When no thought is present, what is present?
*****
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.
*****
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.
*****
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?
*****
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?
*****
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?
*****
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.
*****
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.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Pointers
Why do you need to practice breathing? It's absurd.
*****
Right at this very moment, what is present in addition to any thoughts, sensations, or seen-objects?
*****
Drop all questions and look at what is directly in front of you. That this natural and timeless state is so easily overlooked is as amazing as the state itself. No chants, silence, or asanas are required for its recognition (though those activities, in themselves, can be beautiful, celebratory, and physically beneficial).
*****
*****
Right at this very moment, what is present in addition to any thoughts, sensations, or seen-objects?
*****
Drop all questions and look at what is directly in front of you. That this natural and timeless state is so easily overlooked is as amazing as the state itself. No chants, silence, or asanas are required for its recognition (though those activities, in themselves, can be beautiful, celebratory, and physically beneficial).
*****
When I'm talking to you, I am talking to Self. That is why you are feeling something hushed and far-reaching as you are perusing these words. There is something in me that is touching something in you. That "something" is the same in each of us. Its loveliness far surpasses any clarity in the words that you are reading right now. For after the words have stopped, you and I will still be there.
*****
Jesus pointed to your very own supremeness when he said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."
*****
You can only know something when you already transcend it. You are that presence that knows or registers a thought or emotion. And because you are transcendence itself, there is nothing that you have to "reach" or work-toward. This understanding is not evolutionary at all. The great sages from Shankara and Sri Atmananda Menon to Nisargadatta Maharaj and Sailor Bob Adamson all say that you absolutely are already That. There is nothing you need to do except see or understand what is already before you. The loveliness of this fact points to your very own radiance. Pause a moment and see what is forever shining.
*****
Jesus pointed to your very own supremeness when he said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."
*****
You can only know something when you already transcend it. You are that presence that knows or registers a thought or emotion. And because you are transcendence itself, there is nothing that you have to "reach" or work-toward. This understanding is not evolutionary at all. The great sages from Shankara and Sri Atmananda Menon to Nisargadatta Maharaj and Sailor Bob Adamson all say that you absolutely are already That. There is nothing you need to do except see or understand what is already before you. The loveliness of this fact points to your very own radiance. Pause a moment and see what is forever shining.
*****
Be wary of anyone who proclaims that you need to concentrate harder, you need to sit longer, or you need to commit to this. In actuality, you need none of those.
*****
You say that you want "peace of mind." But you can never have that. The thoughts, sensations, and feelings of the so-called mind are, by turns, calming, exciting, ludicrous, resentful, sexual, sacred, acrimonious, and loving. This is a natural part of your functioning. This is what the mind is: The arisings of all of those previously-mentioned things. So when you meditate in an attempt to either stop your mind or to watch it long enough to where it appears to be stopped, you will inevitably fail. But you most certainly can have peace. Just take note that you are actually not your thoughts. You are that eternally spacious and cognizant peace that knows that an idea or a feeling is present. And with the seeing of this, the importance of any arising concept or sentiment is quickly given its proper due.
*****
You are the pause and you are the clarity. You are that spaciousness which is prior to even consciousness! See, as you are reading these words, that there is a subtle and knowing presence in clear evidence.
*****
Be wary of anyone who proclaims that you need to concentrate harder, you need to sit longer, or you need to commit to this. In actuality, you need none of those.
*****
You say that you want "peace of mind." But you can never have that. The thoughts, sensations, and feelings of the so-called mind are, by turns, calming, exciting, ludicrous, resentful, sexual, sacred, acrimonious, and loving. This is a natural part of your functioning. This is what the mind is: The arisings of all of those previously-mentioned things. So when you meditate in an attempt to either stop your mind or to watch it long enough to where it appears to be stopped, you will inevitably fail. But you most certainly can have peace. Just take note that you are actually not your thoughts. You are that eternally spacious and cognizant peace that knows that an idea or a feeling is present. And with the seeing of this, the importance of any arising concept or sentiment is quickly given its proper due.
*****
You are the pause and you are the clarity. You are that spaciousness which is prior to even consciousness! See, as you are reading these words, that there is a subtle and knowing presence in clear evidence.
