'Sailor' Bob Adamson - Natural State

"Truth or Reality cannot be stored, cannot be amassed--it does not accumulate.

The value of any insight, understanding, or realisation can only be in the ever-fresh presence of the moment.

Yesterday's realisation is not a bit of good. Now it is dead. Now it has lost it's vitality.

It is useless to try and cling to or hold onto an insight, an understanding, or a realisation, for only in it's movement can there be the enabling of ever-fresh and new insights of Truth or Reality to appear.

The idea of enlightenment or self-realisation as a onetime event or a lasting and permanent state or experience is an erroneous concept.

Understand-ING or know-ING is alive in the immediacy which can never be negated. The emphasis is on the activity of know-ING which is going on as the immediacy now--not the dead concept 'I understand' or 'I know'".

"Subject-object thinking seems to cover the natural state (awareness). But without awareness, thinking could not take place. Because thinking appears in awareness (like a cloud appears in the sky), realise that thinking in essence is awareness. Understanding this, thinking cannot obscure awareness".

"Emptiness, suffused with intelligence (knowing), can be a useful pointer or description, but remember--the description can never be the described. It is a valuable pointer only if in looking or seeing there is a recognising of the actuality of this natural emptiness.

Every thing comes from, appears in, and returns to this natural emptiness. The coming and going of things is transience, but the cognising emptiness, being empty, does not come and go. Being empty, it is of itself no thing. It can never be filled or emptied of things, for things appearing in emptiness have no independent nature of themselves, and so in reality things are the same emptiness--appearing as other. Every thing perceived is emptiness.

There can only be a problem if things--including the so called 'seer'--are believed to be other than this natural emptiness".

"Because awareness is self existing there is no effort needed or anyone who can make an effort to get it or lose it.

The natural state is never lost. It is not an appearance, and therefore it can never disappear. It is always the same. It is not an entity.

Realise that the conceptual thinker and conceptual thoughts seemingly obscure the non-conceptual natural state. Pause a thought even for an instant and the natural state is fully evident. STOP and SEE. In the seeing, pure awareness gets used to itself".

"If the self-center, ego, or reference point is seen to have no substance or independent nature, it will be understood or known that whatever mental concept or image comes up naturally happens by itself, and instead of any need to discard or get rid of it, it can be a useful happening for the protection, assistance, or defense of the organism--like with an insect, animal, bird, or reptile not thinking about protection can naturally change color or grow patterns in the skin or fur to blend in with the environment around it... a natural camouflage comes about, without any attempt to change the appearance.

Likewise with humans: without belief in a self-center, anything, including mental concepts, change or action can come about naturally to suit whatever situation arises.

However, if the self-center, ego, or reference point is believed to be something substantial with an independent nature of it's own--an existing 'me' or an 'I'--then whatever arises is referred to this 'me' and, instead of being a natural functioning, it occurs as a contrived state, such as fear, anxiety, stress, etc., because that entity, being non-existent, cannot live up to what is imagined. And even when hearing about non-conceptual natural functioning, still believing in a reference point, useless and contrived attempts continue to be made to live up to or recreate some concept of that.

Thus, there appears to be a great difference between natural functioning without any belief in a reference point, and the imagined, conceptual, acquired mental habits caused by the old belief in a separate entity".

"It's an illusion that 'you' exist--the entity 'you' is imagined. The imagination that 'you' exist as something or someone separate is the cause of acceptance or rejection of something known. It is illusion telling the story of its own deception. The knower and the known are just concepts seemingly dividing natural non-conceptual knowing. Believing in the thought 'I am' gives seeming reality to the objective world which is constantly changing, yet everything in essence is that changeless natural knowing--nothing else".

"Re-call, re-cognize, or re-mind. I am That I am. That is awareness. To whom could it matter what activity, thought, event, or happening occurs. Knowing That, events and activities occur like the grass growing by itself, with nothing superior or inferior which could possibly be anything other than That. Self activated intelligence-energy--just this, nothing else".

"Self shining presence-awareness is not the result of effort. There is no need to try to do something with the expectation that suddenly awareness will be there. Presence-awareness is always here and now whether it is recognized or seemingly lost. It is not something that can be created or destroyed. Conceptual thinking is like the cloud that seemingly blocks the sun. Being at ease in non-conceptual naturalness is presence awareness already here and now. Re-cognize again, and again, and again, and the knowing it is always so is constant in spite of what appears and disappears. Self-knowing, self-shining-- just this, nothing else".

"The reflection is not in the mirror but of the mirror".

