What IS

Is there some place you can go to find the answer?

Is there a certain time that will come and bring the answer?

The answer is always here, yet it is overlooked because THIS isn't good enough.  As long as there is a preference, no answer will be found.

The only answer is what IS.  Discover what IS and what appears.

Discover what it means - I am the only reality - all else only appears.

It's so obvious, you constantly ignore it.

Face the Mystery

The root issue is - I am this body.  As long as that idea is there, the spiritual search is an endless vicious circle.  

The body is taken to be a thing among things - a small thing which came into being and will end.  From that idea the search goes on - trying to understand the wholeness of reality from a broken, separate perspective.  A thing is trying to become the whole.  It is an impossibility.  AS a thing, you will never find what you are searching for.  AS a thing you will forever be stuck in only an intellectual understanding.  Paradox.  

As long as this idea you have about yourself remains, no end is in sight.  A separate thing cannot find the reality of nonduality or wholeness.  You cannot intellectualize it away.  A thing cannot become the whole.

So all efforts should be directed at the investigation of the reality of the body-in-the-world idea.  The person.  Investigate it by any means possible.  Look at it without pre-conceived notions, like it was the first time you ever saw it, and didn't yet have any names for it, any memory of it, any ideas about it.  

Investigate the idea of the senses.  Investigate how the brain actually works.  Look as if a scientist trying to investigate some new discovery, something which is there but you don't know what it is.

It is only the persistent assumptions which seem to cover reality.  

How do you know the person or the body?  You know only of experience.  Raw experience which has not yet been given a name.  It has not yet solidified into a thing.  You know of changing experience to which you apply memory, assumption and belief.  Otherwise body is only mystery - you don't truly know what it is without this mechanism.  And there is fear to let loose of the assumptions/beliefs.  Because the mind cannot deal with mystery - it has to come to a solid concept about things.  It is left feeling uncomfortable and unstable when it cannot fit everything into nicely wrapped packages.  

Let that mystery come.  Truly taking an honest and unqualified look at what we know, we recognize that we really don't know what the Hell it is.  We realize that our entire life, the reality and identification with body and thoughts is truly only ever assumption.  It is like a splinter in the mind - it is unsettling - to the mind it is a source of fear and uncertainty.  Don't fight the splinter.  Let it stick.  Let it act.  Let it fester and infect.  

At some point the bottom falls out of the bucket - it is realized that there is nothing at all of our life story which can be said to be absolutely true.  It has always been a story, a tale told to cover the inherent mystery.  In that story there is a diminishing of the fear but along with that comes this insistent impulse to discover the truth about what we are.  

But we cannot discover what we are without facing that mystery, without letting that mystery be as it is without the immediate scramble to fill in the blanks with concepts and imagination.  

Until then, you, as a body, are stuck.  ARE you truly a body in a world?  Have a close look.  Face the mystery head-on.  Don't be afraid.  The snake in the room is truly only a rope.

The Wave cannot find Ocean

Does the wave need to wait to become Ocean?  Does the wave need a special experience to become or realize Ocean?  Is the wave "not there yet"?  Does the wave have just an intellectual understanding of Ocean?

It is only Ocean, taking itself to be just a wave, which leads to the notion that something must be done, some liberation must be found, to free itself from wave-ness.  Yet what can Ocean do, to become free of wave?

Ocean, in taking itself to be wave, searches for some special experience, some validating insight - it is searching for Ocean while all the while it IS already Ocean.

How to make the Ocean know itself AS Ocean?  

The only thing that can be done is for Ocean to give up the idea that it is wave.  To see through the relative perspective which has been given a name - "Wave".  To see through the form as Absolute.

We can only describe Ocean by pointing TO the wave - by pointing TO Ocean's expressions, it's manifestations.  Because Ocean cannot be defined any other way, except to say that it is the essence of all that appears.  It's then just another abstract concept.  Yet Ocean cannot be confined or defined by the name and form "Wave", however "Wave" IS Ocean in expression.

