The Seer

The greater part of most people’s thinking is involuntary, automatic, and repetitive. It is no more than a kind of mental static and fulfills no real purpose.

Strictly speaking, you don’t choose to think; Thinking happens to you. The statement “I think” implies volition. It implies that you have willfully chosen to think what you think (or that you think in the first place). For most people, this is not yet the case. “I think” is just as false a statement as “I digest” or “I circulate my blood.” Digestion happens, circulation happens, thinking happens.

The voice in the head has a life of its own. Most people are at the mercy of that voice; they are possessed by their thinking and its repetitive, unconscious content. This circular, repetitive, incessant thinking is conditioned by the past, and it keeps you trapped in the past. It is as though you continue to relive the past over and over again. Do you ever wonder why the same problems challenge you throughout your life? Your unconscious mind is re-creating them, but you don’t even know it.

The Eastern term for this repetitive cycle is karma. You continually bring to your life experiences that correspond to your thinking. What you reap, you will sow. What you think, you will attract. If the contents of your thoughts are locked in past events, you are destined to repeat them. This is karma. And it goes both ways.

We have heard of good karma and bad karma. Bad karma is the experiences we have that are attracted to us by our mind’s obsession with all the bad things that have happened to us. Bad karma not only produces experiences that are undesirable, it is also a life lived in the past, not the present.

Good karma, on the other hand, comes from living in the present moment. When we liberate our mind from thoughts of the past and negative rumination, we are free to engage our mind in original, creative thought. We are free to be spontaneous and fun-loving. We are free to live our life now with a sense of curiosity, discovery and adventure. Far from being trapped in a cycle of negativity, we live a life of freshness, proactivity and healthy self-expression.

If you have been living life in the past, caught in the cycle of bad karma, you can get free of it.

Just in the way that thinking happens to you, bad karma happens to you. It is an involuntary predicament. It is a condition that you do not consciously choose.

The solution is to begin choosing what you want for yourself. Instead of being a victim of your own thinking, be an active, engaged choice maker.

• Choose to be more present.
• Choose to be more aware of what thoughts are circulating in your mind.
• Choose to engage your mind in original, creative thinking.
• Choose to make your mind an interesting, adventurous place.
• Choose to make good karma by using your mind for positive and productive thinking.

~ Eckhart Tolle www.tolleteachings.com

I can’t tell you what the ‘kingdom of God’ is; no one can. It’s not a thing, it’s not a concept, it’s not a place.

The scriptures indicate that the ‘kingdom’ co-exists with that realm of consciousness witnin us which knows no change nor decay, no beginning nor end and that is subject to neither time nor space.

Our body, mind and personality develops, changes and deteriorates over our life-time, but there’s a dimension of Spirit at the core of our being, they say, that is constant, limitless and the seat of all that is sacred.

If this be true, it surely means that the ‘kingdom of God’ is neither remote nor unattainable. It’s closer than our skin and more immediate than our next breath.

You may wonder why so few seem able to find that which is closer than close and can never be lost, but it’s a bit like searching for your glasses when you have them on all the while.

St Paul urged those in a death-like spiritual sleep to awaken and to become completely open to the inner Light of Christ (Eph. 5:14). This light is like no other, being infinite, invisible and the living, luminous background that enables all things in our world to be known for what they truly are.

Those awakening out of spiritual torpor soon realize that the divine is as much inward as heavenward and that in the final quest of the soul, seekers become finders … and then, seers. In this way, they experience the divine at the core of their being.

Spiritual awakening is usually described as the final freedom, freedom from previous conditioning and mind-made suffering — freedom at last to consciously be What we really are and have always been. Awakening has nothing to do with perpetuating our egoic self.

Awakening is an opportunity to encounter our imperishable Self (the Christ) before the transient vehicle of the body/mind/personality disappears, as in the cycle of nature, it surely must.

~ Pete Sumner www.peterspearls.com.au/

I’ve discovered that it’s actually impossible to find happiness. As long as you’re seeking to find happiness ’somewhere’, you’re overlooking where happiness is.

As long as you’re seeking to find God someplace else, you’re overlooking the essential truth of God, which is omnipresence.

When you seek to find happiness someplace else, you’re overlooking your true nature, which is happiness. You’re overlooking yourself.

