Pointers

A thought cannot be aware of awareness. So what is it that is aware of the thought?

*****

Meditation and mindfulness are merely thinking about those activities. You never move from the mental and conceptual realms when you engage in either of those undertakings.

*****

My body is temporarily here. But whose body is it? It's not my body, really. Does the wave in the ocean own itself?

*****

Though you may have aged, what is it that has not changed? Contemplate that as you read these words. What is it that has not altered in the least? And remember, it can't be consciousness because consciousness changes (you sleep, wake, dream, etc). So what is it that, unequivocally, has not moved?

*****

The primary cause of sorrow is not our grasping for happiness, but our identification with the mind, body, and sensations. We try to find lasting happiness through each of them every single day; and we can't because each is constantly changing. Yet, we continue to give them our every hope. You are that which is aware of your body, thoughts, and sensations. You are awareness itself--which is directly in front of you.

*****

The recognition of Truth doesn't take place over time. Presence is suddenly seen or discerned, and that's the end of it. However, your body/mind's experience with this understanding will occur over the apparentness of time, as your life is being lived. But self-knowledge itself is not gradual, and any teaching that says so is false.

*****

The mind is not composed of thoughts. The Mind is a thought. When the thought disappears, so does the mind.

*****

Don't read nondual books just for knowledge. See what the words are pointing to. And what they are pointing to is any pause, stillness, or penetrating insight. Bring your full attention to any of these, and Freedom can be found.

*****

Awakening is a sudden seeing of what you truly are. The "who" remains, but it is merely functional. This "I" allows us to communicate and go about our daily lives. After all, there is still errands to be run, conversations to be had, and laundry to be done. But your personality pretty much remains as it is, though thoughts and reactions have far less weight now.

*****

One of the worst things you can do is to sit uncomfortably when you are attempting to understand the nature of Reality.

*****

You see, it's okay for the thinker to come to an end--because it was never there in the first place. So don't fear or envision that you will be "losing" some precious something with self-knowledge. Thinking will continue; it's just that thoughts won't unnecessarily be linked together into some defined or imagined whole.

-----

News & Info

John Wheeler's Web site is no longer up. But earnest and serious seekers (and that's the only kind we have here at "Radiance") can reach him at: johnwheeler111@yahoo.com

~~~~~

RECENTLY IN: "Just wanted to tell you that A Vastness All Around is, hands down, one of the best books on nonduality. Thank you for all of your writing." --Alex Taylor

~~~~~

Here's a review of the Kindle Edition of A Vastness All Around on Amazon.

~~~~~

Nonduality Magazine has published a new discussion with Rodney about his work and book. The extensive and wide-ranging interview was done by John LeKay, the magazine's editor.

~~~~~

"Loved the book, Rodney. Enjoyed it as much as John Wheeler's first book, Awakening to the Natural State. My favourite quote of yours was "you are no more your personal history than you are your toothbrush." I like the fact that you included little tidbits of your life and surrounds. It felt more like reading a book on travel or history than some of the other textbook style books on nonduality. I think for anyone serious about a direct approach, your book and John Wheeler's are the two to have." -- Ian

~~~~~

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews, and powerful pointers. It 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.