"We are That, 'That' meaning the seeming place in awareness where awareness shines out. But in ignorance of the true nature, That we are, that seeming place in awareness is called me or I".

"In that moment of seeing that mind essence is no 'thing' to see, in that very instant the duality of something seen and someone that sees is no longer needed".

"Whatever is translated or conceptualised as other than presence awareness need not be resisted but recognised as it is--pure presence awareness appearing as other--always only and ever That. Knowing that, conceptualising falls away and bare awareness remains unconcerned with thought (effortless being). Just this".

"Belief in dualistic thinking is the problem. In non-dual awareness, dualism can only appear to be so. How can there ever be any duality in non-duality?"

"In recognising presence awareness, there is no 'thing' to see, just natural non-conceptual seeing, actually as it is without subject or object. See this and the realisation is immediate that what is labled as awareness or consciousness or mind can never be formulated as either a subject or an object. Being empty of a subject or object, it is emptiness seeing (cognising emptiness). Emptiness can never be emptied of emptiness, nor can it be filled by emptiness. With that concept cancelled out, only the wordless thoughtless indescribable emptiness remains. Not a vacuum or a void, but a vivid self-shining, self-knowing, self-aware emptiness, like a clear sky full of light. See for yourself. No one or other can do it for you. Immediate simplicity. Continue to see that the seeing is continuous. Any doubt, question, or argument, and the conceptual seeker has appeared again. See that and non-conceptual emptiness remains undisturbed".

"Recognise the naturalness that you are--pure, all pervasive, space like, ever expressing, spontaneous presence-awareness, with no reference point (self nature) having any substance or independent existence. Failing to recognise naturalness (the unity of appearance and emptiness, space and its content), delusion happens and there is a grasping of or fixation on appearance--me and the other--a seeming duality. Without that fixation there is freedom as naturalness, delusion dissolves and evenness (non-duality) remains--the natural state--simply this, nothing else. Naturally remaining as naturalness (equanimity) is the natural (effortless) meditation of no one to meditate and nothing to meditate on--no trying to get or trying to avoid, just effortless being which is always already so. Recognise this again and again".

Sailor Bob Adamson

Fred Davis - Earnestness

Question: What is the most important quality for a seeker to have in order to really wake up—to move into abiding, embodied awakeness?


Answer: Without a doubt it's earnestness.  That's what Nisargadatta said, and I'm in complete agreement with him.

Regardless of what shows up in the absolute view on the "other side" of a so-called awakening event regarding "all that nonsense" about individuals and effort, I notice that most of the time, most of the people who come to know their true nature do so after a long, earnest attempt to do it.  There are exceptions to that rule, but this teaching works with the Law of Large Numbers, not the exceptions.

Even if we begin our spiritual journey from what looks like egoic intent—and I don't know anyone who didn't start from that—do we have the continuing humility, willingness, and fortitude to keep going, to keep asking questions in the face of the countless, ready answers we find in the spiritual marketplace?  Are we willing to ask, over and over and over again, "Is this true?  Is this true for me?" in the face of so many attractive, tantalizing answers?  We want so badly to belong, and we barely begin the journey before we want it to be over.

We come to spirituality in order to answer our questions, but we move into authentic spirituality when we begin to question our answers.

Once there has been an initial awakening, the standard movement is to breathe a sigh of relief that all the "seeking and stuff" is finally over.  That was my initial reaction, and it's a fair one.  But we don't then get to rest.  Seeking may be over, but awakening is not!  Not hardly.  We graduate seeking via the awakening event only to enter the new school of the awakening process.

Or we don't.  We may simply decide to rest on our laurels instead.  Think twice.  There is no resting on our laurels.  We are moving forward, or we are moving backward, but we are always moving. Resting may be comfortable, but it is the death of  clarity.

Scores of people have woken up while they were talking with me, or shortly thereafter.  Far fewer have continued to move from that place on toward abiding, embodied awakeness. While we as individuals can never completely unsee what's been seen by awakeness, we can totally forget its keen and highly relevant significance in regard to planetary plight and suffering.  By doing so we relegate our awakening to nothing more than a cool experience I had for me, and which I would very much like to have again.  Or perhaps we purposefully cross it off our Life List of Things to See and Do, and move onto climbing Everest, jumping from an airplane, or reading the Greek classics in sequential order.  Many will do exactly that, in fact.

My recommendation for the earnest seeker—and awakening cannot be denied to an earnest seeker—is that upon awakening you catch your breath and then immediately take the next step.  Opening never ends unless we end it.