I’d like to offer you the invitation and the challenge to stop overlooking yourself, to simply, radically, and absolutely be still — to put aside, at least for a moment, all of your ideas of where God is, or where truth is, or where you are.

Stop looking anywhere. Stop seeking. Simply be. I am not talking about being in a stupor, or going into a trance, but going deeper into the silence of your heart where the revelation of omnipresence can be revealed as your true nature.

I’m asking you to be still in pure presence. Not to create that, not even to invite it, but simply to recognize what is always here, who you always are, where God always is.

At this point in our human history, what was once reserved for the most rare beings is available to ordinary people.

Because we have considered ourselves ordinary, we have kept a certain door closed within our brains and within our hearts to the truth at the core of it all.

But at this time there is a crack in our conditioning. If you are reading this you are already aware of it to some degree or you wouldn’t be subscribed to this eZine.

This is a time of the ordinary awakening. This means you, not only those born under the brightest stars but the ordinary person as well.

~ Gangaji — From: The Diamond in Your Pocket www.gangaji.org/

Light, endless Light! Darkness has room no more.
Life’s ignorant gulfs give up their secrecy:
The huge inconscient depths unplumbed before
Lie glimmering in vast expectancy

Light, timeless Light immutable and apart!
The holy sealed mysterious doors unclose.
Light, burning Light from the Infinite’s diamond heart
Quivers in my heart where blooms the deathless rose.

Light in its rapture leaping through the nerves!
Light, brooding Light! Each smitten passionate cell
In a mute blaze of ecstasy preserves
A living sense of the Imperishable.

I move in an ocean of stupendous Light
Joining my depths to His eternal height.

~ Sri Aurobindo. Oct. 1939. Last Poems – 32.

I regard not the outside and the words,
I regard the inside and the state of the heart.
I look at the heart if it be humble,
Though the words may be the reverse of humble.
Because the heart is substance, and words accidents,
Accidents are only a means, substance is the final cause.
How long will thou dwell on words and superficialities?
A burning heart is what I want; consort with burning!
Kindle in the heart the flame of love,
And burn up utterly thoughts and fine expressions.

~ Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 – 1273), From: The Mathnawi: Rumi, Trans. E H Whinfield.

I have discovered my deep deathless being:
Masked by my front of mind, immense, serene
It meets the world with an Immortal’s seeing,
A god-spectator of the human scene.

No pain and sorrow of the heart and flesh
Can tread that pure and voiceless sanctuary.
Danger and fear, Fate’s hounds, slipping their leash
Rend body and nerve, — the timeless Spirit is free.

Awake, God’s ray and witness in my breast,
In the undying substance of my soul
Flamelike, inscrutable the almighty Guest.
Death nearer comes and Destiny takes her toll;

He hears the blows that shatter Nature’s house:
Calm sits He, formidable, luminous.”

~ Sri Aurobindo (1872 – 1950)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ This article is continued: >>>HERE

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

What is this awesome mystery
that is taking place within me?
I can find no words to express it;
my poor hand is unable to capture it
in describing the praise and glory that belong
to the One who is above all praise,
and who transcends every word…
My intellect sees what has happened,
but it cannot explain it.
It can see, and wishes to explain,
but can find no word that will suffice;
for what it sees is invisible and entirely formless,
simple, completely uncompounded,
unbounded in its awesome greatness.
What I have seen is the totality recapitulated as one,
received not in essence but by participation.
Just as if you lit a flame from a flame,
it is the whole flame you receive.

~ Symeon the New Theologian (949 – 1032), from The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul’s Ascent: from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives, Trans. John Anthony McGuckin.

We are now going through a time that calls for compassion and a centring into a deeper strength — a strength that is born of the Presence within us.

As we bear witness to ongoing adversity in the form of disasters (natural and social) it is natural, even for those not directly affected, to feel a sense of overwhelm or shock. What is significant is that we are all affected, even when we don’t necessarily recognise it. We are all affected because indeed we are all connected. We are ONE LIFE.

What is acutely highlighted at this time is the true nature of life… that all things are subject to change; even the things we have seen as our greatest source of security may be taken away suddenly or unexpectedly.

