The Seer

When I look back over 2011, I feel that one of the most significant things to happen in my spiritual journey has been the ‘discovery’ of a newly published little book by the awakened Romanian mystic, Ilie Cioara, who was born in 1916, and died in 2004. I am deeply moved as I read and reread it and have the strong impression that Cioara’s writings are going to have the same kind of impact as Nisargadatta Maharaj’s spiritual classic, I Am That.

The book is entitled: The Silence of the Mind and is the first in a tetralogy (1 of 4) to be published by Obooks. The other titles out in 2012 will be: The Wondrous Journey into the Depth of Our Being, Life is Eternal Newness and I Am Boundlessness.

Like, I Am That, this rare work has been made available to readers throughout the English-speaking world through a perceptive and awakened translator — in this case, Petrica Verdes. For the past few years, Verdes has been practicing meditation and living in various meditation communes in Italy, Germany and the UK. Translating Ilie Cioara’s work has been for him a labour of love and a process of spiritual growth.

Verdes said: “In 2002, I came across one of Ilie Cioara’s books in a bookshop, and I wrote the publisher straight away, asking if they could pass me the address of the author. The book just mesmerized me, I felt an energy around the text and I used to meditate with it and carry it with me.

We just “see” something and understand it profoundly, intuitively, without needing to filter any knowledge through the mind. This practice has become part of my life. It is a great gift to understand that truth is very simple. Applying it is more difficult, but this apparent difficulty is easily overcome with a little persistence and thirst for the divine.”

Ilie (rhymes with lily) is unique in a way, in the sense that he lived in almost complete isolation in Romania. Early in his life, he was hunted by the secret police and finally gaoled for six years because he did not support the communist regime. He seemed to be just an ordinary man, with a deep longing for the divine, living in very adverse circumstances. He belonged to no tradition of enlightenment, he wasn’t part of a lineage, he had no master, he never travelled to India.

Originally a Christian mystic, he repeated a mantra-like prayer frequently each day for over 20 years. One day, he felt an intuitive impulse to drop the mantra, and just practice ’silence of the mind’, by listening to the noises on the street etc, in the now. After following this practice for a few years, one morning, as he was waking up from his sleep, ‘he’ suddenly experienced what some have called, ‘liberation’ or ‘enlightenment’.

Until the age of 55, when Ilie awakened spiritually, he hadn’t written a single page, and never tried to be a teacher. Because he lived in almost complete isolation, his words have a freshness and a direct simplicity, devoid of any spiritual jargon. Ilie felt the impulse to share his experience and insights using short verses which could give the reader a taste of no-mind. The verses were followed by prose explanations (see example below).

Most of these writings had to be hidden in the apartment of a friend, until 1990, when the iron curtain fell, so as not to be confiscated by the communist authorities. They describe the practice of ‘Self-knowing’ using all-encompassing Attention. Like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti etc, his is a simple message of discovering our inner divine nature through the silence of the mind.

~ Resourced by Pete from: The Silence of the Mind blog, Non-Duality Magazine and Yogi Times

~ Book details: The Silence of the Mind, by Ilie Cioara. Trans. Petrica Verdes. Softcover: 145 pp. Obooks, John Hunt (Oct, 2011) ISBN:10: 1846948290 & 13: 978-1846948299

~ You can get good used copies Here

There are now some videos up on the Net based on the writings of Ilie Cioara. To me, the background music runs somewhat contrary to the spirit and intention of what he’s pointing to, but nevertheless they are there and you may like to view them.

The longest is entitled: The Silence of the Mind (11.39)

If the video doesn’t appear above, >>> Click Here

Others in the series are:

1. Perfectly Conscious (1.54)
2. How Can We Free Ourselves? (3.26)
3. Creation is Eternal Freshness (3.55)
4. The Power of Emptiness (1.39)
5. Listening and Watching (3.20)

Some people carry dense pain bodies that are never completely dormant. They may appear normal and indifferent, having normal relationships, going to work and socializing. Yet, just underneath the surface is a seething mass of disturbance just waiting for the next thing to react to or the next person or group to blame.

