Q & A: Light Beyond Light

Hi, Rodney. I came across your link on "Sailor" Bob Adamson's site. I just wanted to give you a shout-out and say I'm thoroughly impressed.

Rodney: I appreciate that. And I'm delighted that you found your way to both Bob's site and mine. But you needn't have gone further than Bob's!

Questioner: I hear ya. You just happen to live a few states away. Australia's a wee-bit farther!

Rodney: But it's all about the message, not the messenger. If you're reading some teacher's words and you are given paused by them, go with those words. Even more important, go with the pause. That is what you should be on the alert for. Whenever I use the term "resonate," I mean not only that you are moved by the writer or teacher's pointers, but that you are paused by them. This pause may first appear as a stillness or stoppage. But if you remain with it for a timeless moment, you may find you are open to and existing as your very own openness.

Questioner: Beautifully put, which brings me around to what I wanted to say. I noticed that you, "Sailor" Bob, and your teacher, John Wheeler, say pretty much the same thing. But I dig how each of you have different styles of saying it.

Rodney: Right. That's why John was so clear and definite about my speaking about all of this. It isn't because the writing or pointing here is superior in anyway to other clear-sighted nonduality teachers. Rather, this body-mind and personality simply provide another way or manner to point to that single, all-important truth: Our everyday natural state. Thus, someone who may not resonate with my expressions might be more drawn to John or Bob's pointing.

Questioner: Actually, I resonate with all three of ya!..Anyway, I hope you will indulge me here. I just want to know if an awakened person can immediately know if another person is really awakened or not?

Rodney: A guy walks into a room--no, you have no way of knowing (though Nisargadatta's gaze and Ramana Maharshi's smile were formidable and gave hints of the numinous).

Questioner: Okay, I was just curious. I know you probably don't "relate" to those kinds of questions. So thanks again for indulging me.

Rodney: You're welcome. But just a note: One of beauties of nonduality is that it has a built-in Bogus Meter. No one can talk about it and self-realization for more than a couple of minutes without revealing the depth of his understanding. This isn't a matter of finger-pointing. It is simply a matter of hearing or seeing that this person hasn't clue about what he or she is talking about.

Questioner: Especially with some of the spiritual "superstars."

Rodney: There is no "especially" here. Whether the person is little-known or not doesn't matter. I'm speaking about whether a person's understanding is full, solid, and unshakable. In no uncertain terms, the person knows that he or she is awareness itself. This isn't conceptual. It's felt presence and spaciousness. But yes, even most immensely populate spiritual teachers easily reveal their lack true understanding, though they purport to be--in the apt and witty words of Jean Klein--"fully cooked."

Questioner: Just got back from a 5-day silent retreat. Though I was gonna die! Just a complete waste of money and energy, though they had two or three teachers there!

Rodney: Teachers of true worth tend to, among other things, speak clearly and evenly about their own understanding; point to your ordinary awareness as being your fundamental reality; tell you that time is not a factor in self-knowledge; and declare, in no uncertain terms, that meditation and practices are an utter waste of time. Further, they are quick to say you that you are already what you are attempting to be! Your natural state is clearly before you. It is what you are at this very moment. What needs to be seen or recognized is that your everyday awareness is, for the lack of a better word, multi-dimensional. You now see it as flat. But it is ripe with peace, richness, and radiance. Indeed, it is light beyond light.

Pointers

You are sitting. You are aware that you are sitting. You are Awareness.


**********


In the above, you aren't meditating on anything. You are simply seeing what is already present.


**********


A true sage or teacher continually points to the Ultimate truth, which is that you are not your body or your supposed mind. You are the spaciousness in which these appearances occur.


**********


Asceticism, appeals for grace, recitation of mantras, yoga disciplines, meditative efforts, mindfulness, and even "choiceless awareness" won't help you to know who and what you are. If you feel drawn to these activities, by all means enjoy them. Only know that they do not lead to self-knowledge.


**********


Consciousness="I am." / Presence="I am aware that I am."



**********


To see and understand means to recognize one's mistaken identity with one's body and thoughts, the latter of which is simply learned or conditioned responses to your environment. That is all.


**********


Don't be taken away by concepts. Your presence is immediate and eternal. Self-knowing involves neither concepts nor practices. Indeed, if this blog says anything, it is this: You are the answer--right here, right now.


**********


When you have a thought, what is the whatness that is aware of this thought?


**********


How marvelous! Our simple, everyday awareness is charan-amrita, the nectar of immortality which seekers overlook by going on sojourn after sojourn, and to teacher after teacher. See that you are your own lamp, to paraphrase the Buddha. And that there is no super-secret switch to flip; for your light is forever radiant, rich, and astonishing.

