Awareness growth

It is Oneness that does everything!

2009-10-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

If a criminal kills someone, how would we explain our action in putting him/her in jail, or executing him/her, while we believe it is done by oneness?

In order to understand these seemingly complex questions we have to reach some heart-felt knowing of Oneness. Oneness is too vast for the individual mind to comprehend, however we'll get a glimpse when we start looking deeper into the unreality of time and space.
We have a linear brain in order to survive and so we see things from the perspective of change, motion, events and thus time. Time is relative to motion as Einstein has proven through his theory of relativity. This means that although we experience linear time yet in Reality there is only holographic essence. Oneness also means that everything is One and absolutely nothing is separate or could ever be. In this Oneness we are all perfect and live in our True Home (unconditional love, peace, joy, etc). This raises another question -- are there two realities then, linear and holographic? The best explanation is given in 'A Course in Miracles' when it says that our life script has already been written. This means that everything that seems to happen has already happened. The life script that contains murder, suffering, pain, limitation etc is the illusive and delusive linear time. Einstein said that past, present and future occur simultaneously and that, in itself, boggles our linear individual mind. Again, this is something that is recognized when spiritual awakening happens where nothing is born and nothing dies because there never was anything but Oneness (our true Home).
It seems that we all have two life scripts already done -- ego script containing karmic consequences of acts and thoughts done in the past and are repeated due to unresolved issues like unconscious guilt, fear of the unknown, etc. We also have a Holographic script where we are living in unconditional love and eternal peace and joy. When we start to forgive (see clearly the illusion of) then our ego script begins to shift into our holographic true essence where nothing has actually happened but only seemed to happen.
Another way of looking at this is two-fold - either through our egoic interpretation or Oneness interpretation. If something drastic seems to happen to us then we can forgive it by seeing that worry, complaining, hatred, anger, revenge will not only NOT WORK but exacerbate the situation because our interpretation says, "This is awful and I must control it!" If, on the other hand, we see that what happens to us is due to unresolved feelings of what we might have done to others or to ourselves through our belief system, then we can forgive it (give it forth to Oneness) and thus avoid the karmic consequences of such action. When we forgive (give forth to Oneness) then whatever was written in our life-script as 'painful' will be transcended through the collapse of time and space in our favor. I know that this is hard to believe but this is fact and I know it beyond any doubt. This is why waking up to our true nature can be so freeing because we will see that we are guiltless, free, innocent and whole. The only rule and law in life is LOVE and anything that you do with love, whether it is sex, affection, giving, dancing, celebrating or enjoying is the freedom of our true nature. While the ego script is filled with rules, man-made laws, conditions and fears; our True Oneness Holographic script is freedom, innocence, guiltlessness and unconditional love. In this holographic sense there is no 'wrong' in anything because it is all acted through Oneness known as love. When in our daily life we hang or kill a murderer by law we are still perpetuating the same karmic principles that will remain unresolved in our psyche to be re-experienced in our life and to learn forgiveness. The reason there are criminals, murderers, corrupt politicians, selfish lawyers and vengeful police is because they are carrying out unresolved unconscious guilt. This cycle will keep repeaing lifetime after lifetime until we learn that we are Oneness and thus spiritual perfect unconditional love. We may experience many thousands of lives until we discover there were no lives but Oneness doing everything and bringing us Home.

Understanding subject & object

2009-09-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

"Can you please clarify the dynamics of subject and object and how they are one?"

Thank you for that question because it is through the understanding of subject/object and their oneness that we awaken to what truly IS! The best and simplest way to grasp their significance is to look at yourself in the mirror. When you look in the mirror all you see is an object. You see your body, you also 'see' the self-image that you created in your mind without realizing it and you embody all the objects of mind such as thoughts, beliefs, opinions, conclusions, past conditioning and the whole personality structure including your name. This is all objective because it is based on an image of mind. It is the mind that creates these images and becomes 'solid' to us. In other words, we make them REAL (but are they?)
Then we look deeper and ask, "What made these things possible? What makes it possible for me to look at myself and say 'this is me?' "Who is this me?"
Through these questions we hit upon the subjective. Now this is where we falter, shake and quibble because the subjective is NOT an image. The subjective cannot be described and cannot be defined. If we did define the subjective then it becomes objective. Do you see the point?
Therefore the subjective has to be given a name here for the sake of grasping, somewhat, this extremely intricate subject. So we call it 'pure awareness.' Pure awareness means that the fact that you are aware of being aware is the subjective factor. This awareness is what makes you know that you exist. And the fact that you know you think is the awareness of the thought. Yet this awareness is NOT a thought, not a concept and definitely not an image. It is all comprehensive, whole, without a border or limit. It defies explanation and has no beginning or end, and yet, we know it is real (and the only real thing) because it is through it that we exist as human beings.
The moment you realize that your true nature is awareness and there is no 'me' but only seems so because of awareness, then we hit a bombshell that might shake our foundation of the 'me' (ego) belief. If this shakes you up enough to see the incredible wonder and mystery of this vast intelligence known as pure awareness, then we have reached a realization of who we truly are. It is this realization that we are pure awareness and not separate individuals that liberates us and awakens a peace and love that is beyond description. You are NOT who you thought you were. You are this eternal awareness that was never born and shall never die.
It is here, in living this truth that we see their Oneness -- subject and object are one. The human object appears real because of the subject Being. Now human Being integrate and reach balance, harmony and clarity known as spiritual awakening.

Do all the stresses, anxieties and fears emerge from unconscious guilt?

2009-08-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

Do all the stresses, anxieties and fears emerge from unconscious guilt?

All known human emotional suffering emerges from unconscious guilt. Please refer to my other blog also under the heading "The Ways we seek."

Unconscious guilt is the belief in wrong. It is the strongest and most destructive belief in the human being. Some religions call it 'original sin' or the 'fall of man.' The most important thing to know about it is this -- it is a belief and NOT Reality.

This belief is primordial, it stems from the identification with the body as who we are and thus the feeling of separation. This feeling of separation is also the feeling that we are separate from Oneness.
Oneness is the one Truth and in glimpsing our natural state of Oneness we get transformed. Transformation means that we 'drop' the guilt and awaken love and peace.

This 'unconscious guilt' is also known as ego. It is this belief that has brought greed, fear, hatred and the need for revenge. All wars are the result of this greed for power and control propelled by guilt.

You are a human Being. The Being is innocent, open, loving, peaceful and ever at peace with itself. The Being intuitively knows of its natural Oneness with all Life. When we forget about Being by emphasizing the human then we start feeling a lack as if we are missing something. This belief in lack brings the feeling as if we are not-good-enough as we are and so long to improve and become better. However, things never become better because the nagging feeling of lack remains constant until awakening happens.

Awakening does not happen from reading about spirituality such subjects as kundalini, chakras, reincarnation, karma and so forth. Spirituality means Spirit. In fact, in spiritual awakening there is nothing to know but 'to be.' It is all about Being the Truth we already are. Being is allowing, trusting, open and sees what is obvious. This 'seeing' also awakens innocence.

The question arises, "What is the fastest way towards this awakening?"
It is through quantum forgiveness. Forgiveness is fore-giveness (giving forth). It is NOT a 'doing' but a 'seeing' into the obvious. The paradox is this -- true forgiveness is seeing that there's nothing to forgive for the truth is Oneness and no one is really guilty.
See the webcam video...

Take a Jump!!

2009-07-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

What do you mean that the body, world, thoughts and emotions are not real?

