~ Pete Sumner

Seeking could be described as eating potato chips while desiring to reach a state of enlightenment or to be an awakened person eating chips or to have some experience other than the simple fact of eating chips right now. Presence is simply eating chips without that desire for some future moment.

Presence is so simple that it is overlooked by the mind seeking something other than what is happening now. In presence, life is simple. There is only the crunch, crunch of the chip, the sensation of it going down your throat, and then biting into the next chip. It’s that simple.

Just that — the reality of eating chips. It’s not about the story of a person eating chips. It’s much simpler. It’s just eating chips.

The desire for something more than what is happening is the problem, not the road to the solution.

From: Reflections of the One Life, by Scott Kiloby www.kiloby.com

This would infuriate me further. When this happened, it was the best thing for me because I learned that only “I” could dissolve my pain-body.

If you’re conscious enough to stay present with your pain-body, then you will watch it dissolve. Don’t let the ego come in because the ego will say “I am more awake now so I can stay here.” When you’re fully present, you won’t have those thoughts. You will just find yourself there holding the space. Just being still. Some words may come out, maybe not.

Staying present in your relationship with your parents can be both a great challenge and the ultimate practice. Ram Dass used to say, “If you think you’re enlightened, then go visit your parents for a week or two.”

If you can stay present (in the company of a critical or complaining parent), then you’re holding their pain-body in spacious awareness. Your being in awareness will help dissolve their pain-body … but only if you can stay present while you’e with them.

Now, if you find that your pain-body gets activated when their pain-body is active, and you can still be present and hold the space for your pain-body and their pain body, then great! You are dissolving both your pain-bodies. However; if you find yourself slipping into unconsciousness, or, in other words, identifying with the pain-body, and if you still have that little bit of conscious presence, then remove yourself from the situation.

Once you feel your own pain-body being activated, and we can all know this from experience, once the pain-body is active, you want a fight! And this is what we do when we are totally unconscious. It is the feeding of the pain body, it is not only fed by your thoughts, but also by the other person’s thoughts. We make it grow and grow.

I remember sitting in a cafe having tea. There was a young girl at the table next to me, who looked like she was with her father. She appeared to be in a lot of pain. I could feel the energy of her pain-body around her. I thought about moving, but it didn’t. Instead, I stayed present with the energy.

There is no division with energy, so you can feel other peoples energy around you. I don’t know how long it took, maybe 15 minutes. I wasn’t judging or naming, just feeling the energy. Suddenly, the energy felt as if it was about to burst and as I felt that, it did and she broke out in laughter. Then she and her father were laughing together. So it is possible to just stay present, not in a conceptual way, but be there as the witnessing presence.

~ by Kim Eng

Infinitely ascended worlds of light dance in the interior of your brain; infinitely descended worlds of night cascade around your feet; the clouds crawl across the sky of your own unfettered mind, while the wind blows through the empty space where your self once used to be.

The sound of the rain falling on the roof is the only self you can find, here in the obvious world of crystalline one taste, where inner and outer are silly fictions and self and other are obscene lies, and ever-present simplicity is the sound of one hand clapping madly for all eternity. In the greatest depth, the simplest what is, the journey ends, as it always does, exactly where it began.”

~ by Ken Wilber (sent in by Walt Motley, Thanks Walt.)

What is at work here is non-conceptual intelligence, when intuition arises.Intuition is not arrived at by thinking, not by logic. It’s arrived at in a way that we cannot explain. It is closely related to creativity and inspiration. Inspiration also comes from that place.

Intuition is given to you. [It is given to] all great artists, musicians, writers, and even great scientists who made deep discoveries that were revolutionary — like Einstein. Einstein had a ’sense’ of his theory of relativity. Before he could fully prove it, he already knew it was true.

It was intuition that came to him. Of course, he had done a lot of thinking before that happened.

Sometimes you have to do a lot of thinking, and then suddenly, thinking doesn’t get you anywhere anymore, and you stop thinking, and you go out and take a few deep breaths. Or you go out into nature and sit under a tree. And suddenly, intuition is there. Something you couldn’t have arrived at through thinking.

It’s vital for every human being to contact that place within, where intuition arises, because otherwise you are confined to the limitations of your conceptual mind … your life is just repetitive, and no new ideas can come. If it’s a fresh and new idea, it comes from a place where all creativity arises — which ultimately, is the stillness within. That’s where intuition arises.

If you can be still even for a moment, then there’s a possibility that some intuitive thing arises as a thought or as a spontaneous thing that you say, and you’ve surprised yourself. Maybe somebody needs your help or advice, and rather than thinking “I should be helping that person. What can I say next to help them?”, rather than that, you just become still, listen, look. And suddenly you may find yourself saying something. It’s intuitive. Suddenly a deeper intelligence comes and uses your mind. That’s what we call intuition.

Realize that this is at the basis of all creative activities, all truly creative activities. Perception is something that comes from the outside, and intuition comes from the inner. It comes from you. It is essentially one with who you are, intelligence itself.

The easiest way to develop intuition is to develop the ability to be still at times. Rather than ‘trying’ to develop intuition, go to the place where all intuition arises. You don’t need to worry about becoming more intuitive if you focus more on being still. Not necessarily for long periods of time, but have moments of stillness in your life, so that every day is interspersed with moments of stillness.

You could just close your eyes and take one or two deep breaths. Or you don’t even have to close your eyes, but while you’re listening or looking at somebody, feel yourself breathing. Feel the inner aliveness within your body. If you are looking at your computer screen, look away for a moment, or close your eyes for a moment, and take one or two conscious breaths. It brings you to stillness.

