N-lightenment

Something in you already knows.

The Limitless Wisdom of Not Knowing

by 4 Comments

The Limitless Wisdom of Not Knowing
Wednesday Night Satsang – 7/24/2019

A powerful Satsang and transmission showing where true wisdom really comes from. It’s not the mind. Thoughts can only obscure it. Yet it is always here and always available. The story of how I discovered this and began offering these Satsangs, and some tips on how you can access this unlimited wisdom too.
To see more videos like this, subscribe to The Enlightened Way YouTube channel and visit the website https://n-lightenment.com

The Moon Is Real

by 2 Comments

My teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) is a very wise man. One year the monks and nuns had opened a new monastery in New Hampshire. It was the first monastery in the United States. New Hampshire gets very cold in the winter, especially compared to the Plum Village Monastery in France they had moved from. Most of the monks and nuns were from Vietnam. They had never seen snow. Nobody expected it to be so cold. They were unprepared. They didn’t have warm clothes.
Sister Annabel, the senior nun, was concerned they might not have enough money to pay for heat and food. She called Thay in a bit of a panic. He listened to her concerns and also the fear in her voice. Then he said simply, “Sister Annabel, put down the phone right now and go out and look at the moon.”
 
This is wisdom. Zen Masters have wisdom. They know what is real and what is not real. That is why they can always help us very much. Sister Annabel had fallen into the trap of believing her thoughts were real. Thoughts are never real. The moon is real.
 
Because Sister Annabel was a Zen nun, she could understand this simple and direct instruction. She knew how to look at the moon. Most of us when we look at the moon are only seeing our thought perceptions of the moon. We are really only looking at our thoughts. But Sister Annabel had been a Zen nun for many years. She knew how to really look at the moon. She knew how to be free of thoughts so she could really see the moon. It is only that in that moment she had forgotten. In that moment she believed her thoughts about the new monastery were real. That is why she was so worried. Thay simply reminded her of what is real and what is not. That was enough.
 
We also have many worries when we believe our thoughts are true. We may not always have a Zen Master around to remind us of what is real and what is not. But perhaps we don’t need one. Perhaps we can remind ourself. Perhaps we can be our own Zen Master. That’s all a true Zen Master ever wants for us. And there’s always the moon.

The Real Wall

by Leave a Comment

Political Beliefs
The Real Wall
People can become so locked into their opinions that it becomes impossible to see anything outside of them. The words “liberal” and “conservative” are seen as “me” and “not me”. In this way, we develop a one-sided view of the world and feeling of “I am right” and everyone who doesn’t agree with me is therefore “wrong.” Communication becomes impossible because you simply parrot those who agree with you and are incapable of hearing those who do not. Neither parroting those who agree with you nor being incapable of hearing those who do not constitutes true communication nor intelligence. It simply creates a world of inner and outer anger, mistrust, fear and hatred.
 
In this case, it’s important to simply spend some time in silence and observe your consciousness. Is your life experience one of peace, happiness and love? Or do you find yourself annoyed, anxious and unhappy with the world and those who don’t agree with you? If the latter, perhaps it is really nothing other than your thoughts and opinions that are causing this unhappiness, this discontent with certain others and the world. This is not a criticism. It’s simply an opportunity to understand ourselves better. Only in this way can we understand others.
 
Most of political dialogue on both the “left” and the “right” is nothing other than this one-sided attachment to conditioned opinions. There can be no positive outcome in this way of thinking, this attachment to points of view, both for those who are attached to their views and their inability to communicate with those who don’t support their point of view. Numbers and “facts” are usually just ways of shoring up their points of view. They present the ones that support their already decided opinions and ignore the ones that do not. As far as any truth is concerned, because of their entrenched opinions, the numbers and “facts” are really quite meaningless. And this is true for both “sides” of any argument or political ideology or opinion about anything. Unless we can release our attachment to our conditioned thoughts and beliefs, no successful outcome is possible for either “side”. The “winners” of any argument or political campaign will always still remain losers as they cannot escape the prison of their own thoughts. Their lives will always remain lost in a fundamental suffering and unhappiness which they continue to see as the fault of the world and others rather than their own thoughts.
 
It doesn’t mean we can’t act in the world. But if we remain a prisoner of our thoughts, opinions and beliefs, our actions will always remain ineffective and not beneficial because we will always remain blind to the bigger picture. And we will always remain fundamentally unhappy.
 
#border #borderwall #politics #politicaldebate #idiology #belief #opinion #senate #congress #President #DonaldTrump #shutdown #governmentshutdown

Your True Purpose

by Leave a Comment

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?

Is Life a Dream?

by 16 Comments

dreamAs spiritual seekers we enjoy listening to or reading theories of awakening and enlightenment. We want to believe there is some sort of step-by-step plan we can follow and understand with our minds. That’s the way we’ve learned everything else in our life. If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that it hasn’t really worked, at least not yet. But there’s always the hope that the next thing will, or perhaps it will if we’re a little more diligent in following the path we’ve already learned. At some point in this process at least a few of us will realize that it’s not working and it probably won’t.
 
