‘The Kingdom of Heaven is spread out over the earth, and people do not see it.’ The reason people don’t see it is because they are looking for it. Their attention is focussed on the future, and so they miss the gift of this moment. They are so caught up in the game of asking-questions-and-waiting-for-answers, so busy trying to be a ’somebody’ rather than a ‘nobody’, that they miss the astonishing intimacy that is already here, an intimacy that simply burns up all questions and answers, leaving only the wonder of what is.

The mind just loves to ask questions, because as long as it is asking questions, its continuity is assured: there is a sense of past, future, individuality. There is a person who has questions, and who will eventually find the answers. There is a seeker who, one day, will come to rest. Curious how it’s always ‘one day’…

Do you not think that if there were answers to find, you would have found them by now? Have you not already been given enough answers? Are your bookshelves not full of answers, overflowing with them?

You see, the questioning must continue, because thought must continue. It doesn’t want to give up, it doesn’t want to die. Answers to your questions have been given over and over again, but the mind cannot accept these as the real answers. If it did so, not only would the questions be annihilated, but also the one who asks them. The questioner arises and dissolves with the questions. They depend on each other. Ultimately, they are each other. If the questions go, so does the questioner.

What is the questioner but a bundle of conditioning, a mass of assumptions, collected over the years? The one who asks the questions, and waits for answers, is actually made of the answers that he has collected! So to let go of this knowledge, to let go of the questions and answers, would be to let go of his very self. No wonder we don’t want to stop seeking. The end of seeking is the death of the questioner, the death of the seeker!

It’s inevitable that the mind must continue to ask questions and wait for answers, for its very existence is at stake! So the great search goes on: “One day I will be liberated! One day I will be free!”

Why not today? Why not now? If not now, when?

What answers are you waiting for? What questions are you asking? For how much longer will you seek the Kingdom?

Perhaps eventually the futility of the seeking will be seen through, and then maybe you will burst out laughing when you see the ridiculous knots that you have tied yourself up in, trying to be free, trying to be liberated. Yes, there’s plenty of laughter when the dream of individuality and the struggle to be free from it all is seen through — indeed, there’s very little to be serious about then!

‘The Kingdom of Heaven is spread out over the earth, and yet people do not see it.’ Even that — even our ignorance of the Kingdom, even our search for the Kingdom — even that is part of the Kingdom.

There’s nothing that the Kingdom is not. It embraces everything. Everything.

~ From: The Wonder of Being: Awakening to an Intimacy Beyond Words, by Jeff Foster

Others think only saints can be self-realized, and for it to happen you have to have transcended the desire realm, and be beyond the need for companionship, physical comfort, sex and any personal wants or preferences.

This is why we don’t really like using the term enlightenment. It’s such a loaded word, weighed down by many far-fetched stories. We prefer to speak in terms of freedom, or self-realization.

What we teach is that the more you see (recognise What you really are), the freer you are, and the freer you are, the more you’re simply present wherever you are — present without any story.

The freer you are, the more you know yourself as pure consciousness or aware presence, expressing in this unique body, mind, and personality known as “you”.

You still have a story, but now you know you’re not your story. You still have an ego, an “I”, a “me”, but now you know you’re not your ego. You honor the past, keep an eye on the future, but live right here, now. You feel a tremendous gratitude for the gift of being alive, you’re always, essentially, at peace, one with the flow of life.

We say essentially because no matter how free we are, we are still human, and subject to human flaws and foibles, like illness, disability, mistakes, errors in judgment, and even occasional residues of old egoic patterns. Part of being free, or self-realized, is accepting and being at peace with our imperfect humanity!

Above all, you feel moved to share your good fortune with others. You see that the world needs this, before anything else.

~ by Jim Dreaver

As the veil lifts, one moment’s sudden revelation completely rearranges and shifts our viewpoint; and the scene abruptly changes. In fact, this was exactly what happened to me one day while in deep meditation.

I was considering ‘Spirituality’, its study and problems, when suddenly it dawned upon me that the student-position, which I had assumed, was certainly an unreliable and unsound one.

As this actuality burst upon me, breathlessly my heart cried out, “Oh to be the great subject itself instead of a mere stidemt of it!”

Instantly there followed a moment of shining light with its electrifying transfusion, sudden and swift. As though a curtain had been raised admitting some startling new sight, I saw the indisputable fact with vivid, clear distinctness — I saw that I was the Truth ItSelf … not a student at all!

Under this flood of blazing revelation, what else could I do but exclaim further, — “Why, this means that I am the TRUTH! I am not a student trying to solve problems of human existence, but I am the absolute and changeless Truth itself!” The simplicity of all this amazed and overwhelmed me. Here in this brief but thrilling moment, I saw what years of study and research had never given me.

Immediately, I then understood Jesus’ dynamic statement, “I am the Truth!” Yes, this was it. I was not a student of Truth, endeavoring to obtain and attain certain states of consciousness, always letting go one for another higher on the scale. No, I was the Truth ItSelf!

