THE VARIABLE MIND, Part One

After truly understanding what the illusory "mind" is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end.

Karen from Oregon, U.S.A.: I read some of your earlier postings saying that meditation should be nothing more than taking the time to sit quietly in order to consider a teacher’s pointers. I disagree. I am excited about the fact that I’m going to an ashram in India in October to attend a workshop on “Meditation Practices That End the Motion of the Mind.” When I return, I’ll be able to calm my mind at will. Why would you teach something that dissuades people from acquiring that skill?

F.: You are going to India, intent upon acquiring more knowledge, when the fact is that it is all the knowledge that you’ve already acquired that is producing the misery that you’re seeking treatment for. As far as your "disagreeing" with me, another site visitor shared this point from Dresden James: “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker [will seem] a raving lunatic.” To disagree with the Teachings, when they are first heard by any programmed and conditioned person, is the most common response. Most are asleep and reject any invitation to wake up. As far as seeking in India, that region was once a place when the understanding was firmly fixed among a greater percentage of the population than in any other place. Today, just as many sleepwalkers reside in India as anywhere else. Some there are offering to sale you The Secret to a Motionless Mind. In truth, the prerequisite for the stillness you seek lies in understanding what “the mind” is…and is not. After truly understanding what the illusory “mind” is, all of your effort and work and spiritual workaholism to still the racing, variable mind will end because the illusory "mind" will end. That having been said, you are still going to go to India, you are still going to spend thousands of dollars, you will likely return, and then you will experience the temporary nature of the treatment plan that you are going to try to buy in India. The Teaching, conversely, deals only with the permanent.

Consciousness moves as long as it is manifested. Impure consciousness races and zooms and chatters and clatters. What can end now is the “mind” itself...that well of impure consciousness that you are drinking from all day long, every day. It is the product of that well that you are drowning in all day long, every day. You were “born” with a brain, not with a mind. The mind is the repository of all the myths, superstitions, lies, and incorrect beliefs that they gave you and that you now adopt and defend as if the concepts were originally your own. So the proper question is not why I would teach something that would dissuade your going to India. The question is, “Why would you spend money to go to India to try to acquire that which is unattainable? Why would you go to another country to find that which is within?” Yes, a samadhi state can be reached, but how much of a 24/7 relative existence can happen from a samadhi state? "But I feel better during the day after I reach that state before leaving the house each morning," some argue. Again, that is temporary and fleeting. Even post-India you will experience the world as a persona, driven by that impure consciousness called "your variable mind." In India, you will likely strengthen the persona of "the Spiritual Giant." You seek the "no-thought" state, but all persons live 24/7 in a state of being asleep but thinking they are awake. They think-think-think all day without realizing anything at all, and that is the condition you are seeking to treat. In effect, however, you will be treating the symptom rather than the actual sickness, which is the impure consciousness called your "mind." Thus, other questions that could be asked include:
(1) “Who wants to cling to the mind—but stop its motion—rather than abandon 'the mind' after realizing that it is a repository of contaminants?”
(2) “Who is ‘excited,’ and might that be evidence of emotional or spiritual intoxication?"
(3) “Who is willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to buy a plan that puts you out of touch with reality rather than fully in touch with reality?”
(4) “Who wants power...specifically the power to control ‘your mind’ when it’s not even yours anyway?”
(5) “Who does not know that the mind stops when all ideas and beliefs dissolve in the light of awareness of the fact that those ideas and beliefs are all false?”
(6) “Who thinks that she cannot find reality (and therefore peace) where she is but can find it if she alters her geographic location?” [To be continued 1 October 2005] Please enter the silence of contemplation.

WHEN THE UNDERSTANDING COMES

"I know something is clearer because a feeling of being totally unburdened for the first time in decades has come, and stayed."

--Douglas

From site visitor Douglas: “So, I ordered a copy of From the I to the Absolute and I read it straight through in one sitting. (I know—OCD.) I saw that what I really needed to do was to follow directions and to read a section and then pause and go into the silence to consider each pointer. After some sections, I “got it” after five minutes of consideration. Other points took hours and some took days, but either way, I moved through the book that second time. Now, my request is this: please tell me if this understanding is correct. It is easy to know I Am when everything is—when my family is, when my wife is, when my kids are, when my house is, when my job is, I Am. But the more difficult understanding is in finally knowing without doubt that when nothing is, I still Am. I know something is clearer because a feeling of being totally unburdened for the first time in decades has come, and stayed. Is that understanding correct? Thanks, Douglas from…nowhere!”

Dear Douglas from nowhere,

You may soon have protégés seeking you out for the Teaching! (You will not seek them. In fact, you may want to avoid them, but the teaching might happen anyway.) The reason that you feel “totally unburdened” is because this understanding has come: when all this “objective world stuff” disappears, You still Are. Freedom from the influence of personas has come with the realization that even without family, wife, kids, house or job, You would still be You...and You will remain. That understanding allows for full enjoyment of family, wife, kids, house or job, if they remain. If they remain, all involving them merely happens…spontaneously. If they do not remain, then You would still be. Pretty dang cool, huh? How neat it is when all knowledge is liquidated. Instantaneously, a lack of concern about this or concern about that manifests as well. (Who would be left to care?) Then, with no agenda, the closest that any human will come to True Love can happen. Why? Your relative existence will be freed of the concepts of “good” and “evil” and you’ll not judge and separate. You’ll not feel that desperate attachment to co-dependents that make each ego-state seem real. Instead, the unicity—that unbroken and unbreakable connectedness—will be known. So, is the understanding correct? Indeed it is. Now, go and work, work, work no more. Ha. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

NATURAL LIVING VS. SUPERNATURAL OR UNNATURAL LIVING, Part Two

Earlier, Anonymous in CA wrote, “I have [no fear of death] because my religion and spirituality insure I’ll have life eternal afterwards.”

F.: First, If you were continuing to be “Anonymous” because you are no longer identifying with that body and mind and personality that was given a name by “parents,” cool. But since you’re talking about dogma and spirituality and a body-mind-personality triad that can live eternally, it’s clear that you are still limiting your identity to that illusory triad alone.

