You Are Already THAT

This is not about a better state yet to come, a better state of mind, better experiences, a more peaceful life. Those are all benefits for an individual. As long as the individual is the center point or reference of the search, the one to whom it's happening, the one who is seeking, then spirituality will always be just another self-help, just another method to remove fear and pain and replace it with some concept of peace or enlightenment.

This is not about something which is yet to come, something which has yet to be achieved, something of benefit later.

This is exactly about this very instant, right now. Whatever that instant might be, whatever it might feel like. This is it. There is nothing else that needs added or removed. This right here and now is the ultimate, the absolute, whole reality, undivided reality. It is already the case.

Therefore this isn't about doing hundreds of hours of meditation in hopes of some divine wisdom being bestowed from beyond. It is about seeing that, in the midst of the daily, the ordinary, the pain and pleasure, Life is Whole. Reality is Whole. Existence is One.

Nothing needs to change - we don't have to get rid of certain bad feelings or thoughts and hold them all tightly in a perfect state of bliss. We don't have to discard anything, manipulate anything.

We only have to directly question our root assumptions we have about reality, about what we ARE. We have to SEE that THAT is what this is about, not some feel-good concept of Enlightenment. We must realize that what is being sought after isn't missing, it isn't now ABSENT. It is only called something else, assumed to be something it's not. It is mistaken, not absent.

Therefore we must examine the idea we have about reality, about the idea that existence is something which comes and goes. We must dive into appearance and see what it is instead of what we assume to be.

In directly and honestly inquiring into this most root and cherished idea about the nature of reality and your Self, you may come to realize that this very instant is Whole Reality, Whole Existence. It doesn't need to be improved or added onto or have the bad removed. It is just as it is, perfect no matter what appears.

Perfect because it is whole and undivided. That is what you are. Now. Not once this is understood. You are already THAT.

Life Finds Itself

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You are the light and the tunnel. You are looking for something to change, for something to be different. In that you assume that this, right here and now, is not it. You assume that what IS, right now, is not good enough, that something else needs to arrive in the form of some state or experience.

The only concern is the idea you have about yourself, about what you are, about reality. Look and you'll notice that everything you believe, therefore everything you think you know, is based on the idea of separation, of independent existences. You have mistaken the coming and going of forms or appearances for the coming and going, the creation and destruction of existence.

It is not existence which comes and goes. What appears is not an absolute "thing". It is not a stand-alone existence. It was not popped into existence from nothing - not existing, then existing, then ceasing to exist.

The ocean is there - then the ocean expresses as a wave. The wave is an appearance OF ocean, a form OF ocean, something ocean is doing. Wave did not come into existence. There is no such "thing" or entity as "WAVE" apart from ocean. If we speak of wave doing this or that, we are speaking conceptually, because it's really OCEAN doing it. It's ocean-appearing-as-wave. We don't need to speak that way because it's clumsy however we have somehow been tricked by the convention of naming appearances, naming activities or expressions.

Tree is Life "treeing". Life-appearing-as-Tree. Yes?
Rock is Life "rocking".

There is no "thing", no stand-alone existence called "tree" or "rock". There is only Life or Existence appearing or expressing AS what we call TREE or ROCK.

All "things" are like this. The body and thoughts are expressions of Life. The body took shape but did not come INTO existence. Existence took shape as BODY. Yes? Life took shape as what we call "body".

And then body will cease to function, naturally. It will take it's last breath, beat it's last heartbeat, and then it will stop functioning. Consciousness will cease to return. That window or perspective or kaleidoscope will close. But nothing happens to Life. Nothing happens to Existence. The wave crashed to the shore and dissolved back into ocean. Nothing happened. Ocean remained ocean. Life remains Life.

The question is - who is present right now, aware or expressing as this appearance we call Consciousness, this stage upon which the stories play out? Who is the intelligence which can say "I EXIST"? Who is seemingly looking out the eyes?

Isn't it Life? Isn't it that Existence or Intelligence? Aren't you Life itself, aware of itself, so to speak? Aren't you that Intelligence, that singular existence?

"Reality is whole and you are that."
"The world is Brahman - ultimately "I" and Brahman are identical."
"You are already what you are seeking."

It isn't difficult. The difficulty lies in breaking with the idea that reality is made up of independent "things" or "EXISTENCE-S", that you are just one of these existences and your existence is finite and separate.

It is not.

Get a Grip

The entirety of the spiritual search can be compressed to one sentence.

Are you what you have taken yourself to be?

This isn't an endeavor to achieve great spiritual states and experiences. This isn't a process by which your life is made better. This is not a self-help method. It is a single question which requires that you look directly into the root idea you have about yourself.

So we must ask - what is it that you presently take yourself to be? Try to get a real good grip on that. It's often very vague and foggy - we have never really stopped and asked this question - we have never really gone down that road in questioning - partly because it seems to be beyond question or doubt - and partly because it's a frightening and uncomfortable topic. We have spent a lot of energy sweeping that topic under the rug because we don't really want to think about it - it takes us down the road of pondering the end of our existence.

But that is exactly what we must look into. The beginning and end of our existence. So first get a good grip on what exactly you take yourself to be - you believe you are an entity which has a finite existence. You believe existence is partitioned - separated - owned. You have your own existence. Existence is something you can possess, in other words - Being is individual and finite.

So you, that entity, began on some day - at conception or during the 9 months of pregnancy or something. Some time during pregnancy you began - your particular existence began. It wasn't there before and then it was. By some magic or natural process you-the-entity sprang into existence from non-existence. You did NOT exist prior to that point.

Now you exist - you-the-entity exist - you stand alone in existence - the existence of a tree is not the same existence as your existence. You presently exist but at some point that will stop. That existence will end. You will cease to BE. You will no longer exist.

Isn't this exactly what we believe? Can you see that this idea requires independent existences - separate existences? This idea is at the very core or root of reality for you. Everything else is built upon that foundation. Your entire life story requires that idea to be true. Your entire concept of yourself requires that idea to be true.

At the very foundation of your idea of reality you take yourself to be a separate and finite entity. However you are now in a spiritual search for wholeness. You are looking for Oneness. You are looking to BECOME ONE. You are interested in something called Nonduality, when the very root idea you have about yourself is of duality - multiple existences which begin and end. Can't you see that as long as you hold this root idea beyond question, any spiritual search is futile and a fantasy? You wish to remain as this independent entity while GAINING some "state" called Nonduality or Enlightenment or Awakening or something.

When we get serious about spirituality, we may see this inherent contradiction and be compelled to actually dig into this idea - take it apart and see what it's made of. We might entertain the ideas we have about existence and see if it is something which begins and ends. Instead we may see that it is only FORMS or expressions or patterns which begin and end while existence itself never changes, never comes and goes. We may see that existence is what IS. And what you actually ARE cannot be other than THAT.

Before we can be free of a concept we must know what it is. Seriously consider what it is you take yourself to be. Get a good grip on that. Don't be afraid to question this idea.