What is it that is aware of the words that you are reading? What spaciousness is recognizing these sentences before you?
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No amount of wanting or craving can bring you to this understanding. Just take a moment and see the reality of what you are, right here and now. It is that simple.
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Life's ultimate question is not "Who am I?" It is "What am I?"
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This presence of awareness is your natural state. Any attempted move from it--whether by meditation, sitting, silence, chakra-awakening, concentration, and even virtuous acts (that are done for the expressed purpose of attaining some higher state, rather than performed selflessly and spontaneously)--only puts you in a speculative loop. Absolutely nothing gets seen or understood.
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Suffering is based on the belief that you are somehow separated from your unchanging core. Neither the "you" nor the separation is actual. You are pure, nonconceptual presence.
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Take note when your questions aren't directly about self-knowing. Are you asking something out of curiosity or out of a deep need to understand your true identity. Curiosity is perfectly fine. But when it distracts you from your own effulgence, the issue needs to be addressed. And this is easily done by grasping the frivolousness of the question itself.
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See that there is an apparent direction to your knowingness--that your awareness recognizes a thought, feeling, or image. It is not the other way around. Thoughts are inert. Awareness perceives them. You are that awareness.
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Ironically, trust and deep faith have their places in nonduality. These qualities are present (and florish) when seekers and questioners resonate with a teacher's words or being.
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Unquestioning people identify with what is most apparent to them, e.g., their bodies, minds, and ethnic/cultural grouping. Some even distinguish themselves by their jobs and personalities. Then there are the spiritual seekers who aren't at all sure of who they are. So they use such terms as soul, atman, divine spirit, and unitive state for what they hope to be their sacred identity. Finally, there are those rare persons who seek to know the ever-present peace and fullness of their own awareness. There is, of course, nothing rare about presence. It only appears to be so because its simplicity and bareness are so easily overlooked. But once it is seen or understood, there is no going back, no maintaining, and no more questions. As Nisargadatta Maharaj put it, "The picture is complete now...Your recognition abides in the Self."
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Q&A: It Lacks for Nothing
Question: I dabbled in tradition after tradition over the years, until recently throwing in the towel once again after an intellectual romance with nonduality.
Rodney: Nonduality can't be romanced. It is its own clarity and loveliness, and lacks for nothing. And neither can it be intellectualized. Well, actually, it can and is all-too-often the hallowed subject of comparative studies and abstruse spiritual tomes. But nonduality proper, that spiritual and philosophical tradition that points to the fundamental unity of all things, can only be known by direct experience, not by theories and treatises.
Q: So I'm right back to throwing in the towel, it seems. I still get "Nonduality Highlights" and read your blog. But I'm really at a lost these days.
Rodney: You've mentioned three laudable things: 1) You've thrown in the towel on your "intellectual romance" with nonduality; 2) You continue to read credible nondual publications and writers/teachers; and 3) You feel thoroughly lost. Only this last point requires a bit of explanation. Were you adament on your being an individual rather than something infinitely more than that, there would be little chance of your having any true perceivings of yourself. So being lost isn't synonymous with being without hope. Then again, hope is purely conceptual in this neck of the woods. For you are already that which you are seeking.
Q: What am I not understanding?
Rodney: Good question. Among other things, that there is no "I" or person there to grasp or comprehend anything. What is in ample evidence is a knowing, transparent spaciousness in which your body, thoughts, traits, and habits appear. This spaciousness is your own everyday awareness. You just have never brought your full attention to its profundity. Or you have never paused to grasp the fact that your thoughts, dreams, and emotions can't behold anything. So what is it that is recognizing all of this? You are that discerning presence that espies the coming and going of even consciousness.
Q: Thanks for the replies. I'm still trying to let go everything and feel the seamless fluidity of my thoughts and being.
Rodney: The registration of your perceptions is happening anyway. To add a "you" there only complicates matters, as it does for all meditators and spiritual "practitioners." Better to be attentive to the fact that you, as a person, do not exist. For you are awareness itself. There is nothing for you to see other than that. It is simply a matter of looking and verifying this through your own direct experience.
Q: Why do I have such an unquenchable urge to discover the truth of this matter?
Rodney: Such questions only take you from the matter at hand, which is your own incontestable presence of awareness. That, literally, is where the riches lie. A clear seeing and understanding is all that is required. You asked about your urge to discover what you are. I say, forget the "why." Just run with it. Or better yet, come to a Full Stop and see what is what. It is so simple, and yet, so extraordinary. But always, it is you.
