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.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Transforming Power of Forgiveness
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.
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.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
How did the self-enquiry happen to you Burt?
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
You emphasize the importance of forgiveness, but isn't that duality?
"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.
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.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
"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...
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...
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Is there a way to simplify the spiritual journey?
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.”
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.”
Monday, May 04, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Why do I make everything so real?
"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.
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.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
You mention the human being. Can you clarify what is Being?
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!!
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!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The problem of addiction
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.
The answer to this growing problem is covered in this video-clip.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Why so many people 'get it' but I still feel I didn't?
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...
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...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Instant Transformation
What is the difference between gradual change in awareness and transformation?
Gradual awakening happens through time, cause and effect and linear experiences. Most people awaken gradually, sometimes over a whole lifetime. Transformation, on the other hand, has nothing to do with time but the grace of readiness to LISTEN to the point of actually recognizing what is NOW itself.
A week ago I presented such a video entitled "Listen -- it's very simple!" and the results were far greater than expected. I had several people emailing me about their sudden transformation after hearing it several times. The moment they actually HEARD IT something happened to create a shift. One particular man, experiencing cancer, was able to transcend the fear of it.
The video is presented here -- watch with an open heart and mind...
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...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
What does "going through the human" mean?
I have been following your video clips and your booklets on your website. Could you please clarify what you mean when you say -- "You have to go through the human before the Being awakens." Could you make it simpler for me to understand?
Thank you for your question. 'Going through the human-part of us is immensely important for spiritual awakening.' In simpler terms let's say the following...
You are a human being. The human and the Being are dualistic, that is, they are opposites. The human-part is what we become familiar with since it is comprised of survival instincts and adaptation. The human is a 'becoming-process' whereas the Being 'just IS! In our unawareness of the Being-part of us (which is love, happiness, meaning, peace, joy etc)we start feeling as if something is missing. It is often that we feel empty inside and believe that something is wrong or we are not good-enough. These feelings are the direct signal that we are really missing the Being but do not know it. Thus we start believing there is something wrong with us and start seeking for answers 'out there' in the world. This seeking creates a paradox because we can never find the Being we are seeking. It is already who we are. However, it is like a veil placed in front of our eyes, we are spiritually blind. We do not see the Being simply because it is the Being that sees in the first place but we are NOT aware of this simplicity. The reason we do not see what is obvious is because we are trying to see the eyes that do the seeing. It is like kissing your own lips. So our search leads to frustration, loneliness, even depression, deep inner emptiness and often desperation.
Yet our seeking of our true nature, which we believe is a lack we are having, is really seeking ourselves; our very Being. So our first step, to repeat, is go through the human (which we are familiar with) and see how what we want most is already within us in the BEING itself. In fact, we are a Being playing the human role.
How do we go through the human? Do the following steps:
1. The human is always seeking but it never truly finds what it wants because it is seeking itself believing it is somewhere outside. So your first step is to quiet the mind and start looking at this obvious dilemma.
Sit still and take a deep breath. Relax with the exhalation of the slow breath. Start listening to all the sounds around you with eyes closed. Be detached in the listening so that you are not judging what you hear. After a few minutes ask yourself, "Are the sounds coming from outside me?" pause and listen to the obvious.
Then ask again, "Are they coming from inside me?" pause and listen to the obvious.
Ask once more, "Or are they both inside and outside at the same time?" and as you explore how everything is both inside and outside, you'll begin to see that there is no outside nor inside but just consciousness.
2. Next recall the last 'suffering' experience you had such as emotional hurt, crashed self-image, depression, anger, negative reaction or even a panic attack. Allow yourself to listen to that sensation as you listened to the sounds. Do not get into the story of it...just the physical sensations alone.
3. Finally, relax into the sensations in the body until they become neutralized. Relax into them by slow relaxed breathing into the feeling. Then say to the feeling in your body, "Forgive me for rejecting you. I love you." and if you follow this with sincere feeling you have taken a giant leap to healing and eventual awakening of your beautiful Being, which is always NOW!
