Saturday, February 7, 2009

Like the Sky

The appearance of the world and that body-mind is simply due to the mechanism of perception, the apparent "senses" presenting these objects through the prism of what we call the "mind".

The light of Consciousness is seemingly broken up into this and that - yet the appearance is dependent on that light to BE - without the light these "things" would not be known.

That body-mind appears as a movement of this energy, this "one substance" - thoughts come and go in this also - thoughts have nothing whatsoever to do with what you are AS separate "things" - yet there is an identification with these objects - "I am thinking", "my mind"....

This mechanism of thinking puts together the identification - "ME" - and the process of objects appearing - "thoughts" - then there is "I am thinking". This is the intellect, the thinking mind - this is like an opaque boundary - it seems we cannot see past it or through it because we keep slamming into this wall.

This is apparent when we do the inquiry "Who am I?"

We can't find an answer because the question itself is a paradox... We are trying to find out who is asking the question. We are trying to see through the wall of identification from WITHIN the wall itself.

We are asking the question AS the one who wants to know.

We may see that something is knowing the question itself, something is knowing the assumption behind the question, that "I" am in fact "someone", someone separate, individual...

The knower of the question, the knower of the process, the objects called "thought" - THAT knower is what you are. Yet AS the "I" who wants to know, we can never see this.

And that "knower" is Consciousness. Yet it isn't some "thing" - not some "object" that is arising to be known within experience, not some "state" to be experienced BY "you" - this is the core of identification. "YOU" can never see through "YOU" because "YOU" ARE the illusion itself.

It is only when surrender happens that this is seen. Surrender of the "ME" - letting go of the story of "ME" - allowing that identification and all that goes with it, all that we've held on to for dear life, to fall away - basically Death....

Yet YOU cannot surrender as an effort - surrender happens when the seeking runs aground... surrender happens when all the efforts of the "supposed" YOU fails... surrender happens when all the cool "spiritual states" come and go, leaving a trail of frustration and confusion.... when the search itself burns up into ashes and there is completely nowhere left to look, all acquired knowledge leads over and over to dead ends...

Then what is left? Where can we turn? What more knowledge are we missing? We've read everything, listened to every teacher, attended numerous satsangs, read every blog posting 100 times... nothing has worked...

So surrender happens because the search fails - the search fails because there never was anyone searching, no seeker was asking "who am I?"... the only answer is THIS... just THIS right HERE and NOW - whatever is happening - whatever is experienced, whatever "state" happens to be going on, whatever understanding is present - that's IT - that's IT! There can never be anything else...

So the wall of identification, the opaque boundary of thoughts or intellect AS what I am falls away - it is seen through - it is seen as just another object arising and passing IN what you are. The body also comes and goes, just a bundle of sensations conceptualized AS "ME" - this is just seen, through surrender to what IS, as just more objects and experiences.

The opaque wall is in fact transparent - just ASSUMED to be opaque - the resistance or tension of identification was only ever assumption - the "ME" was ASSUMED to be there and all the activities and suffering and happiness was based on this false assumption.

What is left is the very basis for all of it, the ground of all experience, the light which enables these "objects" to be seen or known... that light is Consciousness - intelligence knowing itself...

And this is not a new achievement, not a product of a successful search - this is ALREADY fully present - already here and now - simply overlooked because we're looking from within the identification, holding on to a "ME" that never existed, so proud of our individual existence that we miss the fact that we are transparent, invisible, not appearing unless we point to the Universe itself in it's Totality...

This reality is 100% achieved already, never lost, never missing, never in need of remembering, never needing to be sought out... it is the very light by which the search itself is conducted, the very light by which the sense of "I AM" is known...

This "Totality of Life", this "God", this "Consciousness", this "Oneness" - this is all there ever is... this is "this and that", this is "ME", this is "YOU", this is the search and the ending of the search... this is confusion and clarity... nothing is excluded, nothing can exist except as a dependent reality... nothing can appear without the light behind it, the background of awareness by which it's noticed, the ground of experiencing on which experience comes and goes.

The sky cannot be said to exist unless we point to that which appears BECAUSE OF the sky - clouds, lightning, birds - when we point out the container in which these objects exist, then we know the sky clearly, although we cannot in fact find the sky. The sky is not an object but it is the condition necessary, the principle which allows the clouds to be.

Your true nature is like the sky. Not a "thing" yet all "things" are there because of it.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Randall,
How come 'I' always forget that fact,
that 'I' can't get this? That 'I' have nothing at all to do with it?
You say that talking to you personally will not be helpful, but didn't you talk to people?
Loved the post, love all of what you write and speak and yet you're not there, so anywho, as Gilbert says, back to the Nowingggggggggg.

Randall Friend said...

Mark,

Who forgets? What is really happening? The intellect is involved in other things, that's all...

You are not the intellect. You are aware of the intellect, apparently forgetting - the seeming "intellectual understanding" overshadowed by identification. So what?

It is the intellect that forgets. You are aware of the mental activity during these times of forgetting. So that consciousness is functioning, even though the mental recognition is lost to inattention.

So what more do you want? Your true nature is still shining, still obvious, still unchanging and untouched while the intellect jumps around, lost in identification.

