Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Q & A: In Plain View

QUESTIONER/FRIEND: I'm very excited about your blog, and surprised. I feel as if this is something about you I've never known. Doesn't that sound funny?

Rodney: Well, up until reading John Wheeler's Awakening to the Natural State, I didn't know how easily this presence of awareness could be known, not to mention overlooked. It simply was always there, radiant and in plain view. John's writing and emails hit the nail on the head for me, which is almost a given, since his pointers are so clear and resolute. Before that, I certainly intuited that there was a final truth to the question of "Who am I?" And through the decades, I sought it. I just refused to let the question go. But trust me, there was nothing romantic about the search in the least. If my blog says anything, it is that practices and seeking are absolutely unnecessary. The answer is here and now. Even the question "Who am I?" implicitly contends that there is some actual person to become "enlightened." So during those wayward decades, one fiction was piled upon another, until I began to discern that the ultimate question is not "Who am I?" It is "What am I?" This, finally, was pointing to the heart of the matter.

Q: I've never quite been exposed to the clarity of your thoughts and the calming effect they have.

Rodney: Whatever qualities are there are because I'm speaking from the Source. Presence is talking with presence. So a reader or listener's thoughts and beliefs are, in varying degrees, bypassed. Thus, an indefinable repose is often felt. But this is because you are sensing your own immediacy and stillness. My part in this is quite minuscule.

Q: Well, just know that I feel encouraged by your writing and the beauty of your sharing and expression, because evolution is important to me.

Rodney: I'm happy that the blog is resonating with you. But please know that there is no evolution here. Mistaken identification--that you are your body, mind, gender, personality, occupation, etc--can't gradually be dispelled. It isn't a matter of "evolving" to some attainment. The seeing or understanding is instantaneous. It would be even more accurate to say that it is timeless. What suddenly is comprehended is that there is a felt and ubiquitous presence within and before you. It is sheer, living, and incontestible. And there is never a moment when it is not. You are that Supreme Existence. Indeed, the universe--and its plethora of marvels and dimensions--are wholly within you.

Q:Yes, I keep reminding myself of that and hoping that it will help me to focus on what matters most.

Rodney: Be careful not to turn it into a practice or repetition. If you want to bring yourself back to something, let it be this: "When no thought is present, what is present?" This pointer has an innate "halting" quality to it. Because it points to Truth so directly, it is difficult to reflect upon it mechanically. Thus, you are brought to a Full Stop, especially when you haven't raised the question for a while, and come upon it anew. Remain fully still when the pause occurs. Nisargadatta Maharaj reinterated the importance of "not moving" and "abidance" again and again in his books. But most people miss it. During that pause, see that there is a clear and immanent fullness before and within you. It is without beginning or end, and you are That.

Q: Thank you so much, Rodney.

Rodney: You're most welcome

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