What more then could I ask? What more could be desired? Did Truth, or true Being, have any association with a problem? Certainly not. Neither, then, did I!

“I am the Truth!” exuberantly I told myself again and again, in my newly found changed relationship. I am not trying to do, to think or to know something; but I am doing, feeling and being Truth, the Life, and the Way! Oh, the blessed wonder of light!

I saw then that the problem of human existence could never be solved … but will dissolve when we take our rightful stand as the Truth, the Life and the Way.

Now once having seen and accepted this platform, all other speculations immediately vanished, while beautiful verifications in Jesus” life and teaching came flooding my rapturous thought. How plainly now to see that Jesus never said that he was a student of Life, but insisted, “I am the Life!” Neither did he intimate that he was a follower of some particular way or system, but again and again reiterated, “I am the Way!”

No wonder he was so absolute, so completingly certain and sure. Never did he speak nor act as though he were using Truth as a means to bring about certain healing results in a material existence! His attention was NOT towards conditions, states nor beliefs, but upon that Being which is unalterable; that Principle which is fixed and absolute; that Life which is wholeness always … ‘Against such there is no law.’

So, ‘Know thyself!’ Learn Who and What you really are; the meaning of life and the fullness of all things. Then for you, wars and problems will cease and be no more; sorrows and limitations fade away; for finding yourself as you really are, you shall be in touch with every good and perfect thing; and shall live here on earth a life of peace, joy and plenty.

~ From: The Christ Within by Lillian DeWaters

Therefore, all attempts to either find or hold onto the Infinite are based in illusion. And illusion itself is none other than the Infinite.

The Infinite uses all measures in order to awaken in all the various forms in existence. It uses birth, life, death, happiness, sorrow, clarity, and delusion in order to awaken.

All of your seeking is in reality the activity of the Infinite as well. No matter how far astray or deluded you become, you can never get a single step away from the Infinite’s embrace.

If you could all at once stop believing your dreaming mind and be completely still right in the midst of your present state, the Infinite would effortlessly present itself.

~ by Adyashanti, 2010

Perhaps a reason that the Understanding is not a more common occurrence is that it is too simple, too close to home, too subtle. All the seeking is in the other direction, toward something other, something grander. Consider this: a common response when the Understanding happens is laughter. A common response is, “Oh, that!”

Right here, that which is most familiar to you, but overlooked because the looking has been for something else, something beyond. That’s why the finding is in stopping, in stillness. “Be still and know I am God.” Your natural state. Subtle. It is lost, overlooked if there is positive movement, direct searching, active thinking, anything but profound stillness.

A metaphor: In the retina of your eye there are two kinds of cells: cone cells and rod cells. The cones are clustered toward the center of the retina; what is in the center of your field of view is focused on them, and they register shades of light and, especially, color.

The rods are more numerous around the edge of the retina, and they pick up what is on the edge of your field of view, in your peripheral vision. They do not distinguish color, can discern only black and white, but pick out contrast better than the cones. This is why the rod cells are important for night vision, and explains an odd phenomenon; that night vision is better in your peripheral vision.

Walking in the Vermont woods at night, I learned at a young age that what you could make out in the darkness, what you could see, depended on how you looked. Repeatedly, you would see a movement in your peripheral vision and turn to look directly at it, to see only darkness. Eventually, one learns not to turn, not to look directly, but to keep it just in your peripheral vision, just at the point where you are almost not looking at it at all. That is when you can see it best.

Subtle. It is lost, overlooked if there is positive movement, direct searching, active thinking, anything but profound stillness. Focus on it, and it is gone. All of the talking, all of the asking questions, reading books, meditating, thinking, focusing, seeking, is all counterproductive because it is pushing in the wrong direction, creating activity and turbulence and noise.

Just as there is wei wu wei — the action which is not action, action which is not willed, is not volitional but witnessed as spontaneously happening: so too there is a seeing which is not seeing, a seeing which happens without trying, without looking.

… article continued here

~ From Perfect Brilliant Stillness, Beyond the Individual Self’, by David Carse

~ Pete Sumner

As we move about in the outer world of things, forms and appearances, one thing we notice is that everything seems to be changing all the time — everything we put together eventually comes apart — everything that is born, dies — everything that we get is eventually lost again. The leaves that grow on the trees in the spring, fall again in the autumn. Everything in this world of form seems to shift and change, including us. We are getting older.

Sometimes, if we have seen enough metaphorical leaves fall in our personal lives, we can begin to notice what is hiding behind the changing play of forms. It is often most visible to any one of us when the leaves that we were most attached to are in the midst of falling. The ever-changing nature of the world of form is a constant opportunity to notice what is amongst us and in us that doesn’t change.

The world of changing forms is issuing an invitation to notice what doesn’t change. When we look in the same way at ourselves it becomes an invitation to acknowledge that the personal form-bound mind-constructed version of who we are (that we have learned to call ourselves by as children) is not what we truly are. There is something in us that doesn’t change when appearances or personalities change.

