But fundamentally, temptation exists in two parts: 1. The being, action or object we desire. 2. Our own strength or weakness in confronting it. In both cases, temptation is internal, rather than external. What might surprise you is that many cultures had no concept of temptation as something primarily external until they came into contact with Christianity.

Temptation takes center stage in both the Bible’s Old and New Testaments where humans are not only tempted by people or objects, but have the additional burden of resisting the temptations offered by powerful evil forces. The ‘apocalyptic’ view is a theory that the Jewish people came up with to explain the misery they experienced even though they kept the laws they believed God had given them.

The book of Job is a symbolic explanation of the theory that tells us the misery we see on earth is the result of a cosmic war between good and evil, with humans in the middle of the struggle. Many of Jesus’ earliest followers shared this apocalyptic view and interpreted his teachings through this belief system. These ideas still permeate our culture, whether we’re believers or not, so it’s important that we see them for what they are.

Temptation began to take a starring role as early as the story of original sin found in Genesis as Eve is coaxed by a serpent to eat forbidden fruit. The story of Adam and Eve paints the picture of a fearful world where even in paradise, evil lurks. No wonder the famous “Lord’s prayer” includes the line, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

If we believe this line of thinking, the stakes have become far higher than our regret over eating an extra piece of cake or buying something we can’t afford; eternal salvation is involved. But is this true? What really is temptation, where does it come from and what can we do about it?

Most people who have some familiarity with the Bible are aware of an account that describes Jesus being tempted by an evil force, Satan the Devil, just before he begins his public teaching work (Luke 4:1-13).

Although these verses read like an historical narrative, there were no witnesses to the encounter that could have reported it. It’s far more likely that Jesus originally told the story himself as a parable filled with symbolic meaning. It’s interesting to note that a very similar story of temptation is told about Buddha that also takes place at the same stage of transition in his life.

The verses tell us that after Jesus was baptized he was “filled with Spirit” and led to the wilderness where he spent 40 days fasting. Because Jesus lived in and near desert areas, we take it for granted that the story is literal and takes place in a actual location, but the desert and wilderness were also used in the Bible to symbolize a place of revelation.

While a crowded urban area might be likened to a mind filled with preconceived notions, attachments and aversions, a vast open wilderness pictures the mind that has let go of social conditioning and is open and willing to experience the Divine. Like a “sea change” the desert experience also symbolizes a major transition or significant life change, which certainly took place in Jesus’ case.

Bible readers also take the 40 day fast that led up to the temptation literally, but there’s good reason to see this as another symbol. The number 40 is mentioned 146 times in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament: Noah’s flood lasted for 40 days and nights, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and Moses was on the mountain for 40 days.

Usually the number is associated with a difficult or trying situation and a transition. Although we’re not familiar with the symbolism Jesus used, we must remember that those who were listening to him were.

For people who believe Jesus was either a god or demi-god (half god, half man), a 40 day fast may seem possible, but most fasts of that duration, even with water, result in hallucinations, convulsions, irregular heartbeat, organ deterioration, the loss of extremities and very often death.

If Jesus was superhuman, there was really no point to the fast or any reason for a struggle between good and evil because he would be beyond temptation. If he was human, the fast would have rendered him unable to resist a bug, let alone a powerful evil force. Again, we must come to the conclusion that we are dealing with a symbolic parable meant to take us past the surface and teach a deeper truth.

In fact, Jesus later clarified the symbolic nature of this temptation story when he said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts.” (Mark 7:20-23) So what can we learn from the story? Where does temptation really come from?

Jesus’ apocalyptic followers were unable to let go of their belief that the universe was locked in a cosmic struggle, so that is the slant they put on the parable. Their view took precedence and formed the foundation for the majority view of temptation down to our day. But a few of Jesus’ followers understood the universe in a very different way. They knew that the Oneness at the foundation of the universe is not a mixture of good and evil.

They also understood that our dualistic material universe is built on a very different foundation, one of polar opposites like good and evil. Our true identity remains in quantum Oneness, but as long as we continue to project duality, the positive will always be accompanied by the negative. The temptations that we feel and the evil that we see acted out in the world all originate in this dualistic mind set.

