Do you know who you are? Or, do you think you know who you are?

The difference in these two questions is monumental. Knowing who you are comes from within. In the chest area. Or, more precisely, from Heart. Not the blood pumping organ that sustains the body, but from that depth of being that is the core essence of who you are. Thinking you know who you are is mind alone—thought, ego. Derived from the mental picture your mind has imagined and determined is “you.” Look at your mind’s response(s) to the question. Did it respond along the lines of: “Of course I know who I am, I’m Joe Blow.” Or, “I’m Joe, an accountant.” Or, “Yeah, I’m Joe, and I’m a pretty nice guy.” Or, a hundred other descriptions it paints as you. But you are Joe, you say? That “name,” Joe, is only a word, which is a mental concept also. Look the word concept up in the dictionary and you’ll find:

As a noun:

1: something conceived in the mind : THOUGHT, NOTION

2: an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances

And, as an adjective:

1: organized around a main idea or theme

2: created to illustrate a concept

The mind can not tell you who you are because it doesn’t know. It can only describe you as what it images you to be, which you have accepted, and come to believe is you. Mental activity only. Creating a false belief. Cause and effect. The mind tells you this body and it are Joe, and the resulting effect is identification with name and form. Mind as name and body as form. In your previous reading from As Is Invitation, you were briefly introduced to Hinduism scripture which contained the words: Sat-Chit-Ananda (existence-consciousness-bliss). These are descriptive words of Self realization. Realization of the: One, without a second. There are two more words in this Hinduism epithet: Nama-Rupa (name-form). Often left off the epithet: Sat-Chit-Ananda-Nama-Rupa, because the goal is to remove nama-rupa to reveal Sat-Chit-Ananda. Nama-rupa in eastern religion is Māyā, or in English, Illusion. Remove the unreal to reveal the Real—ONE. The One that is yours and my true identity.

Were you born a slave? No. You grew into it. A slave to your mind, as you acquired knowledge from a world that only honors the senses. The external world only, promoted heavily in western culture. Everywhere one sees, hears, smells, tastes or touches, oozing with materialism. Achieving, acquiring, obtaining, earning, buying, keeping up with, or getting ahead of the Joneses, etc, etc, etc… All in an unconscious, vain attempt to become something. Something better. Someone special. Something to fill that perceived and innate knowing arising from within. That insistent internal knowledge that you are something more. Or, in external talk, something to fill that hole, to feel complete, to feel whole, to become. Technology as the end all to arrive there. How we’ll achieve perfection on Earth—Out there! Only it will never, ever happen! What exists out there originates from within, which originates from One. One Intelligence-Energy-Space manifesting as All There Is. And you are already that! You will never become what you already are. Mind stuff, all. How long does it take to realize, the answer is not in the mind? You grew into mind as master. Isn’t it time to put it back in its proper place as servant?

I am THAT I am. Simple enough. I am. What do these words mean? They do not refer to the body-mind pattern we have come to believe and associate them with. So what then? Find out. Self inquiry. Look within for answers. Think of an older model computer you wish to restore. First thing you do is wipe the unit clean of all the old useless information stored on it. You follow the steps to restore it to factory default. Once cleaned it’s optimized to receive fresh new data. Your mind is much like a computer. To access it, you utilize it. You use the mind to examine the mind. Your mind has a storehouse of concepts and images (files) all about you. These are the files (beliefs) you want to dump. These files all have a central theme—ME—operating from the program—PERSON. Access the files. YOU HAVE EXECUTE PERMISSION! You don’t have to continue to follow along in READ ONLY mode any longer. Find the ME in the machine. Take a look at the code running the PERSON program. Who am I? What am I? Take a look. You’ll not find a person. What you’ll find is, that person you’ve always thought yourself to be, is really the ghost in the machine, that has been operating you from its random segments of code all your life, and is the cause of all your suffering.

