#780 Darkness is a Stage, NOT the Destination

"First, you have to admit that your life is in a mess.  

Second, you do not want to get out of the mess. 

Any psychologist will confirm that the last thing the client wants is a cure. He doesn’t want to get cured, he wants relief. Psychiatrist Eric Berne puts it very graphically: imagine a client who’s up to his nose in a cesspool (Berne calls it liquid shit), and he’s coming to you. And you know what he’s saying to you? He’s saying, ‘Could you help me so people won’t make waves?’ He doesn’t want to get out – oh no, no! For heaven’s sake, no! ‘Just help me so they won’t make waves’ – that’s what he wants. He doesn’t want to get out.”
    Anthony de Mello https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PGj9wfe_mA 

 

I sense that at the time, many actually can't see any way out of darkness. This temporary blindness can be prolonged indefinitely when the illusion of certainty, from either fundamentalist atheism or from fundamentalist religion, freezes psycho-spiritual maturation to a halt.

 

  "If you're going through hell, 
              keep going.
              That is no place to stop!"                          John Randall Dunn (paraphrased)

 

    It's immensely helpful to remember - even faintly - that the bleak darkness you might be experiencing now is only a small, temporary part of the far greater, timeless reality of unconditional loving intelligence. 

Recurrent bouts of profound black bleakness that can last for months, are common in severe depression. Even famous experts like Parker J. Palmer PhD and Iain McGilchrist MD have spoken & written about how they were completely humbled by depression and how they learned to manage it.

Then there is the "dark night of the soul" which may feel very similar to depression, and may also feel as if it were never-ending, yet is "a period on the spiritual path where everything goes dry — the inspiration, the felt sense of connection, the highs that may have come earlier in practice. Things that once felt meaningful can feel hollow. Depression can set in. There's a kind of lostness.
            One perspective worth sitting with: the dark night isn't necessarily something going wrong. It may be a natural phase of deepening — where the mind's old certainties get humbled, and something more genuine has room to emerge. Some describe it as a process of transformation rather than purification, a becoming rather than a fixing. 
            There's also what some call the dark night of the mind — a precursor where the mind, which thought it understood spiritual things, suddenly realizes it doesn't. That collapse of intellectual certainty can be its own kind of grief." BatGapBot https://www.awakin.ai/ask/batgap?query=what+is+the+dark+night+of+the+soul 

 

    Nor is suffering (or anything else in life) "meaningless" - read Jonathan Ashford's excellent, valuable blog: https://www.jonathanashford.com/post/suffering 

        "There is a jewel hidden in each heart, 
         shining from emptiness. 
         Treasure even the smallest glimpse."                     Dorothy Hunt

 
    “When we stop tensing against life, we open to an awareness that is immeasurably large and suffused with love.” Tara Brach

 

     Below, a short excerpt from Dorothy Hunt's superb, valuable book: “Ending the Search. From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness” 2018: 

"Seeker, do you remember? 
Listen in the silence … 
Your own heart is calling you back home. 

 

     The spiritual search is a call to remember who or what you essentially are. What ends the search is actually present from the very beginning, beckoning you to come home. In truth, you are what you seek, yet you must make that discovery for yourself.

    However your spiritual search begins, you undoubtedly imagine you are taking a journey in time – a journey from wherever you find yourself now to where you hope to arrive in the future. You believe time will take you to the timeless. You want your search to lead you from here to a desired there, but you do not know the way. And even if you are following a path, you may encounter obstacles that seem insurmountable. Though you are being called to remember the essence of what you are, fear arises when you think about stepping out of your time-bound idea of yourself into the freedom of what is timelessly present here and now. You want to remain in the known, even as you are invited into the Unknown. A tale told in the Sufi tradition beautifully illustrates some of your challenges.

THE STORY OF A STREAM

    ‘A stream traveled from a distant mountain to find itself at the edge of a desert. He had crossed many other barriers on his journey, but when he arrived at the desert, his water kept disappearing, no matter how fast he rushed into the sand. He was certain that his destiny was to cross the desert to the mountains on the other side, but he did not know how. A voice from the desert whispered softly that the wind crosses and therefore so could the stream. When the stream argued that the wind could fly but he could not, he was told that he could first need to be absorbed by the wind. But the stream did not want to lose his individuality, fearing he would never regain it. The desert voice, attempting to ease the stream’s concerns, put it another way, explaining that the wind takes up the water, carries it across, and lets it fall again as rain, the same rain that becomes a river.

    The stream wanted reassurance that this was true; he wanted to remain the same stream. But he was told he could not, in any case, remain the same. He either would be carried by the wind or would eventually become a quagmire dashing against the desert for years. Even his name, Stream, was due to the fact that he did not know what part of him was the essential one.

