What Do “Spiritual” Teachers Know?

When we were asked to teach, we were advised to teach only what we know to be true.

What does ‘Know’ mean? This Knowing is a knowing as Truth rather than of Truth. To know of Truth would require a separation between the knower and Truth. Sages point out that concepts always change and always have opposites. Concepts can never lead to true Knowing. They can never lead to knowing as immutable Truth. The same is true of perceptions.

What can we know that is not based on conceptions or perceptions? “What does not change” is not a concept or a perception; “what does not change” is self-validating and immediately available.

Adyashanti points to Truth as “always and already,” encouraging us to “let everything be as it is.”

Ananta points out, “To know even one thing is to know too much.”

Wei Wu Wei offers, “Reality (noumenon) is motionless, ubiquitous, and permanent.”

The only Known in Self-realization is not a thing. Self is beyond space, time, concepts, perceptions, or any other attribute in the apparent universe of things.

There are multiple words that are used to point to this non-thing: Self, Awareness, Is, Absolute, This, Truth. These words are, however, merely placeholders for recognition beyond the scope of words.

Sharing Truth can feel repetitious, therefore, few spiritual teachers seem to hold to the admonition to teach only what we know to be True from direct experience. Ananta, Ramana, Nisargadatta, and Mooji, are among those teachers who stay tightly true to this standard . . . for the most part. They would be the first to point out that the only perfect teacher is a dead teacher. Dharma shared through a variety of personalities provides different flavors of the same Truth, but those flavors, spoken from direct experience as Truth, do not corrupt with hubris.

Ramana often pointed questioners to look to who is asking the question, and as This, see if the question still persists.

Self-realization does not bring an experiential answer to “why,” “how,” “what” questions. It is certainly normal for folks to ask these questions, but the answers are outside the scope of what is knowable and, ideally, stay beyond the scope of our spiritual sharing in Satsang. Satsang is a sharing as what we Know as Truth. We may have insights we feel are suggestive of answers to these sorts of questions, but it is a very slippery slope destined to fail when spiritual teachers begin to share these concepts in Satsang as expressions of Truth.

Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk, when asked the essence of his teaching reportedly replied, in essence, “vast emptiness, no knowing, no holiness.” This may be the most complete answer we have found to the question of what do “spiritual” teachers know . . . and is still merely a pointer.

Namaste, Bec and Steve

March Satsang

You are welcome to join Bec for Satsang this Thursday on Zoom. You can sign in late or leave early; whatever fits your schedule. Also, feel free to leave your audio and video off if that makes you feel more comfortable. May we be blessed with your presence. Namaste.

Bec is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: March Satsang
Time: Mar 10, 2022 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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Healing The Injured Human

Many who come to our monthly Satsangs are looking to recover from trauma incurred in childhood or as an adult in an abusive relationship. An ACE study looked at the ramifications of childhood sexual abuse on our adult relationships and health, and found it was not only more prevalent than thought, but people suffered poor mental and physical health years after the abuse ended. Talk and drug therapy are useful, but often do not seem to remove the trauma at the root. Meditation is frequently suggested to help with the anxiety and depression that often accompanies the stress of living with a past or presently occurring trauma. The meditation we offer is a living meditation, one that points to who or what we are. As Awareness, in a movement of Wholeness, we come to realize that what we are can never be and has never been traumatized. Trauma occurred, trauma was experienced, suffering is present, but it is merely what we are experiencing; we are not the experience. When looked at closely, we can come to once again know that which is before the emotion and the trauma. When we ask, Who or what am I?, we get the direct experience of Nothingness/Absolute before our mind kicks in attempting to fill in the blanks. For many of us, it can take a few sessions of inquiry before identification with the mind chatter softens enough for us to be able to recognize ourselves as Stillness, the silent vastness that is present directly after the inquiry. The silent, expansive vastness does not have borders and is unaffected by anything experienced in this apparent life unfolding before us. Rediscovering what is always present, our true nature, is key to diffusing the mental and physical stress that our biological bodies and minds are enduring or have endured.

May you know yourself as this Peace, Bec and Steve  

‘I’ Wisdom

Recently Mooji has been advocating ‘I’ watching. It is always enjoyable to see these awakened teachers play with new ways to say what they have always been saying. Mooji suggests when we make verbal or thought-based declarations that include ‘I’, we appreciate who or what is being referred to, or what we are speaking or thinking as. This is another flavor to Self-inquiry.

Self-inquiry has been around for centuries. Ramana’s foundational teaching was focused on “Who am I?”, “Who thinks this?”, etc. This approach of Mooji’s and Ramana’s teachings bring Self-inquiry to our daily life.