Awakening Clarity

Awaken to the Eternal - Nisargadatta Maharaj - complete version

Miriam Louisa - How could you not love something like that?

how could you not love something that

never leaves you
regardless of how often you ignore it?

that’s always self-shining -
never needing flint or switch or fuel?

that never changes
regardless of the vicissitudes of your daily experience?

that never takes sides
whatever person, team or nation you’re supporting,
whatever idea or opinion you hold?

that never breaks apart
even though your life appears to?

that never minds n-e-v-e-r  m-i-n-d-s
that you spend your life running around looking for it
while it’s in your face the whole time?

how could you not love something like that?

something you can never escape,
and that’s so immanent
you are forced to accept it
as your own true identity?

how could you not then love
Y O U R S E L F ?

and everything arising
- thoughts, perceptions, memories, feelings -
within that inconceivable Self?

how could you not love that immensity which precedes
and includes all existence?

how could you not kneel at your own feet
in awe?

.

how could you pretend that your enlightened
heart-driven passion
was not the Great Passion of That
which holds the planets in their orbit?

.

how could you ignore the urge to pour
your energy and attention
into whatever opens your heart?

.

how?

this unlit light 

Miriam Louisa - Please don’t lie to me

please

don’t tell me you don’t know
exactly WHAT you are:

that you ARE the peace and sweet release
you seek

. . .

I know you’ve looked;
you’ve seen, you’ve conceded
that
- nothing you know
-  nothing you think
-  nothing you feel
- nothing you remember
- nothing you experience
can be what you are

since

- all these phenomena
-  all these perceptions
- all these peculiarities

come and go

yet

your bright alive Knowingness remains

. . .

Beloved – even your pain
your suffering, your grief, rise and fall -
you’ve seen how they wither
(along with your hubris)
when you drop out of your story
and into mind-fucking
immeasurable
timelessness
that never changes

don’t tell me you haven’t yet fallen
back/forward/down/across/into
THIS
that can’t be known
or experienced

don’t lie to me, Beloved

I don’t believe you

Echoes from emptiness

Hui-neng - "formless stanza"

 A master of the Buddhist canons as well as of the teaching of the Dhyana school
    May be likened unto the blazing sun sitting high in his meridian tower.
    Such a man would teach nothing but the dharma for realizing the essence of mind,
    And his object in coming to this world would be to vanquish heretical sects.

    We can hardly classify the dharmas into "sudden" and "gradual"
    But some men will attain enlightenment much quicker than others.
    For example, this system for realizing the essence of mind
    Is above the comprehension of the ignorant.

    We may explain it in ten thousand ways,
    But all those explanations may be traced back to one principle.
    To illumine our gloomy tabernacle, which is stained by defilement,
    We should constantly set up the light of wisdom.

    Erroneous views keep us in defilement
    While right views remove us from it,
    But when we are in a position to discard both of them
    We are then absolutely pure.

    Bodhi is immanent in our essence of mind,
    An attempt to look for it elsewhere is erroneous.
    Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found,
    And once our mind is set right, we are free from the three kinds of beclouding     [hatred, lust, and illusion].

    If we are treading the path of enlightenment
    We need not be worried about stumbling blocks.
    Provided we keep a constant eye on our own faults
    We cannot go astray from the right path.

    Since every species of life has its own way of salvation
    They will not interfere with or be antagonistic to one another.
    But if we leave our own path and seek some other way of salvation
    We shall not find it,
    And though we plod on till death overtakes us
    We shall find only penitence in the end.

    If you wish to find the true way
    Right action will lead you to it directly;
    But if you do not strive for buddhahood
    You will grope in the dark and never find it.

    He who treads the path in earnest
    Sees not the mistakes of the world;
    If we find fault with others
    We ourselves are also in the wrong.

    When other people are in the wrong, we should ignore it,
    For it is wrong for us to find fault.
    By getting rid of the habit of faultfinding
    We cut off a source of defilement.

    When neither hatred nor love disturbs our mind
    Serenely we sleep.

    Those who intend to be the teachers of others
    Should themselves be skilled in the various expedients which lead others to     enlightenment.
    When the disciple is free from all doubts
    It indicates that his essence of mind has been found.

    The kingdom of buddha is in this world,
    Within which enlightenment is to be sought.
    To seek enlightenment by separating from this world
    Is as absurd as to search for a rabbit's horn.

    Right views are called transcendental;
    Erroneous views are called worldly.
    When all views, right or erroneous, are discarded
    Then the essence of bodhi appears.