Anyone who believes in the eternal continuity of the body-mind-personality trio should have no fear, but what about religion’s “good vs. bad” and spirituality’s “right vs. wrong” or “assets vs. liabilities” or “moral vs. immoral”? Are you so certain that you’re so “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities” that the “eternal life” you anticipate will be the type you really want? Are you so good that you can be assured you'll get the “reward” and not get the “punishment”? Of course you are, or you wouldn’t claim a lack of fear. Your ego, resulting from your false-identity-ego-states, has convinced you of how “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities” that you are, making you quite different from the "others" who won't be allowed to join you as you eternally glorify and worship and praise your male god, 24-7, as you float about and sing exaltations to him. (Some "reward," huh? Ha.) But how free of fear would you be if you realized that your temporary body cannot re-form after death, that your temporary mind cannot re-group, and that your multiple personalities and roles will end? Now THAT’S real peace and THAT’S a real lack of fear when it is realized that none of that will remain—that no continuity of body-mind-personality can happen—but peace and calm still remain anyway, even in light of the facts. In the false belief that your body and mind will be forever and in the false belief that you are “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities,” you claim this lack of fear, but could you be as free of fear if you realized the truth? In fact, that is when true peace comes: when the false is seen, when the truth is realized, when the Understanding comes, and when the functioning of the Totality is known. This relative existence became marked by independence and true freedom as the quest for being “good” and “right” and “moral” and “marked with assets vs. liabilities” ended. So, too—in the awareness of the Oneness—did all dualities of “good vs. bad” and “right vs. wrong” and “assets vs. liabilities” and “moral vs. immoral” dissolve. Thus, judging others (and thereby creating a false sense of separation) also dissolved. Then, the peace of living spontaneously happens, and it happens without fear, second-by-second. Otherwise, entrapment in the religious and spiritual roles (the third step on the “Seven-Step Journey to Reality”) prevents the dissolution of ego as those two ego-states convince persons that they have arrived and need seek nothing else. From that stage, personas focus on “helping” “others” to be like them, behave like them, think like them, and emote like them. That way, religious and spiritual ego-states believe, the world will be a better place when everyone believes and thinks and feels and behaves like you, right? Do you not see that that is the very belief system that has resulted in the annihilation of millions of humans in the planet's religious wars (which are yet under way at this instant?) Yet so it is. Having tried being out of touch with reality and being in touch with reality, the understanding now is that being fixed in reality—being in touch with reality and therefore sane—provides true peace and freedom from ego-states, from a variable mind, from emotional intoxication, from trying to give people more beliefs and more concepts, and from trying to change persons to be like those trapped in their ego-states. Few persons will ever want true stability and freedom from chaos and ego. So it is. Ultimately, all the discussion of freedom will be dropped in the end since the light of realization will reveal that there was no one to be in bondage anyway. Only a persona can imagine bondage and thus race about in a continuous search for liberation. Liberation comes with realization, not with effort or work or disciplines.

In the end, however, who cares either way? Ha. It’s all “entertainment” from this viewpoint, including the imagined dualities of “heaven or hell” and of “eternal punishment or reward” for a continuous body-mind-personality. Each manifested space is “born” with a brain but not with a mind. Return to the natural state of living under the auspices of the brain (and its intuitive, sixth sense guidance) and abandon the unnatural state of living with a chattering, restless mind (which is nothing more than a repository of their concepts that you now take to be your own). My pointers invite you to use your brain and let dissolve the mind…the corrupted consciousness. Use of a mind will result in misunderstanding and in magical, supernatural thinking and in the belief in ideas that are lies. Use of the brain would make clear the facts: dust, when returned to dust, cannot re-form into a body; a mind cannot re-group after that point you call “death”; and your personality (or multiple personalities) cannot last. Yet do not let even those words trouble you. (If truly without fear, no words can bother you since no ego-state would be present to seemingly experience an illusion of being attacked by these challenging words.) Know too that these words are not for average persons. The average person will never get beyond body identification and the always-accompanying-fixation with trying to guarantee the perservation of the physical body for eternity. So it is. In the meantime, I offer the reminder today that I offered yesterday: take no offense because at the Absolute level, there is no separation between You and Me. We are One. Any concept of “separation” is as imaginary as everything else that results from dual-mindedness, and that includes being separated into two groups after death...some going to the "good room" and others being sent to the "bad room." Please enter the silence of contemplation.

NATURAL LIVING VS. SUPERNATURAL OR UNNATURAL LIVING, Part One

Follow-up from Anonymous in California: “Two things about your response. One, you indicated that you had no fear of death. I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal. Two, you once again seem to suggest that the only way to live is to live naturally. What if I LIKE to live supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes?”

F.: “Then rock and roll, but understand that I don’t suggest that “the only way to live is to live naturally.” Most will never live naturally. Next, the notion that you’re living “supernaturally sometimes, naturally sometimes, and even unnaturally sometimes” is impossible. Living supernaturally or unnaturally reveal that personas are at play, and persons never live naturally. Next, persons are insane and the Teaching offers to restore sanity, but few will ever want to live sanely. So it is. That said, your comments will be addressed like all others…for entertainment value only. Ha.

