Person & Being

The person that I am is an expression of being.

It is possible to have a relationship with any person.

And yet no person can ever have a relationship with being,

as every person is nothing other than an expression of being.

the search for meaning

the search for meaning

finally falls

right into itself


why


because every eye

is only this

immediacy

of pure seeing


any so called

meaning

of you

can not

be found

in

you


when


the meaning

of you


is

you

Reality

Reality as it appears is never separate from reality as it is. However reality as it appears discovers its own greatness, moment by moment by moment, in giving itself up to reality as it is.

"What is Wrong with Me?"

What do you think is wrong with me?

Nothing! There is no "you" or nothing outside of you. Take your pick.

It may be that you feel bad, in a way that seems out of step with your current circumstances, due to some vasanas. It is similar to what happens when you nearly have what is certain to be a bad fall. Even though you catch yourself from falling, your pulse still races. Your feeling that something is wrong may be like this.

Your feelings are not you. They are happening IN you.

Silence

These are all of the things that Silence surrounds:

all things

and everything, everything


If you can perceive or conceive it,

Silence already has it

in its thoughtless and kind crook

Before you can say you are

and judge, Silence

is the hand

fitting your glove, is

the foot walking and talking

your shoe.

Walking Around

At times as my feet

are moving themselves on

unrolling sidewalk, a church bell sounds

over the long exhaust noise

while light lies gently around

and thoughts rise in my mind

as only thoughts and I

don't even think them.


Shrubbery and houses twist and scrawl

and edgeless life pulses

and flows itself.


At times it is morning;

I am walking inside myself

as this bright flowing of life,

and the sky is clear blue

and the trees only click their leaves faintly

and the autumn chill lights through everywhere

and leaf colors joyously paint themselves multicolored,

and small birds peep from a cropped tree

in perfect wonder.

drop is ocean

me is the haunting

of a single drop

and this is

all ocean


what happens

when ocean

enters drop

is utterly utterly

unexplainable


and utterly utterly

unattainable


for every drop

is only

pure ocean

The Presence of a Master

You have been talking lately about teachers and masters...Is a master important?

While a master does not consider his or her self to be separate from anyone or anything, the presence of a master does have a effect. This effect is with people who are assuming themselves to be separate from other people and the whole vast, edgeless flowing of life.

The "I" of the pretending character is not the person that appears. It is an invisible assumption that is supported by vasanas. As an analogy, you might say that the assumption "I am" is like the tap root of a plant that is surrounded and supported by all of the plant's other roots. Usually only the plant is considered, which is the specifics of what the character is doing, has done or will do.

A master's presence silently works to "shut off" the roots of this phantom plant. He or she is not doing anything. And yet--without this presence--more and more roots will continue growing indefinitely, which will continue feeding the illusion of plant-ness.

Karma

What can I do about my karma?

You can investigate your own nature by inquiring "Who am I?" Aside from this you are helpless.

***

There are actually three types of karma.

Firstly, there is all the past karma that has accumulated as the result of actions over many lifetimes.

Secondly, there is the karma of living in relation to so many other beings. Any sentient being is like a ripple on a stream in the open flow of life with countless others--both sentient and non-sentient.

And, thirdly, there is the karma that emerges in the present moment. If you are taking yourself to be a separate "I" or "me" then this pretending character is also accumulating new karmas that are due to present action.

***

This third type of karma is what comes to an end, as a matter of speaking, when the "I" sufficiently questions itself. Without a "basis" it can not continue to develop.

However, there is still the result of the other two types of karma. Any sage or master has the personal and life that he or she has due to past actions as well as the actions (both past and present) of so many others--because of these types.

So even a sage has karma; even a master is helpless to end it.

***

Find your own present helplessness and you need not worry about ending any karma.

Instead you can laugh at it and enjoy it!

i never learned to smile

i never learned

to smile


this joy

this joy

that already

is is


a cup

running over

everywhere


no smile

could ever

do this

justice


this wide-awake

being-ness


so


openly


edgeless

"I Feel Ashamed..."

Another video of Karl Renz.

Two Videos of Madhukar

On Silence

Q & A

A Passing of Grace

I recently read an article by David Godman that considers some of Ramana Maharshi's teachings about aham sphurana.

This article caught my attention mostly because this sphurana experience is something that happened for "me" right before the question "Who am I?" finished itself.

