Pointers

Your true nature is both prior to bliss and beyond it.


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Om is the music of your being. It's what Nisargadatta Maharaj often called the "unstruck sound."


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You--as an individual--are just an idea (or group of ideas) that you have about yourself. The real you is utter spaciousness.


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Practices and processes may produce results, by the results will be merely experiences, not the recognition of your timeless essence.


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You think you are seeking liberation. But what you are doing is hanging onto this imagined "me" which is attempting to "gain" some imagined state.


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For the most part, you are distracted by your body-consciousness. But note that there is a presence in addition to your physicality. It is a knowingness that is sheer, radiant, and palpable.


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You can never find "your center." What you will find, if your understanding is deep and clear, is that you are centeredness itself.


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Look for what is always present. What is it about you, at this very moment, that does not change? Again, what is it about you, at this very moment, that Does Not Change?


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In the absence of a thought, there is no true absence. Rather, there is pure, nonconceptual awareness, which is immeasurably rich, clear, and peaceful.


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True silence doesn't come from "connecting" with nature or even with "your spirit" (whatever that is). You are awareness itself. You have no need to connect with anything. Indeed, whatever you do is redundant, at best, and destructive, at worst.


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Practices, processes, meditation, celibacy, enforced silence, sojournes to India, etc, are so enticing because they give solace to the notion that there is an actual "me." So you readily continue your spiritual exploits, despite your being told that they won't bring you a smidgen closer to knowing who and what you truly are.

Q&A: No Doer Thereof

Question: Hi Rodney, I found your site through Randall Friend's blog. You both offer wonderful pointers and clear instructions. Thank you!

Rodney: Thanks for your kind words and for taking the time to write. The pointers nearly write themselves, which is one of the reasons I carry a half-dozen pens and a digital recorder in my knapsack. Yet, I still forget to record or jot down a fourth of the pointers that come to me. By the way, the best ones are those that are accessible and that give an immediate pause.

Question: I'm writing with some confusion about how "reality" appears to the "me," and how it will appear when I unwaveringly know what I am?

Rodney: The "me" is nothing more than your thoughts, personality, habits, and consciousness. All these are things come and go. So there is no way that they can recognize that which is always present, i.e., nonconceptual reality. This "me" is also the mind, which is only the appearance of thoughts and concepts. The mind is not capable of knowing your natural state. It is awareness that knows consciousness and ideas, and not the other way around. But your phrase, "when I unwaveringly know what I am" harbors some truth. For with self-knowing, you do unwaveringly know what you are. Just don't give the "when" any credence. For you are already awareness itself.

Question: Doesn it mean I shouldn't be concerned about the global economic meltdown or the environmental crisis? What is really happening anyway? When questioners asked Nisargadatta about the world situation, he would ask "what world"? Is reality only what we are aware of in the present moment? Is mental involvement with external issues just more ego games? These questions really perplex me.

Rodney: Notice that you asking about what you should and shouldn't do. Such questions only distract from what is clearly before you, right here and now. And what is present is your own peace and limitlessness. You are overlooking it by dwelling in conceptuality, however important the above issues may be. But since your ultimate concern is with knowing who and what you are, why not center on that ever-present clarity to which all the genuine teachers and sages are pointing? Upon seeing that, your other questions will either be thoroughly answered or will no longer have any primary importance. As for the world, Nisargadatta was pointing to the fact that everything is awareness, including this planet. The earth is not an entity unto itself. And neither are you or I. As Buddha said, "the deed there is, but no doer thereof."

Question: And speaking of the Buddhists, they teach the importance of "right livelihood." Is that relevant in an nondual context? Many advaita or neo-advaita teachers tend to quit their day jobs and become satsang teachers, although there are some exceptions, such as John Wheeler and you.

Rodney: "Right livelihood" isn't relevant in a nondual context. Some people, upon understanding who and what they are, quit their jobs and teach. There are some who can't afford to do so. And there are still others who continue at their same jobs because they enjoy their occupations. All this depends upon the person's personality, which tends not to change after self-realization.

Question: How does the world appear to one who is awakened?

Rodney: At a slight remove.

Question: When I pay attention, I clearly see that I am that empty awareness in which everything arises, but that doesn't seem to be very transformative.

Rodney: If awareness is clearly recognized, trust me, it is indeed transformative--though I hesitate to use that word, given that you are seeing something that you already are. There is no entity to be transformed. Just keep coming back to the pointers (either here or elsewhere) until your ever-present radiance is incontestible.

Pointers

Your natural state is fully present. It is your ordinary, everyday awareness seen in all its richness and subtlety.


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The mind is not a thing. It is a function, an appearance of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and images. There are other aspects of this functioning also, which include reason and intention.


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During your next pause in thoughts, remain with what is clear and obvious: That transparent immediacy and sheerness that you heretofore have overlooked.


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There is no person to be awakened or liberated. Your very nature is freedom and spaciousness.


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It is all so magical, and yet so ordinary--this perfect presence of awareness.


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Your sacred, nonconceptual truth is neither disguised nor in need of being attained. Don't believe those who tell you otherwise.


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When there is seeking, there is movement and disturbance, neither of which can help you to see your abiding peace and stillness.


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Your Buddha nature is the Christ within. It is also your natural state. These are just expressions that point to your fundamental Truth.



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Ultimate freedom is knowing yourself as awareness. This requires no time or effort--just an understanding or seeing. You possess that limitlessness at this very moment


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While sitting quietly in your chair, see that there is something in addition to the sensation of your body pressing into the seat. See that there is also (and ultimately) an awareness of your body sitting quietly in the chair. This awareness may manifests itself as spaciousness and presence. But it can't be missed. It is what you truly are.

Pointers

You are not your thoughts. You are the knower of your thoughts. Can a shadow see itself?


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Ultimately, you are not even the knower. There is only knowingness, and you are That.


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It isn't a question of truth being proximate, available, or near-at-hand. Gurus and false teachers use these expressions to keep seekers hook on their on brand of nonsense.


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While reading these words, see that you are seeing into your own immeasurability. It is, at once, beginningless, simple, and incontestible.


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No concept or definition can fully describe this living reality. The closest terms that come to it are such ones as, I am, Presence, Beingness, and--despite its gross stereotyping--the Sanskrit sound syllable, Om. Meditators the world over wrongly chant it for "enlightenment,"when actually it is the silence that surrounds the syllable that, classically, points to our natural state.


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Ah, this supreme presence of awareness...Huang Po was so utterly (and beautifully) correct: "It is that which you see before you."


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Pause and discover your ever-present, self-shining sheerness. It is that easy.


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Nonduality is no world of words. It is a pristine teaching and pointing to our nonconceptual nature.


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No belief, surrender, acceptance, or effort is necessary for this understanding to occur. It is merely a matter of recognizing the unfathomable depth and peace of our everyday awareness. It is there right now, directly before you, and as you. Don't move from this. Abide in that which has always been in plain view.