The Seer

Dear Raphael,

Thanks for clarifying your situation for me … I now have a better idea of where you are in your life-experience.

With regard to the feelings of depression etc. which have arisen in your awareness over the past eight years, I take it that you’ve been having some therapy or counselling for this condition and that this is helping you return to a more normal state of wellness. Is that so, or have you been following some form or ’self-healing’? If you feel comfortable about it, you may like to tell me something of how the improvement came about.

One important thing we all need to know is that inner peace does not come about as a result of thinking or because one ‘masters’ one’s thoughts etc. If that were so, only highly intelligent people would experience inner peace and content, but that is obviously not so.

Peace is lost the moment we resist the way things are. We either want something we don’t have, don’t want something we do have or pass judgement by convincing ourselves that things ’should’ be different to what they are.

So, the way to find inner peace is to be able to accept the way things are at any given moment. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to improve your situation if you feel it is a bad one, but at least you can say to yourself, “Well, this is the way things are right now … is there anything I can do about it?” And if there is, do it.

I and many thousands of others, many known to me personally, have found the writings of Eckhart Tolle very helpful and indeed, quite liberating, in getting free of mind-made suffering and finding lasting inner peace. Eckhart is not the only teacher sharing this timeless wisdom but he is one of the clearest.

I would strongly suggest that you persevere not only with his book, ‘The Power of Now’, but also that you get and read his second major book, ‘A New Earth’. Eckhart has read both these books onto CD disks and I’d recommend that you get hold of these if you can and listen to them. There’s something about Eckhart’s voice that helps the understanding of these life-changing teachings.

Whether you read or listen, do not try to ‘comprehend’ everything Eckhart is saying. Just pass over the bits you can’t grasp straight away, just as you would put aside a bit of tough gristle while eating an otherwise enjoyable and nutritious meal. I myself could not understand everything Eckhart said at the first reading, but later, as I reread his books, it all became wonderfully clear and freeing.

What Eckhart is trying to say about time is essentially this … instead of feeling regret or guilt about the past, and/or anxiety or dread about the future (psychological time), we can just focus on this present moment, or, if you like the Now, enjoy what it has to offer, or at the very least, make the best of whatever is happening for us.

Actually, he is trying to help us to see that we are really beings of pure consciousness or awareness, that can never become injured or ill. Illnesses can and do happen to our body and mind structures, but these are temporary episodes, and do not affect our true nature, which simply observes all these comings and goings in and around our person.

When we discover who we really are, instead of what we appear to be or other people tell us we are, then we find that we can find new and creative ways to manage the arising challenges of our unique life-experience. Healing happens naturally when we don’t fight with what is at any given time and simply allow it to be. It’s a bit like allowing a cloud to be a cloud and knowing that it will eventually pass … and maybe other clouds will appear etc. and so on.

All the great sages point to the truth that there is a great providence guiding our lives and that ultimately, we aren’t separate from it in any way. That’s why the saint, Julian of Norwich, was able to say with such confidence centuries ago: “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”

So, Raphael, of course you have everything to look forward to, but don’t let that fact keep you from experiencing the wonder and richness of THIS moment, and the ‘next’ one, and etc. etc. etc.

The teachings of non-duality (‘I and the Father are One’) have begun to come of age in the West, recognized (at last) as the deepest essence of Zen, Dzochen, Tao, Vedanta, Sufism and original Christianity. In the latter case, mystics such as Meister Eckhart pointed back to the core teachings of Jesus. In particular, the recorded talks of modern sages (such as Krishnamurti, Maharaj, Harding, Bede Griffiths, Tony de Mello and Bro John Martin) have paved the way for a contemporary generation of illuminating speakers and writers.

What all of these spiritual traditions have in common is a viewpoint which is different from mainstream Christianity, Judaism and Islam. How is it different, and what are the differences?

There is probably no person alive who hasn’t pondered that which some intellects have termed “ultimate reality” — the source of animation and activation that expresses the phenomenon that we call life. Because this noumenon is immaterial, to the senses, it is sometimes described as “Spirit.”

An interest in the spiritual need not have any inherent relationship with what is defined as religion. It can be free of: required beliefs; worship of forms (or even the absence of form); dictates of regulated behavior; or ideas of right versus wrong. It can be free of all doctrine or dogma, allowing you to discern and verify for yourself what is true.

In the latter category, is an area of interest in ultimate reality (or the “spiritual”) which is referred to as self-realization. This is a direct, unmediated confirmation of the nature of truth concerning the root questions of worldly existence: what can be said about this life?

There is a motivation for exploring this area, this personal investigation into our intrinsic essence. Each person, universally, possesses a sense of immediate and unique presence. This specialized sense of personification results in an experiential image or form which is characterized as our ego.

