The Seer

“Human beings need not be guided by blind faith alone. For the heart has wings capable of flying where the thinking mind cannot. These are the wings of love and awe. Love impels the soul to soar toward that which is ultimately attractive, and awe humbles one’s limited individuality before the “mysterium tremendum”. While we rush with open arms toward the beautiful, we feel compelled to bow down before the sublime.” ~ Thomas Hickey

“To realize one’s true nature is to realize that one is the only One that is. This is a paradoxical combination of worship, admiration and wonder for the One, while at the same time realizing that all this is the experience of the One by the One. One’s own Self-awareness is none other than God’s own Self-awareness.” ~ Douglas Harding

When recognition dawns at last in Awareness (our essential nature) and it’s seen that Consciousness is all there is and that there is nothing else whatever, it may be imagined that worship has no place in the life of the awakened individual because it’s thought there’s no otherness or duality to make worship possible.

This conclusion is sometimes drawn, because the human mind cannot grasp the awesome wonder, sublimity and mystery of That which is pointed to by the word: Consciousness.

The great Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj urged his hearers to consider the divine nature or aspect of Consciousness when he said:

“Do you realize the unimaginable greatness, the holiness of what you so casually call Consciousness? It is the unmanifest Absolute aware of its awareness through the manifestation, of which your mind-body is presently a part.”

An ancient Indian scripture, The Yoga Visistha, is unequivocal in asserting that worship is actually natural and delightfully beneficial for those in whom the ultimate understanding has arisen. It also tells us how to enjoy without interruption this most important practice.

This Consciousness (the Self), it says, is to be worshipped inwardly by one’s own consciousness, not by outward ritual or material substances — by waving of lamps, lighting incense, offering flowers or even food or sandalpaste.

Consciousness is apprehended or realised without the least effort, and is worshipped by self-realisation alone. And the Self is not realised by any means other than meditation.

Meditating with form such as upon an object, sound, breath or mental image is both external and dualistic, since there exists the division of the subject (the one that meditates) and object (that which is meditated upon).

~ The Yoga Visistha

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Reviewing the history of our sacred traditions, it’s clear that nondual spirituality is the highest form of mystical religion.

Non-duality holds that ultimately there is only the Reality of God-Brahman-Buddhata-Tao-Awareness, with no separation between God-and-world, God-and-soul, soul-and-world, or soul-and-soul. In other words, it’s all God!

There is one omnipresent nondual Reality, Pure Awareness, with no “rival reality” that can compete or interfere with or occlude this supreme Truth.

Hence, anyone who sincerely invokes the timeless self-inquiry, “Who or What am I?” — will discover the unspeakable wonder and beauty of Who is really here and What we really are: infinite spiritual Awareness poignantly associated with (not trapped inside) a finite body-mind-soul or limited personality.

By Divine Grace, we find, as all true mystics worldwide have found in opening up to non-dual spirituality, that Pure Awareness or Spirit, prior to the rise of the egocentric “me,” is the transpersonal One transcending yet permeating this personality.

This is to awaken from the plight of selfishness to the living God’s Self-Fullness. It is to “lose one’s life” for Eternal Life, as Jesus invited. Or, as Paul said, to recognize that “in Him we live, move and have our being.”

~ by Dr Timothy Conway enlightened-spirituality.org

Many traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and others, have nondual wisdom teachings and branches. These nondual teachings all point to the same core truth.

Or, as it’s been said, “There are many paths up the mounatin, but the view from the mountaintop is ever the same.”

In a nutshell, here’s the core message: All there is is Consciousness. Consciousness is all there is.”

In the statement above, you can replace Consciousness with God, Providence, Universal Mind, The Christ, The Buddha, Krishna, whatever (but not ‘creation’ or ‘the phenomenal world’).

The idea is that Reality is not two… there is actually no separation between you and God, or you and anything else (appearances notwithstanding). You — and every ‘thing’ around or within you — are simply God ‘manifesting’.

Consciousness (or God etc.) can exist without the manifest universe, but the universe could never exist apart from Consciousness.

Now, when first encountering these teachings, the ordinary conditioned mind revolts, particularly from two implications.

First, nondual wisdom teaching seems to imply there is “no self”… you are simply part of the universe. But as it has been pointed out, this wisdom does not mean there is no self (body/mind/personality). It means that essentially there is no separate self

divided off from the rest of reality. In the relative world … the world we experience through our senses, however, separate forms appear to come and go in time and space.

