Conversation with a Neo-Advaitin on Ego, etc.

NISARGADATTA BLAMES HIS STUDENT'S THICKNESS AND MY RESPONSE:

"You people come here wanting something. What you want may be knowledge with a capital 'K' - the highest Truth - but nonetheless you do want something. Most of you have been coming here for quite some time. Why? If there had been apperception of what I have been saying, you should have stopped coming here long ago! But what actually has been happening is that you have been coming here day after day, identified as individual beings, male or female, with several persons and things you call 'mine'. Also, you think you have been coming here, of your own volition, to see another individual - a Guru - who, you expect, will give you 'liberation' from your 'bondage'.

Do you not see how ridiculous all this is ? Your coming here day after day only shows that you are not prepared to accept my word that there is no such thing as an 'individual'; that the 'individual' is nothing but an appearance; that an appearance cannot have any 'bondage' and, therefore, there is no question of any 'liberation' for an appearance.
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Like Krishnamurti he blames his students for not getting what he offers. It just takes a long time, perseverance, and earnestness on a path of self-exploration.

He was far too much stuck in theory and Hindu spiritual terms which caused confusion.

He needed to emphasize that there is no truth in words, including his, because words cannot convey his state. All words cause problems until and even after one has entered emptiness, but gradual identification with emptiness removes the importance of words and their deluding capacity.

Second, he needed to emphasize even more the necessity of finding the I Am sensation and dwell their for a long, long time. Not searching for the I-thought or where it arising, but feeling the I-sensation, the I Am.

But he talked too much about too many things, which made him an entertainer instead of the greatest guru ever.
Fortunately Pradeep Apte combed through all of Nisargadatta's book and abstracted the 100+ paragraphs dedicated to the I Am and self-inquiry.

The exact same criticism can be leveled at Ramana. He had a simple and clean awakening to the nature of his existence, but because he did not see through words and concepts, he kept adding Advaita concept after concept for the next 50 years, totally obscuring the simplicity of what his teachings could have been.

COMMENTS

Tony Daniels: You make a distinction between finding the I Am sensation and searching for the I thought. There is no difference. The "I" or "I am" thought is the primary thought of the mind. Putting the attention there causes it to finally dissolve revealing only undifferentiated awareness without thought. To become established in that as your true nature is to know the Self.

Tony Daniels: You write about wanting to come back to simplicity yet you are adding complexity to what is essentially very simple. The "I" thought is what gives you a sense of egoic identity as individuated consciousness. It doesn't matter whether you refer to it as a feeling, sensation or something you inquire into. You are turning the attention back to the source. As Ramana said, if you inquire into this primary thought it cannot sustain itself without identification with an object and therefore dissolves, showing the ego to be an illusion like the rope and snake. The void may appear to be a cold unfeeling place for many at times, but if you persevere, there will come a time when it is seen as vibrant and full of life, inclusive of everything, both unmanifest and manifest. That is a permanent state, but prior to that realization it will be temporary until the mind finally dissolves into the spiritual heart that is the Self. The only obstacle to revealing your true nature is mind. It must be transcended to reveal what is already there. The way you present it is as if there are two alternative truths, one pointing to emptiness and one to being alive as a person. There is just one truth totally encompassing both as a unified whole. That is the true meaning of Self Realization.


Edward Muzika Tony, why do you deny that we exist as human beings in a context of relations as human beings, experiencing life, even while our primary identification drops to deeper levels of Consciousness.

Why use terms like transcendent that are so abstract they help no one?

Why fail to make the distinction between observation and feeling?

Why use a term like ego, about which no two people agree what it is?

What is a spiritual heart?

Why are you trying to fix me, I am fine without such abstract fixing?

This is what I dislike so much about Ramana and all the neo advaitins who claim him as their source: the very abstract nature of the terms and metaphors he uses that fail to convey the experience?

I am conveying my experience using my words, which do not use abstractions.


Tony Daniels · I don't deny we exist as human beings. Where have I said that? The personal aspect and changing phenomena don't disappear after Realization. The great maya shakti is an expression of infinite consciousness. I said that the totality of what you are is all inclusive. The crucial thing is dropping identification and attachment to objects. Once there is a shift to identify with the unbounded, the expression in the field of diversity and as a human being is all one movement of the Self. But this has to be realized. What I see happening is that you get teachers who have glimpsed a deeper aspect of themselves and then get embroiled in all the non duality stuff and then go round saying things like, there is no one here, I am not the doer etc. it's often just an intellectual understanding, but they're doing satsangs already. It only has truth as a realization. It is beyond words.

The word "transcendent" is perfectly clear to anyone who experiences silent awareness. There is nothing abstract about it. It has meaning. When you throw around words like "energies" would you say that is less abstract?

Your determination to make a distinction between observation and feeling is not an important issue. What matters is going back to the source, to cultivate the discrimination between awareness and thought.

