Grace Is Now: January 2010

1/26/10

Beyond Words

THIS is:

Oh!

Ahhh....

Oh!

Ahhh... ahhh..

Oh?

Ah!

Ah! Yes!

Huh??

Oh.

Oh!

Ahhhh!

Haha!! Haha!

Ooh!

Oh...

Ha!

Uh oh.

1/23/10

Happiness appears in the joy that we already are.
This joy doesn't feel like anything we know, because
it is beyond "feeling."
It welcomes all states,
good, bad, and indifferent.

The rejection of states can arise, too,
in the joy that we are..

Liberation is not a feeling.
Happiness is wonderful, but
it simply appears and disappears like everything else.
Holding on is futile...and ironically, when there is no holding on
happiness might seem to pop in more often..
but no one cares! :-)

Imagine a wide-open heart space
totally accepting, greeting,
meeting whatever arises
with love, compassion,
grace.

It's just an image, pointing
however feebly,
to what is beyond pointing.

Behind the idea of what This is,
indeed, the very foundation of
whatever appears,
is the pulsing Isness of Being:
reflecting thoughts and ideas,
allowing words to morph into pointers,
gently holding feelings of happiness, sadness,

indifference.

Offering Itself, to Itself.

What we are is absolute peace,
absolute love, and
absolute fulfillment.
No state or feeling or idea can define This,
because they are only momentary reflections,
pulsing in the kaleidoscopic, swirling free-fall

that is YOU.

How can happiness compete with that?

1/13/10

Feelings And Blackberry Bushes

Sometimes someone expresses: "I know all this (Advaita stuff) and it's really, really seen clearly that there is no one, and yet, there is still a feeling of being a separate person."

And the response here is: where's the problem? I see no problem in "feeling like a (separate) person." If "feeling like a person" is arising, so be it. Doesn't mean a thing. Doesn't mean that there IS a separate person. Feelings arise, just like everything else, and have no more "truth" in them than the blackberry bush, for example.

We might say that a blackberry bush is Being "blackberry-bushing" and a person is Being "personing"....it's just the loving-to-be dance of THIS. I really can't speak to the feeling of "blackberry-bushing." And as for the feeling of "personing," well, it seems to be a bunch of sensations, thoughts, ideas, etc....which kind of glom together and seem to whip up more thoughts, which kind of coalesce into a "story".... but no, not really! That's already going too far.

Right here and now, there is no "cohesion" of thought, sensation etc. there is just....This....whatever it is...not separate from what IS. Where is the separate person?

A lot of seeking in the non-duality circles seems to be about stopping suffering, which is very understandable. But here again, suffering is also like the blackberry bush....it appears and disappears. Notice that suffering lives in memory only....or projection. It doesn't exist NOW. We might say that suffering can only exist in thought, whereas pain is a sensation. The two don't necessarily have anything to do with one another. Suffering revolves around the "me" story. We've already seen that that "story" doesn't hold up, NOW....so does suffering exist?

Feelings are also just what arises in THIS. So, "feeling" like a separate person (whatever that really means) is just not a problem. It happens (appears)....until it doesn't! But BEING has never moved, never separated, never been other than This...

Don't be fooled by sensations, feelings, thoughts, etc....there simply is no escape from Being! There is only now, now, now, now. The rest is a wonderful, mysterious, captivating story...made of YOU.

1/9/10

Really Fine

If there were one message that I would like people to come away with from reading this blog, I think it would be: "All is well, enlightenment is what you are."

Seeking, efforting, practicing.....or not.....it's all okay.

Feeling frustrated, separate, hopeless

Blissed-out, free and full of love...it's all fine, really.

We are not separate, damaged, lowly beings trying to be worthy...

We don't need to change in order to be "enlightened."

Nothing has to be accomplished, seen or realized....it's all HERE....right now....the seeing IS the alreadyisness of it.

Even so, if self-inquiry happens - perfect!

If meditation arises - great!

What wants to be communicated here is that WHAT IS is just perfectly Itself....appearing as this and that, changing, arising, falling away....it's all just right, as it is.

And you are That....being what is...exactly how it is, here, now...deeply allowing, even as the appearance of non-allowing...

The message here is not to "not do anything." And it's not to "do" anything either. No message has the power to make someone do or not do anything....it may appear that way....but what gets done (or not) is not the "person's" domain.

Doing and not doing, seeking and finding, understanding and confusion....all appear in the already whole Beingness of what you are.

And that's really fine. ;-))

Goldness

Some say that life is poetry...

but maybe it's deeper,

more raw,

more immediate

than words..

There is a nothingness..

It is changeless

in its changing..

Everything that appears, changes

and everything that appears

is simply made of this nothingness.

So nothing changes. ;-))

There is only changing appearance made of changelessness.

Like the gold statues

appearing in a myriad of forms

can they ever escape "goldness?"

Can they ever be anything but That,

no matter how they appear?

Looking around, a sea of "things"

ever-changing

ever staying THIS

Change is only in appearance,

appearance is change...

But what must BE

for any seeming experience

or appearance

to even be noticed as changing?

