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.