N-lightenment

Something in you already knows.

Gratitude

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thank-you-gratitude2Happy Thanksgiving, My Dear Friends.
Early this morning the guy who checks the water meter for the Zendo shut off the water and forgot to turn it back on. So I was left without water all day. Everyone else on the street had water so it seemed there might be a big problem like the roots of a tree breaking through the main pipe somewhere between the street and the Zendo. This might take days or a week or more to find. I was settling in to what it would be like to live for a week or so with no water. This is not so different from how many in the Third World live. No showers. No washing dishes. Trying to find another arrangement for using the toilet, etc.
 
Late tonight the guy realized his mistake, apologized and turned it back on. Water! Yay!! I was and am so grateful. I am doubly grateful because I now know what it is like to live without the water I had been taking for granted. And now I don’t take it for granted. This is a huge gift.
 
If you are having trouble finding things to be really grateful for this holiday or any day, I have a wonderful suggestion. Tomorrow morning, go out and shut off the main water supply to your house. Imagine that you will never have water to your house again or that it will be off for a month or more. Think about the new arrangements you will have to live under in this situation. No running water. No showers. No toilet, etc. If you need to go further. Empty your house of all food. Give your money and credit card to a friend to hold for you, just for the day. Keep 50 cents for yourself. Now decide how you will eat for the day with just 50 cents. It will take some decision-making. Imagine that this is will be for the next week or month.
 
Do you think you will be grateful when your friend gives you your credit card and cash back the next day so you can buy something to eat? Do you think you will be grateful for water coming into your house so you can shower and use the toilet? I assure you you will be. You will be very grateful. You will be doubly blessed. You will no longer take for granted things you have been taking for granted for so long.
 
Does it seem surprising that people in the Third World who have so little often seem so much happier than people the First World who have so much? In the Third World sometimes just finding something to eat for the day is enough to make their day. Here in the West, we complain if our lights go out or there is no water coming into our house. We have lost our perspective. We live in a fantasy world disconnected from life and reality. And this fantasy world is encouraged and promoted by our society. Is it any wonder we are not happy or grateful?
 
If you are already grateful, this is wonderful. You are seeing life as it is. We all have so much to be grateful for. Our breath. The beating of our heart. But if you are having trouble feeling this deep gratitude for life, try my little experiment. I think it will help. Go for just one day without the things you have been taking for granted. I think you will find all the gratitude you need.
 
I am very grateful for this kind and generous Bhodhisattva who shut my house water off this morning. And then waited until I had learned this important lesson before turning it back on again.
 
Happy Thanksgiving.
May your heart overflow with gratitude for all the things you had taken for granted in your life. For then you will be truly blessed. It is not what we have that makes us happy. It is what we are grateful for. 

My Teaching Is My Being

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my-teeachingPerhaps the best teaching I can offer is simply my awakened being itself. This sets an example that people can see and feel. And it is effortless because I cannot not be This. People can see that it is possible to live in this way. It is possible to live in harmony with life, in peace, bliss and unconditional love. And this inspires them. What I say and write has value, as this also comes from this Oneness. But I think the real teaching comes in what I am. This seems to have the most profound and lasting effect.

Part of my purpose in life, maybe my only purpose now, is to point to another way of being that most people are currently unaware of. I do this both through teaching and example. It is important to see that some people actually do live this way, without a sense of individuality or separation, in peace, harmony, unconditional love and bliss. When they see people like me living in this way, they realize it is possible. And that perhaps they can live in this way too. And of course they can. It is the truth of what we all are.

See Through Your Heart, Not Your Eyes

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heart-eyeIf you really want to see the world as it is, don’t see it through your eyes. See it through your heart. This takes some practice at first. Our physical eyes are very related to our conditioned thoughts. You’ve heard the saying, “Seeing is believing.” But this is actually totally inaccurate. Instead scientists have discovered that ‘Believing is seeing.” We only see what we believe we are seeing. Our conditioned thoughts filter and re-arrange what we see to fit our beliefs.

So if we want to see the world as it is, we can’t rely on our physical senses. They are much too distorted by our conditioned beliefs. Instead we can learn to see through our heart. We can learn to see the world through feeling.

As I said, this takes some practice at first. For those who have experienced this great presence of love during meditation, as many have in the Living Awake Groups, you can begin with your eyes closed until this feeling fills you completely. When you are completely filled with love, not for a person or object or anything at all, just the very being of love, open your eyes and look around. You will notice the strong habit to go back to seeing through your previously conditioned thoughts and beliefs and this feeling of love will begin to fade. Don’t let that happen. Keep most of your attention on this love that is always here. 75% love, 25% what your physical eyes are seeing. This will prevent your conditioned thoughts from taking over and creating what you see. Things will look very different I can promise you that.

You may need to close your eyes from time to time to re-establish your attention and awareness on this love without subject or object. As soon as this awareness has been re-established open your eyes again and look at the world. It doesn’t matter what you look at, but it will probably be easier with inanimate objects at first. You have less conditioned thoughts about inanimate objects than you do about people for instance. What you will notice right away is that everything you see has this quality of infinite love about it. And that there is no separation anywhere. Shapes and colors and forms are just as they were before, but now there is this great unity about all of it. It is as if you were looking at what is behind everything you see. It is as if you are looking at the Source. And it is the same Source for everything. And this Source is not separate from you.

So try this practice of looking at the world through your heart instead of just your eyes and your conditioned beliefs. It’s a real “eye opener”. You will be seeing with awakened eyes.

There are many more practices, posts and videos on this website that can help you. For a more detailed,  step-by-step practice of opening your heart to the love that is always here, the book The Zen of Love – Discover Your Own Awakened Heart can be very helpful.

There are also online groups: Living Awake Groups
as well as individual sessions available: Individual Session

The Map of Consciousness – The Journey to Awakening

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.

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.