Monday, September 08, 2008

The Immediate nature of Presence.






Notice: The transcript of Bob Adamson's recent interview (parts 1 and 2) has been produced as a booklet. - This document will assist those who have a little difficulty in hearing what Bob is saying, due to the accent. - In my opinion this document is one of the clearest expressions of the barest essentials for breaking through 'belief'.
We have not set up a new ordering system for it as yet. - The easiest way is to use the donation tab on the shining through the mind website - donate $15 US and make a note that it is the Booklet called - "An interview with Sailor Bob Adamson" that you wish to be sent to your address or someone else's address.
Local Australians, or those in NZ, make a payment of $16AUS - (due to postal cost differences).
The booklet will be posted to you promptly. - Listening to the Urban Guru Cafe Interview while reading through the text, will dismiss a lot of confusion about what is being pointed out. The booklet is also a fabulous document on its own.

Note:
You may have noticed less notes appearing on this site. - Some of my time has been taken up with putting the Urban Guru Cafe programs together. - The most recent one is on John Wheeler.
The month of October saw approximately 3,500 downloads of programs from The Urban Guru Cafe. This is a bit of a surprise for us. And we haven't sold even one cup of coffee. Things took off with the two programs on Bob Adamson's interview.
Downloads doubled in a period of less than two weeks. It has not stopped climbing.
Being FREE and also free from advertising makes it clean from diversions.
The comments pages have been hot also.

I am going to 'go out on a limb' and predict that some 'small waves of change' are going to grow bigger and we will see some unprecedented 'things' start to happen.

Here are two extracts from comments I have placed on the comments page of the Urban Guru Cafe site, pointing out the difference between direct pointing and the time bound teachings that are far more popular.
"The ‘location’ cannot be found because the ‘loca’ is actually ALL INCLUSIVE.
There is no boundary to THIS Presence of KNOWING. - This a far too obvious and vastly more subtle than any concept - and it is ever present - that is why the mind misses it.
The mind divides THIS ‘one’ into multiplicity. - Into Higher and lower, Consciousness and Awareness etc. - Where is the problem? - “Who’ has a problem? - That is the key point but everyone seems to slip past that one. - Where is the problem? - It is in the naming of ‘things’ - that is where the ‘problem’ enters center stage - the naming of that clear and present space of KNOWING - naming that as ‘I’ or ‘me’. - If you investigate the object (any object) the ‘form’ appears to transform into ever more refined details, then (apparently) they dissolve into sub-atomic particles which all float in space.
They then dissolve into particles of energy called quarks - but this is naming - all theory. - The instant the fixation on the object dissolves in mind, the object and the subject vanish into Naked Seeing.
‘Mind’ is a ‘name’ just like any other named appearance in or on Awareness. SEEING remains whether you zoom in or zoom out. The change in perspective does not alter or change the pure function of SEEING.
The power of cognition appears to increase or decrease. - For example a pair of binoculars seems to bring things closer - (the loca appears to expand) the seeing appears to be further - yet the seeing is the same uninterrupted unbound SEEING.
It is NOT some mysterious acquisition - it includes what we call ‘ordinary seeing’.
Whatever insight one appears to have - the seeing remains totally available.
The ‘obstacle’ of closing the eye lids may alter the view but it does not alter the ‘function’ of seeing.
SEEING is not limited to the eyes. - EVERYTHING is ‘in the SEEING’.
Investigate this sense of presence - see if it has a hard core label attached.
In the Seeing that the ‘me’ does not exist NOW (and as Bob points us) there is (an impersonal) seeing that it never did exist at any time (in the so-called past). - Even the evidence that presents itself belongs to relativity.
The SEEING remains untouched and empty. - There is NO entity in the SEEING. - There is NO entity in pure Understanding. - Anyone who claims to be ’something’ is just a pattern appearing.
You can follow gurus or teachers, believe in all the spiritual nonsense and it remains the same. - The liberation from the idea of being a ’self’ is actually for no one - the SEEING is with Naked Awareness. - All arguments fall away. Are we all actors on a stage playing roles? - Is there a ‘me’ or a ‘we’?
‘The stage’ is just a feature of the ever-unfolding way it ‘appears’ to be. - How can ‘word’ create a problem? - Have a look - see for yourself." -




A more controversial comment:

"The traditional teachers merely pay lip service to Non Duality. - They do not dwell on this point because their whole teaching requires that the ‘seeker’ must stay ‘trapped’ in the ever-continuing search in ‘time, method and practice’.
The fact is that it only takes one moment to SEE through the concept of being ‘someone bound in time’. - In that ‘moment’ the whole business of teacher-pupil falls apart.
The ‘problem’ for traditional teachers and gurus is that that instant of insight is completely available right now and it cannot be SOLD.
How can anyone sell that instant of seeing reality? - You can’t.
The only thing you can sell to seekers is some sort of delay tactics, some method to learn and some practice to do repeatedly. - All of which engages the mind in a seeking mode, which enhances the belief in that ‘someone’. - It seemingly adds some sort of substance to the belief. The Urban Guru Café is here to give access to those who by pass the erroneous teachings."

