Journey Into Self

The journey to nowhere.
Our self is an illusion, a wannabe – an imitator!

Our feeling of self is a projection of acquired ideas with which we identify, and that creates and maintains our behaviour. All the while, consciousness – our actual being of pure consciousness – looks on.

There is an ancient saying:
“Two birds sat in a tree.
One pecked of the fruit
and the other sat and watched.”

We are like that.
The body needs food.
Consciousness doesn’t.

Our problem is that we are so used to pecking at everything that merely watching sounds boring. We fail to realise that doing nothing is the pure experience of ultimate joy.

Feeling the wind, watching leaves shimmer and rustle, sunsets, sun rises, moon light, bird song … tasting, smelling, realising inner peace, inspiration, insight, love of being, being in love …

we are actually doing nothing, totally open before we are caught up and held by our desires and fears.

Pure consciousness just experience. We cannot be what we see, and this is extremely important to realise. When we look at our self, consciousness is actually looking at our mind’s collection of associations and memories. It is full of trauma, wounds, beliefs, hopes, fears, doubts, fixations, obsessions about creations that have no permanent existence – no reality. This self moves, talks, and interacts in a collective dream state inhabited by fellow believers.

All the while, pure consciousness sits and watches.
Pure consciousness is full of richness, and perfectly unsullied.

Our journey into self is a journey to nowhere.
Just now, here.

The mistake self makes
is that it thinks it’s getting somewhere.

We Have Bought Into A Model Of Life

To be accepted in this world, we tick the ‘right’ boxes to fit in. We learn to think inside the box, and consider ourselves decent people. If we do not buy into this belief system, we become an outsider.

Industry may say it wants innovators to ‘think outside the box’, but that’s only to sell more products; innovators don’t allow themselves to wonder if those products are actually needed.

Conscience may feel a conflict between right and wrong, but we hold on tightly to what we think we have, squeezing ourselves into a totally mundane world. As things don’t feel right, we lack confidence and might become hostile to any suggestions that there may be more to life. Basically we don’t know what to say because we have only learnt what we are told.

What a relief not to be a part of hostilities!

Words Are Symbolic

Words are symbols that convey an idea,
but before the idea is experience.

When we realise what is having the experience,
we will understand what the Buddha meant by,
“Don’t take my word for it … ”.

Life Is A Memory

Life is memory,
except for the present moment
that goes by so quickly that we hardly catch it.
This is how we live; in a dream world.

Because life is a memory,
we are destined to repeat ourselves,
and so we are predictable.

Catching the present moment is a breath of fresh air,
revealing inspirational magic.

Memory is our mechanical backup plan;
it’s the plan we fall back on to recycle existence.
From Latin: exsistere, ‘to come into being’

This present moment is the foundation of the next.
That continuity is reincarnation
– the cycle of birth and death and rebirth.

In life, there are gaps or ‘deaths’.
These moments of empty clarity are where change can occur
as no memory is present.

While resting in emptiness,
there is nothing known other than knowingness itself.

The Real Great Reset

‘Reset’ means either to adjust,
or take back to an original state.

The ‘Great Reset’
is to adjust humanity’s thinking through social engineering
wanting us to be created in their image.

The real great reset
is realising our natural original reality of pure cognisance
that is in no one’s image.

Our choice … if we know that we have a choice.

Happiness Is Realising The Problem

When we know what the problem – any problem – is, we can then solve it through personal investigation of the causes behind that problem, until we arrive at the ultimate realisation.

The common problem behind it all is a ‘self’ identity that judges others through bias. Consciousness itself has no bias; it just sees. When the problem is known, there is no mystery, no fear.

Information is a belief and, if we continually adhere to information, we will therefore know nothing. When we put the information into practice, however, we know, having experienced the problem for ourselves in order to solve it.

For example:
If we are installing a shower in the bathroom, we read the instructions. There is no knowing taking place at this time. Once we begin to actually install the shower, we then find irregularities, and this is when we start learning and knowing. Having completed the job, we can then help others. If we get an expert to do the job for us, we pay for not knowing.

Likewise, in our spiritual life, there are thoughts and emotions that cause us problems; we may experience anxiety, stress, depression, confusion, worry. Having faced these conditions and realised their source, we may be able, through empathy, to be of benefit – and the more problems we encounter and address, the more we can listen to others with confidence and kindness, without judgement.

Spiritual engineers are able to adjust to all conditions.

