Delusion

There is a gifted, intellectually talented species of animal living on this planet. It has developed rapidly during a period of mild climatic warming. It is called humanity. But all forms of life have it’s weaknesses.

The culture of humanity has fooled itself into following the religious beliefs that it is something more. Living in an illusion of specialness, raised above other planetary species, the lords of Earth as it were, beholden only to a God. This has happened due to living in fear. Fear of loss. Of loved ones, of life, loss of self. The feeling that something is inherently wrong. Is God dead?

And so humanity has raised itself up beyond loss. Not in this life but in the next. It has chosen to believe that the loss will only be of the physical body. And there will be another life where loved ones will be met, and self remains. And everything will be OK. So is seems that humanity is forever destined to live within the safety of this delusion as emotionally stunted children, never to grow up.

The entire society of humanity are nothing but little children. Living in perpetual immaturity from top to bottom. Leaders, teachers, parents, all children perpetuating a culture of children, and on and on for generations. But this has not altered the facts. Humanity remains as an intellectually talented and emotional stunted race of animals living in fear and the delusion believing that it is something more. Somehow apart from the world. Humans are apart yes, but only by being trapped in the collective mind of humanity. The reality is still the reality in spite of beliefs.

So it appears that a question needs to be asked, “what is reality”? How has this idea, this belief, attendant religion and cultural norm of specialness come about? Is it true? How can you who dwell in a perpetual dream of specialness, prove that all of this cultural concept is fact? Answering this question is the only way out.

The way to freedom.

I’m About Finished

In the last few days it has become clear that I am about finished with writing and speaking about this sort of stuff. I have realized that there is really nothing more that I have to say, or that  I wish to say. That feels right. It is now clear that anything that I might say is not only incorrect, but redundant at this point. It’s not about what can be said but what need not be spoken. Anyway, I have done this for myself, not to convince anyone else.

This blog started a few years ago when I began the final leg of this journey to nowhere. At the time I was spending a lot of time in silence, hours every day. That was useful in developing mental discipline, and for writing haiku. Then the content began to change to more writing and less poetry. During the progression I found that I had less and less to write about. My knowledge was diminishing as I forged beyond the falsehoods that had produced this character Brant. Now I feel as if there is really very little left of him. A bit is left for family, especially Scott & Danny. Also a bit of what I need to get by in the world of humanity.

This is not to infer antisocial tendencies, but simply that I find that I have so little in common with people these days. The connection has just faded away, bit by bit. However, I have enjoyed writing and speaking both with this blog and the “Truth Talk” sessions. Thanks to all of the friends who willingly traveled with me as well as those who we passed on the road. Remember to keep going.

“Anything you experience based on knowledge is an illusion. There is no such thing as truth. The only thing that is actually there is your ‘logically’ ascertained premise, which you call truth. I am always emphasizing that somehow the truth has to dawn upon you that there is nothing to understand. When you know nothing, you say a lot. When you know something, there is nothing to say.” – U.G. Krishnamurti

I don’t know if there will be any further posts, but I plan to leave the site up for a while just in case, and out of respect to my readers. 

Brant.

Further Conversations about the Simple Animal

Friend One – “This will be a great exercise for you to bang your head against the wall until you figure out exactly why you posted this.”

Brant – Actually while I was writing, I felt that there was no reason to make this post. I feel like that every day, that there are no reasons for the things that I do. A couple of years ago I conducted an experiment to see what would happen if I no longer tried to push my agenda forward. Would my life fall apart? How far could I go in stopping the pushing? What I found felt really strange at the time. I appeared to be stopping but the stopping didn’t translate to the action. There appeared to be a Brant running on autopilot. So I speculated, if I wasn’t stopping when I intended to what was going on? That was one of the most amazing recognitions at that time.

Friend One – “Keep in mind that the ones you that you speak of are in fact you.”

Brant – That is the popular opinion among the guru’s of the day. Well, yes they are likely right since there is apparently nothing but awareness. It follows that everything is awareness.

Friend Two – That’s actually a really good experiment, and one that I also did. The doing actually happens by itself, which can’t be noticed when the doer is overlaid on top of that spontaneous activity, either in the form of trying to do something or trying to not do something. As you imply, it has to be an absence of trying. It’s worth pursuing what the implications of that are, which is not to be seen as pointless thinking, but maybe the clarity that ‘informs’ mind of it’s imagined doer-ship.