*****
Though there are no levels to the natural state, there is much to be said for having some experience with this understanding. That is why the talks from sages can be so valuable. I wince a bit at my early prose and replies to seekers' questions. It's not that these writings and responses were necessarily incorrect; it's only that there was a kind of spouting forth, with little regard for directness and clarity. I just wanted to speak and write about this as much as humanly possible, as if--alas--to spread the "the good news." I say "alas" because my correspondence was out of some curious compulsion that simply isn't there any longer. It has been replaced, if that is the right word, by a clear and natural kind of pouring outward. A question is asked, and a response given. I have not a clue what that reply will be. Still, it somehow remains "good news."
Monday, May 3, 2010
Q&A: Good Morning, Ms. Nottingham
Rodney: Good morning, Ms. Nottingham. And how are you today?
Question: Super, thank you. I'm sitting at my cozy desk, looking out onto the softly falling rain, and listening to podcasts. It has gone colder and darker here again, but the plants in my tiny front garden--which include a newly-planted apple tree--are looking quite fine.
Rodney: It all sounds very nice.
Question: It certainly would be if you were here, so that we could have a proper discussion about all of this.
Rodney: I'm on the next flight.
Question: You're such a love...I'm continuing to read and thoroughly enjoy John Wheeler's Awakening to the Natural State. I know the answer is there (this is my 2nd re-reading), but nothing has come of it yet, so to speak. Still, I continue to be brought to tears, at times, by both your writing and John's, as well as by my own intuitive "feel" for all this.
Rodney: Again, your tears are lovely.
Question: You're the only person that "gets" the tears.
Rodney: Oh, I "get" them completely.
Question: And that makes our friendship such a treasured one.
Rodney: Thank you!...Just a slight clarification on your statement, "I know the answer is there": The "answer"--or rather, the seeing or understanding--is not directly in the book, of course. It is the spaciousness that is within you. This is what John is pointing to. What happens is that you read some potent (or ordinary) phrase or pointer, and it halts your mental churning--i.e., thinking--in such a way that you directly perceive your immaculate and fundamental state.
Question: Yes, I see what you mean.
Rodney: Indeed, the best books, teachings, and teachers always point "away" from the ideas and concepts they are utilizing, however beautiful or dazzling those expressions may be.
Question: Well, as you once suggested, I'm continuing to explore other "credible" nonduality teachers. I still have my favourites, of course, though I rather suspect that everyone does. I'm currently enjoying Stephen Wingate and Suzanne Foxton, whom I believe you know.
Rodney: Yes, most people have teachers with whom they strongly resonate. There are numerous reasons for this: The teacher and seeker may have similar personalities, they may have a similar love for words, they may be in similar fields (art, science, business, health, medicine, etc), or they may simply have a gender kinship. So, as I have often said here, exploring other nondual writers and teachers is perfectly fine. Respected teachers don't demand your allegiance. And the persons you mentioned are certainly commendable. In fact, Suzanne and I exchange emails occasionally. I tease her about her being so hot, and how it's about time that nonduality had its own resident "Babe." She hates it and just wants to strangle me.
Question: [Laughing]: Well, as a woman, I can tell you that she may indeed want to give you a proper throttling, but only with a deeply appreciative inner smile.
Rodney: In all honesty, Suzanne is this adoring wife and mother, as well as a splendid artist and nondual writer. It's a wonder she has time to see to all of that; but she does, and we are all the better for it.
Question: As are we for "Radiance of Being."
Rodney: That's very kind of you. But the quality of a blog's readers, comments, and questions contribute, in no small measure, to the quality of the blog itself.
Question: Well, I'm just going to continue to follow through with this, pretty much as you did with John's book. Also like yourself, there is this complete absence of any kind of impatience or frustration. There is just this knowing, really, that this non-path is the right path, so to speak. I also see the total absurdity of trying to change ourselves, as well as how we cannot "meditate" our way to who and what we already are.
Rodney: Those are all resplendent points and a testimony to the depth and richness of your insights. There is not much more that needs to be added. Your earnestness, in combination with your lack of impatience and frustration, are especially winning. For self-exploration should be the most natural thing you can do. Any kind of stress and strain hints of there being a ghost in the machine, a seeker in some fantastical background, scurrying about in hopes of "attaining" his or her advaitic laurel. But it's all so much simpler than that. For your radiance is already shinning. And you are that radiance.
