The First Instant

Urban Guru Cafe

2009-09-30T04:49:00.003+09:30

This site will remain here for the moment.
I advise those interested to read the more recent notes on my newer website and listen to the audio programs at the Cafe.

My new website is seeing-knowing.com On that site you will find my latest writings.
The other site is called Urban Guru cafe.

Recent news: - Ramesh Balsekar has passed away. - On the 27th Sept 2009. - I looked through my old tapes and found two recordings of his meetings in Bombay. An edited section of one of these tapes appears on the Urban Guru Cafe as program #54. - Thousands of 'seekers' visited Ramesh over many years. Many will be sad to hear of this news. 'His concepts' will continue to assist seekers.
He may not have been everyone's favorite guru - but the messenger is not important.

Whatever 'turns you around' to discover your true nature is VALID.

Something is happening?

2009-04-20T12:20:00.011+09:30

NEW e-book IS available - "Who do you think you are?" Details of how to get the e-book are on the new 'seeing-knowing' website.

New book by Randall Friend is now published via Non Duality Press. The title is "You are No Thing". Visit his site by clicking HERE.

NEW: German translation of selected passages from "Everything is Clear and Obvious" appear on my new website in the Writings, subsection "Translations".
A FREE PDF of this same e-book translated into Portuguese is also there. "Todo - Claro e Obvio".

My new website is now in operation and is where new notes, videos etc, are placed.

Randall Friend's his first book "You are No Thing" is published by Non Duality Press.
An interview with Randall about the book is on the UGC - the title is the same name.

Check out the latest Urban Guru Cafe Podcasts.
Tapes from Nisargdatta are being presented there. The atmosphere of the meetings comes across very well.
There is a new face-book account someone has organized about the Urban Guru Cafe.
If you have a F/B page, join the friends on the UGC F/B pages.
Warm regards - Gilbert.

The 'teacher' has had enough?

2009-01-12T11:54:00.010+10:30

Feeling the pinch? Things looking a bit gloomy?
Check out the Urban Guru Cafe.

Note: I have been trying to track down Puppetji or the guy that does Puppetji, so that we can interview him for the UGC. If anyone has details for contacting him, please let me know. If you have not watch his youtube videos, then check them out - very funny stuff.

Here is an ancient story:
A man, sleeping on the side of the road lay with his mouth wide open….. a traveling dervish saw a snake slip into the man’s mouth and disappear.
The dervish picked up a stick and beat the man. - The man woke up and screamed and objected to this treatment, as anyone would. - The dervish was unrelenting……and continued to beat the man. - Eventually the man lost consciousness and the dervish continued to beat the body. - Then the snake came out of the man’s mouth and the dervish struck it dead with his beating stick. - The man woke up and saw the snake on the ground.
The dervish smiled at the man and quietly said “I could not tell you that you had swallowed a snake or you would have died from shock. - I did what was necessary. - You are battered and bruised - but you are alive”.
Some ‘people’ dream that they are ‘awake’ in a special way, ‘enlightened’…..that dream adds onto itself the notion of being a guru and it is often just vanity parading.
They talk about love endlessly - but the poison of vanity in them prevents that love from glowing in themselves. - If the ’snake’ sleeps one may have a few moments of exceptional love expressing itself….but the slightest impression of being special awakens the snake and a spiritual empire is built upon vanity.
Examples of this abound this world.
King Solomon says “Vanity vanity, all is vanity under the sun”.

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A friend wrote and told me he was thinking of dissolving his web presence and opting out of the Non Duality 'scene'.
Who wants to be in a 'scene' anyway. - There is no option to get out of Non Duality - because it is what 'we all are' without the 'we' and the 'all'.
All is not One - One is appearing as All.
My response to his email is here below, as a matter of interest.
"Yeah - I know how that feels (to want to give it all away) - yet it all just plays itself out (as it does).
The 'truth of being' is like a light that shines...(As SEEING-KNOWING) - it seems to be dim in 'the many' - (and they long for it - but are unwilling to 'pay the price')
When the light of knowing shines on the 'me' - it is revealed for what it is -
getting anyone to look directly at 'the belief in me' is like trying to shovel runny shit up hill - yet every now and then ....one out of those 'many' - hears something - sometimes something that 'we' don't expect or intend them to hear - everyone is a unique expression of THAT.
Respect for everyone just as they are, is what we call compassion - it arises spontaneously - can't be taught, learned or contrived by the mind.
I always laugh when I read the spiel of some guru or teacher who proclaims to be able to teach compassion. - It is such a fraudulent concept but very profitable it seems - playing on the ignorance of the masses.
As messengers 'we' may well need to look at the 'driving force' and the 'spin offs', the perks and payoffs - and examine whether there is some expectation hiding there - some 'self-image' that needs to be fed.
Being 'a wise one' can be seductive (for any residue of belief in 'me' - evidence of that is found in many of the popular teachers).
Being ordinary is so easy and free from a lot of crap - 'I have avoided' getting labeled as a teacher so far.
I move around without being hassled by seekers.
I do a few emails and notes on the web - and a few HEAR something.
I cannot predict who will hear it and who wont. - Actually I don't care. - Even in the ones who hear it - there is no one left to be grateful - no big checks arrive - because they see through the me completely.
Gratitude may arise - but the one who would give all and everything for this understanding has gone, vanished - so no check comes.
Ramesh said when I was visiting his meetings in Bombay many years ago that "when the check arrives" he knows that they 'got it' - that is BULLSHIT - I reckon (But he was a Banker most of his life and old habits die hard). I am not having a go at him - only the behavior, the appearance and the guru game.
The best book that ever came through that pattern, in my opinion was the first one "Pointers from Nisargadatta".
I witnessed what I would call 'devious manipulation' going on - the power of 'suggestion' to donate larger sums of money - equivalent to their gratitude etc.
That 'bit' did not feel so 'right' and I ended up donated nothing at all.
Maybe you will notice how the teacher, in these 'tight financial times' will emphasize how important it is to keep your 'fees' paid up to date. They don't want to feel the pinch. "Your development depends on your continued contribution - and it will help you so much more if you sacrifice even more"...or some such bullshit.

You can't BUY this 'knowledge' and to imagine that you can is just imagination and ignorance.
Those who run expensive seminars and workshops are just business people dressed in the guru dressage.
Many times I had the impulse to pull my website down - because it seems that no one really wants to cut away the bullshit in their own lives. It seems that 'they' do everything in their power to preserve that believed in 'entity'.
If we drop the biased MISSIONARY complex - and just BE - our very existence touches others - in unexpected ways.
I don't care one way or another.
Everything leads back to non duality - or away from it -we have no choice which 'path' we are on - and BOTH are an illusion.
The Universe breathes OUT and it breathes IN.
Can't have one without the other.
The same Principle is self evident in us - is us and is everything.

Inner Guide - is there one?

2009-01-01T12:19:00.001+10:30

“We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.” Jane Austin from Mansfield Park.

In our ‘journey’ we have all been informed by life.
We may all have come to various conclusions about life and its meaning.
When someone asked Nisargadatta - “What is the meaning of life?” – He answered “Living is the only meaning of life.”
‘Living’ is not a concept. Without it, life, there would be no question about meaning and no answer(s) either.
If we study the ‘evidence’ presented by scientists about the activities of neurons and synapses in the brain it doesn’t take much to conclude that behavior and the belief system itself could well be related to the ‘network’ that ‘builds’ itself in the brain.
The argument about the differences between brain and mind go back centuries and NO satisfactory ‘answer’ has ever put ‘an end’ to the debate.
‘Quantum Physics’ has postulated that the ‘observer’ plays a role in the ‘observation’.
They are intertwined. So-called ‘objective facts’ are postulated and argued over.

In this so-called ‘field of self-enquiry’ or what we may call the subject of ‘Non Duality’ the concept of being an observer is ‘important’ – a useful ‘tool’ to investigate ‘present evidence’ or ‘what is’.
The usefulness of the concept of being an observer ceases to be needed in the ‘moment’ of recognizing that the ‘observer’ is merely a conceptual appearance in what we call ‘mind’. In the ‘moment’ of recognizing that the ‘thinker’ is merely another thought is the same equation. It does not matter how much ‘I’ or ‘anyone’ talks or conceptualizes about this ‘moment of insight’, it cannot have any true value unless this ‘moment of insight’ ‘happens’.
As the old saying goes “You can lead a horse to water – but you CANNOT make the horse drink”.
The attachment to these habitual frameworks in ‘mind’ is due to the identification – the fabricated ‘entity’ and the ‘patterns of belief’.
The apparent bondage is what we can call ‘identification’.

The fabric of this so-called identification dissolves in the ‘moment’ of SEEING the ‘fabric’ – One SEES from beyond the fabric that ‘I am not this fabric’.
The value of such ‘seeing’ can not be quantified or evaluated by the mind. In fact the mind is the fabric and yet the ever-present true nature of mind is ‘emptiness’.
The potency of “You are not the body – you are not the mind” has the capacity to cut through the habitual activities of mind.

In a way, to mention these ‘sayings’ or ‘pointers’ is not so helpful.
The problem is we get used to hearing these ‘pointers’ and the ‘mind’ may well have already built a ‘defense mechanism’.
Knowing this equation, it would seem that, I have made every effort to present new ‘angles’ for looking at these ‘things’.
Many, it would appear, have not reaped any benefit from this and it would also appear that a few have.
Looking at things from the perspective of being the phenomenal appearance, the pattern, it looks like THIS is a ‘big deal’.
Seeing from clear and present, naked awareness, it is no big deal at all.
In not playing any games about being an enlightened being, guru or teacher, leaves one free to move without getting stuck in the ‘honey jar’.
You may have a hundred horses at your water hole, or a thousand, yet you cannot make them drink.
The ‘odd one or two’ that actually ‘drink’ may be any one of them or even a stray that wanders down to the water hole.
Most usually that habitual attachment to body and mind is ‘seemingly’ to strong.
The grossness and the subtleness of that attachment appears to run deep.
Therefore many come up with a concept of ‘Grace’ and this would appear to be a self-calming ‘devise’ and the ‘dark side of it’ is that ‘I am unworthy’ – ‘I must strive to become worthy’.
All conceptual notions merely appear and disappear.
Awareness is ‘at all times’ beyond the grasp of conceptualizing and the realm of thoughts. That is WHY all these things are ‘known’.
Giving them some value, is the realm of mind content and an ‘entity’ that evaluates.
Awareness is clear and untouched by the content.
Knowing that is not the knowing of some entity – it is the nature of knowing.

There is ONLY self-realizing happening - without a 'self'.

2008-12-12T18:47:00.004+10:30

....and 'WHO' is it that takes anything to be real and true or to be a problem?
Is it true versus false? - Is it right versus wrong?
Can duality have anything to do with Non Duality?
Can there actually be any duality in Non Duality?
The KNOWING is uncompromising - every falsehood is exposed before belief can get 'a foothold'.
Not Two is what One without a second means. There is ONLY ONE KNOWING happening - and that knowing is happening right NOW, right there where 'you' are 'appearing to be'.
The ONE does not need the 'appearance' - the appearance of 'another’ to KNOW.
So often ‘people’ learn the language of Non Duality but they still hang onto a ’spiritual self-image’ and all the concepts about time and progress - ‘I got it and they have not got it’. It is all crap - all of it. When a Guru sits on his platform he is indulging in a grand illusion of separateness - yet he speaks of Non Duality - what a sham.
The meetings are given a fancy name ‘Satsang’. I say Bunkum. A meeting is a meeting - simple as that - and anyone worth his salt (a so called teacher) meets others in equanimity BECAUSE he does not perceive separation and so he does not energize the fantasy of separation by inference or by his teaching or words.
If you can’t handle the HEAT, get out of the FIRE.
It is the fire that destroys illusions of ME.
All this preference for being NICE is bunkum - there is no entity - Full Stop. But this cannot be a belief or theory - it must be KNOWING.
AWARENESS is NON DUAL.
There is nothing stuck anywhere. This is clearly obvious in the very nature of SEEING itself. Everything without a single exception is an appearance in this clear and immaculate seeing.
What is appearing?
It is all LIGHT appearing as sensations, impressions and what we commonly call ‘matter’.
Does a light beam stop and get stuck anywhere - does it ever compound into anything? If it bounces between two mirrors does it need to take a rest and recharge itself?
Everything is awareness appearing as this and that.
The mind cannot grasp the essence of THIS.
The mind is only an appearance in THIS.
It is all energy - ONE singular EXPRESSION - too minute and too vast for the mind to grasp.
The INSTRUMENT of cognition is an appearance in the cognition. The EYE is not seeing anything - it is a mere instrument. The EAR does not hear anything either.
A dead body obviously cannot ‘do’ anything. Without that life essence the instruments which are actively functioning right now - they could not function.
It is the arrogating ‘ego’ that says “I see, I hear and I do all of these things”.
The ego is an image - it is not the enemy as long as it is understood for what it is, it can serve very well. If it believes it is the life-force then it runs a muck and ’causes all kinds of unnecessary dramas. Yet it is all nothing but this expression - non duality appearing as ‘many’.
Everything that ‘you see’ is the same expression - the stillness of the finest spiderweb or a Mac Truck speeding down a freeway.
It is ALL contained in the SINGULAR SEEING.
The WHOLE manifestation is the SEAMLESS GARMENT - no beginning and no end. No edge and no center.
Everything ‘you know’ is nothing but this IMMEDIATE Expression. There is NO PAST. A memory is the same expression arising NOW.
It is NAKED AWARENESS. Unadorned natural presence does not need a concept.
It is the mind that seemingly needs concepts for without them it disappears.
Even though the mind disappears - what you ARE remains.
This is the only ‘thing’ you need to KNOW.
KNOWING this includes everything of the relativity.
Each fraction of the relative is the Absolute.
There is NO individual self realization.
It is ALL Self-Realizing - Just AS IT IS.
In the First Instant (the ONLY instant) of recognizing THIS, there may ‘appear’ a dissolving pattern of belief and the remnants may ‘feel’ like ‘humbleness’. This passes just as everything passes - YET what you are remains.
For a ‘lucky one’ there will be an uncompromising intelligence that will destroy any concept that arises regarding ‘I am now enlightened’.
The ‘unfortunate ones’ engage with that concept and take on the story of being an enlightened ‘guru’ - which is a falsehood of the grandest magnitude.
This is how it has been revealed ‘here’. Since this in incontestable as the immediate and is the direct experiencing RIGHT NOW, and so it is NOT relying on any concept (which is time), ‘I’ can say with absolute certainty that ‘This revelation’ is totally available to ‘anyone’ and IMMEDIATELY - as long as there is a dropping of any concepts that may arise and that there is no engagement in them - in the habitual way that everyone (’people’) so often ‘appear’ to do.
Letting this revelation ’sink into ones being’ takes one beyond duality - where one has truly ALWAYS been - yet forgotten ’somehow’.
Understanding is SILENT.
This is impossible to share with anyone - yet ‘pointing happens’. Most often it is not recognized because of the habit of going with the minds translation and the BELIEF that that translation is reality. Reality is unchanging - you have NEVER not been THAT. But the mind will throw up all kinds of arguments - YOU must tell it to be quiet - even if only for a MOMENT - THIS moment is ACTUALLY ‘Eternity’. Self-Realizing - The ACTUALITY.
As it IS.

The Urban Guru Cafe - check it out.

2008-12-01T01:14:00.005+10:30

The Urban Guru Café is a new incentive to make a variety of 'speakers' available in one 'spot' .
This last month of November sky rocketed in individual downloads of the programs.
The monthly graph of the site is a steady rising ‘mountain’ and it hasn’t peaked yet.
There are so many good programs on the site.
I suggest that you listen to the ones you have not listened to as yet.
The Urban Guru Café is a FREE service.
It is a fresh incentive BUT there are costs that are covered by the makers of the programs - Areti and myself - there is no one else directly involved in the programs 'evolution' - so to speak.
Actually, it is hard enough to get anyone at all to do the simplest thing for us, I find.
The UGC does not rely on anyone’s donation and the makers of the programs give their time and skills freely as do all of the participants, the guests.
If you wish to donate a few dollars, please use the donation tab on my website.
Half a dozen have ventured to take the plunge and we thank them for their generosity.
We will probably arrange a donation tab on the UGC site in due course.
If you do actually appreciate what is offered on the UGC and you find some value in it, then a donation is a way of expressing that appreciation.
It all helps but please be assured that it is NOT a requirement.

Well, on behalf of Areti and 'my good self' I would like to thank you for all the visits and downloads you may well have made at the UGC - Stay tuned.

Where is the immaculate, clear seeing right now?
It does not disappear just because a thought comes along.

Where is God now?

2008-11-16T13:19:00.013+10:30

Check out the latest Urban Guru Cafe programs click here.

Relativity has no value whatsoever - unless you give it some - and SO..since everything is related to everything else - so nothing has any value unless YOU give it value.
Your Guru has no value except the value you give him.

And YET all relativity is nothing but the ABSOLUTE - which is the Ultimate Value.

You ARE the absolute.
THAT is stationary, motionless, silent.
It is THAT through which everything appears to move - as the sensations of LIFE - this Pulsation of duality appearing in this Singular Presence.
The life of this living movement is called Wakefulness.

Who is asleep? - Who is awake?

Everything is the potentiality of yourself.

There is no one who slips in and out of this NOW.

There is no one who 'becomes' anything other than what they ARE.

Everyone is THAT.

You will not be the last to realize THIS.

You are the FIRST to realize anything - everything else is an appearance in THAT wakefulness.

Are you not Awake?

Cease from entertaining stories about waking up in some 'future time'.

Those who speak of such 'things' as future deliverance are nothing but weak sniveling creatures - and notice one common theme - they always want your money, over and over, like Charles Dickens' character 'Fagen', living off the labors of the poor unwanted children of the world.

Are you not awake?

Where is GOD now?

Can you truly separate HIM or what HE is meant to 'represent' from yourself?

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
The ordering of my books or CD's has ceased to be available.- I do not have access to my website and cannot remove the notices and links for the ordering of the books and CD's....ect. - The one who handles such things has not been contactable for many months.
The only access I have to this site is to place these Notes here via a preset code. - Please do not, DO NOT order the books or CD's. - I apologize for this inconvenience. - It may be rectified or the website may cease to operate altogether at some point. - I know it looks unprofessional but there is nothing I can do about it.
Note for today:

Where is God Now?
Who wants to know?
The word ‘God’ could be said to be a most sacred name, a word for the creator of all that is. - Many believe this to be so. - That word is uttered millions upon millions of times everyday upon this insignificant planet, not to mention any of the untold number of other possible planets throughout the Universe.
"Acknowledge him in all thy ways and he will guide you".
"Do not take the name of God in vain". .....so says the scriptures.
In some religions the 'image' of 'God' is forbidden to be fabricated by the hands of man.
Isn't this because it is impossible to make an image of 'God'. - Since all things are 'made by HIM' so everything has 'His signature'. - The use of the male gender 'him' is merely a language issue.
'God' naturally includes both genders 'Adam and Eve' in HIS CREATION, the Garden of Eden (the Kingdom of Heaven).
At this point many will turn off and tune out - because of that word 'God' - it just brings too much up in the mind - so they have to tune out - go find something else to engage their mind with - distract them from the possible turmoil that this word brings to the surface.
But let's go on, without them......
Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden because they ate 'the fruit of the tree of good and evil'.
They began to believe in words as if they were reality - and it is words that separate and divide the 'Kingdom', the natural unity of One Presence. - So 'the drama of life' appears to have come about. - What is it that divides your mind? - What are the conflicts made of? -Beliefs? -Words?
Oddly enough many wars have been fought in the name of this ‘God’ and each opposing army may believe that ‘God is on their side’. - We even hear the concept of there being such a thing as a ‘Holy War’. - So, it would seem that within this creation that the singular creator has created, there appears extremely destructive forces at play, killing machines called ‘men’.
The problem of using the word ‘God’ is in the fact that everyone has their own ‘idea; of what ‘God’ is. - As soon as someone mentions the word ‘God’ a whole array of associative thought patterns line up in the mind like soldiers, usually ready to enter into battle. - So an argument, a battle, is already under way, before any ‘shots’ are taken.
The only way out of this battle is through agreement.
As soon as you agree with ‘the opposition’ the wind in their sails is taken away.
It takes two to tango. - If one party withdraws from the battle, the ‘dance is over’.
If you are in a heated argument with someone, watch his or her face when you say, “I totally agree with you”. - There will be a reconfiguration of the facial muscles; a flickering of a thousand expressions flash across their face, reflecting the way the mind is trying to re-arrange its ‘position’.
Where is ‘God’ during all this activity? - Isn’t ‘he or she’ the creator of it all?
Even Lucifer was created by HIM. - So if this is so, is ‘God’ playing games with us all?
All of the stories about ‘God’, the creation and everything are also included in this ‘creation’.
Now in the old book it says that ‘In the beginning there was nothing’. - Before light and time. - Now if one is to engage with this account, this story, then one must conclude that ‘God’ was ‘there’ prior to his creation. - Does not that mean that ‘God’ was the nothing out of which all the creation was expressed?
Does this not mean that ‘God’ is nothing?
For the mere sentient beings, even though the essence of what they are is ‘God’, all they have to play with is a concept about what ‘God’ is.
If one researches the meaning of the word ‘Allah’ you will find that the word means ‘nothing’.
At the center of the Mayan Calender, which is so popular at the moment, there is a symbol. If you research the meaning of that symbol, you will find that it means ‘nothing’.
Now if you investigate the space within which the SEEING is happening, in yourself, you will find that same ‘nothing’.
It is NOT an empty void.
It is the unborn mind. No mind.
It is One without a second.
Having the courage to investigate this does not come from a ‘personal volition’ or ‘self-will’. - The courage is that invincible ‘nothing’ which ‘was’ here before what we call ‘God’ created space and time.
No, how can you possibly separate that ‘God’ from what you truly are?
Like the prodigal son is celebrated on his return, when the discrimination between naked awareness and insubstantial beliefs happens, there is a ‘causeless joy’ self-evident in this realization.

Visit The Urban Guru Cafe and listen to some of the programs on Non Duality.

The Immediate nature of Presence.

2008-09-08T18:01:00.063+09:30

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.

No 'me' ever 'gets' enlightened.

2008-09-03T10:52:00.013+09:30

'People' fall for it over and over - the personalized story of an individual who becomes enlightened. - Yet it is never 'me'. - The clear light of knowing is clouded by 'the story of me'. - The 'me' is a cloud, a formation of thoughts that comes and goes. - It cannot see or know anything. - Mass belief in a story is just that.
In the clear space of direct experiencing (always immediate) everything is an appearance in that - there is no one else, no others and the reference point 'me' is just another appearance. - Seeing that is not knowledge - it is knowing, direct and immediate - lose sight of it and the mind rushes back into belief in duality.
The 'me' gathers apparent substance and belief rolls out a whole 'new' realm of drama (old repeating patterns regurgitated as if real).
The popular beliefs of the masses, the 'herd mentality', is not going to help you - it actually enslaves that 'you' of belief - that 'me of memory'. - It is all stories and nothing but stories.
The only way to go is: Use the intelligence that is totally available (to you) - it is what you are. This investigation is not analysis paralysis - it is simply SEEING what is.
It is happening right now - belief in what the mind is telling us (about what is) is what seemingly obscures the view.
Take a closer look at things - especially that 'me'.

Dear Gilbert,

My name is P….. G…… and I live here in NYC. - I have been a student of Advaita Vedanta for close to twenty years now. - My Kundalini was raised during this time which I still don't understand and no one has explained it to me. - About 16 years ago my intellect (through the Teaching) saw that everything was nothing but Sat-chit-annanda, Brahman. - Everywhere I look I see the underlying oneness of all names and forms. - Despite this revelation, I have yet to get abidance in this Knowledge after all this time (Can you please explain what is the final experience of the one who gets enlightened?). - I have found it extremely difficult to rest in this realization. - I have almost had Nirvikalpa Samadhi on a few different occasions but was too scared to let go completely of my ego and now I do not know how to get back to that state.

I am wondering what I should do to get abidance in this knowledge. - It feels like when I am connected in this Knowledge that everything is an extension of myself - that everyone is a reflection of Myself - like a giant dream where everyone is me. - I feel that oneness. - It is like an inner orgasm where my breath becomes even and the prana does something to my lips (can you explain this - I still have no idea what is going on - I have read about the sushumna and ida and pigala and all that but still do not comprehend it). - I see the whole world as mithya - just an apparent creation and a joke as I am the only reality and everything else is superimposed on that I.
I am hoping you can give me some pointers as to what to do to make this state a permanent realization because right now this feeling comes and goes.

Is there anything I can do to accelerate this process? - I am willing to spend as much time as needed. - Any suggestions you might have as well as any references to books, teachers would be greatly appreciated. - I thank you for reading this and getting back to me. - Thank you.

Regards, - P.G.

(Devoted students are ripe for being sucked into a never ending pathway of belief - The reason that decades go by for these ones without any significant change is because they are chasing rainbows - they have been convinced by 'others' that an answer will come from devoting oneself to all manner of things.)

My Reply:
It is impossible for the mind to rest in 'this realization' or in anything but its own empty nature.
The 'connection in this knowledge' you speak of is only transient thought patterns - all thoughts come and go. - You are not a thought. - You are THAT which REMAINS Present throughout all apparent duration. - If you search for it, you will miss it.
The mind will take you forever away into thought realms and imagination.
One must rest in a clear space of 'no thought' for a true taste of one's own true nature - if only for a 'brief moment'. - Get a taste for it and 'return' to it frequently.
The 'things' that you search for are the makings of an erroneous time bound mission.
You are already what you seek. - WHAT you seek you already ARE.
Why have you begun to seek?
Because of a BELIEF in being separate.
The naked 'I am-ness' is never a problem - it is with the qualifications and labels added by the mind - that is where the problem enters. - You must recognize that - no one can do it for you. - Investigate this concept of believing yourself to be separate.
It is not a complex thing - it is far simpler than one imagines - yet so few are open to it.
The conceptual burdens they carry are too cumbersome and the identity investment already made is too great to let go of.
Recognize that it is just an idea that is commonly believed in - very rarely investigated - See it for what it is. - A 'rare one' actually sees through all mind content, including the idea of being separate - yet this is actually totally available to everyone.
I do not say that "there is nothing that you can do" - that is not true - WHAT YOU ARE
is actually free right now - the shackles will fall away just by SEEING them for what they are - IDEAS - only ideas - that is what must be 'done' - SEE the truth of this moment - this actuality of simple presence - thoughtless, naked presence.
Believe me, the concept of 'separation', of itself, has no power whatsoever - even though all the drama of life appears to arise from it. - It is belief in it that seemingly empowers it. - Cut of the belief (its source of energy) and it will wither away like a dead leaf.
Dissolve this concept of separation and all reveals itself naturally.
Hang onto that concept and you miss the very essence of LIFE.

A drowning man does not refuse a 'life buoy' thrown to him.

The intellect cannot KNOW or SEE anything - it is mind translations only.
There never was an individual.
The mind is TIME.
All of 'your' problems seemingly exist because 'you' of mind, believe in TIME.
All there is, is THIS actuality of PRESENCE (commonly referred to as ‘now’). When have you truly ever left this moment?

What you truly ARE is this ‘One without a second’.
You have always been THAT - it is timelessly so.
The intellect will find all kinds of ‘reason’ to defend itself against this fact – but it fails consistently – it requires constant maintenance, which is tiring and exhausting.
Give it up and your frustrations will dissolve naturally.

The body and mind are appearances - what you are is not limited to these appearances.

If you hang onto them by identifying with them, 'you' will suffer and drown in 'your own' excrement - yet this drama is only in the appearances of things.
You are not a thing - you are invisible - discover this fact and BE.

There is NO Knowledge - ONLY Knowing.

NO Knower.
NO Seer.
NO doer.
NO one gets enlightened.
Experiences come and experiences go.
You are 'the Experiencing' Only. - That, this, is ever fresh and it does not compound into anything called a separate being.

Out of silence appears 'sound' and it disappears back into silence.

Sound is vibration - what the ancients called ‘OM’.

Be quiet and SEE – KNOW what you are.

Warm regards - Gilbert

The 'Presence' that you ARE.

2008-08-22T09:06:00.017+09:30

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 @

Beyond what you call yourself

2008-08-09T14:21:00.016+09:30

The Urban Guru Cafe is a 'Radio' program site where you can stream any of the 12 programs on line or download them onto your ipod or mp3 player. - The programs are professionally presented and are all 'aimed at' presenting the direct message (on Non Duality).
If by some chance you have not listened to any of these programs as yet, let me encourage you to do so.

You can also direct any of your questions or suggestions to the producer through the contact details on the site itself. - To check it out, click on these following words: Urban Guru Cafe

If we can postulate for a moment, that there is an absolute truth, an absolute reality, then it is surely even logical that it must be present throughout ALL 'time and space' - throughout ALL the universe and throughout ALL eons. - And so, even logically, it must be present right NOW. - It must permeate All Being - which of course includes 'your own being' right now.
Such a revelation may fill the mind with wonder.
This 'ultimate truth' permeates everything and nothing is excluded.
The mind, with its limited intellect, cannot capture it with a concept.
That Ultimate subtle fact is this immediate livingness that you are - it is the 'hum of being'. - In looking for it with the mind, we miss it. - It permeates ordinary awareness. - Silent and relaxed in being and also every activity, every movement within this vastness - this endless array of galaxies - everything that there is.
This living presence is its own activity of knowing - a knowing of everything, without a single exception and without ever moving away from THIS ever present 'now'.
There is NO separation that comes between this Knowing and the appearances of all that 'appears to be'. - One Being. - You are THAT. - There is no possibility that you could not not be THAT.

Let me share part of an email from a friend in the USA.
We were 'talking' about the direct message, this reply came:

I find this direct message in its unadorned elegance marvelously unpopular in general here. - actually less than unpopular - usually 'actively discarded'.
The self-promoters and folks willing to play the guru game are dominating the field, for the most part. - If there is no special enlightenment offered, no exotic Eastern terminology, no groovy guru on a platform, no retreats in which to look for mating opportunities and to hobnob with rich yuppies and fellow eternal seekers - then there is really not much interest in the straight and direct message.

"Franchise Paradise" is not about the truth - it is about money, sex and groovi-ness, obviously.

Comments or questions can be sent to me at gilbert.schultz AT gmail.com - replace the AT with @

The fine lines on the back of the contract usually tell us some things that we need to know but so often over look. - Here below is some of that 'fine print'.

* certain conditions apply

Please sign here...................................................

Witnessed by.......................................................

.....................
FINE PRINT

Taking delivery of the idea of being a sufferer is 'the catch'.
The ’story of ‘me’ IS the bondage of self.
See that, that ‘you’ does not register anything at all - it can’t because it is only an idea, see that, that concept about a ‘you’ registers spontaneously, the same as ALL impressions register.
No one can ‘get behind’ that spontaneous registering (cognizing) that KNOWING Presence.
All these thoughts appear ‘on (or in) awareness’ - there is no ‘entity’ there.

(to paraphrase Shakespeare) “no right or wrong, good or bad - but thinking makes it so” (makes it seemingly so).
...............

The current notes are on the following page. Meanwhile, here is an extract from The First Instant book (published 2004), a manuscript written several years ago, at a time when the message was flowing out of my elbows on onto my computer keyboard. Attempts to get the book published failed, for various 'reasons', so I published myself. This message that is written about consistently is not about any popular ideas or about seducing anyone into new beliefs, fancy concocted Philosophies or endless mind traps. - Here is that extract.