In psychology circles with which you will be familiar, it is true that ego can be defined in so many ways. But to suggest it is confusing to use the word ego to describe a simple sense of identity as I have is baffling to me.
Spiritual heart is the Self. You know how it is Ed. You use some of your words and I use some of my words. We don't need to call the cops to arbitrate on what is acceptable. Or do you want to set the rules on acceptable terminology.
I am not trying to fix you. Do you think you are in need of fixing?

I am conveying my experience using my words, which do not use abstractions.


Edward Muzika Define ego Tony, I have no idea what it means. Define transcendent in another way than silent awareness. I have no idea of what that term means. What do you mean by "simple sense of identity?" Identity to what and what identifies?

"Energies" to me is self-evident. They arise from various places in the body and course through it, and are experienced something akin to a subtle electrical shock, which gradually become more organized the deeper on efeels them, eventually becoming an observed "presence" within and around one's body.

The distinction between observation and feeling is absolutely critical. You can observe an emotion dispassionately, or feel it fully, allowing it to enter one's heart so to speak, one's essence, where it comes alive and dissolves into bliss.

The energies eventually transform into bliss.And yes, you have used many abstractions, such as ego. What is your experience of ego, silent awareness? Flesh these terms out so that I can understand what you are saying as I fleshed out energies and emptiness.

You see, we do not have the same expressions, we do not have the same experiences. We are different as are all human beings. Each has his or her own truth, and I can only express mine, and you yours.


Tony Daniels: Are you serious. You have no idea what ego means? You refer to the I Am quite frequently. Everyone is aware of I am, the sense of a personal self. We can call it ego. Anyone can understand this. What is your agenda in seeking more and more complexity. I feel it is merely a strategy to repudiate what I have written so as to assert your perceived authority. 

Energies to me is not self evident. In fact I cannot find a post from you that is not full of abstractions.

Energies don't transform into bliss. Ananda which is the peace which passes all understanding is the essence of what you are. Nothing transforms into it. It is always there but for the veil of ignorance which obscures what has always been there. Is this too abstract for you? You put too much emphasis on emotions and mistakenly think that a deeply felt emotion is indicative of your essence. It most definitely is not. Why? Because it comes and goes. You have to transcend (please look this word up in a dictionary) mind to experience the unchanging reality of unbounded awareness. Does this not mean anything to you? Have you not experienced the clarity of a still mind, or do deep emotional states appeal more to you. It appears to make you feel alive, but so does silence. More so.

Edward Muzika: Finally.  You have offered a definition of ego.  It is the I Am. But it is absolutely not true that everyone is aware of the I Am. Are you speaking of the I-thought or the I Am sensation? They are not the same. You are just absolutely wrong here. The sense of personal self is not real, but the I Am sensation is as real a subjective sensation as one can have, as real as anger or love.

True, energies are not self-evident to everyone. One has to dig deep inside to penetrate through to the energy body. You just have not experienced it yet, that is why it is not self-evident to you. But they are self-evident to energy workers like Reikei or Quantum Touch, to Kundalini students, to kriya yogis, etc.

Emotions and energies are gateways to bliss and emptiness is deeper than emotions, bliss, or the body sensations and penetrates them all.

Don't you see Tony, you are taking your own words and experience as the total and only truth.

Your truth is not mine. Yes, I have experienced the clarity of a still mind, but my emphasis is on the empty space that pervades both the body and mind, which apparently you do not experience.

We are different, don't you get that? Different experiences, different "truths." I speak to those who want to experience or have experienced what I have. But you come onto my page arguing with me. What is the point of that? Do I come onto your page and say you are wrong?


Tony Daniels: I understand. You only want to invite those to comment who agree with you and follow you.


Edward Muzika Tony, there is a big difference between you and I. You think that you have reached the final truth, and can faithfully repeat Ramana's teachings as your own.
I know I am not finished. But I also know that I have experiences and understandings you have not yet reached. You have silent mind and ego transcendence, whatever that means for you.

I have the Void, emptiness lit by the light of Consciousness, 
I have an energy body, the Subtle Body which you have not yet experienced. I have had long periods of ecstatic bliss, and the experience of God living within and through me. I am able to experience deep sadness and joy and totally let both flow in and through me.

I have experienced complete surrender to God, and realized the Manifest Self arise in me as a volcano of light and energy which as never left.
You have a silent mind.

Tony, you don't have a clue as to what I am talking about, and I don't want to shrink to fit your experience.


Geoffrey Levens If you don't know the difference between a thought and a feeling i.e. sensation, then it seems like an arbitrary, semantic quibble. Once you "get it" you will start to see that it is the root of much of the interpersonal grief in the world, ruptured relationships, arguments, divorces, destructive child raising practices... the list goes on. Try reading some Alice Miller, "Drama of the Gifted Child" is probably best place to start. If you read slowly and really pay attention to what she says and your own inner reactions it might reveal...something.