So, although I was quite oblivious about it as it happened, I can attest to its significance.

***

At any rate, this article has helped to clarify that it was Bhagavan's grace that "set off" this "sphurana experience" allowing the Self to "realize" the Self.

Only I should qualify this by saying that in the aliveness of the Self there is no separate "me" who was then "helped" by any separate "Bhagavan". It is simply that the Self smiled in recognition to the Self in the guise of a passing of grace from "Bhagavan" to "myself".

Which is to say that something happened to a seemingly separate "me" so that it could be clear that nothing separate happens at all.

Two Songs by John Wheeler

The Sailor Bob Song

Song of the Sixth Patriarch

The Carrot of "Enlightenment"

Here is a VERY funny video of Karl Renz.

no i & no you

what is it that

flashing lightning

flashes or

the shining sun

shines within


is it not

infinte

and spaceless

space


what is it that

infinite

and spaceless

space

appears

within


is it not

your very own

unseeable

and pure

being


i would tell you

to be this being

only i

don't have to


why


because there is

only this being


and no separate telling i


and no separate hearing you

the eye that never sleeps

i am

an eye

that

never

sleeps


each

seeming thing

appearing

appears

only within

this eye

that

i

am


and so i am shapless

and without boundaries

and without qualites

and without duration

and unnamable


every eye

whether

closed

or open

is open to

nothing

other than

this

not possible

it is not possible

for you to attain

and not possible

for you to loose

the you that you

already are


the aliveness

exploding

as a leaf


or clouds

flowering

across

the vast sky


or the smallness

and tenderness

of an infant's

hand


or the blue

or brown of

her or his

eyes


this aliveness

is nothing

but undeniable

saying of


unsayable

you

Your Inner Eye

I feel that I am in my body--inhabiting it and--that my body is me.

What about your mind?

What do you mean?

Do you sometimes think that you are in your mind? For example when your mind thinks about how your body looks whenever your look into a mirror--or thoughts that tell your body to get out of bed and get ready for work in the morning.

I also am in my mind.

So which one are you in...if you had to choose?

I can't decide between them!

Why not?

Because I am both of them.

What about your heart? What do you know about it?

I feel love for people and for things with my heart.

Love for all that arises?

I wish I could say so!

Who says that you can't?

Sometimes I do.

When? Is it when you are in your body or when you are in your mind?

Both.

How do you see this "I" that sometimes inhabits your body and sometimes inhabits your mind?

I don't know. I see it with my heart?

Yes! You see this "I" with your heart.

Your heart is your inner, invisible eye. When you look at an object with your physical eyes, you know that this object in not your physical eyes; they are what sees any physical object. Yet what is it that they can not see?

They can not see themselves.

Right. They can not see themselves!

So my heart is like my eyes?

Yes. That's right. Your heart is your invisible and undeniable being-awareness.

And heart is not a special "thing". It is your own innate and natural being. By staying with your own natural being you find that your body and mind are presently free. Why? Because they are not you. They are only a passing shining out, only an arising IN you.

You Are

You are not in your body.

Your body is in you.

You are not in your mind.

Your mind is in you.

You are not in your emotions or feelings.

Your emotions or feelings are in you.

You are.

You are ALL of this that is arising in you.

"Do 'Dualistic' Practices Have Any Value?"

Do 'dualistic' practices have any value?

Who does a dualistic practice? Let's look into that first. If you are assuming that you are a separate person, an individual, then you may also find, in doing a practice, that you are getting some benefit from it. Only the quality of the benefit will be as limited as the assumption that it is predicated on.

The most helpful practice that I am aware of (it may be more accurate to say that this is an anti-practice; because it helps to reveal the present nonexistence of the practitioner!) is that of turning back repeatedly to your own natural awareness--initially by asking "Who am I?" This is helpful for the simple fact that to be continually misapprehending yourself is similar to banging your head against a wall. Nothing new is added to the scene for you to stop banging your head against a wall. Only something extraneous is left off from. And the very instant that you stop the "action" of banging your head against the wall of one thing or another--you may discover that no wall exists. There is only this simple and ever-present and natural awareness.

Right Now

Right now is the time to have a look and see if the separate person that you imagine yourself to be can even be found.

