Friday, February 5, 2010

The First Step is Too Much

Q: Hi Randall ~ I bought your book and read it ~ there was something ineffable yet irresistible in that book. It was like you were trying to tell me something but no words could quite touch it ~ the way you led the mind down the road and then abruptly pulled the rug out was brilliant. After reading the book there was just a stillness ~ like an entire lifetime of fighting was fighting against illusion ~ that fighting and struggling were ended when that book was finished. Thank you for that.

Then I read something you recently wrote on your blog, and it seems to have struck a strong chord out of the blue and unexpectedly ~ "Therefore any object is a direct experience of your own SELF. There is no awareness HERE and object THERE. There is no awareness INSIDE and an objective world OUTSIDE. Awareness and experience are one and the same reality. One nondual reality. One IS-ness."

It is not like a logical or intellectual understanding ~ of course logically it doesn't make any sense. But there is just an obviousness revealing itself like it doesn't really have to be understood mentally. At any moment, that nondual reality just is. And then the mind comes in to translate it and in doing so it applies separation. That means separation is only a concept in mind but not in actual reality.

Something else you wrote goes along with this ~ you said something like "this moment has no beginning and no ending." It is like this mental applying of concepts and separation is where that idea of beginning and ending come in. It is still this imaginary concept at work but that nondual reality is just, as you say, "what IS."

It is extremely simple but very obvious. Actually so obvious that it was overlooked constantly, because there was a search for something to come. Waiting for something to come was the reason the simplicity and obviousness was overlooked ~~LOL!

There is just a peace which seems to have come from nowhere. It is like it was there all along, just covered up with all the ideas about separation. Those ideas seemed to cover up the peace because it was a constant conflict, seeking and trying to get something. And when that didn't come there was frustration. But it is clear there isn't anything to get after all. This nondual reality is already the case. It has always been the case but the mind created the idea of an individual who needed to find something. And that idea of an individual was the very roadblock. Because assuming the individual assumes reality is separate. The first desire to get anything is already too much. It is already a step away from this "what IS".

There is a deep gratitude arising. There are no more questions ~ how could there be? Even though there is this love and gratitude arising it is inexpressible because to speak of it requires imagination about a divided reality ~ And there is no such thing!



A: Beautifully put, my friend. Very clear. The first step in seeking is already an assumption, a denial of this present nondual reality, a primary split of reality down the middle and then one half is subject and the other is object. This split is only ever imagination.

You're welcome to stay in touch. Love to you.

2 comments:

Mary said...

What a beautiful and clear description! Thank you for sharing. Seeing that the "step away from what is," is also "what is"...priceless.

Matty Boy said...

Randall,

I got to read the sample of the book its very easy to read and the language is as clear and simple it can get.

I was wondering if there are any resellers in Melbourne, if yes i would like to buy a few copies of it so i can share it with others.

Thanks
Matty