Edward Muzika Thank you Geoffrey for expanding on the distinction. I would also recommend "Focusing" by Eugene Gendlin who describes "felt sense."

The Need to be Empty--a Long Conversation

The utter first step, but a most essential step, in opening yourself to truth, to God, to Self, is to encounter, absorb, and penetrate the Void, the experience of a continuous emptiness that interpenetrates inner and outer worlds like space. It penetrates all things: thoughts; words; concepts; questions; sound; vision; smell; taste; touch; body; mind; internal energies; one's sense of presence, and ultimately Self.

It evaporates all understanding, mundane, scientific, and spiritual. All theory, all states, all words are empty, and being empty, there are no objects to point to. No me, no you. That is, labels are not us. We are enigma, and an enigma surrounded and interpenetrated by emptiness, the Void.

I have met few people, even spiritual teachers who who have truly and deeply absorbed emptiness, but without it, there is no room in you to experience deeper states of being, because words, beliefs, perceptions, sounds, images, etc., act as a cloud of ignorance and keep you contracted into your body/mind.

There are other paths that do not deal with emptiness, and because of that they are nothing but magic and story, belief systems, and witchcraft, alchemy, and astral projection. Without emptiness, one cannot even love or surrender completely, which is the only other kind of method that leads as deep.

COMMENTS:

Elaine Kelly YES !!

Elaine Kelly I am in this place right now… finding it increasingly harder to find others like this who understand this process .

Doug Sandlin Edward Muzika - "without it, there is no room in you to experience deeper states of being, because words, beliefs, perceptions, sounds, images, etc., act as a cloud of ignorance and keep you contracted into your body/mind."

Yep - and as is often the case, you get to the very essence, simply and clearly. Thank you.

Edward Muzika You are most welcome Doug.

Pierre Thériault heart emoticon keep going....so love what you write now smile emoticon

Magdalena Zajac I feel its pulling, and yet I am afraid of letting myself fall into it...
Thanks for sharing.

Stephen Austin I just read your story on the wanderling........ No I. It's an illusion.

Matthew Brown Yes, it's a kind of suspension of all usual assumptions--a space in which other impressions and realizations can come in and disappear, which would not be normally available to you as a person.

Edward Muzika Fantastic Grasp!!!

Matthew Brown Many thanks, Sir.

Matthew Brown In theatre school when I was 19 profs would yell at me to "Get out of my head." All the art and literature I liked was absurdist and experimental, and came directly from intuition. The country of India and all its paradoxical coexisting extremes reallly attracted me, and being there pounded me into this space. Finally, desperation and despair drove me to make a commitment to learning how to meditate in 1997. However, your teachings have brought all of these beginnings much further. Thank you!

Matthew Brown Including the swearing. And the advice not to quit when other people were driving me crazy.
Matthew Brown You are a great teacher (and friend.)
Geoffrey Levens Of course difficult or impossible to really "know" what you are pointing at when you use the word "void" and vis versa, for you to know what I am pointing at BUT experience of the void, very briefly, when I was 15 1/2 (now 66) I think a key pivot point in my life. The "experience" or encounter lasted maybe a couple seconds and after it faded, I found myself standing there knowing for absolute certainty that single thing I knew, had been taught or learned, everything I thought, everything I believed, my (to then) apparent life path, was just completely and arbitrarily made up. FUCK ME! and my horse. And back then, there was really no one I could even tell about it, too damn scary and far too dangerous; I was pretty certain that if I told parents etc I would quickly find myself under psych care and likely drugged to the gills. I have spent my entire life since switching between trying to hide from what I now "knew" and trying to integrate and develop it. Always sensed it as a big arrow pointing toward a path to freedom but the path was not clear.

Geoffrey Levens Now it seem pretty darn clear, in large part because of things you, Ed, have written and posted. Thank you!!!

Stephen Austin Thank you. I also experienced the absolute. And hid it. How can you tell someone " I know God "? I know that there is only God or the absolute or any one of 100 different terms that will not convey what is truth.

Edward Muzika What was your experience of the absolute like? How did you hide the absolute? You cannot distinguish between God and anything else? What do you mean by your experience of God. Please use experiential terms, not Ramana-speak.

Geoffrey Levens For myself, not "hide the Absolute" but rather attempt to hide from my conscious awareness what I now knew to be the truth. Distract myself from my really obvious path. Mostly though I followed my nose as best I could in our confused and messed up, ignorant world, did 20 years or so of pretty intensive TM practice, then another 20 or so years of confused "inquiry" and maybe just sitting staring into the void. Lots of emotional work, somewhat conventional therapy, hippy type seminars, and finally several years working w/ a very Tibetan Buddhist (American) psychotherapist and I started to get a clue of the difference between thought and feeling. Last 3 or so years practice of Vipassana has gotten that very much clarified and finally, I think I am finding the actual "I am" sensation and just hanging out with that....

