I get confused between the process of Being & Becoming

Listen to the following video clip on the process of Being and becoming.

What do I need to know in order to awaken spiritually?

It is simpler than you think -- just know, from your heart, the difference between thought and awareness (human and being or becoming and being) and still see their oneness.
Thought -- Awareness
Human -- Being
Becoming -- Being
Please send for the PDF booklet "The Perfection of Awareness" by emailing burtharding@shaw.ca
This booklet has been praised by many, filled with reports regarding its beneficial effects upon clarity and insights, and above all, it is free for the asking.

IF AWARENESS IS NOTHINGNESS, HOW CAN IT BE CONSCIOUS OF ITSELF?

Dear friend,

Thank you for your questions. I will reply to them in their sequential order. You asked...

My question is if awareness is conscious of itself, does awareness "feel" without being in form and if so where is this feeling? Does it feel joy or pain or nothing at all?

Also, if awareness is nothingness, how can it be conscious of itself?

Awareness is not a condition nor something you feel...it is you! For example, even as you read this email aren't you aware of it? Aren't you aware that it is little black dots on white space you are looking at? Aren't you aware that you are here and now present? Whatever you feel whether they are sensations in the body or thoughts or emotional feelings, they are all being experienced because you are aware of them. However, awareness itself is not an experience nor a thought nor an emotion...it is who you are!! When you see through your eyes and experience sound and know you are alive, this feeling, this knowing and this experience are because of awareness, however again, awareness is a nothingness (not a 'thing') it is spirit, it is infinite, it is intelligence of life. You are a human being. There are 6 billion humans on this earth but there is only One Being. This One Being is AWARENESS AND IT APPEARS AS 6 BILLION PEOPLE. Each human is a unique expression of this awareness which makes them believe they are their own experiences of thought, emotions and body but these things are merely what you are aware-of. Is that clear? You are awareness (divine essence) and it sees through your eyes and hears through your ears and smells through your nose...it is not the body that experiences but your awareness. However, since we as humans are memory, then we believe that what we are aware-of is real and that's how thoughts, emotions and feelings emerge. Awareness is always pure, timeless essence. You see, most people believe they are the body but when you ask them "When you were a baby, was it the same body?" "When you were a teenage was it the same body you have now?" Of course not. The body had recycles many times but it seems to be the same body because it is the same One Awareness that is always NOW. So when we combine memory and awareness we have the human being. However again, memory is the past whereas the awareness is ever fresh, new, alive, childlike and it innocent, pure and always known as LOVE. Imagine knowing that you are awareness then you'll also know that all 'others' are the same awareness and part of you...now, that's love!! 'Others' are only different in memory but the spirit-awareness is the same one often referred to as God.

Awareness is pure but since it is combined with memory then you feel pain or suffering according to your past experiences. However remember, what we call suffering is emotional and psychological and therefore is not real as far as awareness goes. It is only real to that individual. For example, let's say you are a dancer and you sprained an ankle then that could be suffering because you'll be confronted with the fear of not dancing anymore. However, if you knew that the sprain will be gone in a few days time, where's the suffering except some discomfort? All psychological suffering is in memory (mind). Awareness cannot suffer because it is Spirit that 'appears' human. You are aware of this writing and aware that you have a body and senses and experience your world simply because you are aware of them. Awareness in its pure essence is what knows that you exist and that's how it recognizes itself. Is it any clearer?

Here's your last question...Also, if awareness is nothingness, how can it be conscious of itself?

It is aware of itself because it is nothingness. It is nothingness (not a 'thing') that knowing is possible. For example, you know that you exist. Who is it that knows that? Is it a thought? Is it an emotion? Is it a memory? No, it is neither of them. It is KNOWING! This knowing is consciousness aware of itself. Your eyes see but they cannot see themselves. Similarly, your awareness sees everything but it cannot see itself. Therefore, it creates a self-image and says "well, I am a body and I am like this..." but in truth there is also a knowing that we are more than a memory -- we know that we know.

Ask yourself this, "Who are you right now?" and chances are you can't answer simply because there is no person except a memory...all you are is awareness and it cannot answer itself, however, if you become very still and really ask yourself, "who am I?" you will begin to glimpse that all there is at this very moment is just awareness. If all thought and memory were to stop functioning then all that remains is awareness. And yet, in this awareness you can still say 'I AM' -- you see, that awareness conscious of itself.

Now, if you have understood everything I have written here, congratulations. Most people do not grasp this utter simplicity because it is way above their normal thinking range. However, when we are intelligent and inquiring then something becomes alive in us and we begin to see what we couldn't see before.

I hope I have been of help.

