Can you find Awareness?

What is the location for Awareness?  Where is it located?  Can you find it?  Can you put your finger on it? 

Awareness is undeniably there, yet it's not anywhere in particular.  It's everywhere.  It's everything.  Is this a mystical experience?  Is this a new state?  No.  It's already the case, only it's taken as "ME-seeing-world".  Awareness is the nondual reality, the present state of affairs, however it's being translated as a subject seeing an object.

If you had to locate Awareness, you wouldn't be able to point to anything in particular, because Awareness encompasses everything, every single experience, every feeling, every thought, the slightest sensation, the most subtle perception.

If you point to the wall, you're pointing to Awareness, so to speak.  The wall doesn't exist outside of Awareness.  The finger which is pointing is in Awareness.  The one who is pointing is also objective within Awareness.  Isn't this rather obvious?  It's almost silly to have to point it out - it's the most primary, fundamental and obvious aspect of reality - the entirety of that so-called individual is an appearance IN this Awareness, which pervades and shines unconditionally, unfettered, unaffected.

If we had to say what we are, ultimately, we might notice the obviousness of this bright and ever-present presence, this space of knowing, this solid block of nondual reality which we intimately know as "awareness".

You cannot find it conceptually because you ARE it.  Yet wherever you look, there it is.  Any appearance, any experience is nothing BUT that limitless Awareness that you are.  Yet to speak of appearances, we are still operating in duality and requiring a witness or awar-er of the appearance, requiring the appearance to be other than the witness.  Therefore the witness and appearance are provisional understandings and are ultimately discarded.

Awareness is then recognized to be all there is - subject and object are realized as taking Awareness to be split up - this is something the mind does naturally and is not inherently problematic.  But when that subject is seen to be separate from the object, when that subject is seen as an independently-existing entity, the constant and compulsive self-reference brings suffering.

When we recognize that Awareness has never been lost, never obscured, never the result of spiritual experiences or practices - when we recognize that each perception IS that Awareness that you are, then every experience is enlightenment, every appearance is a miracle.  Then the mind carries on but that binding nature of thought is dissolved.  The urge to apply experiences to a self-reference falls away naturally.  Awareness shines as it always has, but it's known to be your own true essence.

Yet the instant it is searched for, the simplicity and obviousness of this space-like presence of Awareness has been missed, overlooked.  Yet even the overlooking, the seeking, the ignorance of your true Self is irrelevant, because the search itself takes place as a series of thoughts, experiences and ideas within THAT which is being sought after.

Nothing at all is required to be what you already are.  THIS, right here and now, is IT.  THIS, right here and now, is Awareness itself, nondual reality, one without a second, Advaita.  It isn't difficult to find.  It's inescapable. 

You are the Absolute

You are not limited in any way.  It is the idea that you are limited which brings fear, desire and suffering.

You are the limitless - pristine and full, always shining, always present, always aware. 

You are like the sky - vast beyond measure, beyond qualification.  Your presence is the openness or capacity for the world to appear, for the world to play it's game of duality, for Life to dance, always a wave cresting with no beginning or end.

You are not graspable with mind, yet there is always an intuitive yet intimate knowledge of your Self.  You are not in need of finding - it is only the mind which desires to place a location or duration on the Self.  You are not graspable in this way.

You cannot be ascertained by any means whatsoever, yet the knowledge of your Self is ever-present, present in all experience.  There is nothing that needs to be done for you to BE or KNOW your Self.

You are always fully present, fully shining, fully awake.  You are the ground of all experience, the condition of the world, the IS-ness of this moment, the potentiality of all creation.

You have not come into existence therefore will not cease to exist, cease to BE.  YOU ARE - this is all you can say with certainty.  YOU ARE truly means "Awareness IS".

This IS-ness is undeniable - inescapable.  All spiritual searches assume becoming, while you remain as you are, always beyond all searches.  You are not findable.  You will never appear as a result of the search - for you always ARE.

The mind carries on, trying to quantify and qualify, trying to put a fence around your Self.  It overturns each rock, looks between the covers of each book - yet YOU are always there in spite of the frustrating search.

The mind places the idea called "limited".  Yet you are never limited in any way.  The mind leverages time and space - creating the story of a lifetime of seeking, an individual who is valiantly marching down the spiritual path, hidden in darkness and yearning for the light of enlightenment.