The real is like the projector of the cinema on the screen. The screen shows the stories and images of life. These stories and images come out of the projector. The projector is the cause. The screen is the effect. Therefore, the projector is the Cause of everything that is seen on the screen.
Similarly, consciousness projects the body, world, thoughts and emotions. When the body, world, thoughts and emotions are described as an illusion it simply means they are an effect of a greater Cause. The Cause is real and unchangeable while the effects of it are relative and changeable. We experience them but they are not as we interpret them. The body that we have now has been recycled a few times in this lifetime. The world is the interpretation of our senses and the thoughts and emotions are conditioned responses to time. Therefore, beyond our stories of who we think we are and what we have done lies the truth of our Being. The Being is the Cause and our body is the effect. What is real does not change and is therefore our true essence. Once we discover what is real and unchanging then we have found peace, love, joy, harmony, truth, beauty, glory and that which is eternal and timeless. It is this awakening to the changeless Truth that makes us see clearly the illusion of the body, world, thoughts and emotions. This awakening happens through seeing what is abiding in us beyond time and change. We start by LISTENING to our deeper silence and thus find what is unchanging in us. It is through this that we find meaning and fulfillment.

Transforming Power of Forgiveness

2009-06-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

From the emails I get there seem to be two problems about forgiveness.
First is the fear of forgiveness because of the ego’s need to retaliate or validate one’s suffering.
Second is the mind’s inability to understand how to forgive or what is implied by it.

Before we get into the secret of forgiveness let’s see some of the transforming power of it. Forgiveness actually collapses time in our favor so that any karmic consequence due us such as an ‘accident’ or painful experience is bypassed.

Our lifetime script is already determined with its ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ plus ‘accidents.’ This script is not set in stone unless the human ignores forgiving then what was determined happens in direct schedule.
To understand this karmic life there has to be the mental grasp of what is called ‘Unconscious Guilt.’ This unconscious guilt is a discomfort most people live with believing it is the way life is. They go about life feeling this inner discomfort and try to find either a reason for it or try to get rid of it. Nothing works because guilt is not something you can put your finger on. It is like having a pebble in your shoe and any attempt to remove it fails since you can’t find the pebble. So, you learn to live with it.

What is this unconscious guilt?

It is unconscious because it is deeply set within the psyche. It is known as ‘guilt’ because it carries with it feelings of separation and the need to be important, to be special or to stand out and be noticed. Within its needs lies a feeling of ‘not being good enough’ combined with the subtle feeling that you are missing something or lacking something. At times it even feels as if you are ‘bad.’ These feelings everyone has regardless of station in life and it is unconscious so that it nags you without knowing what it is.

What creates this unconscious guilt? The reason is simple enough. From the time we are 3 years old we start feeling and believing that we are our name and body and thus, unconsciously, create the feeling we are separate. We have totally forgotten that we are One Being or Oneness itself. And, it is this very estrangement from this fact that allows the unconscious guilt to make its way into our life. This guilt-feeling carries with it self-consciousness, ego pretension, and the need for love ( power or approval.), the need to be heard, seen, noticed and recognized. This need for egoic recognition comprises the emotional and psychological suffering of humanity.

What is ego?
It is the belief that you are a body and therefore separate from others. Most people live a whole lifetime believing they are this ego and never even question it. Such people can never find true peace and inner security and contentment.

Forgiveness helps us in two ways. two-fold. First it keeps the guilty feeling out of the picture, and while doing so, moves us closer to our true nature. Every forgiveness of discomfort enhances our oneness knowing.
Forgiveness cuts through unconscious guilt and its projection of karma like a laser beam. It penetrates through all of your past lives and even future lives, through the different dimensions of time.

How do we forgive?

First of all, you cannot forgive unless you know that you are NOT an ego. Ego wants to hang on to pain and hates to forgive. In fact, ego will want to retaliate, seek revenge and get even in any way it can. Thus it creates karma of a serious nature in one’s life. Ego belief is also written within your life-script. Thus the script contains the tragedies, mishaps, accidents and awful experiences that stem from the belief in ego.

So, one primary ingredient for forgiveness is knowing who you are. It is not difficult if you pay close attention to the following question.
Ask yourself right now, “Do you know yourself?” and then pause for a moment before answering. This pause will give you an opening to LISTEN through your Heart.

Good – now that you have asked it and paused for a moment, what was your answer? Don’t read further until you have answered it.
The Heart replies:
“You are the knower of your body, senses and mind. You know that you have a body and mind. However, this knower can never be known, because you are it and there is nobody to know it. It can
never become an object of observation because it is totality, wholeness, Oneness itself.”

This is who you are – the knower! You are NOT the body, senses,r mind nor thoughts and emotions. In fact, these emotions, thoughts (mind) and body appear only because there is ‘YOU.’ You are NOT an ego but the knower.

Pause and feel what you have just read because only through this process can you grasp the power and ease of forgiveness. And, forgiveness will take you all the way Home. Every time you forgive your guilt, you move one step closer to your true Home of Oneness. Oneness is like peeling an onion. You might not notice the depth of the peeling because it looks like the same onion; however within every peel you’ll be moving closer to the center called Home with each peeling (forgiveness).

Understanding Cause and Effect

How do I forgive? You learn how forgiveness works as you recognize that you are not an Effect of a major Cause (Oneness); You are the Cause itself. It is you, the Cause, that predetermined your life’s script. It is You who created the life you live. You cannot be an Effect because then you’d be like a victim. Since most people feel that they are effects of the Source (Cause) then they play victims in life and bemoan their lot. Through forgiveness, seeing expands and reveals (ever deepening) that you can override the pre-determined script by forgiving (what you normally would not have forgiven) and thus transcend the karmic consequences that might have been due you. In other words, forgiveness collapses time as we know linear time. Time doesn’t exist except in our linear thinking. All physicists agree that past, present and future happen simultaneously because we live in a holographic universe. It is from this understanding that forgiveness becomes a natural process.
If someone maligns us or takes advantage of our position we see that we created that so-called individual in our life script. By forgiving him or her we rise above the consequences of such unforgiveness and thus retain our peace and make the path free from obstruction.
Therefore seeing that this ‘other’ created a ‘problem’ for you, you in turn see no problem only something you created in your life script leading you toward forgiveness. In other words, we learn by forgiving both ‘others’ and ourselves in seeing that there’s nothing to forgive.

How did the self-enquiry happen to you Burt?

2009-06-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have the astral experience regular or at least what people label astral but its not a spiritual or egoless experience because I am still there just the same, able to see my astral body which looks like the stereotypical ghost. Ive noticed alot of people have reported this happening to them, the simplest description is the body falls asleep but the mind is still awake, is this a symptom of self enquiry? did it ever happen to you burt when you were self enquiring?

Self-enquiry was a slow process with me. Initially I would inquire but nothing would happen or so I thought. I persisted with the question “Who am I?” for a long time. My persistence emerged from the knowing that I AM more than the body. My insistence to experience something often resulted in my falling asleep in the midst of this ‘feeling it’ experience. Even though nothing happened for a few years I didn’t give it up but changed it with the question, “What am I?” It wasn’t until the year 2000 (many years later) that I woke up to the realization that there was no answer to the question “Who am I?” for after all, who is going to answer it? Where would an answer come from? It occurred to me, after all that time, that it was the very Silence and non-local being that was the answer. Who I was, was timeless. A moment of crystal-clarity occurred where I saw myself as a human being – a Being playing the role of Burt. It was so clear, so empathic and unmistakable that I wondered how I could have missed something so obvious. I didn’t learn anything but at the same time ‘I knew’ everything there was to know about the human and the Being and the interplay of duality in life’s journey. It was SEEING the whole play where everything that happened had never happened except in mind and time was not linear but holographic. I understood clearly Einstein’s statement, “All that occurs happens simultaneously” and there is no time and space as we come to know it. It is all seeing clearly that it is all NOW.

You emphasize the importance of forgiveness, but isn't that duality?

2009-05-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

"You emphasize the power of forgiveness, but who are we asking forgiveness from?"