Friend One – When you say that everything is awareness, do you know that or is this a new belief that you have adopted? Curious how you think that could be true.

Brant – I take the question to be, how do I reconcile what I sense about awareness with actual experience? Let’s see if I can spit this out and make sense at the same time. OK, we appear to sense a world; energy and particle, but also a body and mind included in that world. We sense events happening which are part of the world, but also appears to include the body – mind. But… not to include the awareness. That so-called awareness seems to be what “I am”.

So can the awareness be objective? As in “an object”. If this “I” were objective, there would be something else that is awareness observing the “I”. Sensations in the body – mind, cannot be the “I”, because the “I”, is observing both. So, it seems that the “I” must be presence, or that which we call awareness. Now it seems that awareness cannot be limited. Objects have limits. But there seems to be very little limit to awareness, it appears to be continuous. Limited only by environmental factors. I seem not to know what is happening in China for example.

The concept of a limited “I” seems to be only a belief, idea or concept. That, at least is our experience. But, it still feels personal. This appears to happen because “I”, intimately attaches to the idea of personal. My body, my home & family, my toys. A nice experiment is to sit and listen to sounds. If we listen to a sound that appears in the distance, and also a sound that appears to be very close to our body, we can eventually see that those two sounds are indeed the same exact distance from awareness. Our perception that they are at different distances seems to be only an idea based upon our training, limited sensory – brain functionality and environmental reinforcement.

So, when I say that awareness appears to be the one constant, it is due to the fact that all other possibilities fail to hold up as that constant. The rest all evaporates eventually.

Friend Two – I’d say that’s pretty good stuff. The only part I have trouble with is this: Aside from saying it can’t be limited, then going on to describe it’s limits, it seems you’re confusing awareness with the content of awareness. Awareness itself has no boundaries, just the content, which is typically referred to as consciousness. The content of consciousness changes and consciousness itself comes and goes from that individuated perspective, but awareness never comes or goes or changes, and so has no boundaries of any kind. Awareness is the ‘screen’ on which all of that appears, or not. Even in deep sleep awareness is present , there just isn’t any content to be ‘aware of’. Likewise, before birth and after death, awareness is present. I know this because I don’t know that awareness can be absent. Where would that without boundaries go?

Brant – There seems to be a disconnect in communications here that we experienced in past discussions. Either I am not making this clear or maybe you are misunderstanding. As I have said in several posts, I know nothing. If you look at the phrasing of my comments, I use words like “seems to be” and “appears to be”. What I am doing is saying that this seems to be happening, but I cannot say for certain because I also see the limitations in this body-mind’s senses and brain functions.

I see the inherent limitations involved and can only say that although something seems to be happening (constant awareness), I cannot prove it beyond doubt. I too have heard others talk of this difference between consciousness and awareness. I understand thoroughly the distinctions involved between awareness and duality on an intellectual level. But that is not “seeing”. I cannot say what you are saying as it is not something that I have intimate seeing of which passes the falseness test.

Except, that there appears to be a constant awareness. Now what the limits of that awareness might be I cannot say since I don’t have a method of determining that. But there does seem to be a limitation and that may be the body-mind itself. Again I do not know this for a fact, It is only speculation. To me there is little point in such speculation other that for the fun of a good dialogue.

You seem to be saying that you are certain that awareness itself has no boundaries, just the content, consciousness does. I think we can agree that it appears that way, but how you can say that this is certain I don’t know. If you do indeed see this beyond doubt then I am very thankful. However again, I cannot say this myself so I must qualify what appears to be happening by saying it could be something else.

I can only say, yes it appears to be so just as you say, but I cannot say that with any measure of certainty.

Simple animal

There are so many involved in trying to figure things out. Did you come here to discover a secret? To obtain the piece of wisdom that you are missing?

There are also many who are  just spiritual tourists. The happy bus leaves at 2:30PM.

Have you ever seen one of those Escher drawings? You know the ones that appear completely baffling until you see it from a different perspective? The key to all of this hype about spirituality and spiritual goals is really like that. It’s just a specific tweek of the mind and …

…you see it for what it is.

