Discovery...

“The greatest barrier to discovery is not ignorance … 
it is the illusion of knowledge.”

You have been spoon fed for so long through schooling and books and television and Internet so much information that you do not know how to discover anything for yourself.  Become your own project and discover who you are by your own investigation; not by what you have been told through learning.  There is nothing wrong with learning, in that it can help you get around in the world, but be wise with what you come to believe about what you learn.  You don’t want to buy into anything too rigidly.  


An open mind is one that doesn’t become fearful of knowledge but brings light to knowledge.  It’s not about going out and fighting a system but to begin to step out of it so one can see it.  How can you see what you are in, when you are in it.  So you step outside of the norms of life, you do not accept that everything is how you have believed it to be, you allow the possibility that you maybe wrong about what you think, feel and believe and then begin to watch the world from an “outside” view…not as a good or bad, you just begin to view it like you would a project or an investigation.  You begin to watch yourself and the world as an “unknown.”  And then begin to see if what is being shared about you and about the world you live in…is true.  Look at your life and see if it reflects what you are being told.  The news will tell you that only bad things happen…but how often do you actually “see” a bad thing happen for yourself?  



One must begin to step out of the boxes they put themselves in?  One goes in a box so that they “look” like they “fit in” the world.  Those boxes are all the things that you say that you are…what your religion is, what your nationality is, what your country is, what your beliefs about anything is…all of them are boxes to make you feel like you are safe in the crowd, but what is a box but a coffin and the more boxes you have the more layers you have been buried in.



What is it that draws one to being in a box…a coffin?  It is the fear of standing alone…at least in a graveyard there are others seemingly there; but if you get out of the casket you are alone.  To be willing to live outside of boxes one must first face fear.  The fear of being alone, of being misunderstood, of being outcasted, and ultimately of death.  If you face the latter first the rest naturally begin to fall away.  How does one do this?  Take off a box and see if you are willing to die.  If you are religious…drop your religion for a time maybe even just an hour (you can pick it back up later) however become willing for even God to disown you, be willing to die and not know what will happen…you don’t anyway you just believe that you know…but beliefs don’t make things real…they just make boxes.  If you are married, be willing to not know what marriage is, it doesn’t mean you go and leave your spouse or get divorced, it just means that you don’t know what it is.  You have been told what marriage is…but what is it really, what is it to you, has it become a box or is it something that stimulates your growth, these are investigations for you to look into and not even your spouse can do that for you.  Those are two big ones but if even a slight bit of fear comes up to even look at it; you might begin to see the box you have put yourself in and in this, fear becomes a friend, a tool you can use to gauge how deeply you have dug yourself in.  You can use anything, if you believe you are “Human” look into that box…what actually is a human or is it just a label placed on a body because one doesn’t actually know who or what one is.  Do you really know who you are?  That is a genuine question to ask?  You may think that it is more comfortable to assume that you know all these things, because you have learned them…and everyone seems to agree that they are true, but comfort leads to stagnation and a very unfulfilling life.  



It’s not that one shouldn’t be comfortable it is about becoming aware of the unknown, which leads to vibrancy, energy and stimulation, creativity, you begin to see that you don’t ever know what is going to happen, but it becomes obvious and beautiful that you don't.  You aren’t rushing to put everything back in place attempting know how everything should be.  You begin to experience life as it actually is; without any beliefs or boxes or coffins to rest in and to rely.  You become extremely close to the present moment; the one that you are in but continuously overlook.  You become more childlike, you didn’t have to know how to be a child to be one. Your parents didn’t know how to be a parent and to raise a child and yet they did and if you are honest and have children you don’t either, but you don’t need to know, you just become aware of yourself and watch what it is like for “you” not anyone else but “you” to be a child, a adult, and a parent.  You begin to Trust the river of life without boxes, without conformity, without having to pretend to be someone.



Every once in a while for some length of time step away from the TV, the Internet and then when you bring them back pay attention to what you watch on TV and look for on the Internet, pay attention to what you are feeding yourself with information.  As you do these things you become more clear in yourself, you begin to know who you are more intimately, no one is going to have this life experience for you, so don’t waste it on what someone else has lived.  Take the best from every experience, yet have your own.



Take chances and have fun!


THOUGHTS...

Thoughts can get taken so seriously. Sometimes thoughts become too important and what has been revealed is to just let it all drop.  Everything you think…just give it all up.  None of it is going to matter when you die ... so just die to it now.  Then you are empty again (as you always truly are), clear, empty, pure, pristine; Stillness.  

It has been mentioned (by Wayne) about looking at thoughts and beliefs like the flavors "chocolate" or "vanilla."  You pick one and let's say you really like "chocolate" and you go around telling everyone how good chocolate is and why they should like chocolate, you give taste tests.   Some people who originally liked vanilla, might now like chocolate, because you introduced it to them and they weren't aware of it, and came to find they like it more.  Then after all this work, you may find years later that you don't like chocolate anymore, ate too much of it and now are an avid vanilla eater and you once again go around telling people how great vanilla is and that now chocolate is not good for you cause you read a book on chocolate that says it is no longer good for you and you begin converting people to vanilla.