    This stanza is for the Sudden school.
    It is also called the Great Ship of Dharma [for sailing across the ocean of     existence].
    Kalpa after kalpa a man may be under delusion,
    But once enlightened it takes him only a moment to attain buddhahood. 

Hui-neng concluded by saying:

Now, in this Ta-fan temple, I have addressed you on the teaching of the Sudden school. May all sentient beings of the dharmadhatu [manifestation of the Absolute] instantly understand the law and attain buddhahood.

Chuck Surface - Mother whispers...

When I sit to meditate,
When I strive to do this, or not do that,
Mother whispers…
“What are you doing?
Am I not here?
Where would you go to find me?
What would you do to gain my Love,
Which is now, has always been,
And will forever be yours?
Why do you hurt me so,
As if I care for renunciation and disciplines,
Accomplishment and merit.
Do you not Know me?
My Little One, My Beloved,
My Very Own.
I am here for you Always,
Here… in your Heart,
Whether you're a good boy…
Or bad.

source Adrift in the Ocean of Bliss

Mirabai - Torn In Shreds

Mine is Gopal,

the Mountain-Holder;

there is no one else.
On his head he wears the peacock-crown:

He alone is my husband.
Father, mother, brother, relative:

I have none to call my own.

I’ve forsaken both God,

and the family’s honor:

what should I do?

I’ve sat near the holy ones,

and I’ve lost shame before the people.
I’ve torn my scarf into shreds;

I’m all wrapped up in a blanket.
I took off my finery of pearls and coral,

 and strung a garland of wildwood flowers.

With my tears,

I watered the creeper of love that I planted;
Now the creeper has grown spread all over,

and borne the fruit of bliss.

The churner of the milk churned with great love.
When I took out the butter,

no need to drink any buttermilk.
I came for the sake of love-devotion;

seeing the world,

I wept.

Mira is the maidservant of the Mountain-Holder:

now with love He takes me across to the further shore.

Heart of Meera

Thich Nhat Hanh - Call Me by My True Names

Kuan Yin - bodhisattva of compassion

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow --
even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river,
And I am the bird,
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond,
and I am also the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
And I am the arms Merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.

 

http://plumvillage.org/ 

Metta Zetty - Awakening: The Modern Heresy

source parablev

There are many factors contributing to our inability to recognize our Original Nature and our own inherent state of Natural Awareness. Perhaps the greatest of these is our addiction to the process of searching for meaning and truth. In our modern Western culture, we have often cleverly cloaked and disguised this addiction with a rationalization that it is the journey, not the destination, that is important.

While it is vitally important to recognize that:
Reality is continuously manifesting through a dynamic
and on-going process of unfolding, and
in an Infinite universe, we may never actually
arrive at a final destination or end point,
...we often lose sight of the inherent completeness and
perfection of Reality, as it is, within the present moment,
and we use the popular metaphor of a spiritual journey as
a way of justifying our restless wandering and searching
for an elusive and mysterious Essence that seems to be
missing from our lives.

By convincing ourselves that there is something noble and humble in never arriving at our spiritual destination, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to recognize our own essential and fundamental nature, and doom ourselves to living within a perpetual state of psychological and spiritual homelessness.

In fact, I believe an assertion that one has experienced an Awakening or Realization has become the ultimate modern heresy, for this declaration challenges and sabotages the accepted, intellectual assumption that we must be forever journeying toward a distant and unreachable destination.

In many Eastern religious traditions, however, there is a much greater willingness to accept the possibility that experiences of Awakening may actually be a legitimate insight into, or recognition of, the fundamental and essential nature of Reality. I have begun to suspect that, in most cases, this openness and willingness -- at least to consider the radical possibility we might one day awaken into a liberating recognition of our innate and Original Nature -- may be an essential precursor to the actual experience of Realization, itself.

Without this willingness to accept the possibility that we might one day actually experience a stunning Realization of who and what we really are, we will be forever destined to wander in search of a Reality that, ironically, is inherent within the immediacy of the present moment.

http://www.awakening.net/index.html 

Chandogya Upanishad - You Are That

This is the teaching of Uddalaka to Shvetaketu, his son:

As by knowing one lump of clay, dear one, 
We come to know all things made out of clay -
That they differ only in name and form,
While the stuff of which all are made is clay;

As by knowing one gold nugget, dear one,
We come to know all things made out of gold -
That they differ only in name and form, 
While the stuff of which all are made is gold;

As by knowing one tool of iron, dear one, 
We come to know all things made out of iron -
That they differ only in name and form, 
While the stuff of which all are made is iron -

So through spiritual wisdom, dear one, 
We come to know that all of life is one.