The brain/mind is such a misunderstood device. The real secret is that your mind is hiding the truth from you. Oh, you thought that you had control of it. Or knew that you didn’t and saw the matrix-esque delusion. Well I’ve got news. It is beyond that too.

The truth is so buried, so subtle that the mind is completely screwed in trying to find the answer. See, the thing is that the answer is really about the question. The mind will go round and round trying to figure it out and never find the end. Why? Because there is none.

The mind and body appear to be part of an energetic system which seems to create and then disappear upon body death. There appears to be nothing important surrounding this event. The body and mind might be likened to an animal which comes into being then departs when it’s life processes are complete. Is there anything more to it than that?

Is that the point?

I have a question for you. Are you more than the body/mind which appears to be nothing but a simple animal become complex and subsequently thinks that it is something special?

Another… is your language any more than the grunts of a primitive beast with attitude?

And, does that attitude mean that you are real?

http://jedmckenna.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/4862396-simple-animal?page=last

Dear I’m still stuck

Does trash appear to be part of the human animal called Bill, Amy or Sam? Does the idea of what does or does not exist appear to have you trapped? Thinking of trash and what exists for you? Success and failure? You are correct, just knowing things to be false cannot break out anyone from anything. “Knowing” is the key word here. Knowing is your greatest enemy. You already know too much. Of course ego clings, that’s what it does. You are in good company my friend. It will never let you go if it can keep you trapped. But… never fear. Relax. Really! You need to relax into this process. The ego only has you if you are concerned or afraid. Begin now to see it as it is. An artificially created anchor that weighs you down into fear and despair. Don’t let it drop you into the fear zone!Patience is needed. Perseverance is needed. Are you trapped in expectation of the goal perhaps? Don’t fear failure. Never expect success. That’s what it wants. Ego only wins if you resist or anticipate the goal. If you are afraid or concerned. That is what it feeds on. So don’t give it what it wants. Listen… No worries man. Go with the flow. Give up your clinging to success or failure. It really doesn’t matter. Repeat…It really doesn’t matter. Just keep attentive to your inner workings and accept it as just what is.

–

An interesting conversation with a friend recently

Brant – To me there is only one thing that is knowable. I am aware (or what is called “I am”). More accurately, I would say that there is awareness since I don’t know that it is mine. There is absolutely nothing else that I can say without doubt that is true. All of the rest is possibly only confusion based upon the training that I received from an early age that told me that I am an individual person in a world of objects. Am I an individual person in a world of objects? I don’t know if I am or not, but I don’t feel that I am. But that is a belief based upon an inner sense. You know, as in ideas that cannot be proven?

 Why can I not trust those ideas or anything other that the fact that there is awareness? Because I know that I cannot trust my senses. They are simply organic organs which crudly gather sensations of energy particles and transfer those to a brain which interprets the input based upon past interpretations which were programmed by parents, teachers, religious leaders and others that were also presumably, similarly limited in perception. In other words I feel that I cannot trust anything but the fact the there is awareness.

 However, that does not make me act as if my previous training is worthless. I still interact with apparent others similarly to how I was trained to. And as best I can. It is just that now I do not believe any of it. Except for the single fact that I can prove, that there is awareness. Does that make any sense? This is just what I see. It’s why I often find myself saying “I know nothing”.

Friend – Well, surely doubt isn’t the goal, right? Did freedom ever result from doubt?

Your senses don’t tell you that you have free will or that concepts have an absolute foundation or that there is some kind of a volitional person inside that body or even that there are objects ‘out there’ somewhere or that time is real. These are all assumptions that have nothing to do with the senses. Questioning those assumptions is the process of becoming conscious. S/A is about questioning, not throwing up your hands in doubt.

You don’t know that you know nothing. That’s another assumption. You can’t know that you can’t know. Do you see that you can’t get there from here?

Brant – Except for the fun of a good conversation, I don’t talk about goals and freedom. These senses that we share appear to tell me what they seem to tell ever character on this planet. To me, talk about free will, persons, objects and time are just talk based upon a series of thought processes, sitting on top of beliefs that I cannot prove to be true or claim as my own and no longer care to try.

My point is that I accept that what this body’s senses are telling this mind for it to categorize all appears to be happening, but that I no longer buy into it as mine. My life, my career, my family, my friends, my toys, on and on. I accept none of it. I don’t deny it either, but I have no desire to accept anything as either true of false. I am satisfied accepting that it is a non-issue.