"Beyond what you call yourself"

In the bondage of appearing to be a limited being, an individual, there is a desperation, a trying to hang onto 'things' that are not there - here. - They are all concepts and mind projections. - You imagine terrifying things and you scare yourself to death with them. - You dream of pleasant things that are nowhere to be seen in the actual present evidence. - You dream a stream of dreams and you flutter about in imaginary worlds of past and future. - Anxiety is a regular visitor.
When all obscuring factors are seen through, the portal of what we can call 'Awakened Mind' opens fully - all is seen and the apparent 'believed in' substance of your dreams of separateness vanishes - forever - never to be believed in again. - They may still appear in a transparent form in mind, like a visiting butterfly in the garden - but they are known instantly for what they are.

In naked awareness there is no 'becoming'. - No coming or going, for it is non-dual awareness. - All that comes and goes is merely an appearance. - Everything appears in exactly the same way. - I cannot say what the difference is because it is actually undifferentiated and the problems did not exist in the first instant.
‘I am’, you are, this ‘first and only instant’. - At no point can any ‘I’ or a ‘you’ leave this. All manner of things appear and disappear in this first instant. - None of these appearances last. - All are transient. - The ‘master’ may appear to bring you back conceptually to this first instant (which you have never left). - Because he lives entirely from this first instant, his speech arises directly from it. - He is not speaking from any platform in mind. - His words may seem profound.

This profoundness is the living vibration of unobstructed expression. - It is expressed from and as the immediate knowing, it is a reciprocating resonance in yourself. - It is not some memorized thing that he is telling you. - He is the knowing of what he says.
You may believe that you come and go from this immediate presence. - It is not so. Only conceptually do you appear to depart from this first instant. - The remembering and the forgetting are just mind stuff. - All is as it ever was. - Yet it never was, is, or will be anything other than this first instant. - You are That.

Even though many things are repeated here in this text, direct cognition is unobstructed. - Our habitual way of being is full of repetition.
When the 'apparent shift' takes place, from habitual mind-stuff and recognized things into direct and immediate knowing, then this taste will not leave you. - It cannot leave you because you are this direct knowing and you have always been THAT.
You are in fact, nothing but this. - (Where is the doubt?)
The innate knowing of this is it (also). - The content of this immediacy seemingly arises within an experiential realm (mind) and this is nothing but direct cognition.
It is nothing but this. - It never splits into two.

Know it for yourself!
It is all immediate and never anything else but immediate (There is no ‘ever’ or ‘never’ - ‘past’ or ‘future’ in this). - All of the mind realms, words, images and concepts are nothing but this. - The dualistic mind cannot sit quietly with the non-dual.
‘You’ are taken beyond the dualistic mind. - To go beyond the mind you simply rest in open awareness.

Beyond what you call yourself
Within what you call yourself,
Is this vastness of direct cognition,
Unlimited
Unchanging
Untouched by anything.
The words are pointing at it
All that appears is it
Appearances never move or stray from it
The essence in what is seen
And the essence in what is seeing
are One.
All there is is Knowing.
Even what you call ‘mind’ is nothing but it
knowing.
When you look for mind, all you find is direct knowing
- cognition.

Because it is all there is - and because there is nothing other than this, there is nothing to compare with it. - So you do not notice its significance in what you call ‘mind’. And yet your very ‘seeing - knowing’ is nothing but this.

This knowing does not come and go
It is vast like the ocean
Does the fish notice the clear water?
No water - no fish
The water is full of fish
The fish is full of water
Not two.

See that what you truly are, in essence, which is this direct cognition, do not move - you are not this movement. - You ‘know’ because of this movement. - There is only knowing happening. - The immediate intelligence energy is the pure potentiality of this movement. - You are the movement of knowing - You are That.
I AM THAT.

- fin.

The expressions happening here today have not changed all that much since 'then' - maybe a little clearer these days- some may say a lot clearer. - This First Instant book may be re-printed with slight changes in the text at some point. - I have had just a few of it printed recently because someone requested it. - Email me at the above address if you wish to purchase one.

No concept can ever be the SEEING-KNOWING

2008-08-04T12:25:00.019+09:30

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.

Thought appears in Thought Free Being.

2008-07-27T17:42:00.028+09:30

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj & Sri Ranjit Maharaj - Bombay, India.

Note:

What the mind ‘sees’ is multiplicity, the world and things.
What actually registers in the 'pure seeing' consistently, without any division, is oneness. - No labels are attached to THAT because it is beyond the 'mind'.

It is the apparent ‘point of view’ of mere conceptualizing of that one-ness appearing as 'an individual', as a ‘seer’ and the 'seen', as a ‘knower’ and the 'known', that is what SEEMINGLY divides the indivisible One-ness into 'Duality'– but this is only in the 'appearance', which is 'happening' in the so-called ‘mind’ - The duality is only in appearance.
The habit is of the 'me' relating to the world and consequentially to 'that which is', via an ‘image’ of ‘self’. - That 'image of self', to which everything is referred to, it cannot actually SEE or KNOW anything.
This needs to be recognized. - The habit needs to be questioned.

One of the most potent ways to reveal naked cognition is:

Where is the seeing actually taking place?

Don't pass over this or dismiss it. - Well, not if you are 'serious' about this 'finding out what is really going on'. - We too often dismiss anything that threatens the fortress of belief.

All that that 'mind image of self' is, is imagination.
Mind is time - it is not the 'seeing-knowing'.
The 'I Know' is always questionable.
All there truly is, is Knowing - knowing beyond the limits of a 'knower' and the 'known'.

The 'mind' taking itself to be separate, it imagines ‘a puzzle of oneness’ - and all the pieces must be found – that is 'the seeking'. - The puzzle has to be put back together again - before completeness can be achieved.
It is a crap story, an endless story -a fragmentation of ideas in the mind. - It is a very popular business and very profitable for those who ‘sell’ the ‘lost pieces’.
In taking oneself to be a separate entity, a 'person' that 'oneness' of what we truly are enters into a dream - and 'People' in that dream are 'suckers' for buying those 'lost pieces' - 'hidden secrets' - 'buried treasure' etc.
The puzzle only 'appears' for the mind. - There is no puzzle to solve in Being.
The ONLY way out of that endless seeking is to start from the fact that you ARE that ONE, without a second. - Simply BE.
Drop the fragmentation concepts and simply BE….SEE…..KNOW.

The expansive sense of being is ever fresh in this moment.
Be open towards it, simply by letting go of 'old ideas' about 'self'.

"There is no good or bad (right or wrong) - but thinking makes it so"
- William Shakespeare.

Today's note:

The ‘teacher’ or ‘guru’ is only a signpost – a ‘pointer’.
Many aspirants gather around the signpost and make a lifestyle living near the signpost - "devotees of the signpost".
They ignore what the signpost is pointing at.
Some signposts actually point away from 'the actuality' of simple being and yet the ‘words’ on the sign 'seem' to be accurate.
A genuine signpost points you beyond the mind, into natural being presence-awareness.
Some signposts look 'real good', freshly painted and crisp - but they only 'pretend' to point you 'beyond the mind' - they actually point you back into endless mind stuff, with more 'work to be done', 'post awakening' and various other 'time bound concepts', which is the 'bondage of self' - all servicing 'a believed in entity' - or they point in multiple directions so as to occupy the mind on a 'merry go round ride' to nowhere.

Be careful to examine your preferred signpost carefully.
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
If an unmistakable resonance in being reverberates in you (a sense of expansion of being) then it is a true signpost.
If there is only an intellectual excitement and a proliferation of endless concepts, then one must certainly take a closer look at the signpost. - It is not about convincing the mind of some specialized concepts.
Such pointing is most certainly pointing the wrong way.
Non Dual jargon, like "There is no right way or wrong way" is just piffle and is just talk.

In seeing through the appearance of being a ‘me’ there ‘appears’ a ‘new freedom’ – this freedom is not actually ‘new’ because that freedom is the ‘natural state’ and that has always been ‘here’ – it has merely been overlooked through an engagement with ‘believing’ in that ‘me’ and its story.
In seeing that the body is merely an appearance, an instrument - and in seeing ‘these thoughts that come and go’ are not what I truly am, is it really helpful to say that I am these appearances?
In being free of it, in the ‘appearance of guiding others’, is it truly helpful to say that I am ‘all of it’, to imply that ‘I am that me’?
No it is not helpful at all. – In fact it is a misguided piece of advice.
Some ‘teachers’ may sense that they are very clear about everything – yet they need to realize that those who are attempting to be free of those ‘things’, things that they themselves were once caught in, these ‘seekers’ need clear advice that will cut through those forms of identification.
If your preferred 'teacher' sounds like 'a second hand car salesman', then he or she is most likely not pointing very clearly. - Adding new concepts about some process is NOT what is needed. - The negation of the belief in 'time' and 'me' is central to exposing what is true. - No personal benefit or achievement is in that exposure.
Emphatic statements implying that you are that ‘me’ and all of its attachments is actually not clear pointing – one could say it is counter productive.

If you want a clear and precise pointing to your own true nature – then drop all thought and simply be - that is the source of your own being – this living presence.

If that seems impossible then find a clear ‘teacher’ and there is no one I know of, other than Bob Adamson, who is speaking directly, without deviation, speaking from the natural state. – While Bob is still ‘with us’ an opportunity is available.
Why settle for second best?
These thoughts expressed here, just like all thoughts, appear spontaneously.

Bob will not tell you that you are that ‘me’ – others can do that but it will not free you. There never was a 'me' caught in phenomena - but you must see this very precisely for yourself.
You must see most clearly, in the immediacy of presence, that the ‘me’ is just an idea. Once seen clearly, one can use the word ‘me’ and ‘I’ without any trouble.
Without seeing through the ‘me’ then there will be endless trouble and you will drown in your own imaginary suffering.
These words here may cause a stir with certain characters – that is not my concern.
Telling it straight and true is what this is all about.
Whether it is ‘heard’ is another matter.

***

Where am I? - Watch short movie of the Earth rotating on its invisible axis and the Moon passing by - an actual film taken from 'outer space'. Click here.

The whole universe moves and turns upon emptiness - where are you seeing from?

Note: The last copy of "Everything is Clear and Obvious" has been sold. - The FREE e-book version is still available - see right hand side of screen on the 'shining' website.

NEWS: You can now order "Gleanings from Nisargadatta" directly from Mark West, the 'author'. - Click on following words: Click on here - Why not get both books - Bob's new one and Mark's.

The Urban Guru Cafe - a Radio Show (podcast) on the subject of Non Duality.
(free download-able mp3's - it is growing like Jack's beanstalk) - Don't miss it.
12 programs are already on the site. - Part 2 of the Stephen Wingate interview and part 2 of "What is Awareness" both appear on the site now.

Anyone who wishes to email questions or comments to me can do so, very easily. gilbert.schultz (at) gmail.com replace the (at) with @.

Today's note:

'Who' is it that gets caught up in thoughts?
Are thoughts free to come and go? - Is it true that anyone ever was caught up in thoughts - what are thoughts comprised of and what is the 'substance' of the one caught up in them? - Examining this factor alone, reveals what needs to be seen.

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’ caught in any phenomena whatsoever nor freed from such bondage.
The bondage of self is a fiction.
This fact may be totally confirmed in this instant - by simply dropping thought and recognizing the clear space of cognition. - That clear and empty space of cognition is not divided into parts, right and left, right and wrong, good and bad.
There is no 'point' in that space and there is no boundary either.
Close your eyes now and see if you can find a point or a boundary.
Sit with that clear space and recognize that that 'space-like awareness' is the 'place' where everything appears, the whole universe appears nowhere other than right there.
That space is not filled with Christians or Buddhists, Muslims or Jews. - In fact there is no one there at all - nothing except your true nature and that is not a form - it has no color, shape or form. - It is so familiar to you, you have overlooked it consistently.
Stop ignoring it.

The whole drama of duality, including the appearances of teachers and pupils, is an insubstantial ‘play of the elements’ and they are nothing but ‘images’ appearing on awareness.
Like the appearance of multiple reflections in a mirror, they can never jump out of the mirror or even bump into each other.
To say that awareness is just another story is to miss the fact that what the word ‘awareness’ refers to is not a concept.
Awareness itself remains ‘timelessly’ indescribable and indefinable.
All of our descriptions and definitions fall short, because every single description or definition is nothing but an appearance in or on awareness.
‘You’ cannot negate that instantaneous cognizing (knowing) that is happening – THAT activity of knowing is awareness.
Can you grasp the import of such pointing?
Not with a concept, nor with a ‘knower’– only AS the knowing does it reveal itself in its fullness.
The rest is merely concepts and floundering intellectual gymnastics.
Words appear on or in awareness, just like all phenomena appear in or on that same unchanging presence-awareness.
Just as LIFE, sentient or otherwise, is the prerequisite to all activities, awareness is the prerequisite to knowing anything at all.
Awareness and the activity of knowing cannot be separated.
It is only the ‘mind’ that seemingly separates THAT naked presence-awareness.
The seeker cannot get there. – That imaginary journey is totally useless.
What has truly been achieved by so much struggle and effort?
How close are you now to that, that which you strive for so vigilantly?
Have you ever truly moved out of THIS presence?

Be honest with yourself - why not?
Is fooling oneself such a good idea? - Convincing oneself that so much has been achieved and 'soon' I will 'get there'. - Oh what a tiresome story it is.
What is it that we are overlooking?

What is wrong with right now? - if we don't think about it.

‘Thought free being’ is the gem that we overlook and go off in the mind looking for some projected, imagined prize.
All the while the true prize lies ‘under our very noses’.
What a remarkable joke it all is – but few are laughing.
The effort to remain in a state of being a serious seeker is tedious to say the least.
To relax in being is effortless’
Try it sometime – you may be surprised.

The mind may play a game of being judge, jury and executioner - but where is that activity taking place and how real is it?
Does any of it have any BEING - or is it all as insubstantial as a mirage?

Contemplate these things. - If you wish to.

Because there is no entertainment here for the whims and wishes of seekers and all of their erroneous beliefs, 'my life' is not crowded by them wanting more and more fodder. - No submission is required. - No seminars and no big fees. - The clear message can be delivered simply and effectively within this unchanging presence.
Time itself is revealed to be nothing but a concept. - Knowing that simple fact is enough to release the distorted and convoluted 'form' of the seeker.
Oddly enough, it seems few are willing to let go of that 'person' that they think they are - and/or that 'spiritual-ized self-image'.

Some words from William:

"This above all: to thine own self be true". - Hamlet Act I, Scene III.

"Everyone can master a grief but he that has it". - Much Ado about Nothing Quote Act III, Scene II

“There’s a skirmish of wit between them”.
Much Ado about Nothing. Quote Act I. Scene 1.

“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps”.
Much Ado about Nothing. Quote Act III. Scene 1.

“Are you good men and true?” ~ Much Ado about Nothing. Quote Act III. Scene 3.

"All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts." ~ As You Like It

"What's in a name? -That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." ~ Romeo and Juliette

"Alas, poor world, what treasure hast thou lost!" ~ Venus & Adonis

"There is no right or wrong - but thinking makes it so" (from memory)

Quotes from William Shakespeare

Irrespective of what you think - Being IS.

2008-07-21T21:36:00.020+09:30

On the 'other side' of what is true, there are hundreds of 'teachers' who make a very comfortable lifestyle out of telling very indirect messages - elaborate stories of enlightenment and about the 'becoming' process - and that nonsense keeps thousands and thousands of seekers bound into erroneous notions of 'trying to become' those same conceptualized fabrications of mind - and the irony of it all is that no one EVER becomes anything other than what they ARE - they can certainly 'pretend' to have 'become' enlightened and many do - and they tell their stories about 'my amazing experiences of enlightenment' and 'how' 'I' achieved it - and make hundreds pay over and over for listening to their stories and their 'special' advice. - When I read their words the 'hooks' usually appear in the very first sentence - to suck you into the story.
They appeal to the 'spiritual ego' almost exclusively and it works very well for them.

The direct message does not suck anybody into a story - it pulls you out of stories altogether....and reveals the LIVING PRESENCE of what you ARE.....right NOW.

There is no personalized achievement to BEING.
Take a look.
Where did you get that body that you call your own?
Did you achieve that? - Did you make the life force that flows through that body?

The obvious self-pride of these teachers is just a puffed up believed in story about 'self'.

Is that what 'we' are looking for? - To become like them?

Oddly enough, few are grateful for hearing the direct message - because in most cases it is rejected almost instantly by the habitually engrossed mind. - A few manage to 'stay with it' and absorb the message of what is being pointed out. - They could be said to be 'the lucky ones'.

Today's Note:

Your freedom lies in this immediate ‘presence’.
If you look for it with the mind it cannot be found.
The mind is time, duration. – Your true nature is timeless.
There is nothing you can 'do' to 'get to' (implies distance and time) this freedom simply because it is timelessly present.
It is not hidden yet it appears to be hidden - for the biased 'seeker'.
The seeker’s 'journey to freedom' is nothing but a mental journey, imagination, image-ing, a journey seemingly made by 'a thought' (the seeker).
It is all 'made of' concepts, images – it is nothing but a ‘failure to find’, as soon as the first (virtual) step is taken.
In a realm of belief the 'I' is conceptually moving away from the natural state.
The only time that erroneous belief is seen through is in 'this moment of clear sight'.
There is no other moment of clear sight - this is it - you have never left 'this moment'.

The dualistic mind is the fruit of one of two trees in 'the Garden of Eden'.
The other tree is The Tree of Life.
This symbolism is significant.
One tree symbolizes 'living being' and the other symbolizes the realm of polarized thought, good-bad, right-wrong etc.
We inadvertently ignore the natural state and 'go with' thoughts, concepts and ideas - usually, if not always, about some other place or some other time.
In this way, 'this moment', of the actuality, is 'apparently' occupied by 'other-ness'. The ACTUAL 'present evidence' of THIS immediate living presence is ignored, not noticed - even though it registers cleanly and precisely - irrespective of the mind content.
(Understanding is not via the naming of things.)

Take a closer look, have you not been chasing after ‘things’, which you have projected from your own mind?
‘Things’ we have been told about, 'things' we have been seduced into believing, without any sensible questioning of these ‘things’.
Erroneous beliefs cannot withstand a clear investigation.
Why should we believe anything that we cannot verify for ourselves?
There are so many who 'pretend' to be ‘clear seeing’, those who are seduced by their own self-image, who seemingly lead us off on a wild goose chase.
The more the merrier.
Is it our own indulgence in a false self-center, 'me', that blinds us to seeing through all those stories about a 'journey' to a future time?

The radical nature of ‘direct pointing’ goes over the heads of so many.
Is it because it cuts through 'time' and leaves THIS present moment bare, naked?

Seeing this is not via concepts.

Glazed eyes, or a turning away, belongs to the resistance to letting go of 'old ideas' about who and what we 'think' we are – a resistance to actually seeing what is true about ourselves.

What could be more pertinent than to find out what I am?
What I truly am.
Freedom from all methods and practices (time and duration) freedom from all these ‘things’ lies in this immediate presence, totally available – but not as a ‘person’.

The ‘persona’ is the mask, a mere appearance – it is not the true nature.
That mask, if believed in takes on the nature of a prison - a 'cage of limitations'.
Freedom from all this ‘stuff’ is not to be found in the ruminations of the restless mind.
Decades may pass by, while so many go on and on asking the question ‘Who am I?’
These ones are nothing but the non-recognition of the fact that the foundation of 'the one asking the question' is nothing but a ‘thought’, an idea.
It is an appearance in mind - a mere concept. - Why is this so difficult to see? - It is so obvious yet the habitual engagement with thought is not challenged - because 'I' still believe 'I am' these thoughts or at least the owner of these thoughts - which lends them 'my identity'.
Illusions of mind will not dissipate just by wishing them to. - They must be released and seen for what they are.
The only way 'out of the mind' is to stop. – Cease from thought for a moment and allow the subtle nature of silent being to reveal itself.
Don’t hold onto some idea that silence is the key.
Once this silent being is recognized clearly, it does not mean thought ceases to appear.
No, thought will always appear and disappear.
It is the stream of consciousness.
All we need is to recognize it for what it is.
The unruly mind will lose its restless nature once the habit of believing is cracked – believing that thoughts are reality.

You can pull these words apart and argue as much as you want about them or any words at all – or you can recognize what it is that I am pointing at.
It is not up to ‘me’.
The resonance of being itself is the potentiality – the ONLY potentiality – irrespective of what you or anyone thinks.

Email: Quote from the above: “There is no other moment of clear sight - this is it - you have never left 'this moment'”

The above is very clear and crystal. - It is what we are. - It sees through the folly of seeking. -We are searching for our very self, our being which we already are. - It is as you say foolish. - It is the knowing and seeing the present moment, the Now, without the thought, without the movement of time. - It is not even hidden if we don't think it is hidden, even though it may be invisible. - Like you say it is clear and obvious. - We can see it clearly if we are not worried about seeking and searching by thinking.

Thanks again, - Sincerely, - M.

Reply: Seeing and knowing THIS is happening ‘before’ the mind translates anything. – Seeing is not affected by time - the appearance of this thing called 'time' is appearing in the seeing. - Therefore, seeing is timeless. - The mind translations ‘appear’ with apparent duration within THIS clear SEEING. – So in effect, all the mind can 'do' is make up a story about THIS via labels and words, all learned and they are from memory - the past. - So 'we use' the past to inform us about the present and believe in these translations.
The understanding is 'beyond the mind', it is actually silent, wordless - it is THIS totally immediate ‘knowing presence’.
What I am, what you are, has never been anything but THIS.
This information cannot mean anything unless the resonance of its obviousness is actively present. - If the mind is caught in 'translation time' it remains meaningless mumbo jumbo.

Ancient Wisdom is in one's own Being - not the mind.

2008-07-17T10:33:00.018+09:30

Wisdom is intelligence expressing itself, naturally, without 'becoming' a 'wise one'.

Words are NEVER that actual 'thing' that they refer to.
Awareness is a word. - The words 'I am aware' are not the awareness.
The words 'I am' are not the being-ness - they are simply expressions.
LOVE is a word.
The love of being is at the core of our existence.
We love to be.
Light is radiance.
Love is radiance.
Love of Self is undivided 'presence' - all inclusive.
The 'healing' is in seeing through the illusion of separateness.
The sense and the feeling of separation is based on an idea - the feeling follows the idea, the concept. -The feeling of separation vanishes once the idea has been exposed as false.
The 'space-like awareness', where seeing is happening, is not actually divided into two or more parts.
That fact is so clearly obvious we miss it - because it is so transparently obvious.
That 'clear space' is not a thought - the thought 'appears' in it.
In that clarity, seeing is 'taking place' and in that, all concepts appear - they appear nowhere else.
None of these thoughts, concepts or images, have any substance that can ACTUALLY divide this 'space of knowing'. - Only in appearance does separation appear to take place - it can be recognized that all such notions are concepts only.
You can chop the waves on the beach, as vigorously as you wish, with the sharpest sword, but you cannot divide 'the Ocean' - you cannot divide the 'wakefulness' with a concept no matter how refined it may be.
That wakefulness, is Non Dual.
The mind only seemingly divides it. - See this fact right now.

We imagine that the wisdom of the ancients is hard to ‘get to’.
The fact that when reading those ancient words, the resonance that reverberates through our being, is because we ‘already know it’. - Being resonance is LIFE itself.
Do we exchange the living-ness for stale old concepts?
That wisdom is not something that one can come to through thinking about it.
No University can teach you how to be what you ARE.

See that there is clear and precise wisdom innately in being.
It is NOT concepts in the mind. - Concepts may be expressed from it but they remain as what they are. - They can appear to be vehicles for wisdom - however the recognition arises because we already know it. - It is re-cognized.
'To cognize' means 'To Know'.

It is not some difficult intellectual thing to strive for. - No one can give it to you - because it is already yours.
The old 'time bound' habit is to create, in mind, a sacred mountain to climb, a difficult terrain to traverse - a sacred journey.

We ignore the natural state and take up all manner of complexities, creating all manner of obstacles for ourself and it is all in vain - it is spiritual 'imaging' and unnecessary suffering.

Stop looking for answers in the mind.
All the mind has is, is second hand stuff, learned words, images and memories.

Wisdom is spontaneously here. – It effortlessly expresses itself and it does not rely on anything from the past.
See everything as fresh and new. – In this manner, we see into the true nature of everything.
However, as long as ‘you’ perpetuate the concept of being ‘someone’ searching for ‘something’, the natural wisdom of being will evade you.
The ‘self-image’ we have is a mind construction, a mix of pride and guilt, all about some thing called 'me'.

It reminds me of the joke about being nothing. – Two Rabbi’s are in the Synagogue kneeling each day, saying their prayers: “Oh God, I am nothing, I am nothing”.
The janitor goes about his cleaning each day. – Then one day he decides to join them. – The janitor (possibly a gentile) kneels and prays: “Oh God, I am nothing, I am nothing.” - One of the Rabbi’s turns to the other and whispers “Look who thinks he is nothing”.

"The truth cannot be organized", so said J. Krishnamurti. - Once you start to organize the truth, the devil steps in and says "Hey, I will help you organize the truth".

We can all have a good laugh about the 'Look who thinks he is nothing' joke. - It is very funny, especially the first time you hear it. - But when it comes to taking a good look at one's own spiritual arrogance, it is no laughing matter - well, not until it is seen through most thoroughly.

The following notes are not for the meek and mild.
My advice is to follow the resonance in being. - Make that your touchstone.
It does not matter who or where the message comes from.
Stop collecting a mish mash of spiritual books and concepts. - That is a sure way to bring confusion.
Just follow the resonance in being.

Added Note: on the Therapy illusion. (Business is business is thriving business)

In the clear and open view of ordinary wakefulness, ‘post awakening therapy’ is an illusion, all about a 'me' that does not have any substance or independence.

Some words pop up from memory: "Don't go sticking your head in a hornets nest".
Everything is happening spontaneously - there is no 'doer' - so what is all the drama about?

Where do all of our agreements and our arguments take place?
Where does all the clear and precise evidence ‘for or against anything’ appear?
Where does anything and everything appear?
Where is the witnessing taking place, the witnessing of all these ‘events’ (large or small, vast or minute)
Where does the ‘time’, the duration of this witnessing take place?
What ‘ground’ do you stand on and what bias is there to your opinions about all of these questions?
Where is it taking place?
Can you find the witness?
What knowledge do you have and where do you store it?
Can you offer it to another and ask for a hefty fee?
Can you stand straight and tall and parade like a peacock, full of vanity and call yourself a saviour of humanity?
Where does all the drama of life take place?
Who is the witness of the drama?
Can you find him (or her)?

There is no duality in Non Duality.
In the appearance of life, so-called non dualists have turned Non Duality into a circus of dualistic tricks and business opportunities.

Where does all of the drama of life appear?
What duration does it have?
What is wrong with right now? – If you do not think about it?

Incomprehensible for mind - yet natural for being.

2008-07-14T13:35:00.013+09:30

Incomprehensible for the dualistic mind. - Being is Knowing.

Being a slave to concepts about ‘special states of being’ is foolish.

Let me state clearly that there are no concepts being indulged in here. - I have no investment in a self-image, that I am 'someone special' or that something special has happened to me. - I have not attained any state of being - either enlightenment or whatever name you want to give it. - It could be said that it is 'the ordinary' that contains the miraculous. - We overlook the ordinary 'pure functions of being' and go looking for some 'thing', some idea of 'becoming' - imitating what is suggested to us by 'suggestion' itself. - We ignore the FACT of wonderment - the fact of our own being - just as we are. - What a miracle.
You may imagine that you are in the process of ‘becoming’ – you may have been given many tools to achieve your desire of becoming something ‘more’ than what you are.
Who is the observer of this ‘becoming’?
Is that anything stable?
Is it not merely thoughts about becoming and self-assessments, more thoughts and judgments made about some self-analysis?
Where do all of these activities take place?
Isn’t it all simply an appearance in being?
We can re-arrange ‘the furniture’ in our minds but nothing of this activity will ever ‘become’ anything but what it is.
The appearances cannot be THAT, which is unchanging, that 'one without a second' – they are appearances and they cannot be that changeless fact of being, it is THAT, the changeless, in which ALL the appearances appear. - You are THAT - not the transient appearances - That fact is obviously here right now and it permeates this living moment - totally ascertainable (for anyone at all, right here, right now) because it is a FACT. - What prevents the seeing of that fact? - It can only be mind stuff that gets in the way. - Drop it.
Some say that such expressions are from the Absolute, not from where they see things from. - The fact is that ALL true SEEING is not actually 'happening' via the mind's content. - The translations of the mind cannot SEE. - These translations appear to be so quickly 'on the scene' we habitually believe that this 'believed in entity' is seeing - is knowing. - It is simply NOT true. - There is only ONE Seeing happening. - Where are you Seeing from? - Don't be tempted by any 'idea' about that. - Where is the seeing happening? - This question delivers the mind to beyond its realm. - No conceptual answer can satisfy - Frustration or denial is a usual response. - The SEEING is prior to all concepts. - Calling it an 'Absolute View' which only a 'sacred few' have access to is just a story for the mind. - Believing in stories in preference to the actuality is an 'insubstantial problem'. - A problem that dissolves instantly if it is truly questioned thoroughly and actually.
Believing in ‘the process of becoming’ is the error.
99.999% of teachers are ‘guilty’ of proliferating concepts of ‘becoming’.
It is all useless and it leads ‘you consistently away’ from the obvious FACT of Being.
Place your trust in one who ‘points’ directly at the facts.
Is it not obvious that all these years of following the practices of ‘becoming’ have not led you anywhere – that fabulous and imaginary ‘realization’ keeps slipping out of view. – It remains ‘up ahead’ somewhere in ‘the future’. - It will continue to do so – because it is only a concept. – Being a slave to concepts about ‘special states of being’ is foolish.
Stop ignoring the natural state of simple being. – It is non-conceptual.

I can almost hear a reply. – “That is too difficult, to just simply be”.
Why is that so difficult?
Are you so sold on the idea of making effort, that ‘the simplicity of being’ is turned into an unattainable ‘thing’?
Being is Being is Being.
A lion is not making an effort to be a lion. - Effort may appear in the activity of a lion chasing a deer - the Being of the lion or the deer is not changing or becoming anything but what it is. - Why do you imagine that you can become something 'greater' than what you are? - Because it has been suggested and it has been believed in - that is why.
Mere concepts - concepts that fill a space called 'mind' and thus an ignoring of natural being as one is, seemingly takes us away from that simplicity of 'being what I am'.
Being is there timelessly, naturally, 'before' such erroneous efforts are even indulged in.
Being requires NO effort whatsoever. – effort appears in being - not for the sake of being. - No ‘person’ has ever ‘become’ more than the being-ness. – The ‘person’ is just a bunch of thoughts. - See if you can stand on those beliefs. - They are an erroneous foundation - a delusion. ("Build your house on the Rock - not on the shifting sands")
Many aspirants go into hiding at this point, the shutters come down and a defensive mechanism kicks in. - Reaction is behavior - not being.