Stephen Austin Edward Muzika , I was bathed in Love, light and devine music. I KNEW it was God. I hid the experience because I thought I would be considered nuts. I was 17.
Edward Muzika Geoffrey Levens Exactly right. Hang out in the I sensation. Love it. Accept it. Let it into your heart and it will grow and grow into something marvelous.
Geoffrey Levens Counting on it

Edward Muzika Stephen Austin But a perfect kind of nuttyness.

Stephen Austin I'm 65 now. I goofed up and hit the enter button. Thus the 2 posts. I completely let go at age 23 and again experienced the divine. Every cell in my body was being loved, warmed and cleansed. A complete washing of the divine. So exquisite that it can't really be described. At that very moment the knowledge that this is your heavenly father is being transmitted. Nothing is missing. These experiences took place as a result of letting go. I have let go to the point that there is no I. Only God exists. No duality at all. It's all just a thought. God is , All there is.

Edward Muzika Stephen Austin Very good Stephen, and it will just get deeper and deeper, more subtle and clear.
Stephen Austin Thank you Ed.

Nisargadatta Blaming His Students Thickness and My Response

"You people come here wanting something. What you want may be knowledge with a capital 'K' - the highest Truth - but nonetheless you do want something. Most of you have been coming here for quite some time. Why? If there had been apperception of what I have been saying, you should have stopped coming here long ago! But what actually has been happening is that you have been coming here day after day, identified as individual beings, male or female, with several persons and things you call 'mine'. Also, you think you have been coming here, of your own volition, to see another individual - a Guru - who, you expect, will give you 'liberation' from your 'bondage'.

Do you not see how ridiculous all this is ? Your coming here day after day only shows that you are not prepared to accept my word that there is no such thing as an 'individual'; that the 'individual' is nothing but an appearance; that an appearance cannot have any 'bondage' and, therefore, there is no question of any 'liberation' for an appearance.

---------------------------------------------------------

Like Krishnamurti he blames his students for not getting what he offers. It just takes a long time, perseverance, and earnestness on a path of self-exploration.

He was far too much stuck in theory and Hindu spiritual terms which caused confusion.

He needed to emphasize that there is no truth in words, including his, because words cannot convey his state. All words cause problems until and even after one has entered emptiness, but gradual identification with emptiness removes the importance of words and their deluding capacity.

Second, he needed to emphasize even more the necessity of finding the I Am sensation and dwell their for a long, long time. Not searching for the I-thought or where it arising, but feeling the I-sensation, the I Am.

But he talked too much about too many things, which made him an entertainer instead of the greatest guru ever.

Fortunately Pradeep Apte combed through all of Nisargadatta's book and abstracted the 100+ paragraphs dedicated to the I Am and self-inquiry.

The exact same criticism can be leveled at Ramana.

Some people feel confused by changes in my teaching.

Six years ago I spope of the Absolute versus the manifest including the world, body, and mind, and spoke of the path of self-inquiry through inner observation, and all that there is ultimately is emptiness. All objects, all the world and our bodies are permeated by a lighted emptiness.

Then I spoke of realizing the Manifest Self, divine sentience itself living thrhough the body. I spoke of finding God within, first perceived as Other, then seen as your own deeper Self. The manifest Self is found through devotion, love of other, and feelinh the explosion of light, energy, and bliss welling up from the dark depths of your Self.

For six years I taught this, how to realize that life fore, that inner light, that Shakti within through inner, feeling exploration of emotions, light the energy body, one's sense of presence. I taught self-inquiry through feeling, not looking, through love, not meditation, and self-inquiry, by focusing on the I-sensation, letting it grow into one's sense of presence ravealing the energy or Subtle body.

I truly believe that pursuit of an awakening the Manifest Self, actually of becoming aware of the Manifest Self within, and then is brought forth into the human world to bring love, light, compassion and service is the best teachings for our time, our era of a dying world filled with death, war, terrorism, mass shootings, and politics of corruption.

But, all that arises from within in terms of feeling relates to the body, which narrows down one's focus, contracts one's being into a body and relationships, and I am so much more than this.

By focusing on the I Am sensation, the energy body, love, sadness, depression, anger, and body sensations, I have found they all evaporate again, and there is only space, lighted emptiness, vast without border, wherein everything is seen/felt to be empty, and all concepts left behind. The yearning and burning, the big emotions, awakening gthe energy body, the heart and gut, realizing the divine within were necessary before stepping back into the Void, leaving nothing undone.

Without concepts there is no self, no Self, no inner, outer, manifest or unmanifest. There is just total freedom, and I cannot say I am any of this. There is no longer anything to identify with, even emptiness. Emptiness itself is empty, and exists only in the mind.

