The eye of God is in all things, as all things, of all things and through all things.
This is the awareness that is inside all things. This is the awareness that we are.
This awareness is not dependent on the human mind as we sometimes believe.
The human mind is a powerful, and possibly unique, vehicle for the awareness to express itself. But awareness does not depend on your being aware or my being aware. It is totally independent of the movement of mind.
But because of the way that the human mind understands awareness, we think that awareness needs objects to be aware of. And we think that the awareness is outside the objects, and separate from them. We think that awareness is aware of the objects from outside them.
But the eye of God is in all things and awareness is on the inside of all things as all things, and as nothing. We can call it the beingness or the isness or the presence inherent in everything.
This is the awareness that is being pointed to.
Rest as this awareness, this beingness, even when the mind doesn't get it, for the mind is not the one that gets it.
Every protest of the mind is shot through with the beingness. Notice this in the next thought that says you don't get it. See the presence in the thought itself that dances in the mind.
We are this vibrant dancing alive beingness and everything is that.
We are the eye of God seeing itself.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Running
There is a human compulsion to make sense of things. We want things to be connected, to reveal a pattern, to satisfy our lust for meaning. We want this moment to be strung together with the next and the one before it so we can put our arms around time and life - to make something of the unmade.
We can't imagine a life where none of this is so - where each moment is on its own - orphaned. We can't imagine something so alone. It frightens us and chills us to the bone, as only something can that we know to be true. So we construct an elaborate facade and we collaborate to keep it strong and upright - not allowing each other to remember, lest the clear seeing of one become the undoing of all.
So precious is this life of meaning we say that we are willing to take its knocks just to live its grandeur. What garbage we feed ourselves. We are like a bird on the ground that does not know it has wings - and so it walks about and has little adventures - little triumphs and little mishaps. They don't really satisfy and so the bird uses its little beak of imagination to weave something grand out of the little things - and invents meaning for a filler - to fill the gaps between the little things so they can stick together and appear much bigger than they actually are.
We allow ourselves to be fooled by a life woven this way - from imagination and empty fillers. Out of fear we continue weaving and building out the emptiness. Till it grows so big and so hungry it swallows us whole. And there is nothing again. The very nothing we tried to run from. It is everywhere we run. And all the running is only running into its lap.
We can get desperate then and crumble or we can laugh - laugh a great big belly laugh. It is ridiculous to run from our self, believing we might escape the bugger. When what is running is the self. It is funny to realize this.
Then the sound of our own laughter dissolves into the nothing. And it's like it never was.
Then something is forgotten deep inside us and something is remembered there but not from a memory. And we look into the distance. And a tree waves its leaves and the sunlight filters in through a window. And we blink our eyes. And it is all one thing. Everything is just one thing. And we choke on the lump in the throat and we are blinded by the rush of tears. Gratitude and peace course through the veins. And there is fullness to bursting. Like a ripe peach cracking its skin to share the sweet juiciness. We spill over with complete abandon, not even noticing what is given up.
We can't imagine a life where none of this is so - where each moment is on its own - orphaned. We can't imagine something so alone. It frightens us and chills us to the bone, as only something can that we know to be true. So we construct an elaborate facade and we collaborate to keep it strong and upright - not allowing each other to remember, lest the clear seeing of one become the undoing of all.
So precious is this life of meaning we say that we are willing to take its knocks just to live its grandeur. What garbage we feed ourselves. We are like a bird on the ground that does not know it has wings - and so it walks about and has little adventures - little triumphs and little mishaps. They don't really satisfy and so the bird uses its little beak of imagination to weave something grand out of the little things - and invents meaning for a filler - to fill the gaps between the little things so they can stick together and appear much bigger than they actually are.
We allow ourselves to be fooled by a life woven this way - from imagination and empty fillers. Out of fear we continue weaving and building out the emptiness. Till it grows so big and so hungry it swallows us whole. And there is nothing again. The very nothing we tried to run from. It is everywhere we run. And all the running is only running into its lap.
We can get desperate then and crumble or we can laugh - laugh a great big belly laugh. It is ridiculous to run from our self, believing we might escape the bugger. When what is running is the self. It is funny to realize this.
Then the sound of our own laughter dissolves into the nothing. And it's like it never was.
