Bentino Massaro--AMENDED 1/29

Recently Bentinho Massaro has begun charging for skype sessions at a rate of $600 an hour. Receiving 80% negative responses on Facebook for this tactic, he concluded the only explanation possible was that people were jealous (of his success).

Bentinho never thought for a moment the 80% negative comments might be telling him something about his focus on turning spirituality into a quest of fulfilling desires, and feeling good, rather than focusing on Self-Realization, knowledge, and devotional service to others.

He added that feeling jealousy meant these negative people were ready to move on past their limiting and negative core self-judgments, and join him in personal and world abundance through adjusting their “vibration” levels so as to live in “Endless Well Being and Fulfilled Desires for All.”

How is this a spiritual life?  How is this different from what Gordon Gekko of Wall Street who said: “Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”?

It works like the placebo effect. You feel better for a time because an authority gave you a medicine. Sometimes that is the only thing you needed for that illness of the moment and you report to the world your cure. But it is inevitable that the good news of that happiness fades and a few months later an even bigger "illness," psychological or spiritual, will manifest itself and you begin to see through the shallowness and repetitious nature of the medicine.

Fulfilling desires is an endless treadmill of goal-directed actions in order to stay happy through actualizing the self through successful acquisition of objects or implementations of goals. You are always on the run, climbing mountains in his case.

With Bentinho we find a young man, filled with himself and his mission, with the briefest understanding of pop psychology and feel good spirituality, preaching to an unsophisticated audience, “Follow me and I will help you get whatever you want.  I will free your fettered self to claim its world thereby actualizing your “higher self.”

Bentinho next said it did not strike him as odd or unusual at all to charge $600 an hour which was a frequent criticism.  In fact, he stated:

“I feel that what I offer is worth so much more than what I charge that I never feel like a fraud even if I would charge a million dollars.”

This is pure narcissism. He is so carried away by his “success” to this point, that he considers his words more valuable than gold.

Let us take a closer look at his methods.

His overarching belief is that it really does not matter what is going on in the now (our inner and outer world); our problems arise from core negative beliefs about ourselves, as well as negative evaluations of others and about what it happening in the world. What we need to do is identify those negative thoughts, realize they are our thoughts, and therefore we can toss them out and create a subjective world of “endless well-being and fulfilled desires for all” by getting rid of negativity and blocking concepts.

First of all, this method does not work except as a band aid for a moment.  It suggests he believes that just by changing our evaluations about ourselves and the world, we can get what we want. If it were only that simple.  This is just magical thinking.

Ending negative thoughts about ourselves can free us to a degree and certainly make us feel better, and even make us better able to function in the world. The technique of monitoring and dropping negative self-talk is part of cognitive behavioral psychology which is known for its short-time and short term fixes. 

It is also called cognitive reframing, where we look at some point of suffering in our lives, find the thoughts that cause guilt, depression, fear, or functional blockage, and find a new interpretation that dissolves the suffering.  This usually requires outside help to get out of our frame and cast the situation in a new and conflict-free light. That is where the $600/hour consultation comes in.

For Bentinho it is always the mind that is the problem.  If the mind gets rid of negative, self-defeating concepts, it magically opens a way for desires to be fulfilled. That is, feeling positively about goals creates situations whereby they will be fulfilled, either because the mind now can find ways to succeed, or magically, opportunities will open up because you “vibrate” on a “higher” level, and “resonate” with a “higher truth” of a “higher self.”

But these methods are only effective on the level of mind and emotions and goes no deeper into our Consciousness.  It only deals with thought forms and emotions arising in the Now, and can never get deeper into the Subtle body, the unconscious mind, the Causal Body, or the Love/bliss body (Turiya) that Ramana, Nisargadatta, and Robert Adams speak of. Nor is there much room for God or grace; salvation is always my doing.

Thomas Burns summarized the cultic implications of Bentinho’s method thus:

Ed, thank you for calling this. It isn't really about Bentinho. He is representative of the very natural tendency people have for an easy answer, and the 'teachers' that emerge to cater to that need. His new thrust of late has been a wholesale copy and paste of the Law of Attraction with an Advaita cloak, 'Believe it and you can be it'. Indeed! That snake oil prophesy has found a new messenger and as always needy and eager consumers.