Remember, that in Reality there is only NOW. NOW is always fresh, alive, pure and new. If you discover this, you have discovered the Being you have sought all your life.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
What is this fuss about 'NOW!?
"You talk about the 'Now' as if it was something exciting. I find it flat. Surely there must be something more than 'now!?"
You say that 'now' is not exciting and it leaves you flat! This is like saying that surfing on a huge wave is flat. Did you know that our senses take in less than one billionth of the stimuli available to us?
When we say that 'now' is flat, we are merely projecting our mental viewpoint that has become stifled by the lower forms of thoughts and has created the opposite of what is real. We have actually created an individual reality, which is a total illusion, and blinded us to what is truly around us.
This 'now' that we take for granted is filled with enough spiritual stimuli to awaken you many times over. Let us start with the power of mind that created this world (of which we use only about 5%). What we call mind is a vast field of intelligence that extends far beyond the reaches of the cosmos. We make 'our mind' as the localized form in our head when in truth it is non-local and can't be confined to one location. This 'mind' is triggered and guided by an even greater intelligence known as the witness or pure awareness. This awareness is known as Presence.
You say that 'now' leaves you flat and that there must be something more than 'now.' Take a moment right now and really look if anything can happen outside of now? This 'now' that you call flat is eternal, never-ending and what's more, it never begun! The realization of NOW boggles the mind because it will help us recognize that time and space are relative terms for the limited daily mind to survive.
If you can, in total honesty, examine and inquire into this 'now' that you believe is flat, you'll be met with endless wonders and miracles that you had missed. Just think of it -- there is nothing else but NOW!! The material world we take to be so real and solid is just a play of our senses but in reality it is but an appearance of this NOW-cosmic energy.
One moment's realization of this power of now is enough to help you rise above all psychological fears such as fear of death, old age or terminal illness. It will help you see that what you thought was limited and mundane is a whole new world of glory far beyond our imagination.
You say that 'now' is not exciting and it leaves you flat! This is like saying that surfing on a huge wave is flat. Did you know that our senses take in less than one billionth of the stimuli available to us?
When we say that 'now' is flat, we are merely projecting our mental viewpoint that has become stifled by the lower forms of thoughts and has created the opposite of what is real. We have actually created an individual reality, which is a total illusion, and blinded us to what is truly around us.
This 'now' that we take for granted is filled with enough spiritual stimuli to awaken you many times over. Let us start with the power of mind that created this world (of which we use only about 5%). What we call mind is a vast field of intelligence that extends far beyond the reaches of the cosmos. We make 'our mind' as the localized form in our head when in truth it is non-local and can't be confined to one location. This 'mind' is triggered and guided by an even greater intelligence known as the witness or pure awareness. This awareness is known as Presence.
You say that 'now' leaves you flat and that there must be something more than 'now.' Take a moment right now and really look if anything can happen outside of now? This 'now' that you call flat is eternal, never-ending and what's more, it never begun! The realization of NOW boggles the mind because it will help us recognize that time and space are relative terms for the limited daily mind to survive.
If you can, in total honesty, examine and inquire into this 'now' that you believe is flat, you'll be met with endless wonders and miracles that you had missed. Just think of it -- there is nothing else but NOW!! The material world we take to be so real and solid is just a play of our senses but in reality it is but an appearance of this NOW-cosmic energy.
One moment's realization of this power of now is enough to help you rise above all psychological fears such as fear of death, old age or terminal illness. It will help you see that what you thought was limited and mundane is a whole new world of glory far beyond our imagination.
What does the word 'seeing' mean?
"In your youtube videos you mention that seeing is all that's necessary for spiritual growth. I don't understand this – are you talking about physical seeing with the eyes or using that term as an esoteric meaning?”