As such, YOU are that Oneness, that essence - yet in taking yourself to be just this limited expression, just this name and form, you limit yourself TO that expression, then look for a way out, look FOR that Oneness.  Just as the Wave, as this limited form you will never find what you are seeking.

Oneness or Essence can only give up that idea of "individuality".  But even if it doesn't, is it ever anything but that Oneness anyway?  Even if Ocean never gives up on the idea of itself as Wave, nothing is lost - nothing is wrong.  There is simply an incorrect idea about itself - due to taking itself to be the particular, the wave.

Either seriously question the idea of "individuality" or let that individuality be as it is.  The suffering is only due to this false idea - why make suffering worse because you believe "I'm not there yet"?

You ARE THERE - you have NEVER been anything but THAT - only you don't know it because you take yourself to be just a Wave.  Know it and be done.  Or don't.  Either way it's irrelevant, as the idea "Wave" cannot truly ever limit or bind Ocean.

Not Findable but Undeniable

Self-realization is simply coming to realize something that is already the case.  It is a falling away of the added-on concepts about your Self - the imagination called "I am a body", "I am thinking".

So any effort to reach this is an effort to change experience - simply because right now is IT.  Experience doesn't need to change.  Only the idea that there is a separate, finite body-person which is experiencing a world changes naturally, when that false belief falls away.

So it's not a change of the world, not a change of the behavior or condition of the body or mind.  It is noticing that world, body and mind are experience.  And you are that which is experiencing, right now.

So notice this.  Notice that the only quality you can give yourself is experiencing - noticing - observing - watching  - cognizing - feeling - knowing.  If we talk of a world - in other words - the subject vs. the object - then you must be the subject, yes?

So what is the subject, right now?  What really is it?  What is it's content?  What is it's nature?

The subject of any and all experiences is empty - it is not locatable - it has no attributes.  It is not another thing in experience.  It is not definable in terms of starting and ending, either in space or time.  It is simply HERE.  It is a presence.  You are clearly HERE but that subject is not findable.

That subject is not a thing from which you are knowing - it IS the knowing - it is like an open space or capacity. It is a mysterious, unexplainable, indescribable presence by which the world, body AND mind are known.  Is this not blindingly obvious?

But because it's unknowable - the mind has to create imagination for it.  It has to project something upon that subjective presence, simply because the mind can't deal with the unknown, the unfindable.  It's scary.  It's unsettling.  Like wandering into a dark room - the lights must come on.

But there is no light which can illuminate the subject - it cannot become objectified.  It IS the light by which the world, body and mind are known.

It is always there - overlooked.  It is not findable but it is always obvious and present.  It's YOU.  The presence or activity of knowing.

The subject of all experience is always awareness.  See if this isn't the case.

You are IT

When we pull back the covers and look at Vedanta, or any other nondual tradition, we find the same message.

The self IS the Self - that which you call the individual self IS the Self, the one essence, Brahman, God.

But taking it AS individual is to take it AS limited, automatically.  Because to point out one thing, you automatically oppose it to all other things.  To assert the existence of an individual is to simultaneously assert the existence or reality of other separate things.  

Trying to get rid of the individual is ridiculous.  Many pointers say to get rid of the individual - how can you get rid of what is not there?  

See that what you call the individual IS itself the Supreme, only giving it individual existence binds it, limits it.  Taking the equation of "ME-seeing-WORLD" as reality, you are binding your true Self to the temporal and spatial limitations of a body-mind.

Find out what that self really is, then see if it's actually bound to a body.  How to do this?

Notice that the "Self" is that which is aware of the world.  That's easy enough.

Now notice that the "Self" is that which is also aware of the body and mind - thoughts and feelings.

Can you admit that what you are is presently and always aware of the body-mind?  Can you admit that the mind is an experience to you?  

Notice the almost automatic resistance to this assertion.  That resistance is the veil, the obscuration, the habitual application of assumption over reality.

What is it, that is aware of both body and mind?  Where is it?  You come to find that you cannot place it, cannot locate it, cannot describe it, yet can never EVER deny it.