With love always,

Burt

WHAT IS REAL SPIRITUALITY?

What is real spirituality? You say that there's nothing to learn but the full living of 'NOW' itself -- this 'NOW' leaves me flat! Any comments?

Dear friend, what leaves you flat is not the 'NOW' but your habitual thoughts and patterns of thinking. True spirituality is not 'a-thought-about-it' but living purely in innocence. Real spirituality is aliveness, freshness, purity, congeniality, freedom, joy, authenticity and pure Being in the moment. Attached here is a video depicting these very qualities of true spirituality....

WHO IS BEING AWARE?

When you say that my true nature is awareness and the awareness is oneness, then who is being aware?

An excellent and intelligent question. YOU are being aware, and yet it is not the 'you' you think you are. You are being seen through. It is like saying, "God is looking through me."

WHY DO MOST SPIRITUAL SEEKERS GET STUCK!

ARE YOU SPIRITUALLY STUCK?

Reaching a stalemate is not only common but also part of the spiritual seeker’s stage of intellectual knowing. This question is common, “I know all this, have meditated for many years, read every book and understand truth and have even given classes, yet, I still don’t walk the walk.”

This is a common stage in spiritual growth (clarity). You have simply reached a stage where you thought you knew the truth by so much reading, study and practice. You know the words but haven’t realized yet this one basic truth – there is nothing to know but to feel the Reality of NOW as eternal, timeless and oneness itself.
You start breaking free from this stalemate by acknowledging that you really don’t know and start listening. Many people have written that after listening to the video clips for a few months have reached a stalemate. In other words, they are so used to the words used that they are not hearing them anymore. Start listening with innocence and ask, “what-is…” to oneness, love, now and so on until you start feeling their true depth and meaning. All knowledge is within. The video-clips are a help but cannot change you by themselves…you need to listen and transcend your self-doubt.

How to forgive and love yourself

Is prayer and forgiveness dualistic?

Is forgiveness and prayer dualistic as followers of advaita claim?

Yes, what most followers of Advaita miss is the simplicity of those ‘practices’ in bringing about the true understanding of Advaita. Most followers of Advaita I have met are hardcore non-dualists and, as a result, are intellectual and stiff, devoid of joy and innocence. For example, through real forgiveness we eventually see the obviousness that there’s nothing to forgive. People do what they do because that’s their present consciousness. It is through conscious forgiveness that we start to see this simplicity and obviousness. Prayer is powerful and leads to inner guidance, which is the activation of inner wisdom. I remember when Bhagavan came into my life I became devoted to him. In my devotion I found that there was no separation between us. The grace of seeing this obviousness placed ‘Burt’ aside until all that was left was NOW. The result of putting ‘Burt aside’ resulted in simplicity, clarity and freedom plus the ‘knowing’ that there was nothing to know but BE! Bhagavan stated that through using inquiry we use the mind to go beyond the mind.

In the year 2000 I realized I AM a human being -- A being playing the role of Burt. I learned more in that experience than many lifetimes would have done. When I listened to teachers of Advaita stating the non-reality of the world and time/space I ‘saw’ clearly that it was true but it also created confusion, frustration and fundamentalism among followers who became addicted to the teaching and thus ended up intellectual devoid of compassion, deep love and innocence. Working as a hypnotherapist I knew the importance of dealing with the ‘becoming’ process of the human and the necessary integration of both human and being. I found through my practice that forgiveness and prayer lead to Direct Knowing in the Heart.

Advaita is a true teaching, of that there is no doubt, but the average ‘person’ reading the words of Advaita will end up intellectually inclined with very little heart, sensitivity, understanding, softness and clarity of how it really is. Unless we start seeing the truth of our human side, how can we see clearly the Being side (pure awareness, one’s true nature)?

You are the unchanging awareness

How do you know?

You mention often the difference between thought and awareness; how does it relate to the ‘human being’ experience of yours?

When we hear words like “thought and awareness” we look upon them as the concepts we’ve had about them. In other words, we do not really see the words but what we think about them. Initially all we see are thoughts. For instance, many times when I mention the word ‘awareness’ (referring to pure awareness) there’s the immediate belief that it is ‘something’—a state or condition. Let’s make one thing clear, pure awareness is NOT being aware of something. It is simply pure awareness. Awareness ‘just IS’ and it does not refer to anything objective. Awareness is space itself or nothingness often referred to as spirit or Being. The question is, “why call it awareness then?” – simply because what we see as nothingness or invisible space is cosmic awareness. The very nature of spirit is consciousness and when a fetus (memory DNA) becomes a living breathing human being then it has taken on an expression of awareness from the cosmic soup. This particular expression based on that particular memory is then called a soul. Now this human starts to believe that the environment, parents, training and his/her body is the sole reality forgetting temporarily about the Being which made it possible to be aware. Awareness and Being are one and the same thing. However, the moment one becomes aware of something, then that something turns pure awareness into a thought. When this thought is believed to be real then it becomes not only a reality through creating a thinker (ego) but it also creates a motion of energy in the body known as emotion.