Rodney: Nonduality can't be romanced. It is its own clarity and loveliness, and lacks for nothing. And neither can it be intellectualized. Well, actually, it can and is all-too-often the hallowed subject of comparative studies and abstruse spiritual tomes. But nonduality proper, that spiritual and philosophical tradition that points to the fundamental unity of all things, can only be known by direct experience, not by theories and treatises.
Q: So I'm right back to throwing in the towel, it seems. I still get "Nonduality Highlights" and read your blog. But I'm really at a lost these days.
Rodney: You've mentioned three laudable things: 1) You've thrown in the towel on your "intellectual romance" with nonduality; 2) You continue to read credible nondual publications and writers/teachers; and 3) You feel thoroughly lost. Only this last point requires a bit of explanation. Were you adament on your being an individual rather than something infinitely more than that, there would be little chance of your having any true perceivings of yourself. So being lost isn't synonymous with being without hope. Then again, hope is purely conceptual in this neck of the woods. For you are already that which you are seeking.
Q: What am I not understanding?
Rodney: Good question. Among other things, that there is no "I" or person there to grasp or comprehend anything. What is in ample evidence is a knowing, transparent spaciousness in which your body, thoughts, traits, and habits appear. This spaciousness is your own everyday awareness. You just have never brought your full attention to its profundity. Or you have never paused to grasp the fact that your thoughts, dreams, and emotions can't behold anything. So what is it that is recognizing all of this? You are that discerning presence that espies the coming and going of even consciousness.
Q: Thanks for the replies. I'm still trying to let go everything and feel the seamless fluidity of my thoughts and being.
Rodney: The registration of your perceptions is happening anyway. To add a "you" there only complicates matters, as it does for all meditators and spiritual "practitioners." Better to be attentive to the fact that you, as a person, do not exist. For you are awareness itself. There is nothing for you to see other than that. It is simply a matter of looking and verifying this through your own direct experience.
Q: Why do I have such an unquenchable urge to discover the truth of this matter?
Rodney: Such questions only take you from the matter at hand, which is your own incontestable presence of awareness. That, literally, is where the riches lie. A clear seeing and understanding is all that is required. You asked about your urge to discover what you are. I say, forget the "why." Just run with it. Or better yet, come to a Full Stop and see what is what. It is so simple, and yet, so extraordinary. But always, it is you.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Pointers
Full Stop means "This is It"--this is That from which you never move.
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Meditation is merely thinking about your true nature. It is a conceptual endeavor that, ironically enough, prevents you from recognizing your ever-present Reality. When you meditate, you put the idea of "enlightenment" (and even your natural state!) someplace in time and outside of yourself. This amounts to a concept pursuing a concept. Nothing can come of this because the results would be only more ideas and cogitation, not a direct knowing of what you are.
**********
Who are you? There is no individual there, no ghost in the machine. Look deeply, and you will find a natural, extraordinary, and spontaneous functioning of nonconceptual intelligence.
**********
Sages as varied as Huang Po, U.G. Krishnamurti, and Nisargadatta Maharaj were consistent and emphatic on using the expression "natural state" for our absolute presence. When one's understanding is clear, one sees that there is, indeed, a supreme ease and timelessness to self-knowing.
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Awareness is the spaciousness in which consciousness occurs.
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Because you witness consciousness, you cannot possibly be consciousness. Anything that you can observe--from your body and thoughts to your personality and emotions--cannot be your true Self. You can only be that which knows objects and events. You are the unchanging essence of life itself.
**********
Awareness is what you are. The who is merely a conversational convenience, not a reality. Keep coming back to the whatness. Allow yourself to see and--this is vital--to abide in the immediacy of your beingness. More often than not, people move away from pointers too quickly, not realizing how close they are to a clear understanding of themselves. That's why, when reading Nisargadatta Maharaj, you will often see him reiterating--after some choice pointer or response--to "Stay with" the stillness that you're feeling right now or to remain with that "something which was prevailing."
**********
Your mind cannot help you with this. But that's cause for celebration, not woe. Awareness is prior to and beyond any thoughts, labels, speculations, or analysis you might have about it. So instead of approaching the matter intellectually, you now know--from the start--that self-knowledge can only come through seeing or understanding. You promptly put any preconceptions aside and focus on what is undeniably present at this very moment. See that there is a rich, wide-open knowingness to your (seemingly) ordinary awareness. Don't move from what you are. Abide in that stillness until your radiance is perceived. And then you will know that the light was always shinning, and that you were not, for one moment, ever lost.