That "Self" is present and aware.  That "I" isn't an individual for the individual is a created idea in thought.  That individual isn't "I".  

That individual is a feeling, a memory, a story.  The individual is another EXPERIENCE.  

It isn't "I".

"I" is the present subject-ivity - that which objectifies everything.  As such it cannot become an object of knowledge.  It cannot be known objectively.

So remain with that pure "I"-ness - untangle the identification, which is only a mixing-up or confusion of that present subjective-knowing with experience.  "I am thinking", "I am living"...

Stay with that pure "I"-ness alone - there is no need to focus on the experience at all - let it be, and in letting it be there is no longer a condition or need to make experience different.  There is a detachment, a dispassion towards experience.  It does not matter.

That "I"-ness, called Atma in Vedanta, is your Self.  That Atma IS Brahman, the Supreme, the totality, the one Essence.  It is obvious except for the insistence that it is limited by a body, born into a body, finite and heading towards death.

We often, in the spiritual search, find that teachings or pointers are confusing.  They are confusing because we are trying to figure out how a limited individual can reach limitlessness, Oneness.  Obviously it cannot.  If the individual is a reality then all the spiritual teachings are bullshit.

They are not.  Let go of the idea that you were born, the idea that you are a limited "person", and that Atma or "I" or Self is then obviously all there is.

You are Limitless

There are no requirements for the world, body or mind.  Nothing needs to change.  The first idea or attempt of a change in what appears is a hinderance.

What do you know?  What really do you know?  You know something - you call it "world".  You call it "body".  You call it "mind".  You call it "ME".

No matter what it's called - notice that calling it something creates the idea that it is something APART, something SEPARATE.

World, body, mind, and ideas about what you are - these are appearance - what appears is due to many things - dependent on many things.  The most basic dependency is the sense organs - without which nothing would appear.  The nature of the appearance is entirely due to the particular functioning of sense organs.  Another dependency is the framework of ideas and beliefs held in the mind - what is experienced is due to the ideas you have about it.

So we must look upon appearance as never absolute - it is entirely relative, negatable.  All worldly knowledge is this way.

Appearance is what it is - it isn't due to a single cause - the whole itself is the cause.  If we call it a "universe" then what appears in that universe IS the universe.  The universe is itself the expressions OF universe and the cause of the expressions.

Leave appearance alone - there is no need to understand it, to manipulate it.  Simply observe, notice.  Notice without the first inclination to want it to be different, to want to change it - notice without the first condition.

When this can be done, even for a few moments, a clarity comes in.  An openness.  All is allowed to BE, freely, unconditionally.  Even any arising tension or resistance is then allowed to BE, for it is part of the noticing.

Then notice, simply, without any need to understand or explain, that all appearance comes and goes within a limitlessness, within an openness, within an unconditional "space".  Notice that all that appears comes and goes to or upon an invisible yet undeniable background - we call it "subject" or "ME" yet along with these labels comes requirements, conditions - the ME or Subject is then just another limited thing within the appearance, something which came INTO the appearance and will depart FROM the appearance at some given time.

This limitlessness is always there - all already comes and goes within it.  It is never absent.  This limitless isn't reached or arrived at - how can limitlessness be arrived at by the limited?  The limited must already appear within limitlessness.

Can there be anything outside of limitlessness?  Can limitlessness have any conditions?  Can limitlessness have any boundaries?  Can limitlessness need anything?  Is limitlessness in need of Love or acceptance or attention?  Is limitlessness finite in space and time?  Is limitlessness in need of a change?

Other words for limitlessness are perfection, freedom, boundlessness, Joy, Peace, Happiness and Love.  These are all words pointing to the same "thing".

YOU are that limitlessness, right now, before the next spiritual accomplishment, before the next book is read, before the next attempt at figuring it out.  Notice this limitlessness, which IS.  You ARE.  "I AM".  Same "thing".

Watch from I AM

What do you mean when you say "I AM"?

I AM is a confirmation of Being.  But what are you indicating with this confirmation?  A body?  A mind?