Yet without your presence, the search could not take place.

You are the light which illuminates the world, the Sun which warms the galaxy, the sky which provides a space for the clouds to come and go.  You are the ocean which takes shape as the wave while, never being limited by them.

You are the actual reality of this very moment, the beingness which is always undeniable and not in need of a search.

The Absolute is closer than your face, more intimate than any thought.  The Absolute Reality isn't arrived at, doesn't come in anew as some brilliant experience.

Nothing new is required.  The Absolute is YOU, just as you are this very moment.  Only deeply inquire any ideas you have about your Self.  Each idea is a limitation - you are the limitless Absolute Reality. 

Amazingly, wonderfully, no concept can actually limit YOU.  Verify this in your own experience.  Find out if these ideas you have about your Self are true.  Without them, your true nature as the limitless Reality is found to be already shining, without the first effort. 

"I" is the Perceiving

We're off pursuing the spiritual search - pursuing this thing called enlightenment.  We want it badly, why - we're not sure.  There is a vague feeling that it will bring us bliss, even though we aren't sure what that means.  We believe it will bring happiness, solve all our problems, bring everlasting peace.  Yet we search for this thing called enlightenment within the same paradigm that we search for everything else - we want it as another possession, another achievement, another goal met.  Then we will go write a blog or a book and our lives will forever be changed for the better.

We take our freshly-delivered advaita books to the "reading room" - sit on our porcelain throne of enlightenment - intensely pore over every word while our legs go numb and the rest of the family demands access to the facilities.  We are mining for that one gold nugget which will flip some switch, shift our perception somehow, make reality appear as it really is, reveal the beautiful oneness which is hiding somehow under the covers.

What we don't realize, what we're too stubborn to notice, is that we're standing on the platform built from concepts and then trying to dissect the concepts.  Yet to truly dissect them, we would have to disassemble the platform itself, the very ground upon which we stand.  We would have to sacrifice the very life story, the core of our identity as an individual, and we're either not ready to do that or we're afraid of the unknown.

Therefore we march on anyway - we're frustrated and confused...  we meet paradox with intellect - certain that we can eventually figure it out.  We apply all the mental elbow grease we can muster - yet we always fail to "get it".

We read - you are already THAT - you already HAVE it.  You already ARE what you are seeking.  Yet that doesn't satisfy - what we believe we are and have, is not good enough.  We don't LIKE what we ARE - we want enlightenment to SAVE us, save us from ourselves, from our awful decisions, from our incessant anxiety, from our obsessive personality, from our depressed state of mind.  Therefore THIS CANNOT BE IT!  It MUST be something else, it MUST come in the future as something different, as something better.

So we pull and pull, and the identity as "seeker" gets tighter and tighter.  We don't realize that in rejecting THIS, this very moment, whatever it is, we tighten the noose of identification - we take THIS to suck really bad, we cannot imagine that THIS is IT.  We don't WANT - THIS - to be IT.

Isn't this the situation?

So it's not that the pointers are ineffective.  It's not that the so-called teachings are wrong.  It's that they are immediately rejected - they become boring - they don't satisfy our IDEAL of what enlightenment is supposed to be.

It's like going down a dead-end path - we just keep prodding on even though we see the signs.  We just cannot fathom that THIS could be IT.  How could it be, when THIS brings so much suffering, so much pain, war, depression, discontent....  How could THIS be it, when I don't understand what nonduality means yet, when I haven't "got it" yet?

How would you know if you were enlightened?  What is the expectation?  Anything you can say would be an arrival of something, a happening, a new situation, a new state, a new experience - hopefully a good or blissful one, yes?

So without exception - there is an expectation placed upon enlightenment as an arrival - whatever it is, we believe we'll know it when we see it come.

Therefore the absolute belief is that you don't have it now but can get it through seeking.

This is false.

Vedanta says that enlightenment is not the arrival of a new "state".  It's simply the removal of ignorance about your true Self.  So your true Self is already the case, only there is ignorance about it - there are false concepts in play, coloring reality as dualistic, coloring reality as made up of subject and object.