I sense that you may be assuming that I am in a similar place that you may be, with the same series of logic operating. But I don’t have any further questions about things. I already know what I said in my previous response that I trust nothing but that there is awareness. Awareness is obvious. None of the rest of it is.

I know that I know nothing because I cannot prove anything to any level of logical proof. Everything rests on what appears to be lies that have been accepted as truth for millenia. Except that it is obvious that there is an awareness of it all. There is no doubt of that for me. But I’m also going to say that if you find out anything that I missed, I want to be the first to know. But I won’t hold my breath.

Maybe you cannot get there from here, but I am not trying to get anywhere at all. I’m not finished. I still have challenges, but I see clearly what must be done with those and will simply wait for clarity and the processing to be concluded. And that’s not a goal either.

Friend – That’s not knowing that you know nothing, it’s just doubting everything (except awareness) Knowing requires actually seeing that it’s all made up. There’s no doubt involved in this, nor is there any actual knowledge involved, nor does it has anything to do with logic or proof.

This IS the process, but you’re backing away from it because you’re waiting for the process to happen.

Brant – Semantics aside, It appears certain that everything is false. I have already seen how it has happened in this present experience. However, since this still involves a brain and attendant peripheral sensors which were programmed by various questionable forces, I fail to see how anyone could possibly prove that it’s all made up or conversely, that it is truth. The fact that awareness is seems to be what remains. Do you see anything else?

 As far as process, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I have learned that I do not need to do anything other than to be an astute observer and accept what I find. It’s worked well so far. If it ain’t broken… But I do appreciate your challenging this. Thanks.

Brant – As a final observation, it appears that this conversation might be relegated to the category of redundant. Apparently any realistic dialogue which encompasses more than the concept that awareness is, may be worthless. All of the rest of it seems to incorporate physiological thought processes which also may be worthless, due to the limitations of physical/mental functioning. Thus placed into the realm of beliefs, concepts, ideas, or dare I say it… religion.

Due to indoctrination by environmental factors, both with and without our acceptance, it seems that any conversation which includes what-ifs is doomed to be cast into the same questionable category. Again I ask, how can we possibly know any reality beyond awareness is?

I avidly await any response.

Friend – As long as what is being observed is the contents of mind, that’s all that can be seen. Mind cannot dispense with it’s own beliefs. In trying to dissolve them, it can’t avoid being mired in it’s own imaginary beliefs about the validity of experience or the importance of proof or the knowing that one is knowing nothing, or the conclusion that one can do nothing and therefore should do precisely that. 

Brant – Ah. we have a concensus.

Friend – It’s redundant because mind is stuck in a self referencing loop. My observation is that there are two ways to make progress; either run like hell or stand still as a statue. This meandering down the path critiquing the wildlife IS a bit silly.

Brant – I’m glad it’s working for you man. Keep it up!

So what does it mean, really?

The fact of the matter is that we have been brainwashed. Well, maybe brainwashed is a poor choice of words since there is no we to be brainwashed. Ok, enough of the double speak. We are never going to get anywhere with that approach.

We can look at what we know. And what is that? I know that I exist, yes. And what else? Is the fact that I am Brant a reality? Is this a universal truth? Or was I told that I was he? A body mind called Brant with all of the drama associated with the label. Hmmm. That was easy. Brant is a creation. A concept, a belief. Subject to argument. Are you like me?

And what else do we know? Well… follow the progression. What else do we know?

Have you come up with anything yet?

I haven’t.

Our greatest adviser

There really needs to be something said about death. No one wants to talk about death. Or, speak the word death. Or hear about death. Or read about death. What is going on here?

If you ask yourself a simple question, “What is it about life that is constant, never changing?” There can only be one answer.

Death.

Life is all about gain and loss due to attachment. Claiming life as your own. My life, my family, my toys. But not death, which is always with you. So it should now be obvious why death is such a popularly uncomfortable subject. Loss of my life, my family, my toys. But the reality is that death is a part of life, and indeed there is no difference in essence.

Sure the body fights to stay alive, that is perfectly obvious and natural. But if you look at examples of life and death in wild animals, once the being realizes that death has tapped the body, acceptance of death takes place. There is no complaining about the unfairness of it all, or fear of what will happen next. There is no ending,  only a natural transition from the changeable to the unchanging.

