The 'Presence' that you ARE.

The more direct the message is, the less there is for the mind to play with.
This is why the direct message is not popular - the average 'seeker' just wants fancy concepts to embellish their belief system with. - There is very little here for those 'seekers'. - This is not about being popular or famous. - It is about 'pointing' to what is true - without elaborate stories for the mind to play with. - A 'pointer' when 'heard' will stop the mind in its tracks - and pure cognition will come to the fore.
There is no teaching and no teacher. - In the appearances of things a teacher and a teaching appear. - Gurdjieff says: "Beware of someone who wants to teach you something" and he also says: "The power to change oneself lies not in the mind". - Nisargadatta says "You are not the body, you are not the mind". - Bob Adamson says: "There is no answer in the mind". - The imaginary journey that I believed I was on was demolished, apparently with the aid of such 'pointers'.
But there was a definite resonance that rose up like the dawning sun. - ACTUALLY 'Hearing' what was (is) being pointed out was the key element.


The mind is time - time is mind - mind is 'me' - the 'me' is a seeming separate 'event' - and the believed in 'seeker' gets seemingly trapped in a circle, adding more and more 'events' or experiences to that 'me' - imagining that it will 'grow' and suddenly burst into a new and wonderful state of being.
All states of being are contained in the WHOLE.
What you truly are is all-inclusive - nothing is excluded - I am THAT. - The mind through thought differentiates oneness into fragments, like a cracked mirror.


The presence is knowing - the knowing is presence.

Could it be that the apparent ‘problem’ is the labels we put on everything.
We label something quite automatically and then we seem to believe that we understand it. - We call those labels ‘knowledge’.
However, ‘Knowledge’ is memory and it belongs to the past, which is dead and gone.
The essential life of any knowledge is the immediate knowing.
Without knowing, knowledge is nothing at all or at best some dried ink on some paper tucked away on a bookshelf.
‘Knowing’ is the unceasing presence of cognition.
Even in deep sleep, if someone knocks loudly enough, that cognition will stir and the waking state will arise in and on that ‘knowing presence’.
‘Enlightenment’ is a label, a word. - On its own it is harmless.
It is what we add to it that takes us off into a mind realm, a dream, a dream of whatever those added concepts ‘create’ in that mind realm.
It, what we have termed enlightenment is so simple and ever so completely available right now.
This being 'here' and that being 'there' is - ONE BEING.
There is no separation.
The efficient use of words can bring one (the mind) back to the immediate and obvious fact of BEING. - Being is not a concept. - The concept of being is a concept.
The concept of 'awareness' is a concept - one that can easily be mistaken for awareness. - That erroneous belief is an obvious misunderstanding, one that many get stuck on.
The concepts we have about what being is are all merely concepts 'appearing in being', on awareness.
We seemingly cover over that naked being-ness with all manner of conceptual notions and the only ‘time’ that covering over is happening is NOW.
Yet is really seeing that, the covering over ceases. - That should be highly informative.
There is no past where my being is covered over – no accumulation of conceptual goo smothering my being-ness.
In ceasing to add more and more notions onto this presence right NOW – so the naked being-ness reveals itself ever present clear and present nature NOW.
As the ancient text says: "Stop thinking and talking and there is nothing you will not be able to know."
Knowing IS.
You cannot not be THAT – this knowing right now.
The mind translates this into its 'learned labels' and words and we imagine that that is some valuable knowledge – and it binds us (me) into a conceptual realm.
You are not the concepts about 'this or that'. You are not a concept, full stop.
Do you not recognize the directness of this pointing?
Compare it with any other so-called 'teaching' – they lead you off in the mind with more and more conceptual notions about some special state to be attained in the future. - It is not much more than a tourist package sold to you by a travel agent.
No matter how subtle those gurus concepts are, they are all about ‘time’ and the future.
This direct message is about right here, right now.
Stop ignoring THIS.
A simple price to pay – yet seemingly so difficult, and all because of habit (the past seemingly imposed onto the present).
Habits can be broken but not if they are indulged in.
Keeping seekers on the path is the easiest thing to do.
'Getting them to SEE' that they are not what they think they are, that they are not bound at all, is an impossible task, without an impulse from ‘within’. YET seeing does not need to be taught - SEEING is happening.
There is no separation and in 'seeing that fact', the boundary of a 'within' or a 'without' is found to be non existent.

All the drama of being a seeker is a temporary 'condition'. - The friction that builds up in that imaginary boundary (that is the 'me') collapses the boundary and no separation reveals itself naturally because it IS already present as a fact.


Email:

Hi Gilbert,

The question I have at the moment is that whilst I am already that which I seek - it appears to me (or my mind) that in a state where I recognize the I Am that I Am, instead of considering myself the ego or mind, there has been a change in perspective. - What seems a paradox to me then is that I seek that change of perspective where I know myself as I Am - experience it, truly realize it - aside from merely conceptualizing it all in the mind as I do at present.

Is there such a sudden transition of perspective which I have termed 'self-realization', or is that not the nature of it? - And if not, how then does the change of perspective occur - what is it that changes to result in this new perspective, if there is no change to be sought?

Cheers, Daniel.