Now, with factory default reset, reprogram the machine. Turn it on. Wait a sec, not coming on? What’s its power source? The mind battery is drained. Time to recharge (re-cognize). The machine has always been cognized, right from the factory. Plug it in to the electricity that is always available to you. Your true identity. Intelligence-Energy-Space. The universal power source of all there is—THAT! Don’t know how it works? Do you know how electricity works? Or, do you just plug the cord in and trust it to work? You are the expression of this Power Source. In this little analogy, you are the electricity flowing through the machine. All functionality flowing through, is and as you. All that need be done is to trust the current will always flow. The mind battery will cause resistance at first. But as the current continues to flow the battery will absorb the charge. The Mind is a powerful battery source itself. It is the little spark of the never ending eternal Spark. I call it Heart. The central and innermost connectivity or connective-ness of us all. Truth is, this writer, nor anyone else most likely, knows what THAT is or how THAT works. Way too immense. How could we? Science can’t touch it, though they’re still trying. Remember the words of one of our scientists:

“Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question,
the same for everyone of us. Science has no answer to it.”
- Max Planck, quantum physicist

Fortunately, scientists nor we have to define what THAT is. I do know two things as fact though: 1. God’s last name is not ‘Damnit,’ like I use joke, and 2. God, or That, or whatever you’d like to call that Spark or Electricity or Power Source that created everything we see and don’t see—exists and sustains all!

Awareness is silent. Silence is precious. Silence and stillness. Both admirable qualities of Being. Not doing. Not mind. Being what we are. You need neither words nor doing to be. The human animal is the only creature on Earth that has the capacity to be or not be what it is. Lost in the world of noise and constant doing, or learning to hear in silence and stillness. Your five senses have married you to the world. Close your eyes and direct your attention inward in silence and stillness. Focus on the Heart. Hear it beating? Do you have to do anything to hear it? Do you have to say anything for it to continue it’s beat? Listen to your heart speak. Be aware of life flowing. The Heart not only sustains the body, it sustains you—You as an expression of the universe. To hear the universe flowing is life. The same life that flows through every organism on this planet. You are ONE with all creation and all creation flows through you. Listen, hear—hear with your Heart. Your heart is not two. Just as you are not two. Choose life. It has already chosen you. Be what you are. You are not here to impress anybody or anything. You are here for the sole purpose of being who you are. Look within and know truth. Happiness is beating within you right now. Be silent, still, and witness this wonder of you unfold. Let the universe unfold within you, as you. You, as intended to BE. Not a person, not a thought, not a mind, but a human—BEING. Being the One—which you are. The One without a second! Everything is That! You can’t be anything other than That! To know this truth is life. Life flowing through as you. You are life, flowing, Being. You are beyond death. You were never born. Know this inner truth. You come from nothing and you will return to nothing. You’re manifest now, and unmanifest upon return. Both are One—Intelligence-Energy-Space. Potential or active. Life as you know it on this planet is active energy, expressing through you. There is no right nor wrong. No this or that. You travel between the opposites. You are eternal. You are energy in motion. Being! Live, love, laugh, be happy. For you are happiness itself. The mind can never grasp this. It’s too alive. The mind dwells in past or future. Dead. You are this present moment. That’s all there ever is! Life.

“When your intellect has cleared itself of its delusions,

you will become indifferent to the results of all action,

present or future. At present, your intellect is

bewildered by conflicting interpretations…”

— Sri Krishna, from Bhagavad-Gita,
The Song of God

Be present. You are not your thoughts. You are One. The impersonal Source energy manifesting as all there is. That’s you—who you are, what you are, and everything else.

There is only one thing the ego can not tolerate. Being looked at! It knows its own falseness. It knows it can not hold up to scrutiny. It has done pretty good to this point, hiding from detection. Mind, as ego, is highly adaptable. In dark ways it’s probably gotten you out of numerous jams. Using things like deceit, subterfuge, and when all else failed, lies. Unfortunately for you, it not only lies to others, but it is lying to you as well. It lies to you in thoughts. Very subtle thoughts you’ve accepted about yourself over time, that probably started off very innocently in your early years. Childish thoughts and acts that got the child what it wanted, and were adopted by mind forward. Thoughts that metamorphosed into beliefs as you grew, and have become part of your unconscious mind (also known as the subconscious).

I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, and do in no way have any medical training or education regarding the functioning of anyone’s mind. All I’m trying to do is pass on an understanding, a Self-realization that has changed the way I view the world. An understanding that has dramatically changed my life. Life’s no longer out to get me. In fact, it has transformed my perception in magnificent, even hard to believe ways. I get things done, though I’m not the doer. Action takes place through me. I stand up! I don’t try to impress you so there’s no fear you may see who I really am. What you see is what you get. I’m not trying to gain an advantage over anybody or anything. I let the chips fall where they may. It’s hard to remember, let alone describe, all the changes that have occurred. I wish this seeing for everybody, but it has to be heard and followed alone, within each individual. So please—hear.