A Note:

It is safe to glorify the dead guru. - We can make him into a ‘god’ without any fear of having to confront our erroneous beliefs. - Sri Nisagadatta Maharaj is admired from afar as a Great Teacher. - But how many of these admirers could actually have faced him directly? - He was naturally uncompromising.
It is fashionable to have his book “I am That” on the bookshelf or in the case of being a teacher, to say that “I realized that I was in the same state as him”. - It is good for business - 'name dropping' is what we commonly call it.
The living one, the one who speaks directly of this immediate freedom from ‘the bondage of self’ is mostly ignored in the scheme of things. - They make no distinction between themselves and Nisargadatta (or anyone else) - except to acknowledge that there appears to be separate bodies expressing the same essential message in different words. - It is interesting to note that Nisargadatta was not accepted by his peers and they complained that he was not teaching what Siddaharameshwar (their guru) had taught. - One may recognize that certain patterns appear to repeat themselves.
Someone like Bob Adamson is not celebrated far and wide. - Yet I know of no one who expresses the basics as clearly and as precisely as he. - There is a profound potency in his ‘teaching’. All of the Indian tradition has been eliminated making it far easier to imbibe but one must follow what is pointed out. - Seeing the truth of it is the recognition that is usually missing.
I see that it is, on the most part, just not ‘heard’ by so many – it is not appreciated for what it is. - Why is this so? - It is because ‘people’ do not know how to listen without the mind interpreting everything almost instantly.
Over several years, I have taken part in making Bob’s message more accessible, by doing some books, CD’s and more recently the Urban Guru Café incentive. - There is still an old pattern of belief that comes up here - "why don't they hear it?" - Of course the answer is obvious.
Few would be as familiar as I with what Bob is expressing over recent years and it is on that basis that I encourage you to listen to the latest interview with him. - I see most clearly that the two programs contains everything one needs to SEE through the mind and its habits.
- Visit the Urban Guru Cafe and listen. - A mountain guide can deliver you safely to the mountain top - and the view is crystal clear - but you must open your eyes (mind) and SEE it for yourself. - Bob's expose is an expression of 'opening the mind'.

There, that is one way of expressing it. - The rest is up to you.






News: The Urban Guru Cafe is asking for questions to be put to a guest speaker coming up soon. Please send your questions to the producer via the email contact at the top of their site: named as CONTACT.
A new program on the Urban Guru Cafe is uploaded regularly. - John Wheeler is the latest addition.
The recent interview with Bob Adamson, in my opinion, is the cream of them all. - It is a remarkable interview (Split into two parts). - Remarkable because of various things - one being that it has a quality of 'up close and personal' which is not always found in the meeting recordings. - Bob very clearly exposes one after another, many erroneous ideas that 'we' hold onto in our misunderstanding of Non Duality. -
The accent may be a problem for some.
I am sure that insights will pop up from simply listening to it. - Listen to part 1 before part 2 as they are consecutive.
It does not matter 'who' your teacher is, or if you have one or not - listen to this interview with an open mind. - It is highly revealing for anyone, no matter 'who' you think you are nor where you are in this life - as long as you 'hear it' clearly. - It transcends all traditions and beliefs.
It is presented in two parts. - They are download-able NOW. - Click on the blue or mauve words in the first sentence above.

The UGC continues to provide a growing number of free programs from clear speakers on the subject of Non Duality. - It is a radical challenge to the traditional views on 'spirituality'. - The programs continue to draw more and more listeners as the weeks go by. - If you have not tasted what is on offer, then why not visit the site now.
You can download the various programs or listen on line.

The eye doesn't say "I see" - Listen



The second voice is Eliot Weber.