For those who might be interested in being restored to sanity, I will offer for consideration that the only way to live SANELY is to live naturally. Obviously, the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is not for you right now, though in truth the Advaita Vedanta Teaching is especially for you. In From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality), I point out to an advaitan protégé, during a discussion about how few humans ever reach a level of true understanding, that “the variable is not the teacher. The readiness is all.” Most are not ready and most never will be. So it is. “Not ready for what?” you might ask? Most are not ready for stability. Your claim that you like to live according to three totally contradictory approaches to life is even beyond dual-mindedness. Mental instability among persons is evidenced by their acting in an unnatural and self-destructive fashion at times and by assigning at still other times either cause or blame or credit to some magical, other-world entity. Mental instability is endorsed by few but experienced by most, and mental instability cannot be compartmentalized and allowed to affect only certain aspects of one’s existence. If one is mentally unstable, that instability will impact every aspect of a person’s relative existence. Instability in “relationships” will happen, instability in financial decision-making will happen, instability of moods and emotions will happen…in fact, instability will mark every aspect of a person’s relative existence. What other lack of readiness do your comments reveal? The lack of readiness to move away from the chaos of dual-mindedness (or assumed "triple-mindedness" in your case). While waiting for their eternal reward, persons complain about their lives now, about a hectic day, a hectic week, or a hectic life, but the fact is that persons (driven by their personas) are addicted to chaos. Boredom generates a subconscious desire to stir things up; to go and do and zoom; to get the adrenals pumping. But desire generates misery and fear. Who would endorse such? Who would defend such? Persons who subconsciously want chaos will generate chaos, and no more effective means of generating chaos exists than to be driven by an unstable mind that at times buys into magical and supernatural thinking that creates emotional intoxication; than to be driven by lies and myths and faulty programming while acting deliberately only on rare occasions when a fleeting glimpse of reality happens; and to be driven at other times to live unnaturally in ways that are self-destructive. Persons—identified with their bodies and longing for their bodies to last for eternity—are not ready to abandon duality, not ready to abandon chaos, not ready to become stable, not ready to abandon the dependency that supernatural thinking generates, and not ready to abandon the self-destructive behaviors that without doubt must be impacting every aspect of their relative existence. You are not ready to abandon your emotional intoxication, and you are not ready to abandon the false identities that persons, thinking as you are thinking, always fight to preserve. Your comment makes clear that you are willing to fight to defend the roles of “religious person” and “spiritual person” and are therefore stuck at the third level of a seven-step journey. The Understanding allows all assumed roles to dissolve, allows all thinking to end as the false mind dissolves, allows for an end to all efforts to give people new or additional beliefs, and allows for the abandonment of all concepts and conditioning after realizing that it was all made up by men who were seeking power in order to control others. Generally, those who are on the Advaita "path" are seeking something different from the mental instability and chaos and zooming that they realize is not working. They have experienced the needless suffering and want to be free of that. How can the NOW be enjoyed thoroughly if the belief is that LATER will provide the ultimate deal and the time for peace and happiness? That magical thinking makes suffering in this relative existence something to be tolerated or even accepted. Why wait for a hoped-for reward later when the bliss can happen NOW? Because persons do not realize the impact that dual-mindedness is having on their relative existence. They really think that they are comfortable with a life that is being driven by three totally contradictory philosophies and do not know that when three people try to steer one car, it will always crash in the end. So it is.

On the other hand, the clear-cut directions are available should you realize the relative impact and determine to find stability and peace by taking a seven-step “journey” to reality. Should you realize someday that trying to live in the volitility of three different approaches to life might not be ideal, then the Advaita Teaching might be seen to be for you. Why accept the Advaitan invitation to cast aside ideas and beliefs and emotional intoxication? Because the consciousness, once programmed and conditioned, is impure and thus the seat of all falsehoods. Why take the steps to be free of impure consciousness? Because it is that conditioned consciousness that is the believer of false concepts, that is the thinker of distorted ideas, that is the emoter of emotions, that is the experiencer of pain and suffering, that is the believer of all false beliefs, and that is the assumer of false identities…including your religious and spiritual roles. Not knowing one’s True Identity can only result in misery and emotional intoxication. All that having been said, take no offense because at the Absolute level, there is no separation between You and Me. We are One. Any concept of “separation” is as imaginary as everything else that results from dual-mindedness. So if you want to live out this relative existence by thinking magically at time, rationally at times, and in self-destructive ways at other times, again…rock and roll. Thanks for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: The response to, “I also have no fear of death, because my religion and my spiritual disciplines insure that I’ll have life eternal.”

Witnessing Hurricane Rita vs. Reacting with Emotional Intoxication to Hurricane Rita

"In reality, nothing about last week in Houston was atypical of the lives most people live while under the influence of the drama-drug."

E-mail from "Anonymous in California": "If everything is ‘relative,’ why should anything matter? Why should I care about anything, including natural or supernatural or unnatural living? What would it have mattered if Hurricane Rita had ended the manifestation called ‘Floyd’ or if it didn’t? You know: who cares?"

F.: Not I, be assured, Anonymous. ("Everything" by the way, is not relative, but I'll save that for another day.) Please consider: does the energy released from the sun care if it (a) reflects off the earth’s moon rather than (b) manifests in a plant on earth? Of course not, but if conscious-energy does manifest in a plant on earth and subsequently manifests in a food-body, it would function naturally until it unmanifests if it could avoid faulty programming and enculturation. Since You—the conscious energy—are currently manifested in a space on earth, if sane (in touch with reality) you will also function naturally until the consciousness unmanifests. If, on the other hand, you don’t behave sanely and naturally because of faulty programming, so it is. For years, the space called ‘Floyd’ lived unnaturally and lived supernaturally, so natural living resulted after having tried all three and after finding that the first two produced desires, fears and emotional intoxication. Natural living, conversely, preempts all of those and allows for peace and calm as a result of being stabilized in reality. For those addicted to chaos, peace and calm are the last thing they desire. They are programmed to prefer instability. So it is. It so happens that the space called ‘floyd’ now enjoys a relative existence that is free of emotional intoxication and chaos, eliminated via realization. You mentioned Hurricane Rita, so maybe you have seen what persons in this south Texas area experienced with Rita: two days before landfall, I watched a fist-fight break out at the pumps at a Chevron station. Inside, I watched a man and woman fight over the last bag of ice in the freezer. (She "won.") You may have seen some three million people experiencing the frustration and anger of averaging two miles an hour on the freeways leading out of Houston. That was because we were originally in the bull’s eye of the predicted path. Prior to realization, I’d have been in the fist-fight and the bag-of-ice-fight and I’ve have been sitting idle but angry in the ninety-mile-long line of traffic on the interstate. In 1983, prior to realization, "Floyd" experienced Hurricane Alicia and the extensive damage to home and property. Emotionally-intoxicated persons—when they hear someone in the theater yell “Fire!”—will panic and race for the exits…trampling many in the rush or being trampled themselves. The realized will calmly wait, rather than react, and after the dust clears they will calmly walk out over the strewn bodies. As I sat by and watched neighbors pack their cars with their "valuables" and then hurry off to wait, I knew two other possibilities existed: (1) the course of Rita could change its path and I could stay put and avoid the panic and emotional intoxication and anger and frustration and chaos of the evacuees, or (2) the path would continue toward Galveston and Houston and then toward the lake where I live and I would cruise away along the open highways just before the storm arrived. My car would not stall from over-heating or run out of gas while idling. Either way, I would not—and in the end, did not—experience the storm, as all persons certainly did. Yes, 65-m.p.h. winds rocked the home. Yes, the over-sized sliding doors had to be opened at 3 AM to prevent the suction from pulling them out of their tracks. Yes, the towels had to be manned in order to catch the rain that began to blow onto the wooden floors as a result of having to leave the doors ajar for a time. But no "I" experienced the storm. Realization and witnessing do not prevent sane and sound steps from happening; rather, realization and witnessing alone allow sane and sound steps to happen. Ultimately, though, the truth is pointed to in your question, “Who cares?” The bottom line for Me was, and is, this: as long as I Am manifested in this space, I enjoy this relative existence far more the way it happened during Rita as opposed to the way it happened in the past for "Floyd" and as opposed to the way it was experienced by the millions of persons around Me last week. In reality, nothing about last week in Houston was atypical of the lives most people live while under the influence of the drama-drug: 95% live lives of anxious desperation, reacting and over-reacting as a result of being driven by body identification and personas. They are actors on stage who are so consumed by their play-acting that they have come to believe that their drama and their assumed personas are "the real." Conversely, 5% witness whatever happens or not, and take whatever steps are taken or not, from a rational state of calm. So it is. Which group are you fixated in? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