Pointers

What is the whatness that does not move? It is here and vividly present as you read these words.


**********


Completely forget about concepts and the apparent "me" or "self." What is the whatness that does not move?


**********


You are formless and free. See the simplicity and aliveness of that fact. You are neither the doer nor the experiencer. For there is only doing and experiencing. You are that beginningless expanse in which all actions and experiences occur.


**********


You say that you are your body. But what you are actually saying is that you are the awareness that is aware that this body is present.


**********


Self-realization does occur. It just doesn't occur to any one. There is no person present.


**********


Meditators say that they must "extinguish the self." But that happens all day long: A thought or feeling comes up and then, after a while, disappears back into awareness. There is no need for you to do a thing, except see the richness and peace of what is already present.


**********


The notion that there is "inner growth" and "spiritual evolution" are total fiction.


*********


Go from what you're reading here to seeing the clarity and spaciousness of what you are within. You must ultimately leave all words or concepts behind. There must be an deep and immediate seeing or understanding of this.


*********


Anything that you can be aware of can't possibly be your essence. Thus, your body, thoughts, and consciousness are definitely not you. So what does that leave? Do not move from this. What does that leave?

Q&A: Where Do I Go from Here?

Questioner: A friend of a friend recommended your blog. I've really been moved by what I've read so far.

Rodney: Thanks for stopping by. But feel free to move on if the writing doesn't work for you. The real issue here is your own self-knowing, which may not necessarily come with my pointers. But if it does, that's fine too!

Questioner: I'm a Mahayana Buddhist, and I've been at an impasse for some months now. It has become very frustrating.

Rodney: What do you mean by "impasse." I know what it means, of course. I'm just interested in hearing your version of this.

Questioner: For several weeks, my meditation was going along really well, with lots of deep peace and calmness. I was able to carry it over into my life very easily. Now, I seem to be struggling after even five minutes of sitting! So I'm off to buying another book or following another precept.

Rodney: All for naught.

Questioner: All for naught. There is just no getting around the fact that something isn't working.

Rodney: Great observation. Something isn't working. And were you to ask your teacher (and I'm not at all singling out anyone or any religion here), he or she might say to just continue to plow ahead, observe the breadth, deepen your compassion, watch whatever comes up and "let" it all go--

Questioner: So you've met her!

Rodney: Yes, many times, in some form or the other, though I have never "practiced" Buddhism.

Questioner: So where do I go from here?

Rodney: Start with what you are, which is this sheer, knowing presence of awareness. If you begin with that, you end with that. For that is all there is. It's a sudden and penetrating seeing or understanding that there is no journey to be made, and that there is nothing to attain. Your everyday awareness is what you are. Feel the reality of that truth at this very moment. Don't move from it. Witness the beauty and enormity of your own radiance.

Questioner: Why am I not seeing this? It's almost enough to make me want to just chuck it all.

Rodney: Whatever doubts, questions, and hesitations you have are actually beside the point, if you want to know the bare truth of it. Awareness is fully present. You are already that. So any concept, precept, or practice seemingly moves your away from this. There is, of course, no moving away at all. One of the concepts you have is what you think self-realization entails or means or "appears" like. As I said in a previous blog entry, your Buddha-mind is just another name for the natural state. You could label it Brahman, the Absolute, Absoluteness, nonconceptual truth, Supreme Identity, etc. Those are just words and expressions pointing to the obvious. So stick with the basics. Your spaciousness is your essence, not your body, thoughts, and feelings. Simply pause and see the reality of this. Your completeness is already present. You have only to see it for yourself.

Pointers

What continues? What is it that continues? What abides between every thought and feeling? Stay with that which, right here and now, is everlasting and true.


**********


There is no one to be "at one" with one's self. This is simply New Age piffle.


**********


There is no "evolution of consciousness." Neither is there an "expansion" of it. These are expressions used by gurus and teachers who simply have no idea about what they saying.


**********


Why are you seeking? You are freedom itself! How can spaciousness be bounded? Don't move from this. How can spaciousness be bounded!?


**********


There is no individual--only consciousness seeking its source, which is pure, nonconceptual awareness.


**********


There is nothing to attain and nothing upon which to meditate.


**********


You are bare, transparent spaciousness, not your thoughts, your body, or your feelings. They aren't even "your" thoughts, body, or emotions--just occurrences in awareness.


**********


This space-like, absoluteness is your ordinary, everyday awareness seen in all its depth and clarity. People overlook it because of its apparent subtlety, not because it is difficult to understand or to recognize.