This ego plays a pivotal and crucial role in our relationships with other life forms. Resolving the questions about the nature of ultimate reality can have a profound effect on the isolation or alienation that we countenance from within the perspective of our encapsulating, or self-limiting, ego. It is this ego which is the progenitor of the bulk of the conflict which we daily experience, for the duration of a lifetime.

The consequence of the internal inquiry, into what you are that is in transcendence of the individual ego, is the revelatory awareness that is known as self-realization. This can be independent of any and all of the behaviors and attitudes that are associated with religion.

This isn’t an inquiry into the supposed existence (or non-existence) of a god or gods, but an investigation into the relationship (if any) between the self, that you are conscious of, and the ultimate reality in which you are conscious of it. And this is a discovery which can be immediate and direct, without reliance on any religious propositions.

~ From: Living Nonduality by Robert Wolfe

In both the church canon and the apostles’ canon we read how Jesus is trying to help his disciples realize who he really is. To see who he is we must look beyond his form. In verse 37 (of the Gospel of Thomas) the disciples ask him, “When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?” And Jesus said: “When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and and tread on them, then you will see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid.”

In this esoteric language, garments refers to our earthly bodies. Your spirit is like a child, and when you set it free, through enlightenment, you will see the son of man in everyone and in everything and will not be afraid.

Jesus goes further to explain in language similar to the New Testament (Matt. 18:4, Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17) in Thomas verse 46 it states: “whichever one of you comes to be a child will be acquainted with the Kingdom and will be superior to John.”

Throughout the apostles canon Jesus speaks of the kingdom as being something that is accessible in the present moment, with him, and through him. It appears Thomas had found it already, but the others were still grasping for it at this point. So they ask the Lord in verse 51, “When will the new world come?” Christ’s answer is one of the most important secrets revealed in all biblical literature: “What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it.”

The kingdom has come. it is a state of consciousness in which you realize the living presence of God within you and around you, in everything, everywhere, all the time.This is God realization or enlightenment. We are to look within and discover our own nature to realize the kingdom of heaven on earth.

In verse 111 Jesus says, “Whoever finds himself is superior to the world.” Then Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven or enlightenment is in what I believe to be the most profound pronouncement from any of the world’s great spiritual teachings. In verse 113 the disciples ask Jesus “When will the Kingdom come?” To which Jesus replies:

“It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is.’ Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.”

Those that have eyes let them see “it is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.” Heaven is not beyond the planet Pluto or the big bang, it is right here on earth.The kingdom of heaven is a state of consciousness in which you realize God; it is a state of enlightenment.This is Christ’s teachings on the way to enlightenment and God realization — heaven on earth.

In Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, Elaine Pagels explains the early Christian perspective of salvation as “that the divine light Jesus embodied is shared by humanity, since we are all made ‘in the image of God.’ Thus Thomas expresses what would become a central theme of Jewish — and later Christian — mysticism a thousand years later; that the ‘image of God’ is hidden within everyone, although, most people remain unaware of its presence.”

In other words, Jesus is clarifying that we are the same in consciousness, same in spirit, but not same in physical form. Moreover, we are to seek him within. Jesus is guiding us to self-reflection, contemplation, and meditation; he is helping us to realize the presence of God within us and around us.

Jesus says “It will not come by waiting for it.” It’s not going to come some day; it has come, and it is “spread out before us.” In other words, it’s here and now. The divine presence is present to all those who have the presence of mind to look for it. The more you look, the more you will see; but the looking is within according to Jesus.

~ From: Christ Enlightened: The Lost Teachings of Jesus Unveiled pp 104, by Steven S SadleIr

(Essentially) everyone is the Christ. Our shortcomings are simply the degree in which we are not aware of it.

Though it would always seem that external forces other than ourselves are responsible for our wellbeing or otherwise, it is really only ever the degree of our individual state of consciousness, our state of mind (as ye believe, so shall it be unto you) that manifests and appears as our mortal experience ….

On the mental level, there can appear to be other than ourselves communicating with us, leading, guiding, directing, but this is still only our own consciousness unfolding, because there IS only One, and the fact that we think there are other than ourselves is but a sense of separation, the belief in two powers, or a selfhood apart from God, in which division exists.

Ultimately, all belief shall be transcended as we come into the fullness of our realization of oneness with the source and substance of all being and all life, which is God.

~ From: The Day of Awakening by Tony Titshall

“It is a sacred moment when there is a meeting beyond the person, beyond the personal sense of self. When there’s no thought as you look into the eyes of another person… through awareness not through thinking… and then the meeting is sacred because that meeting is the realization of not two, but one.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

BTW: In a Speaking of Faith radio show, host, Krista Tippett, interviews Eckhart and he shares his youthful experience of depression and despair — suffering that led him to his own spiritual breakthrough, and ultimately, freedom and peace of mind. He also explains his view of what he calls “the pain body” — the accumulated emotional pain that may influence us and our relationships in negative ways. And Tolle talks about spirit and God, and what those concepts mean to him.

