When no thought is present, what is present?
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Forget any sensation you may be experiencing or any sounds that you may be temporarily hearing. Even forget that you are awake and conscious. See that there is a sheer-like spaciousness immediately within and before you. It begins nowhere, and yet is all-pravading. It is so easy to overlook, and yet, so simple to recognize.
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The myths surrounding self-knowledge are legion. They include your needing to be "fit" (morally, temperamentally, and spiritually) for any inquiry into the Self; your needing to enter or "merge with" Presence; and your needing to make a spiritual journey to some remote locale (whether it's the Ganges or the Himalayas). Go to those places because you want to go or because you've long been curious about them, not because of what you hope to "get" out of the journeys.
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It is your own, everyday awareness that is the "all embracing Reality" that is pointed to and spoken about by the sages. Don't move from that ordinariness. It is sated with brilliance, nuance, and peace. And don't think that you have to gain it through renunciation, austerities, unnatural silence, or meritorious works. Indeed, why toil and grovel for something that has already been given to you?
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You say that you want to wait to focus on self-knowing later in life. But who is it that will be waiting? And what is it that you don't have now but you will have then?
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Retreats and conferences can be very enjoyable and beneficial. Alas, organizers overwhelmingly focus on getting speakers and teachers who aren't self-realized themselves. It appears to be vital to the organizers to get people who are still "on the path" to teach people who are still "on the path." Now how nonsensical is that?
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In what does your thoughts come and go? It has to be something that, unlike the thought, never changes. Also, it has to be something that is far more subtle than the thought itself, and yet, is undeniably present. Reflect upon this until you see it for yourself.
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Self-realization isn't the "extinction" of the mind. Thoughts continue to come up, thank God. It's just that now you understand that you are the spaciousness from which all thoughts arise, and that the temporary appearance of feelings and ideas is the mind proper. When they aren't there, neither is the mind.
*****
Oh, bright new Love...Your voice is hushed, but never without song. Your kiss is deep and ever-nourishing. Your fragrance is the stars. You have pointed me to what I am--your very own nectar, which floods my mouth. And thus, the occasional and elegant aphony. Oh, sweetness of Light...With one spangled glance, you have shown me--finally--that the wave is always the ocean, and that I am ever the sea.
3 comments:
Lovely stuff Rodney. You can't teach someone to be what they already are.
Thanks, Suzanne. Yep, that's the gist of it: You can't teach someone to be what he or she already is. That's why methods that propose to do so ultimately fail. You just come away from them with lots of frustrations and a very bad headache...And speaking of lovely stuff, your blog continues to be precisely that! Tons of love to you.
You can teach someone to be what they already are - it may help, it may not. Ultimately, everything is just as it is, and perfect. If someone thinks they don't know themselves, that's not their fault, that's just oneness dancing its dance. Searching and finding is the game that oneness plays with itself. But then again, what do I know?! Thanks for your fun pointers Rodney!
Shamash
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