N-lightenment

Something in you already knows.

The Birth and Death of Conditioning

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A friend sent me an adorable picture of his new born nephew. My first thought, “Welcome to the dream, Little One.” Even at one day old, it is unlikely this little fellow will ever experience reality or what he really is. Before his birth, the conditioning had already begun in the fetus stage. The conditioned mind of his mother is transmitted without words to the growing fetus in the womb. And, as we all know, conditioning continues and is reinforced throughout our lives.
 
This can give you some idea of your own conditioning, where it comes from, how pervasive it is and its effect on you.
 
Very few of us ever awaken from this conditioned dream. Very few of us ever experience reality, truth or what we really are. Yet some do. Perhaps this little one will be one of those few. I hope so. I hope it for you. I hope it for everyone.
 
Most of us don’t realize we are living in a dream. We consider it reality, life and who we are. But some do realize there is something more or feel there must be something more. That’s a start. Some of us have even had glimpses, direct experiences, of what that something more might be. And, far more rare, some of have awakened or are in the process of awakening right now. Perhaps this little guy will be one of those. I hope so. I hope it for you. I hope it for everyone.
 
As you can see conditioning is continuous in all societies. It begins even before birth in the transmission of the mother’s conditioned mind. It includes the conditioned minds of the father and everyone else connected to the baby. The conditioned mind is transmitted with or without words. Unlike what the conditioned mind perceives, there is really no separation anywhere.
 
There are many aspects that go into every awakening from this heavily conditioned dream. One of those is a time of isolation from human contact for a period of time after the awakening experience. Without this isolation from other conditioned minds, an awakening experience, no matter how powerful, will eventually be pulled back into conditioning again. You can see this time of isolation from other conditioned minds in the experiences of Mooji, Eckhart Tolle, Ramana, Papaji and many other awake beings.
 
Another aspect is spending time in the presence of one free of the conditioned mind. This is the purpose of Satsang, silent retreats, etc. Unlike the transmission of the conditioned mind which happens with most people and reinforces our conditioning, this is the transmission of a mind free of conditioning and helps free us from conditioning.
 
Today being in the presence of an awake being is easier than ever. You have access through books, YouTube videos, internet, retreats, Satsangs, etc. You are most fortunate.
 
Many spiritual teachers today believe and claim they are free of this conditioning but are not. Only a small handful are. It has been like this throughout human history.
 
You may feel it is difficult to discern who is free and who is not, but it is far easier than you think. Thinking is only your conditioned mind. Leave it alone. You know entirely and only by what you experience. If you experience a great freedom, peace, bliss and unconditional love for no reason at all, then you are in the presence of someone who is free of the conditioned mind, someone who is awake. They may speak or not. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what they say or teach or if they say nothing at all. You know by your direct experience. Leave the mind alone. The mind is only conditioning. Trust your direct experience.
 
Both Mooji and Eckhart Tolle are easily accessible and both are awake. You have access to Ramana Maharshi and Papaji through books and videos. They are no longer in a physical body, but nobody really dies. Remember, there is no separation. You may have to take this on faith until you experience it.
 
You may find yourself sitting next to a stranger and suddenly this great freedom, peace, bliss and unconditional love overcomes you. You are in the presence of one free of conditioned thought. That is enough. You don’t need to ask questions or imagine you found your teacher. That experience is the teaching. That is enough. Leave your mind alone.
 
You may be totally alone and find yourself overcome with this great freedom, peace, bliss and unconditional love. This is even better. You have discovered your True Teacher. The appearance of all awakened beings is only an illusion. Remember, there is no separation. Stay here in this great freedom. Allow it to overcome you, to overcome the dream of you. This is the only teaching there is. Your mind will never understand this. This is truth. This is reality. It is not conditioning. It is freedom from conditioning. You’re waking up. Welcome Home.

