Instant Transformation

What is the difference between gradual change in awareness and transformation?

Gradual awakening happens through time, cause and effect and linear experiences. Most people awaken gradually, sometimes over a whole lifetime. Transformation, on the other hand, has nothing to do with time but the grace of readiness to LISTEN to the point of actually recognizing what is NOW itself.
A week ago I presented such a video entitled "Listen -- it's very simple!" and the results were far greater than expected. I had several people emailing me about their sudden transformation after hearing it several times. The moment they actually HEARD IT something happened to create a shift. One particular man, experiencing cancer, was able to transcend the fear of it.
The video is presented here -- watch with an open heart and mind...

What does "going through the human" mean?

I have been following your video clips and your booklets on your website. Could you please clarify what you mean when you say -- "You have to go through the human before the Being awakens." Could you make it simpler for me to understand?

Thank you for your question. 'Going through the human-part of us is immensely important for spiritual awakening.' In simpler terms let's say the following...
You are a human being. The human and the Being are dualistic, that is, they are opposites. The human-part is what we become familiar with since it is comprised of survival instincts and adaptation. The human is a 'becoming-process' whereas the Being 'just IS! In our unawareness of the Being-part of us (which is love, happiness, meaning, peace, joy etc)we start feeling as if something is missing. It is often that we feel empty inside and believe that something is wrong or we are not good-enough. These feelings are the direct signal that we are really missing the Being but do not know it. Thus we start believing there is something wrong with us and start seeking for answers 'out there' in the world. This seeking creates a paradox because we can never find the Being we are seeking. It is already who we are. However, it is like a veil placed in front of our eyes, we are spiritually blind. We do not see the Being simply because it is the Being that sees in the first place but we are NOT aware of this simplicity. The reason we do not see what is obvious is because we are trying to see the eyes that do the seeing. It is like kissing your own lips. So our search leads to frustration, loneliness, even depression, deep inner emptiness and often desperation.
Yet our seeking of our true nature, which we believe is a lack we are having, is really seeking ourselves; our very Being. So our first step, to repeat, is go through the human (which we are familiar with) and see how what we want most is already within us in the BEING itself. In fact, we are a Being playing the human role.
How do we go through the human? Do the following steps:

1. The human is always seeking but it never truly finds what it wants because it is seeking itself believing it is somewhere outside. So your first step is to quiet the mind and start looking at this obvious dilemma.
Sit still and take a deep breath. Relax with the exhalation of the slow breath. Start listening to all the sounds around you with eyes closed. Be detached in the listening so that you are not judging what you hear. After a few minutes ask yourself, "Are the sounds coming from outside me?" pause and listen to the obvious.
Then ask again, "Are they coming from inside me?" pause and listen to the obvious.
Ask once more, "Or are they both inside and outside at the same time?" and as you explore how everything is both inside and outside, you'll begin to see that there is no outside nor inside but just consciousness.

2. Next recall the last 'suffering' experience you had such as emotional hurt, crashed self-image, depression, anger, negative reaction or even a panic attack. Allow yourself to listen to that sensation as you listened to the sounds. Do not get into the story of it...just the physical sensations alone.

3. Finally, relax into the sensations in the body until they become neutralized. Relax into them by slow relaxed breathing into the feeling. Then say to the feeling in your body, "Forgive me for rejecting you. I love you." and if you follow this with sincere feeling you have taken a giant leap to healing and eventual awakening of your beautiful Being, which is always NOW!

Remember, that in Reality there is only NOW. NOW is always fresh, alive, pure and new. If you discover this, you have discovered the Being you have sought all your life.

What is this fuss about 'NOW!?

"You talk about the 'Now' as if it was something exciting. I find it flat. Surely there must be something more than 'now!?"

You say that 'now' is not exciting and it leaves you flat! This is like saying that surfing on a huge wave is flat. Did you know that our senses take in less than one billionth of the stimuli available to us?
When we say that 'now' is flat, we are merely projecting our mental viewpoint that has become stifled by the lower forms of thoughts and has created the opposite of what is real. We have actually created an individual reality, which is a total illusion, and blinded us to what is truly around us.

This 'now' that we take for granted is filled with enough spiritual stimuli to awaken you many times over. Let us start with the power of mind that created this world (of which we use only about 5%). What we call mind is a vast field of intelligence that extends far beyond the reaches of the cosmos. We make 'our mind' as the localized form in our head when in truth it is non-local and can't be confined to one location. This 'mind' is triggered and guided by an even greater intelligence known as the witness or pure awareness. This awareness is known as Presence.

You say that 'now' leaves you flat and that there must be something more than 'now.' Take a moment right now and really look if anything can happen outside of now? This 'now' that you call flat is eternal, never-ending and what's more, it never begun! The realization of NOW boggles the mind because it will help us recognize that time and space are relative terms for the limited daily mind to survive.

If you can, in total honesty, examine and inquire into this 'now' that you believe is flat, you'll be met with endless wonders and miracles that you had missed. Just think of it -- there is nothing else but NOW!! The material world we take to be so real and solid is just a play of our senses but in reality it is but an appearance of this NOW-cosmic energy.
One moment's realization of this power of now is enough to help you rise above all psychological fears such as fear of death, old age or terminal illness. It will help you see that what you thought was limited and mundane is a whole new world of glory far beyond our imagination.

What does the word 'seeing' mean?

"In your youtube videos you mention that seeing is all that's necessary for spiritual growth. I don't understand this – are you talking about physical seeing with the eyes or using that term as an esoteric meaning?”

What you see with your physical eyes is what you value personally. The question is, “Are you seeing what actually IS or what you believe IS?” And you'll find that someone else might not see exactly as you do even though the physical appearnce might seem the same. What you see with your eyes, you also see with your conditioned concepts, beliefs, judgments and childhood values. No one sees purely what-is until they awaken to their true nature.

The less love we have known in our life, the less clearly we see. All emotional dysfunction is distorted-seeing which seems real to the observer. For instance, I have been conducting hypnotherapy sessions for several years and every person I meet are convinced that what they see is true to them. An anorexic person might seem so skinny and fragile to the average person and yet to the anorexic itself there is a desire for greater loss of weight. I have had many people who didn't like themselves, and some of these people were quite handsome, yet their self-image was to them less than handsome.

No one can convince you against your own seeing. Seeing is very individual. How you see the world and the people in it is all based on how you feel about yourself. It is all a mirror. You and another might look at the same person but when you exchange feelings, opinions and views about that person you'll probably differ according to personal values and conditioning. Who is right or wrong? There is no right or wrong but only love or fear.

Fear can be so subtle – skepticism, doubt, hesitatancy, indecision, uncertainty, not knowing what you want and so on are subtle fears. Love, on the other hand, is often seen as romantic love. Romantic love is simply a conditioned concept of love based on emotional values. Yet love has no limit to its expansion. Love is when we rise above the personal into our greater seeing of our wholeness and oneness. You start knowing love when you see yourself in another. Love rises as you expand your self into the greater Self you really are. In other words, Love is wholeness, it is the wave seeing itself as the ocean.

We start knowing of our limited seeing when we recognize that our feelings are often contracted. It is through our feeling nature that we start discovering our true seeing. Just as fear is the bottom rung of the huge ladder of life, so is love at the top of the ladder of life. Yet, there is no limit to love. Love is happiness, meaning, joy, abundance, inner fulfillment and clarity. However, there is no end to love because it is infinite and beyond our ability to intellectually understand it. Fear can drive you to depravity, ugliness and total darkness yet love can raise you to heights undreamed of. So, one way to gauge your seeing is to ask yourself, “How do I feel right now after seeing this?” and your answer will be your indication whether it is real or not.

Fear is only real to the conditioned aspect of ourselves but when it is seen in its expanded truth (higher seeing) we will see something we might have never suspected – it was the need for love! Fear is a hunger for love and when it is not satisfied it seeks control through anger, need for power or manipulation.

Your feelings are a direct reflection of your seeing. For example, take a good look at this statement from A Course in Miracles where it states, “We are never upset for the reason we think.” All upsetness, hurt feelings and personal pain is ALL made up from seeing our past (unconsciously). Then we blame it on the person or persons that triggered that feeling and this projection increases our blindness and pain. It also brings guilt, which is part of the personal pain that demands self-sabotage towards the people we love. You see, guilt always looks for self-punishment in order to convince oneself that the hurt or pain was justified. In other words, fear creates its own vicious circle. Until we start seeing this we remain locked in our self-made prison. It is all about the willingness to SEE!!

