How many times have we been told to watch ourselves? Perhaps this is a good time to heed that advice. As we go through our day, we are well served to take a moment here and there to touch base as silent, unchanging Self. If we touch base throughout the day as this Inner Stillness, we find we are no longer watching our self, we are Self, watching.
Namaste, Bec and Steve
Life is presenting lots of changes. Our usual routines are in disarray. Young people have no daily trips to school. Most adults are facing significant changes in their daily lives, as well.
Daily life has always been filled with uncertainty, but now the lack of clarity regarding what tomorrow may bring is staring us right in the face.
In these days of apparent rapid change, there is also an opportunity to notice what does not change. If we find ourselves working or schooling from home, maybe this is the perfect time to introduce individual and family HOMEwork.
We encourage taking a few breaks during each day to simply stop. Sit comfortably and notice Silence. Allow ourselves to notice Inner Peace. When we find ourselves off on a thought, emotion, or belief, we simply fall back as the unchanging Stillness from which the thought arose. This is the opportunity to come HOME to recognition as what we have always been.
We are blessed with the opportunity to use this time at home to notice and live as our eternal HOME.
Be safe. Love, Steve and Bec
Peace that surpasses all understanding. Sounds like a laudable goal, doesn’t it? But as long as this Peace is treated as a goal to be attained by a someone, as a person identified with this mind and this body, we will not recognize it.
Peace that surpasses all understanding does not come from a peaceful mind, but rather, it is a direct experience of true Self.
Mind is simply thoughts that propel us through life, and while some thoughts may convey a greater sense of peace and other thoughts invoke a sense of anxiety, neither thoughts nor feelings have anything to do with Peace that surpasses all understanding.
If we look for this Peace in our mind, emotions, and beliefs, we remain identified as seekers believing we are looking for something separate from what we are at this very moment. Returning to Saint Francis, “What we are looking for is what is looking,” and from where this apparent looking seems to arise is this Peace that surpasses all understanding.
Peace that surpasses all understanding is a pointer invoking the fragrance of Isness. Peace that surpasses all understanding is Peace as our eternal essence prior to and beyond mind and identification as a person.
It is an identified mind that asks, If we are already this Peace, why is it not felt? The answer, again, is simple. This Peace is not a product of the mind. This Peace has always been present, is currently present, and is eternally present forever and ever.
We are encouraged to stop trying to find Truth, this Peace, as something separate from what we always and already are. Simply notice awareness prior to and beyond mind, thoughts, beliefs, judgments, and understandings. Peace that surpasses all understanding is one of our earliest expressions as what we are—what moves us through Life.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti, Bec and Steve
Life seems to be a continuous movement forward.
If we stop to investigate movement, there can be a clear seeing of eternity, as eternity. When we look, we may say, I seem to be moving. However, further investigation reveals this apparent movement is seen by an apparent non-moving essence. This non-moving essence is not a deeper or more superficial aspect of what we are, it simply is what we are in/as Awareness at that moment—Awareness even beyond both movement and non-movement. As non-movement, the words “deeper” or “more superficial” lose their relevancy, but are, nonetheless, apparent experiences. Up/down, inside/outside, deep/superficial are all expressions of movement and are seen for their apparent dualistic nature from/as non-movement. Unity is apparent non-movement; duality is apparent movement. Paradoxically, we are both experiences simultaneously and neither experience, because we are beyond/before any experience whatsoever.
This is the recognition “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10, NIV) In this statement, ‘know” is not meant as two – subject and object, it is meant as unity. The word ‘know’ in this context conveys ‘Be.’ As/in movement, we know ourselves as many; as/in non-movement, we know ourselves as Self, Being, God, Stillness, Nothing.
Nikos Krazantzakis observed, “We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence. But we have named it God, because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir our hearts profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch body with body, the dread essence beyond logic.”
This may be viewed by some as blasphemous, but arrogance is the belief that we are somehow separate from God, Being, Self, Truth. Identification with movement, doership, body, and thought manifests as a life expressed in ignorance and bondage, which leads to suffering.
‘I’ is the subtlest movement. Non-movement is beyond even ‘I.’ We are before/beyond non-movement.
Enjoy, Steve and Bec
We often point to this subtle but existential distinction between ‘in/of’ and ‘as’ Silence, Awareness, Grace, Life. Awakening turns on this subtle distinction.
Noticing Awareness, sitting in Silence, an experience of Grace, moving in Life are all wonderful nourishing experiences, but they are not Freedom.