When we recognize our true nature as Oneness then we see that there is only BEING. This Being is all there is. Ultimately there is no you or me but Oneness appearing as you and me. If you have understood that far then the rest is easy and simple to comprehend.
Our 'job' on earth is to go Home to our Oneness (which in truth we never left). However, since we believe we are separate human beings because we miss recognizing Spirit as Allness, then whenever we transgress through ego identification (separation) then we ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness means 'fore-giveness' or giving forth into Spirit. When we get 'caught in selfishness, fear, loneliness, anxiety or even doubt, or any self-absorption (any form of unhappiness), then we 'forgive-it' into its Emptiness (Spirit, Oneness, Love). In fact, through this incessant forgiving of our egoic thinking, we keep emptying ourselves until there is no one and nothing left to forgive and we have 'attained' our true Home.
Picture the following -- there is the one ocean and you appear as a wave on its surface. Being a wave you forget you are the ocean and so start fearing that you will drown into the vast ocean and disappear. This fear exists only out of ignorance because you have forgotten that you are the same water as the ocean, in fact, the ocean itself. This forgetting brings fear, isolation, loneliness, deprivation, separation and all known suffering. So what can you do? You can start by allowing yourself to see that there is only the One Ocean. Whenever fear arises then you forgive it by fore-giving it into the ocean itself leaving yourself empty of it. This emptying or 'fore-giving' will eventually make you recognize that all you are is simply awareness (empty of form). In this realization alone can you recognize you have always been pure awareness (the vast ocean). Eventually, when the ego has died because there is no longer any feeling of separation (fear) then forgiveness is redundant. You didn't ask for forgiveness from anyone, you simply forgave the ego that thought it was something real and separate.

2009-05-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

"I have heard so often about the mystery of "I AM" -- what is so mysterious about it?"

Dear friend, if you do not see the mystery and the wonder of "I AM" then it would be hard to appreciate the miracle called 'YOU.' When you refer to yourself, ordinarily, you refer to name and form such as "I am John." However, this "I AM" prior to name and form is everyone's "I AM." In fact, every living human being says the same "I AM" except that they refer to their ego instead of their true identity of "I AM." It was Jesus who said that the great mystery is how Christ lives in each heart. All 6 billion humans are the very same "I AM" that you are! Can you see this incredible mystery?
You, in truth, cannot die because you never existed. How and why? -- because you are "I AM" which is Existence itself and never had a beginning. It was never born.
Now the mind gets boggled through this until you start 'seeing' with your heart that you are not a body and name which Albert Einstein referred to as the great optical delusion of mankind. You are a hologram and not made in linear time from which your brain functions. In other words, the creation of form was the result of duality. Duality has to be in creation to survive and linear time was born to create that illusion. However the truth of you is holographic which also means that the time you seem to be living now has already been lived and you are going through the motions. Holographic means that the smallest pattern is the same as the biggest pattern. The smallest seed or fragment contains the entire universe just as one single cell of your body contains the whole image of you physically. In fact it has been proven that one single cell of your form can create a duplicate of it.
This mystery is beyond the mind but can be felt in the awakened spirit. You are the timeless now that is not locatable but seem to be localized in time and space. This is the mtsrery. To 'yourself' you seem to be so alive and real and yet so does everyone human being on earth feel the same...and yet it is all ONE. Now ho can you understand this with your mind? Isn't this a mystery? Yet all this is a fact, it is the truth and the only Truth.
Here below is a video that can give us a greater glimpse...

Is there a way to simplify the spiritual journey?

2009-05-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Is there a way to simplify the spiritual journey?

The Spiritual life is about opening the heart to unlearning our values, beliefs and conditioning. It is not about learning something new but looking at what is here-now as it actually is!
It is often a frustrating and confusing journey because we have to undo all that we thought was real which actually isn’t!
It is often followed with little annoying shocks that what we held so dear and meaningful suddenly is seen to be only our conditioned value system. The meaning we give things have only the meaning we gave them.

Think of it this way – imagine a gigantic ladder reaching above the clouds. As you look up you can’t see the top as it is way far above you. This ladder represents your journey step-by-step. You start as an average consciousness on the first rung of the ladder. This is where most people are at. In this first step you are self-centred, self-absorped and self-concerned. You feel like the center of your world where only you matters to you. It is like a little frog in her small pond-world. You worry about your body because you’re totally identified with it. In fact you don’t question your world or your form-body and you take them for granted. They are your belief system. You are convinced that this is who you are. And, this is all you can see and think. In fact, you hardly ever think about anyone else without first thinking about you. Chances are you stay in that first step for most of your life.
If something starts to make you suffer unduly and start asking, “What is it all about?” “What is this thing called ‘my life?’ and so on then you become a seeker. A seeker is anyone who seeks a better and more fulfilled life. So actually what drives you to seek is an inner knowing that there has to be a better life than the one you have.

In this seeking you start climbing without realizing you are doing it. It is as if something takes over and takes you up two or three steps up the ladder.
You look down and you see more than before. You see more people around you. You see greater expanse of space. Then something strikes you, “Hey, we are all really alike apart from our looks!!” This is quite a revelation that you are not different or separate as you thought. We are all the same…seeking to be happy, loved, want to be special, need to feel wanted and appreciated and so on. You also notice, because of your greater and higher vantage point, how everyone believes they are right. How everyone is an ego with the same fears and hopes and desires.

You climb a little higher and you begin to see more of this oneness…oneness in our egoic needs and oneness in our love needs. At this point you will begin to see that even though everyone wants love (called appreciation or need for approval) yet no one knows what love really is. At this point we believe that love is something we are going to get from someone else or the world at large. Thus even though we see our similarity yet we still cling to our different viewpoint as best.

Now we climb higher still, and as we see more in our higher climb we also start getting a little confused. We can’t help seeing that all the training we had and conditioning in our religious and traditional upbringing is coming up for questioning and it scares us. We get scared because we had invested so much of our energy learning about values that only have meaning to us and not to others. So the frightening question is at this point, “How real is everything I have learned?” “How valuable is it to my life?” “Where has it brought me if I am still not at peace in my heart’s core?”
We are now pulled so many ways from our familiar conditioning, family values, national or traditional training and beliefs. This is quite uncomfortable and so confusion reigns. So, one part clings to what is familiar and another part knows there’s a higher truth. Many people stop at this point and go no further. In fact, many years go by before they start climbing higher. It takes great motivation to go higher than our conditioned belief system. Here is skepticism, uncertainty, fear, doubt, confusion and feling torn between continuing and not.

Some of you go on despite your family’s training and/or objections and follow a different drummer. Here you climb a few steps higher. This is where you feel the pangs of catch-22 – damned if you go higher and damned if you don’t. You feel truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. This is even more confusing than before because here you are faced with the inevitable truth which is – you are NOT who you thought you were at all. This is shaking the foundation of belief system that you had invested so much time in. Yet, despite this fear, you know at this point that the truth is not a belief but something very real inside you. You still don’t know what that is, but yet know it exists. This is the sink or swim point in your journey. You are dangling in this midway point. You shudder to think of taking the plunge into the unknown and yet also know that there’s no way out. The ego self has to be transcended.
Most people stay in this point called “stuckness” and never get over this point as fear mounts with time. Many live the rest of their life in this midpoint stage. There are many spiritual ‘teachers’ who are in this midway point and haven’t taken the plunge over the edge. They know what’s necessary and they can even teach it but yet do not have the courage to leap.

Those very few who take the leap had questioned every belief they held and saw it as nothing more than just a concept. They have used an inquiry similar to Bhagavan or Byron Katie or advanced Advaita asking at every turn, “What is real?” and as they sincerely investigated found nothing real. I remember hearing Adjashanti covering this stage of realization where he saw clearly that everything he experienced began and ended and nothing was real. The moment we see clearly that nothing, absolutely nothing, in this world is real we discover something very precious. The real was/is the one that saw the unreality of everything. The changing personality and self saw clearly that everything changed and therefore eventually died and passed away…but the one who saw the change was changeless and in that facing of everything as changeable and unreal, was also the recognition of that which was unchanging and real and lasting. Tis is the discovery of the eternal infinite Self.