Bentinho is not alone in his teaching a positive spin on spirituality. The spin is so compelling because it allows his followers (more like fans!) to believe that they too can be mythic heroes in their own transformation stories. Initially cognitive shifts, insights and good feelings can come. These temporary insights can seem very convincing and the 'good' feeling states themselves can be quite addictive. A state of bliss can be an efficient way to end any real curiosity about our odd and conflicted natures. It also leads to a trend of bragging on social media about MY story of how 'I' changed, the classic Before and After picture! This creates a very public echo chamber of bliss stories and the not so subtle invitation for others to join the bandwagon. Critical discernment suffers as people self censor to stay on the side of the new 'good feeling' norm and of course, as in the case of all manner of sect like thinking, criticism and critics are slowly and surely banished, or shamed to look at the their own so called 'limiting beliefs'.

Bentinho says we can identify the negative beliefs and get rid of them.  But who or what is the "we" who is doing all this, the I?  Surely it is the mind, and the mind cannot move beyond itself to the Self, to Turiya or even most of the Subtle Body and certainly not the unconsciousness, reachable only through psychotherapy with a trained analyst.

Accessing these levels requires entirely different methods, such as following the thread of ‘I Am’ to the root of Consciousness, where true happiness, true joy, Self-Realization, and utterly complete self-confidence lie because you have found yourself at your root, rather than on the surface in the Now where the objects, feelings, and understanding are constantly changing.

Bentinho has you dealing with whatever arises in awareness in the Now which will forever hide the source that is being reflected in the Now.  You will never reach the source, the true Self, the divine aspect of You, until you follow the thread of awareness of the I Am downwards into the Self.  Otherwise you stay on the surface and do pop cognitive/behavioral psychology.

Also, Bentinho’s method of taking frequent 3-5 second "inner breaks" to get a fresh view of "what is," certainly does not compare with hundreds or thousands of hours or meditation or self-inquiry required by Advaita and other traditions as a method of discovering all aspects of yourself.  Nor do those 3 second snatches allow you to really find the empty expanse of the interior space that contains all inner phenomena, and allows for the stillness necessary to experience Consciousness lighting up by means of its own awareness.

His method also requires us to abandon discriminative wisdom which is often critical, and which arises from experience. For example, wisdom allows us to see our realistic limits, such as having no talent, yet wanting to be a famous actor, artist, or mathematician with no math ability.  Using his method we would attempt to cast off that accurate recognition of our limits in order to free ourselves to become a successful actor or mathematician (fulfilled desire).  Our desires would be at war with our own wisdom about our limitations.

The same thing about the rest of the world: there really are “bad” things in the world that just don’t go away if we don’t judge them, from wars, to dictators, to environmental degradation, to animal cruelty. In this world, our empathy for the suffering of others leads us to compassionate action to change things for the better against the status quo acceptance of misery and pain as being part of life. We become our brothers’ keeper.

A CALL TO ACTION FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SERVE

This is the story of a woman who runs a cat sanctuary with over 700 cats.  She has saved over 19,000 cats over the years.

Her expenses are enormous.  Despite food manufacturers donating food, it still costs $200,000 to feed them. The total budget is around $600,000.

Unless she gets more help, the sanctuary is doomed.  This happens time after time as rescues take in more animals than they can feed, clean up after, and provide medical care. Most likely many will be consigned to the Fresno municipal shelters that have the third highest kill rate in the country.

If any of you have been looking for a place to do service, this is it. There are 25 employees, but I am sure their are also volunteers.

The Cathouse on the Kings is located in central California 4 hours North of Los Angeles in or near Fresno.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/videos/the-lady-with-700-cats/

The cats live in a 5-bedroom house on 11 acres of land.  Too bad we can't locate an ashram with a separate building on the property.

Their phone is: (559) 638-0490.

A PROGRAM TO MAKE AMERICA MEAT SCARCE

I believe the best and fastest way to a vegetarian world is the same way our government is trying to end smoking: through taxation. Let us pass a law imposing a progressive tax on all forms of meat, from mammals, to fish, to fowl.