When the contact with Being (pure awareness) is ignored then the emotions become such strong feelings that pseudo-reality (individual reality) has taken over.

This is what happened to me eight years ago (year 2000). I was teaching ‘A Course in Miracles’ at the time and loved it because it was the same teaching as Bhagavan’s basic teaching of Advaita. However, even though my life changed from the former life due to Bhagavan’s influence, yet there was no direct experience of pure awareness. One afternoon I was reading the Course text when suddenly unpremeditated a feeling arose where I was not located anywhere. Yet, even in this non-locality I was aware of a body and it felt both familiar yet foreign. At that moment there was no Burt but a knowing that I was playing the role of Burt.

I was the Light of pure awareness. I knew that future and past were all now. The NOW was the result of the Oneness, and the Oneness was the result of the absence of barriers. In this Oneness I knew that I was pure, finally clean and free because the Oneness does not judge, condemn or limit. I was also aware of everything, because I became everything.

There was no separateness at all. The peace that I felt was indescribable, it was something I had never known before.

This knowing that I am a human being left me with a permanent knowing that everything in the universe is ultimately connected together through divine love. As Emerson wrote: “We live in secession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise Silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One.”

This Being playing the role of human made everything crystal clear. It was a ‘feeling-knowing’ which couldn’t be disputed or doubted. It was simply the way it really IS! I learned more in that half-hour or so than if I had lived several lifetimes.

This ‘feeling-knowing’ can come alive in you when you shift from human to Being in three steps…

First, grasp fully what is the difference between thought and awareness. The human is thought and the Being is awareness.

Second, start listening to the witness inside you (I call Holy Spirit) until thoughts and emotions become just thoughts and emotions and not reality to you.

Third, allow the silent mind to enter emptiness. When you come to the point of trusting this emptiness without fear, then another Force will enter you – the Infinite Intelligence!

Being and awareness are the same

I often believed that awareness is a state that can change but you say differently.

It is often a matter of semantics and we have to go beyond words in order to understand the deeper aspects that defy description. When I use the word 'awareness' I am referring to Being as the nature of pure awareness. It is unconditional and unchanging. Pure awareness is not a state -- it is unconditional. However, when you are aware of something then it is a thought and a state.
It is really knowing the difference between thought and awareness.
What is referred to as awareness is pure awareness known as Being.
Being is simply BE-ING. It is not something that is done and it is not a state or condition but the ISness of what-is. It is the Source often referred to as Emptiness by Buddha.
Be-ing is allowing; it is surrender; it is trust; it is love, it is openness, it is acceptance, it is forgiveness.
Be-ing is NOT knowing something, it is not doing anything, it is not resisting anything, it is not overcoming anything, it is not thinking anything. A child doesn't try to sleep, it just sleeps. There is no doing but Being.
When a question emerges, there's no one to answer it and therefore it's resolved.
When a 'problem' occurs there's no figuring out thus it is resolved.
When a thought, mood or attitude is negative there is no resistance thus the cloud melts and the light streams through. It is all in the full understanding of Be-ing.
You are a human Being. Just as the human seeks and struggles, so does Being accepts and forgives without doing anything. You either understand this or you don't. When it is grasped by the heart -- that's awakening to the truth.
Burt

The simplicity of truth

Why is it hard to live the truth when it's simple?

Why is it so hard to live the truth when it’s so simple?

Simplicity means that NOW is all there is. Complexity means you believe you are a separate person. You may understand truth intellectually by making ‘NOTHING’ into ‘SOMETHING.’ This means that you take SPIRIT (which is now) and try to make concepts about it and live through the labels you create. Your true nature is NOW known as aware-Presence. In fact, be still now and ask yourself sincerely with eyes closed, “Who am I?” and see how at the moment you open your eyes you are nothing but aware space. If you resist this knowing then you get scared. If you accept that this is all you are, then as you relax into it, insights will start happening. It all depends how relaxed into this unknowing you are willing to be. The moment there is this ‘surrender’ then the Holy Spirit will start to take over your life.