When we notice that our personal mind-created and form-bound identity is not who we are, we can begin to see the full beauty of the world of form and yet not be devastated by its changing nature. We can move through the world of form and its constantly changing conditions, thoughts, feelings and appearances, realizing that every bit of it is as sacred as the most holy temple or mountain-top. We bow to the world of form in awe and amazement.

This is the invitation of this time when the wondrous form world has died back to its minimum — when the days are short and the nights are long and cold. At this time of year, there is a transparency about the forms of our lives. We are revealed to ourselves in our true raiment if we accept the invitation. We are life itself! We are the life rising in the baby lamb being born and the same life falling in the plants on the compost heap from last year’s garden — all at once.

All that has fallen away is still with us because we ARE what it all falls into.

~ by Alice Gardner

The film portrays a future in which the world has been taken over by computers and machines that cultivate human bodies to plug their brains into a global network where they serve as computing assets. They are unaware of their true state because they are programmed to experience a virtual reality in which they believe they are living a pleasant and normal life while, in truth, they are immersed in liquid pods wired up to the Matrix. Their pleasant experiences are just in their minds.

The story centers on a small band of humans who have avoided the Matrix and who are attempting to help others break free. The first step is to get them unplugged, which is no easy task, but the second step is even more difficult. It is to convince them to stay unplugged.

The problem is that reality is harsh and dangerous, whereas the Matrix offers a sense of serenity and comfort.

Once they are unplugged, humans must choose between reality and fantasy, and to do so they are offered two pills. The red pill will bring them all the way into reality. Once it is taken, they can never return to the comfort of delusion. The blue pill will put them back to sleep where they can be reconnected to the Matrix. Many choose the blue pill.

The parallels to modern life are obvious. We are conditioned all our formative years to see only the outward appearance of things and to believe that we are each entirely separate from all others. From time to time, however, most of us get a glimpse of a deeper dimension and feel, if ever so briefly, a certain connectedness with all of life. This is usually dismissed and quickly forgotten, but a few wonder if their experience points to an underlying truth that is profoundly important.

Some of these are led mysteriously to those who have escaped from the Matrix-like illusion, and with their guidance, most earnest inquirers come to recognize the awesome truth of What they really are. Thereafer, these ‘awakened’ ones, or seers as they are sometimes called, live with extraordinary freedom, lightness, joy, peace and compassion — especially for those still in the grip of the ‘Matrix’ system. They are in the world, but no longer of it.

~ Sent in by Remco van Santen – Thanks Rem.

This message is very radical. Perhaps, although you say that you want to discover the truth, you really enjoy the ‘search’ far too much to actually find what you are searching for. What would you do without the ‘spiritual search’? What else could provide such addictive emotional highs and lows? Do you really want to know the truth of who you are? Or do you still want to hide behind who you think you are or who you would like to be?

I’m pointing to the true nature of who you are, beyond who you would like to be, or who you believe yourself to be. This is not always what you want to hear. This is not a pep talk to make you feel better. This is simply pointing to the reality. Do you want to know the way it actually is? For better or for worse? Or do you want to go on living in a dream, hoping that one day things will change?

Who are you right now? You have a name. But are you just a label? Who are you really? It seems to take some courage to really see who you are beyond labels and appearances. Are you a bunch of memories and a story of who you have been or who you would like to become?

Are you limited to what you think or what others have told you? Are you really someone who has problems, needs, and desires? Or have you always known that somehow, no matter what happens in life, that things are really ok? Somehow you always know that life is not as complicated as we often make it out to be. That no matter how hard life appears to be at times, that actually it is all really so easy.

Beyond all labels and ideas, what You are is Awareness itself. Aware of what ever is happening. Presence itself. Only ever present with no future or past. Timeless. Without reason or meaning. Meaninglessness beyond any idea of that being a depressing thought.

Freedom beyond any idea or imagination. Freedom which is right now, which never needs to ‘break free’ from any bonds. Absolute fulfilment which has always been fulfilled even when you were searching for fulfilment. Absolute wholeness even when you believe that there is something missing.

~ by Unmani, who is at Gurukula this week.

You can now get Unmani’s CD Weekend in Findhorn from Clearsight at a discount price.

Eternally, even as the stars play out their birth and death,
The One is undiminished, undivided, undismayed.
For, since the universal drama exists within the one great Mind,
There is no separation, no duality at all.

And yet, while we live and dance in time and space,
We inhabit an imaginary bubble of non-eternity,
Of transient bodies and volitional activities,
A secondary world, unreal.

Once freed of duality’s deception,
We realize we’ve never left eternity’s bliss.
We’re one eternal Self, unbound, unsnared forever,
Complete in the completion of the boundless One,
A “we”, an “I” that stands triumphantly free, beyond imagined time.

~ Swami Abhayananda