The true Self or essential nature of all forms, and especially human forms or beings, is Consciousness. Each form is uniquely different, but according to the great Wisdom Tradition, each is an expression of the exact same infinite and eternal Consciousness.

So, it follows, Consciousness is not something we have, but rather That which we already and always ARE.

To illustrate, the metaphor of the ocean and the wave can be helpful. The wave represents the personal self; the ocean represents everything that is.

Waves exist, surely, but they do not exist separate and apart from the rest of the ocean. We — and everything else — are just part of one big ocean.

Second, the mind wants to know, “If everything is an expression of God, how can there be evil in the world?”

According to the great Wisdom Tradition, Consciousness or God manifests and contains within Itself all opposites including good and evil, right and wrong, joy and sorrow, justice and injustice etc.

But ultimately, Consciousness or God is an infinite mystery quite beyond all opposites and cannot be conceived of by finite minds.

There is simply an ISness about the unfolding manifestaton of God at any given moment and a highly complex interactivity and reactivity of forms but in reality it is simply a transitory movement within the One.

To go back to our metaphor above of the ocean and the waves, a set of waves may roll in toward a rocky coastline and smash themselves with enormous energy at the cliff-base … disintergrating into shooting clouds of white spray etc.

One by one the waves seem to dissappear in a spectacular display of explosive noise and violence, but have they actually been harmed or lost? Of course not.

The water the waves were composed of is still there … part of the ocean again as it always was and their energy is simply dissipated and will be used to form more water movement somewhere else.

When conditioned dualistic concepts are dropped (e.g. waves are quite separate from the ocean), the mind can bring us to the ‘threshold’ of nondual wisdom, but cannot take us through the door, so to speak. The final step/s are not taken through intellectual

comprehension or mental analysis, but rather with what the wisdom masters call direct seeing. (This is just as well for otherwise the joys of this wisdom would only be available to a gifted few rather than to us all.)

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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.

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~ Kevin Rockwell

Only
That Illumined
One
Who keeps
Seducing the formless into form
Had the charm to win my
Heart.
Only a Perfect One
Who is always
Laughing at the word
Two
Can make you know
Of
Love.

~ by Hāfez. From: Laughing at the Word Two

Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī — Persian lyric poet (1325-1389). Even today, his collected works are to be found in the homes of most Iranians.

Now is the moment we abide in primordial essence
luminous nature of mind
empty awake awareness itself
Whatever experience arises
pleasant neutral unpleasant
no need to change it

Whatever arises let it be
without judgement positive or negative
without past or future
without attachment or aversion
without affirmation or denial
without closeness or distance

Whatever arises does so
in the pure clear light of awareness
that opens into the very ground of being
Thus whatever arises is liberated

Now let it be exactly as it is
Perfect openness
Perfect space
As it is already accomplished
Simply relax into it

~ David Paul Boaz, www.davidpaulboaz.org

Relationship is not to totality, it is totality. This is why so many progressive Christians have discovered that the limitation of worship is that they must maintain the duality of separation from that which they love.

The progressive Christian is tempted by her/his love for God, even after s/he discovers that maintaining that duality separates her/him from the totality, which, of course, is the manifest God.

So the poor progressive Christian is in a real dilemma. S/He’s been fasting and praying and doing all kinds of austerities for all these years. S/He loves her/his God with all her/his heart. S/He prays to God every hour of every day. God returns her/his worship with words of love.

One day s/he asks God for insight into the nature of the absolute and the boundaryless nature of life is revealed to her/him.

God shows the progressive Christian that the God s/he worships is the mind’s projection. God shows the progressive Christian that there is no ‘person’ who worships, and no ‘God’ to be worshiped.

There is no separation. There is no difference!

The progressive Christian is in rapture. S/He calls to God her/his thanks, her/his praise, her/his ever lasting love. But, there’s only silence in response.

In the progressive Christian’s realization of non-duality, God has vanished!

So, after a very long night of consideration of the boundarylessness of life, the progressive Christian calls to God once more. This time s/he asks for one last boon.

The progressive Christian asks God to take away the knowledge of that true nature of life and to return as her/his object of love.

Of course, the boon is granted, the progressive Christian once again can worship her/his God. S/He soon forgets the totality. S/He is addicted to separation.

~ by Steven Harrison. Read the complete interview: >>>Here

“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.

The grey bubble said to the blue bubble, “Reality is grey.” The blue bubble said, “No, it’s NOT grey. It’s blue.” Then they both fought. But eventually, through the conflict, they both popped and got inside a yellow bubble called “enlightenment.” They began touring the world together, trying to pop all other bubbles.