Ananta encourages us to ask, “Am I aware?” We all can acknowledge we are aware, and from this recognition that we are aware, we are pointed to look at this ‘I’ that is aware. Can we find any place where ‘I’ is and awareness is not, or where awareness is and ‘I’ is not? Awareness is self-evident and self-assertive. To be gently aware of this natural self-evident existence (‘I’) or awareness again and again is self-inquiry.

Notice the sense that “I am here.” “I exist.” Who is aware of even this presence or this sense of existence? How far am I from this Awareness that is aware of sense of existence? Without Awareness does anything exist?

Awareness always is. Something that is coming and going cannot confirm the existence of That, which always is. Only That, which always is . . . can confirm the existence of That, which always is. This is what Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] was pointing to when he pointed in Self-inquiry, “The ‘I’ removes the ‘I’ and yet remains the ‘I’. So, the false ‘I’ is removed, but the true ‘I’, which is Awareness, remains.”

No term can encapsulate all of what is being recognized in Self-inquiry. A variety of terms are used as pointers, including Awareness, Self, God, Truth, Grace, Absolute, I, Stillness, Nothing. Returning to a quote we have often referred to by Saint Francis of Assisi, “What you are looking for is what is looking.” We can label what we are looking for as Self, God, Truth, Grace, Absolute, I, Stillness, Nothing and the pointer remains True.

Years ago, Adyashanti spoke of a form of inquiry he had practiced. He would write everything he knew to be true about terms such as these until he could write nothing more he could intuitively and experientially confirm. In each case, he ended with “I am . . ..” In this case, ‘am’ is referring to the lack of distinguishing between I and Self, God, Truth, Grace, Absolute, etc.

Our mind wants to make a concept out of I, Self, God, etc. The mind wants to take ownership of Awareness so it can declare, “Yes, I see Awareness is aware and I see nothing happens to it.” In this manner, the mind tries to convert pure subject to an object that it can understand. The mind does the same with God, Truth, Grace, etc.

Ananta has shared this recognition as, “You cannot know Awareness as the mind; you cannot know it conceptually. To recognize it is the only way to Know It. I am aware . . . Awareness is the Knowing of Knowing Itself. The Knowing is Aware. Nothing else is aware. I am that Awareness.”

Another pointer to Mooji’s ‘I’ watching is to substitute Awareness, Self, God, Truth or Grace for I. This can awaken the intuitive insight to what has always been. A final quote from Ananta, “God is already running this life and experiencing this life. God is not waiting for your surrender to run your life; it is already so. It is only the false-presumption that is taken away in this surrender.”

The substitution of God for I in our thoughts is not blasphemous; it is recognition there never was a personal I. God and I have never been divided. The identification as the personal I is the delusion we wake from.

Reality does not have to be attained. Only ignorance needs to be removed. When the belief in the false belief of a personal I is dropped, what remains is the unchanging, that which is beyond name, form, or any limitations. Truth is beyond separation or union. Truth has no distance from I. It is not subject to time or space. It is beyond concepts. It is the only non-phenomenal experience. What Is always Is.

Self-inquiry points to recognition as Truth.

May Peace Be Yours, Steve and Bec

Smile

Smiling may not be a path to Self-realization, but it is a simple behavior that can change the quality of our apparent life and the apparent lives of those around us.

Some may ask, “Why smile when wearing a mask?” Because an easy, open-hearted smile can transform our face and outlook, transcending the barrier of a mask. When we smile spontaneously, our eyes light up and our countenance radiates more peace and love. When we smile, we mirror Life’s true nature, easing and loosening the grip of contraction causing pain and suffering in our surroundings.

Rather than question why smile behind a mask, we can look at this as an opportunity to privately and silently spread peace in a troubled time.

So, let’s give it a try. Let’s make a conscious intention to smile behind our masks and observe its effect on ourselves and our environment.

Peace Be With You, Bec and Steve

September 18, 2020 Satsang now available in Satsang Audio Links Tab

How Big Is Our Us

We go through life often unconsciously separating associations into “us” and “them.” Our “us” can be as small as “me vs not me or my immediate family.” Some stay at this level of discrimination. Many further identify “us” as a community, a religion, a skin color, a culture, a human, a sexual preference, a gender identification, a political party, a country, a sports team, and so on. This identified separation as “us” and “them” is the basis for much of the suffering we see in life. To effectively address this suffering, we must dispel the delusion of separateness. When we truly know ourselves, see “us” as unity of Everything, we can enjoy and celebrate the different fragrances in our many-flowered garden.  

