The Seer

To discover our autonomy is the most challenging thing a human being can do. Because in order to discover our autonomy, we must be free from all external control or influence. This means that we must free our mind from all that it has collected, all that it clings to, all that it depends on.

This begins by realizing that we are in a psychological prison created by our minds. Until we begin to realize how confined we are, we will not be able to find our way out. Neither will we find our way out by struggling against the confines we have inherited from our parents, society, and culture. It is only by beginning to examine and realize the falseness within our minds that we begin to awaken an intelligence that originates from beyond the realm of thinking.

If spirituality is to be meaningful, it must deliver us from all forms of dependence�including the dependence on spirituality�and help awaken within us that creative spark which all beings aspire to. For the culmination of spirituality lies not only in discovering our inherent unity and freedom, but also in opening the way for life to express itself through us in a unique and creative way. Such uniqueness and creativity is not to be found in anything the human mind has ever created, nor is it to be found in our ideals of human perfection or utopian dreams.

True autonomy arises when we have broken free of all the old structures, all psychological dependencies, and all fear. Only then can that which is truly unique and fearless arise within us and begin to express itself. Such expression cannot be planned or even imagined because it belongs to a dimension uninhibited by anything that has come before it.

True autonomy is not trying to fit in or be understood, nor is it a revolt against anything. It is an uncaused phenomenon. Consciously or unconsciously all beings aspire to it, but very few find the courage to step into that infinity of aloneness.

~ by Adyashanti 2009

The Matrix is one of the most talked about movies of recent time. The first episode was released in March of 1999, quickly followed by several sequels, animated cartoons, comic books, and video games. One of the reasons for the film’s popularity is it surreal action, but even more important is the story line, which many viewers perceive as a metaphor of real life.

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.

The way we relate to change is how we relate to life itself, because life is nothing but a constant flow of change. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said, “Life is like a river where you cannot step in the same water twice.”

In the few seconcs since you started reading this article, for instance, thousands of your brain cells have undergone changes. Now your brain isn’t quite the same as it was before. And all the cells in your body were not there several years ago. Look at nature and that’s all you’ll see – endless movement and change. Some changes are hardly noticeable because they occur over millions of years, while other changes are noticed instantly.

Modern life exposes us to ever-increasing rates of change. The book “Future Shock” argued that rapid change raises our anxiety levels to a state of shock. Uncertainty has become most certain. We are less able than in the past to control and predict how things are going to turn out. This is reflected by the speed in which our feelings and thoughts are changing. To our ego identity that desires the known and certainty it feels at times chaotic, confusing even scary.

Evolution created for us the thinking mind, by which we use language to gain some certainty in a threatening world. At the age of eighteen months we started to use words to organize and control a world in which we felt entirely powerless. The one word that gave us the greatest sense of control was the word “No.”

For some people this “No” becomes so ingrained as a source of power that they adopt avoidance and resistance as a way of survival – “no” to new ideas, to new experiences, to new people. They may survive but sadly they are unaware of how much they miss out in their lives. Their “No” actually stops their learning and growth. It is “NO” to life itself.

That little ego with the big NO will keep us in the fortress, deluded by the illusion of safety, as long as we believe this is who we are – an identity made up of stories. To identify with the story is like being under the influence of a hypnotist, or like being in a horror movie and not realizing that it’s a movie. Once we see the reality of the movie we don’t change the content much but at least we have a bit more fun!

Fear of change could stop altogether once we realize that our unbounded awareness is the essence of who we are. This is a paradigm shift that leads us to experience being the unchanging observer.

The “I” as the observer is the constant in the process of infinite changes. Observer is always there to notice changes, moment by moment in thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. The act of noticing is the very act that sets us free from the reactive and mechanistic mind. Seeing things as they are is the language of awareness. Once you recognize the self as awareness, as the space for all body and mind appearances, you have freed your true nature from the stories that have chained your spirit to the ground.

~ by Hagai Avisar. Hagai will return to Gurukula to offer several wonderful workshops in late July. More info >>>HERE

“To remain or abide as awareness does not mean we get into some state called “awareness” and then find a way to remain in that state. To remain as awareness is to simply recognize that all states and experiences are the continuous flow of awareness.”

~ John Astin

Growth — whether physical, intellectual, or spiritual — is an unconscious process outside the realm of our own doing.

Our own birth and life was not of our own doing. We are given life – a physical body, a mind and a heart – and each of these grow in a mysterious way. As children we grow bigger and taller with each next year. We don’t know how or even when it is happening. It just happens. We don’t control the process. But we do influence it greatly.

Some children grow more strong and healthy than others. This is in part due to genetic inheritance. But it is also a measure of the quality of nourishment and care the child receives. Growth is influenced by the emotional environment in which the child is raised.

Medical researchers are discovering that growth is influenced by how much a child values himself or herself – or not. Children are capable of developing such a low sense of their own value that they do not care about their own welfare, health or happiness. These children will suffer from many internal mechanisms that limit or stunt their physical, emotional, mental and later their spiritual growth. The same is true for any person at any time in their life.

Growth is an act of grace bestowed by the evolutionary impulse that animates and enlivens all of life. The evolutionary impulse is an optimizing force. We attract this grace by creating favorable conditions to our growth. Another way of saying this is that we align ourselves with the evolutionary impulse.

