N-lightenment

Something in you already knows.

To See The World, Look Within

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see-the-worldPeople want to know how the awakened consciousness can help them lead better lives. It most certainly does. And here’s how.

It’s very important to realize that no person has ever nor can ever make you suffer. Only your mind can do that. A person can steal your car, insult you, get you fired from your job or physically abuse you. These are all things that happen. Only your mind tells you these things are bad. Only your mind can make you suffer. Once you fully understand this you begin to stop creating suffering with your mind. You stop projecting it out onto other people and the world and begin to take full responsibility for it. When that happens, suffering ends.

When you fall in love with someone, you think that love is outside of you in the other person or that they play some part in this love. But that’s also not true. This love was always in you. You just weren’t aware of it until you met this person.

The spiritual teachings and teachers you are so grateful for and you think have improved your life were also always inside you. You always had this wisdom. You just weren’t paying attention.

You have never been separate from anything. If you want to understand the world, stop looking outside for it. It has always been in you. It has never been separate from you. Until you truly realize this, you will continue projecting your mental ideas and beliefs onto the world and you will never see it as it is. You will never realize yourself as you are. There is no separation at all.

Until you realize this, everything I just wrote will be limited to ideas. These cannot help you. When you experience this non-separation directly, it will be obvious and you will wonder how you could not see this before. Until you do, simply realize no person has ever made you suffer nor can they. Understand that it is only your mind that can do that. And it is probably doing a very good job. When you love someone, realize that this love has always been in you and you have never been separate from it. Even when you felt alone and lonely, it was always here.

And when you listen to spiritual teachings from me or any other teacher, realize that this wisdom has always been with you and you have never been separate from it. That is why it resonates in your heart.

If you really want to see the world, close your eyes and look within. It’s all here. It’s always been here.

Even if you have not realized this yet, live as if you have. This alone will greatly improve your life.

I AM Love

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I-am-loveI realized I no longer needed love when I discovered I AM love. For so long, like all of us, I searched for love outside, in other people, in relationships, in the world. And it is good that we do this. We are searching for what we ARE. There is nothing better to search for. We’re just looking in the wrong place.

What most of us never realize is that this great love that we feel for others is really just a reflection of what has always been right here and that we could never be separate from. So if we are not in a loving relationship we feel we are missing something. We feel lonely and unloved. We don’t realize that love could never have left us because this love we are searching for is what we are and have always been.

It is quite a profound discovery to realize this. Most of us never do. Because we feel that love is outside us and separate from us we have unrealistic expectations of our partners and ourselves. We want our partner to give us what we already are. In the beginning of our intimate relationships we feel this great rush of love because our inner love has been awakened. We don’t realize this and imagine that it is the other person that is causing these wonderful feelings. Because we are not aware of what is really happening, the relationship often ends up in struggles and suffering. We are asking from others something that we already are. Until we finally realize this, we will always end up with suffering.

Until we truly know what we are, we will always suffer. Suffering is life’s way of pointing us back toward Truth. When we don’t pay attention, suffering increases until we do.

The interesting thing about realizing that you ARE love and can never be separate from it is that the world then totally loves you. When you felt that you needed love and could find it outside yourself, it didn’t feel that the world was showering you with love. Your experiences with love always had their ups and downs. Some good days and some bad days. But when you realize that you ARE love all that changes. You are no longer seeking love yet it comes to you continuously.

It is like trying to pet a cat that doesn’t want to be patted. The more you chase after it, the further away it goes. But when you’re just sitting there, relaxed and comfortable, the cat leaps up on your lap and will stay there for hours. And love is like that too. When you chase after it, it always seems just out of reach. When you simply relax and be what you are, you find that love is right here and always has been.

You find that you ARE love.

Your Authentic Self

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authentic-selfEveryone who knows me would probably say that I’m, if not the most, at least one of the most authentic people they have ever met. It’s completely obvious I’m totally transparent. I’m hiding nothing at all. And this great openness is very attractive and makes people feel very comfortable around me. They feel safe and loved. It allows them to be open and authentic when they are with me.

What’s ironic about this is that I don’t feel like a person or a self at all. And that’s exactly why I’m so open. That’s exactly why I have nothing to hide. That’s exactly why I can be fully present with each person I’m with and give them all the love, care and safety that allows them to be open too.

You’ve probably had people say to you, “Just be yourself.” Maybe being your real self isn’t being a self at all.

Perhaps to be a really authentic person all that’s required is that you not be a person at all. It seems to have worked for me.

