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#3677 -
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
The Basics
Stay With The Basics
1. YOU are Awareness, simply being. No one can say they do not
exist. That existence, the sense of "I" as in "I
Am," is undeniable and inescapable. Try to NOT BE. Cannot be
done. So the simple pointer is, what you are is That Presence or
Awareness that YOU ARE. Being. Just That! This True You ...
BE-ING... is POINTED TO in language with concepts like Impersonal
Consciousness; Awareness, Being ... YOU are just THAT, prior to
the mind's translation into the thought I Am and I am this or
that.
2. You are NOT an "individual." There are NO
"individuals" anywhere except in unreal stories. The
idea of a separate person is a fiction, a mind-construction, a
house of cards, as the story tries to say, “I’m ME!
(Unsuccessfully!) This idea of a "me" is ... on
investigation ... seen to be a false claim by the thinking
machinery to its own separate existence. This ever-changing idea
of a person is simply unreal. WHO says "I'm Me?" The
mind. To be blunt, it's bullshit. The whole fabricated story of
me is pure bullshit: all stories of “individuals” is
actually a fiction. As Shakespeare said, it’s a tale told by
an idiot, filled with sound and fury, signifying … NOTHING.
Look right now! Seeing with naked Awareness, where is any person
… unless you (as a mind-identity) think about it? Thoughts
come and go. What you ARE NEVER comes and goes anywhere. It is
(You Are) fully Here Now and Eternally Free and Clear, Eternally
Presence, Shining before the mind.
YOU are not a thought, not a concept, not a feeling, not a time
bound entity. You are Awakeness, Aliveness, Presence-Awareness.
Just THAT and NOTHING else. The story of “me” …
ANY “me” … is irrelevant. Let's cut through that
crap right now! Okay?
Let's bring this back to the basics: What in YOU never changes?
Being-Awareness, just That. That is your True Nature. The
Ultimate Subject IN which and AS which all apparent
“objects” appear.
Where is a separate entity when you are in deep dreamless sleep?
Or under anesthesia? There is none. Obviously! But some Presence
beats the heart, breathes air in and out, flows the blood, grows
new cells and disintegrates other cells, grows hair and
fingernails, ages the body etc etc! Who or what is
"doing" all that? Not an "individual,"
"amazing" or otherwise.
Look and see that you are present and aware right now. That is
the "Eternal," The Natural State; there is no other, no
attainment, no flashy enlightened state, no carrot on a stick.
There is NO someday when “you” will “get
enlightened.” It's what you are right now. There is no other
than NOW. Wherever you are you are ... Here. That's IT. Big
Casino. You already got it in total and there's nothing more to
this Nonduality stuff than that simple seeing, that you ARE.
Awareness, Simply That.
-Charlie Hayes
From the blog
of Charlie Hayes:
http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/
The imaginary individual does not progressively disappear! One
does not see through a mirage by slowly bailing the water out of
it cup by cup! All troubles are for this conceptual
“I”, not your actual being. The most direct approach is
a head-on investigation of the reality of the separate
“I” posited in thought. Where is it? What is it? Did we
ever see it? If it is an illusion now, that means it never
existed. The cause of all the problems never was present in the
first place. If the cause of the problems has never been present,
then what happens to the problems? They cannot stand. Nothing
external keeps the false “I” going. This is a bit of
backwards logic! What keeps the “I” going is the
continued belief in it. External events do not generate that
belief. This is how the mind tries to slip out of the directness
of the inquiry. In what do all things come up and disappear? What
sees them? Only that non-divided, ever-present, pure awareness
itself. You are that. In seeing this, you are home — because
you were never anything other than that. Suffering only arose
when self-centered thoughts came up and a bit of belief went into
the “I” notion. What happens? One overlooks the natural
state and assumes oneself to be something one is not (a
defective, limited “I”), instead of the clear and pure
sky of knowledge that contains everything.
~ John Wheeler
From “I Am That”, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
~ Chapter 53
Questioner: I must confess I came today in a rebellious mood. I
got a raw deal at the airlines office. When faced with such
situations everything seems doubtful, everything seems useless.
Maharaj: This is a very useful mood. Doubting all, refusing all,
unwilling to learn through another. It is the fruit of your long
sadhana. After all one does not study for ever.
Q: Enough of it. It took me nowhere.
M: Don't say 'nowhere'. It took you where you are -- now.
Q: It is again the child and its tantrums. I have not moved an
inch from where I was.
M: You began as a child and you will end as a child. Whatever you
have acquired in the meantime you must lose and start at the
beginning.
Q: But the child kicks. When it is unhappy or denied anything it
kicks.
M: Let it kick. Just look at the kicking. And if you are too
afraid of the society to kick convincingly look at that too. I
know it is a painful business. But there is no remedy -- except
one -- the search for remedies must cease.