It can not be that you are your body for the simple fact that you do not always see or experience your body (as in deep dreamless sleep)--and yet you remain to come back around to some experience of your body. Nor can it be that you are your mind; for, once again, you do not have a constant experience of your mind. Also it can not be that you are "in" that place that you might imagine yourself to be "in"--you can not be that invisible marble inside your head, between and behind your eyes. In sleep you are not "there".

So where are you? What are you? Who are you?

***

Right now, in the natural immediacy of your experience, you can not deny that you are. And you can not say what or who you are. You are simply not findable. You can not even say that you are the awareness that thoughts about your experiences are arising in because that would seem to negate these thoughts. And all thoughts and all things--however ephemeral or dreamy they may appear to be--do exist as the plain shining out of what is.

You are what is. Right now. Don't take my words for it. Have a look now and now and always now.

The Natural State

What kind of state were you in [when you wrote the poems in your book]?

I was in the natural state. In sanskrit this is sometimes called sahaj samadhi--which means the natural state. 'Sahaj' means natural and 'samadhi' means state. It is the same state that both of us are in right now.

It is perfectly natural to not find a line drawn around yourself, to not find that you seem to be separate from other people. In fact everyone and everything is with us in this natural state right now. Only so often people take themselves to be in a state where they seem to be separate. If you look now you can not explain in what way you are separate. So it must be only a passing assumption--a very simple misunderstanding.

And if you cut out the misunderstanding, if you question into the assumption by looking for 'who' or 'where' the seemingly separate person is, you will see immediately that such a 'one' can not be found.

"Thank You"--"You're Welcome"

Can anything conclusive be said about what is?

Certainly! Much can be said and much is said. And yet, is anything that is said final? Is anything that is said conclusive?

No!

What is 'conclusive'? It is a word, a concept, a thought--like anything. It is only energy pulsing in the mind, only breath vibrating some vocal cords.

AND 'conclusive' is also a pointer to your own natural being which is complete, whole, joyful, at ease, pure, and simple. This being, this awareness is the you that you already are. You can not be anywhere other than right here and there is no happening, no occurence apart from now. This here is what is. You are what is. And if you are not realizing that you are what is you can look now and realize now.

What do I realize?

Well you do not realize any 'what' at all. 'What' is simply another passing word, another passing thought. It is simply the content of the moment. You realize you are the you that you already are. Which means that you stop putting mental energy into trying to get or realize anything, and you stop trying to become someone or become something more--and you simply rest in your own always-present being.

Thank you.

Yes. You're welcome.

On Turning 35

Thirty-five years ago tomorrow my body was born as an expression of this that is as birthless as it is deathless.

I can not say what I am. I can not say that I am not.

I am neither born nor unborn.

I am not awareness or aliveness or beingness or no-thing-ness either in part or as a whole--apart from the person that I appear to be.

My body is right here. With my fingers I am typing these words as they float up in my mind.

Tomorrow Jamie and I will celebrate my birthday.

It will laughable.

It will be so much fun.

To Be Simple...

To be simple is to be in your own natural being which is prior to all feeling.

The first feeling is the feeling "I am". And this feeling is a seed of assumption that all other assumptions grow out from. So if you feel like you are separate you investigate as any assumption arises back to this fundamental assumption.

When you investigate your basic feeling of being a separate, independent someone, you can not find where this "one" is. You may feel like you are somewhere in your body. But then which you is seeing the "you" it feels like is somehwere within your body.

***

There is only the open spaciousness of aliveness, beingness, awareness that every feeling and every thought is appearing in and playing out of. And this is you--as you are shining out through the body and the mind and the heart of the person that you are--as you are shining out as all that is. Now and now and always now.

***

This matter is so damn simple that you will never get it. You are the you that you already are. Now and now and always now.

You are as undeniable and as you are indescribable. Simple awareness. Simple beingness. Simple aliveness. Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, and thinking. Now and now and always now.

A Sage

A Sage lives in not-knowing. What does a Sage know? Not a thing?

Not-knowing is awareness, aliveness, beingness, what is. This is not known. It is only pure knowing--knowing-ness.

All that is is in not-knowing and it is that same not-knowing. And so the Sage is nothing other than not-knowing. His body is not-knowing. Her mind is not-knowing. His heart is not-knowing. Her actions and words are entirely not-knowing.

What is not-knowing?

Not a thing that can be know. And yet, and yet IT alone IS.

