The Seer

---

Asking for directions in the Australian outback is often a chancy business. There was once a grey nomad (retiree towing a caravan) who asked a farmer for directions to Goombungee.

“Take this road here for about two kilometres and turn left at the hollow log. You keep going for about three more kilometres and you’ll come to Riley’s dam. Turn left again. About four kilometres down the track you’ll come to a big sign advertising sheep-dip. Turn left there and keep going.”

“And that’ll get me to Goombungee, will it?”

“No. It’ll get you back here. If I give you all the directions at once it’ll only confuse you.”

BTW. Have you seen our page on Spiritual Direction?

---

At day’s end, what honest effort do you look back upon? Did you express one thought that was not in defense? Did you look at your self from another person’s perspective? Did you understand the why behind another person’s actions? Did you laugh at your self? Did you remember you will die? How long till you experience one night utterly alone, where silence absorbs every hope, and boils you down to zero? How long till you remember these questions every day, then end them?

by Shawn Nevins

---

It was recntly announced that Eckhart Tolle will be coming to Australia and New Zealand in March next year! It’s planned that he will give an Intensive in Sydney on March 7th. a talk in Melbourne on March 10th, another talk in Brisbane on March 12th, and then a three-day retreat from March 20th at the Hyatt Resort at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

When I and many others wrrote to Eckhart’s office in Vancouver asking for Perth to be incluced in the Australian tour, Erin replied:

“Our original Australia/New Zealand itinerary for Eckhart included Perth, Adelaide, Wellington, and Christchurch; however it was Eckhart’s decision to remove these cities from the tour. He knows that there are many people in each of these cities who would love to have him teach there. If only he could be everywhere all the time! It is just physically impossible for him to meet all of the expectations placed upon him. We understand your disappointment and hope you’ll be able to make it to one of his Australian destinations.”

Further details of the Australian tour can be found on Eckhart’s Web site.

---

Question: In your latest book (Journey Into Now), you say that there is a fundamental choice available to us. Either we are fully present in the NOW (Heaven) or we are in the mind (Hell). Do ‘we’ have a choice, or is it destiny? Advaita says there is no choice because there is no ‘you’ present.

Leonard Jacobson: You ask, do we have a choice, or it destiny? In the context of your awakening, both are true! It is your ultimate destiny to awaken fully into Oneness and the truth of life. But when that will occur depends upon the choices you make. Your choices can lead you into Oneness, or they can lead you further into separation and illusion.

You might also ask “Who is choosing?” That depends. It can be your ego which chooses, which will keep you in the separation, or it can be some deeper dimension of you, which at some very subtle level, remembers the Oneness and longs for it. A choice made from this longing will lead you home. When Advaita says that there is no choice, because there is no you, my question is “Who is saying that? Who is aware of that.”

Of course, when you are fully present, in any given moment, then your mind is silent. There are no thoughts. All spiritual concepts dissolve. There is no doer and there is no choice. But there is no Advaita. There is no Ramana. There is no past or future. There is no opinion. There is no understanding. There is no agreement, or disagreement. There just is!

Is this the ultimate state of awakening? If so, I would ask, “Who thinks so?” Is this the state you desire? If so, I would ask, “Who desires that?” In true awakening, all spiritual opinions, concepts and understanding dissolve. Ultimately, we are left with that ancient expression, “Neither this nor that!”

And beyond that, nothing!

---

We fail to understand God’s purpose because we (are conditioned to) see with physical eyes only and not with our spiritual eyes.

We see what we want for ourselves (a better dream experience), not what God wants for us (to awaken as the dreamer to the dream).

So now (in awakening) we give our attention not only to what is seen, but to what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal

St Paul, sharing the gnosis (the knowing) with the followiers of Jesus’ teaching at Corinth, Greece. (2 Cor. 4:18).

---

After our last Satsang gathering at Gurukula, our friend, John Walker, returned home, went to bed and finally drifted off to sleep listening to a CD talk by Eckhart Tolle. At 2.30am, John was woken to a major shock. A car being pursued by police crashed through a wall into the room where John was sleeping. The flying bricks stripped the bedding off him and grazed his back, bum and legs. His headset he had been wearing ended up at the foot of the bed on the floor under the rubble! It made a news story on all our TV channels. We’re so thankful John’s form was preserved.

John’s narrow escape reminded us of some apt words by Adyashanti when he said:

“This that you are is here to experience anything and everything that comes down the pike (highway). It’s the only way to experience the greatest love, the greatest freedom, in a way that’s permanent ­- not just a vacation. It’s a permanent abidance in the truth of your being.”

---

(inspired by Hughes Mearns’ famous verse)

As I was walking up the stair
I met a non-dualist who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today—
I wish, I wish he’d go away.

He looked at me with eyes so clear,
And said, “I cannot disappear,
For I am THAT, the ALL IN ALL–
The stairs, the janitor, the wall…

I am the ocean and the drop,
I am the cleaner and the mop,
I am the bell-boy and the bell,
I am pussy and the well…

I am the toaster and the toast,
And though I do not like to boast—
I am the saucer and the Source
Of ALL THAT IS – right NOW, of course…

I hope I’ve made it very clear,
That you’re the one who isn’t here.
So when we meet along the way,
Don’t even try to say G’day!”

by Ann Faraday