Let’s return to the parable to see what lay beneath the surface. (Keep in mind that the parable was written by early Christians who: 1. Held the apocalyptic view 2. Wrote their accounts years after Jesus’ death. 3. Did not know Jesus. So, it’s impossible to know how the parable was originally told.)

At the conclusion of Jesus’ 40 day fast, Satan showed up and tempted Jesus to turn a rock into bread. This first temptation was not really about food, but spiritual hunger. The inner temptation originating in Jesus’ own heart was to feed his spiritual hunger with something other than truth. He was tempted to return to the temple and fit in with the crowd instead of speaking the truth and making himself a target for those who feared truth.

The real question Jesus was asking himself was whether he would choose to satisfy his inner hunger with the things the world had to offer, or would he continue to choose nourishment that comes from a direct connection with the Divine?

Jesus’ second temptation is symbolized by Satan’s offer of rulership over all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus’ apocalyptic followers saw this as further proof that an evil force controlled the world, but if that were true, we would be forced to believe that God created an evil entity that had the strength to overpower God, or that good and evil were in partnership.

But let’s look at this from another direction. Since we are all pure consciousness that projects the material universe, each of us is already the master of all material existence. We have the ability to keep projecting it, or stop any time we wish. This is at the crux of Jesus’ inner struggle: would he continue to project the visible world, or would he stop?

In the last temptation, Satan again symbolizes Jesus’ own inner struggle, this time with doubt. Jesus is told to throw himself off the temple so God will save him from physical harm. Jesus had experienced the Divine, but in a moment of weakness before he commits to speaking publicly about what he knows, he wants a physical sign that will show him he’s doing the right thing.

Jesus’ three symbolic temptations were a conversation between the portion of his mind that had projected the material world of separation, and the One Mind we all share with the Divine. In the end, the True Mind prevailed, but we can all take heart that Jesus faced these struggles just as we do.

We each face the choices illustrated in Jesus’ parable. Will we listen to what the world tells us and try to fill our spiritual needs with junk food, or will we look within and discover what the Divine has to say? Will we continue to look for security in the material things the world has to offer, or will we realize we’ve traded away something far greater?

Will we be racked with doubts and look for signs, or will we acknowledge that our inner voice is telling us the truth? If we believe Jesus was superhuman, we may give up before we even start to ask these questions. When we know that Jesus was just like us, we realize that we too can stand up to our own inner temptations.

~ by Lee & Steven Hager in Why Does Suffering Exist www.thebeginningoffearlessness.com/

Take a quick moment to evaluate your life on the basis of these descriptions:

• Do you feel consumed by the demands of your job or schoolwork (or both)?
• Does it seem at the end of each day that you have been running a race of time, frantically trying to do everything on some mental list of required accomplishments?
• Do you suffer from stress of any kind on a regular basis?
• Do you feel that you and your life are stagnant, the opposite of frantic running, wallowing instead in inaction, boredom, despair, negativity or depression?
• Or, if you’ve said no to all the above, do you feel that your life lacks a sense of meaning and purpose, that you don’t know how to find it?

If any of these descriptions apply to you, then consciously or unconsciously, something is blocking your connection to meaning and purpose. That something is most likely you. It may be that you’re still living in survival mode (which may be true if any of the first four descriptions applied to you).

If this is the case, then it’s very important that you take a good look at your priorities in life. Spend several days pondering this question throughout the day: “What am I making most important in my day right now?” You may be very surprised by what you find. Be honest with yourself and write down what you learn. Notice also how you feel about these ‘most important’ things you fill your days with.

How satisfying and fulfilling are they? How many unnecessary activities are unsatisfying to you? Take special note of those. They are the activities you can drop altogether. As you do, you will free up time and inner space from which you can begin to contact and develop your sense of purpose.

Your true purpose already exists, that’s the good news. You don’t have to create it and it’s not a matter of choosing it. Purpose is something you discover within yourself in the space of stillness. This is the only way you can find it, in your own stillness, not in a book or a workshop or in the analysis of your dreams. You must go within and be with yourself in stillness and there you will discover the purpose that has been waiting for you all along.

There’s no substitute in life for finding your true purpose. No amount of money, no degree of power, no activity will give you the satisfaction that a life of purpose provides you.