The Science of Awakening

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The Science of Awakening

This video is inspired by a wonderful presentation by Gary Weber who has done a great deal of scientific research into the brain and awakening. In this video we not only explore the brain and awakening, but how to turn this understanding into practices to experience awakening directly. Here is a link to Gary’s wonderful presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeNmy… For more videos like this, subscribe to The Enlightened Way YouTube Channel and visit the website https://n-lightenment.com

Your Essential Nature

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Meditation Into Your Essential Nature

Whatever thoughts appear realize for just a moment that they are not appearing to you. They are not happening to you. They are not happening for you. They are not your thoughts. They are simply happening. That is all. There is no you for them to happen to or to own them. They are simply happening. They simply are.
 
Whatever feelings arise, notice that this is also true of all feelings. They are not happening to you or for you. They are not your feelings. There is no you for them to happen to or for. There is no you to own these feelings. They simply are.
 
Whatever experiences arise, notice this is just as true for them. Good or bad or neutral, they are not your experiences. They are not happening to you or for you. There is no you for them to happen to or for or to own them. In this moment they simply are.
 
And that’s all you can really say about you as well. You simply are, not as a person, a human, a male or female, not as a body, not as thoughts or stories of a life, not as experiences. Not as anything you can conceive of. You are non-conceptual reality, which is the only reality there is. Everything else is a just a thought, an illusion, a dream.
 
This is what it means to be Self Realized. This is the Self that is realized. It is not an object you can look at, analyze, describe or understand. It is the fundamental nature of reality. When you let go of the entire imagined story of you, this is what is left. Neither nothing nor something nor somebody has anything to do with it. These are just concepts. This is reality.
 
As long as you hold any concepts about it or anything else, you are distracted from the simplicity and unlimited infinite nature of reality. And this is what you are. This is what everything you perceive really is.
 
And all you can say about it is that it is. You cannot say what it is. You can only say it is. Everything else is a concept that distracts you from what is. It’s far better to say nothing at all, for that is closest to reality. But this is a start.
Let this painting be a reminder for you. If you feel drawn to it, you can copy it from this page. Prints are also available form the link below.

Art Prints

Your True Purpose

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Your True Purpose

Many people want to know their purpose in this life. “Why was I born?” “What am I here for?” “What should I be doing?” and “What happens after I die?”
 
As teenagers we begin to wonder how we fit into the world. “Who am I?” “What role do I play?” “Where do I fit in?”
 
Later as adults we can feel frustrated with our jobs, our careers, our lives. We might feel that this is not my true purpose. This is not why I was born.
 
We cannot think our way into our True Purpose. We cannot figure it out. Figuring it out is what gets in the way of our True Purpose. It is why we’re frustrated and still seeking.
 
Look at a tree. Does it wonder what its purpose is? Does it question why it was born or if it’s doing the correct thing?
 
In Spring, flowers and leaves begin to bud. In Summer, it is lush and green. In Autumn, the leaves change color and drop to the ground. In Winter, it stands naked of all leaves and the energy goes inward like a monk.
 
All of this happens naturally without any questions, without any doubt, without any worries or concerns.
 
At one point this tree was just a tiny seed or nut. At another point it will be compost for new life to grow.
 
All of this happens without the tree worrying about its True Purpose. And yet in every moment its True Purpose is fulfilled completely.
 
And so it is with you. In every single moment your True Purpose is fulfilled completely. Only your thinking has confused you. In every moment you are always fulfilling your True Purpose. Just like the tree, from the moment of your birth you have been doing this. You cannot fail to do this.
 
It is only your thinking that has confused you. All of life is fulfilling its True Purpose in every moment. Your thinking has made you imagine that you are something separate from all of life, something special and independent. This is the cause of your confusion and your searching. You are not separate from all of life anymore than a tree or flower is. Not one and not two, not the same and not different, but not separate. You are life. Life is you.
 
In every moment you are always completely fulfilling your True Purpose. Sitting, standing and lying down, moving and remaining still, awake and asleep, in every moment this is your True Purpose. For a moment let go of your thoughts so you can realize this. It’s okay to relax and simply be. It’s okay to allow the mind to be quiet and still. How else can you know who you are? How else can you know your True Purpose?

