Seeker - hear this.

Seeker, all of your effort-ing has caused your body to hover about a meter above ground level. The more you struggle, the higher you go. The usual struggle to maintain an I, has most of the world just under a meter high.
There is NOTHING you can DO to float back to ground level.
It happens with the cessation of struggle.
Any belief (opinion, judgement) is an attempt to manipulate reality, and up you go...
There is nothing to 'get' here.
EVERYTHING you Seek, already IS, and ALWAYS has been.
Grounded is the default state.

Surrender

Is surrender what happens when you do not do ?
Surrender doesn't mean 'giving up'.
Surrender means Letting Go !
Surrender means that the Only thing that can happen is to Witness, just Watch, Observe. No judgment, No Opinion, No Belief. Wordless Observing. Thoughtless Observing. Mindless Observing.
And in that, there is a SEEING.
A SEEING of What IS
Now let's not get too pure here.
Thoughts or Doing will still occur, you can't willfully turn them off, but you can recognise them for what they are. That is an attempt by mind to do what it is good at. Maintain the status quo, keep within the familiar.
This is where (you have heard it said) that everybody is already enlightened.
Whatever IS, is. Shit included.
It all just IS. Even when it's not, it IS.
Do you have a choice which thoughts arise ?
Do you have a choice about anything ?

mind mistaking mind for reality.

An object (a tree) is seen. Seeing occurs.
Light of various wavelengths enter the eye and this stimulates nerves which trigger the brain to see shape and color. At this point the brain consults a database of previous experiences and learned information to arrive with a label "tree".
It is at this point that mind enters the show.
It might say "just a tree, pleasant color and shape" and minds' physical component, emotion, kicks in and a good feeling happens.
At this point most people are 'seeing' what was in the database and not the actual tree.
This all happens automatically and takes nano seconds.
Can you imagine if we didn't consult the database ?
Everything would be seen as if for the first time and there would be an overwhelming flood of information that needed to be sorted. But the database has been filled with both useful as well as 'actuality distorting' information.
We just need to sort out the wheat from the chaff and allow the inappropriate to 'bleed' away.
The point i make here is that this process is mind seeing mind.
To think ABOUT what is occurring, to recognise, involves thought. But only original thought. First thought. This is how communication occurs. Labels are applied.
Importantly here, we need awareness, not to start relating to the label instead of the actual.
The minds I kicks in as soon as we have opinion or judgement and obviously we have to think to consider if that is occurring.
To say that an I is involved here maybe nothing more than a recognition of a familiar, habit form.
If you see the opinions that ring the alarm bells for I involvement, then identification is broken.
If unthinking wallowing in judgements happens, then I-dentification with an imaginary self exists.
Without identification with the illusory I, thoughts will continue to arise (Thoughts will never go away completely - maybe) The I will always be on call for when it is useful, but will always be seen as story.

Reality...

There is no such thing as Truth. It is as much an illusion as Self.
Check for yourself. Have you ever Experienced a thing called Truth ?
It is just language talking about some supposed characteristics of something.
You are not separated from the Truth (presuming Truth = Reality) Nor are you separate from "what is". Reality is, As IT IS.
As Reality consists entirely of your current experiencing, tell me, is it possible for there to be Experiencing without an Experiencer or an Experiencer without an Experiencing ?
Is it possible for there to be any separation between 'you' and 'your' experiencing ?

Experiencing
reality is only
Experiencing.

Belief in the story of I

Some people say that the mind is I.
The reality is that the I is mind.
That is it is constructed of thought and is just a story, a concept.
This concept is powerful in that the emotional reactions to the story are very real and they imply that the cause (the story) is real too. NOT SO!
The mind won't immediately stop doing what it does, but the SEEing that it is doing mind stuff, is ALL it takes to break the identification with the belief in the story of I.

If I is the mind,
and mind is only some thoughts,
When thinking ceases ?

about freedom...