     On hearing a reference to essence, the stream seemed to remember – or did he? – that once he had been held in the arms of the wind. And though he was frightened, he eventually raised his vapor into her arms and was gently carried across, where rain fell as it reached the top of the mountain far away. The stream was learning his true identity, and yet the vast desert sands, quiet and still, simply watched life happen this way every single day.’” 
    Dorothy Hunt “Ending the Search. From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness” 2018.

 

          “In this choiceless, never ending flow of life
         There is an infinite array of choices.
         One alone brings happiness -
         To love what is.”                            Dorothy Hunt 

    I also HIGHLY recommend Dorothy Hunt's Feb 13, 2018 interview with Tami Simon at: https://art19.com/shows/sounds-true-insights-at-the-edge OR at: https://podcasts.apple.com/co/podcast/dorothy-hunt-entering-the-hearts-cave/id307934313?i=1000402164185

 

Radiant Love

#779 Now is the Time

    Many of us suffer from depth deprivation but may not recognize its corrosive effects because we're immersed in & overwhelmed by information overload, traumas past & present, and constant noise - internal (self-talk) & external (cell phones etc). 

    We commonly just lump these all under "stress" and resign ourselves that "life is hard & then we die." Most of us have no idea that how we see ourselves (our self-concept) & how we see life itself (our worldview) may well be, totally innocently ie subconsciously, severely stunting our maturation & quality of life. 

    To see the clear blue sky above, we need to crawl out from under a mountain of existential dung. This requires some effort, a bit of courage AND intentional immersion in the worldview of wise teachers. This is exactly what I've been trying to share in my blogs for the past 15+ years. We desperately need antidotes, correctives, for the heartless, mindless, stunted materialist dogma we're all drowning in.

    Amazingly, the internet ALSO contains actual gems that allow & encourage us to remember our true nature, who we truly are. Below are some of my favorite non-dual teachers who for me, share one common delightfully liberating message. Each teacher naturally has a unique personality & teaching style, so you may resonate more with some than others.

    Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist has spent 30 years researching, writing & speaking about the two very different ways of looking at ourselves & the world, and thus experiencing two very different self-concepts & worldviews: "What Modern Life Forced Your Brain to Ignore" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U87oh4ahzi4 

    Famous non-dual teacher & author Eckhart Tolle, with his dry humor, beautifully explains the non-dual perspective on the 2 very different levels of perceiving ourselves & life: "Beyond the Conceptual Mind" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPrBSaNU3tU

    Rami Shapiro is a light-hearted, intelligent, gifted spiritually-independent seeker of truth who also happens to be a rabbi - a real breath of fresh air: "Exploring Perennial Wisdom" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csoitdudtX0

     Psychotherapist, non-dual teacher & author, John Prendergast beautifully summarizes current non-dual understanding: “Embodied Spirituality — The Nature of Our Multidimensional Ground.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f50fWshq2C0

     Helen Hamilton is a wonderful, gentle, humble, gifted non-dual teacher who realized her true self while being a busy mother of 4 and working outside the home: "'Awakening’ – It’s not what you think!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4HXp9faeQ4

    A super-gentle, gifted non-dual teacher is Louise Kay: “How Can I Speed up my Spiritual Awakening?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSxygwMsHU

     Gifted, powerful non-dual teacher & author Amoda Maa always shares valuable pointers for liberation: "The Truth about Radical Nonduality (And Why It Stops at the Mind)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kqEgqnDOQ&list=PLBj0GiAEeavmA-j269z2dIDY1gzy64wq3 

    Angelo DiLullo is a very bright, precisely verbal, full-time physician and non-duality teacher with a huge collection of YouTube videos: "Arriving Beyond Thought" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLOC0aXIi5g

    David Bingham is another gifted, gentle, unique non-dual teacher: "Ordinary People. Ordinary Awakenings": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64l6pOY10oc

    Former jet-setter, hedonist Jonathan Ashford, who after a near-death experience (NDE) returned completely transformed, shares his powerful non-dual message: "A Near-Death Awakening: 'I Came Back Without a Self'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLmOpCCJkuY

 

    NO worries - because what you really, truly are, always have been, and will be, is infinitely more than you realize - no shit!!