The 5 Myths of Ego-Based Spiritual Teaching

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5-mythsExploding the 5 Myths of Ego-Based Spiritual Teaching

David Hoffmeister, a popular teacher of A Course In Miracles, was speaking at an event. A member of the audience asked, “You’ve been speaking for two hours and you haven’t said a single positive thing about the ego. What can you say positive about the ego?” David turned to him and said simply, “The ego wants you dead.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not the answer he was looking for. But that’s the question most of us have. We want something to support and reinforce our ego, our sense of self-identity. Our entire life is based on this. So when we enter a spiritual practice, we’re actually looking for the same thing. Only now we want an enlightened self-identity. And, unlike David Hoffmeister, there are many spiritual teachers who will promise us exactly what we want.

The problem is there is no enlightened self-identity. Enlightenment is the end of the ego, the end of the illusion of self-identification. That’s why promising enlightenment AND the ego is a myth, an illusion. It’s not both / and as these teachers promise. It’s one or the other. It’s Truth or illusion.

Zen

I’ve been feeling very grateful lately for my many years in Zen practice. Zen is a very simple and incredibly focused spiritual practice. Its ONLY focus is enlightenment. And this focus evidently pays off. Over the centuries there have been many enlightened Zen masters.

Zen is a very challenging practice for most of us in the beginning. There is no support for the ego at all. We may have an incredible realization during meditation and take it to the teacher. The teacher will simply say, “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.” No support for our brilliant realization. No support for our brilliant realized ego. Just “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.”

Kensho or Satori are names for powerful spiritual experiences that break through our normal conditioned consciousness. When we experience these amazing breakthroughs we feel that we’re finally enlightened. The first thing we want to do is tell our teacher and have him realize how enlightened we are now. We rush into his room. And what does he say? “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.” There is absolutely no support for the ego anywhere in Zen at any time. Zen is a practice of enlightenment. And enlightenment means freedom from attachment to the ego.

Powerful Spiritual Experiences

An awakened master understands that there are many powerful experiences and breakthroughs on the spiritual path. But these are not enlightenment. These are just very powerful experiences. There are many spiritual teachers today who believe they are awake because they have had one or more powerful experiences. But this is not awakening. This is not enlightenment. These are just powerful experiences. They did not have a wise enlightened teacher who could see this and tell them to “Let it go. Go back and sit some more.” They didn’t have someone to tell them, “You’re not done. You’ve just peaked through the door. Keep going.” And that’s unfortunate. The result of not having a wise and enlightened teacher or friend available is that there are many “awakened” teachers teaching who are not awake. They’ve just had a few powerful experiences. The ego self-identity has not yet been uprooted. While there is still any attachment to an ego self-identity, there is not awakening. And when a teacher teaches from this place of ego self-identity, the teaching cannot be from Truth. It cannot be from awakened consciousness. It will just be the ego teaching its ego version of spiritual truth, which will always just be more illusion, even if now it comes with spiritual names.

The 5 Myths of Ego-Based Spiritual Teaching

And that, my friends, brings us to the 5 popular myths of ego-based spiritual teaching. They are myths because they do not come from awakened consciousness but from ego consciousness. They do not come from Truth, but from illusion. To the ego, they seem very logical, obvious and true. The ego does not understand awakened consciousness. Coming from illusion, the ego cannot understand Truth. And this makes it quite challenging to be an awakened spiritual teacher, but quite easy to be an un-awakened spiritual teacher. An un-awakened spiritual teacher, someone still living in ego consciousness, speaks exactly the same language as the majority of people also living in ego consciousness. A similar way of seeing the world, the awakened teacher no longer shares.

I will do my best to share these 5 popular myths encountered in much of today’s spiritual teaching hopefully in a way you can understand.

Myth 1 – You can do it.

You hear this a lot in spiritual marketing. “You can experience bliss.” “You can attain abundance.” “You can attain love.” “You can attain enlightenment.” This is a primary myth because the truth is you cannot attain anything. There is not even a you to attain anything. Your entire self-identity is a myth. In fact your self-identity is the primary myth that keeps you from awakening and keeps you living in illusion. Bliss, peace, love, complete contentment are all realized as soon as the separate self-identity is gone and not before.

Awakening is freedom from this myth of a separate self, not catering to it.