DAILY MEDITATION: Power and Control...or Bliss?

The illusion of having "power now" can be taken to be real, but only the "bliss of now" can actually happen.

In yesterday's post, an excerpt from the SELF-Transformation Meditation Guide, Volume One referred to the master and secondary addictions of persons: the desire to control and therefore the desire to have the power to accomplish that control. Such a mindset gives desirability to the illusion of the "power of now." Is it possible, however, that what "the Now" really offers is not power but is the bliss that so many seek? Consider three examples. A man fights all week with the boss and on the way to a party on Friday night is preoccupied with the fight and with the troubling prospect of a future without employment. His mind is toggling between the fight in the past and a bleak, imagined future. A few drinks later, he's forgotten the past and the future and is firmly fixed in the moment. That same Friday, two food addicts are complaining in the restaurant about their week and about the slow service. When the food arrives, silence dominates except for the near-erotic sounds that accompany their tasting of the food. Another couple, worn out from their trying week, opt to spend their Friday evening in bed, having sex and ultimately enjoying their synchronized orgasms. What do those people have in common? All had racing, variable minds that were focusing on negatives in "the past" or on potential negatives in "their futures." But at a point, the "bliss of now" happened for each. Their various actions stopped their variable minds, the past and future were ignored, and they were truly brought to the now, to the present moment. Alcohol did the trick for the man at the party. Savory food did it for two others. At the moment of their simultaneous orgasms, the other couple had no past, no future, and were not even mindful (mind-full) of the present. All were out of their minds, so they were completely absorbed into the moment. That Present Moment, that Eternal Now, happens only when the mind stops once and for all. All five people in the examples had problems on their minds, and all wished for some power to control their situations that made them feel enslaved and powerless. But when they were drawn completely into the present moment, they knew no problem so they had no desire for power or control. They knew the bliss as they lost a sense even of time. In that "no time" place, even a sense of "now" disappeared. The power and control that persons seek shall never be real for it cannot be permanent. The fixations with the illusions of past and future are obviously never real. Even the sense of "now" fades away as the variable mind fades away. All addictions are intended to create a change that allows persons to escape from the past and from the future and to experience happiness now. Addictions fail since they provide a short-term fix. The real fix is realization. The thinking mind is burned away with the light of awareness, and in the absence of the thinking mind, the bliss happens. It need not happen as rarely as an alcoholic high, as infrequently as the opportunity to taste a gourmet's preparation, as occasionally as simultaneous orgasms. It can happen coutinuously when persons realize and are finally, once and for all, out of their minds. "Is realization about the abandonment of the pleasures of wine, food, and sex?" Hardly. It is about abandoning illusions. It is about abandonment of the frustrating instabilities and the constant shiftings of the false mind. It is about finding a permanent "solution" to what ails persons. Are you settling for temporary respites? Are you willing to take all seven of the steps outlined earlier in From the I to the Absolute (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) in order to fixate in that state of bliss? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan readers is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #7 from Volume One will be posted:

#7

[Regarding the Advaita "journey"]: Finally, there is no counsel to seek, no dues to pay, no organizations or groups to join. You do not belong to anything, thus You are free. Living should not be something one must ‘work at.’ (p. 261, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Have you ever weighed the power of the words used to condition people? Have you recognized how words have the power to generate a thought-life? Have you ever considered the benefit that you might gain from pausing long enough to really examine what is being said and what those words reveal? How often do persons simply repeat what they hear, ignoring the meaning behind their words? For example, let’s consider the word “belong.” What do you think the effect might be if you say you belong to this or you belong to that? That you belong to this person or you belong to that person? That you belong to this group or that you belong to that organization? Is it possible that heightened awareness of words being used could reveal their full impact? Might that inspire a "journey" to become free of the effects of the concepts and beliefs being expressed via words? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

A SITE VISITOR’S AWAKENING: Consciousness Being Purified

[We will return to the meditations being posted, but we pause again today to allow the forum to function. The following message was received recently from Richard in Kalamazoo MI, USA who began in May to consider the pointers in the postings on this site. He subsequently gave permission for us to share his comments]

