SHUTTER

This morning there was the thought that when beginning to investigate who one is, there seems to be periods of time where there is Knowing (or Awareness of who one is) and then not knowing.  There will be an opening and an obviousness that there is no individual "I."  And then it seems to disappear and the "I" seems real again.

What flashed was a picture in the mind of a shutter... like on a camera or the phones now a days have an image of a lens opening taking a picture and then closing.  One of the definitions of a "shutter" is said to be: a mechanical device that limits the passage of light.  That is sort of how it is...there is a lens (we can call it the "I" thought) and when it is in full use it is like having a closed shutter on a camera, it hides the light (it does not change or alter the Light, it only hides it).  Self-investigation is the opening of the lens and Light shines forth (though not limited to investigation, sometimes the lens completely opens with no attempt to do the opening, but that is rare).  

The more one investigates who one is, the less there is of them, and the more the Light shines through.

IDENTITY

(Photo taken from Sikh website)

There is a saying by myTeacher that "Truth uses everything available to point towards itSelf."  This can be seen through music, through movies, through daily interactions one has with life...well through everything in the world if one is paying attention (and even if one is not...it still will show up at the most unexpected of times).

The other day at a cellular provider a woman was taking a chip out of a cellphone and as she did she said "this is your identity, it has everything about you on it, and she took it out and then she placed it in another cellphone.  As she did this there was a recognition of the obviousness that the identity can not be who one is.  If it was then you couldn't just move it from one thing to another and if she lost the chip or broke it during the move from one phone to another, what was lost?  Just an accumulation of opinions, memories, photos, and videos?  

The brain is the SIM card, it does the same thing that the SIM in a cellphone does, only on a larger scale.  So you cannot be the information that is stored, you are not the brain.  Maybe one day they will be switching or designing bodies around the brain, then it will be more obvious that one is also not the body.  But if you are not the information/identity stored, if you are not the brain, if you are not the body...then "Who Are You?"  Go ahead ask "Who Am I?"  If I am not the identity, who I am Really?

This is where one can only point and always point if one is true to the Self.  You are what the identity appears In, but you have misidentified yourself as the identity, the accumulation of thoughts and beliefs.  Obviously there is nothing to get worked up about, since you have always been who you are...you just thought you were something other than who you are.  Now you can begin to relax into not knowing who you are, so it can be Revealed.

It may sound like one is saying the same thing over and over again, in different ways, any way that it shows up to put little cracks in "knowing."  That is because one is.  Do not be fooled by the power and strength of the mind/brain to continue to keep your true Self hidden.  Like a computer, it's job is to make you forget that everything that appears before you on the screen is an accumulation of 1s and 0s...the same is with the mind/brain...there is only 1 mind/brain and there is less than 0 that you are IN.

Repetition is the Gift.  

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THE NOW MOMENT

The Now Moment is such a simple truthful phrase and often completely missed out on.  How often are you completely aware of the Moment you are In?  Take a look, what is actually going on around you?  Do you find that the thoughts that appear are telling you all the things you have to get done, that you are not doing?  Can you be some other place than where you are?  Let's look honestly.  Are you focused on what is going on around you, in front of you or is the attention on the thoughts about the past or the future?  You can only have thoughts about the past or the future because thoughts are not in the Present Moment.  Even a thought about the Present Moment, is in the past (can you see that?).  

The Present Moment cannot be thought.  To think it...is to not be Aware of it.  To become Aware of it, begin to pay attention to what you are actually doing, not what you think you should be doing.  If you should be doing it, you would be, so don't worry about what you should be doing and pay attention to what you are.

You are in the perfect Moment, Present Moment you can be in (that is why it is the Present/Gift).  If you weren't supposed to be in the moment that you find yourself in, you would be somewhere else (your life is not of your doing...but you cannot see this until you begin to pay attention).  It is not about stopping thoughts, they will still be there, it's refocusing the attention on what is happening, not what is thought about what is happening and not what is thought about what could or could not happen.  This is not something to "think" about (even though you probably will). This is something to be Aware of.  Be Aware of the Life you are In.

TRANSIENT

(Photo "Expectation" by Jurgen Dabeedin)

The world you see is transient.  Everything in it is in the process of being born and dying.  Don't just accept these words.  Look.  Isn't that the way in the world? 

In this recognition, one is wise to begin to investigate what is not born, what does not die.  How...one might ask ... does one look for something that is not in the world (if it were it would be subject to birth and death), but which animates all things? 

(Disclaimer he he he...words can only point...one can use things in the world to point towards what is not in the world, but understand or know, that you cannot describe something that isn't in the world you can only use what is in the world to point to what cannot be described.  However you can Know it and that will come as you begin to know that you cannot understand. :o)  So "air" is just being used as a concept to point to what is not "air" or anything that has an attribute that can be described with words.  Thank you for your time.  ~The editor.)

First, one does not look...you can't look for air right ... yet you know it is there.  It is the same with what you and the world are IN.  So to begin just know or accept, just like you have with air, that it is true that what animates you cannot be born and cannot die (but that it is not an individual).  You can't have individual air and yet air sustains everyone.  Air doesn't ask you to be a certain way for you to breath. :o)  So there is nothing to do to begin to know who you are, but relax and begin to accept that you don't know, but are willing to begin to know.

Then you start to dig through all the things that you are not.  This step is simple, yet often overlooked in one's frustration to understand.  One must have patience and perserverance to begin to discover who they are.  It took this many years to make a "you" that "you" aren't.  It may take a bit of time to see that this "you" isn't (but it doesn't have to because it is not dependent on time...it is who you Are right now, you just think it isn't, lucky for you that just because you think something doesn't make it so).

What you begin and end with is a question, that question is:

"Who am I?"

If the answer that comes, can change, can be altered or moved, it is not who you are (that is the tool to begin to know what and who you are not).  This is the beginning of the end of who you "think" you are.  And the beginning recognition of who "You" actually Are.

Namaste.