This comes from a blog by Ciaran Healy; http://ruthlesstruthdotcom.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/second-kind-of-freedom.html

Freedom. What is freedom?

Well, there's two different kinds. One, is freedom FROM something. The other is freedom TO DO something you couldn't do before.

Yeah? Positive and negative freedom. Everyone tends to think of negative freedom. Freedom as the removal or this tyranny, or that tyranny.

Negative freedom is freedom from something bad. The civil rights movement, for instance, is a case of people fighting for negative freedom. Freedom from discrimination, freedom from inequality. Freedom from.

That's not to say it's not important, it is. But there's also another kind of freedom.

Freedom to. Freedom TO. That's something different.

Freedom TO is the addition of an option you never had before. If you are suddenly granted a pair of wings, that's not freedom from not having wings. It's freedom TO. Freedom to fly.

You don't have to fly. You can just sort of sit there. But you can, if you want, spread your new wings and take off. If you want. You don't have to. You just have the option to. The freedom to.

Freedom to.

Enlightenment is classically seen - and we have seen it, including myself, from the start - as freedom FROM. We've been looking for the end of suffering, freedom from suffering.

The problem with freedom FROM is that unless something VERY intense happens, you'll never fully root out the thing you want freedom from.

Racism is a good example. Did the Civil Rights movement deliver freedom FROM racism? Well, it definitely reduced the tyranny of it, absolutely. But no, there's still racism.

What it did deliver is freedom TO. With the new laws passed against discrimination, and the groundswell of public support for their cause it meant that black people had a new option, they were free TO live in ways that had previously been blocked to them.

Freedom TO.

Does liberation + gate + void end deliver freedom FROM suffering?

Nope.

Does it help?

Yup.

Does it deliver any FREEDOM TO's?

I would argue that with this eternal stuff, yes. Yes it does. It is brilliantly delivering a very CLEAR freedom TO for me.

The freedom to be cool. The freedom to be chill. The freedom to be balanced. The freedom to focus. The freedom to be open. The freedom to empathise. The freedom to apologise. The freedom to live an emotionally balanced life.

Yeah?

"I don't know how to SEE." said the Seeker.

SEEing is about Direct Experiencing.
That is about what happens before mind.
Before thoughts start their ranting about what just happened.
The thoughts take a milliSecond to arrive and if you are relaxed and ready you can take a snapshot of conditions which can then be inspected 'outside of time', so to speak.
Thoughts will still arise as a torrent, and like ads on the tv will endeavor to make you dissatisfied with what has just been observed and then offer you relief in the familiar.
Allow these thought (you can't stop them anyway), allow them, then as in judo, rather than try and stop them, you just deflect them, using their own momentum to take them off into infinity.
It's the moment before the thought torrent, that you intend to glimpse.
That glimpse will encompass so much detail that you may spend days inspecting it.
Practice it. (without judgement or opinions about how successful you might be)

enlightenment description

A quote from this blog that resonated here; restinginawareness.com
When awakening comes it is known, there is no more feeling of incompleteness or need for seeking. You can carry on learning and increasing in wisdom for the rest of your life, but you will know your true nature beyond doubt.

A rant for reality.

See the difference between IT, and About IT.
See the difference between a Thought, and the Content of that Thought.
If you See that there is a thought, and also See that the thought is About something.
That About, is a Story!
The Thought is Not. The Thought is an Experience.
Reacting to That Thought Experience, happens without judgement, without opinion, without belief. It happens without reacting to a Story and without building a New Story.
This is IT !!
Thoughts about This will happen.
You will See them and recognise them as part of a Story. You will simply ignore them as Just a Story ABOUT... and know that they mean about as much as the sound of the refrigerator.
That will be another Experience... well, no. Experience is a thing, and by now you are EXPERIENCING.
This is IT.
This IS..!
IT Always Has Been. You just didn't SEE it before.
This is Totally Choice-less.
This is Total Trust that What needs to Happen. Will Happen. (and it Does..)
Stop scratching the Seeking Itch. That will let the bite heal.
Then it won't itch any more, much..
Well it does, but you can See that it's refrigerator sound.
...but we get ahead of our 'selves' here.