Richard: As I sit in a cemetery and observe all the foolishness of acreage wasted on the illusions of body, I am reminded of a mind/body that my false sense of self called "wife." Her body quit functioning a year and a half ago. At that time, I knew what was left behind but had a magical belief about where "she" was now. Yet, her dogs knew. I thought they would lie beside her and mourn; instead, they took one sniff, realized what was not there, and ignored the body from that point on. At the funeral planning, I took no part in the where on this planet her remains would be deposited. Yes, even at that time I knew it didn't matter, but it was important to her daughter that she be placed next to a “father” in Iowa, 1000 miles away. I hadn't the energy to debate, so I paid for it. I have yet to visit that site, and may or may not. As "husband" refused to die, the self became depressed and lethargic to the point of spending each day prone on the couch, trying to quiet the restless scanning of the mind. Two months at a trauma recovery center helped to the degree that I was again a "functioning human being.” This teaching came just in time. "Spiritual man" was in line for another roller coaster ride, totally unaware that he didn't even exist. Now, I observe my friends who all have a strong sense of mind identity and spirit identity and who speak and behave from that point. I am experiencing a feeling of peace, and yet aloneness here and now. Duality seems to be magnified, as I seem to be alone in this [advaita] "journey." I am seeing the false in their monologues and—no longer being a "spiritual guru"—I have little or nothing to say when it comes my turn to speak. I have not thought of the mind/body Diane in weeks now, and upon realization of this, I felt a twinge of guilt, for what the mind made up was that I was not honoring her memory. Advaita "Meditation Part Three" [August 30th posting] and "Meditation Part Four" [August 31st posting] came online within days and my resistance to new ideas dropped. I no longer am "spiritual guru." I read the postings and just sat in contemplation. I have found that I had tried to hold onto "their" old ideas but the result was nil. Today, an "old idea" I define as one I held prior to "now." A promise was made to me in a 12-step program, which has only come true with the Advaitic teaching. I have ceased fighting. Thx, Rich

F.: You mirrored a portion of my sleepwalking experiences exactly. Formerly, I was a "husband" who also "lost" wife. From that ego-state, I, too, felt that the greater the degree of pain and misery that I could display, the greater I would be demonstrating the degree of love I had and the degree of hurt that I was suffering. Some advised me to love her forever. Others advised that I should be true to my inner emotions and hate her forever. The Advaita understanding provided a third alternative: complete the Advaita "journey" to realization and a position of neutrality will manifest. So it has...and can with all who follow the path to the end. Next, you describe accompanying sensations as former identities are dissolving. As old identities that seemed to create a sense of oneness fade away, a new opportunity is presented: the opportunity to know the True Oneness and allow the peace of that sense of At-one-ment to replace any past notion of oneness that is now seen to have been an illusion, based in the false personas being played out in a group. The members are playing their roles and repeating their dialogue according to script, and now you have the opportunity to witness that without judgment or attachment or reaction. Finally, if you read “Meditation Part Eight” [September 4th], any remorse over a newly-felt sense of "aloneness" might fade. Emotional intoxication is based in illusory personas, but feelings can be witnessed as they rise and fall. To repress feelings is as unhealthy in the relative existence as experiencing emotional intoxication. Now, to the reference to feeling the “aloneness.” The requirement to walk the path alone for a time should be clear. Why? Because most persons will never walk the path. To wait for others to join you for a walk together will likely prevent any journey from ever beginning. Feel whatever is felt until the sense of aloneness evolves into a sense of al-one-ness. Feel what must be felt and witness what must be witnessed until the last illusion-generated concept disappears. At that instant, emotional intoxication shall also disappear, never to return again, and the accompanying sense of peace will be...enough. Thx for writing. Please enter the silence of contemplation.

MAGICAL THINKING: An Observation from a Site Visitor

[A break from posting excerpts from the SELF-Transformation Meditation Guides will be taken in order to respond to an e-mail from Marco B. of Rome, Italy, visiting in New York]

Marco: Thank yu for site. I visit freinds in New york go back to Roma next week. Now I unnerstand magical thinking you writ about…I m see in news that someoner called “miracle” that Jesus statue not hit by trees. Before I begin to read site, I believe same, not now. Folle. [Translation: folly or insanity?] Marco B.

F: Thanks for the note, Marco. I take it that you’re referring to the news reports that are showing a statue behind the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana—a sculpture of Jesus with arms raised, surrounded now by limbs of trees that fell around the figure but that didn't strike it directly during Hurricane Katrina. I am going to post your comments because they're relevant to recent entries about the “magical thinking” that comes with supernatural, rather than natural, living. Magical thinking can credit a micro-managing, other-world entity with caring enough about a statue to take charge of falling trees to assure they do not harm a piece of granite while at the same time ignoring the fact that the same entity didn’t interfere to prevent falling trees from killing humans during the same storm or to prevent levees from breaching and killing thousands and leaving millions homeless. In the book Spiritual Sobriety: Recovering What Religions Lost, a similar example is offered in a quote taken from an Advaita-themed novel: He marveled as his wife concluded that a little girl who fell into a flooded river, eventually rescued a mile downstream, was “saved by the Hand of God that pushed her to shore.” The look she gave Kirk amounted to a look wishing to kill when he inquired, “Well, where was ‘His’ hand when she fell in? If ‘He’s’ gonna interfere with ‘His’ hand, why not interfere to prevent her falling into the water in the first place? You know, push her back rather than push her out a mile downstream. [from The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders] That would be a "miracle." Giant hands appearing that prevented water from spilling forth through breaks in a levee would be a "miracle." On the journey, students such as you who are beginning to question the faulty programming and to challenge generally-held beliefs can look at such examples and use them as evidence of the magical thinking that you are beginning to be free of. Later, you’ll witness what you called “folle/folly” and it won’t even register in the purified consciousness long enough to write an e-mail about it. Please advise when that happens. Thanks again for writing. For today, it might be asked, "Do any vestiges of magical thinking remain that have not yet been purged? How much of the seven-step path to the 'no-idea, no-concept, no-emotional intoxication, no-belief, no-magical thinking reality' has been traveled?" Please enter the silence of contemplation.

A subsequent observation was received this morning from Marie in LA, a site visitor who read today's post and sent her questions. Since this site is intended to be a forum, her observations shall be added:

Marie: Could the use of the term "miracle" to label trees missing a statue also reveal the level of narcissism that is common among persons who take an ego-state as an identity? Doesn't the belief that an icon can have any significance at all reveal the duality of the image vs. reality dilemma that is inherent in magical thinking which always gives more credence to an image than to the real?

F.: Yes. In the inverted "world of duality," intelligence is anathema, muddled thinking...the friend; reality is spurned, the dream...embraced. So it is. Thanks for your observations.