You are not the intellect, not the mental functioning, not the mind, not the thoughts... it is the intellect which says "I AM".

The intellect is involved - you are not. What you are says nothing at all.

Do you follow that? What need is there of talking?


love to you
randall

Anonymous said...

Pristine~
nothing more is needed

Anonymous said...

Randall,
Actually some of your blogs have been read over 100 times by this intellect.
But when you say things like:
"Your true nature is like the sky. Not a "thing" yet all "things" are there because of it" - there just isn't much else worth reading in comparison.
Once again gratitude arises.

Randall Friend said...

Susana,

If the blog is read or not, suffering or not, happiness or not, pain or not - these are all appearances, sensations/perceptions - these are conceptualized as "ME" doing this or this happening to "ME", "my body".

These sensations and perceptions appear TO what you are, the nonconceptual and uninvolved pure Consciousness - in fact Consciousness IS these sensations/perceptions.

Can the sensations called "body" be separated from the Consciousness IN WHICH they appear? Can these sensations exist apart, be known apart from Consciousness?

The "body-mind" and "the world" are appearances OF Consciousness, Life knowing itself. As such there is nothing to do with them, nothing to learn, nothing to gain, nothing to get, no additional knowledge or "state" needed, simply because any knowledge or "state" would be just another appearance known TO Consciousnes, within Consciousness, AS Consciousness itself.

What you are is already ever uninvolved, already simply the pure witness of whatever sensations or perceptions arise.

Can you find anything that isn't a sensation or perception appearing to Consciousness? Anything? Ever?

So you are left as you already are. As you have always been. Only the false assumption of separation, of a "ME" separate from a "world", has seemingly fallen away....

Anonymous said...

absolutely everything, every thought, every object, every feeling, everything is just an appearance.
appearing, disappearing, appearing, again and again.
no validity, no substance, only stories, beautiful and horrific appearing -

Randall Friend said...

Yes - constant changing appearances, the fact from which time and space is conceptualized - yet none of it can appear outside of perceiving itself - how else would you know them?

And this perceiving, this experiencing, this fact of knowingness, is what we call "I".

You. You are that. Simple ordinary knowing awareness - not ever touched, not ever involved. Perfect and unshakable Peace. Already fully present. The suffering and seeking susana is only a false claim of the intellect, a story referencing no one.

What knows the story of susana?

Anonymous said...

What knows the story of Susana?

Nothing.
Susana is a story, what is there to know about a story other than things appear and disappear and there is joy and suffering but all of it is a story.
Beyond the story and the identification with this story is a peace palpable in its emptiness, untouched by anything, unmotivated to become and ever present.

Chris said...

Hello Randall and thanks again for this brilliant post! May I ask you to further elaborate the following statement please, if only a little?

"the search fails because there never was anyone searching, no seeker was asking "who am I?"... the only answer is THIS... just THIS right HERE"

"I" could understand this partly, at least conceptually. It does seem though that there is seraching going on still here. The reading of this blog here for example. Do you simply mean that there is misidentification with this false "me", thus meaning there is no separate self doing the search? Is this meant to be taken literally, that there never was a search at all?

Please excuse all the confusion ;-)

Christian

Randall Friend said...

Christian,

The "ME" will always be stuck in an intellectual or conceptual understanding because it's always referencing something that is non-existent.

This "ME" is the intellect - the ever-changing wave of thoughts - this "process" seems to take substance, solidity - it seems to be what we are. Within the static of the intellect there is the assertion or notion that "I" exist separate from the world.

This intellect is what is searching - yet as everything else that arises within the intellect - the search is uninvited, unrequested... it simply comes and then the questions start.

Something remains to register this intellect, these questions, this process, this reference point called "ME". Something is aware of the search. So in moments of frustration and confusion, something knows the coming and the going of confusion. Then that is followed by clarity - something is aware of the ending of confusion and the appearance of clarity - that is called "insight" yet something had to remain unchanged and aware throughout the flow from confusion to clarity. Then comes "Ah, I understand."

This "I" being pointed to or referenced is the apparent seeker - yet that "I" is, in this case, referencing the intellect, the process or wave of confusion followed by clarity, only to be replaced by confusion and frustation.

The real "I" is THAT which knows the entire show, THAT which watches the play go by - uninvolved, unattached, like a swan upon the surface of the water, floating yet never immersed... That knowing is the true Self.

So the search isn't resolved due to getting all the answers. The search falls away due to the clear seeing that the "I" or identity or intellect that is searching is non-existent. The search starts with "ME" seeking and ends with the annihilation of the "ME".

The annihilation doesn't mean it was here and now it's gone. Annihilation in this sense means a realization that, although seemingly real, it was never true, never what you truly are.

You are not the intellect, not the mind. You are THAT which knows the coming and going, the ever-changing static known as the intellect. There never was an individual present doing anything - only the identification in thought - what you are is that invisible knowing consciousness or awareness. And that never requires a search to know. The search arises IN consciousness which must precede any search.

The search dies because the "ME" dies - the story of "ME" is seen as only a story - only written in thought or intellect - yet this death isn't something that IS and then now ISN'T - this death is the death of illusion, of assumption, of false identification.

The search ends because it becomes clear there is no individual - this was just illusion - therefore no "ME" remains to search.

love to you
randall