It’s important to know that your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Your inner purpose is primary. It concerns Being. Your outer purpose is secondary and it concerns doing. Your inner purpose cannot be found on the outer level of life. It isn’t related to what you do but what you are. Your inner purpose, simply stated, is to awaken. This is the primary purpose of every person in the world.

Many people are very concerned with discovering their life’s purpose. They are normally referring to their outer purpose. Outer purpose can change over time and is unique for every person. Inner purpose can shed light on your outer purpose. Inner and outer purpose, ultimately, are intertwined and aligned. The more you are connected you are to your inner purpose, the more your outer purpose will come into focus.

Living in alignment with your inner purpose is the basis for fulfilling your outer purpose in the world and doing so successfully. Without this alignment, you will most likely struggle in your attempts to express your outer purpose. Without alignment to your inner purpose, there’s less joy in all of the activities in life.

Take time each day to reflect on your inner purpose of awakening. Do this by paying attention to your state of consciousness. Give yourself a daily discipline of practicing presence.

~ Eckhart Tolle EckhartTeachings.com

If you wish to embody Tao, stop prating and start practicing.
Relax your body and dampen down your senses.
Return your mind to its original pristine state.
Forget about being separate from others and from the Divine Source.

As you return to Oneness, do not think of this or even be awed by it.
These are just other ways of separating yourself from it.
Simply merge into the truth, and allow it to surround you,

~ Lao Tzu (6th cent. BCE), in Brian Walker’s: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown teachings of Lao Tzu, Harper SanFrancisco, 1992, pp 61.

In our world, the body and soul are divided in some areas of life, and are lobbed together in others. Science and religion have cleanly divided the two and each has claimed a piece, but many feel that when they are caring for human welfare they’re treating both body and soul. Some believe we have a soul/spirit within the body, others that we are a soul/spirit having a human experience.

A spiritarian takes a different view. The ancient pagan, Porphyry, realized through gnosis, “My true Self is remote from the body, without color and without shape, not to be touched by human hands.” The Bhagavad Gita agrees, saying, “The Self is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundations of eternity.”

To the spiritarian, the Self, the immortal child of Source, has never been, and will never be, a body. Quantum physics backs up this truth with research that demonstrates that material form is a virtual reality projected by consciousness that exists without form.

Buddha recognized this fact when he said, “Remembering that this body is like froth, of the nature of a mirage, break the flower-tipped arrows of Mara/illusion.” The result? “Freed from illusion … they have renounced the world of appearance to find reality. Thus have they reached the highest.”

We’ve all gotten sucked into a dream that felt absolutely real, yet no matter how convinced we were while the dream went on, we woke up and realized nothing real had happened. A spiritarian realizes that we’re all in a much deeper sleep having a dream that’s turned into a nightmare.

And this is where we see the difference between the humanitarian and the spiritarian. One wants to make the dream more comfortable, the other wants to assist you in waking up and escaping it. As Rumi’s teacher Shams-iTabrizi explained, “All the veils are one veil. Other than that one, there is no veil. That veil is this existence.”

Jesus was both humanitarian and spiritarian. His heart was pained by the misery he saw, so he fed the hungry, gave to the poor and healed the sick. But Jesus was no longer asleep. He woke up, and he became an example of what the waking state looks like. He was no longer fooled by material form and did his best to encourage his followers to see past illusion and “seek first the kingdom.” He made it clear that he was “no part of the world” nor was the kingdom that held his allegiance.

Unfortunately, the majority of Jesus’ followers were more interested in material solutions to their problems and followed him for the immediate aid that he gave. These followers distorted his message as they focused on the ‘doings’ of the body. They didn’t stop to realize if they were fed, they would get hungry again, if they were cured, they could easily succumb to another illness, and even if the body was raised from the dead, it would eventually die again.

Jesus recognized the problem he had inadvertently created when said that others would do “greater works than these.” It’s extremely difficult to think of anything greater than raising the dead, but a spiritarian knows that the greatest work lies in awakening minds caught in the dream of continuous birth and death.

