The Seer

Criticism of Obama ‘Not About Race,’ Says New Poll of White People

Foreign Birth, Resemblance to Hitler Cited

People who criticize President Obama do so for reasons that have “nothing to do with his race,” a new poll of white people indicates.

According to the poll, which was conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, those who take issue with the President do so because of his “questionable birth certificate,” his “love of socialism,” and his “Hitler-like health plan,” but “not because of race.”

A significant number of Mr. Obama’s critics “strongly agree” with the statement, “I don’t have any problems with Obama being black, but I do have a problem with him being a socialist from Kenya who is trying to kill my grandmother.”

Professor Davis Logsdon, who conducted the survey, says that the poll is “full of good news” for Mr. Obama: “It indicates that race is no longer an issue in America, but a foreign-born president trying to institute a Nazi-slash-socialist euthanasia plan is.”

~ by Andy Borowitz in the Borowitz Report Sep. 21, 2009

A husband and wife went in for counseling after 47 years of marriage.

When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a passionate, painful tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the 47 years they had been married. She went on and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of un-met needs she had endured over the course of their marriage.

Finally, after allowing this to go on for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and, after asking the wife to stand, embraced and kissed her passionately.

The woman became quiet and sat down as though in a daze.

The therapist turned to the husband and said, “This is what your wife needs at least three times a week. Can you do this?

The husband thought for a moment and replied, “Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Fridays, I play golf!”

~ Sent in by Linley Anderson. Thank you Linley.

Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature.

But don’t seek to grasp it with your mind. Don’t try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of “feeling-realization” is enlightenment.

The word ‘Being’ explains nothing, but nor does ‘God’. Being, however, has the advantage that it is an open concept. It does not reduce the infinite invisible to a finite entity. It is impossible to form a mental image of it. Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being. It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence, the realization ‘I am’ that is prior to ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that.’ So it is only a small step from the word ‘Being’ to the experience of Being.

You are giving the other person space — space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give. Most people don’t know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind.

Of course, you cannot feel someone else’s Being except through your own. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is Joy. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is.

Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form. In the stillness of your presence, you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the unmanifested life that animates your physical form. You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature. You look beyond the veil of form and separation. This is the realization of oneness. This is love.

~ by Eckhart Tolle

A state of suffering or happiness, I maintain, is not caused by one’s past, but by how one is relating to the future by fulfilling (or not fulfilling) one’s true nature / potential NOW.

We all have two selves: one is the conditioned self driven by survival mechanisms and beliefs that have been developed through evolution and biography. We call this part EGO. The other Self is the source of who we really are: the potential of our unique strengths and virtues, our life purpose. We call this part BEING.

EGO and BEING are like two different software operating programs: In EGO we are alone and separated, while in BEING we are inter-connected. EGO is driven by fear, while BEING is driven by love. EGO makes us defend and control, while BEING makes us flow with the NOW and connect openly to people and nature.

We are inherently loving by nature. It is neither our biography nor our biology that stops us from expressing authentically who we really are, but our EGO, identity based on beliefs from the past . EGO stops us from returning to our true nature, our BEING .

Our EGO desires security and therefore shapes us by rules, labels, social roles, comfort zone, the known. The EGO will resist exploring possibilities of self-fulfillment and a happier life if such possibilities are unknown or out of our comfort zone. Stereotypes are part of EGO while archetypes are part of BEING .

Therefore, opening the way to BEING is a two stage journey: You first free yourself from EGO (the “EXODUS”) and then cultivate the potentials of BEING , your seeds of happiness (the “PROMISED LAND”).

~ by Hagai Avisar

NB: Hagai is a Melbourne based spiritual teacher, counsellor and psychologist with an international reputation. He will be coming to Perth to offer a Return to BEING workshop at Gurukula in November. The workshop integrates wisdom from several sources – Positive Psychology (the study of happy and meaningful life), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Ekhart Tolle’s inspiring works (‘The Power of Now’ & ‘A New Earth’). For more info: >>>Click Here

“The same awareness that’s present when you stop thinking is also present in every thought. By the power of sustaining awareness for short moments, many times, confidence in awareness is nurtured until awareness becomes permanent and automatic at all times and in all situations — including the times when many thoughts are arising.”

~ by Candace O’Denver

A woman inquirer asks to be in silence with UK spiritual teacher, Mooji, nothing more. Mooji tells her there is a real silence which is effortless and natural; that there is no one there to practice it — it only awaits discovery… >>>Click Here

And Prakash would like to gift you with his eBook, The Little Book of Silence Click the ETN logo button on the landing page to receive it free. It’s really an innovation that in such a short read, you really “get the point”.

Candace O’Denver covers the basics in her ‘Great Freedom’ teachings and gives excellent Introduction to Awareness talks entitled: ‘Fully Alive’ etc.

Finally — Check out Richard Miller’s TV channel, which runs archived shows 24/7, or choose the webcast you want to see on the VOD – Video on Demand – button. This is also the link where you will see the live show. There are so many things for you to look into.

To find a Buddha, all you have to do is see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don’t see your nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you’ll never find a Buddha. The truth is, there’s nothing to find. You (already) have the Buddha-nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha; whoever doesn’t is a mortal.

To attain enlightenment you have to see your nature. To attain enlightenment without seeing your nature is impossible. Someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word. Seeing your nature is Zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not Zen. If you see your nature, you don’t need to read sutras or invoke Buddhas. Unless they see their nature, people who shave their head are simply fanatics.