Why is simply being so difficult?
Being has nothing to do with that believed in ‘entity’ called ‘me’.
The ‘me’ is a fictional character. – It has NO Being whatsoever – it is only belief.
Empty rhetoric about "that me must be what I am because there is no separation".. is flimsy intellectualizing – it is 'a cowards excuse', NOT to investigate that ‘me’ and truly find out what is real about it, if anything.
Habitual resistance, to really taking a good look, is like a fortress wall around the ‘me’.
A self-made prison – full of fictional drama and suffering – all of it is unnecessary.
"I can't let go of this idea about 'who' I am, because if I let go of that, who or what will I be?" - Like the man who couldn't knock on God's door - self-exiled because the courage to really KNOW was smothered by self-doubts.

All these points may be a bit sharp, too probing for the average ‘seeker’.
It is not meant for them - they get what they need through beliefs - they are not happy - but they won't hear what is being offered - so what else can be done?

No matter how sharp it appears to be, it really needs to be looked into – putting it off is tantamount to another ‘ten year sentence’ in that ‘cage of limited views’.

We must recognize that the open view of 'simply being present to what is', is clear.
It is the belief in what the mind brings into the picture, that is what 'seemingly' clouds the view.

A certain concept may appear to help but if it is clung onto, it will obscure the view with a mind set, which is not the clear view at all.

Our habit is to believe what the mind translates from 'what is'.
All the while, 'What is' is totally available 'ever-prior' to mind translations.
In the midst of a 'sticky belief' the clear view is actually unobstructed for BEING, which is the SEEING itself.
For the believed in 'entity', all it has is concepts and it cannot truly see anything at all.
There is only one SEEING happening - and the 'me' is nothing but an appearance in that seeing. - See that fact and relax in being.

Seeing through the self-centre is not via the mind.

2008-07-12T18:14:00.013+09:30

Extract from Everything is Clear and Obvious:

"Knowing is instant.
Words are (always) secondary.
In the realm of words and concepts, we appear to leave THIS immediate knowing and enter into a realm of descriptions.
In that psychological 'journey' of mind, you can only 'arrive back' at the place you have never left, which of course is now.
This 'space of immediate knowing' has never left you.
It is, in fact, what you are."

The following is a single paragraph extract from a 6 part Note written a few weeks ago:

The innate capacity of pure knowing belongs to our true nature - and it lies at the core of what we are.
What we truly ARE is not depending on anything at all.
It needs no time to find completion – it requires no method to adhere to and it requires no concept at all.
Its nature is NON conceptual.

Recognize that.

Some additional points are:

This natural BEING is not relying upon any concepts or conditional mind - it is non dual.
If you cannot see that that is what you are then simply 'Stay' with THAT and it naturally dissolves erroneous beliefs in dualism.
However, the holding onto the core belief in being 'someone' will appear to bring about a 'split' in that open space of knowing - SEE that for what it is.

Do not 'go with' any concept - and so the sense of separation will dissolve naturally.
Repeat this as often as possible and the idea of being separate cannot survive.

Then, be attentive, because the 'idea' of 'now I am enlightened' will pop up. - Do not entertain this concept. - It is separation weaving its way back into the picture.
There is No Duality in Non Duality.

The display of competition in the 'spiritual circles' is a joke and obviously fed by ignorance.

Today's Note:

If there is no impulse to be totally ‘honest’ with oneself, why should ‘what is actually true’ reveal itself?
Could it be possible that what you have been searching for, for most of your life, is ‘something’ that is so obviously present in ‘your very being’, so obvious that you miss it completely?
Have you fallen over and over for some ‘story’, some philosophical convoluted complex equation, some spiritual formula or have you simply fallen for some charismatic character?
Have you handed over your trust to someone, some teacher, who shows ‘signs’ of having, owning, what it is you are seeking?
If that teacher ‘allows’ you to spend year after year, treading the treadmill, chasing some exalted state of mind, then he is not pointing at what is true at all.
The ‘system’ of such teachers is a prison made of concepts.
It is a very profitable spiritual game, that is for sure – but it is not about what is true.
Everything but that.
The whistle blower may be a very unpopular ‘appearance’ in life.
But he still blows the whistle irregardless.
All organized spiritual groups contain an expectation of exclusivity.
The sense of separation is fed by such spoken or unspoken ‘contracts’.
As J. Krishnamurti says:– “The Truth cannot be organized” & “Truth is a pathless land”.
What IS is what IS.

Today's Note:
The error of seeking is so obvious, it is not even suspected.
The error is the insistence of being ‘someone’ that is searching for ‘something’ that you 'imagine' that you don't already have.
That is the hitch, the self-center 'knot' that cannot be undone by the seeker.
The angst of the seeker is a self feeding 'loop'.
The only way out of it, is to recognize it and drop it - and be what you are, just as you are.
The ‘pointer’ “The answer is not in the mind” can be put another way, “There is no answer in the mind”.
Stop looking in the mind. – Drop the concepts and see.

Then the mind usually comes up with: “How can I do that?”
There is no 'How' - that can only be an addition of more thought or concepts.

Just stop thought and see. - Drop it.
It may only seem to last a few moments - but see into those moments - simply be in the moment and let the mind rest on nothing at all.
That moment may appear to go away - but in the subsequent re-tasting of it, one realizes that THIS moment is all there ever is. - It is the mind content that comes and goes and that coming and going INCLUDES the IDEA of 'me'.

In that clear space of BEING, there is nothing that you can say about that no thought ‘state’. – We can call it a state but it is actually not a state at all.
In staying with that empty mind, it is found to be full of livingness – and we can call that 'thoughtless reality'.
There is nothing wrong in that. – 'Until' the mind re-enters with its 'me' stuff.
The IDEA of 'me' CANNOT see or Know anything.
So, in seeing that 'stuff' for what it is, without wanting to alter it, there is STILL no problem. - What a blessed relief (for no one).
It may be recognized that it is the re-engagement with the 'me', that is where the problems re-enter - and that 'happens' because of the believed in 'entity' 'me' has not been questioned or looked at closely. - It is belief - mere thoughts. - It has NO being whatsoever - so how can you BE that 'stuff'?

All of the mind content, no matter what it is, is only an appearance in or on the 'natural state’. - The mind is clear and empty - right now.
Reach in there and grasp a thought, if you can find the mind.
Thoughts have no substance at all.
Get a taste of that fact, over and over.

Stories in the mind go on and on.
Here is one: Some latest fabulous ‘guru’ comes to town and seekers flock to him imagining that he will be ‘The One’ - the one to tip the scales. - The local gurus get upset because their 'flock' numbers drop as these 'sorry souls' pop along to the 'The latest Pide Piper'.

The 'mind projection' of 'a savior' who 'comes to town' is just another error of belief - the belief that he will, most hopefully, be 'The One' - and it cannot be anything but an error. – Why?
Because what YOU truly ARE is that ONE. – Seeking that ONE through some other guru or teacher is a dualistic trap for the mind - a prison. - Why are so many spending decades with Gurus and teachers? - To get a certificate? - To give away half their wages?
(Note: Nisargadatta said eight days was enough to absorb the message.)

These traveling 'non duality minstrels' all come and go - and the seekers are left seeking - it happens over and over.
After the 'wham bam', the local gurus pick up the pieces and pull the flock back together and resume their 'trade'.
Don't get me wrong: - There is no judgment here about any of it - I am just telling a story - one that may be very familiar to you.
No one is 'doing any of it'. - It is all in the appearance of 'things'. - By investing hope in all these 'special teachers' and 'things' we entrap ourselves on a path to nowhere.
What is necessary is already 'right here' - there is nothing you need from someone else, in order to realize this moment of life. - No concept is ever this Life. - Drop all concepts and Life is obviously this livingness, without a single thought to support it.

The mind conceptualizes all of the ‘pointers’ and with those concepts, it creates another mind trap.
Seeing through the self-center is NOT via the mind. – Living without a self-center is not a memorized concept or something one can imitate. – There never was a 'me’ – just see that fact and be over and done with the 'latest fad' or the latest 'hot' traveling guru. - Surely you are exhausted by now? - How many teachers are you going to run along to?
What is needed is a simple messenger - it is extremely simple - but everyone is attracted to the 'teachers' who play the promotional game and dress up in all the garb and 'walk with sobriety and conscious intention' in an atmosphere of sacredness.
There is no need for long winded stories and contracts with gurus or teachers.

In five minutes, it is possible to point out the essential facts. - Whether it is heard is another matter.

The insistence on being 'someone' seeking 'something' and 'imagining' you don't have it, that is the hitch - the knot of self-torture.

Who is seeing?

2008-07-09T09:00:00.009+09:30

The clear and precise intelligence ‘in’ one who has truly realized THIS, has no interest in telling elaborate stories about ‘how it was achieved’. – Nothing has been achieved at all – all that happens is the stories are seen through.
All mind content is known for what it is – no concerns over the past and the habitual fears about the future have fallen away altogether.
There is no dependence on any ‘thing’ in the present, past or future.
There is no indulgence or interest in ‘looking back’ into memory, it is known in an absolute sense, that there is no point in dragging up the ‘story’ of ‘the journey’ - and it is known for certain that there is no use in imposing those stories onto others, as if they had some relevant importance.
It cannot benefit anyone.
You may notice that almost all teachers indulge in 'their story of attainment' - and 'seekers', through ignorance, want to imitate that 'story'. - It is all useless.

In the direct pointing, above all else, there is ‘no impulse’ to imply that someone else should ‘do’ some sort of practice – not even one tiny practice, no practice whatsoever – none at all. - This fact alone eliminates 99.99% of teachers - useless, except as someone to imitate. - What joy can there be in that? - Endless notions of 'becoming' is self delusion on all fronts - the teacher is included in that conceptualized realm of mind stuff.
In the direct pointing, there is a knowing that all of the ‘appearance of how things are’, is nothing but ‘an appearance’ of being – it has no substance whatsoever – and the illusion of pushing some concepts via 'suggestion' about some elusive ‘substance of being’, all concerning the re-arrangement of ‘things’, so that enlightenment can ‘come’, that is known in an absolute sense to be a trap for the mind.
The natural state is present - it is just ignored. - It cannot 'come' because it already IS.
Stop ignoring it.
What is TRUE, along with a natural compassion, prevents any such ideas about elaborate time bound methods and practices from misleading the unwary, they never pass through the lips of 'the true messenger'.
The true messenger does not 'play a game' of being anyone 'special'. - He delivers the message. - There is NO interest in collecting 'followers'.
THIS ‘presence of knowing’ can never be about any kind of 'appearance' of any notions of BECOMING – because it already IS – As it always has been.

We overlook the natural state of simple 'presence with what is’ and go off in the mind with stale old habitual beliefs. – Those beliefs cannot stand up to a clear and precise investigation of the substance they are believed to contain. – Don’t be put off by some teacher saying that the investigation is just more seeking. – INTELLIGENCE and SEEING belong to 'presence-awareness' - the close examination of beliefs is revealed to be insubstantial, transient 'mind-content'.
This revelation is totally radical, from the perspective of mind.
Yet it is totally ordinary from the perspective of simple 'silent being' and seeing ‘what is’.

Telling this, does not win me any friends in 'the spiritual circle'. - The spiritual 'business' is rife with practices and methods all leading nowhere at all - good for business though - "good on 'em".
The messenger may appreciate an expression of gratitude but it is not sort after.
If your teacher has these qualities then you may well have found a true messenger.

Email: -
“When I first found your e-book “Everything is Clear and Obvious”, I remember well, reading it, and that night the sleeping was very good – I slept well. - And the next day, in the waking state, it was like, ‘I am in the background witnessing all that happens’. Later that view, (which is probably the 'knowing' you refer to) that view later seemed to diminish, it is like the ‘personality’, that type of limited perspective, came again." – Sergio

Reply: Yes, all manner of things ‘appear’ in that 'knowing', that ‘open view’ – whatever appears in and on that, they are all transient appearances.
The habit is to believe that "I am in the mind", a character in the body. – See it for what it is. - The body and the mind content both appear on awareness.
If the body (your body) is the 'first pattern' to appear in the experience of the world (for you) - The first 'thing' you see is 'space' and the body appears in that space - and if that pattern, which we usually associate our 'self' with, the body, is not recognized as an appearance also - then that is the obscuring factor.
Where are you seeing from? - Is it not from that space? - Does it have any boundary?
Does it have a form? - A color? - Is it not spaciousness itself?

This spacious ‘open view’ is always here – it is the very nature of 'being', of awareness itself. – It is the basis of every experience, prior to whatever the mind translates it into.
– It is knowing.

Note: The mentioned e-book is a free download-able pdf file on the shining through the mind website - top right hand side of screen.

Email:

Hi Gilbert, - Sometimes there is a seeing of the personality as a thought. - It is so simple that I can hardly believe it. - The seeing is usually brief and followed by a sort of return to the previous way of perceiving. - Is it really this simple?
I see the seen but not the seer. - The seeing seems to just happen out of nothing.
Is nothing the seer?

Although there are occasional 'glimpses' of this seeing, the understanding is not on gut-level. - I still suffer, although there is an increased ability to let emotions and states just be and float on by at their own pace.
Sometimes I feel almost desperate, because I really, really want to understand this now. - I do not want to seek anymore, I want to live. - I do not want to be obsessed by this anymore.
Best regards – Jens.

Reply:

Yes, it is so simple we miss it.
SEEING is happening. - Always.
There is No seer that has any independence or substance 'apart' from SEEING.
There is NO 'entity' that is seeing anything. - Believing there is is just a thought.
The 'thinker' is a thought.
"I am thinking" is just another thought appearing in the knowing-seeing.
It is the emptiness that is seeing-knowing.
This emptiness is not a void - it is pure intelligence.
There is no benefit or harm in it for anyone.
Believing there is is just a thought.
There never was a 'someone'.
The 'person' is NOT reality.

Whatever you see is not you.
The 'seer' is a thought only - 'I see'.
Have a look - does that 'I' have any substance?
If it did, surely you would know that by now. - You are not a fool and yet this obvious fact has eluded you. - Why?
The duality of 'the seen' and 'the seer' are only appearances in SEEING.

You say you want to stop seeking - that 'you' is nothing but thought based habits.
That 'you' may want to add substance to 'itself' by attaching itself to anything and everything - but nothing works for long.
What you actually ARE can never seek - because it is already THAT. - Start there as THAT and then the seeking cannot even 'get off the ground'.

The moments of seeing clearly (the glimpses) you speak of are moments when the 'me' is absent. - The 'space' in which a 'thick forest' appears in, is always there, whether deforestation happens or not.

These glimpses appear to come and go - but is that actually true?
The momentary glimpse of the Ocean does not mean the Ocean disappears. - SEE what it is that seemingly obscures the view. - It is inevitably 'mind content'.

The seeing is always present - what comes and goes is the thoughts, concepts, images etc.

In the appearance of 'things' you identify yourself with (those) thoughts.

My advice is: Drop them - and just BE the seeing.

Even though this is pointed out over and over, no one seems to hear it - actually quite a few have heard it and seen the truth of it - but generally the habit of identifying will not allow any 'space of knowing' to remain uncluttered. - The nature of mind is to divide. - Even though it has no power at all, that habit of believing in a 'me' reappears simply because it is believed in and never questioned.
WHO is it that believes it?

See if you can find any substance to that self-center that you believe is 'you'.
That is what needs to happen - it cannot be done by a 'you' - intelligence 'does' it.
Be that intelligence that you ARE.
Yes, it is indeed so very simple. - But you must persist in this examination - this exploration of what you are.
The mind will not want to stay with it - it will throw up all manner of diversions because that is the habit.
Do not hold onto anything - let the thoughts flow freely, let them appear and disappear - do not take delivery of them. - They will be 'Returned to sender' - They will lose their apparent 'attraction' and will recede into being only transparent 'visitors' or a slight 'buzz' in the background.
Realize this profundity: What you truly are has NEVER stepped OUT of presence.

You ARE present and aware - As Bob says: 'you are not asleep'.
Awareness is not a concept.
The concept about awareness is just a name, a concept.

Write again if needs be.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

The Profound Evidence is (the) Knowing.

2008-07-07T11:52:00.015+09:30

Today's Note is not for the timid or the meek and mild - in fact many will not be able to follow what is being pointed out - if only one does, then these words are not wasted - As Nisargadatta pointed out about what he was expounding: "There are no customers for this knowledge".
Those who gather customers (seekers) are not telling it straight - because they obviously don't know the essence of it clearly. - Ironically, it seems, this one here makes virtually no money from this 'pointing' at what is true. - If there was any ambition here, this 'knowledge' could 'set me up' into a very comfortable life style, with hundreds of followers and all the trappings that come with it, women hanging around like flies, all wanting some 'shaktipat' or whatever you call 'it'.
- Not even a thought of such things can survive here, not for even 2 moments. - The direct message must be told. - It cannot have any conditions placed before it. - Payment is not a prerequisite. - It may 'come after' or not. - Whether gratitude arises anywhere for these expressions, is not of any concern to 'me' because there is no 'me'.
The 'seeker' is 'self-absorbed' illusion - a pattern of energy. - There is no self - 'who' really wants to know that?

The Profound Evidence is (the) Knowing.
The Knowing is the Profound Evidence. - They are One.
No separation.
The most profound evidence of reality is right here, right now. – The only ‘reason’ it is not recognized is because of ‘reason’ itself – thought patterns ‘apparently’ obscure reality. – The obviousness of ‘space’ is overlooked in the same way that this profundity of ‘presence’ is overlooked.

The reality that 'you are' is THAT in which space and time ‘appear’ – space and time are known from beyond space and time – These attributes of ‘the manifestation’ appear or register on THAT 'knowing', which is not actually subjected to clarity, nor to obscurity. – No matter how much thought is given to this – no matter how much ‘effort’ is made to perceive THAT fact – those activities are only appearances in THAT direct and immediate cognition. - This subtle point is registering in that knowing and the description, and the images in mind, are never the 'thing' being described.
That is a movement in mind, a process, in time.
Knowing is not in time - it never budges from THIS Instant. - It is only the description and mentation that seemingly moves away (into a landscape of thought) - but even that has no existence except AS the immediate vibration that IT IS.

Such information may still the mind. - The wonder of 'knowing' itself may arise (or not).

Any concept about an ‘entity’ being present in THAT knowing, is only 'a transient appearance'. – It has NO duration at all. - Repeated belief lends those appearances in mind an apparent duration and 'being'. - 'The source' of noticing this fact (or anything at all) is knowing and the mind content is an 'appearance'. - It may be an appearance of a ‘turning point’, a 'profound insight' – one that has no actual physical existence in space or time and it is totally impersonal. - It remains 'as if' totally stationary - it is THIS knowing-presence.
In THAT, there is no one (no separate pattern of energy) to indulge in fantasies or stories of someone that is 'enlightened'. - All such talk is fanciful notions and belongs to dualistic mind. - This is known to be true in your own essence.

One cannot, and need not, place oneself anywhere 'apart' from the 'knowing' - THIS knowing has no detectable form or location.

The simplicity of whatever is ‘happening’ (right now, as always) is registering in the ‘knowing’. – In THAT there is No ‘knower’ and No ‘known’ - No Subject and No object. – It is Non Dual. - ALL Inclusive. - Reality.
Because there is no separation, there is no one that can separate this knowing from whatever it is that is known - except conceptually (mind stuff). - To believe that there is, is mere transient content of mind. - No proof can ever support it - but such facts are avoided by the mind, because it is 'too close for comfort'.

A cognitive Scientist may spend a life time trying to establish what the 'I' is. - He remains searching with nothing to rest on - nothing substantial - all he has is theories. - Theories are patterns in the mind. - Not a lot to show for a life times work.

The ‘activity of knowing’ is the ‘foundation’ of every experience – 'the activity of knowing' is not what the mind translates that or any experiencing into.
This is where 'everyone' stumbles - and that could be said to be a natural occurrence because the 'personal approach' is weighted by the bias of an 'attachment'. - The subtle notion of a 'someone', (a thought of being someone) a someone that is wanting a preconceived 'outcome'- which can only ever be more transient content of mind.
The bias of the mind is 'ME'. - The 'me' is NOT reality.
This fact, when it 'finally sinks in', it confounds the intellect and leaves it in a ‘state’ of poverty (a sense of "I don't really know") - that may transpose as a very subtle experiencing of 'expansion' of this 'space-like awareness'.

(A weight is lifted from being)

The profound revelation that may be so easily missed is that at no point is the intelligence incapacitated. - Intelligence remains throughout all experiencing and apparent ordeals.
Knowing is presence.
One could say that 'intelligence' is witnessing 'the whole universal activity' - all 'time and space patterns' appear in THAT - 'IS That' - Intelligence.
The intelligence and the knowing are ONE.
You KNOW that you exist – any expression about that fact is a translation in the mind, words, concepts, ideas. - The expression may be witnessed and known to be only an appearance in what is 'totally indescribable'.

Belief has nothing to do with it. – Belief belongs to the realm of dualistic mind. Knowing is ‘at all times’ beyond the mind content. - We can call it 'Pure Mind' if that helps. - Pure Mind is not limited to any of the content of mind.
What you ARE is 'seemingly connected' to 'the world of impressions' via ‘knowing’ – not via thoughts etc. – The ‘entity’ one may believe one is, depends entirely on ‘mind content’. - And that does not have the capacity of knowing - only apparent 'connections'.
The knowing suffuses all.

A lot of ‘people’ get hot and bothered about ‘who is clear and who is not clear’, when it comes to the so-called Non Duality ‘teachers’, websites, books and so on. - There has been some not so subtle pointing out of erroneous teachers on this website as well.
It is all futile, nothing but a game of opinions and bias – all of it belongs to the appearance of transient ‘things’. - Entertainment only.

The point is that when one hears a clear message, it is like 'a hunting dog' picking up on the strong scent of ‘the fox’. - Nothing can put that dog off the trail, he is totally ‘one pointed’ from the moment he picks up the scent. – All he needs to do is ‘follow the trail’.
In other words: Follow that resonance in being. - Innately we KNOW.
One 'appears' to retrace ones own Being 'back' to this immediate presence - this Knowing.
In this 'way', one need not worry about who is clear and who is not.
You realize that you ARE the ‘space of clarity’ in which everything appears….and NOTHING can remove 'you' from THAT Knowing….Everything, without exception is known to be an appearance in THAT.
Such profound 'pointing' is not welcome for most 'adherents' because of 'erroneous knowledge' that is being held onto. - Knowledge that some guru or teacher has convinced them is true.
"Who cares?"

The Masquerade

2008-07-03T09:36:00.012+09:30

Note to all concerned:
Due to increasing technical difficulties, or some sort of interference, the shining through the mind website has not been functioning as usual. - Some business type 'tycoon' (racoon) has purchased the name of the site in the 'dot com' side of things at some sort of 'dot com auction' and has been trying to sell me my own website name. - So my advice to all is to link to my blogsite, "Nonduality Notes" (the same notes appear there), instead of the shining through the mind website. If by chance the 'shining' website becomes in-operative, I will dissolve it. - I am not interested in playing extortion games with opportunists. - This is a non profit site.

Today's Note:

If there is no discrimination between what ‘appears’ as thoughts, concepts and story constructions in ‘your own mind’ – between that and the actuality of ‘what is’ – then what can you possibly know about reality?

Are 'you' searching for it 'out there'? - Using all manner of second hand wisdom to find it?

Reality cuts through all illusion - 'the mirage of water' is NOT water - it just 'appears' to be water. - All of our sacred beliefs are just like that mirage of water.

If you refuse to put aside your erroneous beliefs, even for just a moment, then what kind of shock is needed to shatter your stubborn resistance? - Who has the time and who has the effort to persistently 'knock on your door'?

How many times do you need to hear it - to be told?

What you seek you already are. - The fantasy character is chasing 'a concept of reality' or some other concept, like 'enlightenment'.

The ONLY 'place' to 'start from' is 'to be what you are'. - In that clear and open view everything is seen for what it is. - That natural open view does not depend on any concept at all and belief does not even enter the picture - or if it does, and belief kicks in to full gear, then the view is not open.

Without that clear and incisive seeing, isn’t everything mixed up in a concoction of floating opinions and beliefs? - Isn't that 'me' at the mercy of an unpredictable tide and that 'me' gets tossed around like a cork on the sea. - Is that the basis of... 'my personal knowledge of what is real'?

We fight like cats and dogs to protect our self-image and our beliefs, to protect that paper castle, imagining it will keep us safe.

There is no hiding from reality – it is clear and obvious.

Who do you image you are fooling, except yourself?

Hiding behind a semi-conscious persona, a mask is best left for the Masquerade Ball and party games.

The Urban Guru Cafe is soaring. - Click on blue lettering to go visit the site.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The Urban Guru Cafe is a podcasting site, set up a few months ago - providing new material to contemplate, including interviews with those speaking 'directly' from their own knowing - rather than telling you what you have to believe. - All on this subject of Non Duality.
A new program is made and released every 2 weeks (approx). - If you have not listened yet - Do yourself a favor - take a listen.

I have just listened again to Bob on The Urban Guru Café (dot com) - program number 9. – It is extremely simple and direct - but you have to follow closely to what is being pointed out.
At no point does Bob rely on any story or belief about anything at all. - He simply tells it straight. - Any Buddhist, Zen or Christian, any follower of any religion whatsoever, can listen to this program and hear the essence of their own religion – because each religion is telling the same message, as long as you stay with the directness, the essential pointers. - With most religions that essential message gets covered over by all manner of ‘conditions’ and stories – That exclusiveness is ‘separation’. – As soon as you join a religion, you are most usually expected to be exclusive – you exclude all the other religions. – What Bob is pointing out is that essence of what you are is totally inclusive. - There is NO separation. – Take a listen to number 9.

P.S. - By the way, The Urban Guru Café is most definitely soaring - with about 10% exponential growth per day. – Amazing – word is spreading.

Self-Realization is simply SEEING-KNOWING that there is no 'me'.

2008-06-26T12:14:00.013+09:30

One - without a second.
Nothing that is expressed, by anyone at all, can ever bring you 'home' - because you never ever left 'home'.
As Nisargadatta says: "All paths lead to unreality".
In the clear and present nature of your own being - there is a total openness - is it being ignored? - Is it something fearful? - Is it so threatening? - Do we engage ever so willingly with anything but THAT openness? - just to avoid the absolute naked 'truth' of it. - All of our endeavors, all of our labors are in vain and we suffer unnecessarily - all because we believe in something that does not actually exist.
'Who' is it happening to?
Anyone who has ‘personal’ investments in a future time, in believing that they will acquire some special state at some future moment, is simply ignoring what is clearly obvious right now.
Anyone who teaches methods and practices about such fictional ‘attainments’ is clearly ignoring what is clearly obvious right now. - They imagine that they are doing great service for their companions and that story is an indulgence in a fabrication. – Such is the nature of appearances. – We believe in ‘the appearance’ and ‘the story’ and we ignore our true nature. The idea of being present is just an idea and any story woven around that idea is a fantasy. – The FACT of Being – Being presence-awareness – Awareness of presence is not an idea or a concept. – It is wordless and silent. - That is understanding beyond the realms of duality, good, bad, “I have got it’ and ‘I have lost it’.
In the clear and obvious ‘present evidence’ of THIS timeless Being-ness, right here, right now, all manner of concepts and ideas come and go. – In seeing them for what they are, there is a complete knowing that they can never truly ‘transport’ you away from ‘presence’. – ‘Who’ is it that believes that they leave this presence or that they are dislodged from ‘presence-awareness’? – Who?
You may reply – “It is me”. – Well, what is that ‘me’? - Is that what you truly are?
The ‘me’ is only a thought and a story. - How can a fictional character attain anything, no matter how elaborate the practices are?

News: It will be of interest to German speaking readers to know that the first part of Bob Adamson's Book "One Essence - appearing as Everything" is now translated into German and a FREE PDF is download-able from Bob's official website. - A link to his website is on the shining through the mind links page.

Today's Note:
The relief in letting go of all practices, (after many years) – in relaxing back into simple presence with this ACTUALITY - with 'what is' – and seeing what unfolds from that, is profoundly refreshing. – That is not a sale-able ’practice’ or ‘teaching’ so it is ignored (or even discounted as anything worthwhile - by the experts - it puts them out of work).

The simplicity of being what YOU ARE is not a practice – The pretense of being what you are not is painfully exhausting.

Note:
The postulation of a Final Understanding is nothing but 'bait' for a mind distorted by its own obsessions about finding something imagined.
Self-realization is recognizing THAT - that which has always been known beyond all the 'thinking' - the essential nature of being-knowing-presence.
There is no finality to understanding. - The 'un-folding' nature of phenomena - space and time patterns - is simply a movement in stillness. - LIFE.
Some call it God - the ALL KNOWING PRESENCE.
There is NO duality in Non Duality.
'I AM' is your essential name - It is God's name also.
"I and the Father are One".
That is an expression that resonates in Being, if it is recognized.
It is an expression of One Essence - it is not a 'special someone' equating himself with 'The Almighty'. - That is Obvious and yet it is so mis-understood by 'the many' and of course that is the way it has to be.
The Singular core of being abides in ALL equally and without distinction.
The 'Sun shines upon everyone, without discrimination'.
(All the furor over 'same sex marriage' in recent days is so revealing of the ignorance of 'man isolated from his true essence' - The arrogance of 'egoic man' making judgments about 'others' and drawn deeper into his own convoluted arrogant attitude - that he is an 'agent' of 'God's Word'.) - I hear someone saying: "For the Love of God - Wake up, before it is too late." - Of course the word 'God' is so loaded with so many associations, it no longer 'resonates' cleanly.
'Ocean' could serve well as a replacement.
A drop of rain as it strikes the ocean is not rejected by the Ocean.
There is a moment of surface tension and a total dissolution of the 'separate drop'.
In this knowing - one cannot find that 'separate drop', that 'self-center' BECAUSE it never ever was anything but 'water' - ONE Essence.
Understanding is clear and clean - It is untouched by mis-understanding.
The mis-understanding is we take ourselves to be 'something' that we are not.
All confusion arises because of that misapprehension.
It seems rather odd that a clear exposition may be expressed in ‘devastating proportions’, such as the talk Bob Adamson gives at the beginning of his meetings and it is not ‘heard’.
When I first heard one of those talks, it was obvious that the information was ‘thick’ with ‘pointers’ – so thick that it seems impossible to assimilate it all in one hearing.
One may need to hear it a few times – each case is unique. – Just because it is repeated, maybe in exactly the same words, is not a disadvantage - it is always a gift - until it is heard. - Plus, one may well need to contemplate the meanings of it all and ‘follow’ what resonates clearly 'within you'.
In my case, I took it as the most profound exposition I had ever come across. – Something resonated clearly, even though my mind struggled to ‘get it’, that struggle dissipated naturally, the ‘longer’ I stayed with and AS that resonance and saw and ‘felt’ the truth of it – it began to be recognized in my direct experiencing – my ‘daily life’.
That resonance did not leave and it was discovered to be this natural presence that I am. – Now the same essential points are expressed from ‘here’ without a need to repeat the same words. - It is expressed naturally without any dependence upon the ‘past’ or memory. – It is Known – It is KNOWING – from beyond any doubt and ALSO from beyond any concept. – The concepts form themselves naturally ‘each moment’. – This applies to everyone – whether they have this ‘knowledge’ or not. – That is not an opinion – it is obvious.
The concept of a ‘lineage’ is just that – a concept. – This ‘knowing-presence’ this presence of knowing has no need of any support from any conceptual constructs.
Everything appears in THAT.
The Single Essence permeates ALL. - The wholeness is obvious. - The wholeness of a single apricot is obvious – even though it may appear to be a separate ‘thing’.
We may strive to ‘get to’ the ‘inner circle’, to the ‘seed’ - but in attempting to do that, we ignore the fact that the Essence of what ‘I am’ is in the finest fur-like hair of the skin, in the flesh of the fruit, in the case of the seed and also in and AS the potential ‘germination’ of that seed – it is ‘the Whole Apricot’.
These are words – expressing something that is indescribable. – There is nothing more obvious than Oneness.

