No matter what the experience - world is just an experience called "world" - body is just an experience called "body" - thought is just an experience called "thought" - no matter what the experience - no matter if it's good or bad - pleasant or painful - as these are relative judgments of the same experience - no matter what the experience - there is one thing in common.
It IS.
Something IS. Something EXISTS. What that "something" is, is what we call duality - the description of that something - the judgment of that something - the division of that something into things - into describable ways of communicating. Yet something IS - there is an IS-ness to this, right here and now. This IS. WHAT it is, is duality. The WHAT is irrelevant. We can never say WHAT it is - because we are always knowing it through a limited means. Yet we cannot deny that we are knowing SOMETHING. Something that IS.
That tree is IT. That rock is IT. That thought about paying the bills is IT. No matter the experience, no matter how that IS-ness is manifested, no matter how that EXISTENCE appears, the one thing in common is the IS-ness of it, and that never changes.
If we are stuck in the appearance of it, we are subject to the waves, to the coming and going of it, we are fooled by the apparent division of it. Therefore what I am must be just one of these small insignificant things, something which also began and therefore will end like the rest. My time is limited and that is suffering.
But what APPEARS isn't the absolute reality - AS appearance. A tree isn't absolute - it's experience CALLED "tree" - something EXISTS - it appears AS "tree" - Tree-the-appearance comes and goes - was born and will die - yet EXISTENCE doesn't come and go - only the name and form "tree" was born and will die. When we take appearance (TREE) as absolute we believe the story that goes along with it. Quite frankly, the story is bullshit.
And this isn't some spiritual mumbo-jumbo, something gained from 20 years of sitting in a cave. It's obvious. It's reality BEFORE the bullshit is layered over. It's just simply WHAT IS - right now. It's just about reality - it's not about some new mystical spiritual state or experience. If you want those you can have all you want but it's not about those new states. It's just about reality AS IT IS, right here and right now.
You exist. Therefore you are existence. Therefore what IS, is what you are. You were not something which was born and will later die. The body took shape and will dissolve. Nothing happens to what you are. Nothing happens to existence when a form disappears, just as nothing happens to the ocean when a wave crashes onto the shore. Nothing happens to clay when a pot is broken. Nothing happens to gold when a chain is melted down. When the body dies - when Consciousness ceases to provide it's limited viewpoint, nothing happens to YOU.
14 comments:
Along the lines of "when the student is ready, the teacher appears", this came at a good time for me. Reinforcement, really.
Thanks, Randall.
Mike,
Good to hear from you, my friend. It's really all saying the same thing over and over and over in a thousand different ways.
Reality is WHOLE and YOU are THAT.
What the hell else could you be?
love
randall
Thank you Randall. Words limit everything and nothing in our world and is only a tool used for communication so that we can understand that which we cannot and accept our own existence. Just be. Grow.
Love and light,
Christine
Christine,
Good to hear from you, my friend.
love
randall
Hi Randall,
Love your clear speaking -- so far I've just bumped into you via UGC. I have yet to listen to the secondlife recordings. But will soon -- they're loaded up looking for a time to air.
I went through the whole Ruthless Truth thing. I looked and saw that there was no "I" in the same way as most other stuff. Yet now, investigating this nondual stuff in greater detail, I see a lot of folks pointing to "I Am." Even "You are that" seems to contradict the RT method of 'there is no you.'
It's all just words and ideas and such but it can be kind of confusing.
Perhaps the distinction is that 'there is no you' is pointing this concept of the personal you and the doer and such whereas you are that is pointing to the fact that while there is no personal you there is everything else and 'you' are no different from them. no separation, etc.
The 'I Am' pointer still hits a snag here though. If what there is is this ever-present awareness why label it as 'I Am'? Doing that seems to re-up the personal I idea?
Charlie,
Hello my friend. Good to hear from you.
We might say "there is no 'I'" or "there is nothing BUT 'I'".
There is no "you" means there is no separate entity which is what we mean by "ME" or "YOU".
It is this entity which you take yourself to be, some existence which began at a particular date and time, an existence distinct, separate and apart from other existences, an existence which exists only for a time and then will come to an end - that existence will STOP. That is your idea of what you are.
Yet in spirituality we are seeking wholeness, Oneness, whatever the Hell we want to call it today. We have a solid idea of ourselves as this separate thing and then seek wholeness or nonduality. It's a fantasy. It's a farce. What is separate cannot BECOME whole. If that is your idea of yourself then you can give up seeking now because if you are separate then you cannot become whole through spirituality.
The only other possibility is that you never WERE separate, that your existence did not actually begin nor will it end, that FORMS or expressions come and go yet what you are never begins nor ends. It is in identifying with something that comes and goes, is born and dies, the body-mind, which creates the idea that you are some "Thing", some "ME".
We can inquire or repeat - there is no you - there is no you - it becomes a useless mantra. Better to look into the ideas we have about existence and forms, Life itself, and see if what we believe is actually true. Poke our ideas and see how they squirm. Question and doubt our most cherished ideas at their very root and see if they actually hold up to that inquiry.
This is something that you must do - no one can do it for you. When you realize that your ideas about yourself and the world have all been built on a mountain of bullshit, then the opening is there to rest in that which already IS, to recognize that you are already that intelligence or Life which IS what exists.
There IS Life or Intelligence or Existence - one whole reality - just this right here and now. This is already wholeness. Nothing needs to change but it is recognized to be whole and the false falls away naturally. You are that Life, that Intelligence, that one Essence which appears as form, which appears as an appearance along with Consciousness.
Find something that resonates and stick with that at all costs. Be willing to throw out everything, all ideas, all concepts, all beliefs.
