Pointers

All questions and paradoxes are dissolved with Knowledge.


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You can come to a direct knowing of what you are by either recognizing this subtle yet penetrating presence of awareness that is squarely before you, or by you thoroughly and suddenly understanding that the "I," "me," and even sentience (your knowing that you exist) has to arise in something that is already present.


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In progressive paths, you are trying to utilize the "I" (a frequent-yet-fleeting appearance in awareness) to reach awareness. The foolishness of such an endeavor should be immediately evident.


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God is not something to be feared or periodically "communed" with. God is always with you and as you. He/She/It is that indescribable tranquility and vastness that remains after seeing through the falseness of self-centered concepts. And this isn't a case of your having to take various issues--love, lust, suffering, envy, faith, the mind, etc,--and examine them separately in some structured and in-depth manner. That's a concept ("me") attempting to examine another concept. Presence, however, dispels all illusions with wholeness and radiance.


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Awareness is prior to any thought, doubt, seeking, or spiritual exercise.


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There has never been any separation between you and presence. As you are reading these words right now, you are the very Truth that you are seeking. Ponder this over and over again, if you feel so inclined (and there must be a natural proclivity to do so; otherwise, it is purely a conceptual endeavor).


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Happiness isn't our inherent nature. Peace is.


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All journeys, however contemplative, take you in the wrong direction. Journeys are a pull for you because they promise drama, suspense, romance, and difficulties (to be bravely surmounted). You cannot make a journey without taking your "self" alone. And this imagined "me" is what keeps all of your illusions alive. Before taking any step in any direction, sit down and reflect upon what it is that is currently within you--but is not a thought, a sensation, or an emotion.


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You can't come to this understanding through stages. Neither are there any "gradual dissolutions," "speedy unfoldings," or "dark nights of the soul." Awakening, for the lack of a better word, is sudden and complete. And with it comes the knowledge that, in no uncertain terms, there is no separation between the perceiver and the perceived, and that all divisions in life are only apparent. In short, awareness has already "happened!" Take a non-moment to see what you are overlooking, and not what you need to strive for or attain.

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News & Info

"Your book is excellent!" -- Peter Kern, Gstaad, Switzerland

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Q&A: No Process

Question: Well, I'm continuing to struggle with all of this.

Rodney: Oh, please don't.

Q: I want to be earnest. I keep hearing how it's the best quality a seeker can have.

Rodney: Earnestness comes of its own. You have very little to do with it. You simply find that you are pulled into something--in this case nonduality--in a way that really can't be explained. There is no "push" to do it--but rather a pull from the thing itself, which, in this case, is nothing less than your innate and numinous Self. It is a "struggle" for you because you are trying to attain it, rather than to recognize or understand it. When you set out to attain somthing, there is not only the supposed distance to cover, but there is this fictitious "me" who is making the onerous journey.

Q: Right, and I can't attain something that I already am.

Rodney: Exactly. And I'm not saying that there is nothing to be done. For there is, but it is a simple understanding or apperceiving, that's all. And that needn't be a struggle at all. In fact, the more relaxed you are, the better.

Q: Is there any way to quicken this understanding?

Rodney: Well, you're still thinking in terms of an "I" being there, when there isn't. Actually, it is there, but it is only temporary. And anything that's occasional cannot be your fundamental reality.

Q: Oh, jeeze. I was going about it wrong again!

Rodney: Don't see it in terms of "right" and "wrong." Those words only attract conceptual flotsam that perpetually clouds the issue of pristine seeing. Again, you are already that which you are seeking. Awareness is directly before you right now, as you are reading these words. What could be quicker than that? It's yours for the having, or rather for the seeing or understanding. And that could happen at the very end of this very sentence...Or it could occur next week as you are having a cup of tea or coffee, or standing in front of your bathroom mirror as you are washing your hands at the sink.

Q: Or when stretched out on a green, second-hand sofa. :)

Rodney: Particularly when stretched out on a green sofa! And it would help, certainly, to have one of John Wheeler's books in your hands.

Q: I continue to read everything by everybody. And I've ordered your book to examine over the holidays. I'm even having that sucker FedExed!

Rodney: Thanks for the purchase! But remember, the book is pointing to you, to your own enduring presence. Also stay mindful of the fact that it isn't necessary to "read everything by everyone." Try focusing on the works and teachers with whom there is some kind of synchrony. And a clear indication of that harmony is that the teachers' words and books slow your conceptualizing down. You can't read or listen to them for any length without being paused by their content.