Once we see something clearly it stops on its own from hurting us. After all, who in his/her right mind would continue torturing oneself?
What you see is always yourself. We grow spiritually NOT through practice but through seeing the fear (pain) that we have held on from our conditioned past. It is not wrong but misguided. We are not being 'bad' but simply blocking our seeing from what is good and beautiful.

Our nature is wholeness pure and simple. Anything that doesn't feel good is not good for us. We feel 'good' when there is love. There is no happiness without love. There is no peace without love. There is no joy or meaning without love. Yet, love is not an attainment but our true nature. However, it has to be allowed!! Remember, when we choose fear, we are still needing and seeking love but choose fear because we feel we don't deserve love. This fear, known as ego, has created a self-image so strong and so seemingly real that unless we start witnessing it in our actions and reaction it will escape us.

Relationships are a perfect way to see our seeing. They are the perfect mirror. “What is it that disturbs you most in your mate?” “What is it that hurts you the most?” and there you have it. It is our closest relationships that trigger our past the most. It is the close relationships that also trigger our capacity to love and makes us aware of our vulnerability to fear. What you love and hate in the other is what you love and hate in yourself. It is the perfect mirror.

We never truly see what-is but only what our conditioned concepts have instilled in us. If we had a background of prejudice against certain races then that's what we see. When we look in the seeming present, we see with the eyes of the past. This conditioned seeing is so unconscious and so blinding that we have no idea we are caught in it until we check our feelings. Our feelings are the perfect gauge of the truth. Ask yourself often, “How am I feeling right now?” That is, are you feeling happy or a little out-of-sorts? Are you feeling vitally alive or bored, fed-up and tired? This questioning is the perfect picture of what you are seeing. When you awaken to your love nature you'll only see its beauty, its grandeur. Its glory.

The stages of seeing

All seeing initially is unconscious based on our past conditioning. We start expanding our spiritual awareness step-by-step through love. This ladder of awakening is a long one and it starts with the first step. The first step is acceptance (acknowledging) that our emotional problems are a self-created defense mechanism.

Initially we are pre-occupied with the personal ego-self. This is a self-image of separation that is so imbedded in our psyche that we don't even know it exists. However, we carry this picture of ourselves in every situation, every encounter and every moment unless we are triggered by a great feeling of love. This feeling of love is the only time that we forget ourselves. In this self-forgetting we expand towards our true nature of Being. Have you ever felt such love that for a few moments you were engulfed in that love to the point where you were totally relaxed, happy and unself-conscious? Wasn't that wonderful? In that moment you were truly yourself – your True Self!! Remember that such moments are the true nature expressing.

The first stages of our growth start from personal self-image of separation and into seeing such a self-image. The moment we start seeing our self-image and how we have created it (without judging it as wrong) through conditioned concepts, then we have taken a leap into greater awareness.

From seeing our self-image we also see how we have been judging ourselves and others; how we have been prejudiced, self-protective, fearful of being controlled and controlling; how we had created our drama through our own thinker-system. We start seeing how our personal self protected itself from intruders and 'others' when in truth there are no 'others.' We can expand this to see how we favored our country, our nationality, our belief and our tradional system above others.

Our stages go from physical, emotional, mental and finally spiritual. For example, a man would look at a woman and the first thing he sees is her body. If she turns him on sexually then he is infatuated until the sexual feeling is exhausted and wonders, “What did I ever see in her?”

When we look physically we see more than just the physical but don't know it. We see with our judgments, prejudices and acquired beliefs from our religion, tradition and childhood orientation. We see with the personal ego-viewpoint.
Ask a hunded people about God, Life, Politics, or Religion and you'll get a hundred different beliefs. Are they real? Is there truth in them? As we expand in our seeing of what is real, we will also discover that the real is not a concept but that which is lasting, infinite and eternally unchanging. It is here, when we discover this, that we awaken. This dscovery does not happen through beliefs from reading but from direct knowing from our own SEEING.

Some people pray, others meditate or chant or practice charity or whatever, but spiritual growth does not take place until we see what-is as it actually IS! Then, after this SEEING, we can take up the practice of meditation, prayer and chanting because then we will be fruitful and productive. Seeing always comes first in spiritual evolution.

Do spiritual experiences remove ego?

I have had several spiritual experiences in my life and I am grateful for having them as they given me moments of joy, however, they did not last and I am still back to square one. What gives?

Spiritual experiences can be wonderful and uplifting temporarily but the ego rises again to applaud itself for having them. It believes it has attained something and that's why we go back to square one.
Realizations that last are often facing our biggest fears and sufferings. Here are some examples...
I used to be a physiotherapist in Toronto and was unhappy with trying to please the clients according to my boss to keep them as members in our exclusive health club. Then one morning I had a vision of a beautiful old man before going to work. It was vivid and momentarily disorienting. Soon I began to believe that it was a form of hallucination triggered by my growing frustration. Six months later I saw his face in a book cover by the name of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and knew, then and there, that we are eternal beings. I quit my position and retired to a basement to reflect on this. I started teaching soon after and founded the Unitrust Foundation in Toronto. This spiritual vision, although life-changing, did not erase my ego. In fact after writing a book "Be Aware - Be Free" and appearing on TV plus giving numerous classes I, somehow, strenghtened my ego.
After this so-called success I got married to a student and travelled to Vancouver. I worked at UBC the first couple of months but she left me to go back to Toronto to her famly. I was left penniless and being devastated couldn't work. I felt all alone. In this gut-wrenching loneliness I turned to Bhagavan and this surrender turned out to be my very real first realization. I was leaning against a bookshelf when a book fell on my lap and opened on page four where I read, "When the teacher of God is ready the students will appear." This book was the manual for teachers in a "Course in Miracles." It was soon after that I was teaching A Course in Miracles.
A couple of years later I met Sivia and she moved in with me. These first few years were filled with emotional turmoil. It was meeting this emotional upheaval that my second realization happened. It was the year 2000 and suddenly I was faced with the knowing that I am a human being. A Being playing the human role of Burt. This recognition was so overwhelming that everything became crystal-clear -- How the human is a becoming process filled with necessary egoic pain while the real goal of human life was to discover the Being that was always eternally here-now.
At this point I gave satsangs at my place.
My third realization happened when I suffered blood poisoning and was dying. I faced the possibility of death while I didn't want to leave Sivia. Suddenly a cloud burst at the hospital where I was and it was filled with so much love and joy that Burt disappeared. Everything was seen as one Being -- warm, loving, euphoric Being. A few months later I quit giving satsangs and retired to giving Supersentience sessions one-on-one and answering email questions worldwide.
The reason I have told you all this is to show you that lasting realizations happen when we face our greatest fears and trust our true inner nature. Pleasant spiritual insights, although wonderful, do not last because the ego is still in control.
With love always, Burt

How to love yourself!

You often talk about loving yourself but isn't that dualistic? I mean doesn't it have a selfish tinge to it?

When you love yourself you will discover that it is the most unselfish thing in life. I have conducted hypnotherapy for well over thirty years (which I call Supersentience). In these years I have learned one outstanding truth and it is this...

You don't need to change yourself -- you need to love yourself!!