Wherever you are, there are always opportunities for a moment of stillness. And that is vital, because otherwise your life is unbalanced. If you don’t find stillness, all you have is activity — one thing after another. And this covers up your potential intuitive faculty, continuously.

Seek out moments of stillness. Even the busiest person can do it. If you’re driving home, or driving to work, every traffic light is an invitation to stillness. [There are] so many opportunities for stillness. Stillness is where intuition arises.

~ by Eckhart Tolle (who was born on this day in 1948 — Happy Birthday Eckhart: )

Jesus would say the same today to all those who hold dear to ancient, traditional beliefs, whether Christian beliefs or not.

The finite mind of self is incapable of realizing a Pure Consciousness that is other than self. Pure Consciousness is not realized through self, but through Christ. Not the Christian Christ, nor a person called Christ, but the living Christ — the Spiritual Christ.

The apostle Paul referred to the Christ on at least one occasion as the ‘mind of Christ.’ In so saying, he was speaking of an Awareness in Consciousness that is other than self.

Christ Jesus was Jesus in Christ, or Jesus having realized Pure Consciousness through Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven, which is Pure Conscious Awareness absent the self, is likewise realized (becomes real) through Christ.

Thus, following his awakening, Jesus could declare, ‘the time is fulfilled’ (Pure Consciousness has awakened in Man), therefore ‘the kingdom of God is at hand.’

~ From: The Christ is Not a Person, by J.C. Tefft. pp 22. (recommeded by Eckhart Tolle)

This season marks the timeless moment when immaculate awareness comes to free us from the mistaken worship of the graven images of limited light in order to recognize, what the Bible calls, “the Father of lights (the Light of Conscousness), with whom is no

variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

God’s light is enfolded within the awareness that sees Christmas lights twinkling, that watches the evening sky with starlight gleaming. In the same way that the “words” are “information,” just so is light unfolding the wisdom and knowledge of God within us.

Who is “us”? The Self-Awareness of the Infinite Eternal.

Life runs in Light because Life is that light. The searching soul that struggles to see, skirts the edges of shadows, plumbs the darkened valleys of hidden hills and measures the forms of opaqueness.

But for each of us, in each one’s time, the experience examined, the shadows searched, leads us to the Light, the Light to the Godhead. The shadows are gone, having let us see so we know we see the immeasurable allness of Light.

~ by William Samuel. To read the rest of this luminous article, >>>Click Here.

Also, on the weekend of Dec. 11, there will be an audio podcast of one of William’s talks posted on Urban Guru Cafe

Love is who we are. It is what life is. You cannot give love. To love someone is not to give them anything but to recognize the love that is already there. To pretend that you have something that others need, including love, is arrogant. This pretense fuels separation. It is spiritual violence.

To seek, expect, or demand love is not love at all. It is egoic neediness. Love wants nothing because it lacks nothing. Love does not seek love. It places no conditions on life and others. It simply recognizes itself everywhere, in everyone.

It does not buy into the illusion of separation.

Unconditional love is not something that thought could ever show you. To realize it, find out what is prior to that thought-based story of “me” in the mind.

What is reading these words — not the thoughts that arise to agree or disagree with what is being said — but rather the simple presence itself?

What is resonating beyond these ideas? That presence is love. Realize that what you truly are, beyond all mental conditions, is unconditional love.

~ From: Reflections of the One Life, by Scott Kiloby www.kiloby.com

BTW: If you enjoy Scott’s writing, why not get one of his insightful quotes every day for free via our Peter’s Pearls service? It’s easy to >>>Subscribe.

They work perfectly smoothly and spontaneously all by themselves. Likewise the heart continues to beat without a reminder from us, the lungs, digestion and all the organs do their jobs quite uninterrupted.

Do we even give a thought as to how nutrients are broken down, get into the bloodstream and are transported around the body to the desired spot? Do we have input into how wastes are selected and carried away. Does the ‘me’ build the muscle tissue and bones piece by piece? Do we even know how they fit together? Can you explain the simplest actions like how to lift a finger?

If I were a Martian come down to Earth and inhabited this body would you be able to explain to me how to operate this body – even the simplest actions?

So why do we need the idea of a ‘me’ to function. On close inspection it becomes clear we don’t but the belief doesn’t just go away. What does this imaginary ‘me’ do while the rest of the body is looking after itself, sourcing water when thirsty, food when hungry. When hunger happens you may think it’s you that prepares the food to eat and in a sense it is since you have to locate and prepare the food – or is that automatic too?

Does the brain that put the food away after shopping already know where it’s to be found, without a ‘me’? When hunger strikes did you create the hunger, the feelings of hunger? Did you decide to be thirsty in the first place? Why is it that you like certain foods when another person has other tastes? Why am I lactose intolerant – did I choose that?

Do people choose the terrible illnesses and accidents that befall them? If the body is programmed to look after itself then why do I need to maintain this conviction there is a ‘me’ in control? And am I maintaining this belief or is the belief self sustaining giving the impression there is a ‘me’ doing it?

The sense organs receive energy from the outside and channels it to the brain that sorts it out in a meaningful way and creates the finished and ongoing conscious perception that is witnessed. The internal sensors gauge levels of nutrients and fluids in order to maintain the necessary balance, corrects imbalances, breaks and breakdowns. And it all happens spontaneously.

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.” Zen proverb.

~ by Roy Townsend, who was a much appreciated guest-teacher at Gurukula earlier this month.

~ by Candace O’Denver