At this time of year, in Australia, the bottlebrush trees (Callistemon) along our driveway are covered with crimson blooms and attract a host of happy birds that feast on the nectar and seeds. For most of the year, these trees are rather austere in their grey-green foliage, but come October, they break out in this rich red splendour and I find the transformation quite uplifting and inspiring.

The recent reappearance of these masses of rich, red blossoms has reminded me again of the poignant and exquisite verses that make up George Matheson’s hymn, ‘O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go‘

Matheson said about this hymn: “My hymn was composed in the manse of Innelan [Argyleshire, Scotland] on the evening of the 6th of June, 1882, when I was 40 years of age. I was alone in the manse at that time. It was the night of my sister’s marriage, and the rest of the family were staying overnight in Glasgow. Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering.

It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself. I’m quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure that it never received at my hands any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a day­spring from on high.”

In the early years, my attention was all on the fleeting ‘waves’ but now at last I’ve come home, so to speak, in or as the ocean depths of God. And how I clung to my ‘flickering torch’ until, loved, chastened and finally illumined by that infinite forebearing Light, all was surrendered — I lay in dust ‘my’ life’s glory dead, as Matheson put it, and from the ground (of being) there blossomed that ‘eternal’ life that has neither beginning nor end.

Here are the words again, and I hope they will encourage your heart in new ways as they have done for me.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

We are told that these are teachings which were written down and saved for us to read. They are not church tradition or talk about Jesus, but direct sayings of Jesus as he lived. Perhaps there was a concern even during Jesus’ life that the essential message would be forgotten and mere talk of personalities would become the central concern.

Thomas makes this bold statement at the very beghing so that no one will be confused as to the focus of this document. Also, Thomas is telling us that these teachings are different than the ones publicly uttered. He obviously is aware that although the public teachings are important, they are not on the same level as these, which are meant fort he earnest seeker, not the casual listener or the spiritually immature.

Spirituality has as its essence the unseen, invisible and abstract reality of our being. Because it is hidden — that is, veiled from the obvious material matrix of things — it requires a kind of disciplined way of looking that is different from the everyday pattern of experiencing and interacting with the world.

It is, as this insight suggests, hidden. And because it has a fundamentally different kind of reality to it than does the obvious material process, the person who begins understand this other reality experiences a kind of conscious suspension of the ordinary world.

When Jesus says “he who finds the meaning of these sayings will not experience death” he does not mean that material death will not occur, but rather that a person begins to identify themselves as beyond the domination of the physical process where death is the ruling power. In this way, one ceases to “experience death” as an event to their identity, because their identity itself has altered.

This collection of sayings or insights reveal this hidden reality and a transformed consciousness that is required to perceive the Spirit. As such, they are whispers of a reality that cannot be spoken of directly, but only pointed to. This pointing to is the intention of Jesus’ private teachings, and Thomas’ reason for compiling them.

After twenty years in the ministry I had reached a dead end. I could no longer believe the core of orthodox Christianity regardless of how liberal I was with the Biblical text. The basic idea that God had sent his Son to die for me seemed like just one more item to feel guilty about and even reinforced the material matrix of the death process of a hurtful and unjust world. I was falling apart, even though on the outside, publicly, I appeared serene and confident.

I had always had a sense that life itself was rather meaningless, but I was well defended from it. My head kept me aloft, and I stayed well distracted — busy. But my pain was becoming intolerable. I decided to look elsewhere. I studied everything. I learned to meditate, was initiated as a Shaman, and got a graduate degree in clinical psychology. It helped some, but something else was bugging me.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but that something else that was bugging me was a Spiritual presence that would change everything in my life, and dissolve my living death. Later, as I read the opening saying of the Gospel of Thomas, I understood the phrase “Whoever finds the mearting of these sayings will not experience death.”

Did Jesus think that these sayings, in and of themselves, would begin an inner change in the individual that would ultimately lead to an awakening that would liberate him from the bondage of suffering that this world is? Well, whatever Jesus thought about them, they certainly have a power. One carmot live with these insights for a period of time and not have them radically affect the way that you feel, think and move in the world.

I have read this Gospel many times now, and have focused on each insight to give it time to sink in and touch my deepest part. What occurred has been nothing short of incredible, for truly I feel a sense of my own change, and a sense that I will never be the same again.

Somehow they moved me from identifying with an “I” that I thought I was, to an “I” that I now understand to be who I truly am. Within this new understanding, death is no longer a factor, since it stands outside of the truth of my essential being. Not by faith, nor belief in a doctrine or historical event, but through simply knowing who I am has caused this change, exactly as Jesus said it would.