Anytime one of these, ‘stop life’s unfolding,’ unconscious beliefs is triggered by an event or confrontation or encounter, the mind just dials up the belief loop. This self play loop negates the information before the receiving of it is even finished. Example: the unconscious, never ending belief loop may be playing in the background of your mind, “I’m a little bit smarter than you.” This prevents you from receiving help, even when really needed. You see, the rest of that belief loop feeds you the lines, “if I’m just a little bit smarter than you are, and I can’t help myself, how in the hell are you going to help me?” “So why should I bother listening?” “You can’t be of any use to me.” Not a freeing way to live. This is also known as the bondage of Self. Your SELF! Your direct line with the ONE true Self that creates and sustains all there is, and is not. Your true identity Self. Watch these spellings. I try hard to capitalize Self whenever I’m referring to the ONE true Self, and use the small s when referring to mind.

With investigation, shining your light on the shadowy ego entity, this belief, and any others seen, dissolve. The ego can not maintain its falsity when seen. Your eyes are apertures that illumine all, but they have only been directed outwards. Turn them inward and the seeing of reality happens. How freeing it is to live in light instead of darkness. It’s like night and day (pun intended).

Be alert when your mind starts any thought with, “I think,” or “I believe.” It’s telling on itself in that moment. Thoughts always and only arise from the ONE true Self. All mind ever does is claim the thought as it’s own. This claiming function is the ego mechanism in action. Paul Hedderman calls it “selfing”—selfing is a noun. Your true identity is a verb. Always active in this current moment. Perpetual forward motion. Life happening, expressing, unfolding, — INGing only!

The following may be helpful: when a negative thought arises, or any thought for that matter, recognize it as quickly as possible with as much clarity of understanding possible—it’s just a thought! It has virtually no impact on the true nature of the ONE be-ing-ness you are. Simply watch it come and go. Like a cloud that covers the Sun temporarily, it’ll move on.

In Hinduism, they use the term Brahman, to represent (or point to) the ultimate unknowable of All That Is. And they use Atman to refer to the little “spark” placed within each of us at inception. I tend to think of this little spark within as Heart. Again, the words don’t matter, as long as they have meaning to you. Meaning with regards to that little spark connecting with the Ultimate Spark it derived its existence from. I seem to be looking more to Hinduism (passed along) knowledge these days for several reasons. For one, it has been around much longer than Christianity, and two, the scriptures I’ve researched that have been translated into English, are far easier to understand than Christian scripture. Though the parables from the banished long ago sayings of Saint Thomas (gospel of Thomas) are resonating in heart these days also. Along with Matthew and Luke’s sayings from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus delivered. And thirdly, due to the most astonishing revelation that I’ve read to date, and read about from multiple sources: Jesus’s ‘lost years’ were spent in India, prior to his wanderings and teachings of what came to be known later as—Christianity. The message has been passed along for a long, long time. My wish for you is that you hear it. God bless, and Peace be with you.

Mind as separate from Totality is illusion, maya. Mind, like the world, exists as appearance only. All exists solely as manifestation. Manifestation of the ONE. One intelligence-energy-space phenomenon. Or, the phenomenal manifestation, appearing. Nothing can be separate from One. Whole and complete as is. As are you, without little mind’s interference, creating two. Creation-Existence, all One. Potential energy exploding to create all. And now, as active energy, sustaining all. One creation. One sustainer. ONE, ALL THERE IS. Why else would Cosmology, the science of origin, call our creation story the Big Bang? The Big Bang theory bringing together observational astronomy with particle physics. Active Energy. Energy in motion. Energy suffused/infused with Intelligence, creating ALL THAT IS. God, That, No Thing, the Absolute, Totality, Consciousness, Presence-Awareness, ONE. Or—whatever your preferred naming of that unfathomable, unknowable power is.