Picture the vast ocean as Life itself. Now seeing this vast ocean imagine the billions of surface waves and each wave believes it is different and separate. Now, what if each wave would want to belong, to feel its wholeness with the ocean and cry out in its loneliness because it feels separate from it? Isn't this scenario rather absurd when the wave is part of the ocean and the ocean itself? This is what happens through unawareness of our wholeness with Life, we feel separate and thus suffer emotional pain. Everyone who has not discovered their true nature suffers somewhat from an empty feeling (a sinking feeling) as if something is wrong. All emotional suffering stems from this lack of wholeness, love, oneness.
When we feel this emptiness inside us we automatically start seeking love. We seek love through neediness, wanting to belong, approval, acceptance from others, needing to feel important, recognized, respected but, the paradox is, that the more we seek love the more we convince ourselves we are NOT love. This increases our self-concern, our selfishness, it makes us want to feel as the center of the universe. This need makes us wake up mornings feeling miserable, empty and afraid of life. We do not realize we are denying the very wholeness we are. We are like the wave that wants to belong to the ocean but feels separate from it. It doesn't yet see how absurd and redundant that suffering is -- this is called self-sabotage or self-punishment. We are seeking ourselves believing we are someplace else. Thus we deny our oneness with life and become dysfunctional. To repeat, all emotional suffering from simple psychological fear to deep anxiety and loneliness is nothing more than ignorance of our true nature of oneness.
To love yourself means to connect with your own BEING nature which is LIFE itself. It is allowing the wave in you to recognize the ocean.
Here's how to return to loving YOU. Take the following steps:
1. Acknowledge the pain you are causing yourself by staying with the gut-wrenching feeling or heaviness in your chest etc and then either lying down or seated, place your hands over the area of your body that you feel this fear and anxiety and say, "I LOVE YOU!" -- say it a few times meaning it and feeling its flavor. Then...
2. Forgive your self judgments and ego-preoccupation known as self-concern. Follow this forgiveness with yet another dose of "I LOVE YOU!" When you start feeling relaxed do the next thing...
3. Say to yourself with a smile on your face, "Thank you!" Feel the gratitude of having the courage and foresight and intelligence to do this self-acceptance.
After a few attempts at this you will begin to feel the grace taking over your life. A shift will take place where all sef-concern will abate and in its stead you will genuinely begin to feel a love that is truly heart-warming.

Is Life a game?

This might seem like a strange question but I have been reading the teachings of many masters who say that life is a game and should be enjoyed. Can you share your feelings on this?

One of my profoundest experiences that happened in the year 2000 convinced me that I am a human being, that is, a Being playing the human role. This realization has not only brought clarity but also the fact that we are all playing a role, a game, wired for a particular function. If we take this role seriously then we suffer. If we enjoy it as a game then life becomes enjoyable. All emotional suffering is due to one's view of life -- taking life too seriously. There is only one thing that is NOT a game and that's Oneness, wholeness, totality, Christ, God, Allness or simply The Source of it all. In fact, we are the Source playing this game called 'me.' Visualize the great big ocean and then see the waves (unique and individual) frolicking on the surface of it. Yet the waves are the ocean itself playing as various waves.
All human suffering is taking life seriously. For instance, taking our religion to be the only true one and then go about trying to convince others that it is the only way, that's insanity. Some Christians do it. Some Muslims do it. What if they took their religious beliefs as just beliefs and enjoyed it while allowing others the right to enjoy theirs also?
You do what you do and I do what I do because we are wired that way. By seeing it as a role-playing-thing then we are free from egoic preoccupation with it and truly enjoy it. Life is to be enjoyed, celebrated, loved and shared.
With love always, Burt

How do I align conscious with subconscious mind?

In your video-cam "Trinity -- The Unknown key to peace and freedom" you mention the conflict created between the conscious and subconscious mind. How do we align both so that there is no conflict?

The process is very simple once we understand how each part of the Trinity 'works' and then align them as one.
The conscious mind is our daily limited mind filled wih desires and needs. It only uses between 5-10% consciousness. Most people live from birth to death strictly from he conscious mind.

The subconscious mind is dormant consciousness and has the greatest power in our life. It is hardly ever used to advantage and yet it is a staggering force of memory and creativity. There is nothing we can't accomplish through the subconscious mind. In fact, it is the subconscious mind that has created our world and maintains our body functioning.

The Superconsciousness is not mind but this timeless NOW itself. It is our true nature and therefore has all the 'qualities' that fulfill the heart such as joy, peace, love, happiness and warmth. It is our spiritual nature and it is the Oneness itself. It is the Supercnsciousness that creates the right time and place for us to function at our best and provides us with what is needed when needed.
This function 'happens' when all three (conscious, subconscious and Superconscious) are aligned as ONE.

Now the question arises, "How do we align all three as one?"

The answer is simple. All three work together to form a complete whole. The conscious mind, being limited, is filled with hopes, fears, desires and needs. The conscious mind believes that it can achieve what it wants through effort and struggle whereas the oppsoite is true. Therefore, when there's a need for peace or love or happiness it is often frustrated because the effort to receive same tells the subconscious, "Needing love, peace and happiness means I don't have them..." and so creates frustration, confusion and anxiety. The truth is this -- happiness, peace and love are natural attributes of Superconsciousness. Superconsciousness is the NOW itself beyond time. Therefore, instead of NEEDING the qualities we yearn for, just ALLOW them to express themselves naturally. The moment you allow what you need to manifest on its own, the conscious and subconscious become aligned and the Superconscious provides the time and place, situations and circumstances for that to happen.
For example, let's say you live in an environment where there is too much 'activity' for peace to be experienced. Instead of needing peace, which will end up in frustration anyway due to sonflict with the subconscious mind, you ALLOW PEACE to manifest by seeing that the Superconsciousness is peace itself. You create an environment inside you of a flowing river, warm sun, trees and quiet and see how that very imaginative scene will activate the power of the Superconscious. You take a deep breath and visualize what you need as already attained through ALLOWING. There is an immediate alignment with the subconscious mind where even the 'activity' becomes less stressful.
This ALLOWING applies to anything you need because the greatest needs are ever-present in this NOW such as love, peace, joy and happiness. They await your ALLOWING! The moment you literally ALLOW rather than need then a whole new dynamic comes into being and the Superconsciousness creates the time nd place in which this happens more often.
Here's another example, suppose you want a comptaible relationship that will last and bring you love and fulfillment. First you see how NEEDING brought nothing but frustration, making many mistakes and even creating the wrong person to appear. However, you start ALLOWING the right person to appear by being patient and see what you truly want. You visualize the kind of person that you want and then see how it is already being created in your subconscious mind. If this visualization is crystal clear about what you want then the Superconsciousness will create (without your doing anything deliberate) the right place and the right time to meet the person you want. The length of time it takes for its manifestation will depend upon one law -- ALLOWING and not controlling!
So, in brief, the conscious NEEDS create subconscious conflict. When you see clearly that the ego cannot control or do anything successfullly then your very ALLOWING will align your energy to manifest what you want with ease and comfort. Thus all three (conscious, subconscious and Superconsciousness are One).

Watch the video below for a more specific guideline...

What is Supersentience?

You do sessions one-on-one following methods of hypnotherapy and yet you use the term 'Supersentience' as your practice. What is Supersentience?

The term ‘Supersentience’ came to me during an illness while asking for guidance. The term ‘Supersentience’ didn’t make sense to me at the time but it kept repeating over and over and it wouldn’t stop until I gave way to it by writing it down.

Supersentience means that our true sentient nature is truly more than just thought, emotion and sensation. It is pure feeling. Pure feeling is not an emotion but a knowing that we have taken for granted and buried through tons of conditioned thought and past experiences. Yet, this pure feeling is obvious when we stop thinking and emoting. For instance, “How do you know you exist?” and the reply usually is, “Of course I know I exist!!” and yet we never ask, “Who is it that knows this?” This knowing is NOT a thought, a belief or an emotion and neither is it a memory. It is our obvious knowing of our existence. This ‘knowing’ is super-sentience that we have taken for granted. If we recognize this KNOWING we awaken to our true Source which is NOW!

Ask any intelligent person if there’s anything other than ‘NOW’ and they’ll have to say, “No, there is only now.” Yet, what if we allowed ourselves to recognize this fact. Isn’t that awakening? Yet, we have attached ourselves so much and for so long with thought, belief, experiences and past conditioning that we cannot see the obvious truth of our sentient being.

All fears and problems happen because of this ignorance of our true nature. This unawareness of who we are brings fear of death and its thousands of little fears that accompany it known as insecurity, inadequacy, lack of safety and uncertainty of who we are. This, in turn, causes us to seek goals, ambitions and success to give our life meaning while missing the truth of our very existence. The problem is the attachment that had followed our survival instinct. Attachment to what we own such as name, body, past and conditions. Yet, these are natural and normal, but can’t be fully enjoyed unless and until we know the truth of our being.

Supersentience awakens our natural knowing that we had suppressed and buried and start recognizing it naturally. Then, through this recognition we awaken, and truly start enjoying everything without restraint and fear or guilt.

Supersentience follows three modes of teaching and experience.