Q: Yeah, I understand exactly what you mean. Thanks for pointing that out.

Rodney: A final point about "quickening" the process: There is no process, and there is no one to "quicken" it. If I were to say to you that nonduality will help you to reach a clear understanding in, say, a month instead of five years or ten, I'd be giving credence to the belief that time is a factor in all of this. And that is most certainly not the case. In fact, nonduality, is one of the few teachings that goes out of its way to say that you are already That for which you are searching. So take a moment to recognize the splendor of your immediate Self. I say a "moment," but even that's too much. For truly, this seeing is timeless.

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News & Info

"Your book is excellent!" -- Peter Kern, Gstaad, Switzerland

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Pointers

From moment to moment, what is it about you that Does Not Change?


*****


Why get bent out of shape about duality? It is simply an appearance in Reality. Objects, lives, and occurences are manifestations, giving rise to the concepts of space and time. Beyond and within all of this is a timelessness that defies all description. And you are That! There is not the slightest separation between you and awareness. Ponder this fact throughout day and evening until you are suddenly clear on its magnificent reality.


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The mind is no distinct entity. Rather, it is a functioning that occurs within the brain. And that functioning includes thinking, feeling, intending, guessing, reasoning, and imagining.


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Consciousness, among other things, is the sense of existing and the sense of being present. There is an "I-am-ness" quality to consciousness that is not there with awareness. As a sentient being, you know that you exists, that you are sitting, right now, directly in front of your computer screen, as you peruse these sentences. But when you are awake to your actual nature, you not only know that you exist, but that you are Existence itself.


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Sentience/consciousness is an aspect of awareness that allows awareness to recognize itself. Pure presence, which you ultimately are, does not know that it exists.


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There is really no "relationship" between awareness and the universe. Such topics may (seemingly) make for entertaining debates with a lot of weighted--but not necessarily correct--conjecture. But the bottom line is that awareness and all worlds are one. No matter the distance, the dimension, or the condition, all is presence.


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Your unexamined, day-to-day living amounts to you taking yourself to be something that you are not.


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One of the great myths of enlightenment (which is another myth in itself) is that, upon its occurrence, all notions of dualism cease. There still may be the occasional--but brief--identification with thoughts and feelings. But essentially, your life becomes rather like a lucid dream: You know that you are dreaming, but you still react to the sudden and on-coming bus or return a beautiful person's smile and gaze. But all is seen for what it is--temporary appearances in the dream. So ultimately, nothing is held, only enjoyed, steered cleared of, or reacted to normally.

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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Pointers

There is no road to freedom. Only Freedom itself.


*****


"Deepening" your practice accomplishes nothing. It is still a practice, and there is still this perceived-person doing it. Further, at no point do you "reach" presence because it can only be recognized or understood, not attained. In short, with methods and practices, you are looking away from the very thing that you are seeking.


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Without a single belief or a nanosecond of any spiritual activity, awareness gleams radiantly before you. And it isn't so much because you are distracted by life that you aren't seeing it (though that contention is not without merit). You just haven't properly paused and cognitized the presence of awareness within that pause. And such a recognition comes simply and easily.


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Awakening is a direct understanding of your true nature. And it occurs only once, and that's it. Game over.


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You are aware of these words as you are reading them on the computer screen. But what is it that is aware? Pause carefully here. What is it that is immediately present in addition to the words that you are reading right now? See that there is a subtle presence of sheerness and spaciousness that has absolutely always been within you and before you. It is the Mona Lisa-smile within the 3D picture. It may appear hidden at first. But once perceived, you realize how it was always in rapturous view.


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The "I" is a convenience, a practicality, an assumed reference point that allows us to function and communicate in our day-to-day life. Attempt neither to negate it or to give it overwhelming importance. For your fundamental nature can't be anything that comes and goes. And the "I" and the "me" do just that. You are the splendor and the spaciousness that forever remains.


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The serious exploration of such spiritual concepts such as "grasping," "egoic consciousness," and "energetic unfoldings" is such a waste of time and neurons. You are awareness itself, the presence in which all of the above notions come and go. Give you attention to that which Does Not Move. Then perhaps you, like the English poet Thomas Traherne, will finally feel "no dross or matter in my soul,/No brims or borders, such as in a bowl/We see. My essence was capacity."

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News & Info

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is now available for purchase. Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews and powerful pointers can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

Vastness is now available for the Amazon Kindle! Order Here.

And for the book's Press Release, click Here.

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