What does it mean to BE, right now in direct experience?  Without any imaginings or projections, without any concepts, what does it mean to be able to confirm "I AM"?

What is this I-AM-ness?  This present Being?  If the layers of conceptual identification are peeled back, what is left?

Stay right in that I AM-ness.  From there watch as the thoughts come and go, telling stories about this or that.  Watch as the body manifests as various sensations.  Watch as the world situation or experience changes constantly.  Watch how the mind makes the changing experience good or bad.  Watch how the body tenses in resistance to that which is disliked.

Just watch from that I AM-ness.

Soon you will realize you have never NOT been watching from that I AM-ness.

Purnam

There isn't anything wrong with you.  There is nothing you need to change, get right, correct, do better.  Nothing needs to be manipulated or controlled.  Nothing imperfect needs perfecting.

You are perfect, right now, even if you don't know it.  What you are is limitless, perfect and free.  It is ALREADY so.  There is no making it so.  There is only realizing your present perfection, your present limitlessness.

It is the idea that you are not perfect which gives rise to suffering, the idea that right now, what IS, isn't good enough, should be better.  In taking yourself to BE a separate entity you automatically limit what you are.  But even this idea of separation is a perfect expression of that limitlessness that you are.

So the call is not to correct or change anything, but simply take an honest look at how you imagine reality, to investigate the platform you build and stand upon.  From that platform the world is made up of separate things, of opposing goods and bads, and then there is always the pursuit of what is better.

There is literally nothing in existence outside of this moment.  This moment contains the entirety of existence.  And that existence isn't a static existence, something which can be captured in a pointer or some spiritual experience.  Experience itself IS the pointer - whatever that experience might be.  Qualifying experiences and calling some good and some bad, some spiritual and some "un-enlightened" is simply bullshit.  It is entirely missing the point.

Experience itself IS the pointer - not this experience or that experience - experience ITSELF.  Everything you know, everything you imagine yourself to be, is contained WITHIN experience.  From this perspective you cannot truly find yourself at all - you are not an experience - how could you be?  Can you be an experience to yourself?

Yet if we just take an honest but simple look - just discard all the spiritual bullshit and hoping for some special state to suddenly appear - if we just rest in what IS without requiring it to be something else, without placing demands on it, without expectations - if we just remain with experience as a friend, as a gentle companion - it may dawn that the one who knows the experience is not something different from experience.

The experiencer and the experience are one and the same experienc-ing.  Knowing.  Awareness.  The present presence of your own true Self, a Self which was never hidden or yet to come, a Self which was always shining brightly - a Self which IS all that it expresses.

In Vedanta, the Self is called Purnam - this is the Self that is perfect - full - complete - whole.  Without changing anything, without arriving at some future state, without some brilliant flash of light and spiritual revelation, you are already THAT - Purnam.  Give up all false ideas about yourself and that Self is obvious, already present and complete.

Your true Self is Purnam.  You can't make it so - it already IS.

Neti Neti - The Path that leads you to where you already are

Only two things are required - earnestness and openness. 

Earnestness is the stubborn pursuit of what is being pointed to - the impulse to get to the bottom of it, to know what the Hell it's all about.  But also necessary is openness - if that earnestness is there but there is no openness to the possibility pointed to, there will be a constant banging your head, the mouse will run around and around, it will remain a mental exercise because that's the platform of reality.

Lay aside what you think you know about the world and your "self" - these pre-existing ideas are the very veil which seems to block the clarity.  Be open to the possibility that you are not a person at all, you weren't born and are heading towards death, you are not a individual entity born into a world.

In fact the world is born into or within you.  Everything you know - the world, the body and the mind or thoughts - these are all experiences TO YOU.  They come upon you - they appear TO you.  That body is an experience to you, however with the incessant identification you take yourself as bound within that body.

These are all contained within the state we call Consciousness - Consciousness is itself the arising of the world and body-mind experience.  What you are is THAT which KNOWS Consciousness, knows the coming and going of the world, body and mind.