So if death is a part of life this should tell us something. Death gives meaning to life. Defines how we live life, if only we use it as our adviser. And it could come at any moment. What would you do if you found that you had one day left to live, or 10 minutes? Would you be in anguish? Instead of hiding from it, face death every day and thank him/her for reminding you to live life to its fullest. When death finally comes, you will not have missed anything.

Misunderstandings

I spent time facilitating a group on-line for about 3-4 months. It was both an interesting and eye-opening experience. I was quite impressed with the ability of attendees in some groups, to awaken and fall asleep again within a matter of minutes. I attributed this in large measure, to the misunderstanding of their apparent personal and social situation(s). The habit of seeing things through the veil of past training and experience would frequently trump the ability to see past the illusion of human culture.

One of the most tenacious habits was the inability to gain perspective, regarding the interaction of the personal-physical reality and ultimate reality. IE, reality beyond the personal illusion. I saw that there was a great tendency to fall into the “New Age” ideas in which so many were steeped. We would make a specific breakthrough, a realization of falsehood would take place, only to be followed up with such comments as, “Well, I think that humans will one day advance into their natural God state”. Or something similar. It would confuse and frustrate them that I would pooh-pooh such a concept.

It appears that the experience of being a human being is such a fascinating one, that the thought of giving up the mental drama and emotional responses is just to frightening a possibility to consider. That is understandable. Without the vision to see beyond falsehood, and the courage to leave behind illusion, the constant yo-yo of human pleasure and suffering becomes strangely familiar and comfortable. Certainly more acceptable to the personality than taking a good look at the truth.

My basic message within those sessions always was (and needs to be said often), that the experience of being human needs to be honored alongside ultimate reality. And that truth is nothing more than a good view of the false.

“…the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.” – From the Gospel of Thomas.

Until the cultural falsehoods are understood by the human brain, and consequential mental, emotional and physical habits are seen for what they are, few are in a position to make this leap. And until this leap is made, it is difficult if not impossible to see (on an experiential basis) the big picture of being and the connections between “I am” and the experience of energetic (so called physical) form.

This cannot be understood by the human mind but can be seen clearly nevertheless.

Check out the “Truth Talk” format in the sidebar.

I am

What can I say?

I am.

If anything else exists, in 45 years I have not been able to prove it.

So Strange

It is so strange to discuss esoteric topics when there is nothing esoteric at all. If something strange or unusual comes up, it is surely only the norm from the point of “I”. So is the mundane. Am “I” looking for something amazing? Then “I” am still asleep. You, the “I” are seemingly all that exists. The “I” that I am seems to be the “I” that you are. The seemingly separate is only in the experience that “I” am seeing as Brant, or as Mary, or Tom, or a rock and toad. All the same, just unique experiences.

Oneness? How about noneness?

I was once asked to give a statement as to what oneness is. A definition of that term. At the time, I was newly awakened and my response, although perfectly sensible to my newly awakened form, certainly was incomplete as a definition to the questioner. I had not yet realized that there really could be no complete definition. Or even anyone who could attempt it.

I sometimes think that it would be fun to be asked this question a second time. If asked again, my response would certainly be vastly different.

It is obvious now that the very question is ridiculous in it’s essence, as if we were to attempt to describe sight to the “blind from birth”. There can be no answer that would satisfy. Will saying that “one must simply go there oneself ” hold any measure of satisfaction? How can we explain, that the request for the answer or the requirement for satisfaction creates the confusion?

No, there is no answer that will ultimately define or explain oneness. It’s because the question is flawed. A better approach might be to ask the questioner, “why are you no-one?” not oneness, but noneness. And yet… everything too.

What is it?

The primary mistake (mistake being a misnomer, where there can be no mistakes) for the personality, is in the assumption that it (the personality) exists and that there is any importance beyond survival attributed to it. In this, the personality is the epitome of the dream character which cannot differentiate between what is real and what is illusion. Illusion being defined as the belief that one exists as a person in a world of objects. This definition being neither provable, nor logical.

The most difficult thing  for the personality is to accept that it can do nothing to find so-called enlightenment. How can you find something that was never lost in the first place, and once discovered realized to be false from the deluded personal concept? The very fact of looking hides it from you. In fact, “you” will never find it.

