The Seer

To compliment our focus on Ilie Cioara in this issue, I’d like to draw your attention to another now fully awakened individual who also served time in prison and whose writings today point to the same deep divine Presence that is our true beingness.

John Sherman describes his former self as ‘a two-bit hustler in the sixties who morphed into a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary bank robber and bomber. After being captured and breaking out twice, and several years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, he was caught and spent the next eighteen and a half years in a federal prison.

Three years before his release, John stumbled on a little-known Eastern spiritual teaching, and awakened to reality. After his release, John met and married Carla and together they ’stumbled’ upon the actual secret of eternal peace and joy, and are now happily sharing this with others. When encouraging others, John says …

“I want to suggest something to you that you can do for yourself that works. I know it works because it worked for me, and it worked for Carla, my wife, and it has worked for a growing number of people around the world now; people who have, maybe even despite their better judgment, actually tried to do what I suggest.

I do have a theory as to why it works, but my certainty that it works comes from my own experience, rather than from a theoretical understanding, and the ‘why’ of it is actually entirely beside the point. So here it is, the simple act of inward looking that snuffs out the fear of life.

Step 1: Learn to Move the Beam of Your Attention at Will

To begin, just relax for a moment, and notice the obvious fact that you have the power to move your attention at will. As you read this, move your attention away from the text for a moment, and direct it instead to the feel of your underlying nature. If you’ll try, with your whole heart, to bring the beam of your attention into direct contact with the reality of your true nature, you will snuff out the fear of life, which is the first cause of all human misery.

I call this action looking at yourself. If you’ll just try to look at yourself with the eye of attention, the ‘fear disease’ will disappear, and with it the perception of your life-experience as a problem to be solved, a threat to be destroyed. It’s that simple.

Notice the feel of your chest and belly expanding and contracting, and then bring attention back here to this page. Do that a couple of times so that you become familiar with what I mean by ‘moving the beam of your attention at will.’

That action of moving attention at will, as you just did, is all that’s needed to accomplish what I’m asking you to do. The more you practice this simple act, the more you’ll become familiar with how it feels to do it. And the more familiar you become with the feel of it, the more skillful and direct you’ll be in the effort to move the beam of attention where it must go.

Step 2: Turn the Beam of Your Attention Inward

Use that skill to actually turn the beam of attention inward, trying to make direct, unmediated contact with the reality of your own nature, by which I mean you, just plain and simple you. You know What you are, and you will surely recognize yourself when you see yourself in this way. It really is that simple. Repeat this as often as it occurs to you to do so.

There’s no step three.

A Few Tips About Where to Look

The act of inward looking may be simple, but the actual doing of it can seem anything but easy. But consider this: the feel of you is the only thing that is always here. All else — thought, belief, understanding, things seen and heard and felt, emotions, pain, pleasure — literally all else comes and goes.

So, looking for you is looking only for what is always here. Anything that is newly arrived, no matter how wonderful it may be, cannot be you. Likewise, anything that has been here and left, even if it might return, cannot be you.

Furthermore, you’re the plain and unmoving field in which all else comes and goes. You have nothing to give to you or take away from you and you are, therefore, profoundly uninteresting to the mind’s eye, which has no purpose other than to keep vigilant, to stay on the lookout for things to grasp, things to reject and destroy, and things that are safe to ignore in a forest of bright, shiny, ever-moving, fantastically fascinating parade of phenomena.

The fear of life is a kind of auto-immune disease. Its only function, insane as it may be, is to keep you safe from your own life, and this mission demands ceaseless attention to incoming phenomena. Because of this, its natural orientation is ever outward.
You, on the other hand, are wholly and perfectly inward.”

~ To read the complete article: >>>Click Here

~ For more info on John’s work, visit his website

~ You can also download John’s Free eBook — Look At Yourself.

I suffered in twenty years of addiction. I searched every twelve step method, religion, self-help book, teaching, and positive thinking program that I could find. The seeking for spiritual enlightenment or self-help became my new drug.

It was only when I met the non-dual message that the addictive cravings and obsession greatly diminished, to the point of being virtually absent. Presence was the key. I want to share this message

Through resting in presence, and allowing all thoughts, emotions, and sensations to be as they are, the addict begins to experience a newfound freedom to not follow each thought, emotion, or sensation that arises.