And

what notices what??

Maybe there's just seeing, noticing, experiencing.

What we call Life is literally

made of what you are.

No boundaries, no "other,"

no you/not you

just THIS.

No matter what appears,

even: "I still feel like a separate person/this isn't working/I've lost it/I shouldn't be feeling this/I know better," etc...

It's simply "goldness"

appearing as

a chain...

Or YOU

appearing as "separate-from-This."

But there is no escape from complete

utter

irrefutable

LIBERATION...

no matter what what what what what !

What IS

is completely

unified - now.

ONE

without the possibility

of another..

You are That.

Quotes

Consciousness and life - both you may call God; but you are beyond both, beyond God, beyond being and not- being. ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life. ~ William Blake

Consciousness knows itself at all times, because knowing is its nature. How could something that is itself knowing, not know itself? Its knowing of itself is not the knowing of something. Its knowing of itself, is itself. Knowing is present in every experience. Consciousness is that Knowingness. ~ Rupert Spira

Wonderful Writing from Sufi Master Ibn 'Arabi

Know that He is never in anything, nor is anything in Him. He
is neither inside nor outside of anything. None can see Him,
whether with the eyes of the head or with the inner eye; nor
can any conceive Him with senses, knowledge, mind,
intelligence or imagination. Only He can see Himself; only He
can conceive Himself. None can know Him; only He can know
Himself. He sees Himself by Himself; He conceives Himself by
Himself; He knows Himself by Himself. None other than He
can see Him. None other than He can know Him. That which
hides Him is His oneness. None but Himself can hide Him. The
veil that hides Him is His own being.

He is not within you; nor are you in Him. He does not exclude
you, nor are you excluded from Him. When you are addressed
as you, do not think that you exist, with an essence and
qualities and attributes; for you never existed, nor do exist, nor
ever will exist. You have not entered into Him, nor He into
you. Without being, your essence is with Him and in Him.
Without having any identity, you are Him and He is you. If you
know yourself as nothing, then you truly know your Lord.
Otherwise, you truly know Him not.

You cannot know your Lord by making yourself nothing.
Many a wise man claims that in order to know one's Lord one
must denude oneself of the signs of one's existence, efface
one's identity, finally rid oneself of one's self. This is a mistake.
How could a thing that does not exist try to get rid of its
existence?

If you think that to know Allah depends on you ridding
yourself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners
to Him, the only unforgivable sin; because you are claiming
that there is another existence besides Him, the all-existent;
that there is a you and a He.

You presume others to be other than Allah. There is nothing
other than He, but you do not know this. While you are
looking at Him you do not recognize Him. When the secret
opens to you, you will know that you are none other than He.
Then you will also know that you are the one whom He
wished, and that you are forever and will not disappear with
time, for there is no passing of time. Your attributes are His.
Without doubt, your appearance is His appearance.

Therefore, do not think anymore that you need to become
nothing, that you need to annihilate yourself in Him. If you
thought so, then you would be His veil, while a veil over Allah
is other than He. How could you be a veil that hides Him?
What hides Him is His being the One Alone.

The condition for self-knowledge is to know that if you had a
being of your own, independent of other being, then you would
neither have need to annihilate yourself in Allah nor to know
yourself. You would have been, as yourself, a God, self-
existent; while it is Allah Most High that is free from the
existence of any other God but Himself.

And when you come to know yourself, you will be sure that
you neither exist nor do not exist, whether now, or before, or
in the future. This is the meaning of _la ilaha illa Llah_, There
is no God but Allah, there is no being but His, nor any other
except Him, and He is the only One.

Know that this existence is neither you nor other than you.
You do not exist; yet you are also not a nonexistence. Your
existence is not someone else; nor does your nonexistence
make you someone else. Without being and without not-being,
your existence and your nonexistence is Allah's being.

The void is a mirror; creation is the image in it. Man is as the
eye of the image reflected in the mirror; the One who is
reflected in the image is hidden in the pupil of that eye. Thus
He sees Himself.

Is one to consider a decaying corpse or excrement as God?
Allah most high is beyond and free from such associations. We
address those who do not see a corpse as a corpse or
excrement as excrement.

Then when you see what is around you as not other-than-you,
and all and everything as the existence of the One; when you
do not see anything else with Him or in Him; but see Him in
everything as yourself and at the same time as the nonexistence
of yourself; then what you see is the Truth.

That is why the utterance became permissible for Mansur Al-
Hallaj when the words, "I am the Truth!" came from his lips;
and for Abu Yazid Al-Bistami when he cried, "Praise be to Me,
the essence, absolved of all defect!" These are not people who
have annihilated themselves in Allah; nor have they come to be
in Allah. They are eternal. They never ceased to be, for they
never were, since there is only Allah's self, Allah's essence.

So if someone says, "I am the Truth!," do not hear it from any
other than from the Truth Himself; for it is not a man who says
it, it is the word of Allah. That man who utters these words is
nothing but an image reflected in an empty mirror, one of the
infinite attributes of Allah. The reflection is the same as that
which is being reflected, and the words of the image are the
reflected words of the Real One.