Zen master Dogen described enlightenment as complete intimacy with the 10,000 things. This is when there is no longer a “them.” “Us” is then unity, a unified One. In Dogen’s words, “The way the self arrays itself is the form of the entire world”

Shankara put it, “The world is illusory; Brahman alone is real; Brahman is the world.” Again, the separation between an “us” and a “them” is seen through as delusion. It is all Us. It has never been otherwise. One experiencing as many. Ask yourself now, listening with heart rather than mind, Who or What am I? Marinate in the direct felt experience of the answer. The question of “us” or “them” does not exist in the unfolding Life experience from This/One/Nothing/Everything/God/Creator/Stillness.

Even before we recognize the unity of all, we can take a look at how and where we are identifying as an “us” and a “them,” as opposed to a unified Us. This inspection weakens our identity as these tribal affiliations and flows into experiencing as indivisible, unique expressions—expressions unendingly rich in diversity.

In this openness as one Us, comes a recognition as universal, primordial, boundless Awareness, dissolving confusion to reveal there NEVER was an “us” or a “them,” just Isness.

Love, Steve and Bec

The Nature Of Prayer And Meditation

This Tuesday we have a sharing with our sister sanghas. This led to a consideration as to the nature of prayer and its relation to meditation.

If we first consider meditation, we find it means different things to different people. For many, meditation is a means to an end, such as, less stress, lower blood pressure, more peace, etc. This is a valid approach to meditation, and it can be tailored to produce those results. We have always considered meditation as a pointer to Truth. Truth must always be True as Reality must always be Real. Truth is prior to concepts, perceptions, space, or time, and yet, is the substanceless substance giving rise to the apparent existence of all these. Adyashanti describes meditation as, “Let everything be as it is.” Letting everything be as it is dissolves the identification with the story, leaving us as primordial Awareness. This is a prescription beyond time spent on the cushion. It is a direct pointing to living life as Life.

Prayer also means different things to different people. Many use prayer as a means to an end, as well. Many pray for peace, less stress, material gain, or relationship with God. These are also legitimate uses of prayer and it often can produce the desired goal. True prayer, like True meditation, is again letting everything be as it is. True prayer is Thy will, not my will. The humility to allow everything to be as it is does not flow from a humble versus a proud person. This humility recognizes the absence of any entity to be either humble or proud. True prayer is the natural flow of life as Awareness.

Hallelujah, Bec and Steve

Fellowship of the Sanghas

Original art by Suzanne Gayle. Used with permission.

Dear Ones,

This is a profound time where THE BODY of existence, the fabric of Reality is transfiguring.  One way we can consciously participate in this transfiguration is through prayer. Having the intention of “make me an instrument” while coming together in recognition of, and communion with, our shared Source.


Our scheduled April 28 evening gathering is an opportunity to join in prayer with Sharon Landrith and the teachers of the lineage. 

Sharon Landrith, Clear Light Sangha

Jennifer Tyler, Full Circle Family

Caroline Cavelti, Living From Stillness

Bec and Steve Haas, Mauna Sangha

May we gather in Love, Jennifer

Information for joining the gathering:
TUESDAY APRIL, 28, 6-8pm PST

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Kissing The Universe

Several Sangha members have mentioned concerns about the growing discourse and contention in the world among humans during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic playing out in the backdrop of climate change. Why is there suffering in general and what, if anything, can be done about it? Putting energy in the “why” is a fool’s errand. Our answer is always the same: Be clear here. “Here” being our personal expression of Self, as Bec, Steve, Trudy, Meri, Larry, Dawn, Robert, Terry, Paige, Luke, etc. Whether looking to ease suffering globally or just in our own lives, the answer is always to find clarity within our own living. When we know who or what we are, then what expresses is free of judgment, assuming, identification and is meted out with impeccability, generosity, openness, compassion, and gratitude.

Some Sangha members have written to share they have noticed the personal experience replaced by a Universal experience of heart. As suffering is witnessed and felt, there is an experience of Universal heartbreak for humans and the Earth as a whole that is filled with compassion and love. There is an understanding as this universal expression of Self that the fear, angst, and anger encountered at this time is a side-effect of conditioning and an identified existence under extreme stress. We notice the movement of Self reaching out with compassionate, courageous, and unfaltering actions. Doing what needs to be done without hesitation to help those around us. We see these selfless actions during this pandemic in healthcare workers, truck drivers, postal workers, factory workers, farmers, food store employees, janitors, and other essential workers. We see it in individuals doing their part staying home and staying connected with family and community through the internet. Neighbors checking on poor or elderly neighbors and safely providing them with groceries and medicine. We see it in communities joining together to support small, locally-owned businesses. When we know who we are, what we existentially are brings truth where needed.

Hafiz, an Iranian poet, expressed this action beautifully: May the gratitude in my heart kiss all the universe.

Stay safe. Much love, Steve and Bec