Doing Without A Doer

You may have heard the phrase, “doing without a doer.” Things are done but there is no separate doer doing them. In this way life and doings flow effortlessly and perfectly. This is the awakened way. You may have experienced a book, poem or painting flowing through you effortlessly with no experience of a separate you doing it. In fact it’s very clear the separate you could not possibly create anything this beautiful. You might have experienced this in sports where suddenly everything flows perfectly and you observe the body doing things it’s never done before. It may sound strange, but anything done by the personal self is done far better without it. That is living awake. It’s not logical. The ego consciousness doesn’t get it. But it’s very real and can be directly experience in our life.

Myth 2 – You need balance and integration.

When you hear spiritual teachers talk about “balance” and “integration” these are code words for “I’m still attached to my separate self-identity and I’m afraid to let it go.” As the teachers themselves are not awake, they’re not aware of this either. These teachings are very attractive to those who are also still attached to their separate self-identity. As this includes most of humanity, these teachers and teachings can attract a large audience. It sounds logical and makes perfect sense to ego consciousness. That your separate self-identity, “you”, don’t even exist makes no logical sense at all. Such is the challenge of true spiritual teaching.

Generally such teachers had some powerful spiritual experience and were frightened by it. Once briefly seeing it was possible to live without the separate self-identity, they became frightened of losing it, so they attached to it even more strongly than before. And this fear became part of their teaching. It doesn’t come from awakened consciousness. It comes from fear and attachment. They also teach the importance of being “more fully human”, which again is code for “I’m afraid of losing my separate self-identity.” And of course the ego consciousness loves this because it protects it from the danger of waking up, even though this is, on the surface, what it appears to be asking for.

Myth 3 – If you remain in a state free of separate self-identity, you’re not fully human.

This depends on your definition of what it is to be fully human. If it means experiencing anger, fear, jealousy, greed, despair and other negative emotions, then it’s true. Sometimes these teachers will hold up these negative emotions as something to maintain and encourage as being fully human. A being living in awakened consciousness no longer experiences these negative emotions. Only a separate self-identity is capable of experiencing suffering. Awakening is freedom from suffering, as all spiritual teachings through the years have shown us.

Yet an awakened being free of separate self-identity is far more fully alive, far more open to all of life without resistance or attachment. Such a being lives in a continuous state of profound peace, unconditional love and complete contentment independent of circumstances. To me, that is fully human. Living in an illusion of separation and suffering is not human, even though it’s so common in humans. It’s illusion.

Myth 4 – You can’t live or function without a separate self-identity.

If you’ve ever met or seen anyone who is awake, like Mooji for instance, you’ve seen someone living and functioning perfectly well completely free of a separate self-identity. These un-awakened teachers claim that without a separate self-identity you would be “living in a trance”, “unable to function”, “be a robot”, etc. There are plenty of YouTube videos of Mooji. Take a look. See for yourself.

I live in this freedom. I don’t think any of my students or friends would say I’m living in a trance, unable to function or a robot. It’s another myth created by the ego to scare you away from waking up.

Myth 5 – You can embody the divine.

An awakened spiritual teacher once told me, “To say I am God is the most humble thing any human can say because when you say this there can be no you.” Embodying the divine means there is no you. As soon as your separate self-identity is gone, everything is fully here. And that is the divine. You embody the divine by getting out of the way.

The divine has always been here. Truth, love, peace, contentment, everything has always been here. Enlightenment has always been here. It is only your belief in the primary illusion of a separate self that is standing in the way. Once that’s gone, everything is realized. You are awake. And, yes, you can live like this. In the traditions of the awakened masters it’s called “dying before you die”. The separate self-identity is gone. The body lives and carries on as an expression of this infinite awakened consciousness.

What you are is infinite and eternal. It is far too much to create an identity out of. It is free of identity, free of attachment and resistance, free of concepts and suffering. That’s what being awake is.

Living Awake

When we live awake our purpose and function in life becomes very simple, focused and obvious.