Voice cut 2


The other voice is Eliot Weber

Note: Private consultations via Skype with Gilbert are available: - Email contact, to arrange - gilbert.schultz AT gmail.com (replace the AT with @)

A NOTE:
“The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light.” - from the Bible

This can be interpreted as: There is only one seeing happening.
Seeing is not limited to the patterns that appear in the seeing.
In the simplicity of dropping the concept that ‘I see’ then one is freed from the believed in pattern of the ‘me’, which cannot see at all. How can a thought (the thought ‘me’) see?
So, what you are seeking (in the mind) you already ARE.
So, even the idea of something being freed from a limited view is just in the appearance - what I am has never been limited. As was expressed by one 'teacher', mid last century (paraphrasing): "You are the Unlimited Infinite Being. Then you take yourself to be a limited creature. Then you create methods and practice in order that you can free yourself from these limitations. But if these methods and practices themselves (actually) imply the existence of these limitations - HOW can they free you from those limitations?"
One may see that the whole 'seeker's journey' is a fabrication, one that has no solution - just more and more seeking.
What is being pointed to here is always about one fundamental equation. It is expressed in a thousand ways. Whether it is 'heard' or not is a mystery for the mind. What the mind itself appears in has no paradox or mystery to it. Realizing THIS indescribable FACT can only be pointed at. Seeing the truth of it appears to require that beliefs step aside to allow pure seeing-knowing to 'register cleanly'.
It IS as it always has been.
Wakefulness is un-interrupted, clear and precise, without an 'entity' to 'get in the way'.

(Ed: surely this sinks in by now?)

Today's Note:

Still looking for an answer?
The words are understood immediately, are they not?
You cannot slip anything between the immediate registration of the words and the immediate understanding of those words.
Our problems are beliefs in conceptual notions that we have taken on board.
The conflict between these concepts and their incompatibility with what is real, is not resolvable by reason - or are they? - Have you ever managed to resolve the restlessness of seeking an answer - by thinking it through? - Isn't that just an endless proliferation of endless thoughts, ideas and conclusions? - No lasting peace of mind is ever achieved and clear understanding keeps slipping away - or seems to.
There is no great understanding to gain or achieve. - The natural understanding that is happening right now is the only understanding that there is. - The knowing that is happening right now is the only knowing that there is.
This knowing and this understanding is not to be found in the translations of the mind.
The mind may express something clear about these pure functions but the expressions about them are not the pure functions.
Seeing, knowing and understanding are un-interrupted. - It is the character, the 'seer', the 'knower' and the 'understander' that are transient appearances.
The habit of believing what the mind tells us, as if that is 'reality', is where we miss the luminous evidence of immediate knowing, seeing and understanding.

'Who' is this one that misses the obvious?

Everything is actually clear and obvious.
Yes, it is.
The intellect may argue as much as it likes but it has no ideas of its own.
It does not even know the 'how or why' to these thoughts that arise in the first instant.
'The intellect' is intelligence appearing as another expression, appearing as an idea, another reference point, in the so-called mind. - Is there an intellect if you don't think about it? - There is intelligence - who would argue about that?
A story is attached to the idea of 'me' and a 'sense of self' is woven out of concepts – it is all nothing more than appearances - just like anything else.
We appear to particularize 'things' - It is one intelligence, expressing and appearing as everything.
One might say that such news is a violation of the self-center's private real estate.
It appears to be too shocking to even contemplate for some.
The resistance, if any, that may arise to any words that expose an old belief, is a perfect opportunity to immediately explore the central belief of being a ‘person’.
Any pointer that points beyond the mind's habitual activities actually cuts straight to the core. - It may stir up some 'primal fear'. - But let's not labels things too quickly.
Our habits of mind are not doing us any favors usually. - They just support the status quo. - The status quo is bondage of self - and the self that is bound is nothing but an idea. - The bondage is also made of concepts. - A mirage does not hold any water in it.
Now we might say that a seasoned professor has little chance of escaping his own mental prison - because he has covered everything from every angle - or so he 'thinks'.
Some professors believe that they have all the answers to everything - all tucked away in their intellect. - It is arrogance. - Some gurus play the same game.

'Many years' of believing in the personal powers of mind leave little room for a clear and open view to take place. - This is one reason why a simple man or woman, someone we may describe as 'not all that bright', they can and do recognize that what the mind is doing is not the living being-ness - it is not the clear awareness - it is just an expression within that awareness - that being-ness. - The simple one is often more balanced with all their senses actively present and so they are less caught up in the head, like most modern 'successful individuals' are. - What tortured lives some individuals seem to endure - simply because they have not explored what is really going on.
Hearing this makes one wonder, does it not?
But lets not get lost in thought. - Let me invite you to look now at your immediate experiencing.
This presence that you are is not an idea. - The thoughts that arise in this presence are quite often about the ‘me’ that one imagines that one is. - Everything is referred to that me. - Yet in looking right now, do you SEE any 'me' or any of those thoughts?
You may notice an ephemeral 'ripple' of where they seemingly were. - They cannot withstand the clear seeing - they vanish. - Were they ever there?