Awareness

Awareness is simply a label collating the diverse experience of various forms appearing via dependent origination, there is nothing singular, independent, unchanging, inherent. Nothing can be pinned down. Soh Wei Yu

Labels and the damage they can do.

This is a copy and paste from; http://markedeternal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/labels.html
Don't just read it, DO the exercise. Amazement will occur.

When we are little children we learn to speak through labelling. At least this is how I remember.
Mum would ask - what is this?
I would say- this is a house
This is a car.
This is a window.
This is me.
Where is your nose?
Here is my nose, and I would touch it...

I have learned to label things and experiences and tested my limits and limits of my parents patience by throwing things, by saying no, by trying not to be conditioned. You know that little rebel age if you have kids.

So I learned the language and started using it, communicating with other people. One of most important words was me and mine: this is my toy, not my brother's.

No one has ever told me that 'me' is a word that is only useful in communication with others. Without others, there is no me, without I there is no them.

Somehow this belief in a me became stronger and took over, it became the central belief around which everything else was turning. It's like a belief, that earth is the centre of the universe, I became the centre of my world.

Until I looked. It really was just one look, it took a few seconds and all the search was over. The search for clarity, the quest of 'who am I?' was seen as cosmic joke.

There is no who.
There is nothing here in direct experience that is separate from experienced. Just this. Always now.

If you want to test this, simply do this little experiment that won't even take much of your time. All you need is 20 minutes, a pen & paper.

First write what you are experiencing right now using words I and me. Get right to the point, no past or future fantasy, just plain description of here now.

Like this-
I am laying in bed. I am hearing the rain, I am typing these words..

Do it for 10 minutes. Watch the body, are there any sensations of tightening or relaxing?

Then for next 10 minutes write without words I and me. Just describe the experience as it is happening using verbs:
Waiting for next thought, typing, breathing, blinking, hearing the rain.

Again watch what is happening in the body.

Now compare the two ways to label experience- is one truer than the other? If so, which one? What is here without labels? Do labels affect the experience or just describe it?

Your body knows. I is a label, not experiencer. Not a thinker, not a doer, not a hearer of rain. I is not what makes eyes blink and it is not a breather, it's a word, that is used for convenience of communication. If it's believed to be an entity, the mind is confused, the body is tensed up. Unconfusing it is simple- bring attention back to now and look once again- is there a me behind the word 'me'?

Life is happening. Looking is happening. Getting lost in the story is happening. With or without label I.

What is not on automatic?
And do we really need to be enslaved by labels? After all, experience is what labels point TO.

The story goes on. The belief in story drops away. The story is way much more enjoyable without the fear that something can happen to this 'me' once it's clearly seen that there is no actual me. Confidence, grace, fearlessness, peace with what is starts to shine through as fear gets loosened.

Imagine that! Humans got screwed by labels. And look at world of fashion- labels are so important!

So much emotional pain, such strong desire to get home, when home is all there is. Right here- underneath all the labels. Here, now waiting to be recognized.

Look. Don't think, just look.

After the 'gate'...

http://liberationunleashed.com/Article_After-The-Fall.html

What is liberation/enligtenment ?

Right at this moment I would call it the event of the recognition of a perspective, which then takes time to be deeply integrated into the system. Forkfoot O'Flannigan

a Haiku on Presence.

Anticipate nought.
Remember nothing at all.
What's left? Only NOW!

The habit of self.

The habit of me,
conditioned by life so far.
Now seen as a lie.

The freedom to see,
the world as it is really,
now resides in here.

DeConditioning,
occurs with each emotion.
Each seeing weakens.