With compassion we can embrace a deeper Presence of Love — one that extends a presence of calm, guided by the knowing that life itself is eternal… and although we may cling to these bodies and objects we wish to hold on to… it is only love and the spirit of life that endures.

By gathering in Presence, whether in the silence of one’s own heart, or as a group, we may extend this calm to all those who are suffering at this time and are perhaps incapable of making an aware connection to their own eternal nature.

It’s a time to re-assess, to reconsider our priorities, to re-gauge what in our life has true or lasting meaning. As we gather our thoughts into a place of quiet contemplation we may also re-connect to the peace that is always here, underlying every moment… even in the midst of disaster.

Even in the face of tragedy there is an opportunity for true change… an opportunity to connect with the true nature of life again, to be freed of the burdens we have bound ourselves to through material attachments or indulgence, and to find the simple beauty and joy again of living in harmony with the true nature of our own being and life at large.

~ by Isira Living Awareness

Question: How do I maintain a sense of presence when I’m in the company of another person? How do I bring presence into conversation?

Eckhart: It’s not easy. The moment you start talking, the two minds come together and so they strengthen each other. A flow starts, a stream of thought. A moment ago you were present, and then somebody starts talking. What applies here is the loss of space during the conversation. Both participants of the conversation have lost any sense of space.

There are only the words, the mind, the verbalization, the stream of thinking that becomes sounds. They are taken over by that. It has its own momentum — almost a little entity, a stream, that doesn’t want to end. Often, it generates emotions in the body. That strengthens it, amplifies it.

If the mental stream triggers emotions, which it often does, especially when talking about other people, what they did, failed to do, did to you, did to others, criticisms, gossip, all kinds of emotional [things], the ego comes in. When you can criticize another, the ego feels a little bit stronger. By diminishing another, in the delusional system of the ego, you have enhanced your own self-image a little bit. Any criticism of another is a part of that energy stream.

And then emotions come, and they amplify the thoughts. It’s the loss of space.For you to regain space, without saying “I’m not talking anymore”, one thing is necessary for you — which is the realization that you’ve lost space. Without that, there’s nothing you can do — when you’re so taken over by a stream of thought, that you don’t even know you’ve been taken over by a stream of thought — there’s nothing you can do.

“Forgive them, for they know not what they do”. They are unconscious. They are the stream of thought. And as the stream of thought, you don’t want it to end — because you don’t want your own end. Every entity wants to remain in form for as long as possible.If there’s the slightest realization that you’ve lost space, at that moment you have a choice.

What is your choice? Your choice is to bring some presence, some space, into the stream of thought. But how do you do that? It’s coming at you not only from within your own mind, but it’s coming at you from the other person too. The awareness is there, and it may only last three seconds, and then it’s gone again. So you have to use those two or three seconds, where you realize the loss of space, and do something in that space where you have some freedom to act.

By a conscious choice, you take your attention out of thinking — but you have to anchor it somewhere else, otherwise it won’t work. So you choose your breath, or your body, or some other sense perception around you that you become aware of. When you are actually talking to another person, it’s probably easiest to either use your breath or your inner body.

Practice this beforehand, when conditions are easier, so that you can do it once it’s necessary. Go into your inner body, feel that your energy field is alive. And you’ll notice, you’re not thinking anymore. You can still listen. The amazing thing is that you can listen to another person, without thinking, easily, beautifully. You are listening, but part of your attention is on your energy field — so you’ve taken attention away from your thoughts.

There is a sense of aliveness in the background. It’s ultimately formless; it’s already the doorway into the formless. Feel that while you sit there and listen, and you’ve stepped out of the stream of thinking. Then, the quality of the interaction immediately changes. The other person may not consciously notice what’s happening, and may carry on for a while.

It also does not mean that you cannot respond anymore. But how you respond and the quality of your response changes, too. You are no longer contributing to the negative nature, which is often the case, in conversations. A certain amount of stillness, then, will also be a part of the words that you speak. It’s so subtle that the other person probably will not notice it, consciously.

So hang on to the inner body, let it be the anchor, and then you become present. If you lose it again, if the other person says something challenging, then after a little while you remember — and you go back into the inner body. That’s a powerful anchor, and then everything changes from there. It takes continuous practice.

~ by Eckhart Tolle