All the words, in all the world cannot reveal THAT, that which is so clearly obvious.
Because it has always been ‘here’ and because it is so clearly obvious, the mind has never given it a thought or even named it - and so it has no words for it. – And yet all words appear in that clear obviousness. – The understanding and the recognition of words, or anything at all, is due to this clear obviousness. - Untranslated, unaltered, unmodified - direct knowing.
I AM THAT - I am not the mere words, ideas and images that take 'form' and appear in the mind.
The illusion of a separate self, searching for support, for some sense of substance, in order that it may add some substance to its own in-substantial nature, is itself an illusion. - It is a ‘mis-identification’ with ‘the appearance’. - In the clear space of immediate cognition this can be recognized – not by ‘someone’ – it is recognized as a falsehood by and in the essential being – that presence of knowing is what you are.
This ‘knowledge’ is not for the benefit of anyone. – The stored or shared ‘knowledge’ about this fact is not THAT essential being – that Knowing.
Knowing is unceasing presence and THAT is not limited to any form whatsoever.
All forms are appearances in THAT.
This is why a master will say “You are not the body – nor the mind.”
He may also say “Nothing is happening.”
That living essential being-presence is not a ‘happening’ in time or space.
The data, which gives rise to the sense of Time and Space, is an appearance in THAT.
As an apparent ‘seeker’ of THAT, that ‘seeker’ is naturally bound by its own nature.
A ‘seeker’ can never ‘become’ a ‘finder’. – When the seeker disappears a transitory ‘finder’ may ‘appear’ temporarily – yet this ‘finder’ is simply the mind ‘buying back’ into a story of ‘seeker-finder’. – The slightest evidence of freedom from seeking is exaggerated by the obsessive nature of the ‘seeker’. - In the dream of ‘seeking’ many are easily tricked into an endless cyclic pattern. – Methods are given, which ‘bring’ experiences of momentary freedom and these feeble experiences are enough to keep the mind trapped, for decades. – Living in hope eventually, after decades, turns into despair.
The oscillation between ‘hope’ and ‘despair’ is bound into the nature of duality. – The one that is tossing back and forth is a fictional ‘me’.
That ‘me’ is NOT the essential being.
It knows nothing at all.
It is like a thief – it borrows all of the pure and natural functions and claims them for itself – and yet it has no substance of itself. – It is nothing but a habitual belief.
Its ground is revealed to be non-existent and that can only EVER be revealed in this ‘present moment’.
THIS is obvious.
In believing oneself to be a seeker, what ‘seekers’ always miss is that ‘this moment’ is THIS MOMENT.
Everything reveals itself in THIS MOMENT.
There is NO other moment.
The word ‘moment’ implies time but the meaning of the words ‘this moment’ is not about ‘time’. – THIS MOMENT is the unchanging nature of Presence.
The Presence IS THIS Knowing right now. – It is not a particularization of knowing ‘something’. – THIS is simply the activity of KNOWING.
In recognizing THIS one may have a sense of being struck by a solidity beyond description. – The ‘me’ is shattered. – It may re-group ‘in time’ as the mind tries to assimilate, what for it is a ‘disappearing’ experience.
In staying with the direct and immediate experiencing, all such activities are seen to be insubstantial ‘appearances’.
There is no one to let go of them. – They are nothing but habitual beliefs.
They have NO power whatsoever.
There is NO spiritual self-image, no ‘me’ and nothing to acquire.
What you seek, you already ARE.
That ‘seeking’ dissolves into ‘this moment’ into the nature of recognition – and recognition in its essence is pure cognition – KNOWING.

.......................

Note: The (now infamous, ha.) guitar featured on my Youtube video "What's wrong with right now?" is available for purchase.
- Contact me via my email address if interested Note: Replace AT with @
- Still in top condition (just like its owner) with a quality hard case.
Upgrading my mandolin, when I can find one.

Suspension of Disbelief and Doubt.

2008-06-23T16:53:00.004+09:30

News: Take a look at this fairly new site "You are Seeing Oneness".

Rob wrote:

The search: Suspension of Disbelief

Well, as long as I searched for my Self, I overlooked my Self! - How stupid could I be? - They were my first thoughts, reading the words of Gilbert Schultz on his website in early 2006.

And...I knew it all the time!

My thinking had -by sustaining the search- invented a strong spiritual identity!

Searching is stepping out of 'Thou that You are.' I am already That. - The seeker is to be seen in action by the real Me. - So the object tries to find & become the Subject, the real Me. - But I am already That. - I'm not the seeker. - The seeker is a role, invented by thinking. But my existence is beyond denial. - I'm here already! - There is seeing, hearing, tasting, sensing, smelling. - The heart beats, my hair grows, my brain works all the time. - I have nothing to do for it. - I'm here!

That search is thus hopeless. - And whatever is real ‘here’ makes use of the senses: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling... So I know I'm Here.

About 1995 I first discovered that truth, having read Krishnamurti, Ouspensky, Huang Po and many others. - But I expected after that moment of freedom, that my life would be without troubles from then on. - It did not, on the contrary, so I started the search again, looking for Peace & Safety.

I wrote texts on this website similar as the texts of Sailor Bob and Gilbert Schultz. - I understood it, I saw it. - I understood Krishnamurti. - Reading his Notebook I felt the overwhelming Peace and Stillness. - It was with me….. (so easily at times. ed).... but it didn't change my life. - The pain kept coming. - I kept searching. - I was always in haste on my way to .....home? - I had felt Home, but it escaped ‘away’ so easily.

I dug myself deep in Ramana and Nisargadatta, but it seemed unattainable.- For me the spiritual path had become a kind of suspension of disbelief. - I had so much invested in my personality, my ego, my knowledge, that it was very hard to believe what I read. - And when I believed it, it didn't lead me to realising it as the definite truth. - I was waiting for an impressing and definite sign, that would -beyond any doubt- be a proof of my homecoming.

Early 2006 I gave up the search. - Let it all roll! -It appeared that 'I succeeded in doing that' for a couple of weeks.

In early 2006 I discovered the website of Gilbert Schultz. - The first sentence was: Stop the search! - You are already that, what you are looking for! - I don't know what it was, but it struck me like a hammer. - Yes, this is it! - Of course! - How stupid of me! - It is unavoidable! - I know it, I have known this for years. - I wrote it myself! - I had even explained it to other people.
My mind knew it, 'Rob' knew it, but that was not enough.

'I' remembered 'myself' reading Gilbert. - A spark hit me beyond my grasping mind. - It was not an act of my person or my ego. - Something beyond that recognized Itself. - I'm now back where I belong. - Here, as what I am. - Home. - That's not a so-called enlightenment. - It's the recognition of the nothingness that's behind all that is to be seen and experienced. - That No Thing is my (your) true being. - I'm no other than you, who is reading this. What's me is not that which is to be seen. - The old me tries to regain its ‘old place’ - But the spell is broken.
- Rob (edited from Rob’s website notes)

What Rob read of Gilbert’s writing was probably the following note:
Stop the search! - You are already that, what you are looking for!
Every thought, every motion is consciousness. - The First Instant (the Only instant) is KNOWING - cognition- present and immediate - It remains timelessly as WHAT you are.
So, THAT (this unadorned pure wakefulness -this knowing, right now) is the ‘understanding’ - the activity of knowing IS the understanding - and there is NO entity in that. – Any appearance of an ‘entity’ is an appearance in THAT and is naturally seen – and notice that you cannot see yourself – primarily you KNOW yourself as yourself and then as everything that IS. – No two-ness. - Everything is inclusive in THAT.
There is a seeing of each thought - a hearing of your own speech – taste, touch, all the senses register ‘on that awareness’ that you are - the investigation is of that 'space of knowing' and the investigator dissolves into the knowing – forever - as it always was - is and will be.
It already IS - so it is truly no Big Deal.
Ordinary awareness is clear and present always. – It may appear to be covered over by mind content – but for whom is it covered over – only a sense of identification – INVESTIGATE.

Those who make a big deal out of this just keep the concept of separation going on and on.
The traditional MAP is a fabrication. - You ARE here now and there is no other time or place to SEE directly and immediately.

Right NOW is IT - you are already FREE - but your mind tells you otherwise - and you believe it - 'who' is the believer?
Watch and see - that is all one needs to do.
Everything is revealed in SEEING. (That applies to everyday ordinary seeing and also the highest esoteric insight.)
There is only one SEEING happening.
Everything registers in THAT – that space-like awareness – THAT is what you ARE.

Plus:
Essential Directness - let it 'seep' into your bones.
Too direct and too immediate for the mind bound into time realms?
This is totally available to everyone - As Bob says: "Not for just the few" - it is totally available, simply because it is our true nature. - It is what I am.
All teachings are simply ‘pointers’ and one should avoid getting ‘stuck’ on the concepts.
All ‘traditions’ appear as transient patterns within Presence.
It is ‘presence’ that needs to be acknowledged, not teachers and gurus or traditions.
The only thing that you cannot deny or negate is the fact that you exist - you KNOW you ARE.

The Profundity of: No Steps need be taken, away from right here, right NOW.

2008-06-09T10:34:00.014+09:30

Traditional versus New: -

The tussle going on between traditional Advaita AND Neo-Advaita is ridiculous.

Those who argue about Oneness have no more substance than a mirage of water.

The intellect ONLY ‘appears’ to divide THAT, which has never been divided – and the arguments that follow are nothing but ‘foam’ on the ‘beach’. The campsite of each ‘contester’ is founded upon erroneous opinions and beliefs.
Calling yourself an Advaitan, a Buddhist or whatever, puts an erroneous boundary upon this immediate, clear and present Being. – That Being is boundless presence.

That which has never been divided can never be re-joined. - Yet there is a sense of wholeness that permeates the being, as a clear message is imbibed.

Note: An excellent new Urban Guru program (Pointers 4) on Bob Adamson is now down-load-able from that site. - It does not come much clearer or direct. - However, it does require the 'hearing of it'. - Many dabble in the subject of 'Non Duality' due to its apparent 'trendiness' or because it is 'Cool' etc. - Some talk endlessly using the latest jargon - some write songs and put out CD's about it all - others go on about 'The Beloved' and various other nonsensical notions, all 'hand me down' notions bandied about the spiritual circles. - If that is what you want, then stay away from any clear message - because it will dissolve all erroneous beliefs. - You can pretend to be 'earnest' about it all and even fool yourself - What for?

Most recent Note:

Looking at things from the so-called ‘ordinary point of view’, the realms of confusion may loom ‘at my door’ but that realm cannot enter into this clear space of knowing that I am. –Thoughts, ideas and concepts have never ever have had any power at all – yet through ‘belief’ they ‘appeared’ to keep ‘me’ in a state of searching year after year. – That search vanished like a puff of smoke IN 'the clear seeing through' of those old habitual concepts.

Some may say “Oh yeah its alright for you – but it is very difficult for me” etc. – They miss the fact that they are just adding more concepts and imaginary difficulties in ‘this moment’ by believing those ‘old ideas’ about difficulties etc. - What is being overlooked is this natural clear and present awareness. – Due to the nature of awareness itself, there are many spontaneous expressions appearing for the apparent benefit of ‘seekers’.

An example of that is: The latest podcast on the Urban Guru Café is a most profound ‘introduction’ and within the simplicity of being open to its clear expositions, it seems (to me) impossible that anyone could not ‘get’ what it is ‘pointing at’ as long as it is heard - with an open 'mind'. – In this new program, as always, Bob Adamson ‘shoots straight and clean’ – he takes no prisoners. – No one is expected to ‘hang around year after year’ and play the game of being a ‘devotee’. – There is no ‘life style’ to imitate. – At ‘all times’ the ‘pointing’ is direct and immediate – a direct introduction to your own true nature. - Listen to the short program as often as you can – let it resonate in your being. – That is my advice.
What more can be done? - I can sit quietly and listen to all the stories about how difficult it is and blah-blah-blah and that NEVER brings anything new, unless it is ‘heard’ and recognized as being what it is – A story. – It is easy to see through someone else’s story or get bored with listen to it – but take a look into your own story – seeing that for what it is, is the revelation that needs to ‘happen’. – The chains, the bondage is cut and that chain can never be forged again. – The weakest link is the one we believe to be the strongest and the most difficult to be rid off – It is the belief in being a separate individual. – ME.

The new program is remarkably potent. - Bob does not diminish with 'age' - he seems to just get more and more 'direct' - whether it is heard is 'another matter'.

- Some are smart and 'make the move' to go see him. - The latest book on Bob Adamson's 'pointers' is called "One Essence - Appearing as Everything" - It is a remarkably compact text. - It has already drawn the attention of several translators, and versions in Dutch and Spanish have been finished. - It carries the potent message that Bob expounds in his regular meetings. - The book is only available via Bob's website or the Theosophical Bookshop in Melbourne. - You can order it on line on Bob's website.

Whatever was obscuring this clear presence of being, it vanished once I heard and recognized what Bob was pointing at. - Now there are no questions and no doubts.

I do not say that I have what everyone is looking for - since that would be a conceptual mind projection. - I KNOW that everyone is THAT clear presence. - The old habitual beliefs are not necessary and they cannot stand up to this investigation. - They will and must vanish - yet they may need to be 'penetrated' over and over - because of a life time of habitual belief. - They weaken and crumble. - You can spend your' lifetime' looking for that illustrious 'beloved' or some other 'stale old concept' handed down from 'yesterday' via some dead guru or you can search for some of your own 'mind projections', searching 'out there' and not realize its all unattainable - BECAUSE it does NOT exist. - What is true resonates in being because it is true. - When you hear or read something that 'clicks', delve further into it. - You can follow what resonates in your being. - What you are is that living resonation. - It need not stay bogged down with traditional beliefs and old second hand concepts. - Get the book - it really does resonate if you let go of your old ideas - read it thoroughly.

Note 2:

Even though there has been a relentless pointing out of the salient points on this subject of 'Self-Realization', people do not crowd my 'space' trying to get some knowledge. - There is no delusional self-imaging going on here, about being a guru. There is no pretense that 'I have' something that the 'seeker' does not have.

That is also how THIS 'self-realization' was introduced to me by my teacher, Bob Adamson some 8 years ago. - Once delivered and recognized, the apparent 'seeker' and the 'teacher's role' vanish naturally into knowing presence.

The Teaching: It was only ever a 'direct pointing' at THIS immediate fact of being presence, and the pointing itself appears nowhere other than in 'THIS moment' of presence. - It 'appeared' as duality - In fact it IS Non Duality!!!

Once the message has been absorbed and totally recognized, then naturally gratitude arises for the messenger - however, the messenger does not revel in any delusion about any of it - He is already busy delivering the message to others who are prepared to listen. - Such is the nature of a genuine 'messenger'. - Being beyond ego, there is a freedom and an infinite patience for 'bringing you home' - to THAT essential being-ness that you ARE'.

There are some profound difference about this direct 'teaching'. - Some may not be recognized straight away. - In this direct pointing, there is no indulgence about stories, about a 'future time' when deliverance will come. - There is NO self-important 'image' projected onto any individual - especially the (teacher) 'messenger'. - There is no sacred atmosphere to respect and no kissing of feet etc.

In the immediacy of THIS moment, all there is is naked knowing - the rest is 'of the Appearance'. - Even the evidence of that fact, appearing as 'knowledge', is only a translucent pattern in mind. - It fades into the naked presence.

There is only KNOWING - pure and simple Knowing. - I am THIS knowing presence.

Here in this first instant of knowing, the appropriate expressions appear naturally. They are not second hand, 'hand me downs' or empty rhetoric. - If they resonate with you, well and good. - If not then move on to something that does. - Find the message that resonates 'in your being' and follow THAT. - That leads you where you need to go - and yet you never leave this presence. - It all unfolds naturally as an emerging pattern - while the essence of what you are, remains as THIS presence of Knowing.

All there is, is a pointing out of the salient points - hammering away at those points. - Most seekers want a 'teacher' to show them the way and give them practices - all in vain. - All such activities are engagement with a conceptual realm - thus ignoring the present evidence of 'presence' itself - completely open and free of all concepts. - The natural state of one's true essential being.

NO step needs to be taken, in any direction, away from right here, right now!

Even though such directness is expressed over and over, few actually 'hear it'.

It feels 'to me' that enough has been written over a few years and these notes may soon cease to appear.

Other means of delivering the message may come about. - One to one meetings have been increasingly fruitful. - Direct and immediate investigation is the Key.

So many words - for something so simple,

2008-06-08T20:58:00.001+09:30

Email: (After several emails)

Hallo again Gilbert, I find in the non-duality community, a lot of confusion. - So many things expressed and talked about, that are not non-dual, but are dual in fact.

There are a lot of things (diversions) - and people want experiences it seems....even virtual experiences.

Regards - Sergio

Gilbert: - Dear Sergio, Yes, the 'community' is an aspect of 'multiplicity', it is all in the appearance of 'things' - it is ONE appearing as 'many'.
There will be no peace for the mind. - 'People' go on and on searching in the mind decade after decade and no peace comes. - Practices, like meditation, may calm the mind temporarily and yoga may help the body be more healthy. - There will only ever be a resolution to the whole riddle 'when' you find out 'what you truly ARE'.

Everything that is expressed about Non Duality MUST and can only be a transient appearance - it is duality - but none of that is what you ARE. - By attaching 'yourself' to any of it, you get drawn in to it, through 'belief'.
What you truly ARE is not in a community, it is the ONE, the ONLY ONE.
The 'purpose' of this 'life' is to realize what you are.
ALL else, everything, without a single exception will draw you into 'the web'.
See that what you are is not moving and in that space of knowing everything appears - it is all 'an appearance' (valid as what it is) - an apparent movement in THIS stationary PRESENCE.

The LIGHT of KNOWING, (which shines ever-before any time realm appears in mind) naturally reveals ALL for what it is. - (It is)Absolutely stable, it shines, appearing as all the energy patterns of the Universe and appearing as 'an emergence' - all expressed as 'change' - from that unchanging singular Essence - THAT is what you ARE. - (Ring a Bell?)

'You' as a believed in 'thing' cannot 'go there' - Going there requires you to be 'somewhere else' and it requires 'time to get there'. - (THIS is all there IS, so...) Start in 'this immediacy' with 'the FACT' that you are ALREADY THAT (This Knowing presence).

This knowing is forever complete just as it is and resides in the essence that you are, AS 'what you are' (It cannot be negated)
The mind is naturally dualistic - it could be said to stop 'direct cognition' from destroying the illusion of separateness. - In believing in the mind content, yes it appears to prevent self-realization.
Yet self-realization is happening - It is Universal - ONE in essence - realizing Multiplicity - just as it IS.
WHO is the arrogant one who WANTS self-realization?
AND who is the one that proclaims to be self-realized?
It is a most revealing insight.
Insight in its very essence is simply SEEING - Knowing what IS.
There is no separation - only an appearance of separation.
SEE that - be the KNOWING of that - drop the content of mind - even for a few moments and be the KNOW-ING - that is all that is required. - That is all that there truly IS, any way you look at it. - The universal is not limited to the individual point of view, obviously.
So 'you' will not see this truth - yet it is absolutely obvious in pure seeing - seeing without a 'seer'. - The seer is a thought only and it obscures if believed in.
See how the mind resists such information. - The character 'me' is the pivotal point of resistance. - In SEEING that conceptual 'appearance' it is recognized for what it is. - It is embraced and like 'the prodigal son' it takes its rightful place.
The mind is there to serve. - It can do a good job but if the tyrant 'me' is holding ground, it brings much confusion - all in duality and the essence of what 'I am' remains untouched. - So in the moment of seeing through it all, a 'feast' is already prepared - The impressions of what truly IS floods in.
Just drop the concepts and SEE.
Whatever resistance comes up - see it for what it is and drop it.

Everything is a concept except that awareness that you ARE.
The concept about that is just a concept....but the reality of it is undeniable.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Note:
When it is said that awareness is 'space-like' - that is a pointer only. - Awareness is like space - it is not 'a thing' - it is formless - it is knowing. - Awareness has no locality, no center and no circumference, just like space.
Try and find a center to that awareness that you are. - Investigate that and discover what you truly are.
What you believe you are is just thought patterns and they have no substance, duration or volume.
Have a look.
As you approach 'things' they evaporate (subatomic particles are suspended in space - in an ordinary sense, everything appears and 'floats' in emptiness.)
The 'point' of view (pure SEEING, without a thought of being a 'seer') has no dimension - it is zero dimension.
Trying to establish oneself as an observer is a fabrication - an appearance - a transient pattern.
We can go around and around in the mind, altering our definitions and by attaching some sort of importance to them we remain ignorant of our true nature.
Habits can be broken.
The formless presence ('knowing') is already present - yet the habituated mind knows nothing about it and so 'seekers' remain on a 'path' that leads nowhere.

The intellect can serve 'us' well....but it can also keep 'us' seemingly trapped - in a world or 'reference points'.
As Bob says: There is no answer in the mind.

Note 2:

From time to time an abusive email arrives in my in-box. - I also hear stories of how certain 'people' dislike me with a passion. - (Who is this 'me' they dislike so much?) - From my experience these characters, most usually, have major 'issues' (usually substance addiction) that they are not facing in themselves. - It is all rather amusing and sometimes it is just plain pathetic.

Those who remain stuck 'in life' do not recognize that 'what they truly are' is not actually 'in life'. - All of their drama is not cut through - it is all believed in. - Yet it is nothing more than concepts appearing on consciousness-awareness. - THAT, what all concepts appear on, remains a mystery for them. -You may easily recognize the fact that 'most of us' avoid 'the truth' as much as possible - until it looms over us and it no longer can be avoided by the mind and its 'character' 'me'. - 'Weave and dodge' is best left to the realm of ball games.

The 'short cut' is right HERE, right NOW. - The mind avoids 'reality' and 'goes with' whatever concepts that arise. - There is no answer in the mind. - The realization is: - that I am this pure and empty 'space of knowing' - and that EVERYTHING, without a single exception, is 'an appearance' - it ALL 'appears' within WHAT I AM.

This equation 'applies' to everyone, without a single exception! - ONE without a second. - So in BEING THIS - THAT, there is no need to contrive anything, no need to impress anyone and no need of a 'spiritual self-image'.

The following 6 notes are too direct for those who dabble in spirituality and should be avoided.

Notes from May 08 - Part 1. - Falling leaf.

2008-05-10T18:23:00.022+09:30

Today’s Note:

Part 1.
At the core of all the major religions, lies a direct ‘pointing’ to our true nature. – Those words are there for anyone to read – understanding it is clearly only present when there is a reciprocal (or resonating response – ‘knowing’) experience – experiencing, present. - All of the major religions have been ‘added to' with various conditional concepts and these proliferate into a thousand beliefs, which all lead away from the simplicity of what is true.
Most teachings promote a lot of beliefs and they endorse labour intensive practices and so many methods for the adherent to use, in order to achieve the desired ‘result’. – It is all misleading and completely unnecessary but this fact is not examined closely by anyone. - Belief is NOT Knowing and belief will never be Knowing! - Knowing is immediate and belief is 'time bound notions'.
Rare teachings point directly at what is clearly true and present, at what we have ignored – and so what is completely and immediately ‘free’, our true essence, may be tasted directly. – The long and protracted commitment to any teacher or any teaching is not necessary – but this fact will not be mentioned by ‘the teachers of time trodden paths’.
What is not so easily recognized is that no teaching contains the truth. - The best that a so-called teaching can do is point directly at what is true and THAT is nothing other than your own essential being. – It is this essential true nature that dispenses with erroneous beliefs. – The ‘resonation’ of this being-ness is ‘truth’ and nothing ‘false’ or erroneous can withstand its ‘presence’.
Direct and immediate experiencing is uninterrupted. - This direct and immediate experiencing ‘happening’ right now, is ‘all there is’. - It never ‘becomes’ anything other than what it is. This ‘direct and immediate experiencing’ remains, while everything we know of, without exception, is composed of energy patterns, subtle and gross, which merely appear within, or ‘pass through’ this ‘experiencing presence’. - What the so-called ‘mind’ does is to collect ‘experiences’ and ‘store’ them away as ‘memories’ – at least that is how it may be explained in ordinary language. - All such ‘things’ are questionable and yet we never question them because it is a ‘general agreement’ that our life is made up of experiences and conditioning, which apparently make us what we are. – At least it appears to be so.
What ‘I am’ is presence, un-interrupted presence, awareness. What ‘I am’ can never be reduced to mere concepts or words. – So it is that what ‘I am’ remains indescribable and beyond the grasp of the habitual mind’s so-called ‘understanding’.
All memories and all so-called conditioning can only ever ‘appear’ in THIS experiencing of ‘right now’. – Does a memory ever appear ‘yesterday’ or ‘tomorrow’? - Does a memory appear five minutes ago or five minutes in the future?
Such notions about ‘time’ are purely conceptual and such notions can only ever appear in this ‘right now’. – This ‘right now’ is not a series of consecutive moments, as we may seem to believe. – That miss understanding is due to the nature of belief in conceptualizing notions. – I am not speaking about something that is anywhere else than right here, right now. - This ‘right now’ is ‘presence’ and presence does not deviate from what it IS. – How could it? - Where could it go? - What would or could replace ‘this presence’ except ‘this presence’? - If it could be replaced, then ‘when’ could it be replaced, except right here ‘with-in’ this ‘right now’? – See such things for what they are – mere concepts.
Nothing could ever replace it, except itself, and that cannot be termed as ‘a replacement’ at all. – We cannot replace the ocean with water – it is all ‘water’. – The notion of there being a continuum is still a time-based notion, so that word fails to embrace the wholeness of what is. - All such notions are concepts and this presence is never divided or separated into any parts whatsoever.
What gives ‘the appearance of separation’ and deviation, is the dualistic nature of ‘mind’.
Mind is restlessly vibrating between the ‘pairs of opposites’. – Thoughts are ephemeral ‘appearances’ and they do not have any substance or location that you can pinpoint or grasp. – This may appear to be far too subtle and yet it is extremely obvious, since it is the nature of awareness to be naturally clear – to be ‘the light’ that shines ‘forever’ upon the obvious. – The nature of dualistic mind is also obviously ‘transient appearances’.

What ‘knows’ the transient?
By the nature of belief, the personalized drama of a personal life ‘appears to be added’ to those ‘core believed in thoughts’ of personalization - ‘me’. – In that drama, arguments may follow and even bruised egos and bloody noses etc. – Such things appear to make the world go round.
Take a break – have a closer look into things. - Have you ever questioned what ‘belief’ is?

Have you ever looked closely at your own beliefs to see if they have any true or intrinsic value?

Notes from May 08 - Part 2.

2008-05-10T18:23:00.004+09:30

Part 2.
All beliefs are equal if only in ‘the fact’ that they are ‘beliefs’. - Is it not a fact that a belief, by its very nature, has the status of being so, only because the evidence is not there to support it (the ‘subject’ of belief) as being a fact? - The Moon is not made of cheese, even though a million ‘people’ may believe it is made of cheese. Belief is belief and facts are facts. Many ‘people’ will fight ‘tooth and nail’ for their beliefs and will be willing to die for them. - What meaning can such a life have? Are such attributed meanings, merely more beliefs? What supports belief, any belief?
Investigate this.
Struggling seekers never ‘become heroes’ except in dreams. - A ‘seeker’ is a dream only. The seekers struggle and battle is all for nothing and the suffering is completely unnecessary – however, because of resistance to what is true, the ‘seeker’ does not want to hear such news. - They bravely forge their own ‘story’ everyday, avoid their ‘enemies’ if possible and repeat the same old ‘ideas’ much like a wind up toy mechanically goes through its motions. - They may punish their bodies with yogic practices and a strict diet while imagining that they are purifying themselves in order to be worthy of enlightenment. - Such ignorance is based on BELIEF only. - No fact has ever proved that anyone ever purified themselves in such a way. - How can you perceive perfection in ‘another being’ if you do not see or recognize it in yourself first? - ‘We’ project our imaginary notions (about perfect beings) and believe that those projections are reality. - Then ‘we’ may wonder why we can never achieve such perfection ourselves. - We continue the farce by taking on methods and practices which only bind that ‘self-image’ to TIME – and TIME can never be this actuality of THIS immediate PRESENCE.
From the perspective of the body, all we are made of is of the five basic elements. Space, water, fire, earth and air. - These elements can be arranged in all manner of combinations and they are – it is called ‘The Universe’.
In no uncertain terms the message comes – “You are not the body – nor are you the mind”. - How is such a ‘pointer’ ignored? - Why do so many by pass this pointer?
Have you ever found the ‘self’? - Is it in the body somewhere?
What we truly are has never been soiled or damaged, nor is it in need of any repair or in need of any rearrangement. - The believed in battle between body and soul is a complete fiction projected by the mind. - The drama of life appears to depend on such fiction. It is all stories only. - They are ‘believed in habitual stories’ and so the suffering goes on, moment by moment, year after year and these ‘poor souls’ never seem to reach any state of purification or true peace. - Yet they all appear nowhere other than in THIS immediacy of presence awareness. - Why are they not recognized for what they are?
Contemplate this.
Untold numbers of medals of honour and bravery, never worn by any ‘living hero’, fade away and tarnish in dusty forgotten drawers. - The stories can go on and on till ‘time stands still’ - and they do. - What is truly achieved?
Are you truly interested in seeing through ‘the mirage’ of being a seeker?
Is it an ego wanting to secure itself or is it something much deeper?
What are you doing here and what do you wish to achieve? - Do you know ‘why’ you exist? - Endless explanations just tire ‘the mind’ – is that all we have – endless explanations?
Explanations are just conceptual frameworks that appear in or on awareness. - One may be satisfied by their belief in an explanation and another may not.
What is belief?
You ‘know’ that you exist – that is a fact – THAT is NOT a belief. - Do you truly, truly, truly see the difference between knowing and belief? – Is the knowing of this without the slightest doubt? Is it just another belief?

Notes from May 08 - Part 3.