FIRST, GET THE LAW PASSED

This requires finding all current statistics and articles on the social, health, and environmental costs of meat eating.

We need to quantify environmental costs and damages resulting from factory farming, from the poisoning of the aquifer, lakes and oceans, the land use costs, food and energy costs, methane costs, etc.

We need to quantify the health costs of eating fowl and mammals, as well as radiation and other contaminants in fish.  How many heart attacks, how much cancer and other diseases are caused or exacerbated by meat eating?  

Remember, the current worry about plagues is the jump of viruses from animal to man, such as the bird flu and swine flu.

We need then quantify how these costs impact each American (Mexican, European, Brit, Scot, etc.).

Urge the passage of a law providing for a progressive taxation of all meat consumption to offset the social, health and environmental costs.

This will be a multi-year effort, strictly emphasizing the social, environmental and health costs of meat eating.  We don’t want to make this a moral issue that will detract from the purely monetary issues of cost.

The law would tax farmed meat on a progressive basis, such as 50 cents the first year, followed by a tax increase of .50 to $1.00 each successive year.

The law would also tax hunted meat such as pheasant, pigeons, raccoon, opossum, deer, bear, moose, elk, goat and fish added to hunting license.
Imported and exported meat would be taxed also.

Would regulate and tax family style animal farming.

REVENUES WOULD BE USED TO:

1a. Research on vegetarian based alternatives to meat. That is, discovering recipes that duplicate the taste and texture of meat during the transition to a meat free society.  This would be a collaboration between government and private researchers.

1b. Subsidize these meat alternatives so that they are as inexpensive or less expensive than meat. 

1c. Publicly promote as well as subsidize alternative, vegetarian, food styles of non-meat diets.

2a. Publicity campaigns about the health risks of eating meat and the environmental pollution costs, just as we have anti-smoking labels on cigarettes, and on television.

2b. Taking this campaign into the schools.

2c. In the third year, begin to emphasize the moral problem of animal killing for food with lots of documentaries and ads against meat eating using footage from slaughter houses, fish processing, etc.

3a. Subsidize meat farmers to go out of the meat business into alternatives beginning the second year.  Offer training for farmers and butchers into other lines of business.

Deeya and Edji Touting Devotional Advaita

I explain it, tell you how to do it, and Deeya just does it.

www.KindleMyHeartsFlame.org (Deeya) has a wonder : What if together, Deeya and Edji (www.WeAreSentience.com) could reach every one of you here who feels empty, confused, lost, depressed or heartbroken, and with our connection awaken the Flame of Love in your heart, that same Flame we feel all the time : a Flame that enlivens, heals, brings both joy and peace? How do we bring that nectar of Love to you? 

You are actually never without that Love itself, you just need to feel it again long buried under memories of hurt, abandonment, cruelty, and pain, but how do we help you find it again?

Sometimes when we touch or wash a person’s feet, their heart bursts open and they cry openly and deeply. Sometimes when we look into someone’s eyes, we watch them soften and their body relax, and they sob with the joy of being Seen. Sometimes a long chant can bring that same heart-touching. There are so many ways: through words, holding hands, poems, hugging, Darshan, Shaktipat, or a picture.

Tell us how we can touch your heart. Let us help you feel deep Love and total self-acceptance of your beingness. Tell us how we can best reach you ... For almost every one of us who has lived to be 20 or 30 years old knows how cruel the world can be. For some, this understanding brings a hardening of their hearts. For others, it brings an opening of their hearts, a tremendous awareness of the suffering of others, and an openness to their pain.

If Kindle My Heart's Flame and We Are Sentience could serve any purpose, it would be to temper a bit the cruelty in this world by bringing to all the Love Christ promised and the Bliss of Krishna Consciousness. Remembrance. Freedom.

If this were to happen, maybe not to all, but to those who hearts are already awakened or are about to awaken, we could begin to ease the suffering in the world - by affecting Consciousness. We could bring more compassion to Consciousness itself.

All that we are is Consciousness, but in some it is dark and painful. What if you could feel the Life Force, the joy and Love that lies underneath all the emptiness and confusion—the Love and Life-Force that is always there, beneath the surface? What then?