Vedanta says that the "mature seeker" - this means one who is ready to discard the false, ready to lay aside anything which has been accumulated in beliefs - the "mature seeker" is on the verge of self-discovery.  This doesn't mean they are ready for a new experience, ready for a new "state", primed to receive this so-called wisdom.

This means that the ignorance isn't being held on to anymore - the beliefs and concepts aren't being clinged to with a death grip.  The fear surrounding loss of individuality is fading fast - there is a willingness to surrender, an openness to reality, as it IS, not as it's conceptualized.

So ignorance is like a veil - obscuring reality - it's not really hidden but it's like a dirty mirror - skewing the reflection.  The falling away of ignorance is like cleaning the mirror, discarding the dirty bits and polishing the surface until it shines.

Then reality is reflected cleanly - ignorance is no longer obscuring.  And what is this ignorance?

Ignorance of your Self is taking yourself to be limited.  Taking yourself to be limited by time (you were born and will die) and taking yourself to be limited by space - you are "here" and the world is "out there".  It is this basic idea about yourself that is the only bondage.

So take a close look at those concepts - are they true?  Are you, in fact, limited by time and space?  Where exactly is this limitation found?  Where are the boundaries?  Where are the lines drawn?

In order to take ourselves as limited by space, we must be a "thing" - that thing is the body.  We take the outside world to be not-"I" - yet we take the body to be "I".  But the body is part of the physical world, is it not?  The body appears TO "I", does it not?  So the "mature seeker" properly discerns what "I" is and what "I" is not.

Are thoughts "I"?  Thoughts appear TO "I", yes?  Thoughts are objective to "I", which is purely subjective in nature.  "I" objectifies thought, yes?  So whatever "I" actually is, it is not the body or thoughts.

We include in this inquiry feelings, emotions, states of mind, sensations, all perceptions, knowledge, ignorance, memories, imagination.  Every bit of this comes via some means of knowledge - every bit appears TO "I" - yet "I" never appears in this way.

"I" is not known because of our typical means of knowledge.  Therefore a new means of knowledge must come in - that is called "Self-Knowledge" - Vedanta is a valid means of knowledge.

So Vedanta says - "I" has no attributes which can be described.  "I" does not appear objectively.  "I" is not known via perceptions, concepts, memory, imagination...  yet do you know "I"?  Do you know OF "I"?

Yes.  You intimately know this "I".  "I" is the most intimate aspect of being, is it not?  Only "I" is tied up with "things" which appear TO "I", like the body and thoughts.  So we discern between "I" and not-"I".

And we find, if we're earnest and open, that "I" is something entirely unexpected.  "I" is that presence of perceiving, that activity of knowing, that "awareness" which is the very core of all experience.  That "I" cannot be said to be the "knower", because the "knower" is necessarily another limited "thing" and dependent on an object to be known.

We find that these limitations cannot actually apply to "I" at all.  "I" is not objectifiable - it has no attributes.  "I", although it is intimately known at all times, is not describable - it is simply the unchanging background of perceiving upon which the idea of "perceiver" and "perceived" come and go.

"I" is found to be always the case, always present and is the awareness itself, the fact of aware presence.  Even the idea of time and space are dependent on this "I"-ness or always-here-always-aware-ness.  "I" is not dependent on time or space, therefore it is not limited by them.  It entirely transcends time and space, although this is very subtle.

So Vedanta says that there is only ONE "I" - one subjectivity which objectifies everything yet never objectifies another "I".  That "I" is YOU.

Instead of brushing off the pointers as already-heard or too simple, instead of ignoring certain messages depending on the appearance of the messenger, ask one simple question - What IS "I"?

What really IS "I"?  Is it an object?  Can "I" be perceived?  Or is "I" the perceiving?

Finally Home

Once all the myths surrounding spirituality are played with a bit and then discarded, once the special states and powers of the enlightened are coveted and eventually recognized to be false, a new openness is arrived at.

The material gains and positions in life have lost their shine.  No matter what has been achieved, nothing has filled that hole.  Nothing has bridged that gap we know and try to cross through spirituality.  At some point a seriousness comes in, a new desire which swallows up all these peripheral desires, a fatigue at playing the spiritual games.  This desire is the desire for freedom, the desire to know your Self, without the garbage dragged along through a lifetime of seeking.