~~~~~

If you would like to meet Rodney, have him to discuss nonduality, sign books, or read, you can email him at: writerguy@fastmail.fm. Such events are self-organized, so funding is key, with groups and universities that can cover travel expenses getting priority. And much appreciation!

~~~~~

This blog is generally updated every Sunday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time.

Q&A: A Kind of Knowing

Question: Hi, Rodney, I hope this message finds you well.

Rodney: Pretty good, thanks. It's 100F, with a 108F heat index right now in Columbia (South Carolina). But that's okay--I am inside!

Q: Things keep unfolding for me. Reading, listening to nondual talks, and reflecting about Truth are settling in as my main activities when I am away from work. I really feel like this has to be sorted out, to be seen, and I find myself having a natural dedication that I have never experienced before. While I am much less intense about these explorations, I also seem to have more resilience, if that makes any sense.

Rodney: It does indeed. When your nondual reflections reach that balance of being earnest but less emotional, you are at a very "good" place. You are naturally seeing things with unaccustomed depth and clarity. There is a direction and dedication there that have a drive of their own. You don't have to do a thing to re-energize them or to help them along.

Q: Right. Lately I have this sense that everything--including my body and my thoughts--is appearing "somewhere," that some sort of canvas is allowing experiences to be painted. It's a very subtle recognition, a kind of knowing. It can't be observed or grasped in any way; but sometimes it can allowed, and its presence seems more obvious.

Rodney: And that "appearing somewhere" is nothing other than awareness, which is a wondrous canvas indeed. But be careful about "allowing" things to happen. This could lead to your thinking that there is this defined "you" parceling out presence, which isn't the case, of course. Simply know that your insights and subtle recognitions are occurring. Then take it one non-step further and see that these lovely clarifications are flourishing in an existing presence of felt-spaciousness, a spaciousness which--because of its nearness (not distance or difficulty)--is so easily overlooked. An apt analogy to all this is that you are trying to master the mechanics of vision, when your eyes are already seeing. Or you are attempting to master the intricacies of mindfulness, when you are already the witness or the knower. So the question becomes not how do I attain--and then maintain--some special state, but what is it that is directly before me that I am not seeing? And the question, in itself, is a superbly absorbing one because, once again, we are talking about something that is directly within and before you. Truly, awareness couldn't be any nearer than it is right now.

Q: Suddenly, I have this urge to be very, very still.

Rodney: Or more precisely, stillness is happening, and you are that stillness. Do you see the subtle but very important difference? In the first, "you" is still given a lead role in the experience. In the second, all is presence.

Q: And that stillness feels--for a short while anyway--so transparent and luminous. At these times, like you said in your last post, it becomes obvious that "you don't have to halt your thinking to discover truth."

Rodney: Precisely, the halting simply happens. It's more of a noticing, rather than a doing. And once you actually discern awareness, it doesn't come and go. What you are experiencing sounds more like an intuiting of awareness, which can indeed be illuminating but short-lived. It's more like a breath of fresh air, whereas presence is pure, perpetual oxygen.

Q: Well, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that I can't do anything to bring this about. My thinking is useless; it's when it goes to the background that the beauty of life reveals itself.

Rodney: Thoughts and feelings can be beautiful too. It's just that they arise from luminosity itself. The thoughts and sentiments are temporary, whereas presence is everlasting. But your perceptions show that your clarity is resolving itself on its own impetus. Be sure to fully go along with any pausings, deep or small, during your introspections. For it is within those cessations that presence can be readily perceived. You don't bring it about--you just see that it has never been missing. It can (but not necessarily) be a mild and beautiful shock at first. Then it quickly becomes the most natural of things.

Q: Sometimes I feel a great joy, which brings me close to tears. It comes and goes, and doesn't seem to be related to anything particular.

Rodney: I completely understand. Fully allow any tears to emerge. The body and heart are expressing themselves, and they have a wisdom too--eons old.

Q: I continue to enjoy your blog very much. The posts about your trip to Edisto were very good indeed. Thank you for sharing that lovely trip with us.

Rodney: You are certainly welcomed. And feel free to keep in touch.

-----

News & Info

John Wheeler's Web site is no longer up. But earnest and serious seekers (and that's the only kind we have here at "Radiance") can reach him at: johnwheeler111@yahoo.com

~~~~~

NEW: "Just wanted to tell you that A Vastness All Around is, hands down, one of the best books on nonduality. Thank you for all of your writing." --Alex Taylor

~~~~~

RECENTLY IN: A review of the Kindle Edition of A Vastness All Around on Amazon.

~~~~~

Nonduality Magazine has published a new discussion with Rodney about his work and book. The extensive and wide-ranging interview was done by John LeKay, the magazine's editor.

~~~~~

"Loved the book, Rodney. Enjoyed it as much as John Wheeler's first book, Awakening to the Natural State. My favourite quote of yours was "you are no more your personal history than you are your toothbrush." I like the fact that you included little tidbits of your life and surrounds. It felt more like reading a book on travel or history than some of the other textbook style books on nonduality. I think for anyone serious about a direct approach, your book and John Wheeler's are the two to have." -- Ian

~~~~~

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews, and powerful pointers. It 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.

~~~~~

If you would like to meet Rodney, have him to discuss nonduality, sign books, or read, you can email him at: writerguy@fastmail.fm. Such events are self-organized, so funding is key, with groups and universities that can cover travel expenses getting priority. And much appreciation!

