The Immediate nature of Presence.
News: A new program on the Urban Guru Cafe is uploaded regularly.
The latest program, in my opinion, is the cream of them all. - It is a remarkable interview with Bob Adamson. Remarkable because of various things - one being that it has a quality of 'one to one' 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.
I am sure that many will actually gain insights from simply listening to it. - Don't miss it.
It does not matter 'who' your teacher is, if you have one or not - listen to this interview with an open mind. - It is highly revealing for anyone no matter 'who' they think they are nor where they are in this life - as long as they 'hear it' clearly. - It transcends all traditions and beliefs.
It will be presented in two parts. - The first part is 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.
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'.
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.