This is rather disillusioning. If all these spiritual books and teachers can’t help me, what can?
 

A Much Simpler Approach

Let me suggest a much simpler approach that perhaps we’ve missed. And very likely we’ve missed it on purpose. 🙂
 
The reason that all these wonderful new spiritual theories and step-by-step practices haven’t really worked is that they’re all based on thoughts. And thoughts are not the solution. They’re the problem. Not thoughts themselves, but our belief and attachment to them.
 

The Zero Point

Let’s call freedom from all thoughts the “zero point”. It doesn’t mean there are no thoughts, but no thought is believed in, no thought is attached to. Thoughts have zero importance.
 
In spiritual terms this zero point is often called Samadhi and sometimes Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss).
 
Ramana Maharshi has said, “When the Self is realized, the world disappears.” This is an interesting comment and very true. And there is a simple explanation for it that has to do with how we perceive the world. We perceive the world through our thoughts about the world and the objects in it. Our first experience of this zero point is often the apparent disappearance of the world and all the objects in it. All objects we were previously seeing appear to have disappeared into a pure light. This may sound frightening, but it is anything but. It is Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
 

An Experiment in Perception

Years ago I spontaneously discovered a little experiment. After years of meditation and a practice of letting go of attachment to thoughts I called “don’t know” mind, I discovered I could look at any object and, layer by layer, surrender every thought I had about it, name, form, color, function, connection, etc. When this was complete for that object, that object would at first become very blurry and then disappear completely into the background. I could no longer see it. As soon as a single thought about it reappeared it would immediately snap back into sharp focus.
 
This was fascinating to me so for a while I experimented with this with many objects in my perception. What it taught me was that I could not physically see an object as something separate from everything else without thoughts about that object. Without thoughts I could not separate an object from the background it appeared in front of. Without a thought, that object ceased to exist to my perceptions.
 
This also explains why the entire world and all objects cease to be perceivable at the zero point, Samadhi, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. As Ramana says, “When the Self is realized, the world disappears.”
 
If you have not yet experienced this, then this will only be another thought to you. This is why all words are only useful as pointers, not Truth. Hopefully these words can point you to a little expansion, a little less attachment to and belief in words as Truth. And also a little better understanding of what your perceptions (sight, touch, sound, smell, taste, etc.) are made from, as well as a little better understanding of your thoughts and feelings and even sense of self.
 

All Matter is 99% Empty Space

Let me add here that physicists have long known that what we see as solid matter is actually 99% empty space. Hopefully this will give you even less confidence, attachment and belief in what you see and believe as reality. That is certainly what the experience of the zero point, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, awakening or your True Self will do for you. It will leave your mind forever free of mental knowing. And this freedom is bliss. It is peace. It is unconditional love. It is True Knowing. It is Presence to what is in each moment.
 

Integration

The initial experience of this freedom from thoughts, what we call awakening, is so radically different from everything we have ever “known”, which we now realize was just a thought-based waking dream, that it takes some time for integration. Some rush this integration and too quickly develop thoughts and theories about what it is. They let their initial discomfort and unfamiliarity with being in a thought-free state of complete not knowing trigger them back into a thought-world, although now it is a “spiritual” or “awakened” thought-world. But this is still a thought-world. It is a new dream, but it is still a dream.
 
There is another option.
 
Obviously remaining fully in the zero-point / Samadhi is not going to work for functioning in this material plane. Without perceiving objects, we cannot function with them. So that is not really an option, at least not for long. We might call the practical second option a Middle Way or as I like to call it:
 

Living Awake

In Living Awake we are fully aware that our thoughts are not reality, are not Truth. They are just thoughts. In this way we live free of thoughts. We are fully aware that all our perceptions depend on these thoughts and so none of our perceptions are real. The world we perceive is an illusion, a dream depending entirely on thoughts. I understand how disorienting this will seem to those who still believe their thoughts and perceptions. What is there to trust? What is there to depend on? Nothing in the dream. But for one who has experienced the zero point, Samadhia, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the True Self, this is a life of complete freedom.
 

Living In The World But Not Of It

This is what it truly means to live in the world but not of it.
 
The world will always appear as a dream because of the way our brain and perceptions function. Reality can never be understood with the mind, thoughts or perceptions. When this is realized it is accepted. When this is accepted the dream no longer affects us, no longer causes any problems or suffering. Living Awake is living free.
 

Practical Applications

I understand that very few people have experienced the zero point as described above. And of the few who have few have spent enough time to fully integrate it. Of those who have not yet experienced this, there is a great deal of misunderstanding, attempted and believed mental understanding and flat out fear and resistance to letting go of the thought-world that completely.
 
Yet there are very practical applications for this understanding in every stage of consciousness and attachment.
 

True Healing

True and miraculous healing happens as soon as someone lets go of their attachment to the thoughts that create their suffering. It’s not something people are used to doing. But it is far less challenging than it might seem. I have helped many people do this with amazing results. It is only necessary to work with someone who is already free of thoughts.
 