What you see with your physical eyes is what you value personally. The question is, “Are you seeing what actually IS or what you believe IS?” And you'll find that someone else might not see exactly as you do even though the physical appearnce might seem the same. What you see with your eyes, you also see with your conditioned concepts, beliefs, judgments and childhood values. No one sees purely what-is until they awaken to their true nature.
The less love we have known in our life, the less clearly we see. All emotional dysfunction is distorted-seeing which seems real to the observer. For instance, I have been conducting hypnotherapy sessions for several years and every person I meet are convinced that what they see is true to them. An anorexic person might seem so skinny and fragile to the average person and yet to the anorexic itself there is a desire for greater loss of weight. I have had many people who didn't like themselves, and some of these people were quite handsome, yet their self-image was to them less than handsome.
No one can convince you against your own seeing. Seeing is very individual. How you see the world and the people in it is all based on how you feel about yourself. It is all a mirror. You and another might look at the same person but when you exchange feelings, opinions and views about that person you'll probably differ according to personal values and conditioning. Who is right or wrong? There is no right or wrong but only love or fear.
Fear can be so subtle – skepticism, doubt, hesitatancy, indecision, uncertainty, not knowing what you want and so on are subtle fears. Love, on the other hand, is often seen as romantic love. Romantic love is simply a conditioned concept of love based on emotional values. Yet love has no limit to its expansion. Love is when we rise above the personal into our greater seeing of our wholeness and oneness. You start knowing love when you see yourself in another. Love rises as you expand your self into the greater Self you really are. In other words, Love is wholeness, it is the wave seeing itself as the ocean.
We start knowing of our limited seeing when we recognize that our feelings are often contracted. It is through our feeling nature that we start discovering our true seeing. Just as fear is the bottom rung of the huge ladder of life, so is love at the top of the ladder of life. Yet, there is no limit to love. Love is happiness, meaning, joy, abundance, inner fulfillment and clarity. However, there is no end to love because it is infinite and beyond our ability to intellectually understand it. Fear can drive you to depravity, ugliness and total darkness yet love can raise you to heights undreamed of. So, one way to gauge your seeing is to ask yourself, “How do I feel right now after seeing this?” and your answer will be your indication whether it is real or not.
Fear is only real to the conditioned aspect of ourselves but when it is seen in its expanded truth (higher seeing) we will see something we might have never suspected – it was the need for love! Fear is a hunger for love and when it is not satisfied it seeks control through anger, need for power or manipulation.
Your feelings are a direct reflection of your seeing. For example, take a good look at this statement from A Course in Miracles where it states, “We are never upset for the reason we think.” All upsetness, hurt feelings and personal pain is ALL made up from seeing our past (unconsciously). Then we blame it on the person or persons that triggered that feeling and this projection increases our blindness and pain. It also brings guilt, which is part of the personal pain that demands self-sabotage towards the people we love. You see, guilt always looks for self-punishment in order to convince oneself that the hurt or pain was justified. In other words, fear creates its own vicious circle. Until we start seeing this we remain locked in our self-made prison. It is all about the willingness to SEE!!
Once we see something clearly it stops on its own from hurting us. After all, who in his/her right mind would continue torturing oneself?
What you see is always yourself. We grow spiritually NOT through practice but through seeing the fear (pain) that we have held on from our conditioned past. It is not wrong but misguided. We are not being 'bad' but simply blocking our seeing from what is good and beautiful.
Our nature is wholeness pure and simple. Anything that doesn't feel good is not good for us. We feel 'good' when there is love. There is no happiness without love. There is no peace without love. There is no joy or meaning without love. Yet, love is not an attainment but our true nature. However, it has to be allowed!! Remember, when we choose fear, we are still needing and seeking love but choose fear because we feel we don't deserve love. This fear, known as ego, has created a self-image so strong and so seemingly real that unless we start witnessing it in our actions and reaction it will escape us.
