Pointers

Truly, the simplicity of this cannot be imagined.


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Be still a moment and see that you are stillness itself.


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Before any thoughts or concepts about awareness arise, awareness is thoroughly present. It is a felt-transparency that is, at once, subtle and profound, pristine and manifest.


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Consciousness, being a state, changes. But presence, the unmoving background, simultaneously knows consciousness, penetrates consciousness, and is the essence from which consciousness is derived. It takes less than a second to see this for yourself, to see that you are completely beyond all space, time, and even the scriptures. For you are That to which the nondual/advaitic classics are pointing.


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Life is Existence, Knowingness, and Peace. But all of these are manifestations from a single reality: Nonconceptual awareness.


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Deep sleep proves that something continues to exists when there is no ego, no mind, no bodily sensation, and no consciousness. You are that something at this very moment. You needn't look for it at night (in deep sleep, there is only unconditioned awareness, which isn't aware of itself). Discover this for yourself. What is it, right here and now, that Does-Not-Sleep?


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Attempting to live in the "now" is utterly foolish. Who is the person or individual that is trying to achieve this? You are timelessness itself. Why (seemingly) obfuscate your innate clarity by attempting to bring in a fictitious person to attain something that you already are? Like meditation, mindfulness, mantra-chanting, and forced silence, this seeking the "now" is a complete waste of time and energy.


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Self-knowledge isn't something that can be acquired by the mind. You can only understand who and what you are after the thinking stops.


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Thoughts, concepts, and conjecture are totally irrelevant when it comes to nonduality. For before any scriptures can be parsed and debated, you are That. These three words capture what cannot be expressed in the sum of all books and teachings. You never move from this radiant spaciousness. Every thought, emotion, and perception is a mere momentary manifestation of only That.


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Forget such expressions like "Inner Witness", "Absolute Subjectivity," and "Self-Existent Reality." Even knowing the exact definition for each term would not help to know yourself. Why? Because your knowledge would only be conceptual. Take an easier and more direct "route" by attending to what Zen master Huang Po repeatedly affirmed: "It's right in front of you!"


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You are seeking that which you already are. Allow the clarity and truth of this statement to give you pause. Just sit with this, whether on a park bench or your high-end Aeron chair. Or perhaps you would like to go to some desolate beach (where, ideally, you can walk with this). Just know that you needn't go anywhere all; for this seeing or understanding is easier to come to than batting an eyelid. But if nature or the beach helps you to be more reflective, then by all means go there. But keep things simple. Begin with the bare fact that you are this sheer immediacy itself. See that there is an actual presence of awareness before you and as you. It is ripe with peace, love, and fullness. Keep coming back to this, in an easy and natural manner, until it is a rich and living reality.