    An important aside - since many are put off by a single word eg "religion" or "God" - and conflate these with "spirituality," here's a clarification:
    “Religion I take to be concerned with faith in the claims of one faith tradition or another, an aspect of which is the acceptance of some form of heaven or nirvana. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual prayer, and so on. 
    Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit – such as love & compassion, patience tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony – which brings happiness to both self & others.” Dalai Lama

 

     “There is a spiritual potency within each and every one of us. It is not Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, or Hindu; it is prior to all systems of thought, more prior than can be imagined. It has been given many names throughout history, but the ground of the innermost within has no name. For it is the place where all names come from – yours, mine, ours, theirs. And within this spiritual potency, within this ground of one’s being, is a drive to awaken to our true being, reality, or God. It is the whisper of something uncontained, unpredictable, perhaps even dangerous to all that is inauthentic within us. It is the call to the real and the true beyond mere ideas, beliefs, and speculation. It is the sacred endeavoring to awaken to itself, within and as each of us. And that means you! In this sense each one of us has a sacred task – to help the sacred become fully conscious of itself within and through this human incarnation."
    Adyashanti, forward to Stephan Bodian “Awakening. A Guide to Nondual Wisdom and the Pathless Path” 2026.  

 “One world is dying, 
and another is being born. 
Let’s tend to both of them with compassion.” 
Marianne Williamson

 

“Now is the time, and
we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Hopi elders

 

"Despair is only for those 
who see the end beyond doubt.  
We do not." 
J.R.R. Tolkien

"We are stars wrapped in skin.
The light you are seeking has always been within."
Rumi

 

 Eckhart Tolle (12 min) "Why trying to love people doesn't work, and what does"

 

#778 Dealing with Fear

    Some will find this topic irrelevant because they rarely if ever remember having experienced fear. 
    But when a child is filled with anxiety while his parents are away from home, that anxiety may not be recognized as fear of abandonment. 
    When an adult is enraged about losing his job, that anger may not be recognized as fear about not being able to provide for his family.
    When another adult is saddened by the loss of her job, that sadness may not be recognized as fear about not being able to provide for her family.
    When a person "doesn't suffer fools gladly," his intolerance may not be recognized as fear that he can't control people around him. 
    When some people come across as being aggressive in a dental or medical office, their aggressiveness may not be recognized as overcompensation for fear of dental / medical procedures.
    When abattoir workers crack tasteless jokes about killing animals, their boisterousness may not be recognized as fear of their job's corrosive effect on them, and deeper still, fear of their own mortality.
    When a person only foresees negative outcomes from any new suggestions, his chronic negativity ("only being realistic") may not be recognized as fear that the very universe might be unfriendly.

    Most, if not all of our difficult emotions when deeply examined, will be found to be based on fear. And we fear being afraid, just like we're anxious about being anxious, and are depressed about our depression. We do not like our own (or anyone else's) difficult emotions, so we try everything to avoid them, but cannot escape. 

    Can we be wiser than compounding difficult emotions by trying & failing to suppress them?

    Wise advice from: Amoda Maa “Falling Open in a World Falling Apart. The Essential Teaching of Amoda Maa.” 2020. 

"How should I deal with fear when it shows up?

The invitation is to become sensitive, to become highly attuned to where this subtle grip takes over, to notice when there is a subtle tightening – either holding on for dear life or pushing life away. In that moment of noticing, you have a choice. It doesn’t matter when you notice, as long as there is a moment of noticing. In this moment, you have choice. It’s a choice that doesn’t come from the mind. It’s a choice that comes from the tenderness of the heart. It’s a turning away from the circumstances of life, and a turning toward your innermost.

            Your innermost is the tenderness of the heart, and here the doorway of surrender opens. It’s the surrender of ego-mind’s grip on reality … and you don’t have to do anything. You cannot do the surrender. The tenderness of the heart doesn’t attempt to do anything with its experience … it simply is with the experience. It is intimate with the experience, it is close to the experience, and in the intimacy and that closeness, you come closer to yourself. You come closer to your true self, your true self as openness. Your essential nature, in the innermost, is openness.

            Everything else – every maneuver that doesn’t bring you closer to your experience, that doesn’t bring you closer to tenderness – is a cover-up. That cover-up is what makes life burdensome, that cover-up is what makes life a struggle, that cover-up is what makes you fearful. So, how to deal with fear? By noticing the places and the moments in your life when you do not turn toward tenderness. Don’t look for freedom from fear in transcendence, don’t look for freedom from fear in some myth of spirituality. Don’t run away from fear. Turn toward fear and meet it with tenderness.

            Life is your spiritual teacher, the only true teacher there is. Become sensitive to the places and moments where you don’t turn toward tenderness in your relationships – in your relationship to your spouse or to your children or to your dog, in your relationship to your work or your creativity or to your sense of mission, in your relationship to your bank account and to your taxes. Become sensitive to the places and moments you don’t turn toward tenderness in your relationship to your body – the aches and pains, the loss of eyesight or motion, the sickness and the wellness.

            Every relationship is your teacher. In every relationship, you either operate as the tight fist of resistance and it’s a struggle, a burden, a nightmare … or you turn toward the tenderness of the heart, become intimate with your experience, and simply love it.