Years identifying as a person typically lead us to view everything from the perspective of a person. Our egoic mind hangs on to the illusion we are an individual experiencing Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life. Our belief we are fundamentally a person can obscure our recognition as Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life. This identification as something other than Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life creates an experiential gap where none actually exists.
There are countless pointers designed to produce a pause in our identification as a person. In that pause, identification/beliefs and a person are not there—yet Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life remain. In those pauses, we clearly see the person is not fundamental, but rather, there is a direct experience as Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life prior to the appearance of a person.
Truth is unchanging and eternal. Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life are all words used to point to This that is prior to, and beyond, all concepts or expressions. Recognition as Awareness, Silence, Grace, Life is among our best approximation with words for recognition “as” This that is beyond all concepts.
Namaste, Bec and Steve
(Below is a reworking of a post we wrote over 4 years ago. Deeper clarity, brought about through years of sharing Satsang, breathes new life into it. We are eternally grateful for our Sangha family for such support and growth in Life. Enjoy!)
Our hope is to provide the most efficient “path” to Self-realization. Self-realization is direct recognition as Essential Nature, Omnipresent Being. Since this always has been, is now, and always will be our inherent nature, we do not need to develop something new or go through a long, arduous process to attain a distant goal. Half the battle on the apparent path to awakening as Self is merely realizing we are already what we seek.
How, then, to recognize this Essential Nature? Since Truth is eternal, one approach is noticing This within us that does not change. If something is changing, it is not Truth, and thus, cannot be what we fundamentally are. Thoughts come and go, emotions change, beliefs change, and our bodies change. When we stop, look within, we notice This that does not change. “Be still and know that I am God.” ~ Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
When we stop and notice this still sense of “I am,” we find silent, spacious Awareness—THIS is our essence.
There are many simple pointers to silent Awareness. One direct pointer is by Saint Francis of Assisi: “What you are looking for is what is looking.” Stop and notice the silent Awareness that is looking out through our eyes, sees our thoughts come and go, and is unchanged while everything passing changes. “What is looking” is not some clever koan; it is what is looking this very instant at these words. When meditating/sitting silently, let everything be as it is with an openness towards This that notices the changing. Notice THIS and be free.
Self-inquiry is a direct approach to Self-realization. Simply ask the question, “Who, or what, am I?,” with openness to the direct experience as still, awake, unchanging presence. We immediately rest as Pure Essence, Nothing crackling with potentiality. Again, what we are looking for IS LOOKING.
These are not questions or exercises for the mind. They are meant to invoke the immediate and direct recognition as our eternal nature. If we find we are thinking about the answers to these simple pointers—STOP. Notice this serene Awareness that sees the mind distracting us from our direct and immediate experience as Stillness, Presence, Silence, Emptiness, Nothing, Everything, Peace. In this space, in the wholeness as This, there is no judgment or anger towards the mind going off on tangents. Instead, we appreciate the recognition, “I was caught up in a thought stream,” as Grace. Only when we realize we are identifying with a thought stream do we have an apparent choice: continue that activity of mind, or, notice what is looking. This attitude of openness and appreciation towards Grace allows us to come back to the perspective as still, awake Awareness that sees those thoughts. This effortless, open-hearted vigilance speeds our growth towards a stabilized recognition as Eternal Essence. When we recognize Presence as our fundamental nature, we notice we have always truly been blessed and, throughout the day, we notice life is meditation. What we previously viewed as a problem, we now recognize as an opportunity, an apparent choice to continue with this false identification, or to let go of all pretenses and live as our true essence. Until we directly experience the boundless silence as Pure Awareness, and recognize This as our essence, as Spirit, we see no choice. Recognizing we are not these identifications allows us to let go and directly live Life unfettered. Eventually, the old habit of false identification falls away as we no longer feed it with our attention. In this way, all life’s experiences serve to bring us home to recognition as This prior to, and beyond, all concepts.
Living all of life as meditation rapidly enlivens our direct experience as primordial Awareness. No longer do we identify as our bodies, thoughts, emotions, and expressions. We now have the apparent experience of being nothing and something simultaneously. The distinction between nothing and everything dissolves. We come to the direct experience of Truth as stated by Nisargadatta Maharaj, “When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life turns.”
As we investigate the experience as our essence, our true nature, as primordial Awareness, we clearly see there are no borders. It does not end at our body. It is not bound by time or space. Our direct experience is this Awareness is omnipresent. There is no place we could say, “No, my presence does not go there.” When we “see” we are not bound by time or space, this is direct recognition as the substanceless substance pervading everything. Returning to Nisargadatta’s quote, we see we are everything. This is the very nature of Unity. Contrary to many expectations, Unity does not necessarily appear unified. This knowing is the direct experience as Being. As Nisargadatta Maharaj observed, “. . . between these two, my life turns.”