More?

Is it true?

Do you need more?

Do you need more energy, more intelligence? Do you need more wealth or more love? You are the you that you already are. So what might happen (what does happen!?) when you get more?

When you get more of anything are "you" satisfied in a lasting way? Doesn't getting more simply make this "you" want...more?

Anytime you find yourself wishing for more of anything, this is the time to have a look to see if that "one" who seemingly wants more is even actually here.

***

Who wants more?

I do.

Who am I?

I am.

Who? What this I? Where is it located?

A hand can not grasp itself. Eyes can not see themselves. Yet how is this I talking to itself? Is it talking to itself?

Who am I?

Aliveness!

Eyes looking. Fingers typing. Ears hearing. Nose smelling. Mind thinking out of shapeless empty silence.

This is not-knowing.

Taking a bite of food. Nothing but simple aliveness. Now and now and now.

The mind and body that are lined up behind this AND expressing out of this--this aliveness.

Minus the pretending character, the mirage of "I", it can not be any other way.

The Void

I look in the mirror and all I see is the void.

I look in the beautiful eyes of my wife, friends,

co-workers, and strangers and all I see is the void.

I look at any and every object arising and all I see is the void.

I look at God and all I see is the void.

Where is there not the void?

I look into the void and all I see is, again,

the void.

The void is pure looking.

***

There is no "I" outside of a word in this looking.

Does the World Exist?

Does the world exist?

Yes. It exists as an arising within your own being. Your being is more than your seemingly individual and self-conscious self. Your being is simple awareness. Your eyes see even without a separate someone trying to make them see. And likewise your ears hear, your nose smells, your fingers touch, and your tongue tastes. You have a vast panorama of physical sensations, emotions and thoughts and they all happen quite naturally. They all simply arise.

Only a pretending "I" tries to arrange thoughts or do things. This "I" is similar to a gnat perched on a steering wheel. The greater power of life steers left and the gnat is very pleased with itself. But then life steers to the right and the "I" is displeased and displeased again when it unexpectedly steers left again. The trouble is not with the way life is flowing. The trouble is imagined trouble that is the result of the gnat assuming that it has control.

So you can simply recognize that any control is imagined. You don't have any control because you don't need to have any control. This life IS already your own being and so the world that arises in it is your world and is you.

It is because you exist that the world exists.

I Want to be in That State

I understand the things you are saying intellectually. However I haven't gotten it in experience. I want to be in that state all of the time.

You already are. That is why it is called the natural state. I never ask you to find something or to attain anything new. The natural state is not anything that you can or will discover or attain. It is that ever-present ease of being. You can not be away from it.

Then why don't I feel at ease?

Who says that you don't already?

The ease of your own being has to be ever-present. Otherwise you would not be able to come to your seeming dis-ease. Don't worry about these feelings. Whenever they come up just watch them. What comes always goes, yet this that is spontaneously remains. And this is being-awareness, which is only you.

The Guru is Within

Do I need to meet a guru to discover who I am?

No. You are the you that you already are. There is no discovering this--except as a matter of speaking.

And yes. If you think you are someone separate you may be helped (again as a matter of speaking) to consider the words of a guru who is at rest in his or her own natural state--who makes no effort to become someone or something.

This absence of effort is similar to the way a magnet magnetizes all the iron around it or the way a black hole turns everything into itself. Only there is a difference in that the guru is turning you into the you that you already are.

***

It is common think that the guru is separate (albeit enlightened) and that I am separate (and unenlightened). However this is not the case. The guru is only the light of pure being and that light is your own. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj once referred to the outer guru as a milestone and explained that the inner teacher will walk with you to the goal as it is the goal.

You may meet an outer teacher. Or you may not. If you do meet one you will finally have to break free of that person by looking to the light of your own natural being.

What makes the lasting difference does not happen without. It happens within.

Past Relationships, Past Temptation

I recently left a difficult relationship. How do I deal with it?

You said you left it.

How do I deal with the feelings that I still have?

Oh, you don't. Don't deal with them. Whenever some feelings come up you might simply watch them come and then watch them go. You are always the pure awareness that any feelings arise in. That awareness that you already are has no boundary--so there is plenty of room for everything to be watched--and not only feelings. Thoughts too. And physical experiences like a headache or a sore back. Don't "deal with"; watch.