At once a new earnestness comes in - a willingness to reach beyond the set of issued beliefs, the default assumptions which carve out what we call "existence".  No longer is there immediate discarding of these direct pointers but a new appetite for them, using them like a sharp tool which cuts through the amassed knowledge and translations from which we live.

A new freedom comes in, a freedom to question everything, a freedom to seriously question each and every thought.  It changes from a general wide floodlight in which we wade to a sharp spotlight shone upon the very root or foundation of our very existence.

We begin to question the very essence of all living and seeking - the idea that I am an individual, that I am a person, a human being, a separate and temporary entity.  Although this idea is quite depressing, that I come into existence and wait for the time I will die, it's held onto with all our might, simply because, even though it's a doomed existence, it's all we know.  We supplant that fear and anxiety with the generated beliefs in an afterlife, in reincarnation, and from there we get hooked on religious dogma.

We may turn to Vedanta, but it matters not what it is.  Anything which makes us seriously question what we have taken on in the form of beliefs will do.  Anything which kicks us in the gut, slaps us in the face hard enough, wakes us up to the daydream, the spellbinding nature of imagination, will do.

That's why Vedanta is sometimes called "an occasion for doubt".

We know that something exists.  Something IS.  Yet we do not know what it is.  The mind races and expertly constructs a world, yet to do so requires the existence of separate parts.  The existence of those separate parts, this idea of "thingness" is entirely imagination.  Nothing exists separately.  This computer, this desk, this room, this house, this planet, this universe - all of these things are only mental separations, concepts, divisions in mind only but not in Reality.

Reality is One, one Wholeness, which cannot be divided by the mind.  This Wholeness is all there is, and this Wholeness is not found elsewhere - it is only ever THIS, right here and now.  Any part, any piece which the mind creates, a chair, a tree, a body, a molecule, a cell - any part is a conceptual creation, not an actual separation.

When we are looking as an individual, there is a necessity for these parts to be real, simply because if they were not real "things", then the very individual who is looking would also not be real.  Therefore this idea of "thingness" is critical to the idea of the individual, and vice versa.

The individual person is entirely a creation of imagination and assumption.  It cannot be found.  It was learned and taken on as true, yet it crumbles the instant it's seriously questioned.

So what changes?  In one way, everything.  Yet in a very concrete way, nothing at all changes.  The very mechanism of this dualistic conceptualization is necessary for Reality to know itself.  So I am writing a blog, you are reading it.  There is the experience of an individual, yet that experience is known with conviction to be a creation of conceptualization, of imagination.  Therefore it can go on doing it - whatever comes is already THAT - whatever arises is simply a matter of the potentiality of Reality, of existence, expressing itself in many ways, yet never once dividing itself.

It's here until it's not.  And while it's here, it's perfect.  It's a perfect manifestation of Reality - we may say it's Oneness expressing itself as manyness.

We may say the essence is Life - that Intelligence which IS the form AND functioning of the universe - that Intelligence known as the planet and the cell, the quark and the cloud, the tree and the galaxy.

Or we may say nothing at all.

So as we walk outside, look up at the trees, the clouds, the planets - Life is literally looking at itself.  ME-seeing becomes Life seeing.  ME-seeing becomes Seeing-Oneness, yet that is also too much.

We sometimes just say - what you are is the SEEING itself.

If that earnestness comes - the falseness of imagination will stand no chance, because this reality of separate parts is of flimsy construction, entirely mind-made.  The mind will turn upon itself, devour itself, look beyond itself until all it can find is complete stillness and silence - it is that unchanging, indefinable background which is the Absolute Reality, staring back at it.

If that earnestness is strong, if the mind has finally had enough, then it will not retreat.  It will at once recognize that it is, after all, finally home.

The Engine of Duality

As the mind rocks back and forth between seeking something objective, to looking within and finding nothing at all, the spiritual search is like a journey.  The quest is to come to know this "state" of peace, this final situation where I no longer suffer.

We investigate the sense of Self to no avail - because we're forever trying to objectify it.  That's what the mind does.  It's job is to objectify, to classify, to divide.  The mind is itself the engine of duality. 

As we watch the mind, tossing and turning, bouncing off the walls, analyzing paradox with a sharp intellect, there may come a sense of frustration and confusion.  This is natural because the mind can never figure out that which is beyond it's scope - beyond it's capabilities.  Any understanding that could come can ONLY be a conceptual understanding, because understanding happens in mind. 