Once you see your nature, you’re a Buddha even if you work as a butcher. Buddhas of the past and future only talk about seeing your nature. It’s only because people don’t see their nature that they end up in hell. If you don’t see your own miraculously aware nature, you’ll never find a Buddha even if you break your body into atoms.

But people today don’t understand what this means. Instead of looking inside they insist on looking outside. Seeing through the mundane and witnessing the sublime is less than an eye-blink away. Realization is NOW.

The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is beholding the mind.

~ by Bodhidharma: the first patriarch of Zen (translation by Red Pine).

Or, to put it another way …

To find the Christ that Jesus knew, all you have to do is see your essential nature.

Whoever sees her true nature is one with Christ. If you don’t recognize your essential nature and run around all day looking somewhere else, you’ll never experience the Christ as Jesus did.

The truth is, there’s actually nothing to find. You already have the Christ-nature. Whoever sees her infinite and eternal nature is one with Christ; whoever doesn’t suffers as a mortal.

To attain enlightenment you have to see your Christ nature. To attain enlightenment without seeing your Christ nature is impossible. Someone who sees her own essential nature finds the Way, even if she can’t read a word.

Seeing your true nature is to encounter the truth that makes you free.

Unless you see your Christ nature, you’re not experiencing the truth Jesus lived and taught. If you see your infinite and eternal nature, you don’t need to read scriptures or invoke the saints.

Unless they see their Christ nature, people who deny themselves adequate food or sleep in the name of religion are simply fanatics.

Once you see your essential nature, you’re one with Christ even if you work as a rat catcher.

True teachers of the past and future only talk about seeing your Christ nature. It’s only because people don’t see their Christ nature that they end up in a mind-made hell.

If you don’t see your own miraculously aware nature, you’ll never know the Christ even if you break your body into atoms in sacrificial devotion.

But people today don’t understand what this means. Instead of looking for the Kingdom of Heaven inside they insist on looking outside as if they were looking for some thing.

Seeing through the mundane and witnessing the sublime is less than an eye-blink away. Self-realization is NOW.

The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is simply noticing one’s thoughts and feelings etc. from the alive awareness that is our Christ nature.

If a diplomat says, “Yes.” He means “Maybe”.

If he says, “Maybe” he means “No”.

And if he says, “No” he’s no diplomat.

And that’s an absolute contrast to a lady.

If a lady says, “No” she means “Maybe”.

If she says, “Maybe” she means “Yes”.

And if she says, “Yes” she’s no lady!

Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain. Whatever the substance you are addicted to — alcohol, food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person — you are using something or somebody to cover up your pain.

That is why, after the initial euphoria has passed, there is so much unhappiness, so much pain in intimate relationships. They do not cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you.

Every addiction does that. Every addiction reaches a point where it does not work for you anymore, and then you feel the pain more intensely than ever.

This is one reason why most people are always trying to escape from the present moment and are seeking some kind of salvation in the future. The first thing that they might encounter if they focused their attention on the Now is their own pain, and this is what they fear.

If they only knew how easy it is to access in the Now the power of presence that dissolves the past and its pain, the reality that dissolves the illusion. If they only knew how close they are to their own reality, how close to God.

The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don’t face it, if you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again.

The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence.

~ by Eckhart Tolle

A friend drew to my attention recently, that the Parliament of Religions (now held every 5 years), will be staged this year in Australia for the first time, from Dec. 3rd – 9th, at the Melboune Convention Exhibition Centre. You can find out more about it >>>HERE.

Someone once observed, most people use religion like a bus — they ride on it only while it’s going their way! It’s clear from the religious conflicts erupting around the world today, that ‘true believers’ have just enough religion to make them hate, but not enough to make them love those adhering to different belief systems or faiths.

Religious externals may have a meaning for the God-inhabited soul; for any others they are not only useless but may actually become snares, deceiving them into a false and perilous sense of security. Experience teaches us that religion that is merely ritual and ceremonial can never satisfy. Neither can we be satisfied by a religion which is merely humanitarian or serviceable to mankind. Man’s craving is for the spiritual.

Every day now, people are straying away from churches, mosques and temples and looking for a direct experience of ‘God’ or the Numenous.

Mohandas Gandhi spoke with insight when he said: “Religion is not what you will get after reading all the scriptures of the world. It is not really what is grasped by the brain. It is a heart grasp.”

When speaking to some young people in India, Gandhi once said: “Let me explain what I understand by religion. It is not the Hindu religion which I certainly prize above all other religions, but the religion that transcends Hinduism, which changes one’s very nature, which binds one indissolubly to the truth within and which ever purifies. It is the permanent element in human nature which counts no cost too great in order to find full expression and which leaves the soul utterly restless until it has found itself, known its Maker, and appreciated the true correspondence between the Maker and itself.”

I’ll let the Quaker saint, Rufus Jones, have the last word on the subject: “True religion,” he said, “is distinguished from all false or lower forms of religion in this, that true religion is always inward and spiritual, is directly initiated within, is independent of form and letter, is concerned solely with the eternal and invisible, and verifies itself by realizing within us our divine essence or nature, with joy, wonder and ceaseless gratitude.

Let us hope that true religion is high on the agenda of the upcoming Parliament of Religions in Melbourne.