***

I used to party a lot. I don't anymore--only I still think about it sometimes and I am tempted.

You still do what sometimes?

Think about it. (Laughs.)

Yes. You can laugh at thoughts. They don't bite. If you laugh at them they might even stop barking. But even if they continue barking they are only an occasion for you to laugh.

And I do not mean only out loud. The way to laugh at thoughts is to look into the simple fact of your own being-awareness. It always comes back to this. You are the you that you already are. Awareness. You don't have to do anything or change anything within yourself. Just laugh over what arises.

Thoughts on the Ego

My thought of being separate is just ego, isn't it?

Your thought of being separate is just thought! What is ego? Ego is only a word. Leave ego out of it.

Then do I not need to get rid of my ego?

What is that question you just asked? That question is only a thought. Your assumption of being someone separate and having a thing called an ego that you then need to get rid of is also nothing but thoughts. Look to the being-awareness that your thoughts are arising in. You are already firmly established as that being-awareness. You can not tell me that you are not.

So the truth is that I am not the ego?

That "truth" is also just a thought.

Simple! (Part II)

I had a big breakthrough as I was thinking about how you said that I am being-awareness. I realized that I always thought of Christ-consciousness as something buried inside myself, when Christ-consciousness is really just the awareness that I already am.

Yes. This is the plainest fact. In it there is nothing to realize. "Realizations" are only more of the content--more of what is arising IN this awareness. They are no trouble, of course, AND they are not you.

I also realized that the being-awareness that I am is not different from the being-awareness of anyone else.

All of the classic sages have expressed this--including Jesus. It is only within the pretending character that there would seem to be some difference. Within the pure awareness it is just the difference of one body or another or another and one mind or another or another. These are arising in the awareness and there is not difference in that.

The awareness is spontaneously and naturally aware without being self-conscious.

Thank you for pointing this out. It really helps a lot.

It is only within the pure awareness that awareness returns to itself. That is not anything at all. It is simply the end of extraneous imagining.

Simple!

You are the you that you already are. Simple and natural being-awareness.

So maybe you can help me with a problem I am having? I am angry a lot and I have a lot of guilt about it. I realize that guilt and anger are only an illusion, but still I am having trouble.

Don't look at your thoughts or feelings. Look to the simple fact of your own being-awareness. Before you can feel angry that light of your own natural being is already on. And nothing obscures this. This light is the you that you already are. See that you are never the anger and never the guilt; these only arise sometimes and pass away. They have nothing to do with you.

So you are saying that I am identifying with thoughts and that that is not who I am?

Yes. Seemingly you are entangling with thoughts. Only if you look right now you see that thoughts are mere arisings in the being-awareness. That simple awareness is you. Everything that you can experience happens in it. It has to be first before anything else can be. So everything depends on this being-awareness.

Eckhart Tolle says that one should simply watch what is happening without trying to change anything.

This is a simple practice that you may find helpful--to simply witness what is coming up. The pure awareness that you are is the space within which anything that arises appears and then passes on. Nothing but the awareness is permanent.

So all I have to do is remember to do that.

You are not doing anything. It's more simple than that. The light of your being is always on.

The World

The world is dead to me. It is a forgotten spark in a fire with no boundary.

I am none other than that fire.

If you look you can not see me for I am the very looking as it flows and beams through your eyes and your mind's eye.

The world's distress is laughable. It appears only to a pretending one who is ignorant of me. That distressing appearance is not the real.

The real is the looking itself.

The real cradles a beautiful and good little planet called earth. This earth is a gently-peopled shining out of pure love.

Nothing that is is outside of the real.

Any world is the fire that I am.

Mind is Like the Moon

Mind is like the moon
in daytime sky.

It's power

is not as great as it would seem to be

for being the imagined greatness
of an imaginary "I".

This imaginary "I"

once looked for spontaneously goes--

goes as it never actually was.

No Existence Outside of This

You are the you that you already are. Regardless of how the pretending character of "I am" is seemingly entangling with what is arising, and all the while feeling and thinking that something is missing, something is incomplete--you can not and will not ever "get to" yourself. You can not and will not ever "find" yourself. There is nothing to find outside of your own being-awareness and there is no separate someone within that being-awareness.

It is almost difficult to imagine how any person could even make such an assumption, when right here and now, all that there is--is this.