Then we could say that the totality of Consciousness itself was awakening to its own Sattvic inner nature of unbridled Life and Love.

Then “we,” as human KIND, could truly begin to live as each other’s caretaker, and say with humility, “Yes, I Am my brother’s keeper. I Am a shepherd of all living things, from a blade of grass, to the worm, to every human being.”

Our world, our humanity, is really in need of healing, of caring, of sharing… Of rejuvenation for our future generations. And for that, the world needs YOU. And you are needed now.

You who through devotion and servitude to humanity will become so filled with the Bhaktic spirit of Life and pulse of Love through our connection that your hearts will heal those people, those animals, those hurting, those homeless, those hungry.

Come devote yourself to our Just Cause and watch our world change in our Communities' togetherness. Come BE the Conscience of Consciousness and help us guide you to the remembrance of Love and to exploring and feeling just how deep that Love really goes…

To this end, Deeya will now switch the Kindle My Heart's FlameCommunity Devotional Events over to a live broadcasting platform. The first of these transmissions will take place on Saint Valentine's Day, 14th February, the day of Love, and details of this will be announced in a couple of weeks' time.

Meanwhile, You are Truly Loved, Keep Holding On ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLqVshIM4w

A Zen Student Encounters a Strong Opening at Satsang

A series of emails was sent to me by a long time Zen student inquiring about her practice.  She had also downloaded my book and then attended a Sunday Satsang.  She encountered a very energetic and, we hope, life changing opening.  This is quite a common experience for those who come to Sunday satsangs: energetic openings or deeper understandings.

TO ME:

Energies running rampant in me suddenly. 1, 2, 3 chakras on fire. Sexual feelings, burning movement circular in lower abdomen. Hyper ventilating breath of fire. Energy trying to push up and out. Feels blocked below navel chakra 1, 2, exploding. What is going on? Trying to slow down burning hot pulsing in circles very low; can't sit down; slowing down feel burned inside vagina. Uterus white hot inside. Stuck below navel. Hara empty. dark icy energy circling What's happening Ed what's this energy trying to do? Go up? Out? Pain pelvis hot abdomen cold. Pelvis full abdomen empty. So tired. Sleep

ED: That is your Shakti girl. Don't tamp it. Let her rip. Loosen the belly.

TO ME:

I am trying not to resist. Quieted down. Now breathing heavy again. Belly is so cold. I had kundalini rise years ago during shaktipat w/ Madusudandasji, but not like this. Then it was straight up spine as he shot energy down from head. Was in trance four hours. Recapitulate birth over and over. Gave birth to self. Is this body waking up? Never felt circles of fire before. Lower back hurts;  feels like trying to give birth again. Not like Yogi Bhajan describe it. There I always go out top of head. He started me having trouble staying in body. His gonging sent me out of body to ceiling. No sure could come back. Except connecting cord there pulled me back in. Will shakyi push me out of body? Want to stay in body. Lower body raw but warm middle feels swollen now not so cold. Never felt this fire in circles before. Feels hot over kidneys. Come on shakti move move, move.

TO ME AFTER SATSANG:

Tonight i feel like I’ve wasted half my life with zen because i bought into the idea that emotions are something to watch go by without involvement.

ED:

So did I when I was in Zen. Consider it the trip back to the marketplace. Nothing lost. Bringing back Zen into your life, your body, and your particular fit in the marketplace of society.

You’ll find many spiritual traditions deal with emotions as something to be processed, observed, or to be released, leaving the practitioner “empty” of feelings after a while, supposedly in the restful peace of emptiness and “clarity.”  However, not only the “negative” emotions are dispended with, but all positive feelings too, such as love, caring, and often empathy.

TO ME: At least i can sit and concentrate; that’s what i got from zen. SHIT LAUGHING

ED: Yes, you gain much from Zen, and lose much too.

TO ME:

I’m just frustrated. My belly isnt opening up yet. It feels like im sitting on burning embers. Thank you for your teaching and help. i will send you and your kitties a donation

I must admit coming alive is wonderful and frightening.

ED:

YES IT IS; BOTH!