When thus I rest, I am everywhere and nowhere, coextensive with emptiness, yet not emptiness. I am not a witness anymore of emptiness, because there is no witness, nor is there identification with emptiness or the body. Identification is gone.

I only know there is nothing to be known calmly and equally resting in the unchanging Void and ever changing world. Like Almaas, like Nisargadatta, like Robert, I keep unfolding, changing, expanding.

Kashmir Shaivism emphasizes a truth, a repeated experience, that one can remain idetified wiuth the day to day experiences of your body, or open up your field of experience through meditation and other spiritual practices, until you primarily dwell in the expanded, then universal Void, the totality of empty space, self-illuminated by the light of Consciousness itself. This is not a cold dry place, but one of a very calm joy and continuous background bliss, subtley pervading ...everything.

Then all objects, including your body, are apprehended as illumined Void, empty space itself, and your identification passes to that void rather than your body or possessions. 

You have broadened and expanded who and what you are.
This is exactly the same teaching as Advaita Vedanta in the end. Shaivites call if becoming Shiva. Vedantists call it residing in the Absolute. So few ever reach this. let alone going beyond it.

The paths are different in the beginning with Advaita emphasizing self-inquiry and abiding in the I-sensation, while the Shaivites emphasize energies and Tantric practices.  Practicing both is a miracle!

FROM STEVE

FROM STEVE WHO IS DOING NICELY. He is passing through the overt bliss states of the bliss body to find a deeper bliss and peace.

Good Morning Sri Edji, Thank you for being here Master.

I seem to be losing interest in listening and feeling music all night long (for about 2 years now) and.don't need the blissful states, as there seems to be a deep underlying bliss that is always present anyway.

I am seeing the Earth and all the objects, things, experiences as predetermined stage plays. The play is always changing, coming and going people, places, events.

I am losing everything/belief systems.

Its weird and scary sitting back somewhere and watching all the mechanical people, cars, buildings, sky...everything just move to some invisible force.

And even this body is doing that shit too! This body is just a damn robot.

This is 'my' normal state a lot of the time now. Feel like I broke through a barrier.

I see my wife's emotions and mouth moving but it is just meaningless.

Right now the pets and beautiful little bugs, gnats, little worms, fish are most interesting but nothing else is.

The Way of the Falling Leaf

There are people who totally misunderstand my message on spiritual seeking, thinking I am siding with the Neo-Advaita do-nothings and know-nothings in their denial of spiritual paths and effort. Just because their are many spiritual paths with differing goals and experiences, yet everyone ends up where they started as ordinary humans confronting problems of everyday life, does not negate seeking and spiritual effort. Every moment of effort is transformative.

Anyone of integrity and honesty to self, who sincerely seeks truth, God, Self, or to understand Consciousness over a lifetime, and who comes to a position of rest, reaches rest because he has found what he did not know he was looking for, whatever that is for him. That path has transformed him into a different kind of ordinary man. The ordinary man who started at 0 degrees, is not t ordinary man of 360 degrees.

At the end of his path he has seen and experienced things 99% of the human race regards as pure fantasy, such as directly experiencing emptiness or the Void, the inner light of Consciousness, periods of great bliss, internal energies and healing, and has lost his primary identification with his body, identifying now more with different aspects of Consciousness, and different spiritual stations such as one of being totally surrendered to life in the moment, the relative disappearance of mind, yet living day to day with appropriate actions and attitudes, as well as recognizing that all life is precious.

He has truly been transformed with nothing special to do except to live out his life, letting it live through him rather than attempting to master or control anything. He is a renunciate who renounces nothing, a veritable vagabond with no path, no sustained desires, just touching earth in the gentlest way, and living in peace. He has been transformed into a cloudlike form, with continuous change totally embraced, forged by 20, 30, 40, 50 years of spiritual effort, and thereby transcending all teachings and all practices.

Therefore do not despair that your path is long and difficult. Do not despair that you know nothing, because all teachings and all spiritual states are eventually experienced as empty.

Do not fear that you will never find your way, nor chafe at the drive to endless spiritual practice. Not one minute of effort goes to waste and every obstacle is a blessing, forging, transforming. The key is perseverance and constant movement and growth until your specific spiritual path flowers through you.

Robert Adams clearest espression of his teachings and path

Sadhana is like going to school. You have to start in kindergarten, go to the first grade, the fifth grade, junior high school, senior high school, college to university. This is true of sadhana. You practice one form of sadhana for years perhaps and then you may grow out of it to other forms, to higher forms. Until you come to the realization that there is no sadhana. All these years I've been spending standing on one foot with my arm in the air, chanting mantras, doing pranayamas has been unnecessary. Now you can only say this when you've arrived a certain place in life. The stronger you're attached to this earth the more sadhanas you have to do. But as you begin to lose attachment to this earth your form of sadhana changes. Your spiritual practices change. They become less and less. Since you're beginning to realize that you are the pure awareness. Does the pure awareness have to do sadhana? Or does God have to do spiritual practices?