1. First knowing what you have been telling yourself subconsciously throughout the years. This can be uncovered simply by knowing your soul-type. The soul-type is NOT who you are but ‘who you think you are.’ Once you acknowledge this self-created thought and belief system, then we can start cleaning-it-out of the system through mild hypnosis and forgiveness.

2. Through body-awareness we start facing our sensations, however painful, as just sensations and not the truth of what and who we are. This is done through patience, honesty and direct seeing.

3. We explore, and through grace, eventually awaken to the truth of our Being as Pure Feeling, Pure Awareness and therefore as eternal ‘I’ that had never been born and shall never know ‘death.’ It is this simple direct experience that will bring such joy and meaning in one’s life that no definition or description can suffice.

How do I feel without thought?

I have seen your video "What is true feeling?" and I loved it. Now my question might seem foolish but I still have to ask, "How do I make myself feel without thought?"

It is not foolish to ask it since most people do anyway. I get emails from people saying, "My head hurts after reading such profound truth." The head hurts and we ask 'how' because we can't see without thought. We have been so conditioned into believing we are our thinking and beliefs that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Please listen carefully -- to distinguish the difference between thought and feeling is the recognition that will come to you when you are devoted to finding out. You cannot make yourself feel but you can ALLOW yourself to FEEL. FEELING is NOT an emotion, and neither is it an experience or a thought. Feeling is what we already know but haven't recognized yet. For example, what if I asked you, "How do you know you exist?" and you'll reply, "Of course I do, I just KNOW I exist." That's it. It is not a memory; not a thought; not an emotion but a KNOWING. A Knowing does not require thought -- you just know! However, we have taken this 'knowing' so much for granted that we have buried it under tons of thoughts and emotions that we are now numb because we no longer feel but think and emote only from the surface.

A pure FEELING is an awareness that we have not 'looked at' yet. Here's another example -- when does anything happen to you (a thought, an experience, an emotion etc)? It always happens NOW, right? We all know that, and yet, we bury such knowing with thoughts and emotions and reactions without pausing to LOOK with awareness what we already know.
Most people are not willing to LOOK without thought for two reasons -- first they believe it is difficult without realizing that is is their true nature. Secondly, they are not willing to LOOK without thinking about it. This is why many say, "It hurts my head" to read such material as this because we can't stop thinking about it, figuring it out and it is bound to hurt because KNOWING has nothing to do with thought.
Ask yourself, "Who am I?" and you'll find you can't answer it because there is no thought, opinion or emotion that can answer that. Who you are is not a thought, a form or a belief -- YOU JUST ARE!!

Let's go deeper through the process of eimination. It is obvious that you have thoughts; you have a past; you have emotions, you have a body, right? Good! You have all these things, but who is it that has them? You have a body and name just like you have a coat and money in the bank. However, what you HAVE is something that YOU have, you own - but who is this YOU that owns them?
This questioning is NOT easy because it forces you to go into thinking, which is something you have done all your life. Yet, if you relax fully without thinking about anything, keeping your focus on your breathing or looking with soft eyes into the distance such as an empty sky, then thoughts cease. You'll catch a glimpse that 'what you are' is beyond what you have -- it is this SPACE known as NOW! In fact, you are NOT what you think at all -- you are this NOW itself! This revelation can be scary but ever so enlightening. In fact, that's what spiritual awakening is. You don't awaken to a belief or to some religious thought but awaken to KNOWING (pure feeling) to what you have always been and ever shall be. You are this eternal NOW without a past or future. You have never been born and shall never pass away. This 'I' that you are is not an ego or personal self based on beliefs, past or the things you own such as a body or name. This 'I' is your pure awareness, pure feeling or simply pure knowing. You are this Presence of NOW itself. It never leaves you.
Take time to be still and just relax so completely that thought ceases. You can do this by watching your normal breath or looking into empty space with soft eyes (without staring) or just listening to the sounds around you without judgment or involvement. Then ask yourself when there is total relaxation, "who am I?" and you'll find there is no answer. Having no answer is clear that who you are is NOT a thought and neither is it an ego. You are left empty and here-now. As you continue to relax into this not-knowing you'll start catching glimpses that you are this NOW itself. NOW itself has no past or future and, it is also timeless. When you see the obvious without fear of it then that's awakening. Awakening spiritually is knowing two things -- You KNOW you exist and you KNOW that what exists as 'you' ('I') is this NOW itself. You are an eternal being. Once you rise above the fear of it and fully acknowledge it as an obvious fact, then that's it. You're awaken. It is all that simple. Now all your questions are answered and you are free.

The Confusion about the 'after-life.'

Burt I guess my question/comment is that people that have had NDE(Near Death Experiences) always talk about keeping their "memory" and ability to remember who they are and recognize loved ones and all that. Do you really think you a person keeps that? According to Eckart Tolle and other spiritual teachers that is all gone. What do you think?

This confusion is understandable to the novice since NDE research seems to contradict advaita teachings. Both are correct from their vantage point. The key is in the viewpoint. The average person believes in his separate reality and therefore lives as if in a dream. Thus, since this world is quite real to the average individual then the transition called 'death' would carry greater promise of freedom. NDE research, although valid, expresses the experiences of ordinary consciousness wherein one meets loved ones and recognizes that he/she is still alive either in astral or ethereal form and so on.

The teachings of advaita focuses, on the other hand, on the Reality of Oneness. There is only one 'I' and 99% of the time it is identified as the personal ego self. When this 'I' is explored through a sincere drive to know the truth by asking "who am I?" then this 'I' felt-sense of individuality expands because there is no answer to the question. In other words, there is no ego 'I' to reply to such a question. This non-answer to the question, when humbly accepted, opens up a whole new way of seeing. This opening happens because we begin to see that there is no person who can answer the question "who am I?" It sees that everyone is the same beyond the form. And, since everyone is the same then there is only One 'I' appearing in every human form on earth as an individual personal 'I'. In other words, there are over 6 billion humans on this earth but there is only one 'I' that seems to split itself into billions. Each form, miraculously, feels that this 'I' felt-sense is me, personally (called ego). Beneath the physical form we are all the same 'I'. In Reality, therefore, the seeming personal is really the Cosmic Self. And, here is where we start to understand and see the world as the creation of mind. When 'death' occurs to such a one that has realized his/her oneness then the transition is 'as if' nothing happened. To such a one there is only the eternal NOW that doesn't change one iota after the death of the form.

When we believe that life here on earth is Reality rather than a creation of mind, then at transition (physical death) we continue the same dream but in a different dynamic. We feel freer, more alive and create simultaneous manifestations through thought alone. At this point we see how the world we experienced was but the creation of thought. The illusion of personal self continues because the soul might not have realized its fullness of spirit yet as Oneness. Therefore we might choose to reincarnate in order to learn more about who we really are. A physical form is essential to recognize 'that' which makes it seem real.
If you have realized that daily worldly life is a dream then even the word 'death' is inconsequential.
I had my first experience through an out-of-body episode where all my faculties, memory and senses were intact.

Fear of death exists because we believe we are the body whereas in truth we are a soul inhabiting a form. It is the soul that gives life to the form. A soul is like a holographic image of the Spirit. A soul seems to have its journey and learning curve whereas the Spirit is perfect and always here-now eternally beyond beginning or end.

As a hypnotherapist I have been able to help people recall past life traumas to clear present day problems and fears. It is interesting to note that all fears stem from one primal fear -- the fear of ego death. The scriptures point out that there is only one death, which is ego-death. Once it takes place there is no longer any death but eternal life in heaven (joy).

The fear of death, which is prevalent among unawakened souls, brings with it nagging fears, insecurities, stresses, anxieties and other negative problems. We can see this nagging fear in modern loud metal music, sexual addictions, pornography, masturbating, drinking and partying and so on. This frenzy is a way to block the mind from feeling its subtle fear. It focuses its energy 'out there' so that it doesn't have to look deep within. In other words, due to this fear, we make an attempt at 'trying' to live rather than truly living in inner peace and freedom. This is a common compensation for the unconscious fear of death.

Master Yada said in the book "Yada Speaks, "The consciousness awakens when it discovers that death is an illusion and then move from the physical to the Light that we are. This is the sole reason for being here on earth."

The average seeker finds comfort in NDE research and that's very good. It gives greater courage to face the inevitable. However, the fear of death is transcended through 'forgiveness' -- forgiving ourselves for every thought we give to the body and past and allowing ourselves to see how everyone is the same as you. This love from recognizing others as yourself plus forgiveness eventually brings us to the recognition of the eternal NOW!