There is no "who" or "what" or "where" to this. This never happens as someTHING.

"What is this?" Who wants to know? Not this. This has no need of knowing. This is knowing-ness itself.

All arises within this. There is no existence outside of this.

And this is brahman.

And this is YOU.

Sri Ramakrishna: A Saint In Two Worlds

"If one analyzes oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as 'I'. Take an onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the red outer skin; then you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other and you won't find anything inside."

***

"All trouble and botheration come to an end when the 'I' dies. You may indulge in thousands of reasonings but still the 'I' does not disappear. For people like you and me it is good to have the feeling, 'I am a lover of God.'"

--Sri Ramakrishna

***

Sri Ramakrishna was a great jnani (knower) to be able to point to the natural state in all the ways that he did. AND he was also a great bhakta (lover), as he often sang songs and prayed to God as Mother and he would usually guide aspirants to increase their own love for God.

***

Advaita begins where it ends. It begins by pointing to the simple fact of the natural state of pure being, pure awareness--which is the "not-two" of atman, or being-awareness as a person, and brahman, or being-awareness as infinity, as these are as they are already. And so one quite literally has nothing to attain. You are the you that you already are. And that is that.

This is the way of knowledge.

***

The way of love takes a different starting point. It is a point A to point B course, as firstly the existence of "I" is presumed and then this "I" sets itself on a trajectory to become more loving. One seeks to, in the words of Christ, "Love God with all of your heart, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself."

And these two ways would seem to be very different from each other.

Only are they?

***

To love in this way that Jesus points to is itself knowledge and to live "devoid of 'I'" in the way that Ramana Maharshi mentions in Upadesha Saram (The Essence of Instruction) is itself love.

In the absence of "I" there is no one to think or do anything. There is only the thinking and action of God beyond either description or denial.

Right Here, This Instant

Papaji (Sri H.W.L. Poonja) used to all the time say, "I only want one instant."

This is because it only takes one instant to recognize the you that you already are.

And if you seemingly fall out of yourself and back into the character (which isn't even here)--this is no problem as it only happens in imagination, and so it can not stain or blemish the ever-shining fact of your own being-awareness.

You can look into the mirage of it all and in that very looking you can laugh. You are only ever this simple looking.

Right here, this instant.

You Here Now

Your "returning" to the you that you already are must be right here and now.

And now is not a "what" and here is no "where".

There is no "here" here.

There is only here.

There is no "now" now.

There is only now.

Nothing ever occurs to a separate "you".

***

There is only you.

Words

No one knows.

No one knows that no one knows.

This is not-knowing. And not-knowing is only knowing. Knowing-ness.

***

Is there something that you want to know? Only a pretending character can "know" and you can not. Who is that "one"? "Who" wants to know?

In this that always is no one wants to know or not know. There is no one "other than" in this.

Words about this are only words about this IN this. There is no trouble with words. "Who" would hear or believe them?

Words are an unsayable wonder.

Love-World

There is nothing to love in the world. As an object the world does not exist.

There is only a strangely soft orb called earth turning in space and covered with innumerable things and organisms. All shining out as a play within undifferentiated being-awareness. And happening spontaneously and for no one.

What is there to love when there is no one to "do" the loving?

And yet, and yet--love is!

***

Negation of the world is only to disentangle a pretending character. This character "swallows" it"self". And in that "swallowing" a world shines out in wonder and in love.

***

Nothing ever happens. So this, this has never happened before: the shining out of aliveness as a person, as all people, as a world and everywhere.

No one loves the world. And everyone loves the world and is the world. The world is the plain shining out--the expression of love itself.

There is no "other than" in this love.

Spiritual Journey

The entire spiritual journey can be reduced to a single question which is, "How do I get here?"

It is a seemingly paradoxical question. And it is either useless or useful for you depending on how you are taking yourself as you read these words.

If you are taking yourself to be someone (and even no one is someone) then you can have a look to this basic sense of "I am". This sense of "I am" always seems to be "in" something. And what it is "in" constantly changes.

"I am" may seem to be "in" the body one moment and then "in" the mind or emotions the next moment (and not that there is any such THING as time). So when you seem to be "in" it is because you seem to be in the first place. And when you seem to be, this is the sense of "I am". And this implies the question, "Who am I?"

"I am."

"Who am I?"

This is only the Self talking to Self.