In summary it went like this…
The focal point of ‘I’ consciousness is similar to a tall ladder. The steps start at the bottom and keep rising to see more and more of the area until the top is reached. This ‘I’ consciousness arises from pure awareness and initially is experienced as ‘me’ as separate from you. This ‘me’ is known as the suffering ego beset with the need for control and conscious of limitation. It identifies fully with the body and its past and thus suffers automatically from unconscious guilt in the present and fear of the future. This viewpoint is the asleep state of the separate ‘me.’
As the psychological suffering reaches a point of seeking to find what is more in life, there is a higher aspect of the ‘I’ that also gets bogged down with confusion, frustration and unceasing questions. These questions help in ascending the ladder and seeing more.
There comes a point in the ascension of the ladder where the viewpoint gets stuck due to fear of the vaster realm awaiting it. This is the ‘stuck’ point many seekers find themselves in. This ‘stuckness’ usually lasts several years to a whole lifetime unless there is the love of truth that is stronger than its fear of ego annihilation.
Most seekers gets stuck in the midway point of the ladder called catch-22 – feel damned if I do go on and damned if I don’t. This is the sink or swim stage that all awakened beings have gone through. This is the crucial process where the personal ‘I’ is beginning to see that it is really universal Oneness. It is extremely fearful and threatening to give up what has been familiar for so many lifetimes. If a breathrough occurs then we reach close to the top and our viewpoint goes from EFFECT VIEWPOINT to CAUSE VIEWPOINT. We are now quite aware that our ‘me’ had never existed but was always the ‘I’ of Oneness.
This focal point of “I” is never lost but reaches such a height of Oneness-expression that reincarnation is no longer required.
And here is the great paradox as we peer from the top ladder looking down…we see clearly that nothing ever happened and the ladder was always the same one except that now we are looking from a greater vantage point of view. The film of life had already been finished and we are replaying it. We have the choice to see it from this higher view instead of the ‘effect-view.’ We have not changed and life goes on the same way but without the fears, questions and linear time consciousness. We have reached inner peace.

T.S. Eliot wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration. At the end of all our exploring we shall arrive at where we started and KNOW that place for the first time.”

2009-05-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

Why do I make everything so real?

2009-04-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

"Why do I make everything so real that I become a victim of it?"

Until we get to know our true Source Being then we unconsciously believe and make real everything that happens to us. It is like having your shadow chasing you and you run away from it only to have it chase you as well. One day after exhaustive running and escaping this shadow you realize fully, "It is not real but a shadow cast by my body!" then you are free of it even though the shadow remains. You are free because it has lost is power over you. In other words, you have stopped making it real. Similarly with thoughts and emotions. The moment you see them as they actually are, just thoughts and emotions, then you are free.

You mention the human being. Can you clarify what is Being?

2009-02-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

The psychology I have studied had to do with the human mind. It had to do with the 'becoming-process' and now, after years of study and training, I come across 'Being' as its opposite. I am confused. Can you clarify Being for me?

As you already know we are a human being. This is an undeniable fact. However, what is hardl ever known is that the human is opposite Being. Being is when 'you BE!' You are in your Being when you are relaxed, happy, unself-conscious, clear, simple, innocent, without an agenda or time-consciousness. This is your natural state when you are happy, contented and fully 'yourself.'
Since we live in a world of 'becoming' then we strive for success, power, accomplishment and even for happiness through the world of form. This, inevitably, brings dissatisfaction, inner emptiness as if something is missing and so we become addicted to anything that offers us a momentary respite from our egoic strivings. This temporarily fulfillment then becomes an addiction whether it is cigarette smoking, coffe drinking, drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, pleasure seeking or simply TV watching and incessant negative thinking. Why negative thinking when it is not a pleasure? Negative thinking is fear of not getting what we want, even though we don't really know what we truly want.
What we all want is Being but as yet are not aware of this simple fact. It is only through Being that we experience inner joy, fulfillment and our true nature. How can we ever know peace unless we know who we are? Yet Being is not an object. Being is simply BEING -- an allowing, a letting-go of mental seeking, a relaxation with what-is, an openness of heart.
See the video right here and really listen. Who knows, you might get a glimpse of your true Being!!

The problem of addiction

2009-02-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

People are addicted to pornography, cell phones, TV watching, sex, relationships and various forms of comfort & pleasure seeking, why is this so pronounced?

The answer to this growing problem is covered in this video-clip.

Why so many people 'get it' but I still feel I didn't?

2009-01-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

You have sent out several hundred booklets on 'seeing the obvious truth' and the response was that many experienced shifts in consciousness through it. I read it but it didn't bring any shifts. Why is that, am I different?

You are not different than most, in fact, most people miss the obvious truth. What is meant by the 'obvious truth' is that it is closer than our own breath. Most people are blind to what is in front of them. The reason for this 'blindness' is four-fold.

First reason is our religious upbringing. When we are subjected from a very young age with certain dogma and beliefs, these go into our subconscious and start to dictate how we see life. Our viewpoint becomes so narrow that we couldn't see past it. For example, I was brought up in a religion that instilled in me the belief in sin, lasting punishment in hell if I died in mortal sin, belief in the devil, separation from other religions plus the unworthiness of our soul. This brought guilt and shame. Later, after conducting hypnotherapy for several years I became immensely aware how this dogma created most of the emotional dysfunction in my clients. Religious upbringing creates separation due to diverse beliefs and destroys any possibility of realizing our Oneness of Being.

Second, An unconscious fear of facing life without ego control. We find it extremely hard to see how ego has no control over our life at all. Then our unconscious becomes afraid of having to give up control believing that we had control. True control is in Being but it is too subtle and vague for the mind to even look at it.

Third, the need for escape is extremely compelling and so keep putting off from looking at what is obvious. We will do anything to escape from facing our reality. We keep putting off from looking at what is here and now just as it actually is. We can't handle it despite its simplicity even though it will give us freedom, love and joy in living. We'll automatically come up with excuses NOT to look at what is real here and now.

Fourth, we live in a world of emphasized left-brain activity. Life gave us two different hemispheres with totally opposite functions. The left side dealt with survival, linear thinking and material consciousness. The right side dealt with imagination, visualization and musical appreciation. When we integrated both then our life became balanced. When we ask ourselves a question like, "Who am I?" the left brain would immediately jump to memory details such as, "I am John and I am a businessman..." and it fails to see that here-now has nothing to do with name and form but just the moment itself. Faced with the moment itself, our mind scrambles for something to hold onto rather than face our pure aware state.

Now the question arises, "If I have all the above isn't there a chance to see what is obvious and awaken spiritually?" The reply is a very positive 'yes.' We were never meant to be victims of our conditioning unless we allowed it. Through insight into our conditioned mind and the courage to SEE what-is at the moment can bring inner freedom right here and now.

Next question is, "What are the obvious facts that will awaken our consciousness?"
They are three facts and are as obvious as the nose in your head if we look with sincerity and open-heartedness despite our conditioning. These three will answer everyquestion and problem in life and will bring inner freedom and peace.
They are:

1. You know you exist. This knowing is not a memory but the awareness recognizing itself. Our pure awareness is 'knowing' of the truth.

2. You exist, and you only exist NOW! This is a big one (you can request an article based on it). This alone will answer every question on relationships, life, work, sex, aging, death and so forth. The realization of this obvious fact is unlimited in its scope.

3. You don't know who you are when you ask, "Who am I?" This alone should you convince you that you are not an ego. How can you have an ego when you don't know who you are?

Please watch the video clip below regarding what you have just read...

Instant Transformation

2008-12-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

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!?

2008-11-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

"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?

2008-11-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

"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?

2008-10-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-09-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-09-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

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.'