 

Perfect World

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perfect-worldYou cannot make the world perfect. Nor can you understand that it already is.

With our eyes shaded by the illusion of the dream world, we cannot see or understand what this world really is. It is as if we are blind and trying to describe the colors of a flower. We can’t really see it. We can only see what our mind tells us it is. And, until we wake up, we are only seeing and describing a dream.

This perfection I speak of is not a perfection of the mind. It is not an idea of what perfection is. It is perfection itself. It needs no description, no concept or thought form. And it cannot really be understood with the mind. To understand with the mind is to limit reality into a thought, a concept, a belief. And this perfection, like reality, cannot be limited and still remain what it is.

To the mind, the world seems very imperfect. It needs a great deal of fixing if it is to become perfect. And maybe no amount of fixing will ever make it perfect. This is how the mind sees things. The mind creates the dream world so it can only see things through the eyes of the dream world.

So to see this absolute perfection, not only in the world, but in all things. We must put the illusion of our mind aside for a time. We must let go of our attachment to these thoughts, ideas and beliefs we have up to now been calling reality. We must let reality speak for itself. If we do this, then this perfection becomes completely obvious.

It doesn’t mean we don’t work to improve things in this dream world, as this is all most people are able to see. But when we see the essential perfection of all that is it helps us do this from a position and perspective of reality. And that’s ever so much nicer. And, as it turns out, quite a bit more effective. No surprise here.

Whatever

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whateverMy youngest daughter is now 26. When she was a teenager she had two favorite expressions when I was trying to give her some fatherly advice. “Talk to the hand because the face doesn’t want to know.” and “Whatever.” The first just seemed obnoxious, but I had very mixed feelings about “Whatever.”

My daughter was and is very independent. She is a very smart young woman who thinks for herself. I’ve always admired this about her. In the scheme of things whatever advice I had to give was probably pretty unimportant, but in the moment some of it did have some relative importance and value for her.

There is an aspect of “Whatever” that dismisses, resists and rejects whatever is presented. That’s mostly what it refers to when coming from a teenager’s mouth. And this can be frustrating for a parent, just as it’s intended to be. But there is this other aspect that I couldn’t help but admire and celebrate at the same time.

“Whatever” also means the full acceptance of whatever arises in this flowing river of life and the non-attachment to any of it. “Whatever” is being fully present to what is in the moment with no attachment to it. And this aspect I love. This is also an aspect of the awakened consciousness, of presence, of freedom.

So there are two meanings and intentions of this word “Whatever” and I couldn’t help but gravitate to the later. And I still do. I often feel this second meaning and intention of “Whatever” best describes my experience of life. Whatever arises I am fully open to and yet I never ask it to stay because it is clear that it doesn’t. Life is in constant motion. If something appears to stick around it is only my attachment that makes this appear to happen. And just like in a river, this stagnant area is unhealthy and unnatural. The river is meant to flow. When it stops flowing, it is no longer a river. Life is meant to flow. When it is not flowing it is no longer life. It is no longer Truth.

There are many beautiful teachings from Buddha, Jesus, Krishna and many later and earlier teachers. But when we attach to these teachings, when we enshrine them and make a religion of them, we kill them. They are only meant for this moment, like all of life. Let them sink deeply into you as you sink into them. Let them become you. And then let them go. Be one with life. This has always been your Truth. And life is always moving, always shifting and changing. And so are you. And at exactly the same time something is still and unchanging and infinite. You are both. But none of it is what you attach to. None of it is what you think it is.

Fully allow all of life to enter you, to be you. Resist none of it. And as soon as it comes, let it go on its way. Be fully in the river of life, but don’t try to hold on to any of it. You cannot step into the same stream twice. It is always moving. And so are you, if you let yourself realize and love this.

Whatever arises, accept and love it. But don’t cling to it. It is meant to move. All attachment is an attempt to carry the imaginary past into the present. It is like carrying a dead corpse with you wherever you go. Why do you want to do this? You cannot enter the holy land of the present if you are carrying one shred of the past with you. Keep the attitude of “Whatever”. Whatever arises in this moment is simply what arises in this moment. There is no reason to make a religion, a belief or a life out of it. It is beautiful, incredible, amazing, disturbing, whatever it is. Embrace it completely and let it go.

Even this advice. Take it fully and then let it go. Whatever, dudes. 🙂
And many thanks and much love to my daughter, Lindsay, for this wonderful teaching.