Sunday, September 23, 2012

Q&A: Seen Clearly

Question: Hi, Rodney. The light here in (a city in the U.K.) is beautiful. It belongs neither to summer nor autumn, and has the colours of both. Wonderful! Gorgeous sunsets, too, with shades of pink, which I am not sure I have seen before.

Rodney: Thanks for email and the fine descriptions!

Q: I have settled back into my teaching schedule after the summer break, and I haven't been able to get to my computer as often as I would like. In fact, I feel exhausted already! 

Rodney: Pace yourself, drink plenty of water, and get whatever sleep your body requires.

Q: In a couple of weeks, I would like to arrange a phone consultation with you. It will be lovely to talk again! 

Rodney: Same here. Just let me know, and we'll work it out.

Q: I just finished enjoying your introduction in John Wheeler's Clear In Your Heart. It's really nice!

Rodney: Thanks again. When John asked, I was happy to do it. It's a fine book, and deserves to be savored. I hope you resonate with it. I know that word is used a lot in nondual circles. But it is simply being moved and paused by a person's writing, teaching, or perspective. You may be hard pressed to say precisely what it is that causes you to gravitate to a teacher's words. Nonetheless, the pull is there. And I wouldn't hesitate to go with it.

Q: Well, I certainly find myself doing that. For I have also been continuing to sit with your beautiful pointers in A Vastness All Aroundletting them open up fully. They all resonate so powerfully. More and more, I am struck by the obviousness and simplicity of the natural state, which is clear until the mind begins to judge, doubt or comment (and even thought is simple until it is invested with meaning). 

Rodney: I don't exaggerate when I say that you're so close to this understanding yourself. All of us are "close" practically all the time, of course. But the easy and clear-sighted manner in which you are naturally paused tends to indicate that the person is just a "non-step" away from the actual recognition of his or her unchanging Self.

Q: "When no thought is present, what is present?" really paused me yesterday. There was just this luminous knowing of experience -- of thought, sensation, perception -- and none of it "mine" in the directness of what is presently appearing. Just a Knowing of all this, with no indefinable knower. And this Knowingness has no problems with the (his name) character: he is accepted just as he is, with all his quirks and shyness!

Rodney: True. And when you come around to a full and sudden seeing of all of this, you will realize that there is no person there to do the accepting! So the term or action doesn't even come up. And neither does it happen. Any time there is any "acceptance" of anything, there is imagined person doing the accepting. I know that there of lots of meditation methods and self-improvement books involve acceptance; but really, you have see beyond all of that to if you want to truly find out who and what you are. And what you are is natural state, which is utter peace and serenity. There is no one there to "accept" anything! It is you. So there is nothing for you to do except recognize that, right here and now, you are awareness itself. You never move from that. You absolutely never move from that. Contemplate this fact, with ease and naturalness, and all will be seen clearly.

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News & Info


Fully Present is now available at the superb Powell's Bookstore, in Portland, Oregon. 


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Fiona Robertson interviews Rodney on Nic Higham's NONDUALITY NETWORK!

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Click HERE to buy Rodney's Fully Present: Daily Reflections on Nonduality from Amazon.

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And click HERE to purchase Fully Present at Barnes & Noble.

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And go HERE for the press release for Fully Present.

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For Tami Brady's review of Fully Present in TCM Reviews, go HERE.

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"Fully Present is an elegant addition to the growing literature on nonduality as it is being uncovered, lived and understood in the modern West."

--Philip Goldberg, author of the best-selling American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation--How Indian Spirituality Changed the WestPhilip's Web site can be found at www.philipgoldberg.com.

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"Rodney Stevens opens his daily life and thoughts to us in these immensely natural and pleasant ramblings of one who is fully engaged in life, love, nonduality, and cinnamon muffins."

--Catherine Ann Jones, award-winning screenwriter, spiritual workshop leader, and author of The Way of the Story: The Craft and Soul of Writing. Her Web site is www.wayofstory.com

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Rodney is also the author of A Vastness All Around: Awakening to Your Natural State, a powerful and elegant collection of essays, discussions, interviews, and powerful pointers. It can be ordered directly from the publisher at Lulu Press.

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For the book's Press Release, click Here.

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Check out Rodney on YouTube talking about "The Fundamental Thing."

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Feel free to read a review of the Kindle Edition of Vastness on Amazon

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

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"I like your approach in A Vastness All Around. The stories, thoughts and vignettes of your life seem wonderful ways to make people stop and pay attention to where they actually are right now, rather than in some imagined past or future. They show that you don't have to be some specially qualified person, preferably with a title and a name in Sanskrit, to pursue the spiritual quest. Your message comes across particularly well in such pieces as 'Sheerness of Being.'"

--Valerie J. Roebuck, Ph.D., Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester (England)

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I am now doing phone consultations via Skype! Each conversation will take about an hour, and a $25 donation will be greatly appreciated.

I am also scheduling teaching events at this time. If you would like to arrange something in your area, you may email me at: writerguy (at) fastmail (dot) fm

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

2 comments:

agoraƩagora said...

Dear, Rodney

You said: "you may be hard pressed to say precisely what it is that causes you to gravitate to a teacher's words. Nonetheless, the pull is there."

I say: "yes".

every Sunday morning
the computer screen
give me a gift =
his dialogues.

I love to sit in your “company” :)

kisses from Brazil,
Rejane

Rodney Stevens said...

Kisses to you also, my Sweet. :)

And thank you!

Rodney