Sunday, October 17, 2010

Only YOU

You must back yourself into a corner - eliminating all that is not obviously true.  Discarding all that is imaginary or assumption.

Entertain the impossible - the illogical.  Don't let anything be taken for granted.

Try to find yourself as another "thing" - see where you stop and start.  Find out what is your shape or size. 

Start with the only thing you know with absolute certainty - you exist.  Existence is certain.  You are here.  No one can convince you that you are not here.  You have always been here, no matter the circumstance, no matter the situation, no matter the quality of experience -  your presence has been the constant factor.

So what is that presence?  How do you know you exist?  Is it because you see a body?  Is it because thoughts are there?  No - it is because you KNOW.  Because you are aware.  Awareness is the proof of your existence or presence.

And the body and thoughts are objects of this awareness, are they not?  The body does not know you - thoughts do not know you.  You know the body and thoughts.  So it is a peculiar arrangement.  You are there, however you aren't anything perceivable or conceivable.  You aren't anything knowable.  Yet you know you are here.

Isn't this strange?  To know you ARE, yet not to be able to find yourself, know yourself?  So we spend decades trying everything we can to find ourselves.  It's quite a funny situation we are in.

The answer is that you will never find yourself in these terms, in terms of objectivity.  As some "thing".  AS some "thing " you would be absolutely limited, separate.  Your concept of bondage would be true, because AS a thing you are absolutely limited by all that you are not.  You are not a chair, not a dog, not a planet, not a cheeseburger.

But you cannot find yourself AS a thing anyway, because you AREN'T a thing.  So instead of spending another twenty years looking for yourself AS a thing, just notice that your presence isn't determined by thing-ness.  It isn't determined by objective attributes.  You are here.  Your presence is certain. 

But because it isn't objective, because that presence doesn't come with attributes like some "thing", the mind tries to place it somewhere - upon some "thing" - this is the nature of identification.  So this experience called "body-mind" is used - that presence is, right now, being placed upon something objective, falsely, because there is no other place to put it.  Where can you put silence, stillness, no-thing-ness, presence-awareness?

The fact is that you are simply here, always.  Your presence will never become something -  you will never find yourself as some particular experience.  You are simply here, without being some "thing" in particular.  Stay with that presence but don't try to objectify it.  Notice how the mind constantly tries to objectify it, and always fails. 

Just be as you are - just BE - Stop trying to make yourself into something you are not.  And once that unknowable presence is noticed as what you are, then notice that even these so-called "things" or "experiences" are not really split from what you are - they are not actually something different, something other, something opposite. 

In reality there is only YOU.

15 comments:

billtys said...

Hello Randal,

What a powerful post. Thank you.

I have a question which is difficult for me to formulate...but it goes something like this.

The appearance seems to validate the pure subjectivity which I am.

Now I am reading that the appearance has nothing to do with what I am. The ultimate is that I know, I am aware...I do not need to sense or think or say this to be aware...

If there is nothing to be aware of would this pure subjectiveity still know?

I am bumbling along now...I hope you can comment.

Love to you,

Bill

Randall Friend said...

Bill,

Hello my friend. Good to hear from you.

The subjectivity IS the knowing without being a "thing" - it is that "thingness" which is exactly the same as separation. AS a thing separation is inescapable, but the fact that you aren't a thing at all is very obvious. That knowing "subjectivity" is not another "thing".

It isn't that there is a capacity of knowing that starts and stops. It isn't that there is a world of objects outside of yourself waiting to be known. It is that this Being and Knowing are one and the same reality.

What we call Consciousness - this comes and there is an apparent world of objects - the subject/object equation can function - it is this Consciousness by which you know that you are. This aliveness or existence is evident because of this coming and going of Consciousness, this coming and going, this duality... It is duality itself which points directly at that nondual nature - you are only aware of yourself - that empty subjectivity is actually the fullness itself.

Knowing is an expression of Being - Being Knowing itself - sat-chit-ananda - therefore duality is not the enemy - duality is the expression of fullness.

The individual is ultimately not other than that essence - it is initially seen as a thing among things - that is the essence of separation. Then that individual is seen as only a thought, only an idea, a construct. This leaves you hanging as only the witness - the pure empty observer of the world - pure experiencing. And then experiencing is noticed to be exactly the same as experience itself - no separation. That "individual" you took to be real was taken as real because it IS real - it IS the only reality - but there is nothing outside or other than that.