When you open your eyes in the morning, does anything appear separately? Or does all seeing appear instantaneously? Which is it? Piece meal, or One? Everything, absolutely every—thing, every object, every feeling, every sensation, appears at once. All seeing occurs at once. All hearing occurs at once. All smelling occurs at once, and the same for the two remaining senses. How could anything be separate from instantaneous? Appearance is all there is. Intelligence-Energy populating all space when the eyes come online. Your mind is not separate from this. It only tells you—you are separate, encased in a body, and on your own. That body is appearance also. All part of the whole manifestation. It’s the ego that’s responsible for the feelings of separateness. Your feelings follow ego’s claim on thoughts. Feelings always follow thoughts, and can also give over to bodily sensations. And you have put belief behind this fictional little mind’s claim. Remove your belief in a separate ego entity and the organism will function correctly. No creature on this planet is separate from all there is. Nothing is separate from the ONE phenomenal manifestation. Your belief in ego, as a separate entity, is the root cause of all your conflicting thoughts and emotions. No being is an island on to itself.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent, 
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
— John Donne [1572-1631] Dean, St. Paul’s Cathedral—Poet

Your ego of course, claims otherwise. Not true, Not true. Ego, the little mind, only claims thoughts to be separate from the whole. The dictionary defines the word claim: to state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof. This is why you have to investigate for yourself. Does your mind provide proof of it’s claim? Look into it. Without investigating this allegation, your mind sticks to it's guns. Paul Hedderman relates the story of a gunslinger to ego quite perfectiously: “You can never outdraw the gunslinger, as long as you think the gunslinger exists.” Mind’s claiming of thoughts is faster than any wild west quick draw ever was. Almost instantaneously. The first thought arises, then lickety-split—the second thought catches it and says “I” or “me” or “my” or “mine.” Which gives over to the feeling of origination coming from a separate entity, ‘me.’ Feelings always follow thought. If the gunslinger, little mind, ego, remains undetected by you, it will always outdraw you. Put the gunslinger to rest. Banish ego to Boot Hill for evermore. Your silver bullet—Investigation. Look into these things you take for granted to be you. Discover the truth within, and live in freedom as false beliefs fall away.

“You cannot transcend what you do not know.
To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.”
— Nisargadatta Maharaj

This is worth repeating: the little mind, ego, presumes the body to be I, and the I am to refer to it. We, assuming this to be true, only because everybody else does, go along with the crowd; Voilà—a belief is born! A belief in a separate from the whole of creation entity exists. Not only exists, but exists as who you are. Your true identity, slipped right out from under you.

This isn’t your fault though. And you’re certainly not alone in this divine hypnosis. This was, and is, all part of the master plan. A plan far, far, far above our pay grade. I certainly have no idea why it is. But that’s okay. It is the way it is. Can’t do anything about that. Chalk it up to ‘why cry over spilt milk.’ Or, ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’  The reality is, and being reality is what this writing is all about, the mere fact that you’re reading this means you’ve been granted the right to look into it now. That doesn’t happen for everyone. Many, many, so called ‘people,’ are born asleep, and die asleep. Never seeing there was anything more. You have a golden opportunity. You have the choice right now to remain asleep, or to look into who and what you really are. For this so called, ‘person,’ it was, and remains like, hitting the lottery. Only who needs money? There’s nobody here. Sure money comes and goes still. My monthly bills didn’t disappear. But they seem to always get paid. Tapping into the natural order of ALL THAT IS changes perception!

The riches are not that of monetary delight
But far richer than that, for these riches I speak
abound in delight of thy heart, And with such joy
burst forth from the work I give thee
— Memos from Heart

Look into your true nature. Look into it now, and every day following.

There is only One. That’s what non duality is all about. But more importantly, THAT is all there is. One unfathomable power that creates and sustains all. One phenomenal manifestation. One seamless show which everything appears in or on. Like, on a much, much smaller scale, everything appears in a movie we watch. We don’t mind watching the dramas, or horrors, or adventures, or romances appearing on the small screen. Why the large screen? Remove the ego. The Divine Hypnosis. The personal me. And behold the world as a movie. There you walk freely in your adventure. There, and there alone, are you found to be. This movie is not a documentary, but a fiction. A fiction created in the emptiness of space. Enjoy and tremble alike. For I sustains all. I am, the pervader of all that is seen. For without I, nothing could be seen. Tremble at my might, but know me as love. For I protects and guides you throughout your days, appearing in Consciousness, or Space, or on the screen of Awareness. You are my dream, my illusion, my Maya. Do not take anything personally, for there is no person. Only thought makes it so. Rejoice in my being, for it is your being also. Gladness of heart. Light of feet. Go forth in this world I have created. Frolic and play, but give homage to I, your creator, for I gives you all things.