Byron Katie

You can see how well this works in The Work of Byron Katie. Simply questioning these thoughts already gives some freedom. The more this freedom is experienced the more insight arises from direct experience about the true cause of suffering and freedom from suffering.
 

Presence and Mindfulness

As soon as anyone is free of thoughts, they are instantly fully Present. It might be said that Presence, mindfulness and being free of thoughts are the same thing.
 

Short Moments

It’s not necessary to experience full zero point. Even a short moment of freedom from thoughts is healing.
 

The Mantra

The most powerful mantra I know of is “I don’t know.” If understood and accepted fully this mantra brings instantaneous freedom. We have been carrying an enormous burden of layers of thoughts. Each year of our life we have added to this burden. We call it knowledge. The simple understanding that these are nothing but thoughts, and that thoughts are only representations of reality, not reality, can free us instantly from this burden. The freedom of this mantra “I don’t know”, fully understood and accepted, is amazing.
 
Do not worry. We don’t lose this knowledge. It doesn’t vanish. All we lose is the illusion that this knowledge is anything more than layer after layer of thoughts. In this realization and acceptance, we are free to experience the truth of life as it is without the heavy filters of thoughts that were in the way and prevented us from experiencing it. We were taught that the more knowledge we had the closer we would come to Truth. Life shows us that the opposite is true.
 

Thoughts Are Not the Problem

It doesn’t mean thoughts are not useful. They are. This is how we learn. This is how our culture was and is created. This is how we form our personal separate identity. The problem is that we believe these thoughts are more than thoughts. We believe they are reality. We believe they are Truth, just as we believe what we perceive with our eyes is reality, not a dream created with our thoughts.
 

The Dream

All spiritual seekers have heard that life is a dream. Perhaps now you are beginning to understand what that means. It’s not life that’s a dream. It’s our thoughts and perceptions of life that are a dream. It we want to truly experience the miracle of what life is, we only have to let go of our belief in and attachment to all the thoughts we have about it.

Seek and Ye Shall Not Find

by 2 Comments

 

seeker-conundrumWe’re all seeking something. Until we’re not. As long as we’re seeking bliss, peace, unconditional love or spiritual enlightenment, we’ll never find it. Seekers are not finders.

We get this idea that we can find bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment the way we find other things in our life. If we’re seeking a new car, we go to a car dealership. If we’re seeking a new house, we go to a Realtor. If we’re seeking an education we go to a university. If we’re seeking a meal, we go to a restaurant. We’ve been conditioned to believe that seeking and finding are connected. As long as we keep seeking eventually we’ll find.

Teachers and Retreats

So if we’re seeking enlightenment, why shouldn’t we go to a spiritual teacher, an ashram or monastery? Why shouldn’t we pay a thousand dollars for a week-long enlightenment retreat? Surely for a thousand dollars we should be able to get enlightenment. Unfortunately the only thing lighter after this retreat will be our wallet.

Seekers Remain Seekers

When it comes to bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment, that’s not how it works. Seekers do not become finders. They simply remain seekers. You may have noticed this already in your own seeking. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s only by giving up seeking, by giving up what is being sought and by giving up the one who is seeking that you actually find what you’re seeking.

Enlightenment Is Not a New Car

If you want a new car, you can find a variety of cars at a car dealership. But bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are not cars. You cannot simply go to a spiritual teacher or attend an enlightenment retreat and get enlightenment. You may get a very superficial and temporary taste of peace, love, bliss or enlightenment. And that’s usually what’s being sold. That keeps you coming back for more. It’s a good business practice. But you won’t get the real thing. You can’t get the real thing in this way. If you got the real thing, you wouldn’t need to come back again. Your seeking would be over.

Your Car Is the Only Car That Exists

Imagine that you want a new car, but the only car that exists is the very one you’re driving. There are no other cars. No other car exists. You have the only car in all existence. Your desire for this imaginary non-existent car is your seeking. Can you imagine the suffering and frustration that comes from seeking this non-existent car? It doesn’t exist. How can you find what doesn’t exist?

And yet, thanks to your illusion, you fail to realize that you’re driving the only car that actually does exist. So you have an existing car, but you’re seeking a car that doesn’t exist. That’s exactly the situation of spiritual seekers.

You’re seeking something imaginary that doesn’t exist. Your idea of bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are just ideas. They are not reality. And yet true bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are always right here. They’re not what you imagine them to be, nor can they be what you imagine them to be. That’s because they’re not thoughts; they’re real.

When you let go of all thoughts about peace, bliss, love and enlightenment, when you let go of all thoughts about you and what you are, when you empty your mind of all illusion, you realize that peace, bliss, love and enlightenment are right here and have always been right here. You have never for a single moment ever been apart form them. Even in the depths of your greatest suffering, everything you were seeking has always been here. Your illusions and all that seeking have simply hidden it from you. That realization is the end of seeking. You are now a finder. You have returned to a Home you never could have left.

You didn’t do this through seeking. You did it through the end of seeking. You did it through the surrender of illusion and openness to what is always right here now. You not only found enlightenment, but you saved a thousand dollars in the bargain.