You begin to feel your reality. The more you feel the reality of who you are the more the body keeps dropping away. Until again that day comes when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have no body. Yet the body appears. This part becomes a paradox when you try to use words to explain it. You have no body and at the same time you have a body. You appear to be demonstrating a body. Others see you as a body but you realize that this is a cosmic joke. For there is no body, there is no world, there is no universe, there is only consciousness, effortless, choiceless, pure awareness, boundless space.

Prior to total enlightenment you feel this about yourself. That you are consciousness, that you are not the body, you're absolute reality. As you go deeper into that, you become like boundless space. You no longer are confined to a place. There is no longer confinement. Now the body appears like a jail for you. You appear confined to your body. It's like you're in prison. There is no freedom. As you come closer to enlightenment, you begin to realize you are not the body but you still feel confined without a body. Then the final stage you become the Self of everything.You realize that you are in the trees, the ocean, the planets, the stars you are everything.You have become all-pervading, omnipresence. Yet when people look at you, you seem to be a body. So you keep silent. You do not try to explain yourself or prove anything.There is no longer anything you have to do. You are completely out of it.

Now why would you want to become like this? What is the purpose of being this way? If you've heard about bliss, the peace beyond understanding, you have become that, total happiness.The substratum behind all existence is total joy, total happiness, total peace, bliss consciousness. This is your real nature this is what you are.

Robert Adams

This too is my experience.  I had a five year adventure into the worlds of the Subtle or energy Body, healing energies, long periods of great bliss and energies, the astral worlds, etc.  But now, only expanse, space, totality, pervasiveness.  There is bliss too, but one far more subtle than before.  But I do get irritated when the world tries to drag me back into a focus on it with its endless problems, thinking, noise, discussion, and non-harmony.

If you want peace, be quiet and go within.  Feel the I Am, let it grow, let the energies blossom, feel the ecstasies and love, and then let it all go; let them all evaporate into non-differentiated spaciousness and the peace of being at rest in unbounded, undifferentiated awareness. 

BE VERY CLEAR

BE VERY CLEAR: Religion and spirituality are all about 1. Belief and 2. Experience.

Belief encompasses ideas about God, the Absolute, Consciousness, the divine, all is Consciousness, all is Brahman, all is Shakti, the Subtle, Causal, and Turiya Bodies, prophets, son-of-God, effectiveness of prayer, existence of heaven and hell.

Experience is all about everyday experiences of the world, sex, eating, seeing, hearing, etc., dreams, consciousness without an object.  It also encompasses all the meditative and pranayama experiences of light, the Void, emptiness, visions, subjectivity versus objectivity, experiencing the divine, God, Shakti, sense of presence, energy body, Kundalini.

Experiences also include experiencing the gray area of astral projection, shadow entities such as demons or angels, other worlds where there is an overlapping of individual internal experiences and the “outer objective” world.

But, experiences mean absolutely nothing until you talk about them and give them meaning, which supports or becomes a belief, which then guides your thinking, behaviors, and eventually your teachings if you become a teacher.

It is very, very difficult for people who experience various spiritual and meditative experiences, NOT to interpret them in terms of existing belief systems, whether of Christianity, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, of God, the divine, the devil, demons, angels, or theories of Consciousness, beingness, the absolute, the witness/witnessed.

After you have seen through the apparent truth of thoughts, beliefs, ideology, religions, etc., you see and understand it is all just talk, entertainment, artificially generating “special” or spiritual experiences through meditation, chanting, and conversion experiences.

All of this happens within an apparent external world of belief systems of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and increasing impacr of Mohammedism.  Then there is the pervasiveness of the ideas and ethics of capitalism. Socialism, Keynsian economics versus monetarism, New Age concepts, Shammanism, feminism, racism, authoritarianism versus democracy, etc.

We are lost in multiple seas of concepts and ever changing experiences.

What to do; what to do?

In the end it all comes down to living your life in a way that when you look back at your life in retrospect, you can do so without too much pain or regret, and when you look forward within the perspective of not experiencing too much regret or guilt in the future, how do I act?  Do I act with integrity, kindness, compassion and loyalty, or do I act in ways to maximize my own happiness in every moment?  Are we giving or greedy?  Are we patient or impulsive?  Do we strive or rest in ourselves?

Then spirituality becomes not a matter of belief or experiences, but of ethics, of becoming the good shepherd, or a wolf, a peacemaker or war monger, a helper or a taker.  Then by our example we affect others rather than by creating or repeating belief systems and spiritual practices.

However, none of this is possible until you have read about belief systems, experienced all kinds of meditations, spiritual experiences, and teachers, to realize all of this is just stimulation, distraction from living life, and just plain old entertainment.

