Seekers overly-stress the notion that they must somehow "look within." But awareness is both within and without. It is everywhere at once, immaculate and beginningless.
*****
Awakening to your natural state is no "transformation of consciousness." Consciousness pretty much remains as it is, existing in its various states. If anything, it appears to function a bit better because you are clearer about who and what you actually are.
*****
If everyone on the planet were to become "enlightened" tomorrow, conflict would continue--though wars would eventually cease. For people would be getting a supreme kick out of each another's company, because they would be seeing unadorned presence squarely in one another's eyes.
*****
The "integration of the mind, spirit, and body" happens the moment you recognize that you are the awareness in which those things arise. It isn't any kind of "spiritual unfoldment," and it isn't anything requiring years of meditative endeavors or training. Alas, such suppositions are pure caprice.
*****
This understanding is not a temporary "experiencing" of God. Rather, it is an actual knowing that God's presence and magnificence has always been in full evidence.
*****
You don't require a vow or an oath to lead you to God or to Truth, which are the same thing. You are what you are. Thus the vow or oath would be something that's in addition to your natural state of being. It's just a piling-on of ideas and verbiage, which have nothing whatsoever to do with what you are at this very moment.
*****
Forget human and conscious evolutionary movements, and your need to join them and edify the world. Focus on what you are right here and now. Besides, how can you possibly help someone else if you don't have a clue about your very own Reality?
*****
Why are you striving to be "at one" with your breath? That isn't going to help you when it comes to discovering your natural state. And just who, precisely, is this entity who is doing the striving?
*****
Attempting to get rid of the ego is a spiritual and meditative trap. Why? There are a trio of reasons: 1) The ego is not a concrete, ever-present entity; 2) you are trying to use an imaged person to destroy an imaged thing; and 3) you are approaching the problem from a conceptual or idealistic level, rather than from Reality. Clueless teachers have fostered the myth that the ego (which is nothing but a temporary thought or feeling) can and does need to be annihilated.
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News & Info
A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, and pointers can be ordered through Amazon (starting Oct. 5th), your local bookstore (of whom we are big supporters), or directly from the publisher, Lulu Press.
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Q&A:I Feel It in My Heart
Question: I just finished the audio book Perfect Brilliant Stillness, by David Carse and read by Terrance Stamp. I thoroughly enjoyed this work because Carse was so brutally honest about there not being a separate individual at all and that what we are is just presence, awareness.
Rodney: Yes, I purchased that title years back. It's definitely a keeper, and I still have it somewhere on my bookshelf. I haven't heard the audio version. However, Terence Stamp appears to have been the perfect reader; for his temperament seems fully in sync with Carse's.
Question: He certainly provides no new information, but I found his whole story an adventure, and I liked how he just went back to carpentry and sort of just disappeared.
Rodney: There is really no new information when it comes to nonduality. What is original, though, is the perspective of the person who comes to this understanding. He or she then speaks and writes about it (if the person is inclined to do so) in his own way, which will no doubt resonate with certain seekers.
Question: Yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that it is a very genuine story. It rekindles a hope (there is that nasty "future" again) that I will see this non-existent me that is so obviously right in front of me, and will then wonder how I ever missed it.
Rodney: Oh, but you do exist! You are Self itself. Even thoughts and emotions are certainly there. But what is not present is a sustained, individual you that is different from and outside of awareness. That fictitious entity is maintained largely through memory and our re-occurring body-sense.
Q: I have to tell you, Rodney, I feel like all of this is like some sort of "Tractor Beam" slowly pulling at me, and I can't seem to break free. I feel it in my heart, and it brings me to tears sometimes. I have read so many nondual books and looked at so many nondual DVDs. I have been at this for a couple of years now, maybe three. Sometimes I get so frustrated that I just pack all the books and DVDs up and throw them in a closet and say, "That's it, I've had enough, I can't do this anymore!"
Rodney: And that's okay, too. Nondual books and DVDs (at least those that are replete with clear pointing) aren't really to blame. All too often seekers read and watch them strictly from a conceptual or even mythical standpoint. So there will indeed be frustration because they will never see that to which the writers or teachers are pointing, which is their own true self. The machinations of thought and memory have to briefly stop or be paused. But this has to happen naturally. It can't be done through meditation or concentration. Then there is a simple seeing of what has always been radiantly present.