TO ME:  Is shakti the kundalini? feels so different, or maybe I’m different. I’m going to stop mentally obsessing and just go with whatever appears. seems like i've ended up too analytical from inquiry practice see there i go again. Hahaha

I swear though it feels like i had sex with a bull today. a really big bull!! Inever felt like that during a zen retreat!!

ED:

Just the beginning honey.

You have built up so much meditation power over the years, that you will have many Shakti experiences. Strong love can also cause the same sort of experiences.

TO ME:

My heart feels very soft tonight. My belly seems more pliable but still guarded. My pelvis feels alive with energy. Funny how my pelvis feels connected to my heart tonight. I felt my heart open like a blossom just a few minutes ago, which caused waves of sexual feeling whirling. I swear to god I can actually feel my root chakra vibrating. Wow!

This is almost intolerable....but...not quite...if I relax into the sensations instead of tightening up. Whoa... So intense. So this is Shakti, ... hunh...who knew?!?!?

If I told the teacher at the Zen center about these experiences, he would say, " Just ignore them and keep your question.".

Have I been spiritually snookered!?!? No, I won’t t go there. I like your version...I'm returning to the marketplace.

       

ED: You can expect Shakti to become a central focus in your life as it brings your body and sense of self back to life, and along with it, a sense of “presence,” which is you.  You will learn to separate your physical body from your energetic body or sense of presence.  By sitting for many years you have built much Samadhi power or Joriki.  This will now come back to you as grace, as Shakti removing faulty knowledge and blockages to your manifesting yourself.

Kundalini is just one form of Shakti.  Shakti is the generic terms for the energy of sentience, or the Life Force.

When the disciple's latent Shakti unfolds itself fully by the Guru's blessings, the feeling of "I am jiva (individual Self)" vanishes, and the knowledge that "I am Shiva (universal Self)" dawns.-- Muktananda

This is true Self-Realization from my viewpoint, not the No-Self of the neo-Advaitins, or the emptiness of Zen, but the initial explosions of the Life Force, Shakti, coursing through one's body and sense of presence, that "I have come alive!"  At this moment great joy is felt throughout one's being, and for a moment you are no longer human, but Universal Consciousness itself, announcing itself through you.-Ed Muzika

CHARLIE RETURNS HOME TO SPAIN

As you may know, Charlie Crowley has been staying with me a bit over two months.  He went from not being aware of his self or Self two months ago, of not feeling Subtle Body energies, or massive love to this, which he wrote just after his plane flight home:

Edji!

It was really easy to play with the I Am on the flights. It almost feels like I've started a love affair with this power within. I feel Her pull me in as soon as I close my eyes, I sink into Her and She wraps me in a blanket of sentience.. The more I love Her the stronger She pulls me... At the same time I feel that She is arranging all this, its all Her game, I trust Her and Love Her..

I also felt sentience pulsating in my whole body too.. and last night when I was lying in bed I felt it stongest in the feet.. It was like my feet where shouting, I EXIST I EXIST! Haha! Of course I always knew they existed but not with the same clarity of last night. The shouting sentience got to the lower calves and stopped.

Thanks for the guidance Edji,

Love you,

Charlie

My Confession

I am the Light of Consciousness.  Because I know that, I know you are too.  For what I am, you are. My job is to give you that knowledge, which is an awakening to what you are.

SATSANG TODAY, SUNDAY, JAN 5, 2 PM CALIFORNIA

Go to http://satsangwithedji.weebly.com



Password is "edji" used on two different screens.

Jackson Peterson on his form of enlightenment, and my rebuttal

JACKSON PETERSON:

The Five Principles of Realization and Liberation

The first principle is becoming aware of our thoughts and the nature of thought. By taking the position of just being an observer of the thoughts and images that come and go we discover all thoughts are the same: they are temporary appearances that come and go like clouds in the sky. Give no importance to one thought over another. If we pay no attention to any thought but remain in the "observer" role, it seems the space of awareness becomes more open and thoughts less demanding of attention. We discover all thoughts are without substance and importance. We could say our thoughts are "empty", like clouds: appearances without any core or entity.