MY NEW POLITICAL BLOG

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IS THERE ANY REASON TO TRUST GOVERNMENT?

I started working in government during graduate school, and even got an M.A. in Public Management. I was an urban planner working for multiple state and municipal agencies over decades. I was heavily inevolved in politics in Cleveland, Detroit, national unions, th cities of Los Angelesanta Monica, the state of California, and as operations anager of Jerry Brown's 1992 presidential campaign. That is, I have been involved in government for nearly five decades.

My conclusion: The is no reason to trust government on any level, muniucipal, county, state, federal. There is no reason to trust the legal system on any level.

Corruption, lying, nepotism, cronyism, favoritism exists on all levels of government at least as severe as in private industry.

Just take a look at Chris Critie's New Jersey, NY politics, Chicago's mayor, the criminal justice system's war on blacks, 1,200 cop killings a year, Obama's dismal failure to control Wall Street, etc. Anyone who "trusts" that governments actually are there for the people, has not actually worked in government.

Local, state, and federal employees almost always are motivated to keep their jobs by shifting blame for failures, lying, pushing for larger public pensions, lying to the public just about everything.

The legal system is pervaded by cronyism, corruption, favoritism, bribery, extortion, lying cops and prosecutors, etc.

There is no reason to trust Obama, the Democrats, or the Republicans about anything. I don't trust them about guns, taxes, welfare, fair law enforcement, and never trust them about what they really think as opposed to expressed programs and policy.

Government are the minions of the wealthy, and of their own corruption.

In such a world, one has to be self-protective and self-sufficient, hopefully by creating communities where people create mutual support systems of legal aid, self-defense, and alternatives supply of food and infrastructure maintenance, such as some religious comunities are doing with hydroponics, and internal self-regulation. No sinle man or woman, even well-armed, can stand against the state.

Cooper was obviously talking about an almost universal fear and anger against the state that has failed America by not providing a fair deal for all, and Obama and this author sweeps aside these fears as just craziness.

Spirituality can consist of stories told to us by people who claim to know. Stories such as “All is God; all is Brahman; the life force is God who lives through you; everything is Consciousness; everything is energy; the world is not real; you don’t exist; I don’t exist; the world does not exist; everything is Kali Ma; everything is Shakti; the Self contains everything; the ultimate witness is eternal; the world is temporary.”

I can assure you there are thousands of more such stories, and one man’s truth is another’s blasphemy. As Seung Sahn would say, “You make a mistake as soon as you open your mouth,” and as Huang Po, the Sixth Patriarch said, “The Only truth is that there is no truth, and beware even of this truth.”

Stories, when taken as truth or the real, divide us from other story holders and defenders.

Spirituality can also consist of spiritual experiences or visions, lights, energies, Kundalini, the Void, the Light of Consciousness, Third Eye experiences, the Subtle Body, the Causal Body, Turiya, the Witness, Love, surrender, grace, astral planes, demons, ghosts, and angels, the emptiness or the Void, the life force, the energy body, the sense of presence.   All of these can be experienced.  What is important is what you make of these experiences.

Do you connect them to a story, an idea of  what exists and how Consciousness or God works?  Do you use these experiences to support the stories of Kashmir Shaivism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, or mystical Christianity, or do you use it to create your own story?

Or do you reject all stories, all beliefs, all systems, and also let all states and experiences come and go without attachment, interpretation, or explanation?

100% of traditional spirituality, known as the world’s great religions, encompasses 95% of all spirituality, an consists almost totally of stories, with a bit of prayer, services, and chanting/singing thrown in.

I would say that 75% of all non-traditional spirituality exists in the area of seekers, seeking the best story they can grasp, or which “resonates” with what they already believe or think they know. It is basically confirmatory with their existing knowledge and intuition.

The other 25% of seekers are those who seek states, love, surrender, devotion, knowledge, self-realization, energies, and who practice meditation, self-inquiry, Kundalini Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and who will actually go to teachers  and try to learn from them.

It is from this 25% of the 5% non-traditional group that new teachings, new masters, new stories are born.  But even of this 25%, only 20% practice and seek even for a decade, and a rare one will seek for two or three decades, exhaustively exploring different paths and teachers, wandering to and fro until they settle on some story, some practices, some teachers. Most of this 15% burn out at some point and just leave the spiritual arena. Many of these will proclaim they have awakened based on one of their experiences, or a belief that enlightenment is just a knowing, an idea of the ultimate.

Only 5% of the 25% non-traditional ever attains a place where which can be called awakening  in any way.

All of these people know that all stories are just that and are not truth.  They also know that almost all “spiritual experiences” are themselves brief or last but a few months, and from which they spin their stories, write their books, and make a living selling workshops, retreats, and ashrams.