So can we get out of mind?  Can we make it stop?  No.  We either remain locked into identification with this duality machine or we realize that what we are is already beyond.  There is no process to becoming NOT mind, because what you are is already NOT mind.

And this isn't a milestone, not an achievement - it's recognized to be the case already.  The fact is that you do nothing but describe thoughts, describe states of mind, describe concepts and ideas.  The only way this can happen is if you are already prior to mind, observing mind - what you are is the background on which mind plays.

So as this swirling mind runs about - bouncing around, circling over and over - there comes a sense of futility and frustration at the mind.  It wants to take apart everything - analyze it - break it into parts and see how it works, like a small child with a new toy.  At some point this activity may pause.

And in that pause, in that mental sabbatical from the search, the slightest thing may be seen - a sunrise, a face, a tree - without that engine raging, without the automatic and habitual conceptual creation of the insistence of subject and object, no one can be found to be looking at a tree.  No tree can be found - there is only the looking, only the present THIS-ness, before the mind can rebound and come rushing in to split it all up.

It is in the abeyance of mind which brings the absence of the idea of separate self-ness.  It is in the absence of thought where duality falls away as mirage.  And then it comes rushing back.

Is this a failure?  Is this just another sign of your continued failure in the spiritual search. No!  In this, it may be seen that it is the mind itself which creates this idea of "thingness", of separation, of subject-object, of "someone" looking and a "tree' to be seen. 

While mind was absent, there was no tree and no looker.  Even calling it looking or knowing or awareness was too much.  There was only the immediacy - the totality - which included the absence of mind and presently includes the presence of mind.  Once mind returns that engine of duality is back hard at work.  But it is no longer spellbinding.  The mechanism has been recognized.  The snake is seen to be only rope, and no matter how many times we turn out the lights, we can never again really be fooled by the shape of "snake".

Recognize that it is only the idea in mind of "thingness" which creates the idea of separation, subject-object, etc.  And even if mind is actively dividing everything, analyzing - the idea that it's a separate mind or "thing" is another one of it's products.

Right now, just pause thought.  As often as you can, just pause thought.  Pause the incessant activity to figure it all out, to solve the "advaita puzzle".  It doesn't need to be figured out.  In that pause, no idea of becoming is there.  No idea of separate self is there.  No idea of thingness is there.

All that is there is indescribable being.

Discerning "I AM"

We're out looking FOR something in the spiritual search.  We're reading a book or a blog, hoping a phrase will suddenly transport us into Enlightenment, which will be what?  An experience.  A new "state".  We're not searching for what we are, we're searching for a better "state", one that isn't like the current one, or the one's we dread, like suffering or grief or worry or sadness or depression.  This "new" state will be permanent happiness, which is what we conceptualize "bliss" as.  This "new" state will be permanent something, but whatever that something is, it will be better than the ones we presently don't like.

Isn't that what the spiritual search is for you?

And this idea of spirituality or enlightenment or whatever label you like to use, as long as this is the idea of what  it's all about, frustration will continue.  Confusion will continue.  Because it's not a new "state".  It's not permanent happiness for you, the individual.  It has nothing at all to do with any individual.  The individual who will get this new state IS the veil itself, the obscuring factor to seeing what this is all about.

We must stop looking FOR something, for some new state, for something achieved by proper seeking, for something received anew.  We must directly question and investigate this idea of an individual, a separate self, an independent entity which was born separate of the world.

The most certain thing you know is that you ARE, you exist.  We confirm this when we say "I AM".  "I AM"-ness isn't conceptual, you didn't have to make it up, you didn't have to learn it, you didn't have to be TAUGHT that you exist.  You don't have to rely on any memory to know that you ARE.  You don't have to project a future to know that you ARE.  Right here and now, you know without any supporting evidence, that you ARE.  THAT YOU ARE is self-evident.

Why is it self-evident?  What is it, that makes your existence self-evident?  What is it BECAUSE OF WHICH you can claim with certainty - "I AM"?

Is it because there are thoughts?  Is it "I think, therefore I am"?  If thoughts pause, what remains to be aware of the pause?  If there is a brain injury or a stroke and thoughts stop, what remains to know of this absence of thought?  If no thought comes to claim - "I AM" - do you cease to exist?  Is that certainty of existence gone?  No.