If you are angry or in pain, separate yourself from anger and
pain and watch them.
Externalisation is the first step to liberation. Step away and
look. The physical events will go on happening, but by themselves
they have no importance. It is the mind alone that matters.
Whatever happens, you cannot kick and scream in an airline office
or in a Bank. Society does not allow it. If you do not like their
ways, or are not prepared to endure them, don't fly or carry
money. Walk, and if you cannot walk, don't travel. If you deal
with society you must accept its ways, for its ways are your
ways. Your needs and demands have created them. Your desires are
so complex and contradictory -- no wonder the society you create
is also complex and contradictory.
Q: I do see and admit that the outer chaos is merely a reflection
of my own inner disharmony. But what is the remedy?
M: Don't seek remedies.
Q: Sometimes one is in a 'state of grace' and life is happy and
harmonious. But such a state does not last! The mood changes and
all goes wrong.
M: If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and
expectations, you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern
of events. It is your restlessness that causes chaos.
M: At least it did not slow them down, as your kicking would have
surely done! You want immediate results! We do not dispense magic
here. Everybody does the same mistake: refusing the means, but
wanting the ends. You want peace and harmony in the world, but
refuse to have them in yourself. Follow my advice implicitly and
you will not be disappointed. I cannot solve your problem by mere
words. You have to act on what I told you and persevere. It is
not the right advice that liberates, but the action based on it.
Just like a doctor, after giving the patient an injection, tells
him: 'Now, keep quiet. Do nothing more, just keep quiet,' I am
telling you: you have got your 'injection', now keep quiet, just
keep quiet. You have nothing else to do. My Guru did the same. He
would tell me something and then said: 'Now keep quiet. Don't go
on ruminating all the time. Stop. Be silent'.
Q: I can keep quiet for an hour in the morning. But the day is
long and many things happen that throw me out of balance. It is
easy to say 'be silent', but to be silent when all is screaming
in me and round me -- please tell me how it is done.
M: All that needs doing can be done in peace and silence. There
is no need to get upset.
Q: It is all theory which does not fit the facts. I am returning
to Europe with nothing to do there. My life is completely empty.
M: If you just try to keep quiet, all will come -- the work, the
strength for work, the right motive. Must you know everything
beforehand? Don't be anxious about your future -- be quiet now
and all will fall in place. The unexpected is bound to happen,
while the anticipated may never come. Don't tell me you cannot
control your nature. You need not control it. Throw it overboard.
Have no nature to fight, or to submit to. No experience will hurt
you, provided you don't make it into a habit. Of the entire
universe you are the subtle cause. All is because you are. Grasp
this point firmly and deeply and dwell on it repeatedly. To
realise this as absolutely true, is liberation.
Q: If I am the seed of my universe, then a rotten seed I am! By
the fruit the seed is known.
M: What is wrong with your world that you swear at it?
Q: It is full of pain.
M: Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence
and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind. Change your scale
of values and all will change. Pleasure and pain are mere
disturbances of the senses; treat them equally and there will be
only bliss. And the world is, what you make it; by all means make
it happy. Only contentment can make you happy -- desires
fulfilled breed more desires. Keeping away from all desires and
contentment in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state -- a
precondition to the state of fullness. Don't distrust its
apparent sterility and emptiness. Believe me, it is the
satisfaction of desires that breeds misery. Freedom from desires
is bliss.
Q: There are things we need.
M: What you need will come to you, if you do not ask for what you
do not need. Yet only few people reach this state of complete
dispassion and detachment. It is a very high state, the very
threshold of liberation.
Q: I have been barren for the last two years, desolate and empty
and often was I praying for death to come.
M: Well, with your coming here events have started rolling. Let
things happen as they happen -- they will sort themselves out
nicely in the end. You need not strain towards the future -- the
future will come to you on its own. For some time longer you will
remain sleep-walking, as you do now, bereft of meaning and
assurance; but this period will end and you will find your work
both fruitful and easy. There are always moments when one feels
empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable for it means
the soul had cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places.
This is detachment -- when the old is over and the new has not
yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing; but
there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the
instruction: whatever you come across -- go beyond.
Q: The Buddhas rule: to remember what needs to be remembered. But
I find it so difficult to remember the right thing at the right
moment. With me forgetting seems to be the rule!
M: It is not easy to remember when every situation brings up a
storm of desires and fears. Craving born of memory is also the
destroyer of memory.
Q: How am I to fight desire? There is nothing stronger.
M: The waters of life are thundering over the rocks of objects --
desirable or hateful. Remove the rocks by insight and detachment
and the same waters will flow deep and silent and swift, in
greater volume and with greater power. Don't be theoretical about
it, give time to thought and consideration; if you desire to be
free, neglect not the nearest step to freedom. It is like
climbing a mountain: not a step can be missed. One step less --
and the summit is not reached.
posted at http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html