Wearing Our Self Out

Our self is like an old coat that we hold on to tightly.
‘We’ is consciousness.

Through meditation, consciousness becomes tired of self
(its habitual pattern of behaviour) and drops this old coat.

Pure consciousness is naked awareness, without ideas or concepts stitched to it.
Until full enlightenment, we will have remnants attached.

Those remnants become our teacher. 😀

Conscious Awakening And Non-Dual Awakening

In our life, there may be a growing feeling that all is not well; some work hard at making life feel right, while others find that is pointless.

If everything seems right, we just continue on our way. If, however, everything doesn’t seem right, we ask questions, reasoning why everything appears to be wrong.

Being led to believe things – clever stories and songs – no longer satisfies us. We used to think that was all normal, but now we wonder if there more to life. Is there more to me? All around us is dogma – do’s and don’ts that are for the many but not for the few. Why are we so divided?

We start to awaken to a world of deception, one where we aren’t told the complete truth. Suddenly, this isn’t all right any more, and we recognise that we are being being lulled into a dream state, an illusion of reality. That is the beginning of awakening of consciousness from the collective dream.

Actually, everyone feels uncomfortable but ignores this – “That’s just life!” Is it really? If we question this collective dream, we become outsiders or oddballs as others haven’t registered that life is a charade masking our true reality.

Have we been concealing our fear, as there aren’t many people we can talk to about this? We now search for others who (more or less) feel the same. Did we seek out a path, or did it come our way? Karma can work for us 🙂

This is when we come upon some sort of meditation group. Meditation is not about feeling good about ourselves. It’s about seeing, experiencing, understanding and realising what is, in fact, the truth.

The truth has always been with us.
We are and have always been that which we seek.

The dreamers don’t tell you that
because they want you to stay like them.

As there are many sorts of meditation, there are many levels of experience and realisation, each complete in its own way; as we ascend, both the meaning and the value of the meaning changes. Our world changes, but not the world of others.

This is where empathy and compassion come to the fore. We are not just consciousness having an experience; we are consciousness itself, before the experience – and even before realisation. We awaken to non-duality, and no longer dream or believe.

That is the real conscious awakening.
No one can deny us that
… but they still try …

😀

It Doesn’t Matter What We Do …

When we personally realise something,
it may not seem as amazing to others
and so remains a mystery to them.

It doesn’t matter what we do, pure being (pure consciousness) is always present as it’s what we are. Like space, there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Even in sleep, consciousness is still present, although unnoticed. When we realise that we are pure consciousness, that understanding in itself is unconditional empathy, compassion, and love. The only problem for pure being is that it can be distracted and thus moves away from non-duality (perfect reality) into a relating duality (a reality of desire and judgement).

It has been said that God is empathy, compassion and love but, like pure consciousness, these are expressions that come after the experience of non-duality. Non-duality does not relate to anything whatsoever. As humans, we only relate to function; our choice is whether to relate all the time or relate only when necessary.

The idea of God is something to which we relate, and relating is a duality rather than the direct oneness of non-duality.

There has to be pure consciousness present first in order to relate to something else. Being at one means there is no other – no graven image. It doesn’t matter what we do, pure consciousness is always present. The more we realise this, the more stable we are. Conversely, the more distracted we are, the more unstable, needy and dependent we become. Just look at our collective karmic history …

Exaggerating Our Spirituality

When we exaggerate our spirituality by thinking we are doing something special, we are, in fact, exaggerating our self-image, which is the very thing that causes our suffering, and which we want to transcend. It’s our attachment 😀 If we feel a little tetchy (irritated) about this, we’ve lost sight of the path. In acknowledging this irritation, we discover that we are indeed on the right path, but we’re now noticing that our path has more problems and confusion than we thought. 😀 This is part of our progress – noticing more.

If we feel that we want to be beyond ‘normal’ and don’t want to be like everyone else, we’ve simply fallen into the common trap of spiritual materialism.

Spirituality isn’t about not being human. It’s concerned with the true state of being human, acknowledging that we are, in fact, pure consciousness embodied in a human form and engaged in human activities. This state is beyond words, rituals and materiality, but not separate from these.

Spirituality is truly being at one with the material world, rather than feeling we have to keep ourselves apart from it. Interacting with others is a catalyst that brings about faster progress, although there will be times when we need to keep ourselves apart to recharge our batteries.

When we exaggerate our spiritual life,
we generate an atmosphere that closes the door to others.

An open door embodies true compassion.