  1. Stay awake and don’t fall back asleep into the limited dream of a separate self. Continue expanding ever deeper into awakened consciousness, which happens naturally without any effort or anyone to make an effort.
  2. Awaken all sentient beings. That means to help sentient beings recognize their own pure awakened nature. Pure awakened nature is in every being, sentient or otherwise. There is nowhere it is not. This is done through skillful means. Sometimes it is teaching through writing or speaking or simply sharing a transmission through deep silence, what Buddha called the “lion’s roar”. Sometimes it is simply a smile and eye contact as you pass someone on the street or a kindness given to a stranger. Spontaneously and without any effort, in awakened consciousness you are a blessing wherever you go.

Not everyone or even most humans are ready to realize their true pure awakened nature. Attachment to illusion is still too strong. In those cases a simple smile and silence may be teaching enough. That is skillful means, the appropriate action arising spontaneously in the moment to offer the highest possible benefit. Freedom from a separate self-identity makes this possible. It allows the infinite to move through the body / mind without the obstruction of concepts and separate self-identity.

To live awake, we no longer live our previous self-centered life. Everything becomes very simple. We live a life of complete service because there is no longer the illusion of a separate self and other. We are no longer a part of the community of life, we ARE the community of life. 🙂

 

Your Past Never Happened

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childhood-memories2Your past never happened, at least not the way you think it did. This is quite a profound realization. It is extraordinarily healing. And it is very true as you will soon see.

Many of us are not yet able to deeply experience the present moment, but, if you are, try this. Allow yourself to simply be fully present. Let all past worries and concerns melt away. Be here now. Allow your attention to soften and expand, taking in more of what is here. Notice that your awareness is actually very vast and has no boundaries or limits. You are aware of what you see, hear, sense and feel. But even more than this, you are aware of awareness itself, of being awareness itself beyond any limitations of a separate self. In this vast awareness, this is what is happening right now.

Now imagine if you could capture this experience of presence in a memory or thought. How could you? It is far too vast and inclusive to be contained in any thought or memory. There is just far too much here. What was really happening in your past was this, this vast, all-inclusive presence. And no memory could ever capture this.

If you were to sit down with five people you shared a moment in the past with and deeply discussed your experiences of that event, you would find that there were five different memories of that event. How can this be? Each person has a different memory. On the very superficial level, it may seem like you are speaking about the same event. But, as you go deeper, it is clear that each of you have a different impression of that past event, a different memory. Each of you was affected in a different way. To you, your memory of that event is the correct one. You know that is what happened. It is your memory, so it must be true. That is your experience.

But is it?

Memories

Memories are interesting things. They are like a tiny fraction of what actually happens. When we truly experience presence, we realize it is impossible to place that experience into a memory or even a thought. A memory is just a thought attached to and held on to for a period of time. The original thought is not even one percent of what was actually happening in that moment. Over time this thought deteriorates and changes a great deal, making memories even less accurate than the original thought that occurred in that moment. Many studies have been done showing the extremely poor accuracy of memories.

Psychology Today

Problems With Eye Witness Testimony
Stanford Law School

The Fallibility of Memory

The original thought was only your limited impression of what occurred in that moment. Like all thoughts it is only a limited abstraction of the fullness of the moment. The moment is interpreted through the limited perspective of a limited, separate self – you. It is not an impression of the moment that takes in everything that is happening and everyone else’s perspective. That would be far more accurate.

Change Your Memory / Change Your Past

Let’s say you have a childhood memory of being punished or severely scolded by a parent. Your memory of this may be that the parent was cruel, unfair and didn’t even love you. This is the very limited perspective of a child. Yet you may keep this memory of your childhood all the way up into your adult life. This is your memory of childhood. And you are totally convinced this is the way it was. This becomes part of the story of me, of who you are. This is why I am the way I am today. You may have told this same story to many people. And you keep telling it today, both to others and to yourself. On each telling, it feels more real, more solid, more true.