Until we wake up and realize we are not the body or its personality, we will be unable to know our true immortal Self. As the Kena Upanishad explains, “The Self is realized … when you have broken through the wrong identification that you are the body, subject to birth and death.”

Humanitarian efforts are worthy because they awaken love and the realization of our innate oneness. But they also fail because they keep us in the prison of virtual reality. In effect, they are like a person who works to improve prison conditions but fails to tell the prisoners that the doors are unlocked and they can leave anytime they wish.

No matter how much conditions are improved, it is still a prison and can’t compare with freedom. And no matter how much humanitarian work is done in this world, it can never begin to rival or replace Reality. But Hafiz recognized the role of the spiritarian when he said, “the sage … keeps dropping keys … for the beautiful rowdy prisoners.” In actuality, we each have the key in our hand and the way out has always been available. Rumi explains:

“The second you stepped into this world of existence a ladder was placed before you to help you escape. When you pass beyond this human form … plunge into the vast ocean of consciousness. Let the drop of water that is you become a hundred mighty seas. But do not think that the drop alone becomes the ocean. The ocean, too, becomes the drop.”

If we’re humanitarians but not spiritarians, we’re prisoners who are sharing blankets with other prisoners, trying to create the illusion of freedom. If we’re spiritarians, we can put love into action by helping others on a material level, while always remembering that the best help we can give is to live in a way that clearly demonstrates the prison door is wide, wide open.

~ by Lee & Steven Hager TheBeginningofFearlessness.com Dec. 4, 2011

Harding was born in 1909, in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. His parents belonged to the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian sect notorious for its ultra-Puritanism and intolerance of other denominations and, of course, all other religions.

At 21, while studying architecture at University College, London, Harding apostatized from the Brethren much to his parent’s horror. To justify this step, he sent to the elders of the Brethren a thesis explaining that he saw the great religions as complementary rather competing, and as having, at their common core, the Beatific Vision.

From age 21, Harding was remarkably successful in leading a double life. Without knowing quite how he did it, he managed to earn a respectable living as an architect in private practice, while devoting most of his time and energy to “the discovery of What and Who he really is”, to piecing together an elaborate but credible cosmology-cum-epistemology, and increasing to work out its application to everyday life.

In fact, Harding’s crowning achievement has been to devise a toolkit of exercises or experiments for getting behind words and concepts to direct seeing into our True Nature. In all the great spiritual traditions, the true mystics — the Seers — have, hitherto, been limited to words or silence in their attempts to share their vision. No wonder they rarely succeeded.

But now at last, thanks to his toolkit, the essential vision is entirely shareable, indeed obvious and natural. It’s also revolutionary, and therefore resisted in traditional circles — decreasingly, it seems.

The first book that Harding wrote was his magnum opus, The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth: A New Diagram of Man in The Universe. He wrote this book, of 650 huge pages, over eight years to 1950. His main purpose in writing this book was to answer his two questions: ‘What am I?’ and ‘What do I amount to in the universe?’ A shorter edition and a number of other books followed from time to time throughout his long life.

It’s been widely acknowledged that the greatest aspect of Harding’s spiritual teaching work has been his devising of thirty or so sense-based workshop ‘experiments’. These ‘awareness exercises’ are designed to enable people to see or recognize Who they really are beyond outward appearances. In the 35 years prior to his death in 2007, Harding travelled to more than 20 countries across 5 continents, offering ‘Look for Yourself’, or ‘Seeing Who We Really Are’ workshops, based around these experiments.

One of the simplest and most effective of Harding’s exercises can be done just by sitting down opposite a friend. Point to your friend’s feet, then yours; to his torso, then yours; to his head, then back to where others see yours. What, on present evidence, is your finger pointing at? (Warning: it’s no good just reading about this, you have actually to carry out the experiment for yourself.)

What you see by carrying this exercise in basic attention, is what it is to be 1st-Person Singular — the noumenous No-thing that is nevertheless keenly aware of Itself as the Container or Ground of the whole display. This seeing is believing. Altogether unmystical (in the popular sense), it is a precise, total, and all-or-nothing experience admitting of no degrees — so long as it lasts.