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

The SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES are arranged so that each day the Advaitan reader is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to consider the pointer(s) in the quiet. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #5 from Volume One will be posted:

#5

‘Perfect’ means ‘whole’ or ‘complete,’ so that perfect freedom is just complete freedom, freedom from ALL dependencies—including dependency on celestial entities or mystical teachings or mythical holdovers from ignorant, superstitious times in the past. (p. 261, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Suppose one has dependencies on things of this world or on things that could be labeled “other-worldly.” If you still do not feel “whole” or “complete” in spite of all those dependencies and in spite of all the months or years of depending on other things, you might be blaming yourself for “not working hard enough” or “not working the deal with enough faith.” Would you have the courage to consider that you have worked hard enough and that you have had enough faith and that there are actually some entirely different steps you could take? Would you have the courage to consider another alternative? When one man told me that he was convinced that God would not do for him what he could do for himself, I noted that my father also loved me enough that he wanted me to feel complete and whole and independent. He also encouraged me to go forth and use the skills I had and to become totally independent rather than develop a dependency on him. Are there some things or people that you have been depending on? Have you calculated the costs of dependency—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, or in other ways? What would your life look like to you if you did all the things for yourself that you could do…without dependency? Have you ever stopped to truly consider all of the amazing things you could do for yourself? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 7 September 2005]

Meditations from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES

In the “Introduction” to SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDE, Volume One, I wrote:

Over the years, I used dozens of meditation guides. Most had one thing in common: their authors wrote in a way to try to inspire me and to “pump me up” for the day. They often produced that result very effectively, but in my case the effect was too-often gone by the time I reached my first traffic jam on the way to work. Eventually, I met my Teacher who gave me a new objective in my daily meditation time: rather than trying to become pumped up temporarily, I was challenged to “consider” and to “contemplate” certain key lessons in order to bring about an unwavering and permanent shift in consciousness. This guide, therefore, will differ from the “pump you up” guides of the style that I used in the past. If you have a guide of that type and find it useful or enjoyable, you might consider using this guide in combination with that one. This guide, however, will offer to you a series of considerations that have allowed many people to bring to light the knowledge of Who They Really Are; likewise, it can give you the Understanding of Who You Really Are. Daily fluctuations in temperament can be replaced with a permanent shift to a stable attitude. The high of being pumped up—followed by frustration if that high does not last all day—can be replaced with a new vision of Reality that can render powerless the things that often bind. The up’s and down’s can be replaced with a steady and constructive evenness if one completes all of the exercises and thereby attains the maximum benefit that will come from a guide that can lead one along a journey through Self-Inquiry and into Self-Knowledge.

[Of course there is no “SELF-TRANSFORMATION.” The term merely points to the shift from contaminated consciousness to pure consciousness that accompanies seeing all that is false and realizing That Which You Truly Are.]

The guides are arranged so that each day the Advaitan reader is offered (1) a quote from an Advaitan novel entitled The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, (2) a consideration dealing with the content of the quote, and (3) an invitation to find a quiet place to consider the pointer. Over the next days, this site will offer a variety of selections from the SELF-TRANSFORMATION MEDITATION GUIDES, Volumes One and Two which have led many to realization. Today, entry #4 from Volume One will be posted:

#4

The deer simply does what is required naturally to live, and when you live naturally, then perfect peace comes…but only after perfect freedom comes. (p. 261, The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders)
Consideration: Anthropologists suggest that for millions of years humans spent 2.5 hours per day involved in the activities necessary to sustain life. Interestingly, many humans today spend thousands of dollars per year on “hobbies” which include the same thing that our forefathers did during that 2.5 hours: hunting, fishing, etc. The remainder of the hours when our ancestors were awake they spent in leisure activities: swimming, running, socializing with family and friends. Few can meet the expenses of modern life with only 2.5 hours of work, but are there some things that you could do to live more naturally? What would those be? Please enter the silence of contemplation.

MEDITATION, Part Eight

[In a scene from the movie Midnight Express]:
He joins in and moves along with the masses who are trapped in their sleepwalking condition. The more he goes along with them and their ways, the crazier he becomes.