The world came to you.  The body is a field of experience.  Right now, without doing anything different, without having gained anything special or spiritual, what you are is that which knows this field of experience.  That field of experience includes everything you take yourself to be - innocently, inadvertently but also falsely.

There is nothing needed to MAKE it so - to GET liberation - you are already FREE.  Only see the world as it truly is and not through this imagined platform or filter of reality. 

So the spiritual path is a path which takes you home - only you aren't actually going anywhere - going home means realizing you never left.

Peace is another word for YOU

Peace isn't something which is found - something which comes after some pursuit or experience.  Peace isn't getting everything right - it's not when everything is going good.

Peace isn't the absence of conflict.  It is the acceptance of conflict.  It is the very absence of any conditions placed on the world or any experience - feeling - thought. 

Nothing needs to change.  There is no "doing it wrong" - no mistakes.  No manipulation of thought or experience is required.

Simply give up all false ideas about yourself.  Rest in what is certain and obvious.

Present knowing.  The light which illuminates the experiences we call body, mind and world.  That light is presently shining yet overlooked because it's taken as "I am looking".

Can you get out of this knowing?  Has anything ever happened outside of it?  Isn't it primary while all appearance depends on it? 

You are already home, only you don't know it.  Know it and be done.  Peace isn't a state to be reached and held onto - Peace is another word for YOU.

Your Self at Play

What are you presently aware of?

The first answer you give is already false.  Any answer is born from memory, from accumulated, relative knowledge.  The word used is entirely arbitrary - it could have been called anything.  This learned knowledge is not absolute - it is subject to re-definition, to re-interpretation.  Once the world was seen as flat - it was seen as the center of the universe.  This was absolute until someone took a boat to the edge or developed a telescope strong enough.

The world you take as real, made up of things, is entirely false.  It is merely a changing totality - if we must call it anything we can call it Consciousness, as Consciousness is the totality of it.  This world of things and people comes anew each morning and passes without a trace at night.  What we CALL Consciousness IS itself the world - in fact you never see anything BUT Consciousness. 

Consciousness is not a property of an individual - the individual is a relative appearance IN Consciousness.  Is this not the most obvious fact?  Without Consciousness this individual cannot be formulated, conceptualized, the various sensations and perceptions cannot be put together in a sweeping imagination and called "ME".

We can narrow the definition of reality down to two things - You and Consciousness.  YOU are that which knows Consciousness, including all that comes with it - the imagination which creates the idea of "World".  Yet what we CALL Consciousness is not actually apart from YOU.  When we look at it this way, it might become clear that Consciousness is simply a movement of that presence, a wave of that present ocean of knowing.  For Consciousness is not a thing apart from YOU.  It is simply a shadow of the absolute reality that you are.

Nothing needs to be done except to give up the relative definitions, the imagination which is taken for absolute reality.  When the appearances of Consciousness are no longer attached to, when the various changing attributes, the names and forms, are no longer taken as independent things but aspects of the totality, there is the possibility to recognize the wholeness of your Self.

Then that Self is not special, not new, not some spiritual revelation but the most ordinary and obvious reality.  It always has been this way, only it was taken as separate, a world of independent things.

All you ever know is Consciousness - and Consciousness is simply your own Self at play.

The easiest puzzle

No questions need answered.  No experience needs to come.  No realization is required.

Reality is one, one happening, one potentiality, one IS-ness.

The only way to grasp it is to not grasp.  The only way to find it is to be it.

The only way to see it is to be the seeing.  But you cannot DO that because you already ARE that.

Only the imagination about what you are falls away.

Without imagination reality has no walls, no borders, no separation.  Without imagination reality has no individuals, no lives, no deaths.

Without imagination reality has no subject nor object, although even the descriptions, in which subject and object are put, are not other than reality.

It's like the eye trying to see the eye or the finger trying to touch itself.  It is a puzzle which only has one piece.

It is so close it cannot be apprehended.  It is not hidden but the most obvious thing you've ever known.

Stop - you're looking in the wrong place.  Any place is the wrong place.  Any thing is the wrong thing.

Look where no one can possibly look and you will find what never needed finding.

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