The only thing you can do is examine all of the fallacies of what you call “your self” and “your life”, see them for what they are and move forward. One by one. There is nothing else to be done. Don’t try to discover or learn about truth. It cannot be done and will simply delay awakening from the dream. The dream of being an individual person in a world of objects.

“When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower… then you will enter [the kingdom].” – From the Gospel of Thomas.

The technique is… ask yourself what is true, until falseness is gone and truth is all that is left. The result will surprise.

What is going on here?

Reality I would define as that which is as it is, as opposed to what one might believe or have been trained that it is.

As you grew, parents, friends, teachers & religious leaders described to your young body-mind their own particular version(s) of reality. And, the accepted societal version of reality. Nothing wrong with that. Survival depended upon it. However, in accepting these beliefs as your own, you traded reality & freedom for survival. You accepted that you are an individual person in a world of objects.

Eventually, you may have felt an emptiness & the person you had become felt uncomfortable with the world that you accepted as true. As your own. “My family, my toys, my career, my problems.” You may have tried to cover up that emptiness with things. Friends, marriage, religion, food, booze.

The real question that you need to ask is, “am I satisfied accepting the belief systems of a brain which someone else engineered?”

one, no one

The fundamental premise is that it is not about understanding what is written, but about experiencing an internal shift in consciousness because of the effect of the words upon the mind and body.
In other words learning and knowledge are of no practical use here whatsoever. These are only useful in the basic survival of the human species. It is in the leaving of knowledge behind that reading this will prove valuable.

I should define enlightenment for our purposes. It is certainly not what most would define it as. It’s not about nirvana, or heaven, or anything like that. Enlightenment is something very simple. So simple that complex human language goes overboard in accurately describing it. On the other hand, enlightenment encompasses something so vast that human language again fails as too limiting.

If I had to attempt a simple one phrase definition of enlightenment, I would say that it is the fact of being awake to reality, as opposed to being asleep within the world of drama and emotion which one claims as ones own personal domain.

More accurately, I would say that we can trace the beginning of our sleep within the dream of personhood to a very early age. When these bodies came into this world, we were not a person at all. Whatever one was at this stage, it was anything but personal. The experience was everything. And so the story begins.

Consciousness

This has been said before, but I want to take a stab at it to see if the difference of filtering the message through this particular body-mind has a new flavor.

So this is a description of pointing toward reality but not attempting to nail it down, which of course is impossible. From the perspective of the human body-mind-personality, one might say that consciousness, the oneness, the one life in its original nothing state, did not know itself. So somehow through the course of natural unfolding, an apparent creation of matter, happenings, entities subsequently allowed consciousness to experience itself.

Through the course of this apparent happening, differentiation occurred. The creation of apparent individual personalities which allowed consciousness to seem to experience not only itself, but the interaction of the differentiated entities. Where before consciousness was not aware of itself, now it could experience itself through the experiences of numerous forms.

This was apparently the only way that consciousness could know or experience itself because, as before (when there was nothing but consciousness) there was no difference to compare consciousness to. It was just nothing, or maybe more accurately, no-thing. Now consciousness could experience itself through the amazing diversity of apparent entities or what we call beings.

But consciousness, experiencing itself through these beings, became so fascinated by this game that it was playing, seemed to forget that it was consciousness. So wrapped up in the individual experiences did consciousness become that it temporarily lost it’s identity (if it could be called identity) as the original oneness which it was. Of course consciousness did not really loose itself, it really only appeared to do so. In the same way, it only appeared to experience itself through separate individual beings. Consciousness appeared to be just dreaming a dream of experiencing.

Of course since this was all really just a dream, consciousness did not really experience itself. Nor were there really separate beings to experience itself through. However, it was nevertheless an effective way for consciousness to experience. Whatever this process is, consciousness does not seem to either know or care. The point really seems to be just to experience. It is only when consciousness is pretending to be individual beings when it concerns itself with who or what it really is. For the undifferentiated consciousness, the experience itself seems to be enough.

Once consciousness, temporarily appearing as individuals forgot what it was, it felt satisfied as an experience, reveling in those experiences. However, consciousness seems to be at the same time empty in the forgetting of what it really is. It thus appears to alternate between enjoying the experience of temporarily being apparent life, and searching for it’s original state.