~ From: Insights from the Secret Teachings of Jesus by Christan Amundsen

A famous Australian League footballer died and went to heaven.

The gate-keeper said, “Is there anything you would like to get off your mind before you come in?”

“Yes,” said the footballer. “When I first got into the League I used to play for St Kilda. During a closely fought Grand Final match against Collingwood I scored a goal which I thought was a point, but the umpire allowed it and it won us the flag.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said the gate-keeper. “I saw the whole thing from up here and it was a clear goal if ever I saw one.”

“Thank you, St Peter,” said the footballer, “you’ve set my mind at rest.”

In the last issue of The Seer, we announced that we would be suspending our gatherings at Gurukula while extensive renovations were carried out. At that stage we thought that we would be able to resume our normal program of activities in mid-October.

The repainting etc. is continuing as we write and the house is looking quite splendid again, though the disruption to our normal routine has been far greater than we imagined at the outset. We’ve had the movers in twice now to relocate furniture so all the floors can be polished or recarpeted

Also, since then, affairs in our life-experience have come to a head and we now find ourselves facing a necessary move back to our family in Melbourne in the not too distant future.

We’ll be quite reluctant to leave this beautiful place and our much loved community of friends that has grown up around Gurukula, but this seems to be the way life is unfolding for us at this stage so we are at peace with the ‘Isness’ of it all.

Our home and centre will probably put on the market in mid October. Full particulars will soon be posted on the Net and we’ll let you know the Web address in the next issue of The Seer. Given our ideal location and the architectural features of the property, our agents anticipate a fairly quick sale.

We don’t have a place in Melbourne to go to yet but we’ll start looking once Gurukula has been sold. We shall be looking for a place where we can continue to share the teaching that sets us free from mind-made suffering.

Unfortunately, this means we will not be hosting any further gatherings at Gurukula, though we will continue our counselling work from here as long as possible.

We do apologise for this unforeseen development and hope that it won’t cause you too much disappointment or inconvenience. ‘Headless’ gatherings will continue under the leadership of Sam & Navi Blight and we’re hoping others in Perth will feel led to share the truth-teachings of Eckhart and Adya etc.

As I write this, I recall a day a decade or more ago when I climbewd to the very top of the main-mast of the tall ship Leeuwin II. Engraved on the cap at the very top of the mast I found the dictum, “Every End is a New Beginning” That is how we feel about the ending of our sojourn in Fremantle.

Watching television is the favorite leisure activity or rather non-activity for millions of people around the world. The average American, by the time he is sixty years old, will have spent fifteen years staring at the TV screen. In many other countries the figures are similar.

Many people find watching TV “relaxing.” Observe yourself closely and you will find that the longer the screen remains the focus of your attention, the more your thought activity becomes suspended, and for long periods you are watching the talk show, game show, sitcom, or even commercials with almost no thought being generated by your mind. Not only do you not remember your problems anymore, but you become temporarily free of yourself – and what could be more relaxing than that?

So does TV watching create inner space? Does it cause you to be present? Unfortunately, it does not. When you are watching television, the tendency is for you to fall below thought, not rise above it. Television has this in common with alcohol and certain other drugs. While it provides some relief from your mind, you again pay a high price: loss of consciousness. Like those drugs, it too has a strong addictive quality.

One solution to this problem is to stop watching TV altogether. But this is not very likely. A more practical and realistic solution is to watch TV as consciously as possible. How do we do this?

Avoid watching programs and commercials that assault you with a rapid succession of images that change every two or three seconds or less. Excessive TV watching and those programs in particular are largely responsible for attention deficit disorder, a mental dysfunction now affecting millions of children worldwide. A short attention span makes all your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying. Whatever you do, whatever action you perform in that state, lacks quality, because quality requires attention.

Frequent and prolonged TV watching not only makes you unconscious, it also induces passivity and drains you of energy. Therefore, rather than watching at random, choose the programs you want to see. Whenever you remember to do so, feel the aliveness inside your body as you watch.

Alternatively, be aware of your breathing from time to time. Look away from the screen at regular intervals so that it does not completely take possession of your visual sense. Don’t turn up the volume any higher than necessary so that the TV doesn’t overwhelm you on the auditory level. Use the mute button during commercials. Make sure you don’t go to sleep immediately after switching off the set or, even worse, fall asleep with the set still on.

~ Eckhart Tolle

PS. In a recent radio show interview with Krista Tippett, Eckhart shares his youthful experience of depression and despair — suffering that led him to his own spiritual breakthrough, and ultimately, freedom and peace of mind. He also explicates his view of what he calls “the pain body” — the accumulated emotional pain that may influence us and our relationships in negative ways. And Eckhart talks about spirit and God, and what those concepts mean to him. To listen, >>>Click Here