But who would pop their yellow bubble?

Along came a purple bubble that said, “All bubbles are allowed.” The purple bubble had no desire to pop anyone’s bubble. But then the purple bubble ran across the yellow bubble and didn’t like it, so it excluded it. The excluded yellow bubble colored itself pink and started touring the world again, as the new enlightenment bubble.

It touted itself as the bubble that has come to understand how all other bubbles work in relation to each other, putting exclusionary bubbles at the bottom of the hierarchy. It had all bubbles and the story of bubbling mapped out perfectly.

Then came a brown bubble and said, “All you other bubbles have over complicated this whole thing.” This is just about seeing that there is no bubble.

Brown became popular. It was like fast food, McDonaldized enlightenment. All other bubbles loved it. Brown claimed that yellow and pink and all the other bubbles still saw themselves as bubbles. And that was their problem. If they could only see that they were never bubbles to begin with, they would see that they are already free.

But who would pop Brown’s bubble?

Then one day Brown’s version fell out of popularity. Brown was never popped. He still has a book and a website, but no other bubbles come to visit it. All the other bubbles didn’t get his fast food enlightenment. So they found other bubbles.

All the bubbles floated around, wondering which arrangement of bubbles is the right one, which color is the true enlightenment.

Several bubbles started to notice something peculiar. They noticed that all bubbles, no matter what color, arose and fell within a bubble-less silence or space. They began to just rest and know their real nature as this bubble-less silence to which all bubbles come and go.

This provided a deep and profound peace. All other bubbles started to get on board, each experiencing the peace.

~ To read the complete article >>>Click Here

~ by Scott Kiloby www.kiloby.com

For me, mysticism is the doctrine that God and I, and you and I, are all, in an important way, One. Philosophical mysticism is the kind of mysticism that emphasizes the role of thinking, in this Oneness. We’re One through our deepest and most serious kind of thinking. Or through love, which is inseparable from that kind of thinking.

So in response to the common assumption that “mysticism” is vague and irrational, philosophical mysticism aims to show how, if we take seriously the thinking and loving that we do every day, they point beyond the usual assumption that God and I, and you and I, are ultimately separate and distinct.

Involving thought and love in this way, my mysticism is obviously a matter not just of “theory” but of experience. For me, it’s an immensely fulfilling experience which I had barely dreamt of, before it came to me. For my first four or five decades, I inhabited what looks (in retrospect) like a spiritual waste land.

In (my book) The God of Love, Science, and Inner Freedom, I’ve described some of the experience — of pain, despair, love, and thought — that brought me from that waste land to my current frequent experiences of ecstasy. “Philosophy” should surely come out of, and enrich, a person’s experience. In recent years, mine certainly has.

How can God and I be One? We can be One if my effort to be myself, is God. Such a God isn’t identical with my physical body or my habitual fears, desires and ideas. God may involve that body and those fears and so forth, but God is called “God” because he/she/it goes beyond (“transcends”) them.

So when I say that this God is me, I’m not saying that God is physically present in me or that God has the failings that I have. God goes beyond all of that. But a God who transcends those parts of me can nevertheless be present in me as my capacity for inner freedom, or self-determination: for being, or trying to be, something that goes beyond my physical and habitual aspects. In this way there can be, as the Quakers say, “that of God in everyone,” without this God’s being identical to anything merely physical or externally determined.

How can a person experience this presence of God within her? By observing her desires and thoughts, thus creating a space in which they can be reformulated (or reformulate themselves) to be more fully her own. This observing, and the resulting space, reformulation, “her-own-ness,” and opening up to the world, are God’s presence.

For decades I was driven by fears and resentments that I couldn’t name, and that I consequently couldn’t observe, couldn’t get any distance from, and couldn’t reformulate. When I finally found some of this distance, with the help of twelve-step groups, of therapists, and ultimately of my wonderful wife, Kathy, my “self” finally began to assert itself, naming my fears and resentments and thus creating increments of distance, space, and reformulation.

In this way, I discovered my capacity for freedom. Because it took so long coming, I don’t take this capacity at all for granted. Rather, I feel it as a gift — even while it’s effectively identical with (the real) me, which is finally emerging. I’m aware of the great disparity between what I was by “nature” — fearful, resentful, self-protective — and what I can be by freedom; and thus I’m aware of how I “transcend” what I am by that kind of nature.

Consequently, I find it reasonable to think of this entire development as (in a significant sense) super-”natural,” and thus as revealing the presence of something that we can very well call “divine,” in the world.

~ by Bob Wallace www.robertmwallace.com

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