Question: Thank you so much, Rodney. Your words, explanations, and clarity have such a profound effect upon me. It's amazing, really, and such a gift.
Question: Super, thank you. I'm sitting at my cozy desk, looking out onto the softly falling rain, and listening to podcasts. It has gone colder and darker here again, but the plants in my tiny front garden--which include a newly-planted apple tree--are looking quite fine.
Rodney: It all sounds very nice.
Question: It certainly would be if you were here, so that we could have a proper discussion about all of this.
Rodney: I'm on the next flight.
Question: You're such a love...I'm continuing to read and thoroughly enjoy John Wheeler's Awakening to the Natural State. I know the answer is there (this is my 2nd re-reading), but nothing has come of it yet, so to speak. Still, I continue to be brought to tears, at times, by both your writing and John's, as well as by my own intuitive "feel" for all this.
Rodney: Again, your tears are lovely.
Question: You're the only person that "gets" the tears.
Rodney: Oh, I "get" them completely.
Question: And that makes our friendship such a treasured one.
Rodney: Thank you!...Just a slight clarification on your statement, "I know the answer is there": The "answer"--or rather, the seeing or understanding--is not directly in the book, of course. It is the spaciousness that is within you. This is what John is pointing to. What happens is that you read some potent (or ordinary) phrase or pointer, and it halts your mental churning--i.e., thinking--in such a way that you directly perceive your immaculate and fundamental state.
Question: Yes, I see what you mean.
Rodney: Indeed, the best books, teachings, and teachers always point "away" from the ideas and concepts they are utilizing, however beautiful or dazzling those expressions may be.
Question: Well, as you once suggested, I'm continuing to explore other "credible" nonduality teachers. I still have my favourites, of course, though I rather suspect that everyone does. I'm currently enjoying Stephen Wingate and Suzanne Foxton, whom I believe you know.
Rodney: Yes, most people have teachers with whom they strongly resonate. There are numerous reasons for this: The teacher and seeker may have similar personalities, they may have a similar love for words, they may be in similar fields (art, science, business, health, medicine, etc), or they may simply have a gender kinship. So, as I have often said here, exploring other nondual writers and teachers is perfectly fine. Respected teachers don't demand your allegiance. And the persons you mentioned are certainly commendable. In fact, Suzanne and I exchange emails occasionally. I tease her about her being so hot, and how it's about time that nonduality had its own resident "Babe." She hates it and just wants to strangle me.
Question: [Laughing]: Well, as a woman, I can tell you that she may indeed want to give you a proper throttling, but only with a deeply appreciative inner smile.
Rodney: In all honesty, Suzanne is this adoring wife and mother, as well as a splendid artist and nondual writer. It's a wonder she has time to see to all of that; but she does, and we are all the better for it.
Question: As are we for "Radiance of Being."
Rodney: That's very kind of you. But the quality of a blog's readers, comments, and questions contribute, in no small measure, to the quality of the blog itself.
Question: Well, I'm just going to continue to follow through with this, pretty much as you did with John's book. Also like yourself, there is this complete absence of any kind of impatience or frustration. There is just this knowing, really, that this non-path is the right path, so to speak. I also see the total absurdity of trying to change ourselves, as well as how we cannot "meditate" our way to who and what we already are.
Rodney: Those are all resplendent points and a testimony to the depth and richness of your insights. There is not much more that needs to be added. Your earnestness, in combination with your lack of impatience and frustration, are especially winning. For self-exploration should be the most natural thing you can do. Any kind of stress and strain hints of there being a ghost in the machine, a seeker in some fantastical background, scurrying about in hopes of "attaining" his or her advaitic laurel. But it's all so much simpler than that. For your radiance is already shinning. And you are that radiance.
Question: Thank you so much, Rodney. Your words, explanations, and clarity have such a profound effect upon me. It's amazing, really, and such a gift.
Monday, April 26, 2010
DVD Review
The Lost Satsang (NetiNeti Films/$24.95) was culled from a low-quality VHS tape that given to NetiNeti Films by S. K. Mullarpattan, who was Nisargadatta's primary translator from 1976 to 1981. In this little-known archival footage, the master teacher responds to questions from various seekers in his tiny, Mumbai flat.
