Monday, August 04, 2008

No concept can ever be the SEEING-KNOWING



NEWS: A few copies of The First Instant have been re-printed. Anyone interested in getting a copy, please write to me at - gilbert.schultz AT gmail.com- Replace the AT with @.


Note: Anyone who has not listened to the interviews with Mark West and wishes to do so: Click HERE.
Mark West is the 'author' of "Gleanings from Nisargadatta" a book of clear notes from Maharaj's meetings in Bombay in 1976-77. - An excellent record of the 'teaching'.
You can order the book by clicking HERE.

Today's note:

The major religions all point at Non Duality.
One can usually find clear evidence of this in the opening statements of their teachings. However, this is usually bypassed and everyone gets into the endless stories about ‘personal stuff’.
One without a second means exactly that.
There is no duality in Non Duality.
There never was any ‘entity’ ever – at no ‘point’ in any ‘time’ was there ever any ‘entity’ freed from bondage or caught in any phenomena whatsoever.
Seeing this FACT is the liberation of the idea of being a ‘self’.
It is called Self-Liberation. - But get this point clearly: It is not a ‘self’ that is liberated.
It is liberation from the 'idea' of being a 'self'.
That fact alone pulls the rug out from underneath just about every teaching there is.
There is NO separate individual to be liberated or not.
This can't be included in popular teachings because it would send them bankrupt very quickly. - Their 'high maintenance' 'capital' is based on a fraud, any way you look at it.
How long, how many years has your guide kept you 'on the Path'?
Why? - Because he or she does not really know the truth of it - they have not been liberated from the concept of 'me' themselves. - Why else would they tell stories about time and laborious work? - Blah, blah, blah.
So........
'Who' is it that is treading the Path to 'self-liberation'?
Being IS.
'Becoming' never arrives at BEING. - It remains as a conceptual construct - a bondage for an erroneous believed in character 'ME'.

The natural function of seeing is happening.
In that seeing it can be quite easily cognized that there is no ‘self-center’.
Where that is seen from is a clear and empty space – some call it ‘space-like awareness’.
All of the drama of religions and the personal search is due to an ignoring of our natural state. - It is extremely simple – but the habit of believing is ‘seemingly’ hard to break.
As long as I take myself to be a ‘person’ then the liberation from ‘self’ remains elusive.
Expressing a clear message about this requires clear intelligence.
Intelligence that is burdened by a bias called ‘me’ is never clear.
Many so-called ‘teachers’ speak with a heavy bias and it is this bias of ‘me’ that actually makes them popular – because the ‘seeker’ can remain in its 'state of seeking' and not have to confront the fact that the ‘me’ is a fiction – even though it is this same ‘me’ concept that is the sufferer and the seeker, that fact is not exposed clearly.
Extremely contorted compromises are observable in the relationships between many gurus and their devotees.
Some are absurdly manipulated contortions full of suffering.
The direct message bypasses all such messy relationships.
No one is contracted into time bound service.
The clear message is delivered over and over until it is ‘heard’ and ‘acted upon’.
Hence forth, the message is no longer needed – but it is still expressed for those ‘others’ who are still ‘searching’.
Even that ‘situation’ is a mirage.
‘Who’ does not see this?
Seeing is happening.

Here is an extract from the comments page, on recent program, from the Urban Guru Cafe Podcast site:

'My' reply to a posted question:

1. Reading happens. - The words have been learned - no entity there. - All that happens is a recognition ‘happens’ - it is clearly seen that there is no one in the thinking - the ‘thinker’ is merely another thought - thinking spontaneously appears and disappears.
This must be seen and recognized - it is useless as a concept only.
2. Can you separate the ‘reading’ from the thoughts that arise from the reading?
Decisions are seemingly made - don’t take my word for it - HAVE a look - SEE if you can find a decision MAKER. - There is not much point looking for conceptual support for the habitually identified mind pattern called ‘me’. - You wont find any. - All that seemingly happens is that we keep propping up a fabricated self-image. - It is not a small point to say that ‘most seekers’ have no wish to see through ‘the bondage of self’. - There is just too much invested in it - and lots of stories of ‘progress already made by that ‘entity’.
We build our ‘house’ on ‘the shifting sands of the mind’ - or a castle in the air - all ‘made of’ concepts.
That is the old saying “Build your house on the ROCK” - ‘Rock’ symbolizes ‘what is true’ or Truth. - “Know the truth and the truth will set you free” etc.
Beliefs need to be questioned - or they will bind the mind in ‘endless time’.

‘We’ ‘think’ we are so important within our erroneous beliefs.
‘We’ chisel our definitions and cling to insubstantial ‘things’ that are only transitory appearances ‘in the mind’ - There is no ‘mind’ apart from thought - so it is more correct to say these transitory appearances, thoughts, concepts and images ALL appear nowhere other than ‘in or on’ awareness.
Has any one of them ever stayed stuck in the head or mind? - No.
They may appear to go around and around but they all disappear without one exception.
Have a look now.
Don’t they all disappear from view when you really look?
Understanding is in BEING - not the mind.
BE - just BE.
Stop trying to ‘become’ something ‘other’ than what you ARE.
Be what you are.
It is very, very simple - yet so FEW actually take a good look at the believed in self-centre.
While taking a good look for that self-center, ask yourself this: “Where am I seeing FROM?”
The arguments that are often put forward are all ‘postures’ taken in the dualistic nature of mind, a posture taken by a believed in entity.
This is so obvious. - If you are so convinced that this ‘decision maker’ exists - then why not ‘decide’ right NOW to investigate the ‘me’? - And SEE IF it is true and real.
Don’t get me wrong - I am not being rude - just being direct. - ‘People’ don’t like direct because is disturbs the illusions of that imaginary ‘entity’.
Then they complain that they just don’t ‘get it’. - It is ‘too difficult’ etc.
Endless blah, blah, blah is not going to bring anything fresh and new.
This moment is fresh and new - is that not so very, very obvious?
So many extremely direct pointers, free of time stories, are available and ’seekers’ expect to be spoon fed, or roasted pigeons to fly into their mouths, while they lay back in a hammock in the sun.
All it takes is ONE clear view of the fact that there is NO ‘me’ there - and the whole story of me dissolves.
It will arise again but it has lost it intensity - it can’t grasp ‘you’ because you have seen through it. - Where are you SEEING from?
It is not from a concept in the mind.