The question, “How to live this truth I know?” is a very simple one. How willing are you to allow what happens to happen without resistance? How willing are you to see love instead of fear? It is all a matter of allowing simply because BEING is allowing itself. If you find yourself resisting, struggling, desiring something else than what-is then you are not accepting Being to take over your life. When Being lives you, which is simply allowing itself, then you’ll find miracles happening in your life. The moment you ask for help or guidance to Being it is granted. In fact, Being grants our every true desire because every true desire is for Being anyway. Once we start understanding this, then we are living truth.

Burt

Why do so many young spiritual seekers suffer financial and job problems?

This is a very common ‘problem’ for two reasons. First reason is idealism such as, “I am a spiritual person and should not have any desires other than for spirit.” In this narrow vision of life we separate without realizing it. We see material gain and money as enemy to spirit. We have yet to see that ALL is ONE.

We crave freedom and abhor conventional work and fail to realize that only love counts. We seek jobs to have money without loving the work and then feel stifled. Our complaint becomes, “I don’t like this work but I need to survive financially.” Our conscious and unconscious drives battle each other and before we know it we are in a crisis situation suffering poverty and dissatisfaction.

Work was never meant to be a drudgery but a service of love. Therefore, find out how you wish to serve humanity and just do it. If you dislike money or material gain then it will show in your lack of abundance. Then the question is raised, “But if I love money and give in to my desires isn’t that a block to growth?” The human part of us is itself desire. We can’t help desire, in fact, even the desire not to have desire is just another desire. So, the question is, what is to be done about desire? Absolutely nothing but understand the desire itself. Every desire emerges from Being towards itself. Every desire is for Being through Being. Ever resistance to our natural flow is a breakdown in our alignment with life. When you understand that every desire is for spirit-being then it takes on a whole new dimension. Being is itself everything we truly crave such as inner security, confidence, love, happiness, joy, freedom and belonging. This drive is as natural as breathing. When we see and accept this natural flow of life then our expression starts its own momentum. There are 6 billion humans and only One Being expressing through these 6 billion souls. Each soul has one goal – to reach this mountain of Spirit Beingness. It is the ultimate fulfillment. And how each soul expresses this great love of this One Beloved is also each soul’s fulfillment. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” Therefore, seek what you love most to do and that’s how love (being) needs to manifest its journey and expression through you. Love is the ultimate expression of soul. The soul is like the wave and the Being is the ocean. Each wave is also the ocean (oneness). Thus LOVE is our highest expression and when we choose love in whatever we do, say or express then love will fulfill us automatically.

The reason most seekers suffer financially or job-wise is because there is no trust in the Being that is playing through them. Each one of us is Being playing our particular human role. Until we understand this we are caught in trying to control our life instead of flowing with it.

Burt

How to understand and heal emotions

There is a lot of misunderstanding about emotional pain and it is often seen as something is wrong with us and we should resist, overcome and deny the negative. The key question is about emotional pain as the block to realization.

This seems to be the greatest and most baffling point in all spiritual seekers. There is often struggle against feeling lonely, sad, angry, fearful and negative. This struggle perpetuates the undesirable feeling and further blocks the connection to Being.

Emotions are simply thoughts that have become so real to the thinker that they manifest as body sensations resulting often in anxiety feelings, panic attacks, tremor, shaking, palpitations and trembling, shock and other physical symptoms. If we were to fully understand what emotions are we would be free. Nothing need be done about emotions but to understand three things.

1. There is only BEING since you are a human being. You are a Being playing the human role. However, since you do not know this fact then you interpret pure feeling of Being as negative. How? Simply because you see yourself as separate person and therefore the pure feeling from Being becomes a threat to the ego’s survival and, from our instinct of survival, which is our primal instinct, will come the defense and protection against what we perceive as this threat. For example, let’s say you ask yourself “who am I?” Chances are you will say (if you are honest) “I don’t know.” This I don’t know is valid answer because there is in truth no person to answer such a question. If we see clearly that there is no person to answer it then we glimpse our vastness and greatness of Being. We experience great joy and ecstasy. If we perceive this vastness as a threat to this individual ego idea then it feels like loneliness, deprivation which, often translates into, “nobody loves me” or “there is something wrong with me” or “I feel unwanted and do not belong.” This belonging is a natural pure feeling since we are One Being. However, if you see yourself as an ego (which is a lie) then the feeling is horrifying and you feel like nobody wants you or feel like you don’t belong. Being is One and therefore there is a natural tendency to want to belong. It is our very heart that feels this natural inclination.