The camera pretty much remains on Nisargadatta for the whole of the film's 90-minutes. Yet, it seldom feels static. For the legendary sage is in fine form here, pointing, laughing, shouting, glaring, loving, and rolling those presence-sated eyes. And Mullarpattan, who is often seen in the film himself, is quite animate in his own right, as he strives to translate and clarify Nisargadatta's torrent of words and expressions, of which gems abound:
"Space always exists, whether a building stands or it is demolished."
"Just do what I say. All your questions are sprouting from your identification with the body-form. You should go inside." [My emphasis.]
"These are pointers. It [awareness] cannot be explained by concepts. How can words explain that from which words originate?"
"What do you want? What is your main desire? Your body-identity is attracted to objects. It creates desires, and you treat them as high priorities. Understanding the Self should be your only priority...Search for your true nature."
The subtitling is excellent, with blue for seekers' questions and white for Nisargadatta's responses. Salutary too is the translating, in which three different translations were utilized (from Nisargadatta's native Marathi), with the central one being from Mohan Gaitonde, the sage's part-time and little-known evening translator.
Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo and their NetiNeti Films are to be thoroughly commended for presenting us with this marvelous work. You can order the DVD directly from them at: www.netinetifilms.com. If the website isn't highlighted, just copy it to your browser's address slot and click.
The camera pretty much remains on Nisargadatta for the whole of the film's 90-minutes. Yet, it seldom feels static. For the legendary sage is in fine form here, pointing, laughing, shouting, glaring, loving, and rolling those presence-sated eyes. And Mullarpattan, who is often seen in the film himself, is quite animate in his own right, as he strives to translate and clarify Nisargadatta's torrent of words and expressions, of which gems abound:
"Space always exists, whether a building stands or it is demolished."
"Just do what I say. All your questions are sprouting from your identification with the body-form. You should go inside." [My emphasis.]
"These are pointers. It [awareness] cannot be explained by concepts. How can words explain that from which words originate?"
"What do you want? What is your main desire? Your body-identity is attracted to objects. It creates desires, and you treat them as high priorities. Understanding the Self should be your only priority...Search for your true nature."
The subtitling is excellent, with blue for seekers' questions and white for Nisargadatta's responses. Salutary too is the translating, in which three different translations were utilized (from Nisargadatta's native Marathi), with the central one being from Mohan Gaitonde, the sage's part-time and little-known evening translator.
Maurizio and Zaya Benazzo and their NetiNeti Films are to be thoroughly commended for presenting us with this marvelous work. You can order the DVD directly from them at: www.netinetifilms.com. If the website isn't highlighted, just copy it to your browser's address slot and click.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Pointers
How could there be a path or process to what you already are?
*****
Yes, you have to go beyond language, physicality, and perception when it comes to this understanding. But that "going beyond" happens in less than a second when you either recognize the immediacy of your fundamental state or when you truly comprehend that your numerous points of reference to yourself (my body, my feelings, my sensations, my gender, my job, my religion, my enlightenment, etc) are points that come and go. Call it the ego or an ego-cluster. You needn't overly-focus on what to label it. Just see that this coming-and-going could, in no way, be your true and eternal nature.
*****
Its nothingness is something. Its something is nothingness.
*****
Self-knowledge isn't "cultivated." Additionally, there is no "going back into it" or "deepening" of it at all. Any attempt to do either is giving credence to a referential "I" that, essentially, does not exist. It is a construct, a practicality that we employ that enables us to communicate with one another and to go about our lives. Therefore, this "I" needn't be shunned nor revered. It is what it is. And you are what you are: Radiant spaciousness without beginning or end.
*****
"The Great Perfection," as Dzogchen masters call it, points so beautifully and precisely to itself.
*****
Why should "spiritual hardships" be considered a good or noble thing? Don't buy into the myth that coming to this understanding should have some dramatic or agonizing arc. Utter fiction, too, is the notion that self-realization is something that is sustained over time. Once your natural state is recognized, it is fully recognized. It is its own aliveness. There is absolutely nothing that it requires. And who, precisely, would be doing the maintaining or enhancing anyway? There is no who, only a what. And-you-are-That.
*****
Any talk of having "the right relationship with yourself" and "coming to grips with who you are" is just a lot of babble and conceptual fodder. You are focusing on matters that have nothing to do with your cognizant sheerness and beauty.