A Great Mystery

"No one is ever away from the Self and therefore everyone is in fact Self-realized; only--and this is the great mystery--people do not know this and want to realize the Self. Realization consists only in getting rid of the false idea that one is not realized."

--Sri Ramana Maharshi

***

What you are is being-awareness. Plain and simple aliveness. This is the Self and this, as explained by Bhagavan in the quote above, is already accomplished and always the case.

It is only a pretending character who wants to get away from this and to that. There is actually no from this and no to that. There is only right here. And in this here there is no need to arrive any"where".

***

As a result of the fundamental assumption "I am" there is a play of "I am this." "I am this body." "I am this name." "I am this role that I am playing of father, mother, brother, sister, enemy, friend," and so on.

The simplest way of "return" to the natural state is to look for the "I am" that always comes before any particular thoughts of who, or what, or where this "I am" is.

And once this "I am" has be separated out from all objects, the "I am" is--in an instant--seen to be nothing at all.

Nothing, that is, save the Self which is also God.

Silent Fire

behind my eyes and before my tongue

space is a dancing flame

a rushing silent fire

consuming all

You Can Not...

You can not grasp your own hand. You can not kick your own foot. You can not bite your own teeth. You can not see your own eyes.

AND you can not attain to the you that you already are.

***

The one who wishes to discover or attain it"self" is not you. That one is only a pretending character. A play that is happening in you.

It can not be gotten rid of--which of course is no dilemma.

This character is all at once and quite naturally laughable when it is seen for what it is: a mirage of a barren and stoney desert within the lush and beautiful oasis of your own natural being. There is literally no findable thing, no actual someone to give up or rid oneself of--as this pretending character has no basis in reality.

***

Only have a look right here and now and see right through this character, this allegedly separate one.

That seeing through will be a laugh. That seeing through will be a burst of joyful tears. That seeing through will be sound and fury with out boundaries. That seeing through will be a crashing into great silence.

And in it the whole of existence will be shining out in the plainest way. Plain and simple. Easy and clear. Just like it is already and always shining out.

Just like this.

Go Into the Sky

Go into the sky and tell me if you can find any blue there.

Take up some water in your hands and tell me if that water has any blue in it.

Go into the person that you are right now and tell me if there is any separate person, any individual "you" present.

You will never find such a thing. You only seem to be separate when you take it on assumption that you are a someone.

Yet anytime you have a look you will never ever find any such one.

If you feel or think that you are only look.

In the looking you will tear down your own baseless and pointless assuming.

Naming

This is God. This is Guru. This is Self. This is me. This is you.

***

Never uttered by a single tongue, this has been the only uttering that humanity has ever uttered. An utterly, utterly unutterbale uttering.

There is no up or down in this. There is no big or small. There is no green or blue. Green and blue are only names. And any name is only a pointer to this.

***

God is the name of this. Guru is the name of this. Self is the name of this. Me is the name of this. You is the name of this. And all of this naming is a sheer impossibility.

Who names? I name. Who am I? Only a name.

A name is no trouble. A name is only a name. Name is only naming. There is only ever present and unnamable naming.

You & I

What it is like to be me is what it is like to be you. And it is totally different.

My being-awareness is exactly like your being-awareness.

Only different arisings happen in the play from "where" I am seeing it. Only I am a different person from you.

These differences are no difference.

I am no "I". You are no "you".

I am aliveness shining out. I am pure being-knowing-ness. As are you.

I am. You are.

You and I are the very lovingness that is IS-ing before there is the playing of lover and beloved.

There is no mystery or end to the mystery that is this here, now.

You

What is shining out of your eyes? What is feeling with your fingers? What is hearing with your ears? What is smelling with your nose? What is tasting with your tongue? What is thinking thoughts with your brain? Isn't it aliveness? Isn't it being-awareness? Isn't it you?

You have eyes, fingers, ears, a nose, a tongue, and a brain. Yet you are not any of these. They are only aspects of the person that you are. Yet this person is also not you. This person is only a vehicle of you.

There is nothing that is you. There is nothing other than you.

Nothing to Get

Chakras are chakras. People are people. Toes are toes. This room and the things in it are this room and the things in it.

Here there are fingers and ears. Fingers pecking at keys to type this and ears hearing the pecking.

Nothing is happening outside of this. Everything is happening in this. This is not any happening. This is simply this.