Now your task is to go on seeing your Absence/Presence in all situations, till the seeing becomes quite natural and continuous. This is neither to lose yourself in your Emptiness nor in what fills it, but simultaneously to view the thing you are looking out at and the No-thing you are looking out of. There will be found to be no times when this two-way-attention is out of place or can safely be dispensed with.

The initial seeing into your Nature is simplicity itself: once noticed, Nothing is so obvious! But it is operative only in so far as it is practised. The results — freedom from greed and hate and fear and delusion — are assured only while the One they belong to isn’t overlooked.

I’ll let Harding himself conclude this all too brief overview. In his Religions of the World: A handbook for the open-minded. he writes:

“Arrived at his goal, the truly Awakened one is, in fact, not Christian in any ordinary sense. He has broken loose from his parent tradition and become universal, above all distinctions whatever. But on his way there he has had a hard time of it. It’s no easy task to reconcile his direct vision with his inherited faith.

His intuition of the One, his dawning identification with the One, his clear sight of that One as the Light or Emptiness within, his resulting freedom from all desire and emotion and even love for man or God, his inability to meditate in the prescribed fashion (visualising, for instance, the Passion of Christ), or to pray, or to think good thoughts, or even to think at all — these sure evidences of his Enlightenment must at first seem to him grave spiritual defects.

To his spiritual counsellors or former co-religionists they may seem downright sinful. All the same, it is his direct experience, his original contact with the Real — ignored by the majority, condemned by the orthodox — which is the heart of this religion, as of all other religions. It is what makes Christianity true.

Because she gets to the Root, becomes that nourishing Root, she becomes also the whole tree with all its leaves and fruits. Ultimately, the (Radical), Mystic or Realised Christian has no preferences, no personal opinions. She doesn’t pick and choose among the innumerable sects and doctrines of Christianity.

Because she rests in their common Source, she is free of it all, and it is all very good indeed.”

~ For more info on Douglas Harding and current activities of the Headless Way, check out: www.headless.org. You can also try out many of Harding’s ‘experiments’ from links on the home page. This is an extensive resource and highly recommended. Ed.

Eternal youth is a natural phenomenon,
It is each person’s destiny — as a mature, realized individual;
It ensues spontaneously, as an authentic experience,
An energy without support, bound by nothing.

Physically, youth depends oh the number of our years,
On the body’s progress towards maturity.
There are no contradictions. People consider themselves
As old as their physical age, according to their life expectancy.

Whereas psychologically it is a-different matter,
Youth is directly connected with Life’s constant newness;
Life itself demands that we encounter it,
The same way She is, as absolute newness in each movement.

Without this eternal, ever-renewing youth,
We will not understand the newness of the Universal movement.
We need to have a fresh, lucid and clear mind,
Completely detached from time, from the wandering memory.

Such a state is attained naturally,
When we understand the “ego” and its powerless nature,
Unable to embrace and really comprehend
The innocence of the naked moment.

The moment makes us young, if we encounter it constantly,
Without the old “self” — based on old residues;
Youth is unrelated to time, years do not define it,
In eternal youth, everyone and everything becomes integrated.

The Prose

Eternal youth is a natural phenomenon; it is the destiny of every human being who has reached a stage of spiritual maturity. This spiritual attainment appears spontaneously — as a true experience — when man discovers the Reality of his being, as immortal Divinity. In this fortunate circumstance, he has a Pure Energy and Consciousness without dimensions or cause.

On a physical plane, youth is determined by the age of our body, by its progress towards maturity. From this point of view, there are no contradictions. People consider themselves as old as their years, according to the climate or the geographical location they live in.

On a psychological level, it is a different matter. In this circumstance, youth is closely connected to the way we integrate and welcome Life’s eternal freshness. >•

Practically, Life itself requests us to encounter it in the same way She is — as absolute newness, with each movement. Without this Eternal Youth, we will never be able to encounter or understand the newness of the Universal movement. Only by being detached from time and space — from the wandering memory — we are able to understand that which is new and real, brought “here and now” by the constant mobility of Life.

How can we reach this eternal Youth within us? Only in one manner, that is: when we understand the “ego” and its powerless nature, unable to embrace and comprehend the purity of the present moment. When understanding occurs — as a direct experience — this fiction becomes silent, in humbleness, because it has understood its fundamental incapacity. In the psychological void thus created, we expand to Infinity and we acquire a new mind, perfectly functional and without limits.