2008-08-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

"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!

2008-07-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

“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

2008-07-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

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."

2008-07-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-07-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-06-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

"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!!

2008-05-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

Why does the ego create the fear of being no more?

2008-04-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

HI burt,
at the end of this video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ByXOJs4Uvfw) you say "can you imagine never have been or never going to be"? I've never expereinced either of those. However, the "idea" of never going to be creates great fear in many people. If it's never been "experienced", how does the "idea" or "thought" "of never going to be", or "cease being" come from? I know you will say "the ego", all fear comes form the ego, but why does the ego create that thoght? the ego creates fear to protect itself. but how does this scary thoguht of ceasing to be protect the self in any way? it seems like it is only damaging.

You asked, "If it's never been "experienced", how does the "idea" or "thought" "of never going to be", or "cease being" come from?"

Our true nature is eternal, which in terms of bodily existence appears as the need to make everything permanent. We try to make every relationship last and even try to prolong physical life as long as we can? The reason is quite imbedded deep in our being because there is the 'inner knowing' that we last. However, because we believe we are just a body (and many people believe that) then the fear of death enters our consciousness and creates the horrid belief of 'being no more' which we can't even imagine. Just like I said in the video, "You can't imagine being no more." Only the fear of it exists because of our unawareness of the true nature. In fact, all fear emerges from ignorance of our true nature.

The fear of being no more is ego's protection by creating a need in us to survive physically at all costs. Then you asked, "but how does this scary thoguht of ceasing to be protect the self in any way? it seems like it is only damaging.

Another aspect of the ego is its contradictions. Please do not ever try to make sense of the ego, not only it doesn't work but creates further frustration, confusion and even greater fear. This confusion is ego's domain. How can one make sense of war, hatred, revenge, killing innocent children or genocide and so on. This is the insanity of the ego. Now the question is, what is ego? It is simply the belief in separation while in truth every is one interdependent, interconnected and interrelated whole. Just as separation is fear so is Oneness unconditional love. And that's what all spirituality is about -- LOVE!

How to recognize the truth of you!!

2008-04-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have been practicing spiritual meditation, ritual and study for many years and yet how come I am not living what I know?"

What chooses to be less ego & more witness?

2008-04-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

"What chooses to be less ego and more witness? Does the ego decide, in essence being complicit with it's own demise? Is it the witness itself? that doesn't seem right as the witness just witnesses. So is there some other part of myself that "chooses" who is behind the wheel?"

Nothing chooses to be less ego and more witness. Witness is our true nature as pure awareness. However, we are caught ordinarily in what we are aware-of -- awareness of separation from others; awareness of the world; awareness of wars and news and so on. We can put it this way -- you are a human being. The human is what you are aware-of (mind). 'Being' is pure awareness itself (the witness). Since Being is what creates and makes manifest the human, it is also its controller. When we start recognizing who is the driver (pure awareness) then we automatically become more aware of the witnessing part of us. This greater awareness of itself becomes a major fulcrum of our daily life and thus becomes more prominent. This greater focus on the witness automatically minimizes our ego's control thus there is less ego as we see that the witness is our reality. There is no chooser or 'doer' but only 'seeing' more and more into what truly IS!

The ego doesn't decide, it simply chooses automatically from its past experience of fear. For example, you see a very attractive girl and you are drawn like a magnet. The ego will remind you that such an encounter in the past ended in disaster and it might happen again and all of a sudden there is hesitation, uncertainty, even fear. Our natural tendencies get thwarted by the ego's past experiences. Thus, when we do not learn from ego's past we tend to let the ego 'decide' for us. However, when we SEE clearly that the ego is just fear then it loses its influence and we are freer. The ego never decides for greater love or joy but only offers protection. Here's another example, let's say you love dancing and the last time you were the only one on the floor and for some reason you made a fool of yourself. Next time you try to get up to dance and be the first one, the ego will try to protect you against embarrassment. Whereas your true spirit of BEING is more spontaneous and egoless in its pure enjoyment and therefore takes chances. The ego only seems to decide when there is fear of being fully yourself and then tries to protect you by increasing your uncertainty and lack of self-confidence. The ego protects to increase its power and also protect itself from dying. The ego dies when confidence, courage and love take over.

The witness is the driver but sometimes gets twisted by the ego's interpretation. For example, let's say you want the truth of your being and therefore sit still, relax and enter the vast space within you. It will feel peaceful and gentle at first, then the ego gets frightened of its own demise and starts protecting itself by turning this vast space within into a very dark emptiness and a frightening abyss.

Actually no one is behind the wheel doing the driving but Oneness itself. Everyone of us gets driven according to our capacity and readiness to see. The more we see, the greater becomes our freedom and joy.

There are over 6 billion humans on this earth, but there is only One Being, One Awareness, One Witness playing all the roles of the 6 billion humans. Each human evolves at its own pace according to its ability to 'see.' It is all quite perfect in its grandeur.

Do we get punished for our misdeeds?

2008-04-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Do we get punished for our acts of greed, selfishness and need for power?

The interesting fact about LIFE is this -- we are all ONE! Since oneness is a fact and any intelligent being knows this in their heart, then whatever you give you receive. For example, let's say you harm someone, then no one punishes you but yourself. Why? Simply because it is all one.
Now suppose again, you love someone then that love returns to you automatically by the very act of loving itself. If you make someone happy, you feel happy, period. You get back what you give out and exactly to that extent. The more you give, the more you get!! Once you realize Oneness as the Truth of you then you are free and at peace.
Watch the video below for reincorcement of this fact of Oneness as LOVE!

Guilt -- greatest spiritual block

2008-04-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Is unconscious guilt a result of ignorance of our true nature or some indiscretion in this or past life?”

Let’s understand by asking, “What do we mean by guilt?” Guilt is the feeling that we have, somehow, done something wrong and/or the feeling we are bad. This feeling can be either due to something we’ve done or from believing you are just a body that is separate from others. Guilt can also escalate into deep loneliness or emptiness.

Most people carry a burden of guilt. If it is deep seated enough, it can be like an insidious virus that infiltrates every aspect of your life, so that all your responses to life and others are filtered through the guilt feelings.

When we are difficult or heavy handed and reactive, these are signs of guilt. If the guilt is just a nagging ache then it could translate into sadness.

In my work as hypnotherapist people have been helped by seeing the cause of it through traditional religious belief in sin and punishment.

For instance, a young woman, who suffered deep sadness from no apparent reason, came to see me. Her parents were warm and loving and her childhood had been normal. During a regression into a past life she was burned alive for being a witch, which meant she was psychic. Before burning her people hurled insults for her evil ways that she would burn in hell. When she discovered the fact that she wasn’t bad at all, after all, what she wanted was to help people. This realization healed her guilt permanently.

After a few years of conducting hypnotherapy I became acutely aware of the heavy burden of guilt that most people carry.

· Guilt prevents us from having a healthy relationship with other people.

· Guilt causes us to punish those around us for our problems.

· Guilt makes you live in the past and blocks your soul’s purpose.

· Guilt often creates life-threatening pathologies as our bodies attract ill health.

· Guilt causes us to hurt people closest to us.

· Traditional Christian religion encourages guilt for our sins instead of seeing them as lessons for greater love, compassion and forgiveness.

In 30 years of hypnotherapy

2008-04-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

I may seem a little forward but I am a very curious fellow. I would truly appreciate sharing what you have learned in your 30 years of conducting hypnotherapy sessions with hundreds of people one-on-one?

I may have mentioned this before in satsangs -- in the 30 years I have conducted one-on-one sessions (which I now call 'Supersentience.') I have witnessed our oneness. Every person is unique with a different personality, gender, desires, hopes and fears, and yet, behind the outer appearance is the same longing for happiness, peace, love and fulfillment. In other words, every human is seeking, consciously or unconsciously, Self-fulfillment. The trouble starts when we believe we are separate and different in our needs. We all want to awaken spiritually but don't know how to go about it or what it is we really want.
When we finally discover that it is spiritual awakening that we need (and this is already a giant leap in awareness) then we believe two things...
1. We believe that awakening is something we are going to attain instead of seeing how things are.
2. We believe that there is something wrong with us that needs to be overcome or resisted.