Reply:
One of the most direct ways of pointing to this is this: - There is only ONE 'seeing' happening. - The so-called 'me' cannot see. - The 'me' is a concept plus a series of translations in the mind, a story about a believed in 'entity'.
When the 'me' is truly seen through or seen for what it is - you do not disappear - your erroneous beliefs will disappear, because they all hang off the 'me' or are referred to that 'me'. - Without that reference point 'me' - everything remains 'as it is'.
If you can see this as a fact, directly and immediately for yourself - it is truly enough 'to break the iceberg' and it will melt back into its origin - 'water'.
In other words, in the mind content there will always appear to be an endless series of paradoxes - for the 'me' - tossing back and forth its apparent alliance with one side and then the other. - The paradox disappears when the 'me' is revealed for what it is - the mind is restless until the 'me' is seen clearly to be nothing but a concept, a habit of belief.
Have a look. - Isn't the 'me' merely a reference point in the mind? - It may appear to be threatening to even contemplate this but it must be done, otherwise it will just continue to plague you like a parasite. - Recognizing the 'me' to be merely a concept, just that alone is enough to bring the 'house of cards' tumbling down. - The fictional drama of that 'me' has no intrinsic value or integrity and it will fall apart in the face of 'present evidence' ('what is' the actuality of now) of what is true - Reality.
The use of the concept 'me' is not 'the enemy' - it, like 'the mind', needs to be understood clearly.
Imagination is where the trouble enters into the picture - or simply the belief in what is imagined.
There is no great event - no great enlightenment to be attained. - All talk of such a 'thing' is nonsense but it is exceptionally enticing for the mind and many 'teachers' appear to use that fact as their 'trump card' - all in the appearances of duality - 'gurus and devotees'. - No harm done - yet it keeps 'the seeker' seeking endlessly.
A gnawing unease arises consistently - because that 'me', the self-center, has not been seen for what it is.
Start from the FACT that you are THAT naked presence-awareness.
The concept of progress, process and method is undercut instantly.
There is no time but now - presence. - The apparent 'process' of time is an appearance - which when closely examined reveals itself as non-existent - merely a concept.
All these 'things' that are sort after are merely conceptual notions one has attached some imaginary importance to, without questioning their validity or if they are real.
So much fuss about enlightenment - the carrot that keep the donkey plodding along.

In the worldly sense of things, it is the perfect business 'product' - 'enlightenment' - you can't see it, can't prove it - but you can 'sell it' without ever running out of supply - and get very good money in the bargain - an exchange for mere ideas and enhanced beliefs - which by the way are all equally invisible.
We enslave ourselves to imaginary futuristic 'events' or 'possible states of being' - (dreams) - all the while we are ignoring THIS presence NOW, in favor of ‘an Ideal’ - one that we have been told of - told of by some innocent 'guru' or by some unscrupulous scoundrel - either way it does not matter.
We believe in some dream, a dream of some possible way things could be, some 'other-ness' and in giving that our attention we ignore our true nature - 'being present and aware right now'. - The completeness of this revelation is a 'seeming event' that can appear nowhere other than in this presence. - We particularize 'events' and 'create' a dualistic paradox, one that cannot be solved. - It must be dismantled consciously - that is one way of putting it.
It may be said that the Universe is a Singularity, ONE event - or that nothing is truly happening - 'No Thing' is happening. - The mind can't deal with such concepts.
Yet in Seeing-Knowing it reveals itself as No Thing - everything is still 'happening' and without a reference point to judge it from - nothing is happening.
The 'peace beyond all understanding' is THAT. - One may call it 'no mind'.
The mind is time - time is mind - mind is 'me' - the 'me' is a seeming separate 'event' - and the believed in 'seeker' gets seemingly trapped in a circle, adding more and more 'events' or experiences to that 'me' - imagining that it will 'grow' and suddenly burst into a new and wonderful state of being.
All states of being are contained in the WHOLE.
What you truly are is all-inclusive - nothing is excluded - I am THAT. - The mind through thought differentiates oneness into fragments, like a cracked mirror.

As for the practical side - it is SO SIMPLE no one BELIEVES it possible........and yet it is POINTED out over and over and over and over - yet few seem to 'get it'.
'Who' could get it? - It is what you ARE.
The simplicity of it all is just too subtle for the grossness of 'grasping consciousness' or mind.
The key:
SEEING is happening - it is already SO.
Knowing is already SO.

The mind translates what is appearing in the 'mind' (quite naturally) as concepts – it is conceptualization - and they are believed to be real - hence the apparent trouble.

DROP thought - even if only for a moment and the perspective you 'imagine' to be somehow attainable or 'somewhere else' or as something you need to acquire - is ACTUALLY found to be here now - AS IT ALWAYS IS. - Is- ness - or 'what is'.

So, Bob says that the only way out of the mind is FULL STOP ('period' is the word used in the US)

In stopping thought - you do not fall apart - you do not disappear.....

At first it may appear to be very subtle and we 'miss it' -
Keep dropping thought (as often as you can, whenever the impulse arises) and a taste of the subtleness will (appear to) emerge.
Then one sees, without a doubt, that I am THAT - that pure being, seeing, knowing.
Thought cannot encapsulate it - never could and never will.

Naked SEEING - Naked Awareness.......

The habitual 'ego', the 'me' - is not interested in THIS.......
So that is why Nisargadatta says: One must be earnest or sincere.......
The ego only pretends to be sincere and that ‘story of me’ just goes on and on, ‘metamorphizing’ (new word ‘I’ invented) continually - until it is recognized for what it is. - Pure Intelligence cuts through the illusion of 'me'.

Most teachers have conditions placed upon their message - usually it is 'time' and 'some event to come'.
The direct (and unconditional) message can be delivered by any (true and clear) messenger – it is all about the ‘presence’ that you ARE – it is not and can never be about any ‘becoming’ (Process or method).

The mind will state its case - bring up endless arguments just so it can continue to 'run the show' - but it never existed and it has NO power whatsoever. - It is all belief only.
Isn't it time (now) to stop the game? - Be singularly earnest and honest with and FOR yourself - stop this madness of chasing ones own tail, like a crazy dog.

Warm regards - Gilbert.
Please send your comments and/or questions to gilbert.schultz AT gmail.com - replace AT with @