Encountering the moment correctly leads us to a state of eternal Youth — without the senility based on mental accumulations. Youth is not a prisoner of time and it is not influenced by how many years old our physical body is.

In a state of complete inner freedom, on the threshold of the incoming moment – we remain untouched and just as free after the moment has passed, without recording any memory residues. We die psychologically to what has been and, simultaneously, we are reborn just as alive, fresh and always young in each second of Life in Its perpetual movement.

~ From: The Silence of the Mind, by Ilie Cioara pp 59.

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.

If any reaction of the mind surfaced, it disappeared immediately in contact with the sparkle of impersonal Attention. A state of quiet and all-encompassing joy characterized me in all circumstances, whether pleasant or painful. My behavior was that of a simple witness, perfectly aware of what was happening around me, without affecting my all-encompassing state of peace.

The State of the Sublime is, of course, difficult to describe, but not impossible to experience by someone who authentically practices awareness. In order to communicate it, a simple and direct language is used, which is not filtered through reason, because the “ego”, with its subjective perception, is no longer there. To put it this way: the psychological emptiness is the one who lives the present moment, expresses this encounter into words and still remains present and available to the next moment.

As a result of this direct encounter with the moment, always new and renewing itself, I felt the need, initiated and fueled by intuitive impulses, to express “Self- knowing” using verse. It was a natural thing to do. In few words I could encompass and communicate the essence of the experience. In the first year I wrote 300 poems. Later on, their number reached 1000, of which 600 are accompanied by prose explanations, such as the ones in this book.

I would also like to describe a few effects which, as a result of becoming aware of the reactions of my own thinking process, have completely disappeared, without any other intervention from my mind.

After experiencing this phenomenon, I felt like a broken vessel, from which the following started to disappear: my interest in astral journeying, my religious beliefs, my egoism, desires, fear, envy, pride etc. My awareness remained open all the time, offering me the possibility to pass from the finite dimension into Infinity.

After encountering this extraordinary phenomenon^ with the help of a global perspective I understood the whole human tragedy, caused by the misinterpretation of life in its constant mobility and newness from one moment to another.

Faced with the freshness and the aliveness of life, each individual — according to his own conditioning, as a result of wrong education — behaves completely inappropriately, because the structure of the mind cannot in any way comprehend arid embrace the beauty of life. The shadow of the past is actually a memory pattern, clouding and distorting the reality of the present moment.

Life cannot be encountered and understood objectively, unless we are in a state of complete freedom and serenity of the mind. Life is newness, moment by moment, and it demands, even forces us to encounter it with a new mind, with a new brain and with new brain cells, which have not been used previously.

It is a well-known fact: scientists claim that man, during the whole span of his life, uses no more than 10-15% of his brain cells and memory potential. As you can see, our psychological possibilities are almost unlimited.

After these explanations, it will be easier to understand the process of our own conditioning, as well as the phenomenon of breaking the shell of the “ego”.

As I had shown previously, life demands that we encounter it directly, without any memory baggage. How do we lose the memory baggage? It is all very simple! Here is how:

We encounter the movement of the mind with the flame of total Attention — requested by the aliveness of life in its continuous flow. Without the light and serenity provided by Attention, nothing can be understood in a real way. In the light of Attention, any reaction of the mind (thought, image, fear, desire) — which functions chaotically, obsessively and dominates us — is instantly dissolved.

In the psychological void that follows, a new mind appears, expanding into Infinity, as a state of Pure Consciousness, pure understanding as well as transformative action. This simple state of “being” is in itself an action in which the entity who performs the action doesn’t exist anymore. The old man, conditioned by his behavioral patterns, loses his authority as the chaotic, uncontrollable reactions dissolve — energies which sustain and fuel the “ego”.

Only in this way, by a simple encounter with the reactions of the mind and its subsequent demise, the barrier of the “ego” is broken. Through a momentary opening, our real being is revealed, transforming and healing us. This all-encompassing Attention, without any purpose, is the Sacred itself in action.

There is, in fact, another type of attention directed by will, which behaves subjectively by limiting itself to one object. By its very nature, this type of attention defines itself as lack of attention.