Now what if you looked at that same memory and simply expanded it just a little. You know your childhood perspective. That’s what your memory is. But what if you expanded it just a little to include your parent’s perspective? Is it really true that your parent was cruel, unfair and didn’t love you? Were there any moments in your life when your parent was not cruel and unfair, when they showed that they did love you? Did that ever happen? If you can remember any moment when your parent did love you, then perhaps they still loved you at the moment they were punishing you or scolding you. If you have become a parent yourself, you will understand this. Perhaps they were actually punishing or scolding you in that moment because they loved you. Maybe they were not as skillful as they could have been. If you are now a parent yourself, you know how that goes.

See if you can remember that same event, but now include your parent’s perspective too. This will open up and expand your memory. It will actually change your memory and thus your past. Instead of only the memory of one person – you, you are including the memories of the other people involved. In this way, a more accurate representation of the past begins to form. If you are able to be present, you know this is still a very limited representation of the past. No accurate memory of the past is possible because no thought or memory can include all that is in any moment. Thoughts and memories can only encompass a very small and limited piece of the whole scene.

The memory of your parent scolding you probably does not also contain the sound of the bird chirping outside your open window, or the feel of the breeze on your skin coming through that same window. It probably doesn’t include the spider crawling across the wall behind your parent’s head or the small crack in the paint that wasn’t there just the day before. And, as we already mentioned, it probably doesn’t include the feeling of great love and concern your parent is feeling toward you that is prompting this fear and anger that you did experience. There is infinitely more that your memory does not include. It is like reading a great novel and out of the entire book only remembering that a body was scolded by his father or found a quarter on the street. All the other characters and events were completely forgotten, to say nothing of their perspective on all the events.

By freeing your memory from the prison of its limited perspective and opening it even a little more fully, your impression of your past will change completely. It will still be very limited, but far less limited than it is now. As you continue doing this, eventually your memories as something real will simply dissolve. You will realize that the past and present are exactly the same. There is only this full experience of the present moment always and forever. It includes everything, not only every perspective, but literally everything.

This is why I say that your past never happened. You may have pictures pasted into a photo album to prove that you were at one time a young child. And even that you had a bizarre haircut in one picture. Yes, that is true. But your memories of that time are not really what was happening back then. And the pictures are still going to be seen through those memories, until you change the memories, which you now see is very possible. What was happening back during the time that photograph was taken, was exactly what is happening right now. It was just a present moment, full of everything that exists. Just as it is right now.

Is It True?

If memories of your past are causing you problems or suffering today, take a closer look at those memories. Are they really true? Are they accurate? Is what you remember everything that was happening back then or just a very tiny piece of it? And has even that tiny piece of your original experience remained the same for all these years? Or has it, instead, shifted and changed to make the story more dramatic and interesting, to make you more interesting, to make you the focus of the story, to make you the focus of all stories? What, if anything, of that memory that seemed so important to you is actually true?

And, if it isn’t true, why continue holding on to it? If you can see that this memory isn’t true, that, at best, it only holds the tiniest sliver of what was actually occurring back then, then perhaps the other memories are also not true. Perhaps the whole story of your past, of who you think you are, is not as true as you once thought. Don’t be frightened. This is actually a good thing. It’s a wonderful thing. It is very freeing. As your belief in your past begins to crumble and fade, your experience of presence opens up. Your experience of your True, Unlimited Self begins to come forward and be revealed.

The Only True Healing

There is nothing that can be more healing than this, than the truth of things as they actually are. When you no longer identify with this separate, independent self, created out of all the stories, thoughts and memories of your past, all those old traumas just fade away. This is true healing. This heals everything. It heals the story of the separate self that experienced all those traumas and suffering. In presence, in life as it actually is, there are no problems. There is no suffering.

In Zen, we call carrying memories of the past into the present “dragging a corpse with us.” Until we free ourselves of attachment to our memories, thoughts and beliefs, it is as if we are carrying a corpse with us wherever we go. Our memories of the past create a thick veil over the present so we cannot perceive life as it is in each moment. Our experience of the present is filtered through the past preventing us from directly experiencing it as it is. Only by surrendering these attachments can we wake up and see the world as it is. But this can be done. You can do this. Simply by looking deeply at your memories and honestly questioning their truth just as we’ve done here, your attachments will dissolve. You will let go of what is not true and make room for what is. You will come into alignment with truth. And this is the only healing you will ever need.