Q: And you know what else frustrates me? All those turbulent years in Christianity, being conditioned to pray to God for help whenever I felt helpless or desperate. Supposedly, this was a God who listened to us because he loved us. Now it turns out that this God is within us, and not in Heaven some where. Those were just years wasted.
Rodney: And now it's over. Count your blessings that you have seen the Light, so to speak--that you now have this innate feeling of who and what God really must be.
Q: But it is soooooo frustrating that something that is so simple and right in front of me is so elusive. And you can't talk about this to people, OMG, they think you are nuts when you suggest that all this is an illusion, an "apparent" body/mind/life.
Rodney: See the other perspective, though, which--I can assure you--is the correct one. And that is that it is such an incredible thing that presence is "so simple and right in front of me." That sterling fact, in itself, is enough to make one want to shout Emaho! (that Tibetan/Dzogchen exclamation meaning Yes! Marvelous! Far out! Amazing!). While your understanding may not yet be clear, you intuit that it is one of the easiest things in the world to come to. Be thankful for this fact, that presence isn't something that you have to attain or work toward. It is what you are at this very moment. Allow yourself to be paused by the following: What is it, right now, that is not a thought, an emotion, or a body sensation? What is it, right now, that is subtle, beginningless, and most definitely present? Ponder this, keep it in your heart, and you will see for yourself that you have always been the answer.
Q: Thanks for listening, my friend. Sorry this went on so long. I know you must get boat loads of email. I really appreciate your blog for its clarity and truth. Please keep it up.
Rodney: You're most welcome.
-----------
Here is an interview that I recently did for the new online publication, Nonduality Magazine: http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine_volume_1.contents.htm
---------
Rodney: Yes, I purchased that title years back. It's definitely a keeper, and I still have it somewhere on my bookshelf. I haven't heard the audio version. However, Terence Stamp appears to have been the perfect reader; for his temperament seems fully in sync with Carse's.
Question: He certainly provides no new information, but I found his whole story an adventure, and I liked how he just went back to carpentry and sort of just disappeared.
Rodney: There is really no new information when it comes to nonduality. What is original, though, is the perspective of the person who comes to this understanding. He or she then speaks and writes about it (if the person is inclined to do so) in his own way, which will no doubt resonate with certain seekers.
Question: Yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that it is a very genuine story. It rekindles a hope (there is that nasty "future" again) that I will see this non-existent me that is so obviously right in front of me, and will then wonder how I ever missed it.
Rodney: Oh, but you do exist! You are Self itself. Even thoughts and emotions are certainly there. But what is not present is a sustained, individual you that is different from and outside of awareness. That fictitious entity is maintained largely through memory and our re-occurring body-sense.
Q: I have to tell you, Rodney, I feel like all of this is like some sort of "Tractor Beam" slowly pulling at me, and I can't seem to break free. I feel it in my heart, and it brings me to tears sometimes. I have read so many nondual books and looked at so many nondual DVDs. I have been at this for a couple of years now, maybe three. Sometimes I get so frustrated that I just pack all the books and DVDs up and throw them in a closet and say, "That's it, I've had enough, I can't do this anymore!"
Rodney: And that's okay, too. Nondual books and DVDs (at least those that are replete with clear pointing) aren't really to blame. All too often seekers read and watch them strictly from a conceptual or even mythical standpoint. So there will indeed be frustration because they will never see that to which the writers or teachers are pointing, which is their own true self. The machinations of thought and memory have to briefly stop or be paused. But this has to happen naturally. It can't be done through meditation or concentration. Then there is a simple seeing of what has always been radiantly present.
Q: And you know what else frustrates me? All those turbulent years in Christianity, being conditioned to pray to God for help whenever I felt helpless or desperate. Supposedly, this was a God who listened to us because he loved us. Now it turns out that this God is within us, and not in Heaven some where. Those were just years wasted.
Rodney: And now it's over. Count your blessings that you have seen the Light, so to speak--that you now have this innate feeling of who and what God really must be.
Q: But it is soooooo frustrating that something that is so simple and right in front of me is so elusive. And you can't talk about this to people, OMG, they think you are nuts when you suggest that all this is an illusion, an "apparent" body/mind/life.