            This – right here – is where the Beloved lives. This is the invitation of openness, the invitation of surrender, the invitation of tenderness – it is right here. Look to your life for the doorway to freedom.

 

‘Are you saying that I should meet all uncomfortable feelings with tenderness?’

 

             Yes. Everything yearns to come home to your heart. Every energy that exists – everything that appears as your experience – yearns to return to source, to the formless. And your heart is a doorway to the formless.

            The unwanted energies, the unwelcome feelings – whether abandonment or rejection or betrayal or grief or failure or vulnerability or fear – are here not to torment you, even though it may appear that way. They are here to invite you to welcome everything.”

 

    above quoted from: Amoda Maa “Falling Open in a World Falling Apart. The Essential Teaching of Amoda Maa.” 2020. WISE, POWERFUL, VALUABLE GUIDE - highly recommended

 

Peter Levine PhD

 

#777 Independence from Circumstances

     Pretty much everyone just wants to be happy. But our external environment is obviously filled with unpredictable ups & downs, most of which is beyond our control. So, real happiness must be independent of external circumstances. In other words, equanimity has to be built-into real happiness.
    ONLY the wise - particularly mystics, past & present - have learned how to engage with life in a much deeper & broader, all-encompassing way that is NOT affected by constant change, sickness, aging & death.

    Respected non-duality teacher & living mystic, Amoda Maa from her recent interview:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kqEgqnDOQ&list=PLBj0GiAEeavmA-j269z2dIDY1gzy64wq3

    “Psychological suffering, not physical suffering – there’s a little difference – but the psychological suffering that comes from the narratives of ‘this shouldn’t be happening,’ the identity of ‘poor me, I’m a victim,’ and so on, which has a deeper root, which is the sense of being a separate self – ‘I’m here and life is there, and I have to manage life, I have to control life, I have to defend against this, or I have to protect myself, I have to get to the destination that I want to get to in terms of life destination,’ and so on. This creates the treadmill of psychological suffering.

    There is also the suffering that comes from loss of some kind, heartbreak, some kind of tragedy or unexpected event. Of course, that’s also suffering.

    Whatever the outer shape or form of that suffering, it’s a doorway. It’s a doorway. For many it’s a punishment. ‘Something’s gone wrong’; ‘I’m wrong’; ‘I’m not worthy enough’ – which simply reinforces that separate self and reinforces the suffering. But it’s a doorway. It’s an invitation. It’s an invitation to soften in the face of suffering, to see what is more true than ‘poor me.’

    Let’s stay with the softening, because that’s really the primary doorway as such. Instead of defending & battling & arguing with what is – which is where psychological suffering comes from – the invitation is one of surrender. I could talk about surrender forever, because that’s the core of my teaching as such, my work, and also my life, my own journey. But I’m just going to say here that surrender is not a surrender to the circumstance, or to anyone. It’s not a surrender to, it’s a surrender of, a surrender of the internal mechanism of arguing with what is, which is where the softening is.

    There’s a story told about Neem Karoli Baba, of a woman who would go to him. Her son had died. And of course, that’s a tragedy and a loss and very painful. But she would go to him over and over again, and pray and beg, ‘Neem Karoli Baba, please take may pain away. This shouldn’t have happened. Poor me. This is, you know, and so on, and so on.’ And this would be repeated daily. And finally, he said to her, ‘I love suffering. It brings me closer to God.’

    So I think that’s my response to your question about how can suffering be eased? Of course, pain is pain, heartbreak is heartbreak, and that we cannot erase. But the heart can break open wider than the poor me. The heart is essentially unbroken in its true nature.

    We experience the broken on the surface, if you like, of the heart – and I don’t mean surface in a superficial way, but on the periphery of the heart, the human being will experience loss and personal pain, and whether a son’s died or a mother or whatever it is. But essentially, in the deeper parts of our beingness, nothing is broken. And so, that brings us closer to God. That brings us closer to beingness, the fundamental underlying eternal presence, whether we experience pain or not, whether we experience loss or not. And so, suffering is always a doorway on that level.

    And there’s also the incessant suffering, the psychological suffering of ‘I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy enough,’ which is pretty much endemic in the human condition – very much so in the Western condition, anyway. ‘I need to be more recognized. I need to be more loved. I need to be more successful. I need to be more this.’ Not always is this very conscious, but it’s an underlying driver for much of human behavior. And when something ripens in us, and we start to see how that creates this underlying current of suffering in us, then that can be a doorway in itself – a doorway to liberation.”

 

    Interviewer: “This sage mentioned he loves suffering. What kind of love is that?”