Awakening spiritually is realizing this NOW itself beyond our past and future. It is seeing that time and space as we know it only exists in our sensual world. We try to grasp spiritual knowledge through books and teachings alone as if information is going to do it. We fail to see that awakening is seeing what is obvious here and now.
Then, something else happens when we fail to realize NOW as all there is, we start blaming our childhood, our conditioned state, our environment and the world in general. We do not see that how we see the world is our mind-set and viewpoint.

So why do most people go through this process initially? The problem is not our weaknesses or vices that block us but our illusions. We are haunted by the images we have placed instead of Reality. For example, anyone with average intelligence knows that only NOW exists, yet we hang on to the illusion that we are the past. The self-image we carry with us is so powerful, so overwhelming that we do not even see it. Assagioli, the Founder of Psychosynthesis said, "We spend over 95% of our energy protecting, defending and maintaining our self-image and it is all an image -- imagination." When we ask, "who am I?" in this moment we become dumbfounded and that's as it should be. We are NOT who we think we are at all -- we are this moment itself. You are this NOW and therefore pure being capable of spontaneous existence filled with laughter, innocence, joy, happiness and fulfillment. Yet the thought of being 'spiritual' (spirit) is scary to our ego (past).
This fear of NOW is so common that we would rather believe we are the past and feel guilty for it then be without an individual identity. The word 'spirit' cannot be computed by the mind and so it creates a substitute, which is an image. This image, based on the past, is also known as unconscious guilt filled with self-doubt. And, it can't be any other way because the greatest illusion is the belief that we are the past. Granted that the past happened and it is history, but 'it happened' and it is not NOW (the only Reality we have).

This self-doubt, better known as 'unconscious guilt' is so strong that we keep favoring it over awakening (of course, this is all unconscious). This guilt manifests as the following feeling...
"There is something wrong with me."
"I am not good enough as I am."
"I am missing something but I don't know what."
This self-doubt (guilt) blocks any ability to see the moment as IT actually IS! It blinds us utterly and even creates emotional and health problems.
This guilt surfaces in various ways...
* playing victim of circumstances (I was brought up this way....)
* Pretend to be somebody special to make up for inadequacy feelings...
* Become an over-achiever to hide misgivings...
* Become overly intellectual to hide the inability to love...
* Overly sensitive to protect a fragile ego...
* Restless, listless and always 'doing' to fill a void...
* Become a perfectionist...
...and hundreds of others. In other words, we are protecting an image that doesn't exist in order to compensate for an emptiness in the center of our being. This emptiness is the resistance of our spiritual Reality believing that if we can be 'something' we can override our incessant feeling of emptiness.
Emptiness is a natural feeling of anyone who is escaping their spiritual essence. Of course, there is no awareness of this escape and so we are often unhappy or depressed for no apparent reason. All unhappiness is the unconscious need to maintain our illusions and not face our spiritual Reality.
It is not easy for a conditioned ego to accept its spiritual nature as being NOW. It keeps choosing fear, control and past to give itself an identity.
Awakening happens when we are willing to see that emptiness is not utter voidness or an abyss but a fullness of spirit. It is joy, happiness, love and peace derived from the falling away of fear. Fear is the result of the belief in death. If you are the fullness of NOW how can death happen? Can NOW die? Awakening sees clearly that you are not being in the NOW -- you are the NOW itself? Do you see the difference?

How can we awaken this knowing despite our egoic conditioning? There is a way and it is not difficult provided you are willing to 'do' it. The simple solution is called 'Quantum Forgiveness.' This is how it is done...
The moment you see yourself getting angry, upset, hurt, offended, defensive, depressed or feeling the need to control or fear loss of control, just forgive it by saying, "There is this low energy and I forgive it." When you start 'doing' this from 10 to 30 times a day, then something starts to happen. You realize that you are egoically conditioned and see clearly why you have been so miserable and unfulfilled. Once you see this clearly then you are ready for the next recognition -- you start to see that all that forgiveness didn't have a culprit. There was nothing and no one to forgive. It was all an illusion. It is at this point (Quantum Forgiveness) that awakening starts happening.

Most people start to forgive fully when they realize there was no one to forgive. It was all a process of seeing what is real.
What is real? The Reality is that you are this NOW itself and therefore an eternal being. This being, having discarded most of its egoic karma, finds that it hasn't lost anything in its shedding but gained so much more. The personality is the same, the 'person' has not vanished into nothingness and still is intact. There is the seeing that much has been gained especially a sense of intuituive knowing that only LOVE is real. God is LOVE.

How do you know?

2008-04-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

I listen to your talks and they are simple and effective; what makes you know what you know?

If we were to listen to our own spiritual heart we would also know beyond any doubt. We, as humans, are trained to think about things; to figure things out, to make sense of what we see and experience and to reach logical conclusions based on what we know intellectually. We do not realize two things initially...
a. We can never be fully convinced through the conditioned mind.
b. By using the mind to figure things out we block our natural gift of knowing.
We are conditioned by our five senses and miss the most important sense of all called the sixth sense -- the sense of spiritual intuition. We know more than we realize but do not listen to what we already know intuitively and so we block it from recognizing its obviousness. For example, "how do you know that you exist?" -- It is not a thought nor an emotion, nor a belief or memory. It is a knowing beyond doubt. Ask yourself how you know this? Isn't it your own intuitive knowing because you are an aware being?
Your very awareness that is now reading these words KNOWS beyond any doubt about your true nature.
Let's take another example -- people ask, "How do you know God exists?" and never LOOK at the word 'God' but merely respond to their conditioned beliefs about it and then resolve to continue believing in it or not based on logical conclusions (which are viewpoints of conditioning).
When someone asks me, "Do you believe in God?" I answer by raising the question, "Do you believe in awareness?" Since everyone knows awareness is a fact then I say, "God is the Presence of Awareness." In other words, since awareness is univeersal it is oneness. In that oneness is LOVE. Therefore God is Love.

There is nothing you cannot know unless you are not willing to apply yourself. Most people are so conditioned by the world to the extent that they have lost the ability to LISTEN within.
Spiritual intuition is your higher sense known as the sixth sense. When you know intuitively it is certain without any doubt and nothing could make you budge from it. Intuition is not a belief nor an experience but a knowing beyond any doubt. In fact, if you doubt your intuition then it is NOT intuition.
When you met your present spouse didn't you just know he/she was the one for you?

Here are the points about Spiritual Intuition.
* Spiritual intuition is a sense of knowing. It is spontaneous and NOT a question of analysis.
* If we give the slightest intellectual or emotional effort to understanding it blocks intuitive knowing.
* Spiritual intuition is your gift and birthright and it will enhance every aspect of life. It is your choice to use it.
* You know it is spiritual intuition when you simply have no more doubts. If there is the slightest doubt then it is not intuition but either intellectual or emotional knowing.
* Body discomforts are signs to be inwardly quiet and listen. For example, any guilt, fear or anger is a sign you are not listening and instead 'caught' in what the mind is feeding you -- a story!! I find that when words don't come during a conversation it is time to shut up.
* When something is not right for you there is a subtle or obvious feeling of discomfort. When something is right for you no effort is needed.

HOW TO LISTEN

Train yourself in the following steps and you will awaken spiritual intuition.
1. We have three kinds of feelings -- emotional feelings based on personal attachment. These feelings have to do with your egoic idea of self. The words that hurt and offend you are the words that enslave you from direct knowing. Then we have intellectual feelings based on literal translation and viewpoint of life. In other words, we take words literally without direct experience of their meaning like the word 'God' in conventional religion. Finally, we have true feeling which is awareness itself. This is a feeling-knowing without judgment, comparison, analysis or belief. It is clear-seeing as something actually IS!