Rodney: See the other perspective, though, which--I can assure you--is the correct one. And that is that it is such an incredible thing that presence is "so simple and right in front of me." That sterling fact, in itself, is enough to make one want to shout Emaho! (that Tibetan/Dzogchen exclamation meaning Yes! Marvelous! Far out! Amazing!). While your understanding may not yet be clear, you intuit that it is one of the easiest things in the world to come to. Be thankful for this fact, that presence isn't something that you have to attain or work toward. It is what you are at this very moment. Allow yourself to be paused by the following: What is it, right now, that is not a thought, an emotion, or a body sensation? What is it, right now, that is subtle, beginningless, and most definitely present? Ponder this, keep it in your heart, and you will see for yourself that you have always been the answer.
Q: Thanks for listening, my friend. Sorry this went on so long. I know you must get boat loads of email. I really appreciate your blog for its clarity and truth. Please keep it up.
Rodney: You're most welcome.
-----------
Here is an interview that I recently did for the new online publication, Nonduality Magazine: http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine_volume_1.contents.htm
---------
Monday, September 6, 2010
Pointers
The purpose of nonduality is to point to your sky-like nature.
*****
Awareness is the ever-present witness to your varying states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, etc). It is not only what you are, it is the Reality that pervades the universe. There is nothing that it isn't, nowhere where it is not.
*****
Shankara said that "the treasure I have found cannot be described in words." Amen to that.
*****
When it comes to this understanding, there is no "spiritual union" of any kind. In fact, any idea related to your "joining" anything automatically cancels the possibility of your discovering your true Self.
*****
You cannot "Be Here Now" because you are here now.
*****
True salvation, freedom, fulfillment, liberation, moksha, and enlightenment are nothing but the perceiving of your natural and ever-present state, which is, at once, consummate and simple, subtle and profound. It is a mere glance away, and not even that, really. For one of the central difficulties with presence is articulating the ease with which it can be recognized.
*****
Nonduality isn't about morality, character-building, or perfect equanimity. Compassion and peace are natural results of this seeing and understanding. Though one's personality stays largely the same, there is now this quiescent ground of being from which life is fully witnessed.
*****
Gathering knowledge will not lead you to Knowledge. Just see that your thoughts, emotions, and sensations (which are nothing but the mind) arise in a presence of extraordinary spaciousness that you have simply overlooked.
*****
Truly, you lack for nothing. Your own radiance is resplendently shining. You neither have to "come to grips" with anything, nor "let anything go." Those actions are as nonproductive as any practice in which you might indulge, no matter how intense, sustained, or rarefied that practice may be. Futile too is leaving everything up to grace. For who, precisely, would be doing that? And what is it that you think that Grace has not already bestowed upon you?
-----------
Here is an interview that I recently did for the new online publication, Nonduality Magazine: http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine_volume_1.contents.htm
---------
*****
Awareness is the ever-present witness to your varying states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, etc). It is not only what you are, it is the Reality that pervades the universe. There is nothing that it isn't, nowhere where it is not.
*****
Shankara said that "the treasure I have found cannot be described in words." Amen to that.
*****
When it comes to this understanding, there is no "spiritual union" of any kind. In fact, any idea related to your "joining" anything automatically cancels the possibility of your discovering your true Self.
*****
You cannot "Be Here Now" because you are here now.
*****
True salvation, freedom, fulfillment, liberation, moksha, and enlightenment are nothing but the perceiving of your natural and ever-present state, which is, at once, consummate and simple, subtle and profound. It is a mere glance away, and not even that, really. For one of the central difficulties with presence is articulating the ease with which it can be recognized.
*****
Nonduality isn't about morality, character-building, or perfect equanimity. Compassion and peace are natural results of this seeing and understanding. Though one's personality stays largely the same, there is now this quiescent ground of being from which life is fully witnessed.
*****
Gathering knowledge will not lead you to Knowledge. Just see that your thoughts, emotions, and sensations (which are nothing but the mind) arise in a presence of extraordinary spaciousness that you have simply overlooked.
*****
Truly, you lack for nothing. Your own radiance is resplendently shining. You neither have to "come to grips" with anything, nor "let anything go." Those actions are as nonproductive as any practice in which you might indulge, no matter how intense, sustained, or rarefied that practice may be. Futile too is leaving everything up to grace. For who, precisely, would be doing that? And what is it that you think that Grace has not already bestowed upon you?
-----------
Here is an interview that I recently did for the new online publication, Nonduality Magazine: http://www.nondualitymagazine.org/nonduality_magazine_volume_1.contents.htm
---------
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