Shankara said - there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and Individual Self. That "I" you know so well - you only know because of this knowing - Consciousness - without it you do not know that you are - but there isn't a world outside of you or opposite you or other than you. There is one essence - one singular "happening" - one IS-ness - and you have never been divided from that.

No matter how the words are put together, they can never grasp it, but it doesn't require grasping - it is ever here, ever present, ever just THIS immediacy, this IS-ness. The breeze through the grass, the hum of the fan, the faint smell of baking, the load honk of a passing horn.

No experience is excluded, simply because there is no actual difference between experience and the experiencing, the knowing, that which is BEING Itself - Life at play - no particular experience is required because ALL experience is IT - whatever that experience may be.

This is called Peace - unconditional - no experience is excluded - no special experience is needed. All experience is THAT - because it's just CALLED experience which requires an experienc-ER in language - it REQUIRES separation but that separation is merely academic.

There is truly only your Self - and that Self is all there is. Another way to say it is - place not the first condition upon experience and already the Kingdom of Heaven is upon you.

But you already knew that... (wink)


love
randall

Unknown said...

Hi randall,

This blog is amazing. After I read the question "Is there anywhere you cannot find youself?" An answer came immediately with certainty.

'No, I am in everything. I am everything.' This knowing was positive as if it had'nt come from this mind.

A wonderful feeling came with this knowing. There was this intense love for everyone. A love I never have felt before. This knowing and this beautiful love make me want to dive into this way of being/seeing. Does this sound right and/or make sense to you?

Thankyou so much, Larry

Unknown said...

Hey Randall your reply to Bill addressing the 'individual self' is awesome- we often hear "there is no individual"- so this is a cool slant.
EXCEPT i do not know what a "load honk" is?!?!? HAHAHA joking- Sorry, your typos are few so i had to jump at this one. Truth is i am so dumb that i was sitting there contemplating "what is a load honk? I’m missing some valuable information here...."

Randall Friend said...

Larry,

Hello my friend.

That Love is never absent. It isn't coming in anew - it is simply uncovered when the wanting is at rest. There is nothing to dive in to - THIS immediacy is IT. The delineation of a separate individual who is the subject is merely a mental construct, an innocent attempt at quantification or communication of reality.

Reality is not made whole - it IS whole. When the translations of separation are seen as false there is an opening - that opening clears the way for that unconditional - the absence of conditions is exactly the same as the absence of wanting. In that opening what we call Love, Peace or Joy shines through.

It is your very own Self.


love
randall

Randall Friend said...

HA!! What a load! A Load Honk. Yes, you're missing the special spiritual insight into load honking.

Must spend many years meditating on the load honks... ha!

Unknown said...

Thankyou randall,

This info is mind blowing.

What was previously written implied the existence of 'me' the individual. It is intellectually seen to not exist and yet it keeps reappearing thru habit. Maybe this belief takes a while to completely dissolve.

Since the individual does'nt exist, does any 'thing' exist and is any phenomena really happening or is it all imaginary like a sleep dream? Can this be known?

Thanks again, Larry

Randall Friend said...

Larry,

Thing-ness is the nature of separation. The mind only works in thingness or duality. It cannot operate without quantifying, categorizing - that's it's job - there isn't anything wrong with it but it tells a story of a world of things - you are then just one small insignificant thing.

AS a thing, you must be separate. It is the nature of things that they are limited. Try to think of a thing that is unlimited. Things are defined by their attributes, by their difference from other things. They are objective - they have shape, size, color - they are definable in terms of time - they have a beginning and and eventually end, die, disappear, etc. Things also are limited in terms of space - they are 3 by 4 inches - 6 by 6 feet, etc.

The mind places reality into boxes. It assigns names to forms. Our language is structured around this - nouns verbing nouns.

Nouns are things.

So you know that you exist, you are the subject of this present experience - the experience called "reading a blog". You are the subject, not the object, yes?

So what is the subject? Once again we must thing in terms of things. So the subject must also be a thing. What thing can we place this subject upon? Well, the body and thoughts are very convenient and natural. So that present subject is IDENTIFIED AS the body-mind. But is it true?

Isn't the body an object? Aren't you the subject to the experience "body"? Isn't thought objective to you? Does thought know YOU? No - thought cannot know YOU - you know thought. So you are the subject to the object - body-mind.

So what IS the subject? Notice the immediate attempt to quantify that subject still. To find someTHING else to place it upon? Can it be done?