This is how it is with thoughts and beliefs.  They change over time, you pick one today and tomorrow you will find something that says something in a different direction and you start following that.  However, in the end it will not matter what flavor you preferred of anything.  When you die, you have to (figure of speech) leave your preferences at the door.  When you die, all your beliefs, ideas, thoughts die.  You return to what you already are right now, before the beliefs and thoughts.  Funny, that the beliefs and thoughts that one thinks will reveal to them who they are, where they are going, and what they are in; are the exact things that keep the Revelation from your awareness. 

At the end of your life all beliefs are stripped from you, however, you have the ability right now to just drop everything you believe, everything you are fighting for, all the things that you attempt to convert others to see your way; and just simply Be.

Nothing to teach, nothing to learn, just simply Being.

DYING WHILE BEING BORN...

(click here or on photo for Break on Through)

Sometimes the personality has a very quick death, like with Ramana Maharishi, his personal identity died and he Birthed into Awakening at a very young age.  Or sometimes and for many (see A Personal Odyssey Wayne Austin) the process is gradual and there is a life with much trials and tribulations.  What once was a Curse, at another time will be seen as a Gift.  Yearning, anger, depression, frustrations are all calls from yourSelf to know yourSelf.  When things are good, often the call isn’t Heard, but when things are considered not good, then one begins to listen, and once one begins to listen, what was at one time considered  “not good” becomes the “Great Gift.”

As the personality dies and the Truth of Who You Are is being Born, the one thing that lightens the load in Life and Death, is that you begin to realize that you don’t care.  All remnants of personal “will” (which wasn’t anyway) are dissolved as the Truth grows that you didn’t have a personal “will” anyway.  How will you know when this begins to happen, you SMILE more and frown less.  The attention has now been shifted to what doesn’t move, what doesn’t change, what is constant before time, during time and after time.  This does not mean that life will become easier, though it might, it may become harder, you just won’t care (SMILE).  And that doesn’t mean that the body will not still react, it will do what it does, yet you, the one that you “thought” you are … won’t care.  It is a simple shift from thinking one is the “doer” to Realizing one is the Witness.

So if you are lucky, like this one, there was not ever too much love of the personality, which eventually came as quite a surprising Gift, for had the personality been loved and admired (which it can be once it is seen for what it is), it may not have been moved past through.  And yet it has still been a very gradual process.  Depression, anxiety, mood swings, instability, yearning and longing, all came as a tremendous Gift (though that does not mean it was easy).  All of it was/is used to push one back into itSelf. 

Once your attention is on That (That which you are IN), life still happens, all the same things that have always happened to you, may still occur, but now you face these situations, from where you have always been, you are already dead, you know where everyone is going, because everyone is already there, whether they know it or not.  All the things that you once thought were obstacles are now seen as the pointers to the Truth of You.  You see through Child’s Eyes and it is all a mystery, the attention gets placed on That, you are no longer seeking safety in the world, because your safety is no longer in the world, it is in/on THAT which the world appears in.  So…

You may find yourSelf in a great mansion or homeless on the street.

You may find yourSelf rich or penniless, with not very much to eat.

You may find family and friends all around you, or that you don’t have a single one.

You may find that you accomplish so much or that you get nothing done.

You may find that you are genius or that you cannot do simple math.

You may find yourSelf in a great depression or on a chosen path.

You may find success or failure;

You may find marriage or divorce.

You may find yourSelf driving fast cars or riding on a horse.

You may find the birth of a child or the death of one you hold dear.

You may find yourSelf while laughing or while shedding pain-filled tears.

You may find yourSelf in struggle, you may find yourSelf in war, you may find yourSelf travelling upon a distant shore.

You may find yourSelf a homemaker; you may find yourSelf behind a desk.

You may find yourSelf in the city, or the country, or forest.

But you will no longer care where you are, where you are going or what you will be, because you have found yourSelf and in THAT you are forever Free.

LIVING WITH UNANSWERED QUESTIONS...

(click image)

In a world where there is instantaneous everything, for most, living with unanswered questions can be a beginning step in the discovery of who you are.  Many may ask the question “who am I?”  And then like with all things of the world, expect an immediate answer and not only immediate, but one that is completely understood and explainable.  However, this is not the domain or way of the Truth of who you Are.  Even this writing will mislead you. 

The way of the Truth of Who you Are, is filled with twists and turns and paradox, inconsistencies and incongruent (ness), hypocrisy and ludicrousness.  It is not a straight road … except it is.  How do you tell someone you are on a road to nowhere (now here)?  You don’t, but your life being lived will reflect it and those that are paying attention will begin to see through you, that it is true. 