~~~~~

This blog is generally updated every Sunday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time.

Book Review: Gotama Buddha

Kosei Publishing kindly sent me a review copy of Hajime Nakamura's two-volume Gotama Buddha: A Biography Based on the most Reliable Texts. I occasionally enjoy reading works about the Buddha that are based on historic and authentic sources. And this extensive and formerly published work (Vol. 1 in 2000 and Vol. 2 in 2005) doesn't disappoint.

After careful research and consideration, Nakamura--who died in 1999 and who was a renowned authority on Indian philosophy--puts Buddha's birth place in the city of Kapilavatthu, which no longer exists but "was in the foothills of the Himalyas on the banks of the river Bhagirathi..." The correct dates of the Buddha's birth and death, says Nakamura, are 463-383 B.C.E., with his awakening at the age of 35. He lived and taught until he was eighty.

Nakamura vigilantly details all of his sources. Thus, it may take the reader a while to come to the numerous truths in this work. But the clarifications are many, ranging from Mara's infamous temptations of the Buddha (they were likely embellishments from disciples who knew four women in Uruvela (the town in which he awoke) who "were strongly bound to the Bodhisatta," and his alleged use of supernatural powers to cross the Ganges when he didn't have money for the ferry (the author writes that "undoubtedly a lay person paid the Buddha's ferry fee, or he boarded anyway, and was ultimately allowed to cross").

But yes, he did come to his understanding under a bodhi or bo tree--but only after he had "abandoned his ascetic practices" and began "taking ordinary material food," so that he could more easily understand--through "contemplation accompanied by investigation"--his true and present nature. Perhaps he saw that his grasping for "enlightenment" was actually getting in the way of his seeing!

Nakamura informs us that so much of the Buddha's writing is contradictory because he wrote little or nothing himself (everything was recorded--and not always accurately, or added later). Also, he preached and talked in different ways, "according to the occasion and the nature of his audience." The works with the strongest nondual flavor include the Diamond Sutra, Lotus Sutra, and some of the selections in the beautiful Udana (a collection of "inspired utterances" of the Buddha).

The author notes that "we have no record of the exact time and date of the Buddha's death." But he did give specific orders about his cremation to Ananda, his principal disciple and first attendant (who, fortunately, was blessed with retentive memory), saying "Do not concern yourselves with honoring the remains of the Tathagata...You should strive for the true goal...Be earnest, be zealous, and be intent on the true goal, never flagging."

Nakamura then shows how passages by later commentators were added to the above words, which then became: There should be a glorious stupa (remains of the Buddha) "to honor the Tathagata" with garlands, perfumes, and cosmetics. It goes on and on in that vein, and this was certainly what the author called "the beginning of deification" of the Buddha, where many things that he is reported to have said or done simply didn't occur.

Nakamura sums this deification up beautifully when he writes: "Gotama was called the Buddha ('Enlightened One') because he had realized eternal Truth (the Dharma); by this reckoning, all who realize the Truth must equally be buddhas. The designation 'buddha' implies neither supernatural existence nor a mysterious being. It does not [my emphasis] suggest that such a person might be some kind of transcendental deity." Precisely.

In order to read and assess this excellent work for yourself, go to Kosei Publishing. The trade paperback volumes are priced at $19.95 for Volume 1, and $29.95 for Volume 2.

-----

News & Info

John Wheeler's Web site is no longer up. But earnest and serious seekers (and that's the only kind we have here at "Radiance") can reach him at: johnwheeler111@yahoo.com

~~~~~

NEW: "Just wanted to tell you that A Vastness All Around is, hands down, one of the best books on nonduality. Thank you for all of your writing." -- Alex Taylor

~~~~~

RECENTLY IN: A review of the Kindle Edition of A Vastness All Around on Amazon.

~~~~~

Nonduality Magazine has published a new discussion with Rodney about his work and book. The extensive and wide-ranging interview was done by John LeKay, the magazine's editor.