Then something is forgotten deep inside us and something is remembered there but not from a memory. And we look into the distance. And a tree waves its leaves and the sunlight filters in through a window. And we blink our eyes. And it is all one thing. Everything is just one thing. And we choke on the lump in the throat and we are blinded by the rush of tears. Gratitude and peace course through the veins. And there is fullness to bursting. Like a ripe peach cracking its skin to share the sweet juiciness. We spill over with complete abandon, not even noticing what is given up.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Fearlessness
Fearlessness is not someplace
Where fear becomes incapacitated
Fearlessness is the willingness
to be fearful
Fearlessness does not mean
the absence of fear
Fearlessness is
the allowing of fear
What can terrify that
which is not afraid to be afraid?
Where fear becomes incapacitated
Fearlessness is the willingness
to be fearful
Fearlessness does not mean
the absence of fear
Fearlessness is
the allowing of fear
What can terrify that
which is not afraid to be afraid?
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Nothing to lose, everything to gain
Maybe we come to the spiritual teachings because we are attracted to the peace they appear to promise.
Maybe we stay with the spiritual teachings because we taste the peace they appear to suggest.
But who can deny life its eccentricities? What can force life to provide us with unending peace?
Life inevitably presents us with the 'unpeaceful' - death, sickness, loss, war, recession etc.
(Perhaps you want to replace the word peace above with something else, like love, which resonates more strongly for you.)
Are we peaceful in these situations? What is our experience?
If you are like most seekers, then no - you are not peaceful in unpeaceful situations.
But the spiritual teachings are unassailable, we know. They are infallible, we tell ourselves.
So it must be that we are doing something wrong, - we are not seeking in the right way, we tell ourselves. If we were doing this right, then unending peace would be our experience.
This may seem like a spiritually naive belief that seasoned seekers may scoff at. But if we look again, even veteran seekers may find some version of this inside.
So we equate the end of seeking or enlightenment with a state of unending peace.
And further, we often believe that this is something that can be attained, whether it is by the right spiritual practices done the right way, or by the right transmission from the right teacher, or by the right kind of spiritual experience, or by the right spiritual attitude and so on.
The spiritual teachings that we revere so, consistently tell us one thing:
We are already and always that.
But we have given ourselves a new teaching:
I can attain the experience of unending peace.
Simply consider the vast gap between the above 2 statements.
Yet this is how all seekers (in some way or another) interprete the teachings.
Peace (or love) is only one of the myriad expressions of this that we are. If we insist on unending peace, we insist on denying every other expression. We insist on denying the fullness and vastness of what we are. In other words we insist on staying limited.
Luckily we don't succeed. :-) We are the freedom and the infinite vastness no matter how contorted and cramped we find ourselves.
So hear the teachings afresh. No old ideas needed.
We are already and always that.
The peaceful is that and the unpeaceful is that.
The love is that and the hatred is that.
The right spiritual practice is that and the wrong spiritual practice is that.
The right teacher is that and the wrong teacher is that.
The right attitude is that and the wrong attitude is that.
You are that through and through whatever you do and whoever you are.
What prevents us from acknowledging this within us is fear. All kinds of fear.
The fear of losing control. The fear of having nothing to do. The fear of dying. The fear of not knowing. The fear of of being too great to be true. The fear of being too small to matter. The fear of letting go and finding our demons. The fear of losing the world. The fear of being cast out of humanity. The fear of losing everything and everyone we love. The fear of living. The fear of freedom. The fear of not caring. The fear of losing our image. The fear of fear.
And we run from fear. This is the natural human tendency. Until it isn't.
It is not necessary to run from fear. It is not necessary to run from fear.
Can we look at the fear? - gently and at our own pace?
Can we see that something is already allowing the fear to be?
Can we be that which is already allowing the fear to be? Can we look at fear from here? - in this way?
No pressure to deal with the fear or fix it or resolve it.
Can we simply look?
Yes - It may not be very peaceful to look at fear. And that's why we have avoided the fear for so long. But the avoidance has not worked - it has not brought us peace.
Meanwhile the fear stands in the way of acknowledging what we are.
When we are ready, we can look at the fear and see what that brings.
And the beauty of this is, that the fear itself is that - that even as we look at the fear, we are already that. And no matter what we find, we are already that. And everything we find is already that.
We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Maybe we stay with the spiritual teachings because we taste the peace they appear to suggest.
But who can deny life its eccentricities? What can force life to provide us with unending peace?
Life inevitably presents us with the 'unpeaceful' - death, sickness, loss, war, recession etc.