2. Start by treating all emotional reactions as the first voice of the conditioned mind. Let this first voice vent itself without 'buying' into it. Allow yourself to see that no matter what the story is -- it is a conditioned response without reality. If you have reached this point of allowing, then you are ready for the real voice.

3. Having allowed yourself to vent with the knowing that it is just an emotional reaction or intellectual conclusion, now you are ready for the Real Inner Voice of Intuition...

4. Sit still and relax by watching your breath for a minute or two without thinking. Then listen to the sounds around you without judgment until you feel quiet inside. Then feeling tranquil and relaxed ask yourself the question that bothered you. Do not reach for an answer but just sit with the question allowing your intuitive voice to guide. Having done that, smile and get up.
Sooner or later you will get an intuitive feeling-knowing what is the 'right' thing to do or a revelation of how it actually IS!

The more you use this discipline, the sooner you awaken your natural inner voice of truth. People will soon start asking you, "How do you know so much?" and you'll say, "Everything I know you also know if you apply yourself. This is the REAL LIFE of the SPIRIT.

How SEEING heals ego-control!

2008-03-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

Help me to understand how seeing the ego-control heals it? What is it that brings the healing?

Let's first understand that ego-control means resisting what-is. It simply means "I don't like this" "It hurts me" "It makes me mad" "It reminds me of my inadequacy" "It makes me feel less-than." We control whenever we resist, resent or think negatively about anything. In fact anything that takes our joy of living away from us is a form of control. We are either controlling a situation by manipulating it, getting angry about it, trying to overcome it or resisting it or fearing control through anticipation of it, feeling anxious, nervous, victimized and reactionary.
It is at this need to control for fear of being controlled that we suffer the worstkind of ego-control called...LOSING CONTROL!! Loss of control is where we get-out-of-control through violence to others or ourselves, through panic attacks, deep paranoia, deep anxiety or nervous exhaustion resulting in fatigue syndrome and other physical maladies. We literally burn out from fear of loss of control.
Ego and control (in this context) are the same thing. Ego is separation from who we really are, which is love. And here's the paradox, LOVE IS THE REAL CONTROL. This is the reason why we crave control unconsciously. For instance, here's the power (positive control) of love. Suppose you have an enemy, what would be the greatest power to overcome that enemy? Simply love the enemy. If someone doeasn't like you, you can destroy that dislike by loving them anyway and the effects of that dislike will not touch you.
Now, this is where SEEING comes in. See clearly that all you ever want is to feel okay, to feel loved. Since love cannot be attained because it is who we are already, then we can only express it by giving it away. You cannot obtain what you already are and therefore cannot get love. Love is a 'giving' and NOT a taking. This is the secret.
Therefore the secret of seeing that love is a 'giving' and not a 'taking' changes the whole perspective. Now, the question arises, how can seeing heal control? Another word for 'seeing clearly' is forgiveness. Forgiveness is such a great power that spiritual growth (realization) is not possible without it. With forgiveness spiritual realization is guaranteed.
Here's how it works...

Suppose you have a sincere drive to awaken to the truth of you and thus live from it, what would be the quickest and simplest way to attain that? It is through forgiveness. It is simple and quick but it is NOT easy. The ego doesn't want to forgive because it would mean its death.
Advaita devotees will tell you that forgiveness is dualistic and therefore not real. Yes, forgiveness is dualistic but so is self-inquiry dedicated to Self exploration of our true nature. Bhagavan used to say we can use the mind to go beyond the mind. So here is the crux of the matter, forgiveness has to be fully understood and its power is so great that you don't need anything else for realization of your true nature.
There are three levels of forgiveness and it is this process alone that brings the transformation.
FIRST LEVEL of forgiving is just a game we start out with, however, if we are sincere in forgiving, we will soon discover two things that confront us...
a. How difficult it is to forgive when someone has abused us.
b. How much control is in our nature that blocks the seeing of the truth of love.
If we persist in our drive to forgive, no matter how small or large, then we move into the second level.
SECOND LEVEL is quite a shock because it forces us to see how little we love and how much we like to be in control despite its negative effects of unhappiness, upsetness, fearfulness and anger (separation from love). This second level shows us clearly how many 'games' we have played in our need to be in control and how unhappy we really are.
THIRD LEVEL is when forgiveness becomes real. How? We start seeing, through the help of the second level, that all we ever wanted is to be loved, to be wanted, to be happy and free. We see also how we had used every power in our control-arsenal to sabotage this ease of being. Finally, we see the most life-changing truth of all, there is nothing to forgive at all. And, the moment we see this great truth of our illusion then that itself becomes Quantum Forgiveness. Quantum Forgiveness is the miracle of transformation. This leads you from ego-control to the direct experience of Oneness. This is the true Advaita.

Waking up is LISTENING -- The 3rd Listening!!

2008-03-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

I heard somewhere that spiritual waking up is called the 3rd Listening. Could you elaborate on that?

The "3rd Listening" is the most sacred, highest and noblest 'practice' in clear seeing. In fact, it is the awakening itself. In order to understand what the 3rd listening is there has to be the clarification of what the first and second listening are. There are two kinds of listening initially and they can't be helped. They are not wrong anymore than 'not understanding' is wrong! One is emotional-listening and the other is intellectual-listening. Most people stay in that groove for most of their life never knowing any better.
Emotional listening is listening in a personal way as if the world revolves around you. You hear only what is personal to you. To this listener everything pertains to emotional feeling. When you listen there is often this type of listening...
"He/she knows how I feel."
"He/she feels as if they are talking about me."
Emotional listeners are apt to nod their heads in agreement, which of course means they are NOT listening at all. An emotional listener often exclaims, "Yes, I know!" and they feel good temporarily believing they have learned something. However, soon find out the opposite and complain how they are 'caught' in their ego again.

Then we have the intellectual listening. Intellectual listening is listening to the words literally. They usually have an arsenal of words they use to make themselves believe that they know. And, they usually want you to know that they know. Intellectual listening is also a 'doing' type of listening so that initially they ask...
"How do I do it?"
"What am I supposed to do about that?"
When these basic questions of 'doing' are satisfactorily answered then he/she feels that they 'know' until a crisis in their family life or relationship arises and find themselves dumbfounded.

Then we have the 3rd Listening which is awakening itself. Here one realizes that there is nothing to know or seek -- there is only 'Being.' All listening is 'being' listening. There is no agreeing nor disagreeing because in truth there is no person to do either. The 3rd Listener listens to the possibilities of what is implied. There is nothing to 'do' but understand it is all about BEING. For instance, listening is not a 'doing' but an openness of heart in the moment seeing the deeper possibilities beyond the personal and intellectual. 3rd Listening is a mixture of love and 'knowing' that there are no opposites but that which is all-encompassing as the moment of NOW itself. When the 'teacher' says, "accept" it is clearly seen as a non-doing whereas to the emotional and intellectual is something one does. BEING, which is the 3rd listening, is non-doing. BEING is known as allowing, accepting, loving, surrendering, forgiving and seeing clearly. Here's an example of non-doing as Being...
When you were a child brought up playing in the street with all kids from different races, the question of acceptance never did arise simply because you were not prejudiced. This 'no need to accept' is real acceptance. This is important to understand. Similarly with forgiveness -- when you recalled a bully who abused you and saw clearly how he was abused by his own father, you suddenly see that there was nothing to forgive -- that's true forgiveness. Again, the word 'allowing' is a non-doing but a 'being.' You realized that 'letting-go' was not something to do but an allowing of the moment to be itself just like the child allowing itself to sleep effortlessly. Therefore, in the 3rd Listening you see clearly that there is no 'doing' in awakening but allowing, surrendering, forgiving, loving and Being here-now. There is no past to forgive because it's gone (it's history). There is no ego to surrender simply because ego is resistance (ignorance of Being). NOW is not a present-happening but the content of the present. Therefore, while the present is based on the present time, NOW is timeless. This timeless NOW is known as LOVE. Did you ever forget yourself in the moment of loving your dance or singing or being in love? In that BEING-moment there was no time but pure joy.