~~~~~

"Loved the book, Rodney. Enjoyed it as much as John Wheeler's first book, Awakening to the Natural State. My favourite quote of yours was "you are no more your personal history than you are your toothbrush." I like the fact that you included little tidbits of your life and surrounds. It felt more like reading a book on travel or history than some of the other textbook style books on nonduality. I think for anyone serious about a direct approach, your book and John Wheeler's are the two to have." -- Ian

~~~~~

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews, and powerful pointers. It 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.

~~~~~

If you would like to meet Rodney, have him to discuss nonduality, sign books, or read, you can email him at: writerguy@fastmail.fm. Such events are self-organized, so funding is key, with groups and universities that can cover travel expenses getting priority. And much appreciation!

~~~~~

This blog is generally updated every Sunday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time.

Pointers

There has to be something about you that does not change. What is that something?

*****

Self-realization is simply being aware of yourself as you naturally are. You are seeing, essentially, that you are a what, not a who. The "who" is merely a wave on the water--undeniably unique and present (at least temporarily), but water nonetheless.

*****

Once the mind pauses, true creativity occurs. Thought comes afterwards, with a response or assessment of that particular piece of writing, music, painting, artwork, singing, dancing, knitting, basket weaving, scientific theorizing, etc.

*****

The universe has no purpose for existing. And neither do you. But as long as you believe that you are your body and your mind, a wise move might be to understand why you are neither of the above, and have never been.

*****

In truth, you are Existence itself. Your seeming individuality is a temporary and occasional occurrence that arises out of awareness proper.

*****

Many seekers point to their being decade-plus meditators with enormous pride. But what is there to be proud of? You have been ignoring the obvious the entire time. And even if you were to label yourself as an "accomplished" meditator, you are still a meditator. There is still this imagined individual there. Why not bring your attention to the source of these manifestations, a source that is subtle, eternal, and magnificent? Indeed, it is meditation itself!

*****

When I am pointing to presence, I am pointing to you--not to something far off or slightly to the left or right of you. I'm pointing to what you are at this very moment.

*****

You are what you are right here and now. See that there is a very definite presence of awareness within and before you as you peruse these words. Just sit with this, ponder it, and allow for an easy and very natural discerning of your fundamental state.

*****

Your focus is wrongly placed on the mind. Bring your attention to awareness, which you are merely overlooking. Besides, there is no transformation of the mind in self-realization--never has been and never will be. Books and teachers who claim otherwise are unconditionally wrong.

*****

Throughout the day, try refusing--in a safe and responsible manner--to play along with occasional thoughts, feelings, and sentiments. You may be surprise to find how much clarity and energy you have towards evening. Don't make this a practice. It is just a revealing exploration of the workings of your mind and persona.

*****

Gratitude is perhaps the most praiseworthy quality that a person can have. It is a deep thankfulness and appreciation not for all things (that's conceptual, a mere notion), but for the tiniest moments. Whether you're sipping a cup of tea or coffee, folding a towel, or wandering along a solitary beach, see that ineffable gratitude is present. But you aren't attempting to dispense it. It is simply there, immeasurable and pouring forth.

-----

News & Info

John Wheeler's Web site is no longer up. But earnest and serious seekers (and that's the only kind we have here at "Radiance") can reach him at: johnwheeler111@yahoo.com

~~~~~

RECENTLY IN: A review of the Kindle Edition of A Vastness All Around on Amazon.

~~~~~

Nonduality Magazine has published a new discussion with Rodney about his work and book. The extensive and wide-ranging interview was done by John LeKay, the magazine's editor.

~~~~~

"Loved the book, Rodney. Enjoyed it as much as John Wheeler's first book, Awakening to the Natural State. My favourite quote of yours was "you are no more your personal history than you are your toothbrush." I like the fact that you included little tidbits of your life and surrounds. It felt more like reading a book on travel or history than some of the other textbook style books on nonduality. I think for anyone serious about a direct approach, your book and John Wheeler's are the two to have." -- Ian

~~~~~

A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State is Rodney's first collection of essays, discussions, interviews, and powerful pointers. It 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.

~~~~~

If you would like to meet Rodney, have him to discuss nonduality, sign books, or read, you can email him at: writerguy@fastmail.fm. Such events are self-organized, so funding is key, with groups and universities that can cover travel expenses getting priority. And much appreciation!

~~~~~

This blog is generally updated every Sunday afternoon, Eastern Standard Time.