(Perhaps you want to replace the word peace above with something else, like love, which resonates more strongly for you.)
Are we peaceful in these situations? What is our experience?
If you are like most seekers, then no - you are not peaceful in unpeaceful situations.
But the spiritual teachings are unassailable, we know. They are infallible, we tell ourselves.
So it must be that we are doing something wrong, - we are not seeking in the right way, we tell ourselves. If we were doing this right, then unending peace would be our experience.
This may seem like a spiritually naive belief that seasoned seekers may scoff at. But if we look again, even veteran seekers may find some version of this inside.
So we equate the end of seeking or enlightenment with a state of unending peace.
And further, we often believe that this is something that can be attained, whether it is by the right spiritual practices done the right way, or by the right transmission from the right teacher, or by the right kind of spiritual experience, or by the right spiritual attitude and so on.
The spiritual teachings that we revere so, consistently tell us one thing:
We are already and always that.
But we have given ourselves a new teaching:
I can attain the experience of unending peace.
Simply consider the vast gap between the above 2 statements.
Yet this is how all seekers (in some way or another) interprete the teachings.
Peace (or love) is only one of the myriad expressions of this that we are. If we insist on unending peace, we insist on denying every other expression. We insist on denying the fullness and vastness of what we are. In other words we insist on staying limited.
Luckily we don't succeed. :-) We are the freedom and the infinite vastness no matter how contorted and cramped we find ourselves.
So hear the teachings afresh. No old ideas needed.
We are already and always that.
The peaceful is that and the unpeaceful is that.
The love is that and the hatred is that.
The right spiritual practice is that and the wrong spiritual practice is that.
The right teacher is that and the wrong teacher is that.
The right attitude is that and the wrong attitude is that.
You are that through and through whatever you do and whoever you are.
What prevents us from acknowledging this within us is fear. All kinds of fear.
The fear of losing control. The fear of having nothing to do. The fear of dying. The fear of not knowing. The fear of of being too great to be true. The fear of being too small to matter. The fear of letting go and finding our demons. The fear of losing the world. The fear of being cast out of humanity. The fear of losing everything and everyone we love. The fear of living. The fear of freedom. The fear of not caring. The fear of losing our image. The fear of fear.
And we run from fear. This is the natural human tendency. Until it isn't.
It is not necessary to run from fear. It is not necessary to run from fear.
Can we look at the fear? - gently and at our own pace?
Can we see that something is already allowing the fear to be?
Can we be that which is already allowing the fear to be? Can we look at fear from here? - in this way?
No pressure to deal with the fear or fix it or resolve it.
Can we simply look?
Yes - It may not be very peaceful to look at fear. And that's why we have avoided the fear for so long. But the avoidance has not worked - it has not brought us peace.
Meanwhile the fear stands in the way of acknowledging what we are.
When we are ready, we can look at the fear and see what that brings.
And the beauty of this is, that the fear itself is that - that even as we look at the fear, we are already that. And no matter what we find, we are already that. And everything we find is already that.
We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Mask
Pure innocence arises
in human form
Pure innocence arises
as thoughts
Then attachment occurs
and thought becomes belief
And this happens also
in pure innocence
The belief becomes the mask
through which we look
And the world appears
colored by belief
In this way
beliefs are amassed
The mask becomes thicker
and the world more complex
We don't realize
that what we see
is only a result
of the masks we are wearing
So we take it all
to be very real
Until we don't
And it is all pure innocence
In a moment of grace
our looking chances
upon that
through which we are looking
We see the mask
and we see how
it has shaped our world
for so long now
The mask may not
slip off right away
Infact it tends
to cling in pure innocence
But the mask
has been seen you know
And though nothing has changed
This changes everything
in human form
Pure innocence arises
as thoughts
Then attachment occurs
and thought becomes belief
And this happens also
in pure innocence
The belief becomes the mask
through which we look
And the world appears
colored by belief
In this way
beliefs are amassed
The mask becomes thicker
and the world more complex
We don't realize
that what we see
is only a result
of the masks we are wearing
So we take it all
to be very real
Until we don't
And it is all pure innocence
In a moment of grace
our looking chances
upon that
through which we are looking
We see the mask
and we see how
it has shaped our world
for so long now
The mask may not
slip off right away
Infact it tends
to cling in pure innocence
But the mask
has been seen you know
And though nothing has changed
This changes everything
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