We can certainly spend a lifetime trying, but it is absolutely unnecessary. The subject is not a thing at all. The mind cannot grasp that - it's like saying - is SILENCE a thing?

So the subject isn't another thing, yet it's perfectly present at all times, yes? YOU are HERE. You know that. You can say "I AM" with certainty, without a doubt - but that TO WHICH those words refer cannot be located in terms of THING-ness. Even to call it the "subject" is to make a noun of it.

We really can't call it anything - you are just here - you know you are here, but you cannot find yourself, and there is no sense in even trying. Just rest in the natural recognition that you aren't a thing to be perceived, to be known. Your presence is the knowing going on right now. We CALL it awareness but that word has it's own bucket of concepts.

You are simply HERE - you are present, but you are not findable - you will never appear as another experience - you will never find yourself as some blue light, as some mystical experience, as some peace or love or joy or bliss.

You already ARE peace, love, joy, bliss - those are words which point to one condition - the ABSENCE of conditions - the ABSENCE of wanting - the ABSENCE of thingness, which is the same thing as the absence of DUALITY.

You aren't going to FIND Oneness. You ARE THAT - you ARE what that word points to. So simply rest in the recognition of the absence of yourself as some thing, then see if there is any boundary between yourself and the world...


love
randall

Unknown said...

The blog has been read. Thanks for the wonderful answers and insights. The book /You are no thing/ was just ordered. Gratitude is immense.

Larry, a name and a seperate person was just a belief/assumption
Thank God

Randall Friend said...

Larry,

Yes, but don't take these words as some sort of gospel to be believed in. As words they are ultimately meaningless and point to something innately obvious right now. Rest in that obviousness of your own Self - and if there is a reference to Larry recognize that reference for what it truly is - a reference to a bundle of stories and images which hold no actual separate substance or independent nature.

There is nothing wrong with Larry - it is the viewpoint through which Life is aware of itself, so to speak.


love
randall

Charlie Hayes said...

Rock It Randall!!
Love ya my Friend
Your pal in No Thing No Where
No-Charlie

Randall Friend said...

Hey Charlie,

How are you brother? Good to hear from you.


love
randall

Charlie Hayes said...

Hi Randall,

Never better my dear friend!
All is always well for The Unborn!

I LOVE your expression, looks like quite a few are waking up to What Is, through your pointing out the Truth and also what is false... the two sides of Nonduality! Ha!

Much Love to you.

André said...

Friend, your reply to Larry was felt as particularly strong in here.

There is the deepest desire here to simply abide in the recognition of the natural state. So much has been done, so many doors have been knocked on. And, strangely enough, the recognition came, and in full power, as far as I can tell. No words will ever aply to it, to the certainty of no-self, the bliss, the space, just pure amazing love and gratitude and absolute rest and peace.

That's why the lie of individuality is felt as so painful - because the truth about Being was seen felt known.

I don't know what to do... I've meditated enough, I've read enough, I've talked, I've thought, I've searched enough... I've traveled the world searching for It. It was found, and it was known that It has never been lost or away. That knowing then collapsed, and the seeking came back.

I feel like someone who is constantly hoping to wake up from a dream, but I don't know what to do anymore...

Love,
André

Randall Friend said...

Andre,

Hello my friend. Good to hear from you.

Reality in it's wholeness was realized - it didn't become whole for a few minutes or hours or days and become split up again - it IS whole and that was recognized.

Seeking is really the root desire - the desire to know yourself, to find yourself. Yet when it is clear you were never missing, then that desire falls away, naturally because reality is whole - only divided in the description of it, in the categorization or quantification or qualification of it.

There is nothing wrong with the qualification of it except it is taken to be real - that belief is natural and innocent. That belief is the whole coming to know itself, finding itself, Life discarding the false cloak of individuality and coming to know itself, not as something new, not as freshly whole, but as always whole, always the case, always only Life aware of itself.

It is not Andre finding wholeness, finding Life. It is Life realizing it is not a limited entity called Andre. It is literally all there is, yet it comes to know itself through the mirage called Andre. Naturally.

If clarity is present, that is Joy. If confusion and seeking is present, that is also Joy - Life expressing itself, knowing itself through the beautiful expression we call Andre.

Ironically, as Life sees through that charade called "Andre", Andre is free to express, Andre is a wonderful concept, a viewpoint or "window" through which Life knows it's own expressions.

Yet it was never Andre seeking after all.


love to you
randall