Relationships are a perfect way to see our seeing. They are the perfect mirror. “What is it that disturbs you most in your mate?” “What is it that hurts you the most?” and there you have it. It is our closest relationships that trigger our past the most. It is the close relationships that also trigger our capacity to love and makes us aware of our vulnerability to fear. What you love and hate in the other is what you love and hate in yourself. It is the perfect mirror.
We never truly see what-is but only what our conditioned concepts have instilled in us. If we had a background of prejudice against certain races then that's what we see. When we look in the seeming present, we see with the eyes of the past. This conditioned seeing is so unconscious and so blinding that we have no idea we are caught in it until we check our feelings. Our feelings are the perfect gauge of the truth. Ask yourself often, “How am I feeling right now?” That is, are you feeling happy or a little out-of-sorts? Are you feeling vitally alive or bored, fed-up and tired? This questioning is the perfect picture of what you are seeing. When you awaken to your love nature you'll only see its beauty, its grandeur. Its glory.
The stages of seeing
All seeing initially is unconscious based on our past conditioning. We start expanding our spiritual awareness step-by-step through love. This ladder of awakening is a long one and it starts with the first step. The first step is acceptance (acknowledging) that our emotional problems are a self-created defense mechanism.
Initially we are pre-occupied with the personal ego-self. This is a self-image of separation that is so imbedded in our psyche that we don't even know it exists. However, we carry this picture of ourselves in every situation, every encounter and every moment unless we are triggered by a great feeling of love. This feeling of love is the only time that we forget ourselves. In this self-forgetting we expand towards our true nature of Being. Have you ever felt such love that for a few moments you were engulfed in that love to the point where you were totally relaxed, happy and unself-conscious? Wasn't that wonderful? In that moment you were truly yourself – your True Self!! Remember that such moments are the true nature expressing.
The first stages of our growth start from personal self-image of separation and into seeing such a self-image. The moment we start seeing our self-image and how we have created it (without judging it as wrong) through conditioned concepts, then we have taken a leap into greater awareness.
From seeing our self-image we also see how we have been judging ourselves and others; how we have been prejudiced, self-protective, fearful of being controlled and controlling; how we had created our drama through our own thinker-system. We start seeing how our personal self protected itself from intruders and 'others' when in truth there are no 'others.' We can expand this to see how we favored our country, our nationality, our belief and our tradional system above others.
Our stages go from physical, emotional, mental and finally spiritual. For example, a man would look at a woman and the first thing he sees is her body. If she turns him on sexually then he is infatuated until the sexual feeling is exhausted and wonders, “What did I ever see in her?”
When we look physically we see more than just the physical but don't know it. We see with our judgments, prejudices and acquired beliefs from our religion, tradition and childhood orientation. We see with the personal ego-viewpoint.
Ask a hunded people about God, Life, Politics, or Religion and you'll get a hundred different beliefs. Are they real? Is there truth in them? As we expand in our seeing of what is real, we will also discover that the real is not a concept but that which is lasting, infinite and eternally unchanging. It is here, when we discover this, that we awaken. This dscovery does not happen through beliefs from reading but from direct knowing from our own SEEING.
Some people pray, others meditate or chant or practice charity or whatever, but spiritual growth does not take place until we see what-is as it actually IS! Then, after this SEEING, we can take up the practice of meditation, prayer and chanting because then we will be fruitful and productive. Seeing always comes first in spiritual evolution.
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.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Do spiritual experiences remove ego?
I have had several spiritual experiences in my life and I am grateful for having them as they given me moments of joy, however, they did not last and I am still back to square one. What gives?
Spiritual experiences can be wonderful and uplifting temporarily but the ego rises again to applaud itself for having them. It believes it has attained something and that's why we go back to square one.
Realizations that last are often facing our biggest fears and sufferings. Here are some examples...