What is left now that
self is seen as delusion ?
Just what always was.

But the ride now has
become more wondrous.
Wonder-full it is.

What dies at the point of death ?

In a conversation death came up.
One person asked what survives death, and there was consensus that the only answer to this could be "I don't know"
The next question was "Well, what dies at the point of death ?" and there was agreement that the body does (duh! obvious) but the idea that 'life force' or soul or whatever you want to call it 'leaves' the body at this point, which is a commonly held belief could only be supposition.
There is no doubt that 'something' is missing at the point of death, and on consideration that something was in fact a whole lot of things.
Movement and the unique activity of the person, the expressions, sound expressions, look expressions etc were absent, leaving an inanimate body. This could easily explain the absence of what was seen as the personality or the core essence of that person.
Somebody else then said that "They", meaning the I or Me that they were, that also went, to which i responded, "no, that never existed in the first place."
The idea, the concept that was held and believed to be a Me/I/They would stop as it was brain generated thought, and would stop when the brain/body stopped.
Next there is a story that i like that says the energy, the unseen, unmeasurable energy, maybe even consciousness, anyway something magical returns to be recycled. Nice story, i have no idea if it is right or not - doesn't matter, i'll just use it 'till a better one comes along. i'll never know, there'll be no i when it happens.

Scattering ashes,
with love in my heart for her.
She lives on in me.

Special-ness

Feeling/believing specialness was once what happened as a result of self approval, which was required because of believing that there was no approval from my father.
Whether it was true or not is irrelevant as the belief existed and the feeling of lack flowed from that.
It was just one chapter in the story of me.
According to my father I was "useless", "lazy", and I deserved the 'clip under the ear' when I didn't come up with the answer to the maths homework he was 'helping' me with.
Looking back, it was always when he was on night shift and he was tired and easily frustrated. He also had no ability to relate to us kids except as an authority figure.
So, how was I special?
It evolved. To start with, what I was good at was reading. I read constantly, averaging a book a day.
It was pure escapism, but it gave me a broad vocabulary and the belief that I was knowledgeable.
This belief evolved into Spirituality in my early 20's.
I tried Christianity (I spent 2 years trying to be a Bahá'í ) but it wasn't special enough.
Next came psychology, particularly the 'new age' versions. This lead to feeling knowledgeable again.
The psychology was an attempt to 'fix' my deficiencies and the crossover into spirituality led to yoga which led to meditation. Always superior to the world full of 'plebs' and 'yobos'.
Guess what realization occurred concurrently with awakening ?

If there is an I,
specialness is implicit.
Now, we are all one.

Fright + thought = Fear

Out of fright comes fear.
What is the difference ?
Fright is physical and happens first.
Fear is fright plus thought.
Fear is a concept.
Fear generates chronic fright (and dis-ease)


i have a feeling.
What might it be, thinking says.
Bogeyman of course!

Ha !, caught a belief last night.

Having just read in the Dalai Llamas' autobiography how the Chinese invasion of Tibet was for their mineral rich mountains which has left the rivers that supply China, Burma, India etc, are all now polluted and the Chinese settlement has removed more than half the forest and killed for the newly arrived meat eaters almost all of the wildlife, Then i saw a FaceBook post by a friend of American fundamental christians saying that atheists should be killed.
Well, my indignation went berserk!
Then it was SEEN.
Phew, it's a big one. i wonder how much it will come back now it is seen.
There is a big - no HUGE energy behind this.
How bad are they ? How good am I ?

Then i read a FB post (by Delma Thassa) this morning on the same issue. Is That Synchronicity ?
She said it well;
"Nothing will change because there will always be the poles that Alan Watts talks about. They're inherent. There's no fixing it, no getting rid of them, just seeing them for what they are."

Whether right or wrong,
it's the same wheel that's spinning.
Wonder-Full watching.

Wondering.

Wondering happens.
Not knowing piques interest.
Oh, how Wonder-Full