.

Realization is always right here, right now. - There is NO other time than THIS. . .

Adding concepts to THIS can never bring freedom in some future time, no matter how sacred or how profound they may appear to be (for the mind).
- Methods are only momentary appearances - a wishing to change something and when those methods are indulged in, they imprison a fictional character (me) like a donkey on a treadmill.
The 'carrot' - the enticement - that seductive concept of 'future deliverance' - that is held just beyond reach for the 'seeker' and it never 'becomes' nourishment - because it is only a story, a mirage. - Some get angry when they see this but that is just more indulgence of the 'seeker'.

To say just a little more, is enough:

You may imagine or have been told that 'someone else' is Awake - more awake than you - and that you want to be wide awake like them. - Alarm bells ring!!! - Such ideas are flooded with the idea of separation - duality.

All that stuff is only imaginary and it is that which seemingly covers the FACT that you are PRESENTLY nothing but this wakefulness, which is Always naked and Ever Present. . .

In that clear 'space-like awareness' there is no doubt, no time - and even the empty space itself is being cognized clearly and precisely - without any error whatsoever.
- It takes 'time' to find any fault in that and that 'finding fault' is only habitual mind. .

An imaginary life is full of all kinds of 'things', states of mind with their fears and desires and they are the vehicles of suffering - for the believed in 'entity'.
All such things lead to nowhere at all - they never move away from THIS moment.
Who is life happening to? . . .

Life goes on - There is NO personal enlightenment.
Everything is just as it is. - Gilbert - from Non Duality Notes blog.

P.S.
These teacher of erroneous concepts, like deliverance and 'progress by payment' will be exposed as the frauds they are - they usually are exposed to be 'up to all sorts of nonsense'. - One could mention a few names but they are well known already.
The mess that they 'leave behind' for their devotees is depleting and exposes the devotees errors in belief - usually too much to bare.
All stories "Once 'UPON' a time".
Right NOW is clear of all times, past and future.
Dropping any idea about the 'present' leaves you present and aware - naked awareness.
One without a second means exactly that.
'Enlightenment' is just a label.................... it is divisive and when really looked at directly, it is truly meaningless..... yet it is a sticky trap for the mind......so seductive and such an elusive butterfly. - It is always 'someone else' and SO it is nothing but 'something' in your mind - see that fact and drop the concepts - wakefulness is present right now. - That naked presence is what we can call 'enlightenment'. But the label is not needed.

Email response to the above:

Hi Gilbert,

Your recent post on your blogspot was great, keep up the good work there.

I appreciated this part you wrote:

"P.S. These teachers of erroneous concepts, like deliverance and 'progress by payment' will be exposed as the frauds they are - they usually are exposed to be 'up to all sorts of nonsense'. - One could mention a few names but they are well known already."

Gilbert, from what I've read about Nisargadatta, not only did he teach the highest truth, but never charged money and didn't want his devotees wasting money.

I don't know how it is there in Australia but it seems here in the U.S. and especially in California there are so many spiritual programs and practices offered for a considerable amount of money and the programs and practices don't go beyond duality and the fictional entity. - All of this nonsense about lower-self, higher-self, healing etc. - How can you heal a fictitious entity? - I suppose that would be my first question to pseudo-teachers/healers offering this type of program or practice.

Thanks Gilbert.

Sincerely, David J.

Reply: - Of course the whole 'business' crumbles without the hyped up anticipation of a 'future deliverance'.
The 'salesmen' are very well versed in the sales pitch. - 'Holier than thou' antics are getting to be rather shallow and ragged - and the 'ego' display is so obvious, only the blind fall for it - but they seem to be in their thousands. - The suffering is only masked by rhetoric and blind faith. - Their message is addressed to the intellect or the sentimental heart only and although it may appear to be convincing what is most evident is a thin facade of 'spiritual goody goodies'. - You can only fool yourself for so long - the smoldering suffering breaks through at some point. - Then a clear message may touch them. - All these franchised 'businesses' are just another 'part' of 'the appearance' - it is fine in the worldly sense - but when someone is genuinely looking for their true nature, these teachers are a down right pest.
Paraphrasing a quote from a film: "May God strike down those who 'do not know' and yet presume to teach".

We all talk and ramble on about all kinds of stuff. - Much of what 'we' say is nonsense. - Listen to the prattle in a cafe. - "He told me he wouldn't cheat on me - and I believed him." - "She is such a bitch, I will never tell her anything 'private' again, she is such a blabber mouth."
Well a NEW virtual Cafe is 'coming' - a 'place' you can 'over-hear' all kinds of conversations, without all that crass nonsense. - Stay tuned............