I used to be a physiotherapist in Toronto and was unhappy with trying to please the clients according to my boss to keep them as members in our exclusive health club. Then one morning I had a vision of a beautiful old man before going to work. It was vivid and momentarily disorienting. Soon I began to believe that it was a form of hallucination triggered by my growing frustration. Six months later I saw his face in a book cover by the name of Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and knew, then and there, that we are eternal beings. I quit my position and retired to a basement to reflect on this. I started teaching soon after and founded the Unitrust Foundation in Toronto. This spiritual vision, although life-changing, did not erase my ego. In fact after writing a book "Be Aware - Be Free" and appearing on TV plus giving numerous classes I, somehow, strenghtened my ego.
After this so-called success I got married to a student and travelled to Vancouver. I worked at UBC the first couple of months but she left me to go back to Toronto to her famly. I was left penniless and being devastated couldn't work. I felt all alone. In this gut-wrenching loneliness I turned to Bhagavan and this surrender turned out to be my very real first realization. I was leaning against a bookshelf when a book fell on my lap and opened on page four where I read, "When the teacher of God is ready the students will appear." This book was the manual for teachers in a "Course in Miracles." It was soon after that I was teaching A Course in Miracles.
A couple of years later I met Sivia and she moved in with me. These first few years were filled with emotional turmoil. It was meeting this emotional upheaval that my second realization happened. It was the year 2000 and suddenly I was faced with the knowing that I am a human being. A Being playing the human role of Burt. This recognition was so overwhelming that everything became crystal-clear -- How the human is a becoming process filled with necessary egoic pain while the real goal of human life was to discover the Being that was always eternally here-now.
At this point I gave satsangs at my place.
My third realization happened when I suffered blood poisoning and was dying. I faced the possibility of death while I didn't want to leave Sivia. Suddenly a cloud burst at the hospital where I was and it was filled with so much love and joy that Burt disappeared. Everything was seen as one Being -- warm, loving, euphoric Being. A few months later I quit giving satsangs and retired to giving Supersentience sessions one-on-one and answering email questions worldwide.
The reason I have told you all this is to show you that lasting realizations happen when we face our greatest fears and trust our true inner nature. Pleasant spiritual insights, although wonderful, do not last because the ego is still in control.
With love always, Burt
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
Saturday, October 04, 2008
How to love yourself!
You often talk about loving yourself but isn't that dualistic? I mean doesn't it have a selfish tinge to it?
When you love yourself you will discover that it is the most unselfish thing in life. I have conducted hypnotherapy for well over thirty years (which I call Supersentience). In these years I have learned one outstanding truth and it is this...
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Is Life a game?
This might seem like a strange question but I have been reading the teachings of many masters who say that life is a game and should be enjoyed. Can you share your feelings on this?
One of my profoundest experiences that happened in the year 2000 convinced me that I am a human being, that is, a Being playing the human role. This realization has not only brought clarity but also the fact that we are all playing a role, a game, wired for a particular function. If we take this role seriously then we suffer. If we enjoy it as a game then life becomes enjoyable. All emotional suffering is due to one's view of life -- taking life too seriously. There is only one thing that is NOT a game and that's Oneness, wholeness, totality, Christ, God, Allness or simply The Source of it all. In fact, we are the Source playing this game called 'me.' Visualize the great big ocean and then see the waves (unique and individual) frolicking on the surface of it. Yet the waves are the ocean itself playing as various waves.
All human suffering is taking life seriously. For instance, taking our religion to be the only true one and then go about trying to convince others that it is the only way, that's insanity. Some Christians do it. Some Muslims do it. What if they took their religious beliefs as just beliefs and enjoyed it while allowing others the right to enjoy theirs also?
You do what you do and I do what I do because we are wired that way. By seeing it as a role-playing-thing then we are free from egoic preoccupation with it and truly enjoy it. Life is to be enjoyed, celebrated, loved and shared.
With love always, Burt
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
Monday, September 15, 2008
How do I align conscious with subconscious mind?