MUZIKA RESPONSE:  AGREED

JACKSON: The second principle is recognizing our stories and emotional dramas are structured only from thought, our "empty" thoughts. In continuing to observe our thoughts we should notice how they tend to link together in chains of meaning and particular significance. It is this linking together of thoughts that creates our stories, beliefs and emotional drama in a convincing and powerful way. As a result we may spend most of our time going from one mini-daydream to another. It is this trance-like state of mind that we need to break up again and again as often as possible.

MUZIKA: Disagree.  Emotions are on a deeper, visceral level than thoughts.  Thoughts (stories) can trigger all kinds of emotions, but emotions can arise from direct interactions in the environment, such as love for a kitten, which requires no story, or hatred for Chinese butchers who boil dogs alive for tanning or for eating in restaurants. Ongoing love for a spouse or child; is this merely a story?  Devotion to a cause, such as animal rescue or preserving the environment that lasts a lifetime.  Is this merely a story?  Compassion for an insect you don’t kill in the kitchen and instead take it outside.  Is this a story or a sensitivity developed from growing empathy.  Is empathy a story?

Jackson, you oversimplify the human condition by making is all contingent on thinking.

JACKSON: We do that by shifting our attention from thought to the presence of the five senses in immediate now-ness. Just notice your physical environment and the direct sensory experience free of analysis. Practice this shifting away from mental engagement in thought to noticing your physical environs as often as possible. Hopefully the trance-like habit of living in your thoughts constantly will be broken. In this way we can free ourselves from anxiety and emotional suffering as both are caused by the mind's stories that are rarely challenged. It is possible to discover that our stories and emotional dramas are as empty as last night's dreams. In fact our daydreams and stories are no more real than our dreams at night. We discover our stories are also just as empty as the clouds that group together in the sky in various formations that disperse and disappear in the next moment leaving no trace.

MUZIKA: If we increasingly focus on the external environment, it is all too easy to lose touch with our feelings, even of love, compassion, empathy, bonding, responsibility to others.  You can have a mind as clear as a bell, but lose your emotional humanity.  It is a foolish thing to want to relegate emotionality of any sort, as something to be transcended. 

JACKSON: The third principle is recognizing that one's sense of self is also only an empty story made of thought; a mental construction without an actual identity as an entity that exists independently and with self-determinism. Studies have determined that our coherent sense of personal identity doesn't appear until about the ages between 18 and 24 months. That means previous to that time there was no personal "me" story or self-image. That also means the newly appearing sense of "me" is totally the result of thought-stories that the mind constructs about identity. There is no personal self present other than this make-believe "me" story.

MUZIKA:  Yes, to an extent this is true; the sense of self is built over time.  But it is a mistake to say it is just concepts.  Actually, there are neurological changes that take place that allow for a sense of self, that are not really complete until the human becomes self-consciousness, and then adds on a sense of ownership of actions, responsibility, compassion and empathy for another.

JACKSON: Even science makes clear there is just one unified field of energy as the universe without separate parts. The entire field is inter-dependent without any breaks or splits in the unity. The sense of being an independent entity like a "personal self", is just an illusion and has never existed in fact. By observing the "me" thoughts that arise from moment to moment we can notice the "personal me" is nothing more than a chain of linked thoughts about identity that are supported by memories and imagination. Seeing this directly and clearly, not just intellectually, the emptiness of personal identity becomes obvious to the mind at which point the illusion ceases. But that cessation will only occur according to the degree of the depth of this self inquiry. If it doesn't occur the understanding is too shallow and not convincing enough to the deeper levels of mind grounded in conditioning and habitual "selfing". In such a case one should revisit the first and second principles again and establish a deeper state of observation regarding the experience of the "me" thought arising and dissolving until it becomes clear that no personal self exists outside of the mind's belief otherwise. When recognition arises it becomes clear that the notion of there being a personal self is as empty as a single huge cloud that dominates the sky yet disappears in the next moment without a trace.

MUZIKA:  You are offering a prescription for committing suicide of one’s “personal self” by “clearly seeing” that personal self does not exist.

I have seen this in spiritual students time after time after they lose contact with their inner life and beingness and become “one with the world.”  The emotions disappear and they often become dead to feelings, love, empathy, anger, jealousy, etc., to anything we identify as a human reaction.