**********


See the radiance and fullness of what is already before you, of what you already are. It is as simple and as lovely as that.

Pointers

Your true nature is both prior to bliss and beyond it.


**********


Om is the music of your being. It's what Nisargadatta Maharaj often called the "unstruck sound."


**********


You--as an individual--are just an idea (or group of ideas) that you have about yourself. The real you is utter spaciousness.


**********


Practices and processes may produce results, by the results will be merely experiences, not the recognition of your timeless essence.


**********


You think you are seeking liberation. But what you are doing is hanging onto this imagined "me" which is attempting to "gain" some imagined state.


**********


For the most part, you are distracted by your body-consciousness. But note that there is a presence in addition to your physicality. It is a knowingness that is sheer, radiant, and palpable.


**********


You can never find "your center." What you will find, if your understanding is deep and clear, is that you are centeredness itself.


**********


Look for what is always present. What is it about you, at this very moment, that does not change? Again, what is it about you, at this very moment, that Does Not Change?


**********


In the absence of a thought, there is no true absence. Rather, there is pure, nonconceptual awareness, which is immeasurably rich, clear, and peaceful.


**********


True silence doesn't come from "connecting" with nature or even with "your spirit" (whatever that is). You are awareness itself. You have no need to connect with anything. Indeed, whatever you do is redundant, at best, and destructive, at worst.


**********


Practices, processes, meditation, celibacy, enforced silence, sojournes to India, etc, are so enticing because they give solace to the notion that there is an actual "me." So you readily continue your spiritual exploits, despite your being told that they won't bring you a smidgen closer to knowing who and what you truly are.

Q&A: No Doer Thereof

Question: Hi Rodney, I found your site through Randall Friend's blog. You both offer wonderful pointers and clear instructions. Thank you!

Rodney: Thanks for your kind words and for taking the time to write. The pointers nearly write themselves, which is one of the reasons I carry a half-dozen pens and a digital recorder in my knapsack. Yet, I still forget to record or jot down a fourth of the pointers that come to me. By the way, the best ones are those that are accessible and that give an immediate pause.

Question: I'm writing with some confusion about how "reality" appears to the "me," and how it will appear when I unwaveringly know what I am?

Rodney: The "me" is nothing more than your thoughts, personality, habits, and consciousness. All these are things come and go. So there is no way that they can recognize that which is always present, i.e., nonconceptual reality. This "me" is also the mind, which is only the appearance of thoughts and concepts. The mind is not capable of knowing your natural state. It is awareness that knows consciousness and ideas, and not the other way around. But your phrase, "when I unwaveringly know what I am" harbors some truth. For with self-knowing, you do unwaveringly know what you are. Just don't give the "when" any credence. For you are already awareness itself.

Question: Doesn it mean I shouldn't be concerned about the global economic meltdown or the environmental crisis? What is really happening anyway? When questioners asked Nisargadatta about the world situation, he would ask "what world"? Is reality only what we are aware of in the present moment? Is mental involvement with external issues just more ego games? These questions really perplex me.

Rodney: Notice that you asking about what you should and shouldn't do. Such questions only distract from what is clearly before you, right here and now. And what is present is your own peace and limitlessness. You are overlooking it by dwelling in conceptuality, however important the above issues may be. But since your ultimate concern is with knowing who and what you are, why not center on that ever-present clarity to which all the genuine teachers and sages are pointing? Upon seeing that, your other questions will either be thoroughly answered or will no longer have any primary importance. As for the world, Nisargadatta was pointing to the fact that everything is awareness, including this planet. The earth is not an entity unto itself. And neither are you or I. As Buddha said, "the deed there is, but no doer thereof."

Question: And speaking of the Buddhists, they teach the importance of "right livelihood." Is that relevant in an nondual context? Many advaita or neo-advaita teachers tend to quit their day jobs and become satsang teachers, although there are some exceptions, such as John Wheeler and you.

Rodney: "Right livelihood" isn't relevant in a nondual context. Some people, upon understanding who and what they are, quit their jobs and teach. There are some who can't afford to do so. And there are still others who continue at their same jobs because they enjoy their occupations. All this depends upon the person's personality, which tends not to change after self-realization.

Question: How does the world appear to one who is awakened?

Rodney: At a slight remove.

Question: When I pay attention, I clearly see that I am that empty awareness in which everything arises, but that doesn't seem to be very transformative.

Rodney: If awareness is clearly recognized, trust me, it is indeed transformative--though I hesitate to use that word, given that you are seeing something that you already are. There is no entity to be transformed. Just keep coming back to the pointers (either here or elsewhere) until your ever-present radiance is incontestible.