    AM (Amoda Maa): “I certainly don’t think it’s the kind of love which says I’m going to bring it on – bring me more suffering, or I’m going to beat myself up. It’s not on that level, for sure. I would say it’s a deep acceptance; a deep openness; a deep welcoming of everything; a welcoming of what life offers. And in that welcoming, something starts to soften within; something starts to relax within. And the deeper ground of being can reveal itself, even in the midst of loss & pain.

    It doesn’t necessarily erase the loss & pain. But it certainly ends the resistance to what is. And resistance to what is creates a lot of suffering; creates a lot of tension & agitation. So, even in the midst of pain or loss, there can be the end of an inner tension, an inner knot, or an inner agitation. And that starts to reveal love.”

    Amoda Maa (53-minute imho VALUABLE interview) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kqEgqnDOQ&list=PLBj0GiAEeavmA-j269z2dIDY1gzy64wq3

 

    Quickly reading or listening to something might give you a few ideas, but these quickly join thousands of other briefly interesting bits of information from the past, all forgotten now. 

    But when we're ready to deeply listen to something, and go deeper by learning more details, then intentionally adapting these concepts to our daily life, THEN we actually start experiencing beneficial changes.

    To perhaps get experiential glimpses about what Amoda Maa was pointing to, consider doing this 33-minute guided meditation with another fine non-duality teacher:

 

    Collette Barnes Whiteman 

“Beyond I Am - Guided Exploration Diving Beyond Words & Form"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFwDNAwQ8w8 

#776 Finding Peace Beyond the Mind

    Most of us spend a lifetime "looking for love in all the wrong places" - and it IS love that we want more than anything, specifically unconditional love, and even more specifically the unconditional love that we ourselves all are the source of. BUT we mistakenly "externalize" - looking outside for what is actually within, forgetting our own true nature.
    What we truly are is always right here, but we're much too busy running around searching for something louder, shinier, elsewhere.

     Below is pivotal information for everyone of us, beautifully & intelligently written. The author, Robert Rugg very generously gave me permission to quote the entire chapter 12 of his wonderfully valuable 2024 book, “Awakening to Effortless Being”:

 

Finding Peace Beyond the Mind 

    “ONE OF THE MOST PROFOUND realizations you might stumble upon on this journey is that true peace doesn’t come from the mind – it comes from something deeper, something that exists beyond thought.

    For most of your life, you may have looked to the mind for answers, convinced that if you could just solve your problems or find the right perspective, peace would finally settle in.

    But no matter how much you try to organize or control your thoughts, that sense of peace remains oddly elusive, like a cat that refuses to be picked up.

    It’s only when you start looking beyond the mind that you discover a peace that’s steady, completely unaffected by the mind’s usual acrobatics. The mind is an amazing tool – it helps you navigate the world, solve problems, and even remember where you put your keys (sometimes).

    But it also loves to get caught up in stories, worries, and judgments. When you’re fully identified with the mind, you’re at the mercy of its constant fluctuations, bouncing from moments of excitement to frustration, from worry to fleeting happiness.

    Beneath this mental rollercoaster, though, there’s a stillness, an awareness that simply observes without reacting. This awareness is where true peace resides, untouched by the mind’s ups and downs.

    One day, as you sit quietly, observing your thoughts, without trying to change or wrestle them into submission, you might notice something interesting: there’s a space between each thought, a brief moment of silence.

    In that silence, you’ll sense a profound presence – a peace that doesn’t care whether your thoughts are positive, negative, or somewhere in between. This peace has always been there, patiently waiting behind the scenes. The more you rest in this awareness, the more you understand that peace isn’t something you achieve – it’s something you uncover.

Exploring Peace Beyond the Mind

    Finding peace beyond the mind doesn’t mean you need to suppress or avoid thoughts (good luck with that!). It’s about realizing that you are not your thoughts. You are the awareness in which thoughts arise and dissolve.

    This awareness is naturally peaceful because it remains untouched by any particular thought, emotion, or experience. When you connect with this deeper awareness, the mind’s activity becomes like background noise – a little like elevator music. It’s still there, but it no longer has the power to disrupt your inner peace.

    In this chapter, I invite you to explore this peace within yourself. Find a quiet spot to sit and allow your thoughts to come and go without jumping into them. Notice the space between each thought, the silence that lingers even when the mind is chattering away.

    This silence isn’t empty; it’s alive with a presence, a subtle sense of ‘I am’ that doesn’t need to cling to any particular thought or identity. Let yourself rest in this space, even if it’s only for a few moments.

Bringing Peace into Daily Life

    As you continue this practice, you might find that peace becomes more accessible in daily life. You start to notice that the mind can be busy without disturbing the peace within. This is a profound shift – realizing that peace doesn’t depend on the mind’s activity but on your connection to the awareness that lies beyond it.