“Know only that I exist, and that one atom of myself sustains the universe.”
— Sri Krishna

“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.”
— A Course in Miracles

Nothing real can be threatened. The Real—ONE. The ONE that is all there is. By any word or words you label or call THAT. That ONE, unfathomable, indescribable, undefinable, but undeniable Power—not just capable of producing and sustaining everything, but actually producing and sustaining everything. Everything seen, unseen, felt, smelled, heard, experienced or thought. And, Nothing unreal exists. Nothing seen, felt, smelled, heard, experienced or thought. Herein lies the peace of God—ALL THERE IS—ONE—HEREIN (here in). How simple the explanation is. What could be simpler than one? If there is only one, how could you be in search of it? You are it. Where are you going to look? Everywhere you look, out there, is the unreal. The manifestation of ONE. Search over! Whole and complete, right here, right now! Simple and obvious when your senses are focused within. Within the imagined body/mind and focused on the little spark (Atman or Heart), which of course, is the one and only SPARK. Life manifested. Spark manifested. Intelligence-Energy causing everything to appear in the infinity of space (or emptiness). Foreground appearing in the INFINITUDE (background). Look words up if you do not have a precise understanding of their definitions. There can not, and is not anything more than infinitude. The Totality, One, All there is! The phenomenal manifestation. Stop thinking there is anything more than one despite what you see—out there. The manifold world is the illusion—maya—the unreal. The real is ONE—GOD, or whatever you like to call THAT unfathomable Power.

Sayings (words) from the past solidify in meaning as clarity sharpens. The following saying, from the gospel of Thomas, befuddled me not to long ago. Now, its meaning is clear and rich. A pointer that transcends linear time.

Jesus said, “If they ask you, ‘Where are you from?’ tell them, ‘We are from the light, from the place where the light arose by itself and established its own in its image.’ If they ask you, ‘Are you that light?’ tell them, ‘We are its children, those whom the living Father has chosen.’ If they ask you, ‘How do you know that your Father dwells within you?’ tell them, ‘By his movement and his rest.’”
—The Gospel of Thomas (50)

We are all that light—or little spark. My evolving understanding is being helped along. Passed on in numerous readings, teachings, and meditations. I am a spiritual fledgling, gratefully caught in the light, like a sponge absorbing water. The gospel of Thomas contains 114 quotes of Jesus. To this writer they have become a treasure trove. A portal for introspection, communion, and supplication with Source, The Light—One. Some quotes seem to resonate plainly, others elude my level of knowing. But, with continued contemplation and meditation, I hope The Light will Self-illuminate all.

“Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower–but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.”
— Alfred Lord Tennyson, [1809-1892] Author, Poet Laureate

Here we are, once again—ONE. One is ALL THERE IS: Heart/God—or any other words you use to point to THAT, inasmuch you hold the words to be sacred, holy, and spoken with reverence to the ONE ultimate Source, which is ALL THERE IS. Atman/Brahman. that Light/the Light. little Spark/Spark.

“You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as ONE”
— Imagine, John Lennon

I find the following to be of interest. Being a Beatles fan in my youth (and still now at times), and a fan of the correlations between Eastern and Western religion today. The two fandoms seem transcendent. At least in my Mind.

In 1968, led by George Harrison’s commitment, The Beatles traveled to Rishikesh in northern India to take part in transcendental meditation. The visit followed the group’s denunciation of drugs in favor of transcendental meditation. Both George Harrison and John Lennon were convinced of the merits of meditation and yoga. The ‘human condition’ intervened while there in 1968, however, both George and John remained committed to Self-realization, before and after this visit, each in their own way.