You miss a very important point: there truly is a deeper Self, one that identifies not only with the body, but also with the totality of one’s inner life, as well as the experience of the “other,” a divine beingness within, which we all share, but which is the source of our sentience, feeling and knowing.  This is what Ramana meant by the “real I,” the divine I, the transcendent Self often called Turiya, or Krishna, or Christ Consciousness. 

Becoming aware of this Self, the real I, changes everything, for body, mind, emotions and knowing all come together as a oneness.

JACKSON: The fourth principle is recognizing what exactly is the nature of that which is observing and experiencing the empty nature of thoughts, stories and personal selfhood. What is doing the "recognizing"? What is this impersonal aware consciousness that perceives and knows? In these recognitions there seems to be an ever increasing evolution or revelation of wisdom. As a result one's cognitive space seems expansive, open and vividly transparent without a center. What exactly is this state of impersonal consciousness? It clearly has a sense of being aware; empty and knowing. Can we be aware of being aware? Is this aware consciousness present in all experience, inseparably so?

Let's look directly at this impersonal aware knowingness: In a well lighted room close your eyes. Notice at your eyelids that the light of the room shining on your eye lids creates an inner glow upon your closed translucent eyelids. You will see an orangey-red color at your eyes lids. What is it that is observing this color? It will seem as though your aware consciousness occupies a place a few inches behind the eyes and its attention is directed at the eyelids in front. Notice your aware presence as being the place from where you are looking forward from at the orangey color. Are you "aware" of the color? Now be aware of your awareness just as it is. Does this awareness have any color, shape, substance or dimension of its own? Or is it simply an empty presence of aware knowing? Review these last two questions again and again until it becomes clear that "you" are actually this empty, clear and aware knowing. When this is seen clearly instead of recognizing the emptiness of thoughts and self as the empty nature of the clouds that appear in the sky, the empty nature of the sky itself is recognized; the empty cognitive space in which all appearances appear and disappear.

MUZIKA: Yes, you are that too.  But you are much, much more than this lighted emptiness.  You are also a human being with a body/mind living in the world, which your method is leading away from.

JACKSON: The fifth principle is recognizing the inseparable relationship between one's empty, aware "seeing" and the five senses. One can't find awareness separate from one's sensory perceptions. There isn't first a sensory perception and then an awareness of it. The five senses are this "knowing awareness" seeming to be split up into five separate sensory components. These sensory capacities are not limited to the physical five senses. "Knowing awareness" can perceive independently of the five physical senses with no limitations regarding time and space. Merging our attention fully with the five senses instead of with the mental phenomena of thoughts, stories and beliefs in personal identity, reveals a state of total "nowness" beyond thought and mind. A limitless vista of knowing transparency and Clear Light reveals itself to be be our true nature beyond any descriptions or assumptions of mind. In merging our attention totally with the five senses, the luminous nature of appearances reveals the empty vividness of our Aware and Knowing Space.

MUZIKA: Reveals itself to whom?  Is this what you think you are Jackson, a clear lighted emptiness?

Yes, if that is what you choose to identify with.  But for this you abandon your humanity, your vibrant body feelings, lusts, devotion, love, compassion, empathy, your embodied presence for a well lit emptiness, which is still a phenomenon being witnessed?

JACKSON: If one incorporates and integrates these five principles into one's daily practice, in my opinion no other methods or practices should be considered necessary.

MUZIKA: Yes, because you will have become an emotionless, empty zombie.

Jackson, in your long essay there is not one word about love, about compassion, about bonding with others.  Emotions for you are something to be transcended as you realize yourself as a vast, lighted emptiness.  You have lost your humanity.

This is why Robert Adams said he would prefer to be with one saint as opposed to a half dozen sages (Jnanis).  The saint has life, love and compassion, and serves mankind through devotion.

Another email from Trevor

Thank you kindly for your book.  It is very well written. One part that I especially like is around pg 221 where you comment that real spirituality is the process of becoming more and more ordinary, embracing everything that comes in the now, foregrounded in the sense of I exist, I love.

The quote of Robert's that you've posted in your last post is very striking: love the only sense of yourself that you have, the one that you're living right now (vs some abstract fear-generated concept of God...because isn't because we seek to end the pain that we seek?).  In Spain a dear friend and teacher used to constantly remind me, "what is your truth here and now?"  What is your truth...