How am I 100% responsible?

The following video-clip is an answer to the many questions that were disturbed by the statement in the booklet "There is only YOU!" that stated -- "You are 100% responsible for everything you see, experience and think."

What is the most important thing I need to know for spiritual clarity?

"What is the most important thing I need to understand for spiritual clarity?"

Just get to know that what you think is the personal "I" is really the Cosmic "I" -- you are not an ego idea (self-image) but the wholeness itself."

Transform anger into Love!

“I have allowed my anger but it is not healed…”

“I am so frustrated because the more I allow, the worse things get.”

When people come up with questions like these, it is obvious that they are confusing Allowing with Indulgence. And, there is a vast difference between the two. In fact, they are opposite.

Someone wrote to me and said, “I know I am angry but it’s okay.” They believe somehow that they are allowing it. They are in contradiction but do not know it and that’s how frustration happens. Anger means strictly, “This is not okay!” and when they say, “It’s okay when I am angry…” they are simply placating the situation and hoping for approval, but the fact of the matter is, they are frustrated and still angry.

Let’s first understand anger. Anger is a plain assertion that, “It is not okay!” In other words, it is resistance to what-is. It is a desire not to have it this way. Allowing, on the other hand, really means that all energy is okay once it is allowed as the energy that it is. We do not realize that what makes something ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ is our interpretation of energy. Anger is simply a rejection of what-is and thus plainly making it wrong. Therefore the energy becomes violent internally or externally. Violence simply means to violate the law of love. The law of love is rejected when we resist anything and make it “not okay.”

The law of love, which is also the law of allowing, is pure energy. Energy is never bad or good – it is simply energy and it is our mind which makes turns it into anger through resistance and control. Thus to allow means that it is okay to let the energy be what it is, however, it is imperative to see that it is the mind and its judgment that is turning it into something wrong or not okay!! The moment we allow, then all resistance inherent in the anger is neutralized and so where’s the anger?

Let us repeat, allowing, known as The Law of Allowing, is a way of seeing energy as a movement. Anger is resistance saying, “I don’t like this!” “I want to control this!” and allowing says, “This energy of anger is a moving force and I can use it to increase my love.” HOW!? This is the big question.

When anger rises in you, there is a need to express this energy. Energy can either express through violence or through sublimation. Violence is an unconscious act of carrying out the insanity of the ego to control external circumstances around you. Sublimation, on the other hand, is a conscious act of looking at this immense anger energy and then using it to increase your ability to feel joy and love.

It is true that in moments of anger there is no love, but when the being is desirous of growth then there could be, through conscious effort, a way to see this anger energy as a means of increasing one’s capacity to feel. It is done this way – as anger arises you become immediately aware of this moving force in your body. Sit with it for a moment by taking a deep breath and seeing how powerful such energy is. As you breathe into it you start moving it into the direction of love rather than resentment. HOW!? Again, your very awareness of allowing is so powerful that you do not direct this energy to be loving, it just becomes so when there is conscious allowing of such a force.

Here’s an example, I had a client who was so angry most of the time that he lost his wife and children plus his job. He came to me as a last resort because he didn’t want to take tranquilizers or any sedative drugs. Although intelligent he wasn’t aware of these spiritual laws of allowing and acceptance and I had no intention of explaining them to him. When he asked me, “I want to get rid of my anger” in an angry tone I knew that this man needed action, not words. I replied, “Why get rid of anger when you can channel it into greater capacity to feel love?” He didn’t understand and I expected that, but my reply was enough to intrigue him and stop him from his need to control. Control, after all, is often a big issue with angry people. I had him lie down and relax is body enough to understand what is going on consciously in his body. I asked him to recall his latest outburst of anger and its projection that hurt his loved ones. He was filled with guilt and regret which fueled his self-anger (self-hate). Then I suggested that he tells me how he felt in his body. He was expressive and easily elaborated on his sensations such as fast heart-beat, stomach churning, heavy breathing, clenching fists and a tight body like a drum. Having expressed his sensations rather than his story, he was able to follow these sensations with awareness. I asked him to breathe into these sensations and give them a picture such as a shape and color. He was able to visualize his sensations very well. Then, after a while I asked him to feel how much energy was being used in such an experience and to see this energy not as a loss but as fuel for his feelings. I asked him if he loved his children and to visualize such an energy as a great overwhelming love that spewed forth from his eyes and aura. He started to cry, actually sob, which was a wonderful release of the poisonous substance of anger while still retaining its energy through visualizing it turning into a great love.

To make a long session into a short one, after over two hours, he was a changed man. He had learned to channel such energy into a positive force. He was also able to see (inside himself) not a separation but a connection. I gave him a technique of squeezing his three first fingers of the right hand (he was right-handed) every time he felt anger rising. To squeeze his fingers to the equivalent of the anger he felt. Then I asked him to breathe into this energy while very slowly releasing the pressure of the fingers (taking about a minute for the complete release.) The release became automatically the release of the anger while still retaining full live-energy into his body. The result was such a magnetic result that his wife took him back and found a great job. He is still a powerful being using what was anger as the catalyst for love of himself and others.

I hope that this short article has answered your questions about Allowing, Acceptance, Surrender and Forgiveness. These are the keys to transformation while increasing your capacity to love and to experience joy in living.

Free-will and non-volition

Throughout my readings of non-duality I have come across the writings stating that free-will and freedom of choice do not exist. Does this mean that all actions are pre-determined by Oneness? What about criminals and drug-addicts for example? Can't they just decide to stop doing what they are doing? Or is it this way because they have no choice in the matter and have to follow their 'script'?
Could you please clarify these points?

Non-duality deals with ultimate Reality. Ultimate Reality is what is true in the ultimate sense. Most people who read non-duality get confused because it is not their own level of awareness and so try to understand with their mind. Understanding with the mind is like trying to figure out the territory through looking at a map of it. It can't be done.

Let's start with the basics. You are a human being. The first thing you know is the human-part and its memory. Most people live and pass away without knowing anything deeper than that. The human-part is a 'becoming-process.' It has a beginning, middle and end. It is always striving, seeking, wanting, needing but never arriving going in circles. What is it seeking? What does it really want? What is the end goal of the human? Believe it or not, it is its own 'Being.' The 'Being' is perfect love and always lives NOW. It is fresh, innocent, happy, relaxed, allowing, forgiving, accepting and contented simply because it is pure BEING!! The human believes that happiness, power, fulfillmnt comes from outside through the world and thus never gets fulfilled.

Let's take it one step further by understand the difference between SOUL and SPIRIT. The human is the soul and the Being is the Spirit. The soul is eternal just like the Spirit. To understand this better, picture the One Ocean as the Spirit. Then picture the waves upon the surface of the ocean as different and separate souls. The waves are unique, separate and have different expressions but they are still the One Ocean. Similarly with us -- we seem to be separate and different souls but yet are ALREADY SPIRIT but do not yet know it. The soul goes from lifetime to lifetime repeating this pattern learning from its many journeys until it merges with the Spirit and realize it has never gone anywhere but HERE. The soul evolves and learns but the Spirit is always NOW and perfect. While the soul moves in time, the Spirit is forever timeless.
There are over 6 billion humans on this earth but there is only One Being. This One Being is the 'I' -- the human calls itself 'I' also but makes it separate, different and personal. As the soul evolves it automatically begins to awaken to its grandeur and vastness never losing that sense of 'I' until it sees that we are all ONE BEING. This One Being is the ultimate Truth.

When you read about non-duality you are reading the ultimate truth of your nature, which is of course confusing to the mind. However, as you keep the mind open (which means empty of opinions, beliefs, concepts and memories) then in that emptiness of mind there is the opening to see deeper than the mere ego. When you keep asking, "Who am I?" in this now-moment your ego will rebel because there is no answer to it. It will feel lost as if losing its preconceived identity which in truth never really existed. The ego believes strongly that this personal 'I' is the me-idea as separate body. However, this 'I' which seems personal is really Oneness itself looking and living as 'you.' It is mind-boggling isn't it?