The Planet Of Fear and Hope

We are governed by fear and hope. Can I go on holiday? Is it safe? Am I safe? Will life get back to normal? What is this new normal? What is the great reset? What is build back better? Is it to do with the new world order?

Fear and hope govern our mind, but the basis of these two negative emotions is ignorance or indifference to our actual reality rather than the one we have adopted.

If, through meditation, we only took the time to look and see, we would experience for ourselves the distractions and, in doing so, let go of them, revealing our true reality of pure consciousness, pure being.

If we are kept in the dark about our true reality, we can be led around in this darkness believing we are going towards the ‘light’ (freedom). All we have to do is realise that our life has never been ‘normal’. When people become anxious because life doesn’t feel right, the media/psychologists will happily lead us back to ‘that state that was never normal’, and round we go again.

You see, this all depends on
what the media/psychologists assume is normal.

Another word for hope and fear is ‘Samsara’,
which is this vicious cycle of existence
chasing after a false security and happiness.

All we have to do is look at our reactions, and we are free in that moment of seeing. Unfortunately, we don’t value that freedom because we are stuck in expectations that life should be a certain way, due to not knowing our true reality of clarity. We prefer to squabble by accepting or rejecting whatever we are told.

How do we deal with this squabbling?
By expanding the space of inner peace.

Sadly, this can be annoying to those with inner angst (fear),
so the inner peace of expansion has to remain in quiet love

In the immediate moment now,
we are alert to both dangers and potentials;
that is merely being aware.

“Hiding Your Light Under A Bushel”

A bushel: a measurement of weight ... or ideas!

If our life is only concerned with gain and loss / hope and fear,
the inner light of compassionate, pure consciousness will remain hidden.

Being obsessed, the light is hidden.
Being aware of being obsessed, the light shines.

Karma Is Our Perfect Teacher

Karma is the residue of our past judgements held in the mind, which are echoed in our behaviour. The path to enlightenment is dealing with this inner echo – our sticky residue.

Our attitude to life depends on the acknowledgement of this karma, be it pleasant or unpleasant. Our reaction to others tells us everything we need to know about ourselves; rather than condemning others – who, incidently, are trying to cope with their karma – we enlist the qualities of the six perfections (generosity, patience, morality, discipline, concentration and transcendent wisdom).

Our reactions are our perfect teacher as they are with us all the time, and are shaped by our background. Until perfect enlightenment, karma will be with us. To be a perfect student in order to ascend the levels, we acknowledge that we have to face our karma as it becomes increasingly subtle – and the teacher becomes stricter.

Science And Spirituality Are Not Different

What looks down the microscope?
Looking and seeing are inseparable.

If spirit fixates on looking, it will be caught and held.
When spirit realises it is seeing, it has found what it has been looking for.

Science can never bring happiness, only reliance.
Spirituality – which is pure consciousness – realises it is already happy,
and does not rely on any thing.

“It Does Not Take Many Words To Tell The Truth.”

Sitting Bull (1831 – 1890)

“The love of possessions is a disease in them.
These people have made many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not!
They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not!
They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule.
They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbour away.
If America had been twice the size it is, there still would not have been enough.”

– Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man.

What ordinary people value and what the power-hungry value
is not the same – and never was.

Be like Sitting Bull, and not a sitting duck.

Ignorance Has Consequences

Indifference – not caring, being unaware – has consequences. There are two sides to everything, even consciousness. We have to know both sides, as both have consequences.

We are ultimate reality of pure consciousness, and we are also a relating reality of common consciousness that believes itis the reality.

There isn’t anything wrong with this relative reality – once we know our true reality. Taking sides is relative reality – known as samsara – which puts us on a collision course with others; the cause and consequence of this is a lack of compassion. Unfortunately, we learn by duplicating what we see around us.

We don’t have to feel guilty about any of this – we all do it. Whatever we feel is a product of past karma in our mind, and it’s what we have to work with. It’s our teacher.

The true consequences of realising ignorance are
enlightenment, empathy and compassion.

We Live In A Semiconscious Trance

Trance: a half-conscious state.

Generally, we are conscious enough to survive and carry out mundane tasks. It is usually only in times of anxiety that we awaken for a moment, and then return to our trance state. Quite complex tasks can be carried out in this state, but rarely are we fully conscious of our true nature beyond the trance state.

We are screened and trained to do certain types of work. Aldous Huxley wrote about this in the 1930s, in his book “Brave New World”, in which he describes the coming of the New World Order.