Through resting in presence, the pull towards the object or towards the future, can dissolve away on its own. This approach to recovery is more helpful than developing a better story or ego.

This approach helps the addict see through the ego itself. It helps the addict see through the sense of separation.

When the addict no longer identifies with thoughts, the thoughts are allowed to come through freely and uninterruptedly. But the clinging to those thoughts for a sense of self releases itself.

In that release, the addict stops seeing himself as an object, cut off and separate from other objects “out there.” Therefore the seeking towards those objects releases itself. And the incessant, over-active thinking relaxes.

Through presence, the addict experiences a quiet mind. That quiet mind is like a warm bath that embraces him in all situations, providing a sense of freedom, peace, and well-being.

When the addict experiences real freedom, peace, and well-being, the need for a fix dissolves away. And the need to identify himself as an addict or “sick person” falls away too.

~ by Scott Kiloby, From his about-to-be published book: Natural Rest: Finding Recovery Through Presence

~ This article is continued: >>>HERE

~ To see and hear Scott talking on YouTube about this new paradigm for recovery from addiction: >>>Click Here

Q: I was trying to be and not think, but I found it very difficult. I found my mind wandering quite a bit.

Linda: I wouldn’t advise trying not to think. When you realize that you’re thinking, step back a bit from it and try not to go with the thoughts.

But you can’t just stop thinking. It doesn’t work – and it’s a very aggressive thing to do.

It’s better to work with the thoughts, and not see the thoughts as something that shouldn’t be there.

Ultimately they do go, but the way they go is not through fighting with them, battling them.

It’s a matter of seeing them as thoughts, no matter what they are, and coming back to the body when you can.

Sometimes you won’t be able to — they’ll just be so strong that they’ll take you over. But rather than just watching the thoughts, watch your reaction to them.

~ from: What do you Want? Conversations about Enlightenment with Linda Clair.

I was once, for a time, part of an organisation for teaching humanity’s timeless nondual wisdom. What others did or did not do was not my concern. Whether others understood or not was not my concern. What the teacher or teachers did to hold the organisation together was not my problem.

When I finally understood the teaching and knew my essential Self, I was deeply grateful to the teachers, to the organisation and to the people within it, to my family and ultimately to God ‘himself’. When I walked out of the organisation, I walked away knowing the wisdom within and with a heart full of joy and thankfulness. Today what I received has manifested in my own teaching work which is known as the Foundation for Self-Knowledge.

Whether students stay with me or move away, they too should keep the wisdom they have gained with them and also, if possible, nurture gratitude in their heart. Then they will be a decent person and a blessing to themselves and therefore cannot help being a blessing to others. Wisdom should be present in our every role as the situation demands, never ever forgetting one’s own essential Self.

However, when spiritual seekers have a little knowledge without understanding, or a lot of knowledge without awakening to What they really are, and think that they have arrived at the truth, they often become a wolf hiding under a sheep’s fleece. There may be millions of such people in the world, but they don’t bother us until we meet one in real life. Let me tell you about one such person that I had dealings with.

He was a smiling seeker, not one with a genuine, compassionate smile or one that revealed wisdom, but a disposition that showed that he was at least not grumpy. At the time, I was looking for young men and women to come and study the scriptures with me so that they could later on devote their lives to the propagation of the timeless wisdom of Self-knowledge.

I wanted to help them make the great transition from apparent confinement to limitless freedom, from mere pleasurable sensations to uncaused joy — which is real happiness; from relative security to the unborn, undying life where limititations like time and space gently surrender to an Infinite embrace.

This vision makes me always an inspired and enthusiastic person who cannot accept any type of defeat or suffering in life. I notice that where there’s no such vision, people usually surrender helplessly to the miseries caused by ignorance.

Recognising the limitations of finite thinking and the relative nature of worldliness, I was willing to drop these limited, and therefore, limiting notions. When the teaching opened up the potential of limitlessness, “I” happily surrendered to be one with the Absolute. That was the most effortless, sweetest and most blissful transition ever to take place! Nothing more remains to be done and the song of the Infinite lingers forever and ever.