Nisargadatta’s statement seems paradoxical but becomes our direct experience when we look inside and cannot find any specific location where we are, and at the same time, when we look outside and cannot find any location where we are not. We are the simultaneous expression as nothing and everything. Nothing and everything are not different, both experiences arise from, in, and as This from which Beingness flows. THIS that is before Silence/Awareness/Space even exists.
Shankara clearly states, “The world is illusory. Brahman alone is real. Brahman is the world.” (Brahman is the unmanifest absolute.)
Adyashanti beautifully observes, “Nothing becoming something while remaining nothing.”
With devotion, Bec and Steve
We frequently encourage everyone at Satsang to treat all of life as meditation. This is not to discourage silent sitting, but rather to bring the attitude of meditation to all aspects of living.
What do we mean by the attitude of meditation? In silent sitting, we encourage letting everything be as it is. Noticing Awareness prior to, or shedding light on, thoughts, emotions, etc. When we find we are off on a thought, we treat that recognition as Grace, allowing an apparent choice to again rest as Awareness. There is gratefulness, an openness, when we recognize we are off on a thought, because, again, prior to that recognition we have no choice but to ride the flow of the mind. Once we recognize we are off on a thought, we can fall back into Silent Emptiness.
In Satsang, we all come to the direct experience as Awareness. Simply letting go of all we are not brings us to the immediate recognition as our Eternal Essence. This goes by many names: Awareness, Emptiness, Nothingness, Space, Silence, Freedom, Serenity, and many, many more. There are lots of names because no word or concept can convey that which is beyond concepts, so we use words that seem to approximate the fragrance of This.
Once we have noticed This that never changes, has no boundaries, is prior to concepts, it is like noticing the movie screen behind the movie. It was always there but never noticed. Once This is “seen,” This can never be fully unseen.
Our teacher, Sharon Landrith, often encouraged us to, “Come home.” This encouragement is just another way of saying to live all of life as meditation. Whenever we find ourselves identified with a thought, emotion, belief, or sensation, we treat that recognition the same way we would treat a thought, emotion, belief, sensation in silent sitting. We feel grateful because this recognition allows an apparent choice to let go of that identification and come home as changeless Awareness. An Awareness that births from an apparent eternal, burgeoning Emptiness. Adyashanti described it beautifully when he referred to this apparent state of recognition as, “Emptiness dancing.”
This approach may sound like a “doing,” and some might feel it strengthens the idea of a doer rather than the recognition as This, which is beyond doing and doer. To us, it is akin to the effortless vigilance of a parent’s love for a child. It is a much greater spontaneous flow of love than any doing. Holding identification with thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or sensations is actually the doing. It takes effort to hold a rock in our hand, it takes no effort to let it fall. We are forever grateful, when by no individual effort or specialness, we are graced with the recognition we have grabbed hold of an identification and have the apparent freedom to allow the identification to fall away, as we fall back into, and as, Eternity.
Enjoy, Steve and Bec
Very few goals are easier done than said. Awakening as our essential nature is an exception to this generality.
We are all aware. If we were not aware, we could not read this post. Furthermore, a simple reflection reveals we can immediately be aware we are aware. This recognition of being aware of awareness is fundamental to awakening. The next apparent revelation is noticing there is no ‘me’ aware of this awareness, there is simply Awareness aware of awareness. Our recognition existentially as awareness is termed as awakening.
Put another way, try not to be aware. We cannot find any time when we are not aware. Even during deep sleep, there is an underlying awareness. When we wake, we know we slept well or poorly. During deep sleep, we are simply aware without an external object of awareness contained in and as Nothing. Awareness is the single “thing” pervasively expressing through/as life.
Recognition as Awareness is an unremarkable, non-phenomenal recognition. Generally, we are focused on being aware of some phenomenal object. Awakening is recognition as Awareness—a universal recognition of an expressing movement/experience. Once more to quote St. Francis, “What you are looking for is what is looking.” What is looking is not a phenomenal object or individual entity. What is looking is Awareness emanating from/as Nothing.
Enjoy, Bec and Steve
We recently noticed this term in a meme posted by a friend. While it gave us a good chuckle, the coined word is also an excellent
It essentially comes down to not being
This can seem to occur in either of two ways: We can be so arrogant as to accept no judgment, or we can be one with what Is, in which case, judgment has no place to land. Moving in the world as Awake Awareness, there is no one who holds a position that needs to be defended. There is no stake in an individual or global story. There is only a moment to moment unfolding and experiencing of what Is.