But of course, this is not true either. Consciousness is such a simple thing that such a description buries the truth under a mountain of confusion. And, for everything you can say about something you can also say the opposite. So there is in fact, no consciousness at all. Simply being.

The Dreamer

There was a boy who had a core belief as old as the human race and likely beyond, which said “I am a person in a world competing for everything with other beings”. It was all about fear and survival.

In the course of following that core belief he became separated from what he really was, his being. He also felt a hole within, which he often sought to fill. Experimenting, he filled that void with a variety of things. Other people, food, cars, money, and by the age of 19, various forms of spirituality. And finally, attempting something called nirvana.

Because he was trained to compete for a better future, he sought a teacher who could fill that vacant space and make a better man, a better future full and peaceful. And he found such a teacher who gave him a prescription to follow to achieve that which he lacked. Meditation, silence, killing the ego.

But.. it didn’t work. The person and the world, fear and survival, the teacher and nirvana… empty, the void remained.

Now a man, he began to see that for all of his seeking he was not able to fill that hole. And neither could his teacher and he felt dissatisfied because life seemed so empty, and all of the things in it continued to pass away and were lost. And finally, with the aid of a purveyor of truth, he realized that the only constant was the void, the emptiness. And so he explored that which he feared.

And what he found was that all of the dream and even the core belief seemed wrong somehow, that all he had been taught was suspect. It was frightening at first. And he discovered that although he wanted it very badly, there was nothing that he could do to change things and he became disillusioned and depressed. Eventually he simply gave up because he realized that what he had become, was really what was in the way of finding that which he sought.

That was when a strange thing happened. The dream person that he was moved out of the way and allowed a process, which was inevitable, to become complete and he had a realization. Something in his life stopped, apparently awakened and he discovered the truth of what he was. He discovered that he didn’t even exist! The dream person his life and even the core belief was a lie.

But, there was no real awakening because there was no one there to awaken. He saw that he already was what he had sought, and that is all that really was. And that was everything. His being – all being.

What he had always been was all that existed. And he was everything and nothing at the same time!?! The man had not known it before because he was dreaming that it was something else, that he was something else. The dream person and the core belief. But, he was also that as well.

But being alive; walking, talking, playing… THAT, was truth. Only manifestation-consciousness.

And that is all. And he felt joy, like a child again.

Truth

There is no longer any need to believe, when one sees the truth. Al-Alawi

Our being here is our eternal being. Many people imagine here to have creaturely being, and divine being to be yonder. It is a popular delusion. Eckhart

Observe things as they are and don’t pay attention to other people. Huang-po

The Sage all the time sees and hears no more than an infant sees and hears. Lao-tzu

Unless you turn round and become like little children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus

The old man in his days will not hesitate to ask an infant of seven days about the place of life, and he will live. Gospel of Thomas

You practice to really get rid of the illusion—not to achieve the Reality. Douglas Harding

You already are what you are looking for. Just look around, feel what is happening, it’s just ordinary everyday manifestation-consciousness and… beautiful.

Imaginary people pretending to be imaginary people

To go a little further into this discussion of perception of truth, let us say that there is no wrong way of expressing it. Of course, there is no accurate way of doing so either. And besides, who is it that might take exception to an author making a attempt to clarify the subject?  And who is the author? It reminds one of daytime soaps, imaginary people pretending to be imaginary people.

Let’s jump to the core of this issue. Any criticism by a personality of consciousness’ attempting to communicate is nothing more than a denial of reality, of what is and can only be. There can be no mistakes here, including from the criticizing personality. That also is reality, perfect manifestation of what is. And so it goes.

http://www.zoofence.com/openforum/index.php

A letter to the editor of the TAT forum.

In reading commentary of many reports of so-called enlightenment, I have noticed that there is always a certain amount of criticism of the author. Particularly in regards to what might be termed negative humanity or life-based responses by the author. It seems perfectly sensible that the physical/emotional or mental responses to truth realizations should be unique to each manifestation. After all they are being filtered through the personality which most often remains intact to some degree following such an event. It would seem a standardized response would be the more uncommon, given the wildly varying level of functionality in any given entity. After all we are not talking sci-fi here, but simply a recognition of what we are in relation to everything else; the truth as it were.

http://tatfoundation.org/forum.htm