Beware, nevertheless, not to make a mere theory of this simple meeting with yourself! Simply becoming aware of “what is”, of what we encounter, brought about by the flow of life, without having any purpose or expectations, places us in a state of simply “being”, which transforms us by itself. That is all there is to it.

~ From: The Silence of the Mind, by Ilie Cioara pp 131-134

Western civilizations revere brain intelligence to the point that we’ve all but forgotten there are other forms of intelligence available to us. As a result, it comes as no surprise that we often think of spiritual awakening as an intellectual pursuit. We devise steps, methods and formulas that titillate the brain and spend years refining every nuance.

The brain loves everything that keeps it engaged and it will happily lead us around and around in circles as long as it’s able to remain at the center of that circle. Methods can be helpful, but there’s a more direct path: the way of the intelligent heart.

We all associate the heart with love, but in our world, love is often about levels and conditions. The heart is seen as the seat of sentimental emotion, something that can easily lead us astray and cause us pain. But when spiritual masters speak of love, it is not an emotion, but a state of being that originates in the intelligent heart.

The heart actually contains at least forty thousand neurons, which rivals the subcortical centers in the brain. We’ve been taught that the brain is the command center for the heart, but it often works the other way around. When the brain sends a signal, the heart may choose to disregard it, but when the heart sends a message to the brain, the brain obeys.

Spiritual masters like Rumi have long recognized that it’s the heart that serves as a bridge to the Divine, and that bridge is crossed with unconditional love. When Shams-iTabrizi, Rumi’s teacher, said “The door of the heart must be opened,” he was encouraging us to see past the emotional love to the fullness of intelligent love that embraces all without distinction.

The ancient writer of the Mundaka Upanishad recognized the difference between brain and heart intelligence when s/he said, “The Lord of Love may be known through love but not through thought.” The brain dislikes the path of love because it’s exquisitely simple. There are no secrets, methods or formulas involved, we just love. We can still benefit from Rumi’s sage advice, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

As our love expands, the veils that have caused us to see a world of separate forms fall away, and we recognize the interconnected oneness of everything in existence. When we can say, “I love you like everybody” to everybody and everything, then we are love.

The brain is afraid of all-encompassing love. Its logic tells us that we must get something in return for everything we give. It is wrong. The path of the intelligent heart will lead you to a level of love, joy and peace beyond anything this world recognizes. Although most people believe “you can’t take it with you,” we’re betting you can always take love.

Love is the only reality, and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. — Tagore

~ Lee & Stephen Hager www.thebeginningoffearlessness.com/blog

Getting the dates wrong on an email newsletter is a relatively minor mistake, but I still feel annoyed with myself. I prefer it when I’m pleased myself, of course. Yet I also feel there is something precious in the humility that arises when I see my innate fallibility … with both the big and little things in my life.

Humbly embracing my flawed humanity has been a theme of my life in recent years, and is a major element in my new book that is coming out next year. For a long time my spiritual journey was about waking up to the deep self and the oneness of life, and this remains an on-going adventure. But now I find myself also focusing on coming to terms with the limitations of ‘Tim’ that show no signs of miraculously disappearing!

As I get older I am struck by how ‘Tim’ still stumbles and falls. Humility and embarrassment seem like old friends. And there is a vulnerability and authenticity that arises from the recognition of my human fallibility that I’m learning to appreciate. Connecting with each other and with life from the deep self is a wonderful experience. Yet embracing each other in our vulnerable, fragile, tender humanity is equally important.

It seems to me that I’m profoundly paradoxical. On the one hand so big and on the other so small. Within me are unfathomable depths, yet ‘Tim’ is also necessarily limited and imperfect. On my spiritual journey I once believed that I could one day perfect ‘Tim’ into some sort of enlightened being who was always at his best. Now it feels to me that the journey is about embracing all that I am.

This means both awakening to the deep self and humbly accepting my human limitations. It’s when I’m able to do both that I’m truly authentic. And then something beautiful and tender happens. There’s this unconditionally love of myself just as I am … a love of others just as they are … a love of life just as it is … a deep love of being.

~ by Tim Frele www.timothyFreke.com