These pain bodies are hungry ghosts. They are always in a state of blaming, wanting revenge, feeling outraged and betrayed. The ego’s need for enemies is always magnified in people like this.

Because of this heightened reactivity, something that really is relatively insignificant gets magnified into a life and death situation that pulls other people into their drama. Some people get themselves involved in extended, exhausting court battles with organizations or corporations like the couple in England who sued McDonald’s over a period of 17 years.

Others are consumed with hatred toward an ex-partner or family member. Because they are not aware of the pain they are constantly carrying inside, this dense pain body is superimposed onto ordinary situations. This sets up a scenario where the person cannot tell the difference between what is happening in their reality and their reaction to it.

The resolution of this pain and suffering therefore must be outside of themselves, so split-off are these people from their dense pain-bodies. This usually brings about actions that recreate the pain body in real life real world events.

This is what seems to have happened to the Norwegian mass-murderer who appeared to everyone as an ordinary citizen, yet, for years an incredible internal hatred was brewing inside -— a pain body so dense that even to this day, there is no remorse for acting out on innocent victims.

As shocking as these extremely dense pain bodies are, they are an exaggerated symptom of the human pain body as a whole — a warning to all of us that the pain body in each of us must be recognized and resolved through understanding, compassion, and the present moment.

~ Eckhart Tolle www.tolleteachings.com

Seer and subscriber, Peter Dimitriou, has discovered a website by an artist known as “Unasleep.”

On the site, there are dozens of short videos by this artist that are visually quite powerful and direct pointers for undoing illusion within oneself.

One of Peter’s favourite videos, is titled “Atom can you hear me?” You can view it >>>HERE

More at: www.unasleep.com

Did you know that there are many sincere Christian people who believe, that at any time, while going about their day-to-day (or nightly) activities, Jesus will appear in the sky and they will be suddenly uplifted to meet him? This long-awaited event is called by these faith-filled religionists as The Second Coming or, The Rapture.

Many will have heard of the Rev. Harold Camping, the California-based Christian radio broadcaster, who recently gained notoriety due to his incorrect prediction that the Rapture would take place on May 21, 2011 at 6 p.m. local time everywhere. Followers of Camping claimed that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world’s population) would be raptured.

A source revealed that some of his followers blew all their money on luxury cars and vacations. One man apparently spent all of his savings to buy an ad campaign for the May 21 Doomsday message. There were other reports that some parents persuaded by Camping who used up money put aside for their childrens’ education.

Despite such false predictions (and there have been quite a few over the past two centuries), most fundamentalist Christians who interpret the Bible literally believe that the Rapture could occur at any time. Unfortunately, they believe that it’s just the people chosen by ‘God’ that will be taken up to heaven and so, amongst those left behind, will be their once-loved, and still devoted pets.

When the Rapture finally occurs, you can imagine the dire situation many of these abandoned cats and dogs etc, will be in — shut inside or left in a backyard with little food or water … waiting in vain for their owner who has gone for good!

This is where Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA can come to the rescue. They claim to be: “The next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World.”

EEBP is a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Atheists, along with Agnostics, non-fundamentalist Christians and adherants of other religions will definitely not be ‘Raptured’ so will be in an ideal position to rescue and care for pets left behind.

EEBP is currently active in 26 states of the US and employs 40 pet rescuers. Their representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue client’s pets and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for the pet’s natural life.

This is a serious offer to the literalist Christian community who believe in the Second Coming and honestly care about the future of their pets after the Rapture occurs.

To allay any would-be client concerns, EEBP makes this strict promise: “Each of our representatives is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.”

Anyone who has ‘given their life to Jesus’ and is therefore looking forward to The Rapture, and who presently has a pet who will be left behind, can go to the Web site of Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA for more information on how to register your pet.

EEBP is also looking for atheist animal lovers in countries other than the USA to open similar rescue services around the world as literalist interpretations of the Bible have now become quite widespread. If you’re interested, contact EEBP for helpful advice. (But don’t give up your day job.)