But the wise man knows peace because he or she has thoroughly explored himself experientially.  He or she has heard all the stories, and they no longer touch him.  He or she have experienced all the experiences common to those who self-explore, from energies, presence, the energy body, the sense of the divine, they feel the life-force directly, they have had visions, constantly experience the Void as well as the light and energies that permeate the Void, and ar also aware that they witness all of these things in Consciousness.
There is no where else to go, nothing more to be experienced.

There is no I, but he is at peace everywhere, for all places are equal, all chores the same.

No more seeking love, no more seeking security, no more seeking God, energies, enlightenment, or knowledge, he is at rest. All passes as entertainment for him.  He rests in his own emptiness, his own light, his own being and presence.  Sometimes, to others, magic seems to happen around him; but to him, everything is magic, everything is moving even though nothing moves.  But he does not add stories such as everything is consciousness, or Brahman, or Void, or no-self, or Ma Shakti.  These he knows as children’s stories or as the stories teachers tell to snare followers, and this act almost always works because so few have escaped the mind and stories.

       Propaganda, advertising, TV, newspapers, are all stories trapping people into a common world of mundane ignorance. The rest of the non-spiritual world is lost in entertainment, football, basketball, America has talent, Dancing with the Stars, poker, bridge, board games, and music.  All the while, those engaged in traditional spirituality are busy backbiting, arguing, or killing each other.

SATSANG?

I am toying with the idea of holding Satsang again on Sundays at noon Arizona time.  I stopped about 10 months ago because so few were coming, and the effort to record Satsang, edit them, and post them to youtube was quite extensive.  If something does not grow, it dies.

If the feedback is very positive, we can start again.  But if it is as tepid as it was a year ago, I’ll do as I do now, and pay attention to those who come to Arizona to visit with me in person.

"O Man, What Are You Looking For?"

When it comes to “spirituality” and spiritual experiences, one man’s  experience of God may be another’s experience of Chi energies, a pineal gland orgasm, complete emotional openness, or many other types of experience.

For example, Muktananda speaks of the Self as witness consciousness.  But he also speaks of it as being a Blue Pearl (Turiya), within the other bodies seen as different colored lights (Physical, Subtle, Causal Bodies).  He was obsessed with spiritual experiences, visions, demons, kriya’s, Kundalini experiences, Samadhis, etc.  It is great entertainment, and those who follow Kashmir Shaivism  with its guru-fixation, mantra meditation will have years of spiritual visions, astral projections, various energy movements, bliss, etc.

But to what avail?  When all is said and done, what did he get out of his 50 years of practice except self-satisfaction that he understood the ontology of Consciousness of Kashmir Shaivism along with years of unusual experiences and interpretations of these experiences along philosophical lines?   I understand in the end he died of severe hypotension brought on by an abrupt withdrawal from Valium.

Rajneesh with all of his behavioral tomfoolery and hundred written books with hundreds of thousands of worshipping followers, himself was a drug addict which caused failing health and finally death.

Krishnamurti complained about his life in that he got cancer, which he felt he should have been sheltered from because he led such a “pure” life.  He also had a 30 year affair with his friend’s wife, and complained at the end of his life no one had gotten what he was speaking of.

Maezumi Roshi, a man I most admired, lost his credibility because of serial adultery with students through two marriages, and who got drunk one night, entered a Jacuzzi, fell asleep, and drowned.

Adi Da, Da Free John, a drug addict and sex-addicted narcissist, died of sudden cardiac arrest after a decade of Viagra abuse used to sustain his relentless sexual appetite.

Chogyam Trungpa drank himself to death, dying of liver failure before he was 50.

And on and on it goes from the Hari Krishna sect, to Ragneeshpuram, to the TM cult, dozens of suicidal, drug and sex addicted gurus with hundreds of thousands worshipping followers, not unlike groupies around musicians, sports celebrities, or movie stars, wanting to get something from the people they worshipped, whether love, sex, self-knowledge, energies, or maybe even happiness.

What are you looking for?

God? Sex? Love?  Self-Realization? Emptiness? The Void?  Bliss? Samadhi? A spiritual family?  Energies? Kundalini awakening? A Hindu or Buddhist, or Christian belief system?  A Muslim belief system?

All the human race is lost and seeking because they are locked into conventional belief systems, and political correctness, and enforced consumerism, such that 80% of their intellectual, physical, and spiritual potential is forever lost to them, denied by conventional belief and knowledge.

Yet, all is within you and far more than even these gurus attained, but can only be known if you earnestly explore your own Self, your own experience in your own way.  But so few have the courage to go it alone.

But, it is really important to break out of your present entrapment in the conventional, and that usually entails a few years of inner searching through reading the words of previous spiritual teachers.  I especially recommend self-inquiry, searching for the sense of I Am and abiding there, abiding in your sense of presence in your heart. At the same time, live in the conventional world as best you can.