Sunday, September 19, 2010

First Things First

We are often getting ahead of ourselves in the spiritual search.  There is a sense that you are an individual - that you are a person abiding in a body-mind.  And every bit of seeking is done from within this sense, within this paradigm of reality.

So we hear that all is one or there is no separation.  So we naturally try to make sense of that from within our paradigm of reality, a reality of "things".  We try to figure out how that chair is the same as the desk, the same as the cat or the rock or the mountain.  How in the Hell are things one?  It just doesn't make sense, and really it never will.

We expect to be able to find Oneness from the perspective of Manyness, to find "nonduality" from a dualistic mindset, to force-fit our concepts into enlightenment.  It's nonsense and futile.

We must slow down and get a handle of the most basic pointer - are you the mind, or are you aware of the mind?

Can you come to a conviction on this question, before trying to superglue the universe of objects into some big conceptual ball of Oneness?  Can you say with certainty if you ARE the mind, or are you aware of it?

You are able to describe thoughts.  They must be something which you are aware of.  They are something which comes and goes - you remain unchanged as they come and go.  What you are ISN'T a thought.  Can you notice this with certainty?  Can you come to a concrete conclusion about this one point?  Then when thoughts come, you know with confidence that they are not what you are - you are not the mind.  This single point is critically important, yet we overlook it or just gloss over it in the attempt to jump-in head-first into enlightenment.

But it won't ever work, because it's not that enlightenment is something difficult - it's that our idea about reality is an incorrect translation.  So we must notice this translation - notice where it is false.  And the primary false concept is that you ARE the mind.  Notice, once and for all, that this idea is false.  You are NOT the mind.

Then immediately there is a freedom from the mind - because you are there as the "watcher" of mind.  You begin to take note of it instead of being bound by it, subject to it's constant reference.  You are something altogether outside of the mind - you are not a thought, not an idea, not a concept, not a memory, nothing the mind has to offer can capture you, bind you.  You notice yourself as something in which mind arises.  That "lifelong" identification is broken.

Can you say with 100% confidence, right now, that you are are not the mind, but that to which the mind appears?  Can you put that false concept to bed, once and for all?

6 comments:

su said...

yes.

Roeland said...

Thank you, very clear and easy to understand.

Love,
Roeland

billtys said...

Hello Randall,

Thank you again...and again...

It could be thought that advaita, or non duality is a massive volume of pointers and concepts which need to be studied and ingested.

But no...

Your powerful blog, containing this one important pointer, needs to be read ernestly, carefully and with openess...

Surely after doing that, it is clear and obvious that the presence or absence of experience (including this investigation) registers on or in what I am.

Nothing more needs to be done or understood...the investigation is complete.

Love to you...

Bill Tys

Bez Imini said...

All of you (who have so far posted) are deluding yourselves.

It is easy to be filled with all the IDEAS of non-duality, and then verify these ideas when reading statements like Randall makes.
Non-duality has been made into a system of concepts which can be remembered and then verified against what one has learned, under the guise of "understanding".

Randall has just identified his self with the consciousness that is functioning in the body. Self can identify with many things: body, personal history, objects, mind, and yes...even consciousness.

So called "non-duality" is just an evolved form of self-aggrandizement. The self believes it is the consciousness.

The self may believe it is not the mind, as Randall so confidently states, and this will certainly reduce the activity of the mind (and induce stillness, peace, bliss, etc.) but it's just another (albeit relatively harmless) example of the highly programmable nature of the brain.

billtys said...

Are you awake?

Awakefullness cannot be denied.

No declaration, thought or sense of this awakefullness need be there for it to be...it just is...it is not a concept...it is not an idea...

The next thought or post that is made will appear in that non conceptual awakefullness...

Are you the thought or the post? Or does the thought or the post appear in the awakefullness?

Dennis said...

Dennis John said

Scienlightened said...
All of you (who have so far posted) are deluding yourselves.

It is easy to be filled with all the IDEAS of non-duality, and then verify these ideas when reading statements like Randall makes.

The nondual pointers are refering to personal experiencing. Something Randall states..many times. Not another mental concept taken blindly by someone. Thoughts are seen, arrising and dissapearing. When there is this experiencing there is NO doubt. That will be it, end of story! But after reading your post brother... you can think about it!;-)Many man and women gave great advise, you could try it; be quiet for a while and see. Thoughts just appear and You got nothing to do with that. Have a look.