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