2. We seek pure feeling as a person. Since we are unaware that we are primarily Being then we emphasize the human as all there is. You are a human being. There are 6 billion humans on this earth but there is only Being. 100% of everything you want, need, seek, crave and dream about is Being but haven’t realized it yet. For example, why do you want a big car? Isn’t it the feeling of power? Why do we want power? Isn’t it because our Being is power itself? Why do we want a relationship or sex (or both)? Isn’t it because it gives us a feeling of being loved and belonging? Isn’t love and belonging Being itself?

3. Misinterpretation leads to personal emotional pain. All negative emotions, and in fact, all emotional suffering, period, is misinterpretation of Being. We are pulled towards love, joy, happiness, power, belonging, warmth and freedom. These are pure feelings (which means they are qualityless qualities of pure being). We seek them in ‘things’ ‘objects’ and people. However, no matter what form they take, it is always Being that we seek and want above everything else. We haven’t realized it yet that our Being is our true Beloved One and we see it in our lover for a short time, we see it in our new car or new computer or in our money. All personal attachments eventual crumble but the attachments, needs and desires do not o away because we are after Being without knowing it. It is only when we start seeing this that we permanently transform our emotional pain into great joy.

We heal our emotional pain through acceptance, forgiveness and understanding that it is the misinterpretation of Being that is happening. Therefore when we start using Being to see what is taking place, it leads us back to our natural state. For example, if you feel lonely then experience the gut-wrenching pain in your body and notice its action without indulging in the story. (The story is itself the misinterpretation). Notice where the love is in this feeling with full acceptance of what is happening. You’ll notice the positive change happening when you are sincere and it is worth every second you devote to this clear seeing.

Here are a list of feelings that ‘become’ negative emotions when personal attachment takes over…
Pure Feeling -- Personal attachment

Oneness -- Loneliness

Love -- Neediness

Belonging -- Feel Unwanted

Intimacy -- Fear of intimacy

Freedom -- Guilt

Joy -- Sadness

Warmth -- Flatness or dryness

Expression of Being -- Intellectual talk about it

With love, Burt

Abraham's teaching vs Advaita

The confusion between Abraham’s teachings (founder of the Law of Attraction) and Advaita. They seem to be opposing each other, can you clarify this problem?

I have looked over the books of Abraham’s teachings which is also the source from which “The Secret” was derived. “The Secret” became a business venture and was made into a bestselling book and movie.

Abraham’s Teachings are great for novices and so if you happen to be a beginner on the path this could help you. How?

We are human beings. Abraham’s teachings emphasize the human and its struggles, desires and needs. It clarifies the power of mind in the law of attraction and how it creates our individual reality (the great illusion). Abraham states that we are, in reality, a non-physical vibration. If we follow these teachings it will help us to understand our world and the way it is for us. Eventually, if you fully grasp these teachings you will be led automatically into the Source (which is Oneness). When we start to recognize Oneness as the only Reality then we are ready for Advaita. Advaita emphasis the one great Truth from which there is no other. It is the major theme of all good satsang. This greatest of teachings is the knowing of Being.

Burt

I started meditating and felt like I opened something, I did not feel like eating and just wanted to meditate all the time. So I did meditate a lot. So many great things happened I was released from much negative conditioning and emotions. BUT at the same time what happened was I got really scared. Things were happening that I did not understand.

Dear friend,

Thank you for your interesting email. What you are experiencing is very common and there is nothing to worry about or be concerned. In fact, it is a blessing and a stage in your consciousness awakening. What is happening is this -- you are beginning to glimpse the Reality of your true nature but your conditioned ego is fighting back to what is familiar. This conflict is not only common but expected in the growth process.

Common questions and their replies

The following are questions most people ask when they view the youtube video-clips of Burt Harding.

I understand what you mean when you say that we are not our memory or our thoughts, that we are, indeed, awareness, but can we really avoid being influenced by memory or thougths? After all we are a product of the past. If we can avoid this influence, how this can be done? How can I avoid the conditioning?

Dear friend,

We do not try to stop being influenced by the past, it just won't matter when we realize that our true nature is NOW! What truly matters is what is real and lasting. So, please do not try to overcome your conditioning, it can't be done. However again, it is a matter of seeing clearly that it is just conditioning and NOT the truth of you. Contnue as you are 'doing' but without 'trying' or forcing or controlling anything. Relax in your being and ask yourself, "Who am I?" and then it will start to come to you with the answer, "I really don't know!" That's your first true answer that the person you thought you were is not around. Then when you relax enough to accept the fact that you really don't know, you allow this not-knowing to take over by full acceptance of it. This full acceptance of your NOT-KNOWING will open up a whole new innocence and humility and beauty from inside you...the heart will beckon with feelings of "I AM" that emerge as insights. It is these insights that will start to transform you.

Burt