The trance-inducing state:
Just do this …
Just two weeks more.
Just flatten the curve.
Just two meters.
Just wear a mask.
Just keep your distance.
Just stay at home.
Just don’t go on holiday.
Just go into quarantine.
Just don’t go to work.
Just don’t go to the park or beach.
Just obey lockdown.
Just stay in your bubble.
Just don’t meet indoors.
Just listen to your leaders.
Just in groups of six.
Just have the vaccinations.
Just show your passport.
Just use track and trace.
Just don’t shake hands
Just wash your hand
Just wear a mask outdoors.
Just squirt this chemical on your hands.
Just stick this up your nose.
Just believe everything you are told.
Just allow politicians to hug and be close.
Just stay in the trance.
Just obey the curfew
Just do this so you do not murder others …

The clarity of meditation cuts through the trance, once … and for all.

Seeing Our Teacher As The Buddha

Being told to see our teacher as the Buddha
puts a distance between us and the teacher,
setting the scene for delaying progress.
We are all both human and Buddhas.

Adapting Means Being Able To Cope

If we cannot adapt to situations, then we cannot cope.
We need a principle whereby we can live happily
in any situation we have to face.

Unable to adapt, we live through set ideas that we carry around;
our cherished load, our karma.
Pure consciousness is highly adaptable, as nothing is fixed.

Simple Dharma

Dharma is leading a happy and fruitful life,
without exaggerations and expectations of the supernatural.

Finding Your Roots Or Your Route

To identify with our roots, our family tree,
is to hope that we are special in some way.

Our roots are in our origin, and our origin is what we truly are now.
To realise this, we need a route –
a path that gives us confidence in what we are now.

What Do We Actually Know?

‘News’ doesn’t mean it is true.
When we react to the ‘news’,
we become the ‘news’ of the future.

Adding sparkle to our life and obsessing
is the path of glitter and dopamine
– and others write about it.

There is a spontaneously present, natural knowingness that is ever new.
It never needs stimulation,
just awakening.

Can Language Confuse?

Experience is very subtle – extremely subtle – to an extent that is beyond words. Words become second-hand, and are an approximation. ‘Love’ is such a word: there are degrees of feeling, caring, being at peace, having a sense of oneness, being in love with everything.

Using strange words does not convey a better experience or meaning as they still are an interpretation.

People may say, “Dharmakaya”. So what?
“Dharmakaya is Shunyata.” Any the wiser?
“It’s emptiness.” Any the wiser?
“It is the clarity of consciousness.” Hmmm … better.
“It is pure consciousness.” Er … lost me again!
“Okay; you are aware. Yes?” Yes.
“That awareness is without thought, and before thought.”
Still not getting it? This is understandable.

How clear are learned scholars? How isolated are they? How secretive are they? How caring are they? Scholars can still be confused.

Just sit and fall silent. Just be aware. As consciousness becomes more familiar with this silent awareness, thoughts drop away. We are seeing truth, and realising that is all. A smile of realisation arises. That smile is it, and says more than words.

Animals pick up on emotions, and show it. They don’t talk about it! Talk belittles pure experience.

Find that genuine, inner smile.
How else do we express joy?

Judgement, And Being Judgemental

One is momentary, while the other is a way of life:
Tony is drunk, or Tony is a drunkard.

In the moment now, we need to judge
whether something is beneficial or harmful.

It is when we hold on to that judgement
that ego becomes established,
and is now our path for life.

Judgement is concerned with whatever is ‘out there’.
Being judgemental is inner obsession
that clouds our clear seeing of whatever is ‘out there’.

Due to reincarnation, all sentient beings
are said to have been our mother.
In this way, an enemy could turn out to be a friend.

How do we know if we are being judgemental?
We can’t let it go …

When we can acknowledge being judgemental,
we are free.

2021: The Year That We All Went Mad

Confusion is rife.

May we realise the source of our confusion.
May we find our way out of confusion.
May confusion dawn as wisdom.

Evil Feeds Off Our Negativity

Evil feeds off our negativity,
and when we are negative,
we are drained of energy.

Positivity is constant harmony,
and we feel energised.

Ultimate positivity is Shunyata – emptiness.
Being empty, evil finds nothing to gain,
nothing to chew over.

An Idea Is Like A Virus

An idea is like a virus; going undetected, it duplicates itself and infects others, corrupting and destroying the whole system. Memes are like that. An idea is placed into a society and is taken up and repeated, becoming a fashion, or cult. Media devotees play their part by religiously following and becoming addicted to influencers.