    Living from this place of inner peace doesn’t mean that challenges or difficult emotions will stop showing up (life still loves a bit of drama). But the difference is that you no longer feel defined by them.

    You can experience emotions fully without losing yourself in them, knowing that beneath every experience is a steady presence, a peaceful awareness that remains untouched and ever-present.

The Freedom of True Peace

    This is the peace beyond the mind – a peace that’s always here, quietly waiting for you to notice it. When you connect with this peace, you discover a freedom that goes deeper than any temporary happiness or satisfaction the mind can offer.

    It’s the freedom of knowing that no matter what happens in life, you are always grounded in a peace that cannot be shaken. 

Reflection Prompts

    1. What happens when you sit quietly and observe the space between your thoughts? Can you sense the stillness beneath the mental noise?

    2. How does it feel to know that peace is something you uncover rather than something you ‘achieve’?

    3. In moments of stress or overthinking, can you reconnect with the awareness beneath the mind’s activity? What shifts when you rest in that awareness?

    This chapter invites you to take a step back, relax, and connect with the peace that’s always been there. As you do, you might find that life’s ups and downs lose some of their intensity, leaving you with a quiet confidence that peace is never far away – it’s right here, waiting for you to let go and simply be.”

    Robert Rugg “Awakening to Effortless Being” 2024 - I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAR, WELL-WRITTEN, VALUABLE book ($14. from amazon.ca) 

 Thank you Rob!

chairs "hiding" in broad daylight

 

#775 Consider THIS

    Can you imagine living without fear or desire? Do you think it's possible for you to discover lasting peace & contentment despite little if any change in your external circumstances?

    In his book, “Awakening to Effortless Being” Robert Rugg skillfully describes everyone's capacity to discover their true nature - what they really are - and thereby enjoying a profoundly better quality of life.

    "AH, FEAR AND DESIRE – THOSE two drama queens that crash every party, whispering that you can’t possibly be okay without their sage advice. Fear and desire are like those friends who always have ‘urgent’ life updates and make you feel like if you don’t listen, your life will immediately go up in flames. Fear says, ‘Better avoid that,’ while desire pipes up with, ‘You need this!’ Together, they keep us running, chasing shiny things or dodging anything that looks mildly uncomfortable. 
     But here’s the twist: both of these emotional divas are fueled by one very persistent myth – the idea that you’re some separate, little ‘self,’ floating around out here alone, lacking something, vulnerable to every curveball life might throw. 
     For years, you might’ve been in hot pursuit of desires and ducking under fears, thinking, ‘If I could just get that job, avoid that awkward family dinner, or become that person, then I’d be happy.’ 
     Spoiler alert: even when you score the goal, satisfaction makes a brief cameo and disappears just as quickly. And don’t even get me started on fear! How many hours have we spent side-stepping discomfort, only to find that most of our fears are about as menacing as a wet paper towel? 
    One day, it hit me – fear and desire are just two sides of the same coin, both spinning around that tiny little ‘me’ story. They only have the power you give them by buying into that story of a limited self. The real ‘me’ (or the real ‘you,’ in this case) is something infinite and relaxed, a quiet awareness within that isn’t moved by every craving or worry. This deeper awareness doesn’t need anything, doesn’t fear anything, and is honestly way more chill than the usual ‘me’ that fear and desire love to boss around.”
    Robert Rugg “Awakening to Effortless Being” 2024 I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAR, WELL-WRITTEN, VALUABLE book ($14. from amazon.ca).  
    By the way, my websites have never been "monetized" - so I do not profit regardless how many books I recommend are purchased.

    Right now, just for an hour let's say, fully engage with & remain in this possibility. If it feels better than how you usually feel, try it for a day, and if that feels better, try it for a week, etc. Use intuition, feel, remember your way into this possibility. You may well come to experience greater peace and even uncaused joy, from this "Perennial Wisdom" perspective shared by all the mystics, saints & sages, past & present.

Kevin - a gentle, furry manifestation of Unconditional Love

#774 Awakening - MUCH Closer Than We Realize

    David Bingham is a respected, very effective non-duality teacher. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND his short, concise, very clear book: David Bingham, Jessica Wood. “Effortless Being” 2023 (70-page paperback $17. from amazon.ca) which clarifies ancient non-duality teachings, as directly experienced by sages, saints, mystics and now increasingly, by ordinary people like you and me. This book greatly eases awakening to our true nature, which in turn eliminates most of the unnecessary suffering we unwittingly create for ourselves.
    His website (https://davidbingham.org/interviews/) has MANY FREE interviews and other valuable resources.