In brief, the 3rd listening is seeing no opposite. It is all there is -- just presence of awareness experienced as oneness (pure love).

Spiritual Awakening -- what does it mean?

2008-03-08T08:57:00.008-08:00

I have heard so much about spiritual awakening but I still don't know what it means. I'm a novice, can you help me to understand?

Spiritual awakening is waking up to the truth of your being. Assagioli, the founder of Psychosynthesis said that 95% of our energy is spent defending, protecting and maintaining our self-image -- and it's all an image, imagination! When you ask yourself, "Who am I?" you don't get an answer because there is no one to answer that question. Ordinarily you become confused, dumbfounded or frightened. You are awareness itself and therefore all you are left with when you ask, "who am I?" is just pure awareness and that's it. The mind will want to make something concrete out of that but there's nothing concrete about our true nature because it is not something that comes and goes like matter. It is spirit-consciousness. This spirit-consciousness produces thoughts out of itself and we live from these thoughts (beliefs, ideas, conditioning, imagination and emotions. We make them so real that we identify totally with them. However, we miss something greater that never changes and is both unborn and undying known as pure awareness. It is Presence. It is Being.
Therefore what awakens us from our spiritual sleep is knowing the difference between pure awareness and what you are aware-of. Until we see clearly this great difference we shall remain confused, unclear and have a multitude of questions. We perceive two ways when we read spiritual literature -- we understand either intellectually or emotionally. Both create barriers in our understanding.
Emotional listening is very personal and so we can't see what is deeper than the personal beluiefs and thoughts. Intellectual listening, on the other hand, is literal and listens to the words.
Here's an example of each -- an emotional person would relate everything they hear to themselves where they feel that the whole world revolves around them. They often say, "He must be talking about me when I read him." They are easily hurt, offended and upset at the slightest 'thing' that seems to point to them. The intellectual or literal person take words to mean something separate according to their thinking. Here's an example...
Someone asked me once to explain what ego is and I said, "Ego is resistance. It sees as it conditioned to see them rather than how they actually are. Anger is resistance. Fear is resistance to what-is. Upsetness is resistance to something seen or heard. Depression is resistance to the moment as it is and feel hopeless to control it, and so on. Resistace and control make up the ego. I emphasized to her that ego doesn't really exist at all, it is just resistance.
One day this person wrote me and said that she's caught in her ego and there's nothing she can do about it (of course not!) Resistance resists itself. So, I said to her, "Since you cannot control the ego since ego is control then accept it fully." Some time after she wrote back and said that I contradicted myself by saying -- "accepting an ego that doesn't exist!" Now that's literal thinking (intellectual) and so fails to see what is obvious. In asking her to accept the ego I was really saying, "there is no ego" which is using different words meaning the same thing. However, she took the term literally that acceptance was something for her to do. If she looked deeply into it she would have realized that accepting something that resists, automatically removes the resistance. When the ego's resistance is gone, where's the ego?
Spiritual awakening is usually a slow process because people are divided into two groups ordinarily -- intellectual and emotional. Some are both. When we can see the difference between PURE AWARENESS and what you are AWARE-OF then that's awakening and both the intellectual and emotional take a back-seat and finally see clearly what is actually obvious. In fact, awakening is like waking up from a bad dream and realize it was all a dream. It is seeing what is obvious here and now.

The difference between pure feelings & emotional feelings

2008-03-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

I was told by a teacher that emotions are not pure feelings. Could you clarify this point?

Pure feeling is the 'now' itself where time is not an issue. For example, pure feeling is pure awareness. When you listen to your favorite piece of music you might literally forget yourself. In this 'self-forgetting' there is joy and innocence -- the true spiritual qualities. In other words, the qualities that we cherish such as freedom, love, joy, peace, happiness and inner fulfillment are not qualities at all -- they are the 'NOW' itself. Did you ever feel so drawn to something or someone where you actually disappeared? In that moment you were 'real' and 'egoless.' Did you ever watch performers perform incredible feats of focused energy? In that moment there was no ego (no personal 'I') but pure action emerging from the focused 'now.' Did you ever laugh so heartily that tears ran down your cheeks? In that moment there was spontaneous action from pure awareness. Pure feeling is always 'positive' because it brings out our true natural being of love and oneness.

On the other hand, emotions emerge from thought. The moment we make a thought real it affects the body and creates motion of energy labelled as 'e-motion.' These emotions can literally make us sick and even kill the body when they become too dramatic. Emotions are rarely positive because they are not pure and often tinged with expectations and desires. This is why so many people become psychotic, for example, manic depressives are people who love the high energy of emotions, which by its very 'high' works towards a 'down-spiral.' Anything that goes up must come down. Whereas pure feelings are balanced aspects of being.
The pure state is who you are but the emotions try to emulate the 'aliveness' of being through dramatization and create nervous exhaustion.
Of course, we can't help feeling the power of emotions but we can allow ourselves to experience them in the body without their story or memory. Then as we observe the sensation in the body without the story in our head, we neutralize the effects on our nervous system and unfreeze the energy that was stuck in our center. It is this unfreezing that restores our mental health. Unfortunately, most people take drugs to deal with strong emotions but the result is NOT healing but coping while tampering with the life-force energy.
Fears, which create strong emotions, are to be faced and not escaped from. Every time we escape a fear, we are merely re-inviting its occurrence. Fears are not something bad but signposts showing us where we are missing the mark.

Sadness from Spiritual Seeking!

2008-03-01T13:31:00.001-08:00

I have just watched your video-clip entitled "Sadness from Spiritual Seeking" and it struck a chord with me because I have seen much of it. Have visited many ashrams and witnessed the put-on bliss smiles and the veneer of holiness. Why is that so common among spiritual seekers?

The answer is simple -- there is no such thing as a spiritual seeker who lives in true joy. The very act of seeking creates the block to joy. Joy, which is the nature of pure being, is an innocence...the very ground of the spiritual life. Spiritual seeking implies there is something to find or get. In other words, we seek to find freedom, joy, peace, love and inner fulfillment combined with the concept of time. The very idea of attaining the awakened state implies a future time. The awakened state is this 'NOW' itself.
'NOW' beyond time is the feeling-knowing of our true nature, which often scares us. Ask yourself right now, "Who are you?" and in sincerity won't be able to answer it. Why? Simply because there is no answer because there is no 'you.' In this moment, without your past memory of name and form, there is only aware-space. You are that aware-space without an image or visible forms of locality. This is scary to the average ego. And so, pretend to know that we know by having read, studied and practiced for years. The result of this pretence is sadness brought about by unconfessed disillusionment, disappointment or the thought of not measuring up. All this, of course, is deeply hidden even from our own sight.
I have known so many Advaita followers throughout the years who know enough to write a book and answer all questions -- however, when it comes to the truth, there is no true joy and innocence in one's life which are the hallmarks of the awakened knowing. It takes humility to acknowledge one doesn't know the truth when the pretence had gone on for so many years. At the same time, it is this humility that can bring a breakthrough in clarity. Clarity is all that's needed for awakening.

I get confused between the process of Being & Becoming

2008-02-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

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

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

2008-02-21T11:13:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-02-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-02-14T10:58:00.001-08:00

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?

2008-02-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

ARE YOU SPIRITUALLY STUCK?

2008-02-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-09T18:59:00.001-08:00

Is prayer and forgiveness dualistic?

2008-02-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

How do you know?

2008-02-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T10:12:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

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