2008-05-10T18:23:00.003+09:30

Part 3.
In the ‘appearance’ and in ‘time’, belief is one ‘thing’ that keeps millions upon millions in bondage for their entire lives. - What is it all about? Opinions are opinions and we are all entitled to our opinions and bloody wars are fought over mere opinions.
There is an old saying that says 'The truth hurts'. - It could be said that ‘the actuality’ (the truth) undermines all that is ‘false’ without exception. - A mirage of water is a false apprehension. - There is no water in a mirage – fact. - The belief that there is water ‘in the image’ is insubstantial and upon investigation the misapprehension vanishes by itself, not because of anything the observer ‘does’ – it vanishes because ‘the fact’ is that there is no water there and that fact reveals itself spontaneously on close examination. - This equation applies to ALL beliefs without exception.
One need not live in ignorance. - The ‘bondage of self’ is unnecessary.
There is no reason for suffering, except the reasoning that supports the belief ‘in being someone suffering’. “Yes but…..” – add your own story here.
In THIS actuality of PRESENCE there is no one suffering, so why tell a story about someone suffering? Be THIS actuality and drop the stories.
‘Seekers of truth’ only ‘appear’ to remain in a ‘state of seeking’ and ‘what is true’, what is real, continues to evade them, only because ‘what they truly are’ does not investigate those erroneous beliefs closely enough. Is it simply a question of being present with ‘what is’? – Not as an entity – but as what you ARE – presence itself. – Surely it ‘makes sense’. What is true reverberates with livingness – what is false is shallow and hollow, a misapprehension.
What ‘each and every one of us is’, is this most genuine ‘fact of existence’ itself, THIS authentic nature of ‘being-awareness’ is ‘True’ and cannot be otherwise. - Reality IS.
Whatever you truly ARE - must BE Real.
Our imaginary problems belong to a dream, a habit of ignoring ‘what is’ – it can be broken just like any habit can be broken.
What you imagine or consider this 'you' to be is based on conceptual notions and memory – all of which is ‘an appearance in mind’ –and that can only be a believed in concept. – Everything or anything can only appear in this immediacy – and since awareness is this immediacy and it cannot be NOTHING but THAT, then everything is clear and obvious. Remove the belief in that ‘something’ that ‘habitual self image’ and what you truly are does not disappear – why? Because what you truly are is not dependant on concepts or any ‘thing’ at all.
All arguments against such facts are basically resistance to letting go of habitual beliefs – that is bondage.
My pity for the seeker is useless – all that can be done is to point at what is true as clearly as possible, without embellishment – no stories. Just like you, the one reading this, in this very moment, ‘I’, the writer, have ‘no choice’ in this activity. - The core of this activity is KNOWING.
There is only ONE knowing presence pervading the whole universe – it is totally nameless and indescribable.
Your inner most secret name is ‘I AM’ – it is also God’s name.
Both GOD and your inner most secret name are ‘conceptual appearances’ in THIS nameless PRESENCE – this singular BEING. - THIS is sometimes called Non Duality.

Notes from May 08 - Part 4.

2008-05-10T18:23:00.002+09:30

Part 4.
The complete evidence of ‘what you truly are’ cannot be hidden from you – it is totally obvious – what (only) seemingly hides it from you is ‘mind content and erroneous beliefs’.
Many beliefs are harmless and do not need to be questioned. - Some beliefs however are a continuous ‘cause’ of trouble for ‘us’. - Quite often these very beliefs are the ones that ‘appear’ to be surrounded by a very tenacious defence mechanism.
Over the years I have met many seekers who have remained searching, some of them have been seeking for over thirty years. - Nothing has really helped. - It is a pitiful situation and ‘the fact’ that these ‘poor souls’ are still ‘searching (looking) in the wrong places’ does not present itself to them clearly. - Having invested so many years in ‘the search’, the simplicity of ‘what is true and obvious’ is discounted and even scoffed at. - “What to do?” Often they feel insulted if they are asked to look at certain beliefs. - A spiritual ‘self –image’ appears to have almost crystallized in them and for them that image held to be ‘sacred’ by them. - It is ignorance to believe in an image while what is real is blindingly obvious. An appearance is an appearance. It is that appearance, that same ‘self-image’, that only appears to bring them so little satisfaction in a ‘personal life’ dominated by unnecessary suffering – and further more, how dare anyone suggest that that ‘sacred self-image’ may be the main culprit, the ‘cause’, of their suffering.
Frankly I find it almost useless to talk with them. - Their indulgence in ‘being someone special’ has almost suffocated them - and yet they continue to ‘parade’ about like a peacock. - They imagine that they hide their suffering under a thin disguise but it is far too obvious (for those who see clearly) and if only they knew how obvious it is they may well give it up instantly.
In this ‘instant of seeing’, in this ‘present moment’ (which is all there ever is) a lifetime of erroneous beliefs can be penetrated and those beliefs can fall away, never to return. -
With such a clear and precise insight (seeing) there is no indulgence in any story of ‘I am now enlightened’.
Such notions are instantly recognized for what they are. - Only those who have partial insights tell stories about “I am enlightened’ or allow other to tell such stories ‘about them’.
The ‘time has come’ to put aside false teachers. - ‘You have one chance in this life’ – so don’t waste it on ‘false prophets’ and ‘self-indulgent merchants of the truth’.
The sense of belonging is a common factor amongst ‘seekers’.
The most profound teacher from any eon is only needed for ‘the duration’ of recognizing and absorbing the fullness of the ‘message’. - The message is always simple – far too simple for most. - We expect it to be complex and so we look for unnecessary complexities and they merely keep us ‘in the mind’ and forever searching.
In realizing your own true nature, ‘stories about enlightenment’, unnecessary complexities and a sense of ‘belonging’ are not needed. - Once you receive the required ‘accurate information’ about your true nature, then you no longer need anything from ‘outside’ of yourself and, in fact, it is recognized that everything ‘appears’ within your own true nature. - Even that accurate information only ‘appears’ to come from ‘outside’ – the recognition and resounding nature of what is true, is and can only ever belong to what you truly ARE. - The words “I am That’ has many ‘meanings’ – one meaning is that it is an expression of the above mentioned fact, that ‘everything, without exception, appears within the boundless-ness of what you are’. Awareness.

Other words that ‘point’ to this fact are: ‘Advaita. - One without a second’. - ‘Non Duality’.
‘There is no duality in Non Duality’.
All these words are appearing within awareness RIGHT NOW. - These words ARE ‘awareness’ appearing as words. - Nothing recognizes them but awareness itself. -
Like an arrow piercing into the darkness of night – ‘no one knows’ where it lands, not even the bowman.
But in the instant the arrow strikes its target, the target ‘knows’ without a doubt.

. -

Notes from May 08 - Part 5

2008-05-10T18:23:00.001+09:30

Part 5.
The basic nature of what we call mind is clear and empty, like a crystal ball. - It is flawless and totally empty. - It is so obviously so, we miss it. - This is because our habit is to approach everything with habitual conceptualising. - In hearing about this the habit of thinking is quick to translate ‘that clear and empty nature of mind’ into ever more concepts and even into a denial of the clear and obvious fact. - Non-conceptual awareness is never a concept.
“I spend an hour every day meditating and only ever have brief moments of clarity” is often expressed by those addicted to convoluted practices and methods. - We are so used to going with what ‘the mind’ tells us, we do not recognize that the mind is only a ‘tool’ – in being a tool, it could serve us well if only we recognize it for what it is. -
The subtle fact is that what we call ‘mind’ is only a transient appearance ‘in or on’ awareness. - The mind is not aware of anything – it, the mind, is ‘the past’ and it is also the home of the ‘self-image’, which is, in its basic nature, a conceptually based notion and nothing more than that.
The ‘problem’ is that there are so many erroneous beliefs that spring into the picture at the slightest provocation and they are not recognized for what they are. - These beliefs continue, only because they are not questioned or looked into. - The mechanical nature of a mind, operating with belief, is very obvious but this fact is missed by the one caught up in ‘habitual mind stuff’. - That ‘someone’ has no possibility to wake up at all and it cannot see or know anything at all. - It is entirely made up from conceptual stuff – mind-content. - Some traditions name that condition as ‘waking sleep’. - In the ‘appearance of things’ any apparent attempts to wake someone from such ‘sleep’ is most usually fervently defended by the ‘sleeper’. - Awareness does not sleep. - The body-mind organism sleeps.
The clear and empty nature of ‘mind’ is obvious in sleep but there is no one there to recognize it as being so.
What is your opinion about this? Is it merely a belief? Is there a ‘knowing’ without doubt?
That ‘knowing’ is not reliant upon any beliefs whatsoever. - It relies on nothing at all. -
It is the first and foremost nature of your own existence. - Recognize that.
In re-cognising that cognition replaces re-cognition instantly.
This ‘direct and immediate cognising’ may have a sense of coming home to it. -

Conversely, it ‘appears’ that belief, by its nature, must defend itself in order to continue the habitually believed in fiction.
The only thing that can recognize anything at all is ‘awareness’ – THAT is ‘what you are’. -
With a resonating urge to inquire into what is really going on, so things are recognized for what they are. - If this does not happen then the mechanical nature of mind and belief will continue to turn on a ‘dead spot’.
The ‘character’ that appears to be caught up in such a drama is a complete fiction. - It only seems to be real because it is supported by habitual belief. - None of it can stand on its own – it cannot withstand a direct and immediate inquiry.
Some teachers suggest that “any form of investigation is just more seeking” - but that is just an ignorant statement and a denial of the potentiality (that each of us is).
The innate capacity of pure knowing belongs to our true nature and it lies at the core of what we are. - What we truly ARE is not depending on anything at all. - It needs no time to find completion – it requires no method to adhere to and it requires no concept at all. -
Its nature is NON conceptual. - Recognize that.
In seeing through our habitual beliefs, they are let go of. - The core essence of pure knowing itself ‘cuts through’ every belief and renders them inactive. - If such direct insights are conceptualised as being a ‘new event happening to someone’ then the mind quickly builds a story around such insights – but recognize that this can only ever be merely ‘more thought patterns appearing’ - these must be recognised for what they are. - An ‘insight’ is not an ‘event’ at all – the essence of an insight is ‘seeing’ - and seeing unconditionally belongs to our true nature - which is timelessly present and free of all time realms and free of all burdens. What joyous news it is for those who hear it clearly. - How annoying it is for those who resist what is true.

Notes from May 08 - Part 6

2008-05-10T18:23:00.000+09:30

Part 6.
Why is it said that we will never find an answer in the mind?
Could it be because all that the ‘mind’ is, is thoughts, concepts, memories and images?
Are these nothing more than mere content that appears nowhere other than ‘in’ or ‘on’ awareness?
The very notion that there is a thing called ‘mind’ is insubstantial – no one has ever found something with any substance or location that they can call ‘the mind’. - The brightest scientist has only theories to offer on this mystery. -
Do any of the transient appearances in ‘mind’ have, of themselves, the capacity of cognition or knowing?
What is it in us that knows anything?
Naked awareness is ‘knowing’. -
There is nothing more subtle than ‘knowing’.
The very notion of something more subtle than ‘knowing’ would depend on ‘knowing’ for its apprehension.
Now, it is not difficult to see that the extremely subtle nature of knowing itself is not found in the expressions called thoughts or concepts. - These ‘things’ only appear and disappear and they are ‘known’ by the ‘activity of knowing’. -
That which is ‘knowing’ can never be found by the mind because it is always beyond the grasp of any observer or witness. - We could ‘name it – give it a conceptual framework’ and say that awareness is ‘a formless witness’, yet such a description quickly leads to additional concepts and so it is inaccurate.
The observer is really only composed of ‘the reflective nature of awareness’ and this nature is what we commonly call ‘mind’, which is nothing but translations, concepts, thoughts etc. - All such things are easily observable and we miss the subtleness of ‘what it is that is seeing these things’.
Some repetition is necessary – hammer it home – ‘something subtle’ sinks in and the chains of bondage loosen.
We have bound ourselves with concepts and it is concepts that release the bondage. -
Thinking about this is a challenge for ‘mind’ because the mind is a constant activity and the subtle nature of knowing is not contained in that activity – it is always ‘prior’ or ‘beyond’ that activity. - Or we could say that the ‘knowing’ contains all these activities.

In a similar manner ‘being’ appears ‘in or on’ that which is ‘non-being’. -
What we call ‘the inner most experience’ is not ‘something’ that has any substance. -
The ‘outer life’ is that which registers on the inner most experiencing.
‘People’ are lost and are searching for something missing in their lives.
The richness of this innermost life has been ‘lost’ to them only because they ignore it. -
They constantly gravitate to the grossness of ‘materialism and appearances’, ‘that’ which registers or ‘that’ upon which the impressions register, is ignored because it is very subtle.
THAT can never be ‘named’ and so it can only be ‘pointed at’. -
In re-discovering this innermost life, this ‘natural state’, then a new balance takes place. -
The grossness of ‘outer things’ loses its hold over ‘the mind’ and ‘the mind’ is released from its unbalanced ‘concerns’.
The so-called ‘mind’ is a functional aspect of awareness and it’s ‘thinking’ is merely one of many senses. - Like hearing and tasting, thinking has its place and thinking functions very well when the unnecessary ‘weight’ is taken off it.
The boundary between inner and outer disappears because it is only a ‘point of view’.
All fragments of relativity are an appearance in the absolute. - Therefore they must be absolute also. -
You are present and aware in this moment – that is an absolute fact. - Where is the doubt?
Why does the mind raise objections?
See that all thoughts are only appearances in ‘the awareness that you ARE’. -
Awareness is awareness. - We are not talking about ‘awareness of’ here. -
‘Awareness of’ is dualistic and that contains the habitual ‘entity’ or witness. -
Speaking in relative terms - the ‘unfortunate’ situation is that so many ‘teachers’ are NOT pointing directly at what is true. - They are far too concerned with their own ‘image’ and ‘self importance’ and so their ‘advice’ is always coloured by a falsehood. -
However, in relative terms, ‘this situation’ appears to be changing in ‘recent times’. - Many are seeing through these teachers and ‘the guru game’. - So many more are now finding what they need and are ‘hearing’ a very direct message and so the ‘fruit’ of that ‘hearing’ is that many are truly realizing their ‘true nature’. -
In the appearance of relativity, for many centuries, the secret beyond all secrets was ‘hidden away’ from ‘common people’. -
It is true that common people ‘trample over flower beds’ and do not value things they do not understand. - Yet it is ‘everyone’s right’ to ‘know what is true’ and ‘in coming to know what is true’, the impulse to ignore what is true is vanquished in them. -
Of course much of this written note is relative and could be criticised by others. -
What is beyond question or criticism is that inner most experiencing which ‘each one of us’ is. -
It matters little what it is that ‘inspires’ us to examine the ‘place’ where knowing is happening. -
Once that ‘inner flame’ starts to burn, once the resonation ‘starts to hum in your being’, it consumes every obstacle in its path. - That clear light of knowing reveals everything for ‘what it is’ without ‘it’ ever ‘becoming’ anything other than ‘what it is’. -
It is only the ‘appearance’ that changes and that is its nature. -
THAT which never changes, never will change – it simply IS. -
Be what you ARE. -Is-ness - IS. -

Non Duality is never divided.

2008-04-07T22:04:00.020+09:30

There is no problem in 'the Actuality'. - What we are is naturally THAT. - What we conceive ourselves to be is a fiction.

One of the most common 'problems' for 'seekers' is the addition of a 'spiritual self-image'. - This 'image' is a 'self reference point', which is totally fabricated in the imagination. - It is this 'image' that clouds the 'mind' and prevents a clear 'hearing' of the 'message' - because it 'resists' any information that undermines its foundations - even though such foundations are merely belief and fiction, the resistance persists and a self-indulgence in that 'image' takes on gross proportions to the point of absurdity.

Tip # 1: The Urban Guru Cafe is an excellent podcast - it is not worth missing for anyone 'interested' in Non Duality. - It is having record numbers of downloads and is on the increase daily. - Have a listen and tell a friend.

Tip # 2: There is an excellent podcast series called Radiolab - from New York Public Radio - many programs to listen to - they are curious guys who delve into things that capture our imagination - ask difficult questions. Click here to download or listen on line to a podcast on "Who am I?" - a semi-scientific exploration.

Back to the Urban Guru: - Check out Randall's interviews, they are excellent. - You may think you have 'heard it all' - these two programs may change your view on that. - I think the younger generation will respond well to these.

Note: I perceive, after many encounters, that the younger generation are significantly 'more open' to 'the message' - maybe because the 'believed in conditioning' has not 'crystalized' in them. - Therefore there is a plan 'here' to address this younger generation - in a way that they are more accustomed to. - In the 'older generation' it seems that those 'old habits' need to be 'hammered' at from 'inside' - or from 'outside' especially since the resistance to examining their beliefs is quite 'ingrained' - so it would seem. - The simple fact is that in dropping thought, all conditioning vanishes and yet this fact is not often recognized. - Pause a thought now. - What conditioning is there without thinking about it?

Check out the Randall Friend interview now - Part 1 & 2.

Emails:

Gilbert, - Ha! “Everything is Clear & Obvious” . . . just read the free version online -Thank You! - Listened to the Urban Guru Cafe too but it was definitely the above that offered the renewed "aha" moment-s! - J - in Sydney.

Email: Hello Gilbert, - I write now after listening and reading several of your writings and talks. - While I have found accord with what you have said I feel very alone in my interest in self realization. - There is nobody in my circle of friends to whom I can express my interest in self-realization. - Often I feel I am play acting all day.

I go to work, talk to people, do things and then I wonder who is doing all this. - I look in the mirror and see a face. - I remember things that happened to that face and yet when I am still and turn attention to that me, that person, aside from memories I cannot find a me that I could point to as an entity. - I feel like I am living as I have always lived but now it is as if the ground beneath me is shifting.

-Everything is as it was and yet it is not. - I realize that all my life I have been looking for the story of the truth as if it was something out there that if I touched would change me, that it was just a matter of searching, recognizing the truth and doing what was required. - I now realize at least mentally that this is just a another story I have imagined, the story of the unhappy me and the happy blissful enlightened me.

I really don’t know anything for sure least of all what the me is. - What I am writing here is more imagination.

I imagine I am here, you are there, you and others have something I do not and I need to get it, why? - I don’t know. - For some forty years I have imagined there is something called enlightenment - a state different from what I am now, that it was/is some variation of some pleasurable experience I have. - It was out there if I could only find out how to get it. - I still feel I don’t like what I am now and want to get to this imaginary state. - The only difference is that at times I see that it is just more circular mind stuff, that I am blinded by mind stuff. - I am not looking for advice or encouragement.- I believe it is as Nisargadatta said that self awareness is not the result of effort or practice. - Still, I would be grateful if you had the inclination to write.

Thank you for what you have published, I have found it encouraging.

- Jeffrey

Reply:

Whatever appears to happen is NOT IT. - Reality is THAT which never changes.

One could say that all motion is a movement of 'forms' (large and minute, subtle and gross) - it is all moving upon this emptiness - this stillness. - You can find these two aspects 'in yourself' quite easily. - What you need to recognize is that all that can be noticed is the movement, the forms, the play of the elements. - What it all 'registers upon' is this KNOWING. - This knowing is 'absolute knowing', it is not 'a belief' and it is not 'made of anything'. - No one (no form) can claim it as their own property and such claims are obviously fraudulent.

Behind that 'oh so familiar face' there is 'a space' which is clear and empty.

See that this is truly the case. - Hearing about it is not enough. - It must be tasted directly in the immediacy of BEING - not 'becoming' or 'memory'. - All forms are appearances 'appearing' nowhere else than 'in this immediacy - they MUST and can only appear in 'this moment' - IN that 'space-like awareness' - and that includes the body and all of its regular functions. - Include the body in the cognizing - see it as an appearance.

Many 'things' start to unfold once this factor is recognized - but it cannot be a theory held in the mind - that is useless and it is where many stay stuck - theoretical understanding is useless (in this case). - The activity of 'knowing' is 'from beyond' the form - (this is so obvious we miss it). - That knowing-ness, itself, is formless, colorless, tasteless. - All these aspects, forms, colors, flavors etc. are all appearances in the knowing which is obviously prior to these transient appearances. - Yesterdays flavors have gone. - The taste is always NOW.
Nothing that 'spills out' of the singular source, that formless-ness, ever touches the source of those forms.
Those forms are in fact empty and that fact needs to be recognized.
Everything we believe in is 'supported' by a fundamental belief in being a form, a someone, a 'me'.
There may 'appear' a great resistance to uncovering that 'me'.
The story of the man who found God's house and erred at knocking on the door is symbolic of that resistance.
That 'door' is non existent yet one could say it is that space from which you are looking out from.
As Nisargdatta says (paraphrasing): "You think you are in the world - (wrong) the world 'appears' in you".
The courage to SEE what needs to be seen is with you - it is your own true nature.
What you truly ARE is reality.
What the mind 'tells' you is just conceptualization - it all appears and disappears.
Many believe that they have 'arrived' at the 'Understanding' and yet they are bent on 'changing the world' and their minds are plagued with the 'drama of life'.
Right NOW before any thought arises, there is a clear 'knowing' there - it is not 'the cogs of the wheel' it is the still fulcrum from which everything is relative to - there is no 'me' in that.
The 'me' appears on the turning wheel and it appears to 'do' things to alter things - yet nothing needs to be done.
All we need to 'do' is 'come back' to the first instant, the only instant that there IS.
This instant is full of clear knowing - it is not something that comes out of the mind.
There is NO answer in the mind ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
You are not 'in the mind' - or the body.
All these things, mind and body, objects and world, all these appear within the nature of what you are.
Forget about "Who am I?" - It can only be a transient story.
'People' are full of their own story, that is what they are attached to. - Prising them from their story is useless.
Forget about 'others' - find out what you ARE.
It is simple yet very subtle.
I am often accused of being 'false' and in each case the accuser is obviously not seeing their own bias.
Anyone who imagines that I get some satisfaction from all this stuff, is deluded.
I, like anyone else, am just an appearance in THIS - this cognizing emptiness.
Stop looking for answers and just relax into this presence that you Are.

What is offered here is just a 'pointing' - No big fees to pay and no 'service' to the guru. - No gratitude is expected in return. - 'My reward' has already been delivered, so to speak. - For some unknown 'reason' I am moved to share these simple things - and I have witnessed the fact that it works - it is no big deal but some lives have changed significantly - yet the underlying 'truth' remains undisturbed as it always IS.

Psychological suffering is unnecessary. - Leave it behind you - and 'don't go back' to pick it up.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Jeffrey writes again:

Thank you for writing back. - I read your message several times and what you say rings true for me even though I do not yet know it. - I have contemplated Nisargadatta’s words:

"You think you are in the world – where the world 'appears' in you" many times. I am fascinated by the idea that the accepted view of an objective world access through sensory organs is in reality the inverse of the way it really is. - If the world is in me it follows that there can only be one thing, one awareness….this is the point that my thinking cannot go beyond, I cannot imagine it.

The only way I can relate to the awareness you and Nisargadatta speak of is in contemplating my experience of nighttime sleep. - In nighttime sleep everything and everyone that is so real including your-self is seen as insubstantial and imaginary when one awakes. - It is as if others are awake in the room where you sleep. - They talk to you and tell you that you are asleep, that all that seems real to you, even that there is a you has no independent existence and that this will be clear when you awaken from the dream. - They tell you that while they have awakened they cannot do anything to awaken you and further there is nothing you can do to cause yourself to awaken and yet it happens. - While they speak to you from outside your dream, within your dream they appear the same as everyone else in your dream. - Others in your dream may tell you these people are deceiving themselves , that the dream is reality and it is all there is. - Still you feel something is about the dream is false. - In nighttime sleep when one wakes up the dream suddenly ends and all the concerns and things that felt so important are just as suddenly irrelevant. - What puzzles me is that if as Nisargadatta says that ultimately ‘there is no one else’ why would one such as Nisargadatta who has awakened to a greater awareness be concerned about the helping people awaken that existed only as part of a his former dream. - Perhaps I am trying to ‘explain’ something that if I ‘knew’ would not need explanation.

I am curious about your experience if it could be called that. - Do you remember what it was like before your awareness expanded? - Did it just come upon you or did you search make effort and anticipate as I have done?

- Jeffrey

Reply: - Because of ignorance the apparent separate one searches for completeness - we ignore the first instant of being-ness, which is this 'presence' - this emptiness. - We ignore it because it is No Thing and we look for 'things'.
That No Thing is reality, the un-manifest. - It is that which is unknowable and yet full of clear knowing.
No Thing is the source of all things - they appear and disappear.
Each thing is actually no thing in essence - its life and duration are only an appearance.
Now, it is impossible for anyone to enter that No Thing - the dream of being someone cannot survive its own dissolution. - and as stated earlier everything disappears back into No Thing.
No Thing is the original and authentic 'identity' for everything.
There never was a 'person' - included in that 'never was' is the term 'enlightened person'.
There 'never was' anything.
Now, this is only known to be true through direct experience-ING.
Neti neti is one way to negate everything and realize what you are.
Thoughtless reality is presently evident yet we ignore it and we go with any thought that arises and we believe in 'the thinker' - and 'the thought' - the thinker is nothing but a habitual 'identity' that appears as an extra thought added onto other thoughts.

What thinker is there if you don't think about it?
What 'I' is there if you don't think about it?
What 'me' is there if you don't think about it?
What 'creation' is there if you don't think about it?
What 'time' is there if you don't think about it?

You see that everything we believe in is based on ideas, thoughts.
The ONLY place a thought can appear is in the 'space of immediate knowing'. - the 'space' itself is also an appearance.
Cast it all aside and what is left? - KNOWING.

You can't go beyond KNOWING. - pure thoughtless knowing is this 'presence'.

Everything 'passes through' this - as appearances.

In relative terms, yes I was a 'seeker' and it appears that I found the answer - after many years of searching.
But it is clearly known that I was overlooking the Obvious - the Present empty nature of pure knowing.

My book is called Everything is clear and obvious - my dear friends laughed at my apparent arrogance - since they could see that everything is not clear and obvious - But the 'last laugh is mine' because it is absolutely true that I see that everything is clear and obvious. - It is they who hold onto opinions and seemingly obscure their view - clouding the obvious.
By insisting on being 'someone' we place an obstacle before us. - one that could easily be walked around or cast aside - but it seems that we need to be told about it. - told many times - it seems.
Resonation happens when the message is heard.
Nature resonates in us, a flower, a tree, a flowing river or anything at all - a child singing, a bird.
That resonation is IT.
IT appears as everything - yet if we are already 'gone' with belief and thoughts, we miss that direct connection.
Make some space to simply be.
Drop the thoughts over and over -they will abate - just be.
There is only One Being....and it is Timelessly Here - always available.
There is no hero worship here for Nisargadatta and no claims to be like him.
I can read his words and they resonate clearly. - and what he says is known without having to work on it.
One teacher claims to be in the same state as Nisargadatta - that is crap - Nisargadatta was not in a state - even if he called it a state, it was only a description of something indescribable.
The wisdom that flowed from him could only come from ‘One Place’ – and that place is our ‘true essence’ and THAT is totally available to everyone.
There is NO need to ride on the back of dead gurus.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Todays' Note:

THERE IS NO DUALITY IN NON DUALITY.

That fact appears to by pass everyone....especially the intellectuals.

All that is ever seen, by anyone at all, belongs to 'phenomena' - that which 'appears to BE'.

That which IS is non-dual and THAT is never divided - it is this un-mediated knowing - the fact of being - Knowing that you are - that you exist is IT. - Not knowing that 'I' exist as 'someone' or 'something' - just knowing. - That knowing is empty - not a void - it is the fullness of being.

All of our talk belongs to the appearance - where it emerges from is the 'unknown'.

You can't 'go there' - what you truly are is THAT unknown.

In the 'Appearance' there are some folks who display a belief that they are experts on Non Duality or Advaita.

There are many so-called ‘teachers’ who pride themselves on being ‘a gift’ to ‘seekers’ and spent a lot of energy in ‘promoting themselves’ as being ‘rare’ and even ‘holy incarnations’. – It is all imaginary nonsense and self-indulgence.

Some of these ‘rarefied beings’ appear to behave as extra special ‘beings’.

They ‘conceptually’ divide Non Duality, through ‘mentation only’, into categories and make distinctions about the so-called Teachings of Non Duality.

- There are in fact NO teachings of Non Duality but this fact eludes these ‘experts’ and they do not even suspect that they are ‘going down a dead end street’. – This activity of theirs is a kind of madness, a fanaticism and nothing but an intellectual exercise, which is really, in the most basic sense, a misunderstanding and nothing more than that.

Non-Duality or Advaita means ONE without a second.

Dividing Advaita (Non Duality) into Traditional Advaita and Neo-Advaita is simply a conceptual division and that belongs to ‘dualistic mind’.

It is nothing but conceptualization. - The ‘thinker’, the ‘expert’ is just a believed in ‘entity’, a concept - and when it is explored thoroughly it is found that that entity knows nothing at all. – In that imagination there is a belief that they are doing ‘everyone’ a favor by explaining their complex ‘mind matrix’ and they can talk endlessly in circles about their favorite 'toy'.

It all belongs to dualistic mind. - The bare fact is that no word or words can ever express the essential nature of Non Duality.

All that is possible is a direct ‘pointing’ which may or may not convey to the recipient their own naked presence - this presence of ‘pure knowing’ – this immediate presence of ‘space-like awareness’. - That is not a thing - it is not a concept.

Within this ‘space-like awareness' ‘everything’ appears – there is no exception to this – everything that can be seen or witnessed is an ‘appearance’, appearing nowhere else than in this ‘space-like awareness’.

No matter what concept, no matter how profound or profane it may be – it is nothing but a concept and all concepts are equal – they are all appearances bar none.

Knowing that to be the case is not a ‘knowing made by any entity’.

It is pure knowing – not ‘knowing this’ or ‘knowing that’.

The so-called ‘knower’ and the ‘known’ are simply objectified ‘references’ that appear and disappear quite naturally in this knowing presence.

Neither the knower nor the known can exist ‘outside’ of this knowing.

Nothing useful can be arrived at by reading the words of these ‘experts’, in fact it only brings confusion – and that confusion is an unnecessary conflict in the mind.

Of course the ‘intentions’ of the ‘experts’ is ‘good’.

Many ‘good people’ do ‘good deeds’ and often it brings about more havoc than if they had not done anything at all yet it all belongs to the 'appearance' only - That which 'appears to be'.

The equation does not vary.

There is only ONE without a second – No concept ever divided THAT.

There is NO duality in Non Duality.

Have a closer look into 'things'.

2008-03-30T07:53:00.006+10:30

Check out the Urban Guru Cafe if you have not already done so. - Click HERE.

Email:

Hi Gilbert,

I see that the one being driven on is just a concept being driven on by another concept in the mind. - Meanwhile there is a constant seeing observing the process. - Every time I focus on the I-thought there is a changing of the point of view from which the observing is done. - Is there really a "point" of view at all? Whatever "I" do, the seeing seems to be happening from a "point" "behind" "me". - Almost in the same way that one can´t see one´s own head.

Although I understand all this on some level the sense of "I" is still very strong. - There is still this powerful urge to DO something to travel further along the "path", to move closer to the "goal". Will this urge ever lose its´power?

These insights seem very intellectual to me and has not really changed anything in my life. But maybe that´s all more of the same "seeking-business" that the "I" loves so dearly. - How can I quit it?

I feel really tired sometimes and just want to drop this whole thing.

Once again thank you for taking the time.

Best regards J in Europe

Reply:

It will drop off by itself.
The intellect has NO power at all. - The believed in 'entity' is a fabrication - there never was a 'you' that 'did' anything. - The 'thinker' - the 'doer' - the 'believer' are all thought based - appearances in/on awareness.
Only belief makes it all seem real.
Is there an 'I' if you don't think about it?
That 'idea' of being 'someone' is just another idea, yet it has been believed in for 'so long'.
So-called society has this core belief of their being 'individuals' and so a lot of 'feedback' supports that idea - it is all dream like and it cannot 'stand alone' in the light of SEEING.

It is seen through.

Even though it is radical to point it out, 'Society' is just another idea.

Society is a concept about multiplicity - separate individuals in groups etc.

What we are talking about is Non Duality. - There is NO duality in Non Duality.

Everything appears as seemingly separate things within the WHOLE.