    Below are short segments from 2 of his early conscioustv interview transcripts:

Interviewer Iain McNay: "... you seem to be in a place which we would call ‘self-realisation / non-duality’ - but I don’t know how you would describe it for yourself.

David Bingham: "Well, I like the term self-realisation because it’s a realisation of what is already the case for us all, and I like to keep it quite simple because the opportunity for self-realisation is something that is openly available now. In the story of human history it has been something that has appeared in the distant past, or something only other people have, or something you have to achieve after a long time of spiritual practice. But the way consciousness is unfolding, the opportunity for self-realisation is something that everyone can now attain." 

Iain: "... that’s right, it used to be that this was a special state and you had to live in a mountain for several years and a lot of them actually became hermits, or they were gurus. And now it seems that it’s happening more to fairly ordinary people, even British people." 

David: "Absolutely. And I think that’s how it starts. It seems as though it’s something that’s wonderful & amazing, and then there’s a realization that people from your own country have actually made the shift, and then people that you know, and then you think, 'Well, hang on a minute - maybe there’s a chance for this to happen here as well'. And so the whole process is actually going on by itself and, in the story of human awakening, the opportunity is there very widely now. And if you look at the story of the way the world appears to be, it’s probably required. I think it’s something that could make a massive difference, because it is realization of one’s true nature." 

Iain: Yes, we’re now towards the end of 2008, and… the last few months have been a pretty hairy time in the outside world. So let’s just run through ... what happened in your life up to where you are now ..." 

David: "Yes. Up until the age of about four, things seemed really wonderful and I just felt in a great space. Then there was a shift in circumstances and the point of separation was very clear. I think for everyone there’s a period of time where you feel just really comfortable. If you look at photographs of children, especially up to the age of two, you can look into their eyes and see that they’re in absolute total ecstasy, and there’s a sense of completion, there’s no problem; and in that state, there’s nothing wrong at all."

Iain: "But they are crying sometimes. They’re not in ecstasy then, are they?"

David: "Well, they’re crying because there’s a physiological need. Usually it’s because they need some food or something, but the awareness in which they’re residing has no ruffle or strain or discomfort. The story we all take part in, in human life, is to move from the state of complete integration, through a cycle of separation - or apparent separation (because it actually has never taken place) - and to return again to full knowing of our true nature ..."
    David Bingham - Non-Dual Pointing - Part 1 Interview by Iain McNay https://conscious.tv/text/09.htm

Interviewer Renate McNay: "In the interview you had before with my husband Iain (above), you mentioned twice that at this present time the human race has the possibility to awaken, and I thought it was a very interesting statement, and I would like to know how you came to this conclusion. What is pointing in this direction?"

David: "OK. The world as we experience it can be perceived on many different levels. So it can be perceived as being an absolute reality or it can be perceived in a way where it’s known to be a phenomenon or a manifestation. What points to the development of consciousness is the sequence of unfolding throughout life. It appears to me that, from there having been the opportunity for a very few people to be able to realize self-awareness, the same opportunity is coming into focus for many more people now. The way consciousness is revealing itself is with greater and greater simplicity, as in reality there is only presence-awareness-existence. The way consciousness plays the game, though, is to disguise itself, so nearly everything appearing in the manifestation is to conceal the fact that there is only presence-awareness-existence. So, the concept of time, the thinking process, the body - they’re all devices that consciousness uses to hide itself and…"

Renate: "So, excuse me... I just wanted to ask, why is it doing that?" 

David: "Because it can. Because the nature of consciousness or awareness is that it is infinite, it’s a field of infinite possibilities." 

It can be seen in terms of cycles. There can be cycles where there can be ups and there can be downs; and there can be concealment, complete ignorance, and there can also be complete knowing. And it can move from one to the other and it loves doing that. So that’s why it does it, just because it can, really.

And it’s a fascinating stage at the moment because self-realization is something that is becoming universally available. It’s a time when the invitation is there for many, many people because the fabric of life, the apparent security that people have adopted in relative terms - so things like their work, their relationships, their family, the fabric of society, financial structures, social structures - are all being shaken. So it’s offering an invitation.

People are saying, 'Well hang on! I thought I was safe here, and I’m not'. So that’s giving rise to a question. But actually it’s consciousness that’s giving rise to the question because that’s the invitation to see what is real and what’s present? It plays the game of pretending that it really is this person called Renate [gesturing to Renate] for a period of time, and then it (consciousness) reveals itself (Renate) as itself (consciousness).

If you take it from the point of view of a young child: for the first couple of years of life, there is just this field of awareness in which everything is being registered, but there isn’t a sense of individual self there. So there is an appearance of a body-mind, of a one- or two-year-old child, and everything’s experienced in a state of total wonder. But consciousness plays the game of hide & seek. It begins to pretend it really is this person from around the age of two and, through reinforcement, of being called by your name and the family structure being reinforced, you come to totally believe that; that’s who you are.