Is it because there is a body?  There are hands appearing now.  Does that provide that certainty of "I AM"?  There is breathing being felt.  Does that provide that certainty of "I AM"?  No.  There is something which is aware of the breathing and body-form.

Isn't that "something" which is aware of the thoughts, the breathing, the body-form, isn't THAT why you know you exist?  Isn't that what is referred to with the words "I AM"?  Isn't that actually what we mean when we say "I"?  But due to inattention and lack of precise discernment between the body-mind and that PURE "I" or "I AM"-ness, that sense of existence is wrapped up with this objective content, this body-mind, and then the idea is created of a person, an individual, a separate entity, someone who came into existence and will eventually pass out of existence.  Cease to exist.

It is simply a confusion of that already-present "I AM"-ness with the objective qualities of appearance or awareness which creates the identification AS a person, as ME.

That "something" is always-here - always the basis or foundation or background or principle upon which or in which these passing or temporary objects come.  That "something" isn't an achievement, not a product of seeking.  It's not found anew.  It's recognized.  It's revealed to have always been there, only overlooked in focus on the objective, in identification WITH the objective, in conceptualization or belief/assumption that the objective IS what you are.  It's overlooked due to taking yourself TO BE a body, with a mind.

And this idea IS the false limitation, believing yourself to be a body IS the prison itself, the bondage from which we seek freedom.  This idea IS the very core of suffering.

You know that you are always-here - THAT is the reason you're certain of your existence, that always-here-ness is self-evident, nonconceptual.  Discern between the mind's translation of "I AM", which means "I AM" this and that, and the true "I AM", which is pure always-here-ness, pure background of knowing, the present SEEING or condition of awakeness.  THAT isn't in need of a search.  THAT isn't hidden and requiring a search.  It's just a mix-up - a simple confusion of ephemeral "thingness" with the obvious and rock-solid being/knowing that you are.

The Snowflake

We take ourselves to be an entity, a person who did not exist, who came into existence, and is heading for the end of existence again. That person is contained within this body, with a little radio transmitter called thought, chattering all the time, interacting with other unfortunate bodies, all together in this one large and doomed existence. We're all trying our best to make the most of it, trying to push to the back burner, the fact that our ultimate end is certain.

We're like the snowflake, which comes into existence with brilliance, floats gracefully down and then perishes. And while the snowflake is here, it's unique, and beautiful.

But the snowflake is only a manifestation - an appearance. It is formed from water - water is in liquid form, it is evaporated and becomes moisture in the air. That moisture freezes and becomes ice. That little formation takes shape in unique ways, comes down large and small. Once again it melts back into water.

The essence of that manifestation, that appearance, is only water. Water is never lost - it only changes form. It appears as a snowflake, a raindrop, a mist of fog, a pond or the ocean.

Yet the very essence never changes.

You take yourself to be the snowflake but miss your true essence as water. You take yourself to be the individual person, born only to later die. In fact you are the very essence, the one intelligence, the Being of beings, the very nature of existence itself.

What you are, in essence, was never born and cannot die. What you are, in essence, is all "things" - the very form and function of the body, mind, and world, which seem to come into existence, hang around a while, and pass on. Their existence is dependent on you.

You are the source.  You appear in infinite, unique and wonderful ways.

You are One, without a second

The world is changing constantly - yet where is it going? Where is it coming from? Can you capture a moment ago or a moment to come? Is the past in actual existence somewhere? Does a present thought, which refers to the past, actually go anywhere? Isn't that image of the past a present image? Isn't that image of the future a present image? Is it EVER anything else?

In the swing of memory and imagination, anticipation and regret, the illusion of time holds a tight squeeze. We're forever wondering if we "should have" or "might be".

In this, we miss what we ARE. We want to BUILD reality, construct the IMAGE of what we are through this back and forth, past and future - ever missing that these are always only stories about what we are - the life story is dependent on this splitting of attention between past and future.

You are not a separate entity, carried on through time, surviving and watching time go by. You are not a separate being, wishing for the next moment to be better than the last.