In your video-cam "Trinity -- The Unknown key to peace and freedom" you mention the conflict created between the conscious and subconscious mind. How do we align both so that there is no conflict?
The process is very simple once we understand how each part of the Trinity 'works' and then align them as one.
The conscious mind is our daily limited mind filled wih desires and needs. It only uses between 5-10% consciousness. Most people live from birth to death strictly from he conscious mind.
The subconscious mind is dormant consciousness and has the greatest power in our life. It is hardly ever used to advantage and yet it is a staggering force of memory and creativity. There is nothing we can't accomplish through the subconscious mind. In fact, it is the subconscious mind that has created our world and maintains our body functioning.
The Superconsciousness is not mind but this timeless NOW itself. It is our true nature and therefore has all the 'qualities' that fulfill the heart such as joy, peace, love, happiness and warmth. It is our spiritual nature and it is the Oneness itself. It is the Supercnsciousness that creates the right time and place for us to function at our best and provides us with what is needed when needed.
This function 'happens' when all three (conscious, subconscious and Superconscious) are aligned as ONE.
Now the question arises, "How do we align all three as one?"
The answer is simple. All three work together to form a complete whole. The conscious mind, being limited, is filled with hopes, fears, desires and needs. The conscious mind believes that it can achieve what it wants through effort and struggle whereas the oppsoite is true. Therefore, when there's a need for peace or love or happiness it is often frustrated because the effort to receive same tells the subconscious, "Needing love, peace and happiness means I don't have them..." and so creates frustration, confusion and anxiety. The truth is this -- happiness, peace and love are natural attributes of Superconsciousness. Superconsciousness is the NOW itself beyond time. Therefore, instead of NEEDING the qualities we yearn for, just ALLOW them to express themselves naturally. The moment you allow what you need to manifest on its own, the conscious and subconscious become aligned and the Superconscious provides the time and place, situations and circumstances for that to happen.
For example, let's say you live in an environment where there is too much 'activity' for peace to be experienced. Instead of needing peace, which will end up in frustration anyway due to sonflict with the subconscious mind, you ALLOW PEACE to manifest by seeing that the Superconsciousness is peace itself. You create an environment inside you of a flowing river, warm sun, trees and quiet and see how that very imaginative scene will activate the power of the Superconscious. You take a deep breath and visualize what you need as already attained through ALLOWING. There is an immediate alignment with the subconscious mind where even the 'activity' becomes less stressful.
This ALLOWING applies to anything you need because the greatest needs are ever-present in this NOW such as love, peace, joy and happiness. They await your ALLOWING! The moment you literally ALLOW rather than need then a whole new dynamic comes into being and the Superconsciousness creates the time nd place in which this happens more often.
Here's another example, suppose you want a comptaible relationship that will last and bring you love and fulfillment. First you see how NEEDING brought nothing but frustration, making many mistakes and even creating the wrong person to appear. However, you start ALLOWING the right person to appear by being patient and see what you truly want. You visualize the kind of person that you want and then see how it is already being created in your subconscious mind. If this visualization is crystal clear about what you want then the Superconsciousness will create (without your doing anything deliberate) the right place and the right time to meet the person you want. The length of time it takes for its manifestation will depend upon one law -- ALLOWING and not controlling!
So, in brief, the conscious NEEDS create subconscious conflict. When you see clearly that the ego cannot control or do anything successfullly then your very ALLOWING will align your energy to manifest what you want with ease and comfort. Thus all three (conscious, subconscious and Superconsciousness are One).
Watch the video below for a more specific guideline...
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...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
What is Supersentience?
You do sessions one-on-one following methods of hypnotherapy and yet you use the term 'Supersentience' as your practice. What is Supersentience?
The term ‘Supersentience’ came to me during an illness while asking for guidance. The term ‘Supersentience’ didn’t make sense to me at the time but it kept repeating over and over and it wouldn’t stop until I gave way to it by writing it down.
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.
Supersentience follows three modes of teaching and experience.
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