Growth is what happens if you don’t do that which will hinder growth. You actually have to work against the evolutionary impulse in order not to grow. Unfortunately, many of us do. What are some of the hindrances to our growth?

* Negativity of any kind
* Negative friends
* Negative thoughts
* Negative actions
* Criticizing yourself or others
* Blaming yourself or others
* Indifference toward the well-being of yourself or others
* Laziness
* Feelings of worthlessness
* Incessant thinking, doubt or worry
* Fear of stillness and silence
* Medicating with alcohol, drugs or other addictive behaviors

Be honest with yourself as you re-read this list. There is at least one that will apply to you. The truth is, there will be more. But choose one, and for the next week, observe this barrier to growth with an interested curiosity. Look for it in your daily activity and in your inner mental activity. Don’t try to make it go away. Just allow it to be as you watch it and learn how it influences your life.

For the next week, give yourself the gift of practicing this exercise.

~ by Eckhart Tolle

It’s been a while since we shared a recipe, so here’s one for Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup. Pearl made it recently and it was absolutely delicious (nourishing too) Great for any season but especially when your spirits need a lift. Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:

1 free range chicken (about 1.6kg).
I carrot, unpeeled, coarsely chopped.
1 bunch spring onions, pale ends thinly sliced, green tops reserved.
5cm piece of ginger (25gm) coarsely chopped.
½ Chinese cabbage (about 500 gm) thinly sliced.
4 free range eggs.
2 tsp fish sauce.
Sesame oil to taste.
Olive oil.
275 gm Japanese soba noodles.
Soy sauce to taste.

Method:

1. Rinse chicken inside and out under cold running water, combine in a large saucepan with carrot, spring onion and ginger. Fill with enough cold water to just cover chicken, add 1 tablespoon sea salt and bring to the boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer till chicken is cooked through and stock is well flavoured (1 and ¼ hours). Remove chicken, strain stock into a large clean saucepan (discard solids). When cool enough to handle, shred chicken meat (discard bones) and return to stock.

2. In a large pot, boil water and cook the soba noodles till just tender – 6-8 minutes. When cooked, drain the noodles, put in a bowl, season with the sesame oil and soy sauce.

3. Whisk eggs in a bowl with fish sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. Heat a fry pan till hot, add olive oil and when hot, add egg mixture, cook till golden and flip and cook till golden on the other side and cooked through. Roll into a cylinder and thinly slice and put in a bowl.

4. Chop the green spring onion tops and put in a bowl.

5. Add the thinly sliced Chinese cabbage to the stock and simmer for 5 minutes.

6. Ladle out the chicken soup and put the noodles, spring onions and sliced egg roll on/into each bowl of soup.

A local businessmen had been invited to speak to the children in the third grade. He decided to talk about the progress of the world during the past fifty years.

He spent half-an-hour talking about the great inventions that had been developed during his lifetime.

Then he said, “Before I go, I’d like to ask this question …”

“What do you think is the most important invention in the world today that wasn’t here just twenty years ago?” he asked.

“Me!” said a little boy in the front row.

The main aim of this teaching is to transcend the Ego, the Ego being a false sense of self, a false sense of identity.

Morality is important in many traditional teachings because those teachings have not gone beyond Ego, so they still function within the framework of the Ego.

If you live in a society that is inhabited by Egos, you need certain external rules of behavior and regulations so that there is not absolute chaos. What you need then is commandments, or laws that need to be in place so that the Ego does not create absolute chaos in the world.

The emphasis of this teaching is to transcend the Ego so that a different state of consciousness arises, we call it *presence*. Once this state of consciousness operates, external rules and regulations are not really needed anymore, because a knowing of what is right and wrong arises from within you, and you are no longer able to inflict suffering on others because the illusion of absolute separateness between who you are and who another human being is, has disappeared.

You’re no longer trapped in that illusion, so you know that ultimately, whatever you are doing to another, you are doing to yourself. Most importantly, there is love as the recognition of the other as yourself — the recognition of oneness. Once that is the basis of your life, you don’t need rules or regulations anymore because that arises directly and spontaneously from within you.

One could say that all you need to do is to be in that state of love, which is not conventional love, but the recognition of non-separation, recognition of the ultimate Oneness of all beings. Once that is there, then the right conduct flows naturally from within you. You don’t need to memorize the commandments anymore to tell you what’s right and wrong.

Once the Ego is transcended, morality emerges from within. Morality arises spontaneously as the effect of the inner transformation. The emphasis of this teaching is not on morality, but on something deeper, out of which true morality flows.

~ by Eckhart Tolle

It’s easy to say that you want to discover the Truth, but when you understand that the Truth is not just the experience of love and peace, you may not be so sure that you want it any more. Recognising who You really are will rob you of your deepest held ideas, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. It will turn your view of yourself and your life upside down. You will either hear this and find it unimaginably liberating, or you will find this extremely challenging indeed.

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.

“In any instant in your life, wherever you are, whatever is going on, however you are evaluating yourself or other in your life, you can take a few minutes, and just have nothing happening, nothing going on. In that instant you taste the nectar of your true Self. You’re not getting better, you’re not fixing problems. In that instant you are released from getting better, released from your problems and your problemlessness. Just the nectar of yourself. This is the radical teaching of my teacher and his teacher, that immediately, at any point, at any time, you can stop and recognize that everything that you want is already here. It’s already available. It’s yours for free. It is who you are.”

~ by Gangaji