You are THIS MOMENT. This moment is like a container - a nondual block which has no edges or boundaries - within this container appears the thoughts, the memories and imagination which create the illusion of time. Then in this swinging pendulum of thought, the feeling of ME moving IN TIME seems to be reality.

Yet when we recognize the ever-present knowing or awareness - when we recognize that this activity of knowing is going on in the immediacy of right now, always right now - then it's clear that this immediate knowing is never the past or future. There is only present thoughts. Present memories of past times. Present anticipation of a future time. Always present. Always here and now.

Never moving away from, never outside of, this "container of Now".

We're ever focused on the changing contents within the container, taking ourselves to be a log, floating on the river of time. And in this we miss the solid, unchanging, still Presence of Self. We miss that what we ARE is THAT IN WHICH these changes take place - THAT IN WHICH these stories are woven, strung together in memory, bound and restricted with the false concept of "ME-the-individual."

Your true nature is not a limited individual - this is only an idea - a concept - your true nature is infinite fullness, wholeness, Oneness - the very container, the very "space" in which these stories play out and subside.

And this isn't something which is attained - the realization of this may or may not come - but it changes absolutely nothing. What IS, right here and now, is Advaita, Oneness, Wholeness. It's presently being interpreted through the prism of beliefs called "individual". An individual requires a world. There is no individual nor world - there is only the present and blindingly obvious Wholeness which never requires a search to find, never requires enlightenment to know, never requires a seeker to become.

It is the very idea of the individual seeker which obscures this Wholeness. In giving up the individual, Wholeness is found to already be the case. But there is no individual to give up anything.

So what remains to be done? Will proper analysis bring it? Will reading more and more bring it? No - because nothing comes in new. Nothing is gained.

Realization is recognition that THIS RIGHT HERE and NOW - IS IT. THIS, whatever THIS might be labeled or conceptualized as, is it. THIS is what the seeking is all about. THIS is what all the pointers are pointing to. THIS present moment, no matter how it's "behaving", no matter if it's good or bad, no matter if it's spiritual or mundane, no matter if it's confusion or clarity. THIS is it.

WHAT this is, is always the domain of the mind. The mind's job is to quantify THIS, to think about the past and project into the future. The mind's job is to split up THIS into parts, into pieces, and that means WHAT-YOU-ARE must be a thing also. But that's just the mind's analysis. You are not a separate "thing" - your actual essence is "all things" - or better said - the One without a second.

New Blog - Finding Common Ground

There is a new blog in the works. It's intended to show the commonality in expressions between all the differing "pointers" or paths or philosophies/religions, including the seemingly "split" messages of Nonduality.

The blog may "piss off" a few, but that's to be expected. Holding on to one viewpoint is a condition of the mind.

In the Hsin Hsin Ming, Seng Ts'an said:

"Tao is self-evident to one with no preferences.
When like and dislike are absent, the Real is obvious and clear.
Make the slightest distinction, however,
and it appears disguised as heaven and earth."

Reality has no "preferred philosophy". Truth is not subject to spiritual "market share". Many so-called paths and traditions are clear. If the message is clear, even if the so-called messenger does not fit the so-called "nonduality" mold, it will be shared.

The blog is http://randallfriend.blogspot.com.

The Boogeyman

Reality is clear and obvious. Wakefulness is already the case. SEEING is happening. Yet in identification and focus on the objective content of Consciousness, the idea of the individual becomes a central reference, an "entity" who exists, who came into existence and will cease to exist. Then there is "someone" who sees. Then there is a template of "ME-SEEING".

Inquire into this idea of the individual - what is it? WHERE is it? How do you know OF it? Is it a sensation? Is it a perception? Is it an idea (thought)?

Looking closely, it is found to be an idea or belief, a thought-story, which references something that isn't obvious, that isn't present, that has no direct evidence or experience. The entirety of the individual is thought-belief. That is the entire make-up or substance of the individual.

It is like the child who, at night, will not open their closet doors because they believe the boogeyman is in there. That belief leads to fear, although in reality there is no boogeyman. Believing it to be factual, the child suffers greatly. When the parents finally open the doors, no one is found hiding, and the child relaxes.

Open the doors, don't be afraid. Pull back the curtains and examine what you take yourself to be. The individual cannot exist without belief.

SEEING is happening, yet no "seer" can ever be found.