Everything MOVES upon emptiness.
The reference points 'of view' appear' and disappear, they are replaced constantly.
The SEEING does not need a reference point, the 'mind' does - that is what mind is - reference points.
That is what mind is - reference points in a spacious (no) thing we call or name as 'mind', which is actually awareness - the idea that there is such a thing as mind, is merely another idea and ALL ideas appear and disappear in or ON Awareness.
You are that which never changes - that is so obvious, yet for the mind it is far too subtle - it can only 'know' what it has named - that 'knowing' is fabricated knowing and is ALL from the 'past', even though there is no past as such.
Impressions register ON awareness and then they are translated by the acquired mind - and that is what is believed in - the translation - and the direct and immediate SEEING is only SEEMINGLY obscured.
Look closely and SEE that it is all 'an appearance' - all appearing in what you ARE.
What you ARE is 'space-like' - emptiness which is the KNOWING of every movement and every appearance.
Your account shows that there is indeed this experienc-ING of THAT (what I describe).
The experiencing is not creating a 'you' - an experienc-er - or any experiences.

The ACTUALITY is only this immediacy - it does not change - and there is no room or time for any entity to take form in THIS actuality.

This is extremely subtle and yet it is totally available to KNOW this - putting concepts upon it is where the deviations of mind come into the picture.

It may seem like a razors edge. - Yet what you truly are has never existed anywhere other than AS this immediacy. - No one ever enters the now - nor leaves it.

THIS direct and immediate experienc-ing is all there ever IS.

Stay 'with it' and SEE the truth of what I am saying - KNOW that this space-like awareness has no boundary and NO center.
That is the decisive experiencing - AND the KNOWING of that, without 'having to become' a FORM (habit of 'ME') is what they call the Great Perfection - Non Conceptual Awareness.
No One can claim it - those who attempt to claim or brag about owning it are just insubstantial appearances - dream like notions and should be ignored.

"Let no man come between you and your God" - The Bible

Drop the (you) me concept and drop the God concept and just BE.

Just SEE - be the SEEING only.

The whole matrix will slip and slide, undo itself and in witnessing, even the slightest undoing of it will be significant - yet you must remain as the undisturbed witness - then the witness will also dissolve before your open view - a boundless view with NO point of reference.
It is impossible to describe, yet I have describe it quite well, at least for those who have tasted this freedom.
For the others, they cling to their beliefs like a child to a security blanket.
What can be done?
By whom?
There is no problem - that is not an idea or a concept.
Those who insist that there is a problem are the maintainers of the belief in the problem.
'Who' has a problem?
Conflict starts in the mind and energized by belief - it appears as a perpetuating mechanism which may lead to a bloody mess or not.
And YET all such appearances (beliefs) actually disappear by themselves if they are left alone - and they do.

Strange and wondrous.
The point is that psychological suffering is not necessary.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Mike writes:

Are you aware while asleep? - Or do you require the mind-body to be aware? The only experience we seem to have is through this mind-body. - To speak, or think of a deeper awareness is difficult for me. - If I am what all this appears on, then it makes sense that "I" should be able to automatically know that (I want to say "experience", but I know there's no-one who experiences). - It all sounds so simple, yet even when I think of nothing and just know "I am", well there's just no great truth revealed to me, or I don't get the "a ha" moment. - Do you know what I'm trying to say?

Thanks, - Mike

Reply:

Awareness is non dual - it is timeless. It does not sleep.
The sleep state appears in it - for the body to regenerate - it is nature.
The IDEA of being someone disappears in sleep.
THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE.
Awareness is PRESENCE - how can it leave?
There is an idea that the experiencing is because of, and THROUGH, the body.
The body and the content of mind are appearances and are obviously KNOWN from beyond them.
That is the significant factor.
As long as there is a belief in the transitory reference points of view that appear in the mind, then it will remain a mystery.
One must witness the mechanics of the mind clearly.
There are long standing habits, some appear to be very subtle.
It is as though one must catch them, see them and witness them disappearing.
In that experiencing, there is a FACT - that fact is that I remain and what I thought I was has disappeared.
That KNOWING is what can be called a 'decisive experiencing'.
It is first hand information that cannot be given by another - or read about or passed on by some guru or teacher.
First hand, immediate Knowing - not a concept, idea or image.
It is SEEING and SEEING is KNOWING.
The problem is all seekers have so many concepts to play with and they play endlessly with them - and they IGNORE what is so obvious - the fact of their own being - the natural 'state' which is wordless, thoughtless.

How can anyone convince you of this?
You must look closely yourself.

The essence of this investigation is NOT seeking - it is SEEING.
Arrogance of believing that I am 'someone' - someone special is the problem.
That is why so many gurus and teachers are 'bad news' - because of their own ignorance they display that 'special-ness' as if it were the prize that everyone is looking for. - That is the irony of the trap of seeking.
Be cautious of who you take on as a teacher.
A teacher worth his salt will not keep you bound - his job is to set you free as soon as possible.

Warm regards - G.

Can THIS immediate presence be postponed?

2008-03-11T14:17:00.015+10:30

If you have not done it already then check this out - click here. - The Urban Guru Cafe - a podcast 'radio' style program packed with 'direct pointers'.

There are many website on Non Duality but few that I feel an inclination to recommend. - There is a list of recommended ones on my Links Page on the main website. - One highly recommended site is Bob Adamson's site. - Another is Randall's site.

Randall is a young fella who 'fell out of the mind's trap' - He is 'on the ball' and is clearly expressing things well - check it out he has some 'new tech' stuff happening also. - Click here to visit his blog.

Regular Notes:

Email: Hey Gilbert.
I just finished the e-book of yours,"Everything is clear and obvious"....Wow! - I don't know but, well, after that, there is no need to read anything. - I have never read a text before where IT is possible to happen.

There appears that there is a 'reason' why non-duality will never be popular. - It's because it leaves you with nothing, and now....who wants that?

Well, Osho once said that you have got to put some sugar on the truth , otherwise nobody will take it.

Anyway, thank you for the e-book. - I am going to read it forever. - I am 'behind' the lines.- regards Roshi

Reply:

Hi Roshi, The e-book is clear and precise with NO sugar. - One could say that that is intentional, even though I do know that if I added some sugar it would be a lot more popular - but my 'privacy' would then be crowded by seekers wanting more and more sugar. - It is interesting to note that Osho had hundreds and hundreds of followers around him constantly, yet few ever got to speak with him 'one to one'.
Osho put lots of sugar on the truth - he was seductive a story teller - a very popular one - popular because of his charisma, the sugar and his ability to entertain and make seekers swoon in a 'temporary' blissful state. - The seduction and the devotional aspect is so sticky and binding for the mind and 'heart'....and 'ego' sense.
Charismatic teachers seem to collect seekers, not set them free. - Only a clear teacher has freedom to move about without being surrounded by seekers, decade after decade. - How this situation is mistaken for a way to freedom is mystifying. - When speaking with such devotees, it is obvious how fragile their beliefs are and how the truth is avoided at all costs.

Osho collected many stories from many traditions and was also an accomplished student of philosophy etc. - He had a bright intellect, that is for certain.

My comments may offend a few, (nothing new in that) and the fact that the 'thing' that is offended is actually the obstacle that keeps them bound - that 'factor' is the thing that needs to be investigated. - Old ideas and old attachments are stale - they keep one from SEEING what is immediately obvious.

I have enjoyed some of his writings many years ago – today I see that he is very clear at times and at other times his words are expressing confusion and so they are merely entertainment for the mind. - So many of his devotees are still wandering about seeking without finding. - I know of none that ever went beyond seeking.

There is ONLY this moment of KNOWING - and even the notion that there is a 'moment' is just another concept, an 'appearance' IN this 'knowing' that I AM – The truth is that I AM THIS unchanging presence.
The unfolding patterns of life do not stop - the emptiness is full and IT over flows and appears as THIS immediate LIFE and what you ARE is the KNOWING of it – so you are prior to all appearances.
Yes, you are behind it all - beyond it all - but there is nothing you can say about it in objective terms - all expressions are spilling out of that space of knowing - you are THAT.

In listening to your own voice, can you find where the words are arising from?

Please feel free to write whenever you wish.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

P.S. The e-book mentioned is download-able from the main website - top right hand side of screen.

Second email from Roshi:

Hi Gilbert!
I have a question about the statement Bob says: “Start with the fact that you are that”.
But how can you start with "that" if you don't Know (aware of) That? - If you are you are already there?

That statement has a tremendous importance for me, it's a way to go around the concept of me - may be!

Roshi

Reply:

Yes. - It is a tremendously pertinent statement - the same as "I AM THAT".
The simple fact is that what you truly ARE does not have to go around the concept of ME.
NO STEP needs to be taken in any direction - all 'directions' are only conceptual and all lead AWAY from THIS fact of BEING.
YOU are present and aware! - Or more correctly expressed - There is PRESENCE 'before' any thought arises.
(Also- During the thoughts appearance and after its disappearance) - that is SO because presence is timeless - appearances are transient.
Some of my associates in this Non Duality 'thing' get hooked on specific details, like the difference between Consciousness and consciousness (Big C, little c).
All that stuff is just not necessary.....and it is conceptual. - There is no having to "first see this before you can see that". - Pure SEEING is happening 'before' the mind realm kicks in, with all its conceptual stuff. - KNOWING that fact is so immediate and so obvious - but no spiritual empire can be built upon what is TRUE.
All spiritual empires and reputations are built upon conceptual differences and preferences etc.
All such 'things' are transient! - There are NO exceptions whatsoever - no matter what ANYBODY says!!!
What you truly ARE cannot be a transient appearance - a thought, an image or concept, mood, state or whatever.
It is so Clear and Obvious, no one sees it - because they approach it from a place of ignorance - as a conceptual form, ME, and that is NOT the living presence - not the real, not the I am-ness (presence).
So to start from the fact that you are THAT is simple - drop all conceptual frameworks and just BE - SEE and KNOW – Know-ING THIS presence without boundaries, without conceptual prerequisites – IS not through the mind – it is before what the mind translates it as.

It is so simple, everyone misses it - because they are believing that they are a 'person' and that person is trying to become 'something' - something that they are not and can never be - they have an idea of what it is they want to become.
It is an IDEA only.
Use your own innate discrimination - whatever resonates in the 'heart' - in the being, that is usually true.
What resonates in the intellect, or resonates with the imaginary spiritual self-image or only in the head, is usually just dream-like, unreal.

Nisargadatta says - "Stop pretending to be what you are NOT and don't refuse to Be what you ARE".

P.S.
There is no point in getting hung up on any words and their meaning.
Sacred and profane are equal at the so-called 'point' of their arising.
That 'point' is empty space - there is no 'person' there - just pure knowing.
At the heart of every expression is the Non Dual 'state' of being and non being.
Every expression is THAT no matter 'who' expresses it.
There in that appearance, it also appears that some point 'away' from the heart of it all and others point straight back at it.
The 'judge', the 'judgement', the 'jury' and the 'sentence', is all 'of the mind'.
.......................................................................................................................................................................

The false cannot stand up to the investigation.

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

Quote: - "Duality is due to two 'entities' - the 'seer' and the 'seen'."

Notes:

THIS immediate presence is all there is - it cannot be postponed or escaped from, except seemingly in the mind-scape of duality.
Where are you seeing from?
Is that 'place' not clear and empty?
Is there any duality in it?
It, that space-like awareness is where the thinker appears and disappears.
The seeing, the knowing is non dual - it knows itself.
The so-called 'mind' cannot recognize its birthplace - its own origin - it can only label it with learned words and ideas.
- Gilbert.

The Urban Guru Cafe is like a short Radio Program - devoted to the 'direct teaching' of Non Duality and to the dissolution of the errors of belief.

Yes the Urban Guru Cafe is up and running - Episodes are ready to download, or listen to. - Place your comments on the site - or email contact is from the site itself. - The third program is about to be uploaded.

It is something quite different to what is available 'out there' and it is quite compact and very direct in its exploration of various points.

Have a listen and see for yourself.

Click here to go to the Urban Guru Cafe site. - Enjoy.

Some excellent stuff is still to come, so join the podcast and you will be automatically notified when a new episode is uploaded. - Please write to the podcast producer with any questions or requests about the program or related matters.

An email received:

Hi Gilbert,

I must first inform you how much I enjoyed the podcasts which were recently posted on the Urban Guru Cafe. - Absolutely brilliant and lucid pointers! - Please thank the producers for this invaluable help.

I am at a seemingly frustrating junction (for a lack of a better word) on this pathless path. I've read everything that I've been able to get my hands on in English (Ramana, Nisargadatta, Bob, your works) and it has been extraordinarily helpful. - But, I've reached a point to where I've realized that all reading is fruitless. - I don't care to read anymore (or for much of any book for that matter). - I might read a paragraph here and there from time to time, but I fully understand that I won't "get it" from reading, nor will I if I meditate, chant or any other practice.

There is nothing to be said, there is nothing to be done for realization, this is certain. From this conclusion, - I've been going about my role in life and "playing the part" in the comedy lovingly, doing what's needed of the moment without regard to the results - living quite peacefully and happily. - The call home is very strong, but living in this manner is postponing the HERE and NOW.

Recently, I have been brutally honest in my self-inquiry; mindful of all thoughts and actions.- I am starting to notice more periods of clarity - moments that don't have labels or feelings.- It is much like being an invisible video camera.

Self-inquiry is mentioned by many to be one of the most direct paths to realization because it points to correct understanding. - This method seems to be the most effective for me - but this seems like it is becoming another practice, like meditation, where I devote hours of time and postpones the NOW. - Intellectually, I understand that if I truly want it NOW it will reveal itself in THIS MOMENT.

Could you please help clarify this issue?

Jason

Chicago, USA

Reply:

When we say that we intellectually understand something it is highly misleading for ourselves and everyone else. - What can be recognized is that this clear presence of knowing, which is 'understanding' is 'a-priori' - BEFORE the intellect (comes into play). - The intellect is 'of the mind' (process) and understanding (how it is known here) is an aspect of awareness – awareness is non-dual and mind is dualistic.

This discrimination between awareness and what we call ‘mind’ (thought, image, concept and ideas etc) is necessary.

Self-realization has been made into a BIG DEAL and that in itself ‘creates’ a problem that cannot be solved (for the mind).

This so-called 'moment' THIS moment right now is self-realization just AS IT IS.

The whole universe in this instant - THIS INSTANT is that movement of self-awareness - it is self-aware - there is no other awareness!
There is a long standing habit , which is 'going back' (so-called going back) to 'when' the mind first took on a belief that 'I am not that' - separation - me and not me.
THAT moment is truly THIS moment (No time-No separation - One presence) and so in THIS moment one can be free of that habit (or any habit) just by SEEING what the mind does and knowing that what you truly are not that habitual activity. -Anything seen is an appearance IN or ON awareness. - You are awareness - there is nothing else.
If you let the mind rest on nothing at all - in BEING the SEEING and nothing other than THAT immediate function-ING (seeing), then everything is recognized to be an appearance - EVERYTHING, thoughts, states, the body, the world and the universe all APPEAR in that KNOWING space.
We have simply ignored the obvious and have 'gone' with the thoughts, believing that they are real.
What is REAL is unchanging and it is empty of all qualities except for that KNOWING.
So, even though individuals attempt to be self realized, that is impossible because it can only be relative and so it is limited.
The one who has realized THIS - that sense of individuality has almost totally dissolved into the KNOWING and never returns as a believed in 'entity' and yet the body and mind continue as the functioning expression of THAT self-realizing ONE. The realization is that I AM THAT - that ONE without a second.

Radical, in the terms of worldly things, and yet it is the only true nature there is.

The individual, trying to 'do' something in order to 'gain' liberation, is a trap and it is something that can never bring the result desired. - The FORM can never become the FORMLESS. - It can only ever APPEAR and DISAPPEAR. - This can be seen very easily in the nature of things. - Have a look.

(Those who pretend to be individuals that have been liberated through some 'action' are fools - even though they may be highly regarded by other fools and held up as great teachers etc. - They may 'know the spiritual teaching inside out' and yet they 'teach' only their own arrogance - ignorance and so no one really finds freedom with these teachers - all they can do is pretend to have found it - just like their teacher. - These short stories I tell about ignorant gurus are not necessary! - so forget them.

The ONLY way out of the messy business of seeking is in NO MIND.
Gurus usually feed the seeker with endless concepts and that is slavery to concepts.
It is never ending.
Meditation is useless because it takes on a mechanical nature very quickly and it nearly always includes a fixation, an idea of a meditator and then lots of concepts are added onto that 'me'.
Just SEE that the living intelligence that you ARE is the very thing that imparts meaning to all that you read, see or hear.
The stress of seeking dissolves naturally as this SEEING recognizes itself as beyond everything.
This 'knowledge' is not popular simply because it dissolves the habitual grasping identity.
How many can bare that?
Everyone has the possibility if only they hear the clear message because that resonation uncovers the courage to be what one is.
Stay with what resonates with you - in this presence of being aware just relax into an open view. - Drop all concepts and just be.
Do this as often as possible and everything will reveal itself.
As soon as there is any sense of grasping that subtle resonation will appear to disappear.
Some say that one must be earnest and it does appear that way in many cases.
When the mind is one pointed, many distractions will naturally stay away.
Make a space in your life for this - it is the only purpose there is - not a 'purpose' for someone or some-thing - it is simply a space in which one can recognize what is real in yourself. - Once discovered, you will not be able to name it or describe it - but that KNOWING is unmistakable.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Urban Guru Cafe is OPEN for business!

2008-03-01T11:02:00.015+10:30

Urban Guru Cafe - a NEW radio style program on NON DUALITY.
Take the time to have a listen - put it on your ipod or mp3 player or listen on line.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Today's Note:

Good Teachers? - There are NO teachers, good or bad, anywhere except in the appearance of ‘things’. - Your own Essence is the very thing that should not be ignored - then a natural discrimination comes forward.

EMAIL:

Gilbert,

I have been reading your e-book, and I'm officially blown away. - I have been searching for something for so long, and I'm exited about what I'm reading. - You seem like someone I could ask a billion questions of. - I'm going to finish reading your book, but would you entertain a question or two if I had a few?

Thanks,
Mike A.

Reply: Yes you are welcome and I am easily available to answer questions.
For those interested the free e-book version of "Everything is Clear and Obvious" is down-loadable from the main website "Shining Through the Mind" dot net. - top right hand corner of screen.

Email: Hi, I'm G, from Portugal.
I am writing just to ask if you know of someone in Europe who gives talks in the Nisargadatta/Bob Adamson tradition, because the persons I know who talk here are of the No practice, NO teaching, nothing to do kind and it has not been very helpful that kind of message. - Regards - G

Reply:

Hi G, I know of no one as crystal clear as Bob is.
Although, Tony Parson's (not of the tradition you as about - talks London and other places in Europe, I believe -lives in Devon area) is pretty good and a chap called Nathan Gill, although I believe he is not teaching or giving talks these days. - There are many so-called teachers but most of them are telling 'stories' of attainment and TIME. – Recently some of them have caught onto the fact that their 'stories' are being exposed and so they attempt to copy what we could call 'a true teaching' - they try hard to convince everyone they ‘live’ it - and that kind of makes them unbearable to be around and eventually quite sick, in more ways than one. - Then, I notice that they justify even that, by making it into some (imaginary) sacred 'thing' - they say the sickness itself comes from their 'work' - then they add to their story that by helping so many 'seekers' the sickness intensifies (gross self-pity there, no mistake) - It just shows how manipulative they are in steering their crowd of believers. - Such EGOIC demonstrations are oh! so shallow and such a pretense, it stinks of 'self importance and pride'. - How they 'con' so many is really a marvel. - It is all stories, including this account, and one must recognize them for what they are. - They don't help anyone and just keep the mind going around and around on that endless search. - That self-delusion can be broken quite easily but it appears to be very difficult, because of belief in 'the story'.

The 'answer' is not in the mind! - Never was and never can be! - It is immediately obvious, yet one must 'come back' to the clear empty space of knowing 'before' the believed in 'entity' is recognized for what it is.

The 'point' is to come back to the simplicity of presence - simply being present and then what is true can reveal itself 'more fully' - and it is not a concept - awareness is not a concept. - KNOWING that alone, is enough to know.
THIS presence is effortless. - because IT already IS - just as it is.

My second book has been translated into your language.
I can get an e-book version to you if you would like to read it.
Warm regards - Gilbert

Email: Thanks for your reply. I don´t like, very much, the way Tony Parsons talks because he focuses a lot in the awakening event and he is always saying that any practice will reinforce the I so it leaves one helpless. - Though we could ask who is the one who is helpless? - About your book, which is translated into Portuguese, I would love to read the translated version, thanks. - G from Portugal

Hi G, thanks for the feed-back about Tony Parsons. In coming to a ‘point’ where you have a ‘strong impulse’ to know the truth – then one will challenge the teacher and then an opportunity to find what is true ‘appears’ for BOTH concerned.

In seeing through the desire to be WHOLE, one realises that I am Whole already and the illusion loses its hold – even though it never had a hold in the first instant.

It all ‘appears’ in TIME and the fact is that AWARENESS is TIMELESS – ever present and THAT is what you truly ARE. – The rest is a mirage.

A lot of garbage gets thrown around about teachers, who is clear and who is not.

The ‘key’ is to come back (yourself) to the basics - in this moment and SEE that ‘everyone’ (including the teacher) is simply an appearance in BEING, in THIS presence.
In Essence, everyone is THAT - that ONE Essence - appearing as different objects - in essence it remains as ONE.
The appearance of 'many' is an illusion.
There NEVER was anyone that miss-led anyone - and never anyone who awoke - and there is NO BECOMING whatsoever.
You ARE and what you truly ARE is ALREADY free of duality - because even logically you must be that ONE - since THAT is all there IS.
THAT is REALITY - the rest is only APPEARANCE and (the subtle point that is consistently missed is) that appearance includes the body and the minds content -(Your body is the universe.)
There are no problems in direct cognition - that means that in the registering of everything that appears in THIS instant, there is no duality - so no conflict - there must be 2-ness for conflict to arise.
It is what the mind translates those impressions into - that 'becomes' an apparent problem and that problem 'belongs' to a 'form' called 'me', a believed in entity, and that is only an appearance, a belief that seemingly occurs in the dualistic mind.
'Stay' with the pure seeing - be that only - at first for short periods - and they will (seemingly) increase (in duration) - that is what 'appears' to happen - it is a mind based point of view -a habitual view - appearing in mind.
One could say that, in such a case, what is happening is belief is being sidelined - and the directness of being comes to the fore - so simple - in being - so complex for the mind - because the mind can only divide oneness into a thousand 'things' - and yet Oneness is untouched by what any apparent mind is doing - because it is all a mirage.
KNOWING is all that is happening - and not to any 'person'.
ONE without a second.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

P.S. - As far as 'teachers' go - Follow what resonates with you. - The 'journey' is only in the appearance - coming 'Home' to the simple presence of being, takes NO TIME at all - But it does appear that one must drop the search, in order to find what IS already HERE. - It is so subtle, compared to the habitual mind stuff, that stuff that has crammed the mind and body for 'so long'. - Drop it and be vigilant, watch how the mind gravitates back to it - catch it at its game and it will lose its hold - but you need to be that wakefulness and not some 'entity'. - That is what you are - Wakefulness.

Being 'almost there' is a concept

2008-02-08T17:21:00.007+10:30

News: The Urban Guru Cafe is 'almost here' - some technical details in the behind the scenes are being 'ironed out' for the new Urban Guru website.

I do not assume to know where the programs will go but here is a hint on the first program:

Almost all gurus and western spiritual leaders and teachers are simply fictional entities holding their followers to ransom by telling stories and upholding an image – an image of ‘a future time’ when that ‘self-image’ (you) will attain ‘liberation’ or completion and ‘enlightenment’. – It is all a fiction and so unnecessary.

The Urban Guru Café Podcast will delve into these matters.

This new ‘radio’ program will bring a fresh look at things.

The aim of the program is to stick to the facts as far as possible and to be direct, yet also be entertaining and controversial, without drifting off into fancy realms of belief.

There is no emphasis on pushing any particular teaching and no ‘attacks’ on particular gurus or teachers. - I am sure the program will have a strong impact amongst the so-called Non Duality Circles.

Today's Note:

There is one fact that few come to notice clearly: - That is that everything you know belongs to 'phenomena' and the 'mind' only translates from the impressions that register in that crystal clear 'space of knowing'. - Believing in what the mind translates as being reality is where we 'get into trouble'. - Whatever the mind translates is not 'the real' - it can only be an approximation, a representation - a reflection on Awareness - (we say, 'in the mind').

So in recognizing the subtle difference, KNOWING reveals itself to the habitual mind as a 'familiar and yet estranged friend' - at first. - It dawns on one that this KNOWING is always what I am - I am nothing other than this.

All the rest is stories.............all mind content, labels and words, images etc, all from the 'past' - learned stuff - stale old ideas and memories - it is NEVER the first instant of cognition - the 'touch of the real'.

Too much emphasis is made about the 'seeker'.

It is just a story and in placing so much emphasis on it, it keeps the story going.

Some of these self-appointed 'Gurus' who write and 'rattle on' about Non Duality and make a fuss about the 'seeker' are not doing anyone any favors. - Story telling is a tradition of Story Tellers, interesting to be sure but no story ever released anyone from anything.

(It is interesting to note that one particular western teacher (off sick at the moment) has altered his 'stories' and has dropped the 5-10 year story about 'getting it' etc. - Comparing what he was saying for many years with his new altered story now would be of interest to some - Does one who miss-leads his followers suddenly change his story, without explaining why?
From what I hear, he has obviously been studying what Bob Adamson has been expounding very closely. - Quite a few, more than similar points, have found their way into this chaps 'teaching'.) - All these stories are not necessary!

Just see that right there where you are there is a clear space, totally empty - it is right there where the body appears - the world also appears in that 'space'.

Include the body and its pulsating 'life force' in your perceiving and KNOW that you are beyond it all - you are that space-like awareness. - So simple, everyone misses it.

There is no benefit in this for any 'person' - yet that appearance of a 'personal life' can flow with much more ease, once it is all seen for what it is.

Dear Gilbert, I was just blown away by your website column on Emptiness.
Beautiful in its directness, clarity and simplicity.
- Love, Bill

Hi Gilbert,

I read your post from April 2007 'Emptiness speaks to Emptiness' and had one of those 'moments' of clear understanding. - Very clear pointing in those words. - Some of the clearest I've seen. - I too was blown away...or should it be said, the duality was blown away.

Thanks,

David J.

Response - The concept of being separate vanishes every night - it also vanishes effortlessly when thought is dropped. - The ease of discriminating the fact that you are not 'of the mind' is so simple. - Because it is simple no one suspects that what they so reverently look for in the mind, is actually not 'of the mind' and is more accurately named as 'non-conceptual awareness'. - You cannot 'grasp' it with a concept. - It is indescribable for the mind - it (what is real) is the IMMEDIACY and THAT has never been named because all naming is taken from the mind and the mind is 'the past'. - The 'past' is dead and gone and is only a memory - Mere re-presentations are not 'the actual'.

Here is that note:

“The lamp of the body is the eye:
if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light”. N.T. - Mathew 6.22

The light by which you see and know - is non-conceptual awareness.

Here below is a revised note written when I started this blog:

Emptiness speaks to Emptiness.

As long as you believe that there is a solid 'someone' who is going to become enlightened in some future time, then a subtle shroud of ignorance clouds the mind.
'When' this someone is seen as a transparency, a pattern appearing within this direct seeing (that I am), then it is known in an unmediated way as an appearance in the knowing presence that I am and so 'it' is known directly and immediately that I am not this appearance-this pattern of belief commonly called 'me'.
'Then', which can only ever be 'this immediacy' of now, this habitual belief pattern has already lost its hold in the mind. - Even so, it is just belief and has no real hold at all.
It re-appears due to its long-standing 'pattern of recurrence' yet its roots have been cut or loosened and with continued effortless seeing, it will be seen through and it will appear to evaporate, taking with it the afflictive identification of that habitual belief in being a limited personality.
Paradoxically for the mind, there is 'no one' making any effort to bring about this freedom. – SEEING is already happening.
It truly is here already. - Pure Seeing is from beyond the instrument of seeing, a clear space of freedom itself and is not limited by the minds interpretations, which are only content of mind, acquired mind – memory or translations of whatever has appeared in that seeing.
In looking into things carefully, one can see clearly that all of our repeating referencing to a self-center are just a series of appearances in the clear and empty nature of mind.
Whatever happens - seeing is still happening.
The question of who sees and who does not see is an invalid question.
This is a profound and simple fact and its cutting profundity is missed by just about everyone. – There is no one actually there in the pure cognition – This will never be palatable information for the mind of habitual notions.
The essential nature of seeing is not easily expressed in words.
In reading these words, seeing is happening. – What the mind makes from it is not the seeing – these Samskara, these impressions are already mind content.
We imagine that we need to get behind the impressions – get to the understanding – but ‘who’ is that? – You are already beyond the mind content, that is why it is seen and known.
Seeing is direct always. - If someone threw a ball at you, you would duck or catch it without having to think about it.
The point I am making is that 'Seeing is happening'.
The more words I use to ‘get that over’ the less likely the message works – no harm done.
The minds interpretations where the psychology (me) appears to get caught - thinking that these conceptual identifications are actually what I am and that those concepts are doing the seeing and knowing. - Its just not so!
It is extremely subtle for many of us yet so obvious it is not suspected at all.
Those who argue against such obviousness have an invested interest in a particular system of belief and it is this belief that forms the grounds for their argument.
All of it is simply content of mind! - Content of mind is not what you are.
Freedom is freedom is freedom.
It appears as a continual natural release from the past events and memories, even from a moment ago. – Seeing is immediate.
What psychological 'stand' can be taken in the face of the empty nature of unmediated direct pure cognition?
This simple profundity remains incontestable due to its simplicity – its empty nature.
In the pure space of seeing, of direct knowing, this emptiness is full of presence.
Habitual grasping attitudes and states of mind all come and go in this space of knowing that you are.
The belief in being a 'someone' also appears and disappears. - This can be seen clearly by paying a little more attention to what is happening. - The habit is to stay stuck in an attitude, within the bounds of the old habitual views and those stale states of mind. – What we unwittingly sacrifice, by not being mindfully present to what is happening, is we sacrifice the freshness of ‘this moment’ of livingness, in exchange for yesterdays impressions, memories or views – Samskaras – and that is the dead past!
DO you see that? - Now?
When can you see anything except now?
'Who' is it that can't see this obviousness?
Cast aside the old mindset and just see – know – it is subtle and it is not the seer or the seen – it is simply SEEING.
It cannot be denied – even in the blind or visually impaired, seeing is happening but not in the sense that we ‘link’ it with.
(I doubt many will agree on that – but I do not give that fact any credence)
The point is: Seeing IS happening!
A mind pattern has no ability to see or know anything at all.
The pure functions are apparently borrowed by mind patterns, which are simply beliefs in some 'entity' that is believed to be able to 'see and know'.
It is simply not so.
An open view, which clearly sees this, is already transcendent to the content of mind.
Do you really believe that you leave this moment of direct cognition?
Where do you go when you leave this moment of actuality?
Direct cognition is all there is and ever is!
This profundity confounds the intellect.
The seeker who has invested so much in the process of liberation without results still resists the clear evidence of the obvious.
Why? - Simply because it can't SEE or KNOW anything! - It is just a PATTERN.
Does the pattern on your kitchen tablecloth have a choice?
Can it 'do' anything? - Beyond all patterns, this actuality of knowing right now is an open view. It is already presently here (for you) and cannot be negated. - It only seemingly is cluttered by these passing visitors in the mind. - They come, they go.
Show me one that has stayed.
Are you one of these transient visitors? - or are you present and aware of all that comes and goes? -There is no choice.
You cannot stop seeing or knowing. When the dream stops you remain.
There is awareness. - It is not 'something', which you can claim to be yours.
Where would the 'you' be without it? Openness remains no matter what appears or disappears. - You will not find teachers of what I am pointing out. - It cannot be taught.
IT IS the actuality (for all concerned). - All is empty. - Where are the traces of the past?
They are present in this actuality yet they are nothing but patterns of energy appearing in the knowing presence that you are.
Show me one that it not in your direct cognition!
You are free right now and 'seeing-knowing' are spontaneously happening.
Where will you go from here?
Emptiness speaks to emptiness.