*****
Thoughts, feelings, sensations, and concepts all come and go. They are appearances. They have no nature of their own. Thus, what is it about you--at this very moment--that Does Not Move? Don't attempt to grasp this through thoughts or theories or mythic notions of what you think "liberation" is. Rather, simply bring your attention to this presence of awareness that is fully beyond any postulations you might have about it. Indeed, that is one of the first things you realize when you come to this understanding: How utterly insignificant your thoughts, dogmas, and beliefs are in comparison with your immaculate and imperishable limitlessness.
*****
Yes, you have to go beyond language, physicality, and perception when it comes to this understanding. But that "going beyond" happens in less than a second when you either recognize the immediacy of your fundamental state or when you truly comprehend that your numerous points of reference to yourself (my body, my feelings, my sensations, my gender, my job, my religion, my enlightenment, etc) are points that come and go. Call it the ego or an ego-cluster. You needn't overly-focus on what to label it. Just see that this coming-and-going could, in no way, be your true and eternal nature.
*****
Its nothingness is something. Its something is nothingness.
*****
Self-knowledge isn't "cultivated." Additionally, there is no "going back into it" or "deepening" of it at all. Any attempt to do either is giving credence to a referential "I" that, essentially, does not exist. It is a construct, a practicality that we employ that enables us to communicate with one another and to go about our lives. Therefore, this "I" needn't be shunned nor revered. It is what it is. And you are what you are: Radiant spaciousness without beginning or end.
*****
"The Great Perfection," as Dzogchen masters call it, points so beautifully and precisely to itself.
*****
Why should "spiritual hardships" be considered a good or noble thing? Don't buy into the myth that coming to this understanding should have some dramatic or agonizing arc. Utter fiction, too, is the notion that self-realization is something that is sustained over time. Once your natural state is recognized, it is fully recognized. It is its own aliveness. There is absolutely nothing that it requires. And who, precisely, would be doing the maintaining or enhancing anyway? There is no who, only a what. And-you-are-That.
*****
Any talk of having "the right relationship with yourself" and "coming to grips with who you are" is just a lot of babble and conceptual fodder. You are focusing on matters that have nothing to do with your cognizant sheerness and beauty.
*****
Thoughts, feelings, sensations, and concepts all come and go. They are appearances. They have no nature of their own. Thus, what is it about you--at this very moment--that Does Not Move? Don't attempt to grasp this through thoughts or theories or mythic notions of what you think "liberation" is. Rather, simply bring your attention to this presence of awareness that is fully beyond any postulations you might have about it. Indeed, that is one of the first things you realize when you come to this understanding: How utterly insignificant your thoughts, dogmas, and beliefs are in comparison with your immaculate and imperishable limitlessness.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Q&A: Beyond Even Grandness
Question: Hi Rodney--Greetings and cheers! I hope this finds you well. It's been a long time since I've corresponded with you.
Rodney: It has indeed. Though we are right in the middle of the pollen season now, allow me to wish you belated Happy New Year!
Q: Thanks! I'm 70-plus years old, so I'll take it!
Rodney: You're probably hardier than I am, so don't sweat it.
Q: I'm continuing to closely read Charlie Hayes' books and Web site. He's sort of a "master pointer" for me.
Rodney: That he is. Charlie continually points to the heart of all this, and he minces no words while doing so. So continue to read whomever you resonate with, until your thinking and conceptualizing is naturally and fully stopped.
Q: Which is, I believe, Sailor Bob's expression for that sort of thing.
Rodney: Exactly, and it's a fine one. As for understanding itself: On one level, the movement of thought is suddenly and timelessly halted; and on another level, this cessation is a hushed and thoroughly undramatic occurrence. Your thinking, of course, isn't permanently halted. There is just this complete and instantaneous seeing/understanding that awareness is vividly present. And once seen, it is not lost.
Q: I also read your pointers frequently, and they often create a silence and stillness with me too.
Rodney: Yes, but the stillness isn't being created. It is being discovered or recognized--by you. Or more accurately, your attention is being brought to the ubiquity and ceaselessness of presence. I am simply pointing to something that you are seeing for yourself. Nothing has been newly-created, summoned, or ascended to.
Q: Got it. Thanks for the correction...Would you elaborate on your expression "that what is presently within and before you"? I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this properly.