It’s interesting to note that Eckhart Tolle made the #1 spot on the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People, published recently by Watkins Review. The Watkins Review hopes that its planned annual list will nurture the debates surrounding contemporary spirituality.

Apparently, there are several factors that were taken into account when compiling the list. Here are the main three:

1) The person has to be alive.

2) The person has to have made a unique and spiritual contribution on a global scale.

3) The person is frequently googled, appears in Nielsen Data, and is highlighted throughout the blogosphere. In a sense, being googled is a form of digital voting, and illustrates just how often someone is being sought out.

Of course the words spiritually and spirituality are given the wides possible interpretation by the Watkins Review and in many cases, those on the list have nothing to do with humanity’s great Nondual Wisdom Tradition, which is the focus of The Seer.

The list represents a plethora of spiritual practices and advocates, from the sublime to the bizarre and dangerous, ranked in the order of their global popularity. The first ten on the list are:

Eckhart Tolle, Dalai Lama, Dr Wayne W. Dyer, Thich Nhat Hanh, Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, Paolo Coelho, Oprah Winfrey, Ken Wilber, Rhonda Byrne!!! … Byron Katie, Jeff Foster and Adyashanti are further down the list. You can see the whole list >>>Here

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.

The Awakened Eye blog is about the eye that perceives without labeling — we could also call it the innocent eye, or the eye of beginner’s mind.

Many artists and artisans have understood that the practice of drawing and engaging in creative encounters in the visual arts can — by making obvious one’s conditioned reactions — open the mind to another way of seeing, a way that transcends habitual dualistic assumptions.

There have been, and are, many wise teachers who speak of this transcendence of duality as one’s original or true state — a state which we seem compelled to seek and reject simultaneously. Their teachings are sometimes referred to as Advaita, which means “one without a second” — or more simply, non-duality. In this context the awakened eye is synonymous with the awakened “I”; this topic forms the wider agenda of this blog.

This blog and the website have been conceived as places where ideas and teachings on this topic put forward by artists, educators, scientists, philosophers, sages and saints, can be accessed. There will also be personal notes from she-who-scribbles, and hopefully plenty of useful links.

The author, Miriam Louisa Simons, says: “As the website and this blog develop, I hope you find inspiration and encouragement there to support your inquiry, and that you realize that your awakened eye — your vast, open, non-dual understanding is here, this very moment, reading these words …”

Also, Matt King has just launched the Non-Duality America blog which is devoted to celebrating the message of nonduality and bringing it to a wider audience. This blog is characterized by openness, inclusion and the diversity of voices that are now speaking about the truth of our beingness.

Not long ago, just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco), a female humpback whale became entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.

She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that the whale was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When the whale was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around … she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.

Sent in by Alice Gardner of SF — Thanks Alice

If your life is in a bit of a tangle, Clearsight may be able to help.

Introducing the Hot New Social Network, PhoneBook

Allows User to Call Friends, Speak to Them

Silicon Valley (The Borowitz Report) — A new social network is about to alter the playing field of the social media world, and it’s called PhoneBook.

According to its creators, who invented the network in their dorm room at Berkeley, PhoneBook is the game-changer that will leave Facebook, Twitter and even the much anticipated Google Buzz in a cloud of dust.

“With PhoneBook, you have a book that has a list of all your friends in the city, plus everyone else who lives there,” says Danny Fruber, one of PhoneBook’s creators.

“When you want to chat with a friend, you look them up in PhoneBook, and find their unique PhoneBook number,” Fruber explains. “Then you enter that number into your phone and it connects you directly to them.”

Another breakout utility of PhoneBook allows the user to arrange face-to-face meetings with his or her friends at restaurants, bars, and other “places,” as Fruber calls them.

“You will be sitting right across from your friend and seeing them in 3-D,” he said. “It’s like Skype, only without the headset.”

PhoneBook will enable friends to play many games as well, such as charades, cards, and a game Fruber believes will be a breakout: Farm.

“In Farm, you have an actual farm where you raise real crops and livestock,” he says.”It’s hard work, but it’s more fun than Mafia, where you actually get killed.”