When you die before you die, you realize you were never born.
love
randall
Thanks Randall, that just blew me away. It's about dying before I die, you're so right about that. The more awareness I gain, the more I see that I must place all my eggs in one basket, total fearlesness and earnestness are needed don't you think?
Nothing is needed. You already are what you are seeking. If you do not know this then fearlessness and earnestness, along with honesty, are excellent to have.
Hi Randall,
In some ways this seems all absurdly simple. You are that, and all that. Right here, this is it. The natural state is already fully accessible, etc. There is no you. There is everything but you, etc. Ever present awareness right here right now....Enough said!
But when I hear die before you die and you realize you were never born, it seems complicated again.
I'm pretty sure I was born. Here "I" is used in the conventional sense to refer to this body. The body was born. Didn't see it happen mind you. It's not happening at the moment and now is all there is; got that. But there is an apparatus for awareness. I've seen people be born and I see them now and they have grown. And so I tend to believe, even though no belief is true, that this apparatus also fits into the pattern of bodies being born.
But I get it, I am not the body. So, technically, I was never born? It does seem like a technicality. And die before you die also refers to this too, right? There is no you, there is no one to die. In effect the belief in "I" dies or just vaporizes or is seen through and so you can say I die. But since the body is still cooking there has been no bodily death. Hence die before you die. Okay.
I guess what I'm coming to terms with is the fact that this search for awakening or whatever was just a giant chasing-tail syndrome. That's done. Still, thoughts come up and mostly they just pass away like every other appearance. And most of the time I don't have a clue why I should express anything at all on this matter. Why? And so I write to you right now with that in mind. Why even write another thought about this? The thoughts and questions themselves are just coming and going and don't really merit much sustained attention.
Have a great weekend!
c
Charlie,
Who was it that was born? And what exactly does that mean?
This is what is really means to us: it means - I am a new, unique, different, separate existence. I exist. I am independent. I stand alone. Nothing else is my existence. My existence exists independently of other existences. I am not a tree. I am not a rock. I am not John or Mary.
So it is this independent existence which is up for question and inquiry in Vedanta. Were you born means - did your existence begin? Is it YOUR existence? Is there such a thing as partitioned existence? Separated existences? Where did this idea come from?
In inquiring along this line we may end up looking at the body itself - the body is cells - once it exited the mother's womb it was called an infant - one second before it was called a fetus. It was still only a bundle or mass or pattern of cells. Prior to this it was a smaller mass of cells, back until it was only the combination of two cells - the sperm and ovum. The sperm and ovum come from the testes and ovaries - at one point in the development of the body these sexual organs were the same organ. The cells are the same.
So trace back the body to the original cell - was that YOU? If you are that body then that original cell must also have been YOU. If it was not, then at what point did you arrive? At what point did you begin? If it IS YOU, then you are only a cell, a pattern of molecules - no brain, no lungs, etc.
SO which is it? Did you magically appear after cell number 3,455,302 was formed? Is that the magic number in the appearance or beginning or creation of that "separate existence"?
So we entertain these things - we look with scrutiny upon our most cherished and unquestionable beliefs. We see if they are true or if they even really make sense. We can negate just about all of them - the only thing you can never negate is your own Self.
This search will take many turns - don't get discouraged. March on. Ask questions whenever that arises. Simply be honest and earnest and you cannot fail.
love
randall
well i'm wondering when this body became able to be the node of awareness it is. at some point in its biological development it became capable of being aware -- of itself and everything else. I don't know what the cell count was when that happened.
all this is still conceptual.
i'm looking right now to the right on your site "There is one reality, and you are that." Hey it makes sense. "But...." -- and it doesn't matter what comes after that 'but.' Clearly I'm looking and speaking from being identified with a little wave...I understand, as a wave, that I'm no different than the ocean, and that there is no boundary between my waviness and the rest of the ocean...yet...
it is conceptual.
Charlie,
Did the body become "the node of awareness"? Where did this idea come from?
Question all ideas - even the most spiritual. Be ruthless and honest. The "node of awareness" is bullshit, isn't it? If you're completely honest, isn't that really bullshit?
Don't bypass the questioning into the ideas you have about your own birth and death. Truly look into them. Question this idea that you are an entity which began - an independent existence. The "person" is a complete fiction.
You are the intelligence which is manifesting as the world. And that intelligence is presently aware of itself through the perspective called "Charlie".
There is one reality and you are that. Full stop. Nothing more is needed. That is the realization. If it doesn't resonate, dig in to the ideas which may be standing in the way.
love
randall
"Did the body become "the node of awareness"? Where did this idea come from?"
not sure... read something like it somewhere...mebbe the concept was like being a radio transmitter of awareness. something 'resonated' with that image and so i paraphrased into a node. just a concept. most certainly BS, especially in the grand scheme of things.
being 'completely honest' is BS too, isn't it? Either you're without BS or you're not. "Completely honest" is a goal, but once there is that label, there is impurity in the works....
to me, I read "You are the intelligence which is manifesting as the world. And that intelligence is presently aware of itself through the perspective called "Charlie"." and I think wow, that sounds mighty BSey too.
That intelligence, currently aware of itself via the perspective of Charlie, would not currently be aware of itself via the perspective of Charlie if the ever-change 'bag of juice' called the body, and labeled by others as Charlie, was not in some sort of existence.
Also, what does "Full Stop" mean? Please explain. I think of a button that completely shuts a machine down, rather than just pausing it; turning the power off, rather than just letting it idle in neutral. When applied to this stuff, it somehow makes me think that thinking should stop, fully. No more abiding in the mind. But that seems like a losing ambition.
Charlie,
Not sure what you're asking. It's all bullshit except one thing.
YOU.
love
randall
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