In the beginning was only Being,
One without a second. 
Out of himself he brought forth the cosmos 
And entered into everything in it. 
There is nothing that does not come from him. 
Of everything he is the inmost Self. 
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme. 
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that.

When a person is absorbed in dreamless sleep
He is one with the Self, though he knows it not. 
We say he sleeps, but he sleeps in the Self.
As a tethered bird grows tired of flying 
About in vain to find a place of rest 
And settles down at last on its own perch, 
So the mind, tired of wandering about 
Hither and thither, settles down at last 
In the Self, dear one, to whom it is bound. 
All creatures, dear one, have their source in him. 
He is their home; he is their strength. 
There is nothing that does not come from him. 
Of everything he is the inmost Self. 
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme. 
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that.

As bees suck nectar from many a flower 
And make their honey one, so that no drop 
Can say, 'I am from this flower or that,'
All creatures, though one, know not they are that One.
There is nothing that does not come from him.
Of everything he is the inmost Self. 
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme. 
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that.

As the rivers flowing east and west
Merge in the sea and become one with it,
Forgetting they were ever separate streams,
So do all creatures lose their separateness
When they merge at last into pure Being.
There is nothing that does not come from him.
Of everything he is the inmost Self.
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that!

about  Chandogya Upanishad 

Rupert Spira - Most important discovery

http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/home

Mooji - The Best Mantra

Thank You. 

This simple expression of gratitude arising from the Heart, - from Existence to Existence - which has the profound effect of washing the soul of judgements, preferences, fears, the sense of separation, conflict and even longing, returns the mind to its original place of Unborn Awareness. We are not to analyse or to rationalize it, but to simply let it arise and express from the Heart in Presence.

 Initially, it may seem like one entity saying THANK YOU to another - and that's OK too - but gradually, by simply allowing deep Gratitude to flow spontaneously, we come to complete unicity where there exists no separation between I and you - just Self expressing gratitude to Itself. It is such a powerful way to return mind and attention to peace, space, clarity and joy.

http://www.mooji.org/index.html

Naropa - The Summary of Mahamudra

Homage to the state of great bliss!
    Concerning what is called Mahamudra
    All things are your own mind.
    Seeing objects as external is a mistaken concept;
    Like a dream, they are empty of concreteness.

    This mind, as well, is a mere movement of attention
    That has no self-nature, being merely a gust of wind.
    Empty of identity, like space.
    All things, like space, are equal.

    When speaking of 'Mahamudra'
    It is not an entity that can be shown.
    There the mind's suchness
    Is itself the state of Mahamudra.

    It is neither something to be corrected nor transformed,
    But when anyone sees and realizes its nature
    All that appears and exists is Mahamudra,
    The great all-encompassing Dharmakaya.

    Naturally and without contriving, allowed simply to be,
    This unimagined Dharmakaya,
    Letting it be without seeking is the meditation training.
    But to meditate while seeking is deluded mind.

    Just as with space and a magical display,
    While neither cultivating nor not cultivating
    How can you be separate and not separate!
    This is a yogi's understanding.

    All good deeds and harmful actions
    Dissolve by simply knowing this nature.
    The emotions are the great wisdom.
    Like a jungle fire, they are the yogi's helpers.

    How can there be staying or going?
    What meditation is there by fleeing to a hermitage?
    Without understanding this, all possible means
    Never bring more than temporary liberation.

    When understanding this nature, what is there to bind you?
    While being undistracted from its continuity,
    There is neither a composed nor an uncomposed state
    To be cultivated or corrected with a remedy.

    It is not made out of anything
    Experience self-liberated is dharmadhatu.
    Thinking self-liberated is great wisdom,
    Non-dual equality is dharmakaya.

    Like the continuous flow of a great river,
    Whatever you do is meaningful,
    This is the eternal awakened state,
    The great bliss, leaving no place for samsara.

    All things are empty of their own identities.
    This concept fixed on emptiness has dissolved in itself.
    Free of concept, holding nothing in mind,
    Is in itself the path of the Buddhas.

    For the most fortunate ones,
    I have made these concise words of heartfelt advice.
    Through this, may every single sentient being
    Be established in Mahamudra.

This was given orally by the great pandita Naropa to Marpa at Pullahari.
(Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang.

Robert Wolfe - Quenching the Thirst: Fundamentals of Nonduality