Rodney: When I say that presence is "within and before you," I mean it literally. This moment is it. Awareness isn't something that is going to magically appear after x-number of months or years of meditation, or after x-number of sessions of sitting. It brims before you at this very second. Read the next sentence slowly: Presence lies between the spaces of the words in the sentence that you are reading right now. You, no doubt, felt something deep, unmoving, and indescribable as you carefully perused the above.
Q: Yes! I definitely had some sense something. But it was only for a second.
Rodney: That conceptual-slowing or cessation points to a more significant one, one that is nothing less than your natural and ever-present state. In fact, the pause is you. There is no separate, individual person witnessing awareness. Again, you are the pause.
Q: Yeah, I guess I keep thinking that, on some level, this is something that actually "happens."
Rodney: Right, that it is event-like, which isn't the case at all.
Q: But as you said, it's right here and now. I guess I'm just missing it.
Rodney: We go through life largely overlooking these natural and very potent pauses, multitudes of them throughout the day, actually. And we do this mainly out of habit. So I try to bring the reader or seeker's attention back to this pristine and ever-present spaciousness, which, in effect, is being ignored. But once it is recognized or understood, it will indeed appear to be thoroughly within and before you. There will then be no doubt that awareness is absolutely everything everywhere. Truly, no grandness--however cosmic, erudite, or spiritual--can ever excell your essence. For you are That, One without any second, at--this--very--moment.
Rodney: It has indeed. Though we are right in the middle of the pollen season now, allow me to wish you belated Happy New Year!
Q: Thanks! I'm 70-plus years old, so I'll take it!
Rodney: You're probably hardier than I am, so don't sweat it.
Q: I'm continuing to closely read Charlie Hayes' books and Web site. He's sort of a "master pointer" for me.
Rodney: That he is. Charlie continually points to the heart of all this, and he minces no words while doing so. So continue to read whomever you resonate with, until your thinking and conceptualizing is naturally and fully stopped.
Q: Which is, I believe, Sailor Bob's expression for that sort of thing.
Rodney: Exactly, and it's a fine one. As for understanding itself: On one level, the movement of thought is suddenly and timelessly halted; and on another level, this cessation is a hushed and thoroughly undramatic occurrence. Your thinking, of course, isn't permanently halted. There is just this complete and instantaneous seeing/understanding that awareness is vividly present. And once seen, it is not lost.
Q: I also read your pointers frequently, and they often create a silence and stillness with me too.
Rodney: Yes, but the stillness isn't being created. It is being discovered or recognized--by you. Or more accurately, your attention is being brought to the ubiquity and ceaselessness of presence. I am simply pointing to something that you are seeing for yourself. Nothing has been newly-created, summoned, or ascended to.
Q: Got it. Thanks for the correction...Would you elaborate on your expression "that what is presently within and before you"? I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this properly.
Rodney: When I say that presence is "within and before you," I mean it literally. This moment is it. Awareness isn't something that is going to magically appear after x-number of months or years of meditation, or after x-number of sessions of sitting. It brims before you at this very second. Read the next sentence slowly: Presence lies between the spaces of the words in the sentence that you are reading right now. You, no doubt, felt something deep, unmoving, and indescribable as you carefully perused the above.
Q: Yes! I definitely had some sense something. But it was only for a second.
Rodney: That conceptual-slowing or cessation points to a more significant one, one that is nothing less than your natural and ever-present state. In fact, the pause is you. There is no separate, individual person witnessing awareness. Again, you are the pause.
Q: Yeah, I guess I keep thinking that, on some level, this is something that actually "happens."
Rodney: Right, that it is event-like, which isn't the case at all.
Q: But as you said, it's right here and now. I guess I'm just missing it.
Rodney: We go through life largely overlooking these natural and very potent pauses, multitudes of them throughout the day, actually. And we do this mainly out of habit. So I try to bring the reader or seeker's attention back to this pristine and ever-present spaciousness, which, in effect, is being ignored. But once it is recognized or understood, it will indeed appear to be thoroughly within and before you. There will then be no doubt that awareness is absolutely everything everywhere. Truly, no grandness--however cosmic, erudite, or spiritual--can ever excell your essence. For you are That, One without any second, at--this--very--moment.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Pointers
Truth cannot be practiced.