I am a hypnotherapist and when people come to see me with deep emotional pain I take them back to the source of their problem. It often leads to a past life incident that is carried over in the cellular memory of the body. The moment they see clearly the source of the problem they are healed. This would seem that we all have past lives and it also seems that past lives run into the thousands as the soul evolves with each lifetime learning its lessons in love. These lifetimes seem as real as your lifetime right now. Therefore, if you believe you are living a lifetime right now then you have also lived before. It is really as simple as that. However again, as you begin to awaken to the possibility that there is only NOW, you will start to realize that there is only NOW, which also means that there is no 'you' but NOW itself appearing as YOU. Did you get that? If not, read it again and again until you get it!!

Once my 'clients' start to realize that NOW is their true aware-presence and it is all one, then their unconditional love awakens and they are freed from personal bondage (ego).

I used to believe that I had many choices and was often confused by so many decisions. I was always inquisitive by nature and so questioned the 'decision-factor' itself. Finally I realized that I had only two choices -- to follow truth or falsehood. In other words, there were only two choices between truth and falsehood. Then it struck me that I must be crazy to choose falsehood consciously and deliberately. The moment I chose Truth I realized that there was no choice at all. The Truth has always been the One Choice but didn't know it.
This led me to know that there's only One Will -- the Will of the Divine Oneness. The Will of the divine is goodness, love, peace, joy, harmony, happiness and everything that was fulfilling. So, I had the realization that the One Will of God was also my own Will. They were One. Gradually I began to see that there is only Oneness playing the role of Burt and this happened in the year 2000. Everything became crystal clear.

I continue doing hypnotherapy which I now call "Supersentience" -- Supersentience is more effective than ever because it deals with Quantum Forgiveness. We do not forgive another but ourselves and within that self-forgiveness there is healing to the 'other.'

How about the drug-addict and the criminal? They are karmically hooked into their predicament created by their own actions in the past. Oneness is ONE -- therefore if I hurt you in some way, I have to carry the burden of that pain I caused you in myself to learn compassion and forgiveness. Do you get that? The criminal is hooked into his/her own personal life of greed and selfishness and that carries with it tremendous pain and suffering. The suffering is not punishment imposed by oneness but by oneself through unawareness of oneness (love). When the soul (which is eternal) recognizes its oneness with All-That-Is then it merges with Spirit and there is no longer reincarnation or suffering, but it also realizes the ultimate -- there never was suffering and separate lifetimes. There is only NOW eternally living as YOU!!

Regarding booklet "The Secret of Knowing."

I am just curious. In your booklet "The Secret of Knowing" which is given in your website, you emphasized reading it all, from start to finish, in one sitting. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why was that necessary?

In order to give you all the facts I have to talk about the two hemispheres of the brain. We have two parts in our brain system that are opposite each other, but necessary for survival. One is the left-brain hemisphere and the other is the right-brain hemisphere. They are attached but have separate functions.
The left-brain is necessary to live in this world of material existence and therefore it is linear motivated by the instinct of survival. Most people are driven by the left-brain. It focuses on details rather than the whole picture. In other words, it doesn't see the forest for the trees. And, it only goes 'out' for answers to questions and lives externally. The left-brain is ego-motivated.
On the other hand, we have a Right-Brain that is egoless. This brain hemisphere sees the whole picture but has no personal agenda and therefore no pre-occupation with survival. It is innocent, open and feels the oneness naturally with all creatures and humans alike. Its nature is love and joy like the child or kitten and puppy. Yet, it has natural wisdom due to the knowing of connectedness.
As you can see from the above, you are a human being. The human is left-brained motivated while the 'Being' is right-brained motivated. To live as a human-being requires both aspects of the brain. But, as you can see, living in this world requires emphasis on the left-brain. This emphasis, unfortunately, blocks our receptivity to our natural state of spirit. After all, Spirit IS the Reality itself.
Due to this emphasis on the Left-brain to live in this world, we acquire doubts, fears, uncertainties and are often seeking and questioning without getting closer to the Truth. The reason the left-brain misses the truth is simply because it tries to find an answer to the question. And, there are no answers to satisfy the left-brain. The 'answer' lies in the right-brain as innocence, openness, vulnerability, wisdom and whole-seeing.

Now, we come to the booklet -- why read it without stopping until the end is reached? First is because a complete focus is needed to remain uninterrupted. Secondly the booklet emphasized right-brain activity throughout, for instance, it emphasized 'knowing' by making it large capital letters thus "KNOWER". This unconsciously brought the whole-seeing brain hemisphere into action when there was no interruption by the left brain's need to conclude, reach answers and so on. The booklet kept emphasizing, "Do not reach for an answer but understand the question." This is something that the left-brain is NOT ready to do. It wants to know right away and reaches its own conclusions without reflection on the question itself. In other words, the left-brain wants to know that it knows and is impatient; it tries to figure out, to think-about-it and to stick to its belief system. So, by the time the reader reaches half-way through the book it automatically stops with the intention of reading the rest later. This is the trick of the left-brain when it gets tired due to too much thinking.

With the right-brain it is a completely different process...it actually enjoys the booklet, gets inspired and wants to keep on reading. I had sent out several hundred copies of this booklet in PDF and received just three emails telling me of insights, recognitions and realizations after reading the whole thing. It seems that most did not finish the whole thing in one sitting.
I am glad you asked the question because left-brained people always want to know why and nearly always have a ready-made answer (unconscious to their immediate awareness). So, if one didn't finish reading the whole thing it is because the left-brain got tired and found some excuse to finish it later (which, of course, blocked the major premise of the booklet's value.)

The question is, "How do we awaken the Right-Brain while maintaining our left-brain for worldly survival?"
Since the Right-brain is whole-seeing and feels the natural connection to all things, it is imperative that one starts LOOKING WITH HEART at such things as trees, clouds, flowers, grass, stars and feel their beauty. There are many ways to activate right-brain...

* Once or twice a day give up the usual ways of doing things. For instance, if you are right-handed, then write with left-hand or draw with it (to upset the logical linear and conditioned left-brain). Be aware of your 'thinking-about-it' (whatever it is) and start looking innocently. If your brain asks, "But how can I do that?" then see how even in right-brain activity the left-brain intrudes and interrupts. To the Right-Brain there is no 'how' or 'why' but simply what-is right here and now. To the right-brain everything is simple and direct.
When questions arise -- STOP -- look at the question and understand what you are asking and NEVER look for an answer to it. For instance, if the left-brain asks, "Does God exist?" it goes in search for an answer by dwelling on it and trying to figure it out. Activate the right-brain by asking another question, "What do I mean by God?" and then FEEL OUT what YOU mean by that word or what it means to you. Labels are NEVER the thing itself anymore than the map is the territory.
Another way to activate the right-brain is through FEELING (Pure feeling & not emotional). For instance, look at the grass or a tree and write down how you feel in a poetic writing; see its beauty and grandeur.
When the left-brain keeps raising questions, write them down and before reaching for any answers, look at the questions and understand what you really mean by them.
Look with innocence and awe, see the wonder of a pregnant woman and the fetus inside that is soon to be a human being. Where does the soul come from to enter that fetus? Then, do not answer it but allow it to remain open until your heart (Right-brain) will give you insights.

All knowledge is within and although the left-brain wants to know that it knows, the right-brain is content to feel its awe and wonder.

How do you explain Oneness of Being?

How would you explain Oneness to someone like me who is totally caught in feeling separate?

Every one feels separate to some extent because there is the belief that we are memory. However, your true essence is the same like everyone else. So, what makes you think you are a personal being is the idea that you are just a body forgetting the life-force essence. You are a human being. There are 6 billion humans on this earth but only One Being. We have forgotten the Being. Once we reclaim the Being that we are, which is One, then we discover the ultimate truth.
Attached here is a brief talk by Deepak Chopra who answers your question plus a few others.
Enjoy...

What is AWARENESS apart from mind & attention?

There is a great confusion between thought and awareness. Some people believe that awareness emerges from mind or brain, others confuse awareness with attention. Can you make clear the distinction and what awareness really is?