That inspires me to fill every life with the same song, which is already the universal song that is shared by everybody — that of course includes you and me. Any human being can sing this song and that is what I have always felt.

~ to read the complete article: >>>Click Here

~ by Swami Suddhananda

Approaching problems entirely from the ego-mind can result in some insight as well as some improvement in your situation, and in your ability to deal with your life’s problems. However, it does not result in freedom from them altogether. The change which insight does bring about is often temporary and there is still a conditioned identity that will continue to create problems and suffering in more subtle and creative ways.

What I am pointing to here is a deeper solution — one that frees us from the whole conditioned identity to begin with. Whether we know it yet or not, what we truly want is freedom from identification with that which creates the suffering in the first place. It is the difference between rearranging furniture in a prison cell in order to make it more comfortable versus getting out of the cell altogether.

In the realm of the nondual, absolute reality, psychotherapy is irrelevant because there is no separate self to receive it and no problem to work on or solve. Yet, there is also the expression of relative reality. There is both absolute and relative reality; they are two sides of a single coin. A therapist who has this understanding holds both at the same time.

If we say that psychotherapy is not needed because there is no individual self or problem, then we are stuck on the absolute side of duality. If we focus only on a self with a problem to fix without recognition of what is already present and free, then we are stuck on the other side of duality. In both cases we fail to notice the nondual truth that they are two aspects of the same one consciousness. From the vantage point of awakened, nondual awareness, there is a fresh, new view that is vast and all-inclusive.

This view does not ignore the dissatisfaction’s of our life and problems of the psyche; however, it views them from a much larger perspective. This view does not perceive things in terms of what’s wrong. The goal is not to change what is, but rather to awaken to the truth of what is. And from there, whatever needs to change will change on its own.

What does not serve us simply releases when met with the wisdom and compassion of our true being. As Adyashanti says, “When conditioning arises, if it is not claimed as “mine”, it arises within an undivided state of being. When conditioning meets an undivided state, there is an alchemical transformation. There is a sacred miracle.”

It is important to note that psychotherapy that includes nondual wisdom can never truly be another method or theory. It is about working from the Unknown Mystery itself and that cannot be clearly mapped out and concretized as a method. It is something that unfolds from the unknown, new and fresh each moment.

To read the complete article: >>>Click Here

~ Kevin Rockwell

“Scoop a jar of water out of the ocean and put a lid on it, I tell them. Study it in its segregated state. Where is the ocean in that jar? Where are the tides and the currents? Pour it back into the ocean and it returns to its integrated state. The temporary entity no longer exists.”

“Entity?” Ron asks.

“By scooping it into a jar, you’ve created a new entity, a sub-ocean. It’s not possible to subdivide infinity, of course, but try telling that to your new entity. It has all the properties of the ocean from which you scooped it, in no way greater or lesser than any other sampling you might take, yet it bears little resemblance to its authentic oceanhood. It has an independent existence, yet as soon as you pour it back, it merges seamlessly back into the integrated whole.

“Where is that particular sub-ocean entity after you pour it back in? The same place it was before; everywhere and nowhere. It didn’t exist before you scooped it up, but you didn’t create it. It doesn’t exist after you pour it back, but you didn’t destroy it. So what was born when you segregated that jarful? What died when you reintegrated it?”

“Dynamic ocean of being, everything is constantly swirling in and out of existence…”

~ An exchange between Jed McKenna (pseudonym) in his book, Spiritual Warfare, and a student.

There can be no doubt that sincere unquestioning belief is one of the greatest hindrance to a true spiritual awakening.

Centuries ago, the English philosopher, statesman and scientist, Francis Bacon astutely observed: “The human understanding, once it has adopted an opinion, collects any instances that confirm it, and though the contrary instances may be more numerous and more weighty, it either does not notice them or else rejects them, in order that this opinion will remain unshaken.”

More recently, psychologist, Leon Festinger, developed his Theory of Cognitive Dissonance to explain our ability to deflect information or reasoning that might challenge our dearly held beliefs.

Festinger’s studies now throw light on the response of sincere religionists, for instance, when confronted by the reported findings of the great spiritual seers and quantum physicists alike. His observations are worth quoting …

“A man with a conviction,” he says, “is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or observations basedon direct experience and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.

But man’s resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief. Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen?