**********
Meditation is merely thinking about your true nature. It is a conceptual endeavor that, ironically enough, prevents you from recognizing your ever-present Reality. When you meditate, you put the idea of "enlightenment" (and even your natural state!) someplace in time and outside of yourself. This amounts to a concept pursuing a concept. Nothing can come of this because the results would be only more ideas and cogitation, not a direct knowing of what you are.
**********
Who are you? There is no individual there, no ghost in the machine. Look deeply, and you will find a natural, extraordinary, and spontaneous functioning of nonconceptual intelligence.
**********
Sages as varied as Huang Po, U.G. Krishnamurti, and Nisargadatta Maharaj were consistent and emphatic on using the expression "natural state" for our absolute presence. When one's understanding is clear, one sees that there is, indeed, a supreme ease and timelessness to self-knowing.
**********
Awareness is the spaciousness in which consciousness occurs.
**********
Because you witness consciousness, you cannot possibly be consciousness. Anything that you can observe--from your body and thoughts to your personality and emotions--cannot be your true Self. You can only be that which knows objects and events. You are the unchanging essence of life itself.
**********
Awareness is what you are. The who is merely a conversational convenience, not a reality. Keep coming back to the whatness. Allow yourself to see and--this is vital--to abide in the immediacy of your beingness. More often than not, people move away from pointers too quickly, not realizing how close they are to a clear understanding of themselves. That's why, when reading Nisargadatta Maharaj, you will often see him reiterating--after some choice pointer or response--to "Stay with" the stillness that you're feeling right now or to remain with that "something which was prevailing."
**********
Your mind cannot help you with this. But that's cause for celebration, not woe. Awareness is prior to and beyond any thoughts, labels, speculations, or analysis you might have about it. So instead of approaching the matter intellectually, you now know--from the start--that self-knowledge can only come through seeing or understanding. You promptly put any preconceptions aside and focus on what is undeniably present at this very moment. See that there is a rich, wide-open knowingness to your (seemingly) ordinary awareness. Don't move from what you are. Abide in that stillness until your radiance is perceived. And then you will know that the light was always shinning, and that you were not, for one moment, ever lost.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Essay: Slow the Boat
The only reality is this living reality. Thoughts, feelings, and sensations appear and vanish within it, and is the stuff from which they are made. Another name for this reality is presence, which is your ordinary, everyday awareness seen in all of its depth and timelessness.
A full-seeing is all that's needed. It's akin to kayaking or canoeing on a tranquil bay. You slow the boat. It stops and sloshes, as you gaze into the turquoise waters. At first, you only perceive the bright fragments of things, which seem just within reach. There are medleys of exotic fish amid variegated coral and sponges.
Relaxing your vision, you see that because of the light's refraction through the water, the bay is not at all shallow, but deep. Now you can make out long, undulating sea shadows, as well as canopies of kelp and sea grasses along the sandy bottom. Even from the surface, you can observe that there is a deep and profound sereneness down there, a calm that defies description.
This is how it is with your everyday awareness. You (seemingly) skirt its nature by not bringing your attention to its richness and subtlety. This is unfortunate, to say the least! Recognizing your nonconceptual nature is far easier than plumbing the depths of a bay. For there are no tricks of light or blurs of reef tropicals--just a pristine clarity without diminishment or measure.
A full-seeing is all that's needed. It's akin to kayaking or canoeing on a tranquil bay. You slow the boat. It stops and sloshes, as you gaze into the turquoise waters. At first, you only perceive the bright fragments of things, which seem just within reach. There are medleys of exotic fish amid variegated coral and sponges.
Relaxing your vision, you see that because of the light's refraction through the water, the bay is not at all shallow, but deep. Now you can make out long, undulating sea shadows, as well as canopies of kelp and sea grasses along the sandy bottom. Even from the surface, you can observe that there is a deep and profound sereneness down there, a calm that defies description.
This is how it is with your everyday awareness. You (seemingly) skirt its nature by not bringing your attention to its richness and subtlety. This is unfortunate, to say the least! Recognizing your nonconceptual nature is far easier than plumbing the depths of a bay. For there are no tricks of light or blurs of reef tropicals--just a pristine clarity without diminishment or measure.
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