***

If you are trying to get this then that trying is also this. There is no actual mistake in your trying.

Who would make a mistake?

Dream Words

There is neither atman nor brahman. Nor is their the absence of either.

There is neither this world nor the absence of this world. For whom would it either exist or fail to exist?

There is no "I" and yet you are. This unsayable yet undeniable you does not negate any arising.

There is not lack or need within the you that you already are.

All lack or need is only the baseless imagination of a character that is dreaming itself.

A Fictional Line

Any knowing character depends upon knowingness shining out through the mind.

Any assumption of "I am" is an assumption made outside of your body and mind or any thing that is arising. "I am" pretends to entangle with some arisings. Say "I am" is like saying wave. For whom is there either wave or ocean?

Every arising, every thing is always spontaneously unentangled.

Your body is already free of "I am". You mind is already free of "I am".

If you doubt this only look now. You can not presently locate "I am" within your body. You can not presently locate "I am" within your mind. "I am" is merely an imaginary line dividing wave from ocean. Where does a waves end? Where does the ocean begin?

You can not presently locate "I am" within your heart even as your heart it is feeling and feeling and feeling.

***

What is an assumption aside from it"self".

You are not an assumption.

You are the you that you already are.

Neither Knower Nor Feeler

You are not a knower.

Your knowing self is a pure fiction and when this fiction is seen in this and every moment to be fiction no difference is found between atman (pure awareness as a human being) and brahman (pure awareness as infinity). All is this non-difference. All is not-two.

Nor are you a feeler.

The not-two that comes with seeing the absence of the doer or knower is still something. And there is not even this something. There is neither "I" nor "other-than-I". Neither duality nor nonduality. Neither bondage nor freedom.

***

There is no world other than this world that is arising now. There is no person other than this person right here. There is no awareness other than this very awareness shining out as a person with eyes reading these words right now.

This can not be said with words other than these.

Sounding Silence

You are great silence.

Since beginningless eternity you have never made a sound.

You have never made the faintest sound because every sound is only the sounding out of you within you. Any ear that would hear your would-be sound is itself more of the same sounding out of the you that you already are.

Listen now.

Do you hearing any sound outside of your hearing?

There is no sound ever heard and there is no hearer of sounds. There is only this ever-present sounding, only this ever-present hearing and only this ever-present now of you.

Unsayable, Undeniable

You are not a someone and not a something.

You are the you that you already are.

This you is pure being-awareness. It is absolute aliveness. Within IT every thing that is arising is simply an arising.

Nothing gets you to back to you (as you have never for even a fraction of a moment been way from yourself) AND nothing can block, keep or hold you away from you.

No separate, individual character exists other than a pretending character. And if that pretending character is playing out of being-awareness of you then even that, regardless of how that character may seem or feel unto itself, can not be other than the you that you already are.

You are not your body. Not your eyes. Not your tongue. Not your fingers or your toes. Not your ears. Not your nostrils as breath is drawing into them. Not your skin or your muscles or your bones.

You are not your heart.

You are not your brain or your mind. You are not the thoughts that you have in your mind. Neither are you your sensations or your emotions or your psychic knowing.

You are the knowing-ness which is without shape or form or beginning or ending. And the knowing-ness contains all arisings. All arisings. Arising are the simply the plain shining out of the you that you already are.

You are unsayable.

You are undeniable.

Spontaneous Arising

Assuming that you are the doer or knower or feeler is not a real obstacle to the you of you.

You are the you that you already are--already and always.

Nothing at all can or does or will obstruct or obscure this you, as such obstruction or obscuring is not possible.

You are not a doer, not a someone. And you do not fail to have every thing that is arising spontaneously arise within you.

The arising of you is a spontaneous arising.

My World

I live in a shapelessly shaping world. In it there is no "I" or "other-than-I". And time is all the time swallowing itself in a beginningless now which never ends.

To enter my world is to be the you that you already are--is to fall into your own immediate face. It is the end of a succession of myriad things and a present opening into ever-present no-thing-ness.

In my world you are not the one you assume yourself to be.

Nothing Other Is

You are.

You have no who, no what, no when, no where, no why, and no how to you that is not every who, every what, every when, every where, every why, and every how.

You are.

You are no this or that or someone or no one.

You are.

And nothing other is.