At the moment of this writing, much of New Orleans, Louisiana is innundated with contaminated water. Those in that city who have been thirsty could try for years to make that contaminated water potable, but their efforts would be in vain. They can work and work and work with that contaminated water, but what they really need is pure water. The contaminated water needs to be ignored and allowed to dissolve away. The search for pure water must be the focus. Similarly, at the moment of this writing, much of the consciousness of persons on this planet is inundated with contamination. Persons can exert all the effort they desire to try to work with contaminated consciousness and avoid its effects, but all those efforts will untimately prove to be in vain. They can meditate for hours per day and do that for years, but the efforts will bring no permanent change. The contaminated consciousness needs to be ignored and allowed to dissolve. The search for pure consciousness must be the focus. How can that search be successful? By taking all seven steps on the path to reality. The seven steps provide a clearer vision that allows persons to "see" that what is called "the mind” is nothing more than contaminated consciousness—contaminated with the countless false ideas and beliefs and concepts that are programmed into persons. A person who has always been imprisoned has no way of imagining what freedom looks like. If the realized who had previously been imprisoned should discuss the freedom of reality, the prisoner will have no frame of reference and will likely assume the prospective teacher to be insane. In a movie entitled Midnight Express—released in the late 70’s—a man held in a Turkish prison/asylum faces the possibility of becoming as crazy as his fellow prisoners. In a subterranean chamber, prisoners enter into a trance state and hum as they walk in a circle in one direction only. Some, after a period of being exposed to their ways and conditioning, try to escape the pressures of the surrounding insanity through heavy drug use, but that offers no permanent escape. Eventually he joins in and moves along with the masses who are trapped in their sleepwalking condition. The more he goes along with them and their ways, the crazier he becomes. Then, a spark of consciousness allows him to remember…to remember a truth that exists beyond the nightmarish insanity of their conditioning. He longs to move away from the maddening crowd, to break out, to permanently escape the insanity; therefore, he takes the first step required of all who would seek to be in touch with reality: he questions the beliefs and practices of the masses, he breaks away from their routines and beliefs, and he begins to walk in a counter direction. He takes a different path. He becomes the loner who goes against the insane crowd. Yes, he runs head-long into the sleepwalking masses. Yes, they try to turn him around to encourage him to rejoin their way of doing things. They bump him. They jar into him, eventually running into him with more and more force to try to make him walk the line. Insane they are, but they are still conscious of their conditioning and still want everyone to behave the way they are behaving. But he is just conscious (consciousness) enough to know that their way is insane and to know that he wants to seek another way. As insane as his life has become, he still knows that something is wrong about the way he’s been following the crowd. He wants a change. He wants to be in touch with reality, so he begins a path not followed by the crowd. He doesn't change any of them as he begins walking a different path, and it doesn't matter at all. He shows them the way, but none follow. It doesn't dissuade him at all, as must be the case for all who travel the different path. Why? Because the masses shall never be enlightened. In the film, he is the only one who escapes. Enlightenment comes to one at a time. No universal shift out of the sleepwalking state will happen on this planet, but reports are coming in to this site from across the planet, reports that a seeker in Colorado has shifted away from the influence of the masses, that one in Portugal long ago saw the lies and knows the truth and lives in peace in his coastal home, that one “down under” in Australia is becoming free of living under the influence…under the influence of their lies and ideas and beliefs that had resulted in a lifetime of emotional intoxication. The writings have been read by Advaitans and shared with their friends on the “journey” in France; in the U.K.; in Canada; in Mexico; in Israel; in Norway and Sweden and Finland; in Spain, and in Italy…but that's still only a very small number. No wholesale shift in the consciousness of persons on the planet shall happen. No massive shift from the contaminated consciousness to pure consciousness will occur. But what about a single seeker visiting this site right now who is in the beginning stages of the journey or another who has moved even farther along the path? Are the lies being seen, no matter how well-intentioned the liars may have been who did the programming? Is the imprisonment being seen for what it is? Might there be some truth to the suggestion that actual truth is always 180-degrees opposite every belief that has been driving any person? Is a spark of consciousness affording a glimpse into another possibility, a possibility of being rather than doing, of witnessing rather than trying to control, of giving up the fight rather than perpetuating the fight? Are you ready to walk in the opposite direction—against the flow of sleepwalking humanity and away from the humming that is going on as the masses enter their trance states or run around in circles? Are you willing to take the bumps and jarrings along the way if you begin walking in the opposite direction? Can you withstand the pressure of those who will try to turn you around or force you to abandon the seven-step “journey” and once again sleepwalk in sync with them? Are you ready to turn your back on their insanity? Are you ready to be fully in touch with reality? Are you willing to let them go their way while determining once and for all to find your own way, to find the answer to the question, "Who am I, really?" Are you tired of that “I don’t even know who I am” misery? Are You ready to find You via the seven-step process? On this site in coming days will be offered certain pointers, along with the suggestion that they be taken into the quiet. You’ll be invited to remain as aware as possible as you study the pointers that can guide you to realization. Might that be a valid use of your meditation time? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 5 September 2005]

MEDITATION, Part Seven

Originally, only one purpose of meditation was intended: not to reach a state without thought but to consider a pointer offered until that point was understood. Consideration and understanding, not “motionless consciousness,” was the intent.

The I Am is about being, not about doing. When a person tries to force an over-active mind into a super-conscious state in which no thoughts are registering, at best that person is experiencing a fleeting event. And who is supposedly experiencing something? Of course profound meditative effects and trance-like states have been experienced. Yes, some cannot find the words to describe the rapturous state into which they are often absorbed during their regular period of meditation. Yes, thousands have traveled to France or India and have spent thousands to be taught how to enter into a trance or engage in walking meditation. For those who want to spend hours in a super-conscious state, so be it. But which is it to be? Is realization to result in being fully awake and aware or fully asleep and unaware? And the subsequent doings of all those types reveal that they are fixated in the third degree of separation from reality...in religious and/or spiritual roles. The realized are awake, aware, and conscious. They are not sleep-walking through life. For those who want to stay in a trance as much as possible, rock on. I, too, tried it all…prior to realization. After realization, it all just ended. No "one" decided to do or not to do. All the effort and work and disciplines and practices just ended. The fullness of freedom happened when consciousness recognized the emptiness of the body-mind-personality.

Those who came to the house or to other meeting places for Advaita sessions usually had jobs because they had bills to pay and responsibilities in the relative existence. They did not have the luxury of walking or working while in either a theta or super-conscious state. The relative existence did change, however, with the freedom from doing and with the watching of things happen…or not. Efficiency was not diminished as a result of being fully awake and totally conscious. Typical results are usually quite to the contrary. For those who want to work at experiencing a rapturous sensation, so it is. But once more it must be asked, “Who wants to be in a trance? Who wants to sense sensations…either physical, mental, or emotional? Who wants something? Who believes she or he is better than or different from the masses as a result of all their "spiritual work and effort and accomplishment"...all of which reinforces more belief in the falsehood of duality and separation? Who are these who believe they are better than they would be otherwise? Only personas. Does evidence exist that sitting or resting for a time each day might have a health benefit for a physical body? Of course rest benefits a body temporarily. So does exercise. Which of the two would help the body more, if persons think they can "choose"? Which do spiritual persons "choose" more often? Yet none of that is relevant in a discussion of the original intent of meditation assigned by sages who were leading students “on a journey.” The point is, meditation was originally assigned with one specific purpose. The one specific intent was to provide to a student an opportunity to consider pointers offered by the teacher, pointers that can eventually remove from personas the false belief in the illusion of person…persona…personality. After realization, who could have any remaining goal? The who ends. Originally, only one purpose of meditation was intended: not to reach a "state without thought" but to consider a pointer offered until that point was understood. Consideration and understanding, not “motionless consciousness,” was the intent. Realization is marked by the recognized presence of re-purified consciousness. Realization is never about giving persons the ability to control or suppress the movements of contaminated consciousness, and when modern-day meditative practices have that as a desire, then the presence of personality and role-assumption is revealed. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 4 Spetember 2005]

MEDITATION, Part Six

The end of all is truly the beginning of all. “Simply relax and take it easy” is the invitation.