So next time you need an answer to anything that comes up, take a pause, don’t be so quick to find the answer.  See if you can hold out and see whether or not the answer shows up in a way you could not have predicted.  This is the fun of beginning to See.  You begin to See that everything you have ever needed shows up.  But you overlook it when you are searching for the answer, you don’t get to see all the many ways it comes … because you are looking for something specific.  When you put your search down for an answer, it allows for all possibilities to that question to arise … it’s like opening a box and then just leaving it open … not looking inside, just leaving it open, you might even begin to allow the possibility that you don’t even know what a box is … this is not becoming an idiot, it is seeing that we have labeled everything to the point that we actually don’t know what anything is, we just assume we do because it has a label…that is actually being an idiot as opposed to allowing for not knowing. 

So just for today, be the box with the open top and allow that you don’t know who or what you are, but you are interested.  And wait and see.

KARMA, GUILT, SIN AND REASONS...

If you believe in karma, guilt, sin or that everything happens for a reason, you will continually live life “thinking” that things are not good enough, that you must get better, that everyone else must get better or that you are in the process of getting better and you will not be aware that the moment you are in, right this moment, is perfect unto itself and you are the perfect you for the moment you are in.

Karma, guilt, sin and reasons are traps.  They are used so that you do not pay attention to the present moment.  If you are paying attention to the moment you are in, the one right in front of your face, then what needs to change?   Karma, guilt, sin and reasons are the “mind/thoughts” way of making you believe that you can change something; that you have something to do with the changes in your life.  However, change happens, in spite of you.  In fact, the only reason that there is the concepts of karma, guilt, sin and reasons, is because you “think” there is a “you” to fix, to get better, to make different.  However, as you begin to notice that things just naturally change, no matter what you think; then you begin to see, that the “you” you thought you were/are, doesn’t actually exist.

Just for the moment remove all ideas/concepts of karma, of guilt, or sin and reasons and just look right in front of you … there is nothing there right (smile)?  Nothing that the thoughts are telling you are there are actually there right?  Be honest, without thoughts about trying to make anything different, isn’t everything perfectly ok (don’t think about it … just look :o). 

Some people think that without a future, life will be boring … nothing to look forward too, but there is no future there is only this moment that you are in and the next moment doesn’t come; you are in the next moment right now … all you really can do is pay attention to the moment you are in.  Most don’t … most pay attention to the past that is over or the future that hasn’t come and don’t see what is right in front of the face.

Maybe just for today when thoughts appear that say things should be some other way; you refocus the attention on the moment you are in, what is right in front of you.  Watch and see what you do.  What you have been trying to “save” yourself and everyone else from through karma, guilt, sin and reasons.  Let it all go of for today and look at a world that doesn’t need your help, doesn’t need saving, or fixing; if something needs help or attention it will show up and then watch what you do. 

You have been “thinking” for so long now that you are the one doing it; while all you have been doing is watching and commenting.  But in this moment there is nothing to do, but pay attention. 

This doesn’t mean that you expect a certain day, a certain way, a certain out come, you just watch all of it.  Watch the emotions as they arise, watch the thoughts (but don’t follow them) watch as they come and they go and begin to notice that all thoughts pass, everything will pass and bring the attention back to what is in front of the face and then bring the attention onto what the face appears in.  Begin to pay attention to who is looking out of the face, not with “thoughts” about who is looking out, but actually place the attention on who is seeing out of the eyes.

As you begin to see this for yourself, you will begin to see that it is how it is for everyone. 

Most are “thinking” they are doing it, but as you begin to consistently pay attention to the moment you are in, you will begin to see that they only “think” they are doing it, but you will know that it is not true, because you have discovered for yourself that you are not doing it.  You won’t be able to explain it to anyone, but you will begin to point to what you have discovered.

You will smile more, because all the frowning came from “thinking” you were doing it.  A great relief comes in seeing that you are not.  Sometimes first there is a bit of fear because one does not know “who” is doing it, but that fear will pass as you see that it has always been this way, and you have always been well taken care of (no matter what the mind/thoughts say).

If it makes you angry to have to give up karma, guilt, sin and reason, you would be wise to look at why you want to keep them in your life.  Honestly, why you want ideas and concepts that keep one feeling/believing they are “not good enough” right now.  You are probably the same person that wonders why people kill themselves and yet give them all the ammunition for the gun.  Just for today, put the ammo down (concepts, ideas, beliefs), everyone is perfect just the way they are, no matter what you say or think, let them be who they are.  If they are to be some other way they will.  Sit back, relax and for once have no one to fix, not even yourself.  You are good enough to be here, just as you are, if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here.

Don’t think about it!

 (((SMILE))) :o) 

or think about it.

 (((FROWN))) :o(