There is a clear space in which all the activity (of mind and also everything) happens or seemingly happens within.
That clear space is the master key – it is 'the way out' of the confines of the mind.
Explore this now.


The direct and immediate experiencing is WAKEFULNESS - it is NOT of being a ‘person’.
Explore what is being pointed out for yourself. - Don't take my word for it - that would be a total waste of this 'opportunity'.
It is extremely difficult to point out in terms that the mind can accept and yet it is extremely simple also because it is a FACT.
It is the most obvious factor of your immediate existence – and that is why it is overlooked by the mind, which is basically a process in 'time' - and it cannot SEE - it appears in the seeing-knowing.

The direct and immediate experiencing is not of being a person.
This presence is un-mediated presence.
What we call the ‘seeker’ can never access this direct and immediate experiencing not because it misses it or can’t find it but because the seeker is NOT the pure functioning – it has no senses whatsoever – its apparent being is a time-bound transparent belief, 'once removed' from anything real.
The experiencing is ONLY ever the immediate nature of presence. It is wordless and yet all words appear in that wordless presence.
The mind realm of belief is an ephemeral ‘floating’ commentary, like castles in the clouds.
What is fairly obvious is that everyone takes this running commentary (of theirs) to be very real and the substance of the subject (me) in it, to be also very real.
The direct and immediate, un-mediated experiencing of all such things is of them being appearances and that naturally includes the concept of being a ‘person’ that appears within that realm of patterns - appearances.
If that ‘person’ is not consciously included 'in the open nature of seeing', then the mind is weaving stories around that 'person', that ‘me’ and it is that basic story that obscures the clear view. - So, in such cases, instead of 'the pure experiencing' being the undeviating nature of presence, the ‘story of me’ consistently unfolds as a personalized drama - it is all interpreted as experiences of 'me'. - A believed in story.
'Who' is the believer?
Something is happening to 'someone' and the bias of that story is all about ‘me’.
It is translated by the mind as ‘My point of view’.
Strangely enough, people imagine that this 'story of me' can transpose into something called 'a personal enlightenment'. - Which is nothing but a fancy story, made of dreams, woven from all kinds of imaginary notions gathered from books and hearsay or faded past experiences.
It is a cloak one wears in a state of delusion – it has no substance, yet it gets to be very heavy (for me) after several decades of practices and methods that simply don’t work.
One grows tired of never arriving.
Demolishing these stories is not a welcome option ‘in most people's book’.
They would rather cling to their flimsy 'hope' than to discard the dream and really SEE what is truly going on.
The difficult 'point' to 'get across' (the boundary of imagined separation) is that no time or process is necessary. - That just seems to be totally unbelievable but as the old saying goes 'the truth is stranger than fiction'.
The personalized baggage (history) that is being carried around is weighing them down and their attachment to it is because of the habit and investment in ‘the story of me’.
It is my story – ‘I am going to get enlightened’. - ‘I cannot believe that all my effort over so many years has been unnecessary and what I believe that I have achieved already is of no value’.
Even what people describe enlightenment to be is obviously the burden-less nature of clear and presence consciousness. - What is the nature of your burden? - Is it not belief in things that are not real? - Like the story of me? - ‘I am not worthy of enlightenment’ and ‘I need to purify myself’? - The perpetuation of such notions is due to belief and because these beliefs have never been examined closely, de-constructed or revealed to be nothing but beliefs. - Insubstantial notions.
The mind says "It can't be that simple".
The simplicity of it is not a judgment of mind - it is a FACT of being.
If you drop all thought for just a moment – then clear and present naked awareness is revealed to be here. - It may be too subtle to recognize straight off – due to the habit of being with the gross nature of beliefs still reverberating (echoing) through you. - Drop the thoughts repeatedly as often as you can. - Taste this naked presence over and over and the subtle nature of presence itself will reveal itself most clearly. - You will not be able to describe it because the mind has no words for it. - Do not grasp at it – let it be.
At some point a revelation may arise – then a thought may come, ‘Ah, I am now enlightened’.
Have no truck with such thoughts. - Drop it because it will surely 'turn into' another form of bondage and you will end up like any one of these (very popular) dime a dozen gurus, who are so obviously pretentious salesmen of the truth.
Enlightenment is never a personal achievement – it is the very nature of All Existence – without a single exception. - It is ALL Inclusive - It is ALL Light. - Ever fresh - and it never compounds into anything that is separate from itself.
It is ALL THAT – Just AS IT IS.