Awareness is NOT a function of brain or mind. Awareness is the eternal, unchanging and timeless essence of a human being. Awareness is what makes you know that you exist and could witness your thoughts and even brain-function and continues even outside the body such as soul travel.
Let's discuss attention here and see where we go from there. Attention is given to something and and it is a form of love. For instance if you hold a baby in your arms and you think it is the cutest thing on earth then your attention is love. You pay so much attention to it that you
forget about yourself. When attention becomes 100% just like watching a movie and you are totally transported in your attention then you enter another viewpoint of life. Suppose you have a lover that you are so attracted to that even his touch sends you to heaven, then in the moment of making love you are in ecstasy so that you are no longer an ego but pure
ecstatic joy, and that's also oneness. That's 100% attention.

Awareness is more than attention. Awareness is what makes you know that you know and experience. If I were to ask you, "What are you right now forgetting the past name and form and experiences?" You'd have to say, "All that I am right now is just awareness." When everything has been stripped from you because all is past such as name, education, experiences, memories, language, all that you have known, culture, upbringing, religion, nationality, likes and dislikes, ideas, hopes, fears, thoughts, emotions then all you are left with is pure awareness. Awareness is what makes you know that you exist. It is pure because it has no memory of time and can never suffer or feel pain or unhappiness. Awareness 'just is.' Awareness is unborn. Awareness is love (often called God). Awareness is your essence.
Are we clear so for? Don't read further until you are clear of what I have said.

Now that you clear about Awareness and that it is pure, we can move to the next step. What you become AWARE-OF IS A THOUGHT. First there is pure awareness and you know that you exist but you are innocent and pure. Then this awareness becomes aware of something -- that's a thought! That's how thought comes into being. Thought always emerges from awareness (but awareness is NOT a thought). If you have got that we can move on. From
THOUGHT, when it is believed-in and made real, then it becomes an emotion. Emotion is a motion of energy (E-Motion) and therefore is felt in the body as anxiety, stress, fear, agitation, exhilaration, excitement, passion etc and always acting on the body. For instance, if a man watches a woman naked that he likes he can immediately get an erection. This erection is a
thought activating an emotion and sending this message to the body making that big erection. Isn't this a wonder that has so much beauty in it? The body is an emotional body and in it lies great energy. The body's sensations are all activated by thought that becomes an emotion.
While attention can be fragmented to one subject or object, on the other hand, awareness is much more than attention...it is the very LIFE itself making a life know itself. Awareness has no beginning (it boggles the mind) and therefore when a child is born, it is not his first entry into
life. It feels it is its first entry because it has a new form and brain but its memory goes way back into the past. So, although awareness makes thought possible. Awareness is NOT a thought. When you think a thought you can be aware of it. It is awareness that makes thought possible. However, since most people are not spiritually awake they are not aware of the
thoughts as such -- most of the time people believe that what they think is real and thus get caught in their emotional body as reality.
Thought and awareness are one in function and need each other. Thought is mind. Mind creates the world we experience. And, here's the best part. Awareness and Thought are married for life so that when the body passes away (the shell of us) we still are very much alive as thought/Awareness and therefore retain our personality, beliefs and even ego
after death. Those we have loved will always be with us whether we are in body or not.

How do I start in a basic way to understand?

I have watched your videos and read your scripts. I feel moved by them and something in me resonates to it all. Yet it is all new to me, is there a simple way to understand it all?

The first step is by asking yourself, "Who am I?" and see where we go from there. Do it now and then read the following: --
Did you come up with some name or personality or past in replying to who you are?
Did you use some phrases from some spiritual literature you have been reading and replied by saying, "I am a spiritual being!" or "I am a soul" or something like that?
Did you reply by saying, "I really don't know?"
If you used the first answer then you strongly believe you are the past and this will take quite some time to depogram yourself. So, take it easy step by step and learn the basics until you feel comfortable.
If you have answered the second one through reading spiritual literature then there is the need to 'feel' for yourself and not what you have read. You have become intellectual and hypnotized by words. Words can never be the truth but they can only help for the heart to eventually recognize. Listen more to what the heart says rather than what you read.
If you have replied, "I don't know!" then congratulations because you have been sincere. Now acknowledge that you really don't know and you are open to receive.

There are four steps to realize who you are and they take sincerity, honesty and stick-to-it-ivness, they are very simple...

1. Ask yourself what you want out of life and you'll come up with a list of qualities or goals. They would be all wrong because what you really want is 'you.' For instance if I ask you, what do you want? You might say, "I want to be happier or more loving or richer or healthier etc..." however, the real want is this -- who is it that wants those things? 'You.' It is you who wants to be happy, healthy, loving etc. So be honest and know that initialy all you want is you. That is as it should be because we learn through this 'me' we think we are.

2. Second step is a little more advanced. Ask yourself, "This 'me' that I really want isn't it the same with everyone?" Here you will discover that everyone is basically selfish and it is okay because they can't help it. Yes, everyone is the same and all they want is themselves first. The average person always asks (inside their head), "What's in it for me?" However, when you realize that everyone is the same then you start feeling better about yourself and that you are not alone. Of course, this acknowledgment requires honesty and open-hearted accepanceof the truth.

3. The third step becomes even more advanced and it is this -- since we are all the same behind our appearance (body and personality) then aren't we all one and just don't know it. For instance, if you resent someone and blame them, isn't it you who is experiencing the resentment? If you are angry at someone, isn't it you who is angry and suffering from it? If you blame someone for doing you an injustice, isn't it you who suffers for not forgiving?

This third step is quite advanced and we start seeing how we are all one beneath our body/mind appearance. However, how you feel about others is what returns to you. This is learning the karmic principle of 'what goes around, comes around.' As we learn this precious lesson of karma (law of cause and effect) then we start (automatically) becoming more understanding, more loving and open. You will begin understand how others feel and also understand that your thoughts carry messages others pick up. Here you start becoming aware of what you are thinking because others can feel it without even realizing that they are feeling it.

4. Then we enter the fourth step and most advanced of all -- here you see that a relationship is NOT two people interacting but One Feeling Being. For example, if you love someone, you are not really loving them but simply feeling the love arise in you and in them as they respond, so in truth there is only ONE OF YOU. In other words, when you say 'I love you' and they return it, there aren't two people interacting but only One Great Love feeling that has become one. It is like having such a great time dancing that you forget about the dancing and become one with the music, then there is only music. It is here in this advanced stage that you start realizing who you are.

You are NOT the experiencer but the experience -- you are not making love, LOVE is happening to both of you -- you are not singing but it is your heart opening and expressing itself. This is the real you when you become one with the moment. You forget about the ego of appearance and thoughts and become become the heart. The Heart is pure awareness known as Presence. This is how you start to realize who you really are.

Each step above takes 'work' to realize fully and start living it. You cannot jump from one to the other unless you have completely mastered the one before it. You know you have mastered it because you start living it. This is when you realize your oneness with God. You'll come to know in this fourth stage that GOD is all there is and known as LOVE.

Why are things the way they are in the world?

If life is basically spiritual, why is the world in such a mess?

It's a broad question and it requires a broad reply. When Gautama became finally enlightened after many years of struggle and sacrifice and seeing the futility of seeking, he awoke and became known as the Buddha. The first things he said were, "I am awake. There is no creator nor creation. There is in Truth only Nirvana." This is, of course, unintelligible to someone who is not aware. What he meant was that there is only Nirvana (spiritual joy). The world of matter is created by mind and had nothing to do with pure spirit.
A Course in Miracles explains it best when it emphasizes that Spirit is beyond time and space and therefore enjoyed endless Beingness. Then a 'mad idea' took place when thought started with the idea that it could manifest and enjoy material expression. The world of form started by creating opposites known as duality. Duality meant that everything had to have an opposite in order to exist as form. "up" had to have a "down" and black had to have white in order to see. Male had to have female to procreate. The form had to have two brains -- Right and Left Hemispheres in order to function in the world. The Right brain was the egoless state and experiences joy and innocence as its natural state. However, it needed a Left brain to survive in the world of form. The left brain was built for linear time, space, survival instinct, ego, business sense, money management, intellect and love of power. When a form (human being) was balanced by right and left hemispheres then it was able to cope with daily life and still have a modicum of understanding. The left brain has no love of truth and in fact it is conditioned through survival by doubt and fear. So, while the Right brain is egoless, the left brain is all ego. And, since most people live from ego then the need for power is great. The greater the ignorance of one's true nature, the greater the need for external power. We see this in dictators in middle-east countries. War is inevitable when the leaders want personal power. The need for power completely blocks the right brain so that it is deprived from compassion and, cruelty becomes its way.
The way the world is, is the creation of the left-brain mind and until there is awakening in spirit, there is little hope for world peace and intelligence. Women, as a rule, use more of their Right-brain than men and it is because they are more based on feeling than just intellect.
Is the world real? How could such horrific things we experience in the world be truth? Truth is the joy, peace and love that are in spirit. It was the split from spirit that created the world of duality. However, since the world is not the Truth then it can be a catalyst for Truth. For example, if you suffer and surrender this suffering for greater courage and trust in the true essence that you are, then you zoom to Self-realization. If someone hurts you and you forgive, then you take a giant leap towards pure spirit. So, we can use our experiences on earth to gain our inner heaven. We were cast out from the garden of Eden (you know the analogy) when we chose duality (the tree of good and evil) but it also became our journey back home. Everything is alright as it is as long as we understand the law of oneness.
With love,
Burt

I want versus I AM

"I want to be spiritually awake. This want is driving me crazy since it is all I want."