*****
You can temporarily put any unanswered questions about consciousness aside, if you like. For after recognizing awareness proper, your comprehension of the former (which is mainly your varying states of alertness) will be quite clear.
*****
See the immediate Reality to which Buddha, Christ, Shankara, and Nisargadatta were pointing. At bottom, this isn't a conceptual or pedagogical matter. It is truth itself.
*****
The mind cannot be "emptied" of thoughts. The mind is just another name for a thought. When there is no thought, there is no mind. Further, thoughts arise and disappear within this sheer and cognitizing emptiness, which is nothing less than our fundamental nature.
*****
What Lao-Tzu said of the Tao can just as easily be said of awareness: Its "True fullness seems empty, / yet it is fully present."
*****
Presence doesn't need to be cultivated. See through any notions that awareness is not already in full evidence. You are not seeing this bare and blessed fact because, in considerable measure, of your attempt to understand this on a conceptual level. This is done out of habit, mainly. After reading some nondual pointer or listening to someone speak directly and clearly about all this, you often are off to the next related thought or theory in a mere second. But it is a second nonetheless, a pause of infinite depth and significance. It is That from which you never, ever move.
*****
Not to belabor the obvious, but you can't "meditate" your way to enlightenment. From the very beginning, meditation is based on the utterly false premises that there is an individual meditator, and that there is something to attain. The recognition of your natural state is all about seeing and understanding what is presently within and before you.
*****
There is no permanent happiness. If you are looking for that--either through meditation or nonduality--you aren't going to find it. However, you can discover a peace that passes all understanding. It is limitless, eternal, and vividly-present.
*****
The body, senses, mind, feelings, and consciousness all change. Thus, none of them can possibly be your fundamental nature. So what is left? What exactly remains?
*****
Though your natural state is subtle, it is self-liminous and ever-before you. Any method or practice "toward" it is an immediate move "away" from it (in so much as one can move from it). Even any attempted forms of surrender won't work because there is someone trying do the deed. True surrender is effortless. It is a sudden seeing or understanding that Presence is a felt and living reality. Take a moment to discover it for yourself. Trust me when I say this: Absolutely nothing could be simpler.
*****
You can temporarily put any unanswered questions about consciousness aside, if you like. For after recognizing awareness proper, your comprehension of the former (which is mainly your varying states of alertness) will be quite clear.
*****
See the immediate Reality to which Buddha, Christ, Shankara, and Nisargadatta were pointing. At bottom, this isn't a conceptual or pedagogical matter. It is truth itself.
*****
The mind cannot be "emptied" of thoughts. The mind is just another name for a thought. When there is no thought, there is no mind. Further, thoughts arise and disappear within this sheer and cognitizing emptiness, which is nothing less than our fundamental nature.
*****
What Lao-Tzu said of the Tao can just as easily be said of awareness: Its "True fullness seems empty, / yet it is fully present."
*****
Presence doesn't need to be cultivated. See through any notions that awareness is not already in full evidence. You are not seeing this bare and blessed fact because, in considerable measure, of your attempt to understand this on a conceptual level. This is done out of habit, mainly. After reading some nondual pointer or listening to someone speak directly and clearly about all this, you often are off to the next related thought or theory in a mere second. But it is a second nonetheless, a pause of infinite depth and significance. It is That from which you never, ever move.
*****
Not to belabor the obvious, but you can't "meditate" your way to enlightenment. From the very beginning, meditation is based on the utterly false premises that there is an individual meditator, and that there is something to attain. The recognition of your natural state is all about seeing and understanding what is presently within and before you.
*****
There is no permanent happiness. If you are looking for that--either through meditation or nonduality--you aren't going to find it. However, you can discover a peace that passes all understanding. It is limitless, eternal, and vividly-present.
*****
The body, senses, mind, feelings, and consciousness all change. Thus, none of them can possibly be your fundamental nature. So what is left? What exactly remains?
*****
Though your natural state is subtle, it is self-liminous and ever-before you. Any method or practice "toward" it is an immediate move "away" from it (in so much as one can move from it). Even any attempted forms of surrender won't work because there is someone trying do the deed. True surrender is effortless. It is a sudden seeing or understanding that Presence is a felt and living reality. Take a moment to discover it for yourself. Trust me when I say this: Absolutely nothing could be simpler.
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