And then, through life, through the early years and through the teen years, there’s a building of the sense of self (small self, ego) in terms of what you’re good at, what you’re not good at, what you like, what you don’t like, and the preoccupation with the whole story of a little ‘me’.

You could say that, in recent history, the cycle hasn’t been completed. From the state of knowing, up until the age of two, through the concealment, in the early years, the concealment has continued because people have remained bound by the forms, so the identification has continued until death. The new opportunity is for the cycle to be completed. From the initial level of knowing, through the sequence of identification with the body & personality, there’s now an opportunity for consciousness to reveal itself to itself on a grand scale." 

Renate: "But does that mean, David, that this whole game that we are playing, that consciousness is playing with itself, is coming to an end? On the surface, if we look at the world, that seems to be happening, that we’re somehow sliding down somewhere into extinction." 

David: "Yes." 

Renate: "And what you see on another level - the same is happening?" 

David: "Yes. In terms of the story, or in terms of what’s happening in the world, it appears as though everything’s become very shaky, but it’s all part of the cosmic drama. It’s intentional because it’s revealing itself to itself. Previously, consciousness was concealing the fact that presence-awareness-existence is something that isn’t personally owned. 

In this moment, if we take what there is, there is present awareness. There’s a knowing of everything that is arising in this moment, so present awareness knows this body sitting on this seat, it knows the sound of the gentle buzzing of that light; and it’s all being registered directly in present awareness. But the way consciousness disguises itself is to pretend that there is a person here experiencing that. If we look at the nature of awareness, it’s something that is just here. And it knows everything, it knows everything on a sensory level; it knows the sense of there being an individual here..." 

Renate: "So, let’s do that now. So I feel myself sitting here now. I perceive myself as somebody sitting here looking at you. So what is the non-dual pointing? How would you tell me that I’m not really sitting here [laughing]?"

David: "OK [laughing]. With non-dual pointing, it actually clarifies the distinction between what is permanent and what is temporary; so what never changes is the awareness that knows that. Awareness is registering the sitting there directly, so it knows that the body is sitting there. Now the mind may come in as a secondary device, where it would say, 'I’m sitting here and this isn’t a very comfortable seat'; or it may make some other kind of judgement. But the knowing of the ‘sitting here’ is something that is just known in awareness, and it’s known directly and the individual isn’t required to know that."

Renate: "So because we learn that we are an ‘I’, so we say 'I am sitting here and I am feeling hot and I am feeling cold' - but those are actually, as you say, feelings which arise within awareness?" 

David: "Yes." 

Renate: "It’s direct knowledge, as you call it." 

David: "Yes. Everything about the manifestation is reinforcing the manifestation. So if you turn on the TV or read the newspaper, or speak to most people, it’s always reinforcing the sense of there being a separate individual."

Renate: "I am receiving something from my senses?" 

David: "Yes. But it’s just noticed very clearly that what is primary is the awareness in which it is known.

For instance, the common thing would be to say 'I think' but, actually, if it’s looked at carefully, it’s noticed that there is an awareness of thinking, so the thinking isn’t who you are; there’s something that is aware of thinking. In the same way people can say, 'Well, I can taste that water': the taste of water is registered in awareness; there isn’t actually an individual involved in doing that.

Also, if you take the various states of consciousness - the waking state, the dreaming state and the deep sleep state - awareness is actually continuous through those states. Continuous isn’t actually the right word because there is no continuity because there’s just this. But in the waking state, there is awareness of the waking state environment, so there’s awareness of the waking state body, the waking state thinking process, the waking state emotions and preoccupations, the waking state world. In the dream state, there is awareness of the dream environment, of the dream individual, of the dream emotions and of dream thoughts. In the deep sleep state, awareness is simply awareness itself. It returns to the level of non-manifestation, to the level of just knowing itself - which is home, which is why human beings crave sleep. They need some relief from the turbulence which is experienced in the waking and dream states."
    David Bingham - Non-Dual Pointing - Part 2 Interview by Renate McNay https://conscious.tv/text/10.htm

    Confused? Listen not just with the mind, but with EVERYTHING to some of Bingham's excellent interviews for clarification that comes from immersing yourself in any "new language" - in this case, the new (to you) language of non-duality:

    David Bingham interviewed by Corina LaVonne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrULIbzuPUk

    Effortless Being: A Deep Dive with David Bingham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_1Vt-gJ8j0

    Hanna with David Bingham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbwg717keN4

    End of Seeking — David Bingham Interview - Unity Consciousness & Effortless Being 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk0dhSI5GAs

Alan Syliboy