This sounds commendable and might even be sincere, but the fact is that it is the ego seeking in order to appease itself. The truth is this -- if the love of truth was a great fire then there is no wanting but Being. This flame for truth is enough for awakening. It will make you see what is truly obvious here and now. The Truth is the simplest thing in the world...it is simply awareness. Awareness is everything and nothing happens without awareness. There is no life without awareness. However, here's the crunch -- we identify with what we are aware-of. What you are aware-of is thought. To know the difference between thought and awareness is the understanding that is necessary since both thought and awareness need each other to live a life on earth.
Wanting is egoic and here's the truth about wanting...it blocks you from realization. Wanting creates a future time whereas BEING is here and now.

There are four wants in life. Each want creates in itself an equal and opposite action.
For example, if you wanted to be healthy then you'd be afraid of being unhealthy and your preoccupation would be to NOT BEING UNHEALTHY. Another instance is wanting to find love and spend most of your energy seeking it. When you find it you'll be afraid of losing it and at every turn find your greatest fear -- rejection of love.
If your wanting was to remain young and good-looking then you'd be afraid of growing old.

There are FOUR WANTS in Humanity:
1. Want control. Wanting control is the fear of not having control and acts like anger. Real control is direct experience of the anger and releasing it.
2. Want Love. Wanting love creates the feeling you don't have it and you keep giving your power away.
3. Want security/survival. This creates the nagging feeling of insecurity and the belief that life is dog-eat-dog.
4. Want Separation. This is the need to be special, self-important, better than... This creates its own egoic image and spent energy protecting an illusion.

You are a human being. This means that although there are over 6 billion humans on this earth, there is only One Being. This One Being is who you are. It is your essence. It is your truth. It is universal love. It is the 'I' of the collective universe. Just as the human is filled with 'wants' so is BEING being them. In other words, it is all about 'NOW.' If you want something than know that what you truly want is already the case in essence. Stop wanting and BE IT! If you don't know how to be -- then spend time sitting in stillness and asking your deepest essence who you are in this moment! "Who am I?" "What am I?" and if you are sincere and truly devoted to what is real and lasting (truth) then it will dawn on you -- inevitably!

Note: Email me and ask for the booklet "Awakening to Love and Freedom."

How to release emotional pain!!

I suffer panic attacks, depression and I am often feeling sad for no apparent reason. Can you help me?

There is a conditioned memory in your unconscious that often reminds you of your past judgments of yourself. These beliefs of 'not-being-good-enough' or that 'you-are-missing-something' are subtle feelings that make you believe there is something wrong with you without knowing what it is. This is referred to as unconscious guilt and it could have been from a former lifetime or in your childhood. Please know that you are NOT alone in this and most people suffer this inner dread. This is released when we get to know who we really are. Below is a simple technique you can start doing until you can actually free yourself from this emotional pain. It requires courage and willingness to do it. Unfortunately, many people do not like releasing their conditioned thinking even if it is miserable. It is your responsibility. Above all know this -- you are NOT a victim of these thoughts and feelings. Your true nature is awareness and not what your mind is producing.
Watch the video-clip below and then follows its suggestions...

What is the difference between Awareness & Consciousness?

I keep hearing about Awareness and then the word Consciousness in the same context, can you explain the difference?

They are similar but not the same. While Consciousness is everything we perceive, and in fact, is perception itself, awareness is the watcher or witnesser of what we think and perceive. Consciousness has to do with thought and its creation. Consciousness is all mind and the world or worlds we experience as if they are real. Consciousness is always changing, shifting, creating and destroying, whereas Awareness is stable, constant, eternal and never-changing. When you think, you can be aware that you are thinking. In other words, awareness can be aware of consciousness but it can't be the other way around. Although most people confuse the two, they are like thought and awareness. They need each other but are definitely not the same.
In the deeper truth we can say that Awareness is the One Being or Christ Self and it, when recognized, will bring transformation. Awareness was never created because it has no beginning or end. Awareness is timeless and when awakened (known or recognized) it is experienced as love, joy, glory and a multitude of other equally inexplicable heavenly feelings. It is our Home. On the other hand, consciousness is the power of mind and creates through thought and emotion. How we live and feel in the world is an exact replica of our consciousness.

What happens when the body dies?

What happens when the body dies? Is the dream of an individual reconfigured into alternate universes? Or does honestly no one know...even awakend "ones"?

When the body dies we are still just as alive as before but with an astral form rather than a physical one.

I was always afraid of death and the subject fascinated me. I started researching the possibility of life after death. I studied psychology, philosophy, metaphysics and an experience led me to hypnotherapy.
In my thirty years of hypnotherapy I discovered that most people's problems started at their birth through transgressions done in a past life. These regressions in past lives through hypnosis opened up a whole new world for me. Cases even of cancer were getting healed. People with panic problems started feeling wonderful.

Let me give you an example, I had a Jew come to see me and he wanted to know why he is being treated so badly by people. All his life he played a victim of people's insults and abuses. Then during a hypnotherapy session he relived a life where he was a gentile abusing Jews. He was so cruel to them that he was born a Jew to re-experience his own abuses on himself. I also had a young gay guy who was ashamed of being gay being ostracized by his own family. During a regression into a past life he discovered he was a woman in his last life and died being raped. His sudden reincarnation into this life brought him into a male body with female characteristics. After our third session he was completed healed from his shame and now he is a successful designer. These are not isolated cases.

So, to answer your question on death -- there is absolutely no death except our fear of losing our body believing that the body is who we are. This is why most people need to wake up spiritually. There is no death my friend but eternal life. The truth is the Eternal NOW that only changes in form but not in essence. NOW is always NOW beyond time.

You wrote and misquoted me...

"It has been seen or understood that there really is no defecative person within my body, but, rather it is just thoughts that come and go. I have heard you say in your Videos your true essence is what you are aware of. "

Yes, it is true that there are thoughts that come and go but you are pure awareness. Your true essence is NOT what you are aware-of. Your true essence is pure awareness. Please review my video and really listen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4N5thGHU0

So, to repeat, your true nature is Pure Awareness, which is timeless and always NOW beyond life and death. It is what you are aware-of that lives and dies, comes and goes and creates the world we experience. When the body drops as in 'death' then we are still fully aware just as much as before BUT what we are aware-of changes. What never changes is Pure Awareness. If you watch the clip a few times with great attention you can get quite an insight. Please know the difference between AWARENESS and THOUGHT. Awareness is undying and eternal essence. Thought is what you are aware-of and always changes, shifts and alters.

You asked...

If the universe is in me. I have no locality in time and space. That's fine, then how come this non-local awareness is only aware of the thoughts in this body called Mike at this present moment? Are we just "holes" for awareness to peak through?

There is only one 'I' often referred to as 'me.' However, initially when there is no spiritual awakening, we take this 'I' to be personal and local and also as the body. When we start seeing that our awareness has no boundary except through thought, then we start realizing that 'others' have the same essence as you. In fact, you are a human being. there are 6 billion humans on this earth but only One Being. Each human says, "I am John or Mary" but in Reality there is only one 'I' known as God or LOVE (true pure awareness known as love). Spiritual awakening happens when we realize that this 'I' which we had taken to be 'me' is the true 'I' in its expanded state beyond the body. What I am giving you are words and cannot explain the inexplicable, however, as your heart opens you will begin to see what is obvious here and now.

With love always,
Burt