F.: So meditation is a tool for those on a “journey,” enabling students who are receiving pointers from a teacher to sit in the quiet, to remain fully awake, and to consider the pointers offered. The tool is to be used to lead to realization. To the degree that the pointers invite the student to shift the focus from things of the material realm to things of the non-material realm, they are described as being “spiritual” in nature. Such labeling has led to major misunderstandings among persons who conclude that the ultimate goal of the seeker is to become spiritual, to stay spiritual, and even to work to improve and possibly become a "Spiritual Giant" someday. Find the most spiritual person on the planet—one who is meditating most of the day and doing spiritual exercises and following spiritual disciplines—and all you have found is (1) a person and (2) one trapped in a role and (3) one not even to the midway point of the "journey" to realization. We saw in our discussion of the content of the book From the I to the Absolute: A Seven-Step Journey to Reality that there are “Seven Degrees of Separation from Reality.” We saw that the religious and spiritual roles are only the 3rd stage of the journey; therefore, that "most spiritual person on the planet" that you have found is still not even halfway to full realization. To use the third stepping stone to progress along a seven-stone path that can lead to realization is wise; to stand on the third stone and believe that one has reached the end of the path is delusional. Do you want to work all of the remainder of the relative existence to be spiritual and to live supernaturally? Rock and roll. But who wants that? Or, on the other hand, has realization happened and therefore nothing is wanted? The latter describes natural living. In the world of those personas who live in the most unnatural manner of going and doing and zooming, their efforts to pause and “meditate” or “still the mind” or “slow the body” or “experience the rapture” are all well-intentioned. If those persons find a teacher who can channel their energy and who can guide them into consideration of pointers, so be it. If realization is to happen, however, it must be preceded by the realization that a “mind’ is an illusion—nothing more than contaminated consciousness in motion—and can’t be stilled any more than a mirage can be stilled; by the realization that peace is enough and that a sensation of rapture cannot be sustained in a continuous mode; by the realization that only personas experience; and by the realization that the body can be slowed quite well via resting, napping or reaching the delta level throughout sleep cycles. That’s all natural. For persons who want more, I ask, “Who wants more? Who is claiming to be spiritual? Who is still seeking? Who thinks that unnatural or supernatural living is better than natural living? Who is still involved with thinking, especially with the magical thinking of those programmed to try to live supernaturally? Who is behaving more spiritually than others? The Advaita Teaching offers less, not more. The Advaita Teaching offers being, not doing. The Advaita Teaching offers de-accumulation, not accumulation. The Advaita Teaching offers peace and relaxation, not work, work, and more work. With realization, the mind dissolves and peace comes naturally and automatically. It need not be sought after or worked for or toiled over. The end of all is truly the beginning of all. “Simply relax and take it easy” is the invitation, whether the space is involved in an occupation or not, whether the space is involved in an avocation or not. Freedom does not exist in degrees. “Free” can only come in the “completely-free” variety. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 3 September 2005]

MEDITATION, Part Five

“Thinking” (which is generated from an illusory mind that is nothing more than the storehouse of lies, myths and concepts) will disappear to the degree that attachment to, and belief in, lies and myths and concepts disappear.

F.: A “spiritual journey” to realization, requiring a realized teacher and demanding that much be done by persons who would be free, is marked by irony after irony. First, the “spiritual” role assumed along the way is only the third of seven steps to realization (See information on From the I to the Absolute: A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) rather than “the end goal.” The next irony involves the fact that a spiritual role is just a role and that all roles are false and block the path to reality unless one transitions beyond them. Too, it’s ironic that there is no real “journey” at all. You Are complete, You Are already what is sought, You have nowhere to go, You have nothing more that needs to be gained. Ironic, too, is the fact that there are things that must be done in order to not do, to just be. Ironically, the realized teacher who speaks to proteges much prefers not to speak at all. It’s also ironic that You Are already free but have believed lies told and have not remembered the inner truth that is already within. And yes, irnoically, one must experience all the conditioning and programming and religious and or spiritual roles that separate one from reality. Ironically, persons must live unnaturally and, once on the path, must live supernaturally and be driven by magical thinking for a time. Yes, persons must do spiritual exercises and meditation in order to realize. All of that must be done in order to finally get free of all doingness, of all unnatural living, and of all supernatural living...free of all the slings and arrows of the variable, racing, troubling mind. Only then can the realization happen which—in turn—results in just being, in watching things happen or not, in experiencing feelings but being free of emoting and reacting and reacting and over-reacting from a state of emotional intoxication. “Thinking” (which is generated from an illusory mind that is nothing more than the storehouse of lies, myths and concepts) will disappear to the degree that attachment to, and belief in, lies and myths and concepts disappear. Few can escape the conditioning and programming that make necessary the “journey.” The programming to accumulate, and the subsequent efforts to accumulate, must be followed by a period of Self-Inquiry and Realization and de-accumulation before one can stabilize “in reality.” And to the observant, both words and behaviors can reveal if all personas and delusional thinking have been abandoned, or not:

A recent e-mailer who shall remain anonymous said: “I came across your site when searching the term ‘Advaita Vedanta’ on Google and saw your blog listed. I suspect it will help many people, but for me, I was born realized.”

The response: “Who is that ‘I’ doing the writing? Why would the ‘realized’ search? Who thinks there are ‘others,’ who has this idea of a ‘me,’ and who believes in the concept of ‘helping’? Who believes that he was born?”

The irony of the “spiritual journey” is that doing is required to reach a “state” of not-doing. After understanding, all happens…or not. What is the relative existence like, when lived in an AS IF fashion? That can be known by considering these questions: How is your sight? Do you have to think to see? Do you have to work to see? Do you have to do daily exercises to see? Or, do the facts remain that (1) if one cannot see one cannot see and that (2) otherwise, seeing can just happen?” Once persons “see” that they are not a body that was born, once they “see” that they are not defined by their thoughts, once they “see” that they are not the spiritual or religious roles they have played, then the de-accumulation of beliefs and concepts and ideas can lead to the peace of Child Ignorance, to witnessing, to knowing the “True Self,” to understanding the beingness and the non-beingness, and to being in touch with reality. From there, the doing stops and the being begins. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 2 September 2005]