The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view.”

~ From: When Prophecy Fails, by Leon Festinger, 1956.

“The end of suffering happens in this very moment, whether you’re watching a terrorist attack or doing the dishes. And compassion begins at home. Because I don’t believe my thoughts, sadness can’t exist. That’s how I can go to the depths of anyone’s suffering, if they invite me, and take them by the hand and walk them out of it into the sunlight of reality.

“I’ve taken that walk myself.”

~ by Byron Katie www.byronkatie.com

Hannah: “My question is though I know it, I dont know if I have realized it. Why I feel this way is when I read what you are talking about consciousness and the calming effect it has on you, I feel I have not realized it. Though I am not in conflict with myself as I was earlier, I still feel angry sometimes, frustrated, dejected, have low self esteem, but also know that there is nothing to worry and there is nothing that I can do about it, and let it appear and disappear on its own. I am not in the controlling mode as I was before and everything from joy to pain I let it live its natural state and stop doing anything to really change it, and found that most of the times it just comes and goes. But why is it inspite of knowing all this have I not realized it. Why am I not experiencing that peace you talk about operating in me?”

Pete: You ask, ‘Why am I not experiencing that peace etc.’, but I say, you ARE … you MUST be … because all sentient beings experience that deep fathomless tranquility that is the background to all our endless thoughts and swirling emotions. The problem is, that all but a few don’t notice it and thus, do not feel they are experiencing it.

If you were to point most people up to the cloudless night sky and ask them what they see, they would probably tell you about the moon, and the stars and the circling planets etc. It would only be the rare individual who would remark on the vast, limitless, silent, stillness of empty space … the same infinite space in which all the heavenly bodies that can be observed by the human eye are seen.

This is strange, for the space between the stars etc. is infinitely greater than the stars themselves, yet the mind invariably seizes on the objects in outer space rather than the formless space itself.

The same, Hannah, is true of ‘inner space’ or what we observe inside our own heads.

Our thoughts and emotions are forms just like the stars in space. The stars ’seem’ permanent and fixed, but actually the scientists tell us that they too come into being, have a life of many billions of years and then deteriorate and finally disappear altogether. The time span may be different for the coming and going of thoughts and stars but the way they function as forms is exactly the same.

Just as no sound could be distinguished without a background of silence, no form can be recognized (and experienced) without the background of infinite, formless Consciousness, or Spirit, or call it what you will.

However, just as when we go to a concert, we generally pay attention only to the sounds made by the singers or the musical instruments, and overlook the silence that makes all this possible, so when we turn our attention inwardly, we almost inevitably focus on some line of thought or emotional state. Quite often, our unbidden thoughts plunge us into strong emotions such as anger, anxiety or depression etc. and we fail entirely to notice the still, calm, non-judging background that is aware of all that is going on within.

It’s a common mistake among spiritual aspirants to suppose that by knowledge or discipline or some other means they will be able to ‘tame’ their unruly thoughts and feelings or, perhaps, get rid of them altogether, and that if this happy state can be achieved, they will be ‘enlightened’ or ’self-realized’ at last. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.

True spiritual realization is not a matter of Formlessness OR forms — Subject OR objects — but a balance or harmony of both together. This is never something to be achieved because it is always and already the case, but the MIND (which is totally preoccupied with objects or forms of one kind or another) usually distracts us from seeing this sublime reality.

You get the impression that you’re only experiencing forms and not the Formless, but I assure you that is not so … it cannot be so … you ARE experiencing your formless Essence, every waking moment, but your attention is elsewhere … on the forms in your Awareness (ie, on the thoughts, feelings, sensory perceptions etc).

Again, the ordinary person thinks they ‘have’ awareness, but the truth is that we ARE awareness ItSelf, first and foremost. All forms, in fact, the whole of our world, arises in that awareness and our untrained minds focus on the content rather than on the capacity or containment of them.

The good thing is, that these very forms, our anxious thoughts or our strong feelings or states of mind can be a means of bringing us back into balance or harmony with our sacred Essence and the deep peace of our true nature.

Just as when you look at a star in the night sky, you can then transfer your attention (without losing sight of the star) to the infinite space that surrounds it, so when you become conscious of mundane thoughts or anger or depression or low self-esteem (an odd expression — who or what is esteeming the self?) you can simple transfer your attention back to the infinite, eternal awareness that surrounds that thought or feeling.

