Q:Hi Jason - I like your blog a lot and realised that all non-dual people say there is ONLY THIS . The mind tries to conceptualise THIS but cant understand. So finally I just forget about it. Is THIS something that can be pointed in a more meaningful way? I keep hearing there is only this happening - what is happening , how can happening be described because everything moves into the past so quickly and I wonder if there is even a present moment?
I only experience thoughts all the time , thoughts about past and future and so dont know what is present moment. And then I just give up...All this is too complicated. I am OK with my pain, stories, suffering - who cares? I know I will live and die without any eventful stories.
A: Thank you for writing my friend. Time is thought--merely a concept about the past, future that is some sort of fear/worry/regret that can only be happening NOW. A thought cannot happen five minutes, five hours, five weeks or five years ago... There is an immediate registering that is happening spontaneously that cannot be 'turned off' so to speak. These thoughts, as you seem to recognize, are ephemeral appearances that cannot last. Whatever these stories may be, stories of pain, stories of suffering, stories of bliss, stories of peace, they appear and disappear without exception. All of these appearances in consciousness are transient, yet what 'you' ARE is the changeless, infinite background in which these seemingly separate images appear; just THIS. THIS is the changeless background in which all of the apparently separate objects appear on/in.
Exactly right! THIS cannot be known as a thought/concept, nor is it a thing to grab onto and say 'yes here it is...i have it' because that story of 'getting it' is just another appearance that appears and disappears. We can never know THIS, just the contents of THIS. There is not a special state that confirm this because any state that would appear would assuredly disappear. But, the habit of the mind doesn't 'like' that because it is used to finding and labeling. What knows the mind? Is 'me' or 'I' or 'your name' a thought? Can thoughts know thought?
So there is nothing to get or receive, no 'special' understanding or esoteric gain of any sort.
Recognize that the KNOWING....is not a thought. The effortless registering, that is ALWAYS shining this SEEING, for example of the computer monitor, doesn't require a thought.
This is what you ARE, prior to any investigation, prior to any search, prior to reading any scriptures....so start from the FACT that 'you' already ARE THAT, not a 'person' who is trying to 'get it'!
Any practice to obtain or get something is immediately futile because 'you' already ARE the infinite! What would be needed to add to the Totality?
That sense of BEING is always present, but it gets translated through the mind as the thought 'I AM'. This is where the separation appears to happen. Then the thoughts of 'me', 'I', 'your name' appear/disappear or 'i am a man, i am a good person'....So, 'your name' is just another thought/concept; thoughts and concepts don't 'do' anything (they're just labels), so there was never a person that existed who could have suffered!
My friend, suffering never happened.
Look now!
Do 'you' exist? (Surely 'you' do not say I AM NOT!!!, wouldn't that require existence to even state?)
Are 'you' awake?
What effort is needed to recognize the FACT of BEING? (certainly not twenty years in the Himalayas....)
Wouldn't BEING be a prerequisite for thoughts to appear?
That KNOWING is what 'you' ARE!
'You' are SEEING-ONENESS looking at itself, KNOWING, knowing itself, BEING, being itself....
much love,
jason
1 comment:
I just call THIS life
Post a Comment