The Urban Guru Cafe - Virtual reality?

2008-01-22T09:34:00.001+10:30

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.

More than what meets the eye or ear

2008-01-13T22:18:00.001+10:30

It is closer than you think! - Stay tuned to this site for where to hear the first program.
It may be a trendy 'thing' to be into - Non Duality and there are many who are avid readers of the many websites that have sprung up all over the place.
This new podcast will certainly entertain and inform - it will also provide many opportunities to hear some 'direct pointing' from various 'speakers' or so called 'teachers'.
The basic fact is that there is NO duality in Non Duality.
All talk about non duality is not it. - It can only be expressions, each one manifests in the immediacy of its appearance - it must come from that One Essence.
There is one significant difference that one can detect - An expression that is made from direct knowing is vastly different to an expression that is coming from 'mind stuff', theories, beliefs and such. - This podcast will include both kinds of expression, it is inevitable. - There will also be some light relief thrown in for good measure.
Stay tuned.

A SONG:
This is a song (link below) which was inspired by the title of Sailor Bob Adamson's first book "What's wrong with right now?" - It was the working on the transcribing of tape recordings of Bob's meetings (for the text for that book) which changed my life completely. - It is catchy, so don't be surprised if you find yourself singing the chorus line sometime.

"The What's wrong with right now?" a song by Willy Richardson (Gilbert) Click here to see the video

A film:
www.azenlife-film.org

D.T. Suzuki was instrumental in spreading the news about Zen in the West.
Some 20 years ago, I found value in his writings, they provided some vivid insights.
The link above takes you to a film on his life - for anyone interested.

Todays Note:
There is one point that can be made over and over. – Few ever really hear it but that does not matter. – When it is heard and investigated something quite remarkable happens. – That point is this: - The answer you seek so reverently for can never come from the mind. – We hear that and go on looking in the mind, imagining we are getting somewhere. – Many teachers encourage that ‘process’ by telling stories.
That is indirect teaching and is little more than kinder garden stuff. – It only serves to keep the mind busy.
The protracted teachings based on ‘time’ belong to ‘The Long Haul’ – a tiresome journey based on misinformation, ‘faith and hope’. - Faith and Hope are like an arrow pointing at the future.
They lead the mind away from the present evidence and the living being-ness of NOW.
The point that is not recognized is that all those 'time based ideas' are all so unnecessary and so misleading.

'Below' all those concepts, all that 'head in the clouds' stuff, lies the unlimited, immediate being and that is where one needs to look - the hearing of one single 'direct pointer’ can call forth an unmistakable resonation in being.
That resonation alerts the intelligence to look further into things. – In that experiencing a natural intelligence comes to the fore. – That resonation intensifies and ‘beliefs’ are obliterated which leaves you present and aware without any dependence on beliefs. – That resonation is presence awareness itself. – That is the natural essential being-ness that you are – totally genuine and totally free of concepts.
Concepts appear on it but each one disappears and the underlying sense of presence remains undisturbed.
Experiencing that confirms the knowing of what one is. – Even though it remains beyond description, because it is free of dependence on mind stuff and is direct KNOWING one also discovers an absence of anything that could be named as a ‘self-centre’. – Everything that is (was) associated with that apparent and believed in self-centre also disappears. – The ghost pattern of that old belief may still re-appear but it is known for what it is.
Those things are time bound and the KNOWING is timelessly present.
Somehow I never tire of pointing these things out. – The value of this is known completely and even though it appears that so few ever respond to the message, the fact is that it is available for everyone.

Is it enough?

It may be a shock to you but THIS Non Duality 'thing' is NOT about the guru…or the teacher. They are just messengers…..it is the message that counts and ONLY when it resonates in the BEING. - Once it is ‘heard’ the messenger is finished with at least one need not make a sacred object out of the messenger. – The messenger delivers the same message to 'many'. – Gratitude towards the messenger may be present but adoration is not necessary. - If adoration is a primary ingredient for you then you have not really ‘heard’ the message at all. - That adoration is a blindness - a self deluded state of mind. - If your guru encourages you to adore him or her and you play along, then you miss the reverberating nature of this absolute singularity - of one without a second - presence awareness.

What happens so often is the messenger himself gets sucked into the adoration hype and they lose touch with reality. - That is so obvious with just about every guru you can mention.

“The answer is not in the mind”. – That ‘pointer’ can 'crack the egg' for anyone as long as it is recognized - the meaning of it is not in the mind.

A mighty thunder crack can send a shudder through anyone and whatever the mind was engaged in is dissipated instantly. – The minds habitual activities cease for ‘a moment’. – The natural being-ness does not disappear. – All the pure functions are still present – hearing may be dampened for a short while – but actually the hearing is still present – it is the ear that has been given a shock. - Like the messenger, the ear is just an instrument. - When such discrimination arises naturally by itself, the concept of separation is already dissolving.

The subtle yet obviousness of what is ‘always’ present cannot be ascertained by the mind and its 'process of comparison'. - That naked awareness is ceaselessly present – one cannot ‘grasp it’ with the mind because IT contains the mind - We can name THAT as ‘naked awareness’ but the name is just a name.

Rubik’s cube has a solution but the mind’s quandary over trying to solve this riddle about consciousness can never come from the mind. – It is in BEING-KNOWING and these aspects are not in the mind – what we call mind appears IN awareness and is basically only an idea itself – What mind is there, if you don’t think about it?

Enough……is enough.

The Cutting Edge

2008-01-11T10:06:00.000+10:30

A FREE E-BOOK version of "Everything is Clear and Obvious". - Click here to download it

Get a good taste of the book from this free PDF trimmed version of it.

One feature of the book that is reported back to me is that it 'stops the mind in its tracks' repeatedly - reading large sections is near impossible.

Email it to a friend if you want.

warm regards - Gilbert.

Check out Bob Adamson's new Book "One Essence appearing as everything" - see his website for details.

Today's note:

There never was a person that ever existed in 'time'.

Believing you are 'someone' is just a thought stream.

Staying 'with' and 'as' the immediacy of cognition - so everything is known to be an appearance in THIS presence of KNOWING.

Where is that seeing taking place?

It is a profoundly vivid investigation - very subtle and easily dismissed by a restless mind.

'You' cannot get behind that activity of cognition.

Everything appears in front of that and yet there is no in front nor behind, above or below to THAT. - It may be seen clearly that everything does actually appear in that cognizing.

There is a quality of spaciousness there - that is why they say that it is 'space-like' awareness.

There is no locality to it and the sense of 'I' is an appearance in that.

It is impossible for the mind to translate that non-conceptual awareness into a concept and yet concepts are all we have to direct the attention in this investigation.

All attempts to conceptualize that space-like awareness fail.

What one conceptualizes oneself as can only be a concept - what one is is beyond description.

So, it may be said that you can only BE that non-conceptual awareness and being that is not something that needs to be done - it is already complete.

No thought can add anything to it - nor can a thought take anything away from that.
All of your activities plus the most vigilant activities of 10 thousand monks and 20 thousand nuns do not touch or alter that non-conceptual space-like awareness.

There is nothing more to know.
KNOWING is happening. - See that it is complete just as it is.

What is true resonates as the living-ness - what is expressed about that may also resonate in that being-ness (when it is heard). - That subtle resonation in being is what lets one know what is genuine.

- A teaching that only inspires the imagination and sentimental notions is representing those qualities of 'images and sentiment' and probably little more.

Many such teachings are merely based on stories about 'someone' who is special, in a so-called 'higher state' - separate from yourself. - 'You' can never 'become' that 'special someone' - all of that remains as idol worship in a dream state of mind. - It may seem like the teachings are all similar but there is a profound difference that may seem subtle at first but it is actually far from subtle once you taste it.

There is an obvious difference between the common spiritual teachings with its teachers and what can be called ‘The Direct Introduction’.

The common teacher implies that he has attained a ‘state’ and that ‘you’ can also attain that state and that it can ‘become’ permanent. – His stories entertain the spiritual self-image of the seeker and fill it with ‘hope’. – What is not realized is that those stories are a mind construction that blocks the immediate open view. – Everything that is added to that story, experiences that ‘seemingly confirm’ the stories validity is just more ‘bricks in a wall’ and that is all based on a sense of separation.

The direct introduction does not tell stories about ‘time’ and some ‘future deliverance’. -

Any story told in ‘the direct tradition’ is either light entertainment or it is a deconstruction story – a revelation of the fabricated nature of beliefs and a ‘pointing’ to something ‘beyond belief’.

In contrast to that, the illustrious stories of the common and popular gurus are always seductive and dream inducing – the ‘creation’ of a ‘state of belief’ based on stories of a possible attainment for that ‘entity’.

The incontestable fact is that ALL states come and ALL states go. – There can never be a permanent state – such notions are made of dreams and they cannot ‘stand alone in the light of day’.

The direct introduction cuts to the core of immediate experiencing – bypassing the realm of concepts and reveals the nature of clear and present awareness.

This revelation is ‘instant’. – All notions about ‘time’ disappear completely.

In my experience, when I meet spiritual devotees of popular gurus, it is obvious that they are strongly under the influence of a spiritual dream. - They often get very agitated if that ‘personal dream’ is disturbed by any statements that threaten to reveal the absurdity of reliance on mere beliefs.

Oddly enough these aspirants believe that they ‘as an entity’ are awake and making real progress on their ‘path’.

Wakefulness is not an entity – it is absolutely formless – presence awareness.

The 'point' of cognition is Zero - no dimensions

2007-11-19T21:54:00.001+10:30

This new non duality 'radio show' is coming soon...............

Is the serious seeker offended by the cosmic joke?
Can anyone really know reality? - Can there truly be an answer in the mind - if not why do we look for one there? - Is there truly such a thing as a guru? - Does the guru's self-declaration of enlightenment infer a state of separation - duality? - Isn't that a blindingly obvious fraudulent declaration - since he insists he teaches Non Duality?

- Why do they ooze contrived compassion? - Why is it nearly impossible to speak one to one with them? - Why do so many of these guru's charge extraordinary prices to attend their talks? - Does anyone really achieve a 'result' apart from some silly piece of paper - a fraudulent document to appease the ego? - and what lies behind that smelly conceited facade apart from greed? - It is all happening in the 'appearance' in the 'drama of life' - the realm of good and evil - the hungry seeker plods on and on and forgets what it was they were seeking - periodically happy with a life style of being a seeker - even being proud to pay the price and go on paying.

It is the easiest thing to feed seekers with a series of concepts that will bind them into an endless 'pathway'. - All the mind needs is a glimmer of hope, a promise and it will go on and on until exhaustion or until frustration bursts the blood vessels.

This blogsite is not about misleading anyone.

The simple fact is it is so easy to get out of those realms of being a seeker.

It is so simple and so straight forward, it is impossible to franchise it. - Have we become so addicted to those franchising methods of the gurus that we no longer have the ability to free ourselves from them? - What is true is totally free and totally available - it is not a 'state' to be achieved nor can it be achieved. - The simplicity is so radically simple no one suspects it. - Even though it is pointed out over and over in so many ways - the 'seekers' mind misses it - but it does not have to be like that.

The answer is NOT in the mind. - You may have read that or heard it a hundred times and still the mind goes on searching for an answer. - The natural state of simply 'being' is not of the mind - it is 'before, during and after' whatever the mind is doing.

Being-knowing-wakefulness - these aspects of what you are, are not limited to, or even of, the minds translations and its beliefs. - SEE that - KNOW that.

These notes are about 'something' so radical - it transcends and removes all habitual beliefs and leaves you as you are - present and aware - with NO dependence on concepts (not even one).

It can be told over and over - but if there is no resonation in being (with it) then the simplicity of being is ignored and one slips continually back into mind stuff.

Today's Note:

Recently a friend gave me Dennis Waite’s new book “Back to the Truth”.

It is a scholarly work and unusual in is scope. - For a few weeks, I was not moved to read it at all. - It is a large book - over two inches thick.
Basically, what is true is simple and can be said in a few words. - I can hardly make an issue of that since I have 178 notes on this Blogsite. - Words - words.

- Eventually the book was picked up and browsed through. – There are many quotes from ‘famous’ teachers of Advaita, historic and present day, all going to great lengths to point out the truth and the errors of common mis-understandings and presenting ‘their take' on it all – each one confident that they had found the truth of the matter. – It all makes for a good read and I would recommend it to anyone that is seriously studying this subject. - Insights may well happen (they arise within yourself - not from the book or any book). - The book covers the 5000 year ‘history’ of the Advaita teaching. - It is a very good book and Dennis has excelled in its preparation.

However, it must be pointed out that lengthy study can never bring any 'lasting result' and it is, at best, entertainment for the mind, although there may appear a conviction that some new understanding has been 'arrived' at through reading it. – That needs maintenance or it vanishes. - This is certainly not a criticism of the book but refers, instead, to the nature of the illusion of spiritual progress and time - as well as to the illusion of someone making the apparent journey.

Understanding is not acquired - it is simply uncovered - recognized to be silently present and wordless (in itself).

(Moving now away from references to the book)

Serious study can be recognized as a 'self organizing trap' - and the more knowledge or information one seemingly gathers, the more one may believe that one has 'got it' or 'not got it' - yet it is all just mind stuff, concepts appearing and the basic factor so many miss is that 'knowledge' is not 'knowing'.

The essence of all knowledge is knowing - knowledge does not lead through some duration of time to 'a state of knowing'. - Knowing is NOT a 'state' and it is timelessly present NOW - why have you ignored that?

All 'knowledge' is transient appearances in 'a clear space of knowing'. - Memory is not knowing - memory appears in the immediate knowing and is usually believed to be 'real'. - Past impressions (samskara) arise of themselves and they appear on the immediate knowing - (because) they cannot appear anywhere else.
Basically everything appears in and on the singular space-like awareness - every speck of what is perceived is an appearance in this knowing presence (THAT you ARE). - That is too subtle to catch and conceptualize, impossible - yet the mind's habit is to grasp at things and call that 'holding' knowledge. - Look into it closely and see if what I am pointing out is true. - It is not possible to see it because it is clear and empty - devoid of qualities - its singular quality is KNOWING.

Relax into that space of knowing and see for yourself.

Nothing appears anywhere other than in THIS immediacy. - This is non-contestable.

Collecting information and knowledge all (seemingly) serves, in a most elaborate manner, to keep the ‘seeker’ bound to conceptual notions. - It is all happening in the realms of belief and none of it can withstand a simple investigation. - Habitual biased points of view (seemingly) protect the belief system - all of it is mechanical mind stuff and it falls apart easily with the investigation.

There is one factor that is totally beyond all conclusions, beyond all knowledge, beyond all arguments and beyond all intellectual negotiations.

It is this: - KNOWING – pure simple knowing is never touched by a 'knower' nor by 'the known'.

The knower and the known are 'of the dualistic mind' - 'divided mind'.

Non Duality is not about 'the mind' and its endless realm of BECOMING. – it is not about anything at all - it IS.....BEING - KNOWING - PRESENCE.

All conceptual notions about spiritual progress, practices and methods are nothing but ripples on the surface of KNOWING.

That knowing is personalized by the dualistic mind and so ignorance itself is seemingly created – a conceptual prison for the ‘person’ – and yet nothing of it has any substance or independence whatsoever. – Those who promote those erroneous concepts in 'their teachings' have no choice because of their own beliefs – they are completely convinced that they are doing 'the right thing' – all of it is nothing but a series of concepts appearing in KNOWING.

All notions, all beliefs, all concepts grand or profane are nothing but ripples on that KNOWING.

Liberation is a fiction.

Deliverance is a fiction.

The one who speaks of such things is ignorance itself.

Those that are sucked in by these teachers of erroneous notions are also fictitious characters, ripples appearing on that KNOWING.

Whether such notions are actively present or passively absent – that KNOWING remains untouched.

There has never been anyone that has ever attained that KNOWING.

All notions of such ‘events’ are fictitious – a story.

The whole manifestation is simply an appearance on that KNOWING PRESENCE.

Such knowledge – knowing that - what one appears to be ‘in mind’ that dissolves into the pure knowing and the apparent individual disappears completely along with ‘time’.

What has been written here can be pulled apart and criticized emphatically by anyone – the personalized agenda of such critics is far too obvious – yet they have no choice. - Everything can be stripped away by the discriminating mind but the bias of that mind remains hidden as if secretly placed at ‘the point’ of cognition.

Such a ‘point’ can be seen yet it is usually not even suspected.

Everything is truly clear and obvious and one can easily SEE and BE what is true simply by resting in ‘your own’ true nature – resting in that open space of KNOWING.

Shining through the mind website is down because of technical problems. - It may re-appear at some point.
Above is the LATEST WOODCUT by Gilbert - one 'proof print' before the work was finished.
"The Axis of Creation #1" - Email me if you want one of the limited prints - I will give you the price and details of how to go about ordering it.
"Man cannot live by bread alone". - "Nor add one inch to his stature by thought alone".

Worlds within worlds - spirals within spirals. - If the moon left a trace in space, as it chases the Earth, it would appear as a helix spiral. - ( 'If' the Earth slowed its speed of travel considerably the Moon would move closer and eventually crash into its surface. - Theories are fun and 'IF' is the biggest word in the English language.) - The Earth traces a larger spiral circular path around the Sun - the same pattern. - Nature is full of spirals, some hidden well but they are there to discover. - DNA is depicted graphically as a double Helix, etc. - It is all one pattern seemingly repeated endlessly in so many ways.
The invisible axis of all being lies beyond the manifested traces of 'matter' - all that you can experience is the pattern and its apparent movement and its apparent creation 'time'. - All experiences come and go and when we drop the point of view it may be seen as One Pattern - which only 'appears' to repeat itself in infinite ways - beautiful in principle and motion. - Nature is the revelation of that singular pattern.
Recognizing it is easy - getting caught in its web is only possible for a fictional character.

New Note for today:

It is extremely simple. That is why it is so difficult and the raw and naked truth is that it is impossible to grasp with a concept.

There is a simple and obvious fact which is usually not included in what we have been told – one aspect of this is this: -There is a natural discrimination totally available to all but it appears that it must be pointed out to us – it is the discrimination between ‘the content (of what we call) mind’ and ‘that’ in which that content appears. The usual case is that we believe we are those conceptual notions and so they are not transcended.

Our true nature is already transcendent to those things of mind.

What we call the ‘person’ is not the actuality of presence – it is not the natural functioning of wakefulness, hearing, seeing, tasting etc.

What the ‘person’ is, is really only a series of stories – endless stories that are spooling off an endless ‘tape’. That ‘tape’ is just the acquired mind re-inventing itself each moment. This can easily be seen yet it is ignored because the mind is so actively engaged in its stories and descriptions.

Awareness is timeless and has no need to assert itself – it does not need to particularize itself as any ‘thing’ because it is in fact all things. Or we could say that all things appear in awareness and that they are all equal, if only because they are all appearances.

The identified consciousness called ‘me’ is an appearance, which has no being whatsoever.

It is a story.

The ‘person’ is not the actual, not the real.

What is real is beyond description. - All descriptions are simply words and they are appearing to be extremely useful for communicating. - They can point to their own basic nature and in doing so it brings a balance – it reveals the duality of awareness and its content. - That apparent duality dissolves for the mind as mind itself disappears into its origin – pure awareness.

That event is only happening for the mind, which is time bound – mind is time.

Remember that time is only a concept. The strongest evidence of there being such a thing as time can be broken down into theories, ideas and concepts or perceivable movements of matter translated by the mind into some kind of meaning – all content of mind.

Awareness is untouched and for it there is no duration – it is timelessly present.

Any insight we have belongs to the realm of mind. The essence of all insight is natural seeing-knowing.

One feature of insight is that a pattern is recognized and there is an apparent distance from what is seen. - The pattern that is recognized may appear to be floating beyond where one is looking from. - All the mind does is translate what is happening and the labels and descriptions are mostly from habit and that is a habit of identifying oneself with that translation – it is basically an activity of self-centered-ness and it all belongs to that long standing self-centre ‘me’.

This motion of subtle belief, a movement in awareness, that needs to be seen clearly.

In seeing it clearly one is naturally beyond it and without further engagement the natural flow is to leave it as it is, without adding more concepts to it.

In remaining in that restful state of no mind, the insights may expand into a wordless knowing – a true understanding – which forever remains beyond description.

Tasting this over and over, the habits of mind are starved of energy and they naturally resolve themselves into ‘flowing ripples’ in awareness. - They lose their grip and cease to drag up the old and stale repertoire of ‘personalized drama’.

So, what to do?

Simply notice that the nature of awareness has no qualities of negative or positive.

All such ‘stuff’ is habitual notions and they belong to dualistic mind.

Know that you are not any of these things.

Everything you have ever seen, heard or experienced belongs to ‘the realm of phenomena’ – which naturally includes everything – and that is changing endlessly.

It is energy and energy is a movement.

Nothing of it can ever save you from the suffering realms that you believe you are caught in - in fact all attempts simply keep ‘you’ as the main contestant in the Olympic Mind Games.

The only way out is through ‘no mind’.

The natural spacious presence of knowing is not condition by anything at all.

Know that is what you are.

No method or practice will ever take you to that – because you are already that.

Those who profess to have arrived by the means of practices and methods and who prophesise that you can do the same, they are deluded and there is no exception in this.

By ignoring the natural state, which is already complete, we miss the very thing we search for. By taking active steps to realize it through practices and methods, we are simply placing obstacles in our path.

The truth is self evident and totally present no matter what state your mind is in.

That clarity is there and in that everything appears. But there is no ‘person’ there or anywhere.

Drop all thoughts for the briefest moment and it is self-evident – it may be very subtle but it is here, whether ‘you’ know it or not.

So, the problem is that we take ourselves to be something that is a fiction, a ‘person’ and that ‘person’ is just content of mind and mind is content of awareness.

As Nisargadatta says (paraphrasing): “Stop pretending to be what you are not - and don’t refuse to be what you are”.

In being the totally awakened mind there is a natural knowing – a knowing that there is no one here, never was nor will there ever be a separate individual.

In the appearance, yes, it appears to be that there is someone here but the simple investigation reveals there is no one. Everyone that has ever meditated is faced with that raw fact and yet it is usually overlooked simply because it is far too obvious.

The character that plays the role of a meditator has no faculties of its own – it is just a concept – it cannot see, hear or do anything - so the opening points that were made in this note can be read again because basically this cycle is an open system which only appears as the eternal repetition.

One essence recycles itself as everything and yet it never once entered into any time realms at all.

In the appearance of things everything you know of, appears. - Everything you have ever experienced belongs to that 'appearance'. - The KNOWING is NOT of the appearance.
This fact does not need to be learned. - It is NOT knowledge - it is KNOWING.
Nothing of the 'appearance' can alter or change that KNOWING.
All beliefs in a process are just 'appearances' in the mind.
All nonsense about stabilizing in the awareness is just a guru story - very effective for keeping seekers in a state of adoration of the guru and the guru loves the attention because he has not seen through the dream and his conceit is obvious and his specialness is only a concept in his mind - one that binds him and his followers into TIME. - That is why he says it will take time to 'get there' - and his story of being THERE himself is a concept that 'create' or perpetuates the concept of separation. - Naked wakefulness is not touched by these things.

The conceited guru is totally unnecessary and should be avoided - he will keep you on the path, a long and endless path to 'a future time' - a time that can NEVER come - his dreams are believed in, firstly by himself and then he wants company to help him stay in the dream of being so very special. - Some of these gurus have a very strong reputation of being beautiful being and the charisma is very seductive - but it is all about HIM. - His interested in you is only appearing after his ego is satisfied and that is insatiable. - Take a closer look if you doubt my words.

The clear and empty space from where (you are) seeing (- knowing ) is (happening) is totally free of all things, including gurus and duality. - That space-like awareness is Non Dual.

That mystery is overlooked by 'everyone' and that could not be any other way - usually a life of service to the guru and worship of that idol happens and that is a sad way to live - In clinging to the ideas of being a 'person' we are ignoring the natural beauty of our own natural completeness - That which IS - simple presence - total inclusive-ness -one with what is. - NO separation.

Check out the NEW FREE E-BOOK.
NEW Non Duality 'Radio' Show is on its way - It is going to make a big splash........You heard about it first - right here. - What is it called? -"The Urban Guru Cafe" - a brand New Advaita style 'Radio Show' - which will be top notch entertainment, accurately informative and full to the brim - including good humor. - (you will be able to) Listen online or download it to your i-pod or mp3 player.
You have heard the rest - now hear the Best!.....(well not just yet but very very soon).
- Keep an eye on this blogsite for more details. - The 'location' of the Cafe will be revealed when the 'time' is right. - Stay tuned.

Creativity spills out of every crack in the egg.
Photo of Willy above he is 'out and about'.....a veritable troubadour wooing the non-crowds ......vote for his song "What's wrong with right now?" and get your local radio station to play it - if they are game. - Audio file on the website. - Video on You-tube.

A FREE 'gift' in the 'season of giving' - is NOW available on this website - a FREE E-BOOK version of "Everything is Clear and Obvious". - Click here to download it - Anyone and everyone can get an extensive taste of the book from this free PDF edited version of it. Email it to a friend if you want. - A new book may appear in a month or so.
- Cheers - Gilbert.

The What's wrong with right now? song by Willy Richardson Click here to see the video

Well, what is wrong with right now? - if you don't think about it? - It is not a trick question.

It is all about recognizing the underlying 'presence' of equanimity - that true essence that one is - the natural state - beyond the surface 'play' of the polar opposites of the mind - it is not about recognizing it as something that you need to acquire but simply seeing and knowing directly that this simple presence of being is what I truly am. - It is commonly overlooked because of its subtle nature (by most) and yet once 'seen' or recognized it is then known to be so obvious and natural.

From email correspondence:

Hi Gilbert,
Your articles are superb. - They give the accurate explanation and the real meaning of pure seeing (knowing).
I agree that it is motionless, that feels so true in my direct experiencing. - So is this the ultimate when it comes to stay permanently?
Don't get me wrong - is there anything that I can do to make it stay always? - I know you would say NO.
But - may be there are options - just for my interest - Not greediness!

So, the pure awareness (knowing/seeing) becomes our world with all the activities through consciousness. - Am I right? - Regards C in Sydney.

Reply: What is permanent is permanent - there is no change in it whatsoever- THAT is reality.

'Who' can say they know that? - You can say you know it or that you don't know it yet that movement is only a manifestation, a movement in stillness. - The stillness is not disturbed by the movement and for it all movement is undifferentiated.

'People' imagine that they KNOW reality. - You can only 'BE reality' (no matter how you appear to be) and there never was a 'person' that was, is or will ever be reality. - Yet reality is what you ARE. - That is not a 'person'.

So, IT is permanent already - There is NO 'becoming' to it. - 'Becoming' is the usual guru's story - a seeker trap.
What comes and goes in not the real - that is only relativity - reality appearing as transient appearances along with the matrix of apparent connectivity.

Can you grasp even one of those transient appearances? - and with what can you grasp it?

That 'permanent aspect' is LIFE itself which expresses itself as everything - it is a Movement in Stillness. - All movement spills out of stillness and it all disappears back into stillness - that is even logical.
SEE directly that there is no stillness in Movement - only a dream of stillness in the so-called mind. - Because you ARE stillness, movement is recognized instantly. - Consciousness is the moving aspect of awareness. - yet - They are ONE.

Can you postulate anything 'outside of the mind'?

How strange? - And yet when you look for the mind you can't find it.

Cut is all away and simply be what you ARE and in that simplicity of being, Know, without any dependence on thought. - I call it 'the first instant' - the ONLY instant and THIS instant is it!!!
So simple - everyone misses it. - Warm regards - Gilbert.

Return reply from C : - YOUR QUOTE: - "'People' imagine that they KNOW reality. - You can only 'BE reality' (no matter how you appear to be) and there never was a 'person' that was, is or will ever be reality. - Yet reality is what you ARE. - That is not a 'person'."

Once again I sense the accuracy. - Whenever, the experience was happening, only the experience was there. - There was only the experiencing/seeing. - There was only that. - I have to use the word (I) after (I) get out from that experience, when I have to explain it to someone. - This is really difficult to explain with these so called 'words".

This is all I can say to you is this: - Awareness is watching itself. It is motionless. But very alive.

Words by themselves are like a fake. - There are no words to explain that experiencing.
So it is better to stop here. - Good night. - C.

Gilbert replies:

There is no WAS or WILL BE - only IS.

All there ever IS is experienc-ING.
There is nothing else.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Such pointing is devastating to all belief systems - because of that it cannot be popular - only when what is true resonates as the living pulse of KNOWING does the immediacy cut through the beliefs. - Fiction is popular because it feeds the imagination but when that life force starts to dwindle, no amount of imagination or fiction will save you from the stark reality. - Reality bites.

Let it bite NOW and drop the fiction along with its companions.

Bob Adamson’s new book "One Essence appearing as Everything" is remarkably precise and direct. - A link for ordering it is at the bottom of this page.

In the first 17 pages so many misconceptions are put to rest. – Even though Bob’s previous books have delivered their implicit message, to so many, there are always new comers on the scene. – For some years I was of the opinion that the two books already available were sufficient and nothing more needed to be released in book form. – After reading through this new book, it is clear that it is a great vehicle for the message. - My advice is to read it until the binding falls apart, until it is in tatters. – The concept and sense of being separate, by then, will also be in tatters and completely impotent.
It was my good fortune to work on Bob’s transcriptions and in doing so, I was not a passive book reader – I was engaged in repeated ‘dealings’ with what was being pointed out. – This fact provided me, by default, a unique opportunity to really see what was being pointed to. – All avenues of putting it aside were not an option for me. – I had a task to complete. – For the mind, this was an unrelenting ‘return’ to the basics of presence awareness – even though I was (seemingly) in so many different states of mind as all this unfolded. – That in itself provided opportunities that may be understood to be rarely provided for a ‘seeker’.
This suggests quite naturally some advice to others who are really attempting to ‘get to the heart of it all’. – Since I cannot advise everyone to do what I did, it is not practical, I advise you to read the book as many times as is needed. - Get extremely familiar with it. – I would suggest that if one were to read it every day and read nothing else for a month or two, there is no way that the mind’s inadvertence could survive. – Whatever needs to be seen will be seen – I have no doubt about it. – I also understand that few would take up that suggestion. – That does not hold me back. – All I will say is that in ‘taking delivery’ of the pointers – in really seeing what they are pointing at, one’s life is transformed most radically. – What occupied my being prior to this understanding is only a vague memory now. – I know that there was inner turmoil and suffering going on. – That has gone. – What replaces it is an ease of being. – It is not boring or lifeless – it is full of a spontaneous movement of consciousness in awareness.
Consciousness is a movement while awareness is motionless and completely stable.
There is no need to deny anything or to affirm anything. – Everything flows as it does.
The sad story of ‘me’ is seen through and that just in itself is the most radical seeing there can be, because in that seeing through, there is no concern for how things appear. – There is a knowing that it is all appearances and that they are nothing but awareness itself, displaying itself as the whole – the universe and every speck of dust.
In not trying to pin anything down – it is free to flow.
Bob’s new book is a most wonderful gift for anyone that is touched by it. – There is no reason why its message will not take you to the core of seeing and knowing.
These words are offered to everyone – it is up to each one that reads them, as to whether they follow this advise. – But I assure you that if you do, you will not be misled. – Warm regards – Gilbert.