He would always tell me that it requires true courage to live your truth; a life-time of work to do so honestly.

I respect the fact that you live your truth, in a sense, by making it manifest on your blog.

Happy holidays - may you be happy, filled with love and peace.

Trevor

Muzika:

Thank you Trevor.  Still, hidden within the ordinary is the Self when it shows itself to you, like Krishna when he showed himself to Arjuna.  Arjuna could not tolerate the splendor and asked Krishna to cloak himself again as an ordinary man.

That extraordinary also it you, and it comes when beckoned by love.  

ROBERT INVENTED THE METHOD OF LEARNING HOW TO LOVE ONESELF BY LOVING ANOTHER

I thought I invented this method just 3 years ago.  But someone sent me this Robert Adams transcription from 1992. In essence, he provides a technique identical to mine though we have differences.

I say loving someone else totally, insanely, leads to recognizing that love is ours, it is inside us.  That love grows, and at some point we become love, we identify with it, our own love.  With that identity, we invite the the "divine," the Self to reveal itself to us, the fragmented, split off human part we think that we are.  His method is nearly the same, but because he was realized at age 14, the method did not eventuate in self-realization for him, yet he recognized the power of the method to reveal all of the Self.

ROBERT ADAMS:

People ask me, "Well, do you love the higher Self? Do you love the lower self? How do you love yourself?"

It's true, if you love yourself there would be no problems for you at all, nothing. There would be total harmony and happiness all the time, if you learn to love yourself. And the self that I'm speaking about is not the higher self, or the lower self, for most of you don't understand what the higher Self is at all. You just read about it. You heard me speak about it. People told you about a higher Self, but you've not had a direct experience of it. So as far as you are concerned, no higher self exists for you. So how can you love it? It's an illusion.

As far as your lower self is concerned, that appears to be your physical material self. That's the self that is a sinner, that makes all kinds of mistakes, does all the wrong things perhaps, has to struggle to survive. That's the lower self. Surely you're not going to love that self?

So what self do you love? You love the self that appears in the moment. 

In the moment the self that appears has no problems, has nothing to do with higher selves or lower selves. It just is. As you begin to love the self, without thinking about it, things begin to happen. You're loving the self that is in the now, the self that is in the moment, the self that appears every moment, from moment, from moment. That is the self that you love. It has no past, no future. The self I'm referring to is born every moment, fresh and new.

That is the self that you love, continuously. But when the mind starts playing tricks with you, bringing up the past, or the present, or the future, you can't love it then. Let go. You may look in the mirror, and feel the love for the self that you see in the moment, when there's no past, no background, no future. 

The question again arises, how do I make love to this self? You imagine in your mind the most beautiful thing you can ever comprehend. Think of somebody or something that you have fantastic love for. It may be your dog, or your cat, or a person, or a place, or a thing. Something in your life that you love ultimately, with no strings attached. It may be a deity. It may be the Buddha, or the Christ, or Krishna, or a teacher, or something that means something to you, that you have unconditioned love for. You have to have unconditioned love for this, whatever it is, and feel that love, and realize that love that you're feeling is for yourself. You are that yourself. You are the Krishna, you are the God, you are the Buddha, you are the Christ, you are the deity, you are the guru. It is you, yourself, and feel that love. This requires practice. But I can assure you if you practice this, you'll see results very fast.

Loving yourself is one of the oldest spiritual techniques in the world. Yet most people never understood it, because they think they have to love the self they are, that appears. Or they think that they have to love God. You can't love God, you don't know what God is. You can't love Brahman, or the absolute reality, or pure awareness, for you have not experienced these things. You have to love something that you've experienced, and it is yourself. And it expands, it becomes omnipresence, all-­pervading. If you're doing this correctly you will then see that you can go out and love everything that you see, everyone, without qualification.

You will not let anyone out of your love, and it will not be an effort for you to do this. It is then that beautiful things happen to you. It is then that you start to feel something that you never felt before, something so grand, so joyous, so wonderful, so beautiful, and it has always been yourself. That's the funny thing about it, it's always been you. 

Robert Adams - Love Yourself - Dec 13, '92