Idea-viruses become more plausible once other idea-viruses have been established. We need a strong immune system for protection.

How do we detect an inner virus?

In the silence of meditation,
we clearly see the mind repeating itself.
We may feel the virus of doubt or fear;
in seeing this doubt or fear, gain confidence in the seeing.

Recognition and liberation are simultaneous.

Our problem is that we can’t help playing with our virus, and infecting others. That’s how a society runs 😦

The seeing is the truth.
Know your virus, and be happy.
🙂

Self-Realisation Isn’t About Religion

To realise our true nature as distinct from our inner chattering mind,
we merely have to become aware of … just being aware.

Within this clarity of awareness, distractions that carry us away are easily observed.
We don’t have to do or be anything special to be aware.

Once the clarity of awareness is realised, empathy and compassion naturally arise
for those who are too preoccupied to notice awareness.

So what about all the religious rituals and texts that create a culture within a culture?
When we arrive at this question, we apply even more compassion 😀

How do we become enlightened?
We merely have to realise that we are already enlightened, and stay there.

Unless you still want something to do 🙂

Everything Is Complementary

Being complementary is the inseparability of the two truths: relative and ultimate.
The ultimate truth is clear seeing, or pure consciousness.
The relative truth relates to what is seen.

The two truths are like a mirror and its reflections.
We are pure consciousness obscured by the reflections of thoughts.

Once realised, these thoughts become a spontaneous reminder, as appearances and recognition are inseparable.

Everything has its opposite which is complementary; due to one, the other is known – dark/light, hot/cold, smooth/rough, left/right, empty/full, aware/unaware … these may be opposites, but they are inseparable.

If we become separated, we enter into conflict – dark v light, hot v cold, smooth v rough, left v right, empty v full, aware v unaware …

The harmony of relative and ultimate is harmony in diversity. When we humans appreciate this, we arrive at realisation. If we take sides, we remain in contradictions.

Know oneness – no conflict.

Hoax Upon Hoax

We live under two ignorances: the ignorance of our reality, and the maintenance of that ignorance.

As long as we look elsewhere for truth, we will never notice that it is, in fact, truth that is looking. We are truth because truth never changes; pure consciousness never changes, while everything else does. Whatever we are led to believe is against truth and contaminates our mind, which is the tool with which we reason.

In this designed world where we are told what to think, we are never taught about our reality of pure consciousness.

Why is that?

Apart from doing what has to be done to survive, we learn to engage in meaningless chatter and activities designed to conceal the truth. We think that if we have more money than others, we know more. There aren’t levels of realisation; there are levels of hocus-pocus to uncover.

Any answer someone gives us – or any answer we come up with ourselves – is an illusion. To maintain this illusion is delusion – and we are back at the two ignorances. An answer about truth is never the truth; it can only be an assimilation of the truth. That which realises the answer is the answer 🙂 Repeating saying such as, “I am”, implies an understanding of what we are, but this phrase is a hoax as it still refers to a pseudo-identity.

Always remember that the Buddha said, “Do not take my word as truth; see for yourself.” He was very precise about this.

By taking the word for truth, we are applying a hoax upon a hoax. All we need to be reminded of is that we are pure consciousness. Resting there, we see what life is truly all about, and this realisation exposes the hoaxes we encounter.

‘Hoax’ comes from ‘hocus-pocus’: meaningless talk or activity, typically designed to trick someone or conceal the truth of a situation .

Spirit Guides?

What is conscience? Is conscience personal morality, or is there external guidance? Does our conscience change? Does like attract like?

When everything seems karmically significant, instruction is always at hand.
How do we know the right thing to say at one moment, but not at another?

Whether we feel guided or alone, we attract positive or negative energy, depending on our spirit level 🙂

Maybe we are not alone.
Where there is dark, there is light!

😀

Priests Of News

News is the new religion that binds us to spreading the ‘word’.
Whose word? And is it the complete truth?

Who is telling us the complete truth?

The complete truth – that which completes the picture – is pure cognisance;
seeing without referring.
Any commentaries that come a moment later are second hand, as truth is indescribable.
Commentaries are the absence of complete truth.

If the Buddha said, “Do not believe me; test it for yourself”,
why should we believe anyone else?
Beliefs imprison us.

When we test and realise the truth for ourselves,
that is the complete truth.