Today's note:
All there is is THIS immediacy - in which everything appears.
In THIS immediacy it is easily noticed that the story of 'self' is just an appearance in mind - a defining of 'someone' and its details, past experiences and anticipations about some 'future' that has not arrived.
Being the pure functioning - the immediate vibration of 'life' is as close as we come to IT, with the mind. - In naming that immediate life as 'I' is not needed and it can be seen that the whole story of 'someone' hangs on that 'coat hanger'.
Naked awareness is naked, unadorned and simple.
As the story goes, what most ‘spiritual people’ don’t realize (and they can’t truly realize anything because ‘they’ are just ‘content of mind’) is that ‘their story’ is the thing that keeps them bound. - When they meet another who they are attracted to, they each tell each other their story.
What is clear here, is that each time the story is told, it only affirms that habitual bondage and unless it is seen clearly, that affirmation brings a sense of separation and is nothing but a fabricated story of 'someone' that is separate and yet ALL the direct and immediate evidence cuts through it like a hot knife through butter.
For the one seemingly caught in the internal drama, if there has been a lot history of telling stories about suffering and trauma, these 'story tellers' can't stop from tell all the details, glorifying it, as if it is an attractor. - It appears that the belief is that this ‘other’ will find it all so alluring and irresistible. - Poor deluded souls (appearances in mind).
In coming into contact with a ‘direct teacher’ the ‘game’ nor the 'story' is not given any value and it is instantly challenged repeatedly, bringing the 'mind' back to the immediate evidence of presence awareness. - The habit of staying with the story and updating it or attempting to morph it into something acceptable is just a waste of energy and totally unnecessary. - Many gurus and therapists encourage going into the story, as if somewhere there in the story, there is an answer to the riddle and the suffering.
Natural Being is not a product of any 'mind'.
Science has it wrong when they suggest that the brain gives birth to consciousness.
The brain is just an instrument. - Can you truly find substantial evidence that consciousness is in the head? - Just because the eyes and ears etc, are localized in the head does not prove anything. - It is all stories.
Investigate.
The story is just not necessary at all. - 'Time' is a fragmented and disjointed notion which comes and goes in the relativity of 'states of mind'. - The eternal nature of awareness is timeless and ever present.
The direct and immediate perception of ‘what is’ is all that is needed and THAT is the ever present 'underlying happening', whether 'you' know it or not.
As a child I saw dragons and all kinds of creatures in the hot coals of the family fireplace. - The fact is it was just hot coals - what the mind interprets the images into is due to the 'pattern recognizing' nature of the brain. - Ironically that is a story too.

‘What IS’ does not need to accommodate ‘your story’ and adjust itself to ‘you’.
What ‘you’ are in essence is not manifested as any form whatsoever.
All of the manifestation, ALL of it, appears in that ‘space of knowing’, in that clear and empty ‘space-like awareness’.
There is nothing ‘outside’ of THAT.
Trace everything back to the origin of cognizance, this instant is it.
Don’t look in memory and don’t look anywhere ‘out there’.
Trace it back – where are you seeing from?
See that there is no point that has any substance or independence from the act of cognising – knowing.
See that fact clearly and stay with it – stay there ‘long enough’ and the ‘job is done’.
How long is ‘long enough’?
It ‘dawns on you’ that there is, in fact, NO time – and that that knowing has never ceased.
This ‘space-like awareness’ is clear and empty of all concepts, including the concept of ‘time’ and duration – even ‘space, distance and volume’ are conceptual notions that ‘appear’ in this clear and empty knowing.
Such revelations are totally radical for those who have not seen the truth of it.
Ironically, all this is a story – and the bare facts speak for themselves – always!
There is no language that reality uses to convey itself – and all words and all concepts are just ‘appearances’ in the mind – and even the notion of there being a ‘mind’ is also an appearance in this ‘space of knowing’.
The story is completely unnecessary and yet that is what everyone clings to.
The definition used by your own ‘mind’ to describe yourself is simply made of concepts.
All concepts are ephemeral appearances. – Some are seemingly useful and others are seemingly binding and ‘causing’ a lot of suffering.
In one instant, THIS INSTANT, you can drop the concepts and THAT which is completely free of all that ‘stuff’ is revealed – Awareness is non dual – timelessly present and it is untouched, undamaged by any ‘condition’ – that is FACT.
All negotiations about that FACT are simply the mind trying to preserve some ‘ground’ in belief.
A belief is nothing but an un-investigated notion. – It all dissolves once the basic equation is recognized - the fact that the cognizing is not the cognized.
There is no knower that is separate or apart from the cognizing and that the cognizing, the knowing is formless - devoid of all qualities - all qualities are appearing in THAT.