In other words, Hannah, allow yourself to become aware again of the Awareness that has been an inviolate, ageless, constant within you ever since the Light of Consciousness dawned in your body/mind after birth.

As you put your attention on that Awareness that is NOT a form, you will begin to experience its peace … even though you may be in the midst of a stressful situation … it will be a peace beyond human understand — beyond reason — without cause.

As you keep returning your attention back to that Awareness, which is your true eternal Self, you’ll also begin to experience a quiet joy and a deepening compassion, first for the quirks and limitations of your own form, and then for the limitations and shortcomings of others. Indeed, you will begin to see, that in reality, there are no ‘others’, only different manifestations of the One … for ultimately, Consciousness, or Awareness, or God etc. etc. is all there is … there is nothing else, despite all appearances to the contrary.

This means also, that even your troubling thoughts and feelings, Hannah, arise out of, and are expressions of, the One, so they are not to be despised but recognized as the ‘play of Consciousness’ and a convenient gateway into higher consciousness.

So I come back to where I began — everything needful for ‘Self-realization’ or ‘enlightenment’ is already in place in every person — namely, spacious, formless awareness and the content of that awareness in the form of thoughts and feelings etc. Make sure your attention is evenly divided between these two dimensions and that your mind does not remain obsessed with one or the other.

Make it your spiritual practice throughout the day, to consciously switch your attention from form to the Formless and back again experiencing both fully in their turn.

After a while, if the practice is maintained, this will be come natural and instinctive. Then, when you’re well practiced, you’ll be able to hold both dimensions — forms and the Formless — in your attention at the same time and see them not as two but One. They you will have moved beyond the realm of opposites, beyond right and wrong, good and bad, spiritual and unspiritual etc. and you will resonate with wonder and delight at the ISNESS of it all and be utterly lost for words to describe what is seen.

You are so precious, Hannah, you are loved with infinite love and cherished more than you can ever know so trust with all your being in that love which will bring you through all your doubts and fears into that Light by which all other lights are seen.

A friend shared his confusion over knowing when his intuitions are true, and when the ego is imitating his intuition. He summed up by saying: “Anyway, maybe it doesn’t matter at any given point what you do, but it feels like it does, and not just for sensitives but for everyone who struggles with a decision. It seems to take a very long time and lots of experience to see past that – or else a naturally easygoing personality.”

Here is my response:

I just read through your message again. I would suggest that the truth not only has many levels, but that they are all operating at the same time. So when you have an intuition and follow it, there may be a degree of Essence working through you to create a certain experience in line with a deeper wisdom and your particular life purpose.

At the same time, your ego will either resist that intuition and try to block you, or decide it likes it and maybe even take credit for it! To a degree the ego can then interfere or even mix things up by trying to make something happen the ego thinks should happen in accordance with your intuition.

At the same time, there may be an even bigger truth that is felt: that it does not really matter very much what you do or where you end up. It obviously matters on a relative level, but the even bigger truth is that the empty spacious awareness that is experiencing all of this can not be harmed. Wherever you end up and whatever happens, the empty space of Being will be just as empty and just as aware.

And yet realizing this bigger truth can also then affect the unfolding of the smaller truths of intuition and egoic agendas. For example, knowing that you cannot be harmed can sometimes allow you to go ahead and follow your intuition, or even to indulge a particularly irresistible ego desire. It is like gambling with someone else’s money; what do you have to lose?

It appears that the truth is not something we can grasp or define or get a hold of. It might be more accurate to say the truth has got a hold of us and is playing us like a maestro plays the orchestra. A little more brass here, a little less ego there. The mind tries to get some kind of meaning or explanation for all of this. The Heart knows that love never gets meaning from life, it always gives meaning to life. And like any truly creative process, the results are always a wonderful surprise, even to the creator!

The inquiry into the truth is not meant as means to finally get it or to get somewhere. It is more a means to a never-ending creative expression of ever bigger mysteries. This is not a prescription for how to live your life, it is really a description of what has always been happening. And what an amazing journey it has always been.

~ by Nirmala, from his blog