This email demonstrates what happens when thought is paused and the story is seen through:

Dear Gilbert/Willy,

Loved the lyrics you posted the other day, but LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your performance!

I was speaking to a friend the other day who is having some digestive problems for weeks now - and I quoted Bob, “What’s wrong with right now? - if you don’t think about it!”

She laughed and laughed! - And I laughed and laughed!

Love you! - Lori

Yes, a moment of freedom from the 'mechanical chatter and the habituated story of 'ME' allows a clear resonation to 'take place' - to register cleanly without the so-called 'interference' pattern of the habituated mind stuff - and that 'Taste' may reveal the idiocy of belief in crap that the so-called 'mind' a moment ago was 'indulged in'.

Yet what mind is there? - truly - apart from thought?

That awareness, that one is, is not in 'the mind' - what we call mind only appears in and on awareness - that taste is 'profound' in contrast to the habituated 'ways of being' - the sad story of an isolated individual 'me'. - Seeing the falseness of it all can 'trigger' laughing.....at the absurdity of it all. - All the drama and suffering of the world revolves around a fiction and in seeing through that story - freedom is tasted, however fleeting it may appear to be - That freedom from the story is always available - just pause thought and it is obvious.

BUT - I see so much resistance to 'letting it fall away' - "who will I be, if I let go of my story"?

Well, drop it and find out - you will not disappear. - You just might find an innate ease of being that is so familiar to you and in that there is no doubt, not future time and no conditioned past.

But hey! - Who wants to know? - It is just too simple and the 'mind' can't believe it - it can't believe it because it is NOT about belief - it is KNOWING. - Immediate KNOWING - that is all it IS and ever IS.

But hey! - Who wants to know?

Maybe my song will touch one or two - and in doing that, it is worth the 'effortless effort' that this one here went to the trouble of 'doing' - Ha! - What a joke - There is no reason why anyone at all can't SEE this truth - and it is all available instantly - but it is never going to be found in the mind - it is the nature of pure awareness - and that is what 'everyone' IS - whether 'they' know it or not. - As John Lennon says: Give Peace a chance! - Let it BE!

Stop struggling with a phantom and relax - let this seeing-knowing come to the fore.....and KNOW the truth of your own BEING. - What the mind 'makes out of it' can only be a concept or an image.....and what substance do those 'things' have if you are not present and aware?

Note for today:

There is no negative energy anywhere - it is all one energy that remains hidden - it beats your heart - it moves the heavenly bodies and all manner of motion in all the forms - without dividing itself into the 'polar opposites' of negative and positive. -Man has been searching for perpetual motion for centuries and has overlooked the simple fact that it is already here - just not recognized. - In wanting to harness it and 'use it' a little greed and selfish motivation creeps into the picture. - Such is the drama of life. - We ignore what is so beautifully obvious and take up some 'mission' to conquer nature and be the 'master' of our own destiny. - Such delusion is not necessary. - The One energy provides everything - without exception. - It is intelligence in all its complexities - All fields of science are examining the same equation and getting side lined by details in the complex pattern - the dynamic expression of awareness itself. - In not recognizing that the one apparently 'looking' into everything is a part of the manifest pattern - in not recognizing that where the seeing is actually happening - in emptiness - then 'the mind' and its mechanical nature keeps one bound to conceptualizing.

Stop thought for a moment and one is immediately beyond the mind.

That is too simple for the complex 'spiritual seeker'.

It does not matter where the message comes from. – Many teachers and so-called ‘spiritual people’ are critical of other teachers and their followers. – It seems to have been a regular feature in the scheme of things. – The fact that cannot be negated is that ‘resonation’ with what is true. – In that 'resonation' (a clear living 'space' of knowing - in which the pulsation of immediate life abides) there is no doubt and in the recognition of what is true there is no fabricated story of ‘how’-'why' or 'when'. - Therefore, one only needs to ‘stay’ with that 'resonation' (in a manner of speaking). – When the direct message is delivered and recognized - nothing in the world can take you off that scent. – No negative comment about the messenger or any other teacher or whatever can throw you off that scent – because you have tasted it directly for yourself. – There is no need to indulge in deluded beliefs about the messenger. - No methods or practices ‘need’ to be adhered to in order that one follow that scent– practices can still be acted out – but the belief in some future time is cut off and that scent draws you to its source – which is your own authentic being – it is your own true nature. – Your true nature is invincible and cannot be damaged or tainted by anything.

As Nisargadatta points out (paraphrasing) “the external guru is just a milestone (a signpost). Your own true nature is the true guru and ‘he’ will walk with you every step of the ‘way’ because ‘he’ is the goal.”

In the pure nature of seeing and knowing – the realization is that I never took one step away from THAT.

‘People’ talk about negative energy and positive energy and it is all conceptual. - The sum total of all seemingly positive and negative ‘things’ is embraced by their own source - One Energy - and all conflict resolves itself without incident within the bounds of THAT. – We believe it all takes ‘time’ and that belief is just another insubstantial belief. - It appears that the drama of life keeps things going. – But what is wrong with right now? – if you don’t think about it somehow.

I have just recorded a song by the same name. It will appear on the website at some point.

The lyrics go like this:

You have been searching all your life.- for an answer you cannot find. It is like a game that isn’t fair- because the answer is just not there.

But what is wrong with right now? – if you don’t think about it somehow.

You have been searching all your life – searching through all that trouble and strife.

But can you tell me – what did you find? – Can you say ‘this’(anything) is truly mine?

Or is it just a bunch of stuff? – old photographs and a phonograph?

That old record is spinning round – it’s the same old story- it’s the same old ground.

Your guru says ‘It’s just your fate – Five more years you’ll have to wait.

Your preacher is saying that you have got to pray – so that you can go to heaven one day.

But what is wrong with right now? – if you don’t think about it somehow.

I wrote the song about a year ago. - After inviting a few musicians to help me out - and that never leading to anything - I had to get down and do the whole thing myself. - I am used to that.
So, out came the guitar, the octave mandolin, the drums and some microphones. - It all came together after some shifting about. - It would be good to hear some pro musicians play it but my guess is it will never happen.

Note 2.

Looking in the wrong places?

Non Duality is simple – there is nothing more simple.

Nothing that can be said will ever reveal Oneness. – It is already clearly obvious in natural seeing. - All that can happen for the so-called individual, is that the mind ceases to project its old belief patterns – and in that ‘moment’ the natural oneness of everything is registered clearly on awareness. – Oddly enough this is always happening but it is not noticed.

– Some laugh their heads off at seeing the simplicity of it all and at the fact that it was always here and so obvious. – This, when merely 'heard about' can be very annoying ‘for the mind’ and a habitual frustration buzzes about in the mind - more activity that keeps the mind busy. – No one can predict how this natural effortless seeing will miraculously reveal itself – and is it true to say that it ever does? - To suggest that it will reveal itself is actually a bit of a trap – an erroneous trap for the mind.

The simple fact is that seeing is always happening.

Where are you seeing from?

That simple seeing is completely natural and in itself there is no seer and nothing seen. – The so-called ‘seer’ and the objectively ‘seen’ along with all that the mind appears to do, labels naming, stories etc - it all appears 'in the seeing' – seeing is 'prior' to it all - seeing is a constant and the seen is transient appearances. - That may seem to be too confronting. - It isn't. - It appears as liberation - for no one.

There is no one that ‘starts’ seeing and no one that ever stops seeing.

Seeing and knowing are the very same pure functioning. – Understanding is the same.

One without a second.

In chasing after some great understanding, one is 'seemingly' giving the mind a complex maze that can never be solved. – That is frustrating for the mind - like the whole spiritual game is frustrating. - When the game is dropped and some authentic looking into happens there 'appears' a 'turning point'.

In my 'ordinary life experience' it is rare that anyone wants to know about such things. – There is a definite 'atmosphere' to someone that is seriously at the 'turning point'. - There is no tolerance for games present.

The 'hunger of the masses' - the ones who flock to teachers in their hundreds in that spiritual 'big league game’ - it is all about acquiring something ‘special’ – something that is sensed as being lacking. - There is no questioning of things happening - it is a kind of mass hypnosis and anyone who does start to question things is dealt with quick smart.

The ‘honest down to earth teacher’ never pretends to ‘have something special’ there is no game being played.

Just a relentless ‘pointing’ the so-called ‘seeker’ back to the bare facts of presence awareness. – It so happens that such ‘teachers’ are rare and they do not go about promoting themselves and giving grand lectures or making people pay extraordinary prices for their teaching.

What is true is simple - it is always simple – and that simplicity is usually too boring for the average ‘seeker’ – if only because these ‘seekers’ have filled their minds with expectations and images of ‘how things should appear to be’. - A guru who 'looks the part' is not necessarily genuine and yet that is how things are playing themselves out - in the 'appearance'.

Finding what is true is not about ‘life style’ or how much one spends on seminars and books, DVD’s etc.

As for books - you only need one decent book that spells it out clearly. – Sailor Bob Adamson’s new book is such a book. – “One Essence appearing as Everything”:

Click here to go to Bob’s book page for ordering the book.

Note: I would like to thank those who have donated via this website. - I am not a pauper and do not need to ask for donations. - However, the donations will be used to provide extra input to the website. - These days there is plenty of money to be made, out there, if your a spiritual teacher. - I am not one. - Being free from those burdensome images I am free to be what I am. - The message that 'struck a home run' here is so direct - because it is directness itself. - It naturally eradicates all notions of 'time' to be spent and it removes all concepts about some 'effort' that has to be made and some result that will consequentially 'come' because of those efforts. - This is so radical and beyond belief it still seems strange how it is passed over by so many again and again. - But of course memory tells me that I did exactly the same thing for a couple of decades myself. - It was only when I met Bob Adamson that I met someone that was not peddling concepts about deliverance and some future time. - It took a little while before I cottoned onto the fact that he was not playing any guru games. - In fact his directness kept 'catching me out' and revealing that I had some biased views that were just old views, second hand views that I had picked up along the way. - They were eliminated naturally as the bare facts revealed themselves. - I don't give any credence to any teachers who promote binding concepts - that covers most of them. - The few that are direct ALL have a natural way of speaking plainly and directly. - What is true is always simple and that simplicity is in no need of complex conceptual notions at all. - Bob Adamson is the clearest and the most direct messenger (as far as I know directly) - Some of the others I will mention in case they are in your locality - Mark West (Sydney) John Wheeler (Santa Cruz) John Greven ( Oklahoma) Randal Friend (Kentucky) Nathan Gill (UK) Tony Parsons (UK) These chaps are pointing directly and without leading 'someone' on a journey in time - Follow it up if you are moved to do so - each one has a website or Blog site. - There are others but I don't like long lists - Warm regards - Gilbert.

No point of view is it.

2007-11-18T22:13:00.000+10:30

Who is going to rob you of your sacred beliefs and the comfort they give to you?
Someone that is pushing their point of view onto you? - You must think like me and do as I do, etc.
If your beliefs have any truth in them, they are invincible and are not beliefs at all - they must be facts.
Everyone would agree that the sunset last night at such and such a time.
Now we all have seen many sunrises and a sunsets. - Always different and usually beautiful, depending on the pollution in that view. - No one would argue that the sun rises and sets – for them.

Now, lets take another look at that so called fact of the sun rising or setting - If you were able to move at the speed of the sun-rising – it would be seen that the sun is always rising, all the time, every moment. – In that same moment it is also setting on the other side of the planet. – It is the midnight hour right now, whatever time you think it is - and it is also the midday hour right now somewhere - every moment of every so-called day.

The shadow of the Earth does no move as the Earth rotates in its coolness.

What is the difference between a thousand years ago and yesterday?

The only difference would appear to be, that yesterday has memories attached to it.

Ten thousand years ago is just hearsay and relics.

Everything can only appear now, including all memories and the relics also only appear in THIS moment of cognition. - What else is there? - Imagination? - Where does that appear? - Now and nowhere else - if it appears at all.

We call this moment NOW. - It is a serviceable notion and a word. - What does it describe exactly? - How can you define 'now'? - How can you define consciousness or awareness?

Same equation - no description can be adequate. - It remains inexplicable.

It is simpler to call 'now' presence. – No matter what we call it – a name is a name and it always falls short of what it describes. – The word is not the actual – just as belief is not the actual. - The word 'word' is a word that names itself and that is just a word - four letters. - Dog chasing tail. - What is achieved? - 10 years meditating - what is achieved?

The heart essence of all religions is the same. – What the heart of each teaching is pointing to is THAT – which is THIS moment of awareness – not the conditioned mind of belief and prejudice etc.

THIS moment is clear and obvious. – The mind is clear and empty.

Knowing just these simple things is enough to penetrate through all beliefs and cast aside the bondage of self. – Yet ‘people’ want to be convinced.

All the best anyone can ‘do’ is point at THAT. – The sum total of every expression about THAT, including all times ‘past’, all the words of every great teacher and every sacred text, none of it is equal to the clear empty space of know-ING that you ARE!!! - you ARE!!! - What 'time' is there in that simple being-ness? - Is there any duration in it? - Did it ever start or stop?

Is there any doubt in that simple presence?

It is NOT about the mind....never was!

Whether your 'mind' knows that or not does not make a scrap of difference.

All the fuss about this teaching and that teaching – this one says this and that ones says that – it is all of no substance apart from whatever YOU give to it in the moment.

Whatever importance you give such things does not compound into anything with any lasting qualities – unless YOU give some substance to it in the moment.

Why give support to erroneous beliefs? - Why not stay with the facts?

Now this YOU I am speaking about is not what we think it is. - That YOU I am speaking about is the essence of what you are. – You can never know it as an objective ‘thing’. – The KNOWING of all things is by that essence that you are. - That alone is reality - and reality is not a belief.

As the saying goes: Know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Belief only binds the mind.

Your nature is KNOWING and this you KNOW - but the mind may tell you otherwise.

Awareness is KNOWING and nothing more.

KNOWING and SEEING are just words for it – THAT is another word for it.

To call it IT is also misleading but all we have is language and symbols etc.

A good friend of mind says “When I enter that ‘no-think’ space……etc”

It is a quaint way of expressing something that is difficult to express in words.

It is all so very simple and yet seemingly so difficult to grasp. - For the mind it remains un-graspable and intellectuals find that way to much to accept.

Of course there is no one that can ‘enter’ into a space of no thought. – Thought simply vanishes and they are not replaced immediately as is usual.

I would say it is like this: - The realization is, or it is simply noticed, that there is emptiness and presence abiding now. – The mind labels it and then goes quiet again.- Unless conceptualizing kicks in. – That ‘no-think space’ is sometimes called non-conceptual awareness. - THAT is what the Dzogchen ‘masters’ called “The Great Perfection”.

THAT pristinely clear (what I call) space of knowing is not owned by anyone – it can never be owned by anyone nor acquired by any practitioner.

Everything and everyone ‘appears’ in THAT.

What appears in THAT must also be THAT also.

Where does that leave you and what sense is there to any search?

Stop ignoring the obvious.

All is.......under the Sun

2007-11-16T20:07:00.000+10:30

Bob's NEW book is published. -Click here - it takes you to his website for the details on ordering.

This new book from Bob Adamson is 'spot on'.

Todays note:

It amuses me that people write and ask why I don't link to this teacher or that teacher. - I usually reply explaining that the mentioned teacher is not clear and direct and is obviously telling 'stories' about 'time' and makes promises that can't be fulfilled - about a time when things will get better, if you follow their advise and do what they say. - It always implies a commitment and a long process - That is nearly always instantly interpreted as being arrogant and offensive - because that 'self-center' and its 'hero' is challenged - the email reply is always an angry one. - Yet the apparent arrogance expressed is just a bunch of words expressed in confidence - 'my' confidence is apparently unforgivable. - I don't need anyone to explain what I know first hand. - Things are obvious and it does not matter to me what anyone says to the contrary about anything at all. - You may call that arrogance. - Can you bare the weight of your own immediate knowing? - Or is there some sort of hiding from reality going on? - Do you take a back seat and let some guru be the one to bare it all for you? - That is servile nonsense.

Have a look at who it is that gets offended by words - that one who prefers the 'nice flowery' expressions that keep the mind in a dream state and support that 'spiritual self-image'. - It is delusion.

The point is that as long as you hold onto some 'image' of a 'perfect being' - someone that has realized what you still struggle to realize - that is an obstacle in the mind and the protection of that image keeps 'the bondage of self' going around the same old tracks. - It sure looks like that is what most 'people' are happy to do. - However, when the 'teacher' delivers the message, that appearance of a 'teacher' loses its emphasis and is seen to be equal to all that IS and that I am That essence of KNOWING - then and only then will there be a ceasing of unconscious re-action.

Who cares about illustrious teachers and their eccentric display of specialness? - is it only the weak minded ones bound to a concept of the future, a 'time' when they will 'realize'- when they will be 'enlightenment'. - That is a crappy unsatisfying story and nothing more than that - and the 'seeker' remains unhappy in its search - not realizing that their sacred beliefs are the very thing that supports the search and keeps it going.

BE direct and immediate yourself - do not entertain any stories about the future - cut it all away and be this naked awareness right now - SEE what the teacher is pointing at and KNOW that THAT which is SEEING and that which is KNOWING is THAT singular essential nature of being - which springs forth from Non-Being. - Samsara and Nirvana are NOT 2.

The clear empty space (the un-manifest) which is the 'knowing' of 'everything that appears' including this appearance of a (your) body along with all that appears in the mind - that Knowing is not changing. We can call that 'nirvana' - and that which appears is 'samsara' - and the pertinent point is that the 'suffering' of samsara is NOT necessary and that requires an 'entity' to suffer - but you must knowingly BE the KNOWING - and that paradox is that you already are that knowing and cannot not be THAT.

So, just because someone nudges you and disturbs your beliefs -Is that any reason to get angry? - Surely it must be a gift. - But who wants to wake from a dream?

In some of the Japanese Zen Monasteries there was a practice of one of the head monks would be an antagonistic influence on the monks, on a daily basis. - Then each 12 months the roles would change between the head monks. - Last years antagonist would be this years nice guy. - The challenge to habitual beliefs and behavior was 'organized' and what came out of that was a 'shock' that was repeatedly administered - arising from the nature of daily life. - Contrived? - Well, being hidden away from ordinary life the tendency to 'be nice' all the time can be quite debilitating to the 'living spirit'.

Modern spiritual 'people' are dreamers and they do not want to wake up - they twist and turn this way and that - and they get comfortable in their uncomfortable-ness and call that 'progress'. - The aphorisms they repeat to themselves are often just a suppressive self hypnosis that just dams the natural flow of life.

Wakefulness ALREADY IS. - It is NOT going to come via some practice or method - it already IS.

What is wrong with you? - It is a valid question. - Are you completely deluded?

Can you shake yourself? - Do you pamper yourself in a bed of erroneous beliefs? - if you can't shake yourself out of it then allow someone to do it for you. - It is funny how some words will bring up so much angst. - Automatic re-action is mechanical by its nature. - Who wants to know that?

Do you just want stories? - It's a valid question. - But remember every rose has its thorns.
There is so much bullshit floating about, about non duality and many people pay big fees to go and listen to some guru prattling on hour after hour. - And yet what is true is so simple - it is so simple the whole thing can be expressed in a few minutes.
If you want a clear and precise expose on non duality, get Bob's new book - it is extremely direct and easily understood.

Let's talk about life:

Two men fire their guns across a battle field at one another. - Each man believes that God is on his side and victory is assured for him because he believes it - although doubt most probably plays about in his mind like a devil. – Belief is a seemingly powerful ‘thing’. – ‘People’ die for their beliefs and they believe it is their right to fight and die for their beliefs. – A rational examination of this absurdity must reveal something about 'belief' itself - but the exploration of that is a rare thing, it would seem. - Where did these fighting men get their beliefs? – Are those beliefs an intrinsic inclusion in their essential being or are they acquired from ‘outside’?

When I was drafted to go to Vietnam, the last of about ten doctors who examined me, was maybe a couple of years older than me. - He had a degree in Psychology or Psychiatry. - He was a pleasant chap, was young and still had a heart.

His first question to me was “Do you want to go?” – I answered “No”. - He then asked me “Why not?” – I answered “Because I do not believe that I could point a gun at another human being and pull the trigger”. - There were many other young men who were eager to do something exciting, they wanted to go, and it came to pass that I was not finally drafted.

I must confess I still don’t understand what the war was about. - What I remember was a pervasive ignorance in the community and 'something' had the country in its grips. – The media was not such a good watch dog in those days and maybe it isn't much better these days either. - A good believable story is all they want, it would seem - sell lost of papers! _ Who cares what is in them - there is always tomorrows edition to get it right.

Throughout history men have waged war against each other, sometimes it would seem over the most trifling things. - Madness on mass. - A Roman Emperor gave his city folk the Gladiators just so they could taste the blood and gore of Rome's victories and they loved it. - Such is the common sensitivity of the mass.

Modern movies are rife with violence and blood thirsty acts, depicted in all their glory. - What strange creatures we are. - The box office sales reflect it all fairly clearly. - The directors are celebrities, held up as icons of creativity. - Then we worry about violence in the community, after glorifying it on the big screen. - Then we expect God to forgive our 'sins' and let us into heaven without blinking an eyelid. - It is all stories - all of this is conceptual.

Do you find yourself reflecting on your own views of such things? - Ethics - are they just mind constructs?

How do you measure up?

How do you measure your life? - In decades, years? – Seasons, months, weeks and days? – Hours and minutes?

What about THIS moment right now?

How can that be used to measure anything?

Is there any need to measure anything called ‘time’ in THIS moment?

It just is.

Do you imagine that the ‘sun’ is concerned by the rotation of its many planets? - Does it favor this one over that one? - Is Earth its favorite planet?

Is it concerned by the ‘drama’ that unfolds on the surfaces of those planets?

Of course it is not - it just shines - and it knows no darkness.

These things are just mentioned here as a possible useful means of conveying something by describing various things one may not have thought much about. - Points of view.

Many things can be written and opinions can be expressed.

I am not an economist and my opinion on such things as war and the economy are pretty facile. – But it would seem to me that many of the worlds problems could be solved if just the massive finance that is poured into wars was redirected into something useful. – When a war head explodes, what is achieved? - It cost maybe a million dollars. - Who pays for that and what possible profit can there be in destruction? - Do we really call this evolution? - I call it the evolution of the specimens - what G.I. Gurdjieff called 'Slugs'.

- What are these wars really about? – Has anyone really explained it in simple everyday language? - It looks like complete madness to me and isn't it quite absurd that the media has become impotent, like a dog that has grown old and lost its teeth. - Who can you trust? - When your sons and daughters go off to fight a war based on who knows what? - Who will comfort you when the bad news comes in?

A Newspaper journo? - No way - they will just buy you a coffee and ask you penetrating questions, get a story so that their viewers and readers can sit in the comfort of their armchairs and read or hear about someone else's misfortune. - Civilized people of Planet Earth.

Arrogance? - Who is arrogant? - Better to look at what you unconsciously 'go along with' and then call it civilized. - Who is the judge? - and of what?

The sun sets everyday, does it not?
No the sun sits in the open sky. - Because you are more or less placed physically in one place, the Earth rotates and the sun appears to set. - It is rising in the same moment somewhere else.
Locality is everything - that is what a real estate agent tells us.
Awareness is not located anywhere specifically. - You cannot go anywhere where it is not.
If you could, how would you know it?

The elusive CAT - How did you miss it? - it is as Blunt as a Sumi Wrestler's butt.

2007-10-29T14:57:00.000+10:30

Bob's NEW book is off to a flying start. -Click here - it takes you to his website for the details on ordering.

I highly recommend this book. - Carefully selected and compiled so as to deliver the message clearly and precisely. -All the major 'points' are there. - It is an accurate record of some profound expressions in simple everyday language. - No high flying conceptual notions in it.
Everyone should be able to follow what it points out.
It is a remarkably compact and direct representation of Bob's clear expressions and deserves to be widely read.
I am repeatedly touched by Bob's 'ability' to be so direct about THIS 'presence' and his 'never going off track'. - I have never heard him lead anyone off into any elaborate conceptual notions - it is always expressed clearly and always a gentle nudge, bringing it back to present evidence - direct experiencing - back to the basics.
In my opinion it is a most welcome addition to the other two books. - This new book will no doubt touch a lot of newcomers to this 'teaching'.

The great illusion is that there is someone who is going to 'get things clear' and that someone else is helping that someone to see clearly.
At the moment of that illusion being cat away, the clear seeing is found to be present - that it has always been present. - It never was obscured. - The seeker is impotent and has no being whatsoever - it can't even disappear without the living essence that 'appears' to give it life.

The so called search can only disappear - that is the sum total of its potency. - The search can never transform into some result - some objective result that has any permanent quality to it - in fact it is all transient and dream-like. - All those prolonged 'years of service' or of struggling with 'getting anything' is just a bad joke. - What you, that essence that you are is, is already complete - that 'is-ness' is all you need and that is-ness can never be a need or be lacking in anyway, except to 'appear' as a lack in imagination.
-Popular 'pathways' and 'teachings' are just expressions that appear to be 'time bound' and full of concepts about 'acquiring' - these misconceptions about non duality are seen through.
Belief as a 'means' is very a 'popular way' but belief is never going to bring anything - it is a closed circuit - club mentality - it actually keeps one going around in circles bound to condition that don't even exist. - Just because something is popular does not mean it is 'true' - in fact it is usually the opposite - the 'common dream' is not reality.
Knowing what is true, in your own direct experiencing, is the only way - and THAT knowing is always immediate - it is not a concept and it does not depend on any concept or the 'years of absorption' that many appearances called 'teachers' promote as the basis, the 'glue' that binds 'other appearances' their followers to them - it is a joke - all happening in appearance only.
The point is that there never was anyone that was bound.
Let the dead bury the dead - Let the blind lead the blind - investigate 'belief' and see for yourself. - Recognizing the truth is instant, immediate and one also sees that the usual mind stuff has nothing to do with direct recognition. - The words of the guru are not there in that direct seeing - naked awareness - his words can only point you to that - How can he deliver you to THAT - that which you ARE and That which you have never moved away from and what 'time' is there to 'get' anything?
The so-called 'mind' is seen from beyond the mind and one realizes that thought cannot see or know anything at all. - I have always been THIS knowing.
The myth of 'enlightenment' is a belief only - it is not a 'bad thing' - a myth is nothing but a story about another 'time' and it cannot remain in the light of knowing - it can only be in the imaginary realms of mind - just like a dream can only appear in sleep. - Wakefulness registers everything without favor - the minds habitual bias is called 'me' and 'mine' - concepts only.
- Clear and present awareness is not a concept - it is never a concept! - A concept cannot contain awareness because it is only an appearance IN awareness. - Get things in the right order and you can forget about practices and methods - it is only a 'self-image' that depends on such things.
Note:
Did anyone see my CAT? It got lost in the paragraph above somewhere.
Cut the cat out and email it to me. - Replace the gap it leaves with some other word.

Email: To Gilbert: Sometimes I look in the mirror and there is a sublte sense that this "me" is not what is seeing - like this "me" is also an object - or, looking at my hands there is a sense sometimes of less familiarity - almost, as if someone elses hands.
Regarding your pointer"you are nothing but the experiencing" ...I immediately habitually looked for an 'experiencer' – but it is seen that what I am is 'closer' than an experiencer – ‘experiencer’ is after – an addition.
Respectfully - S.

Reply: Yes - that is it! - I am THAT in which Everything appears - fresh and new – yet it does not change in essence – ‘fresh each moment’ and even the multiplicity, the concept of ‘each moment’ melts into One moment and even the concept of 'moment' loses its meaning - 'then', which is always ‘now’ it is seen that - THIS IS IT...... this is it.......
The bars of the conceptual prison evaporate - and one knows that freedom was and is always present.
You are ‘prior’ to all things.
It is strange for the habitual stance of the mind - because all the mind ‘has’ is concepts - and as the concepts melt away - the ‘fresh and new’ is sensed as being ‘strange’ -then that falls away as well.
But I see that all this talk can support a sense of expectation - the point is THIS IS IT - it already IS.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Videos of Gilbert speaking at Bob's can be found as 'links' on the next Note or on the website menu.
These notes are addressed to anyone, yet the language may appear 'strange' to those not familiar with Non Duality 'conversations'.
The so-called ‘mind’ is at all times empty. – The so-called ‘mind’ ‘seemingly’ divides up the natural Unity of everything and then holds onto an expectation of coming to an understanding of Oneness.
Like a biology class, they can dissect a living frog into a hundred ‘parts’ in order to understand ‘the frog’ and ‘biological life’. Even if the worlds best micro-surgeon worked for many hours to reassemble the frog, that frog is never going to take another leap to freedom or even take another breath.
There is an ancient quote that says: “The sum of the parts is not equal to the whole.”
The mysterious quality we know and call ‘Life’ is not an objective ‘thing’ – it cannot be found, except as the animator of ‘matter’. – Like the wind it remains invisible.
You are the same. – No matter where you search, you will never discover yourself as an object. – You will never ‘see’ yourself – that is even logical, since you are the SEEING. – Turn this way and that and only the view changes. – Seeing remains.
It was popular a couple of decades ago, to go in search of yourself. – Thousands of books were written about that ‘search’. – Thousand upon thousands ‘went’ on that search and even though they looked everywhere, under ‘every rock’ and behind ‘every tree’ – they found nothing except new ideas and new concepts.
They did not know that an investigation is necessary – an investigation of ‘who’ is searching.
Only the so-called ‘mind’ seemingly divides wholeness. One must be the whole to know the whole – THIS living intelligence is the whole ‘appearing’ as every perceived ‘thing’.
It is not limited to any particular ‘pattern’ that it appears as. – No pattern can contain the whole.
The whole is not vain, conceited or proud. - It is not afraid or searching for itself.
It is not a concept.
The whole contains it all – without exception or preference, likes or dislikes.
Bob Adamson says many things that are clear and precise. – One is this: “Start from the fact that you are THAT.”
The ‘mind’ cannot approach that – yet its very nature is THAT – clear and empty.
The intellect can not appreciate that - it does not know 'how' to - because 'that' is non-conceptual. – When the intellect is quiet, that clear emptiness is most obvious – it is very subtle because it is actually 'no thing'.
The first movement of the mind away from ‘that’ may be to claim ‘that’ and so one falls back into a conceptual realm of separation.
The ‘habitual mind’ is like quicksand and it convinces one that ‘I am back up to my neck in it’.
No instructions will work, no methods can bring results, except in the ‘appearance’.
Find ‘that’ in yourself, that which does not change.
Recognize its obviousness and KNOW that that is what you are.
That is wholeness.
There is no separation.