Extreme arrogance is a state of separateness and boundaries. It comes prepackaged with a judgment of superiority. Anytime we make a judgment, there is a “someone” making that judgment and that “someone” is also
Jesus noted (Matthew 7:2), “For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
Buddha cautioned, “Whoever judges others, digs a pit for themselves.”
As long as we are in a position to be judging, we will be in a position to be judged and be affected by those judgments.
If “unf@&kwithable” is truly our goal, we must be one with what Is. As Isness, we are neither judging nor subject to judgments. Our lived experience is not
Awakening seems to be a yes/no proposition, yet in the experience for many, it also carries a sense of progression. There often seems to be a progressive reduction as a “someone.” As such, we may seem to become progressively less “f@&kwithable” as our belief in the identity as a“someone” fades.
At a recent retreat, we came face to face with the inescapable truth that if we slip into making a judgment, we become a “someone” who can be slapped back with a judgment. Isness is an excellent teacher – an iron hand in a velvet glove. When the “goal” is living as Truth, we could ask for no better teacher than Isness.
Whether the transition to being “unf@&kwithable” is instant or gradual, the apparent path is dropping the belief in identification as an individual and recognizing the present Wholeness moving through life as our unique expressions.
If we are looking to become “unf@&kwithable,” as St. Francis stated, “What you are looking for is what is looking.”
Blessings, Steve and Bec
We have noted in previous posts and satsangs less than ten percent of the cells that make up our body are human. More recent estimates say it’s more like forty percent of the cells that make up our body are human. Whether nine percent or forty percent, it’s trivial, either percentage should give us pause when we identify as our body.
A simple observation makes it even more evident we are not existentially our body. If we are born or become physically or developmentally challenged, lose a limb, develop a chronic disease, or are given the diagnosis of a potentially terminal disease, the quality of our life may appear different, but fundamentally, what we are remains unchanged. The immediate experience felt when we inquire, “Who or What am I?”, isn’t affected by the state of our body.
None-the-less, when chance, disease, age, life circumstances, etc., threaten the future existence of our physical body, we often experience this as threatening the existence of what we fundamentally are. Most of us do not give this much consideration until the death of our body or the body of a loved one is perceived as potentially imminent.
The common responses to a “terminal” diagnosis are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The first four of these are the direct response to a fundamental belief we are existentially our physical body. This is typically a painful process for the individual and those who love him or her.
Most of us go through life apparently oblivious to the fact that we all have a time-limited physical body with an uncertain termination date. We only acknowledge the transient reality of our physical existence when circumstances no longer allow us to ignore it. Kathleen Dowling Singh touches upon this in her book, The Grace In Aging, “Denial, anger, bargaining, and depression are part of the dynamic of chaos as it occurs within the conceptual mind of self-cherishing and self-grasping.” It’s how our emotions are biologically hardwired in our bodymind to function, but what we fundamentally are is beyond our bodies and the emotions experienced through them. Recognizing this feels very liberating.
Since it appears to be a fact none of us have an eternal physical body, humanity has turned to religion, faith, belief, and spirituality in search of that which is eternal.
In addition to this approach, while this physical body still appears to exist, we would suggest exploration with an open heart and mind into the possibility of direct recognition as our fundamentally universal and eternal nature present now. When we come to the direct recognition as This that is eternal, beyond the mind/body-imposed concepts of space and time, then the inevitable death of the physical body loses its existential threat.
In Zen, this is referred to as dying before you die. In Christianity, this may be referred to as being born again – Aramaic transliteration: “That which is born from flesh is flesh, and that which is born from The Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) In both cases, what is being described is the death of identification with the body and a recognition as Eternal.
How can we recognize our Eternal Essence? If something is eternal, then it must be—always and already—present. Our body is constantly changing, our thoughts continuously come and go, our beliefs change, our emotions change, our desires change, our hopes and fears change, so if we are Eternal Essence, then none of these things can existentially be Eternal Essence.
In previous posts, we have elucidated multiple pointers to that which never changes:
All these pointers are meant to produce a pause in our focus and identification with what is always changing so we may notice what is not changing and never changing, what is always and already. It is somewhat ironic we tend to identify with what is always changing rather than our unchanging Isness. All it takes to be free from identification with the ever-changing aspects of this life and physical body is an open-hearted, intuitive look at what is not changing, and noticing, “This silent Isness is not what I am experiencing, This is what I Am.”
In Wholeness as This, the existential threat to our ever-changing and time-limited physical body no longer carries the misunderstood weight of eternity. This abiding recognition does not bring peace, it is peace.
Forever and Ever, Bec and Steve