“The Maharishi was good for me, like anybody who has something to tell you that you don’t know enough about. He was no substitute for anything, though. There’s a lot of good in Christianity, but you’ve got to learn the basics, and the basics from the Eastern beliefs, and work them together for yourself…I’d like to be like Christ, in a pure sense…love is a great gift, like a precious flower or something. You have to…look after it…you have to protect it.”
—John Lennon

“…At the height of it all, was the thing where I got involved with India. Anyway, for me it was the meditation. Meditation was the key to releasing all the anxieties and frustrations. You know when the nervous system gets wound up, then meditation’s the way of helping to restore some sort of order. But it’s like a mirror has become dirty. And so, through meditation and yoga, it’s the process of trying to polish the mirror so that we can reveal what we really are. Which is Sat-Cit-Ananda. Perfection, and that’s it, each one is potentially divine and the goal is just to realize that. So I mean that’s all I want to do—nothing much (smiling big with chortling).”
—George Harrison, Interview (Beatles) on Countdown 1977

The commingle of Eastern and Western ways are solidifying today. What eastern religions declare as truth, is becoming more accessible as truth to the west. And we are the better for it. Too long has the heard been controlled at the hands of the so called reverends. Trifle on Sunday, mediocrity in deed and faith, and back to business as usual the rest of the time. There is a delightful book that illustrates this conundrum beautifully: Hope for the Flowers, by Trina Paulos. I don’t think I have placed an outside link in my writings before. This anagogic story is worth the exception: Hope for the Flowers

Our only true goal is to evolve. Reaching within for perfection in God. Becoming as ONE with Source. Blooming in ONE’S ultimate glory. Achieving perfection, God Consciousness. A full time focus. It seems more and more are hearing this message. The best good of our advanced technology, the internet, providing medium for many to hear the message. Yet still such arrogance prevails. Turn from the ignorance, but hold them in heart. For all are our brothers and sisters. Pray for them, and remain steadfast and true. For ONE candle, burning brightly, illumines the many still in darkness. And, the message is visible in all its magnificence, shining brightly for all to see. In Christianity and Judaism, Isaiah’s passage, paraphrased, tells us: the lamb shall lie down with the lion. The time of this is now. Alone and secluded a thing of the past. Where once was limited contact tween like minded souls, the internet is bringing us together. Evolution is inching forward. If by the grace of the Benevolent Universe, maybe someday soon, John Lennon’s imagine will materialize, and the world will live as—ONE. I love you all, and hold all of you in my heart.

Where do we go from here?…*nowhere. Because you are already…*NowHere. A simple change in perspective. A simple realization of who we really are. Our reality, or dream, or movie, or play, or life, or anything else you want to call our existence. What difference does the word we call it matter? I exist, you exist. I am! That’s undeniable. We all say it—I am. That’s what we are. Nobody says I am not. Right here, right now—I am! I exist! How simple is that? And, as Moses realized when revealed, I am That I am. And you are that I am as well. We are all an appearance, or expression, or light of, or reflection or spark of, or whatever word you want to call this be-ing-ness we all are. Consciousness is not separate in you. Consciousness is what everything exists in. Consciousness is the Totality. You, that person shaped pattern, that body your mind claims is separate, appears in the One unfathomable Consciousness, along with everyone and everything else. All appearing in the field, or fabric, or space, or ether, or screen, or any other word or words that always prove inadequate in describing, and fall far short of naming, defining, or trying to explain the ALL THERE IS. Which everything exists in. Every pattern, shape, form, or outline in the seeing. And, every sensation, feeling, thought, sound, taste and imagine there is, or isn’t, is That—One. ONE is ALL THERE IS!. And everything appears, or doesn’t, in THAT.

Expand your view. Wholly. Open your eyes to the other half of the picture. The part your mind ignores. The space surround. The space that defines your human body pattern. The space that without, the shape could not appear. Without the background, there can be no foreground. Without THAT, you could not be. THAT allows for absolutely everything. It allows you to know yourSelf, or it allows you to ignore it. You know you are. You exist. But, who or what’s existing? Mind’s subterfuge, distracts and cajoles you into believing it’s myth. That you’re a separate entity, named or called—person. Did you exist before you ever learned a word? Of course you did. I bet you have photos proving your existence prior to you knowing any word. Words are thought only. And thought is mind. You existed as being, before you ever learned or acquired any word. You existed before thought. Before cognition, the Homo sapiens God given gift. The gift of reasoning. A bird was given flight. A dog was given keen smell. A chameleon was given the ability to change color. A fish was given gills to breathe water. You were given the ability to think, to reason. Your brain allows for cognition. Mind is the mechanism of this cognitive ability, when functioning properly. It is the human organism’s innate gift. It was not intended to be your master. All you need do is discern. Look for your Self. Look where Self is—within. Remove the little “me” mind, and make space for the Real Mind.

There is no such thing as a person. There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the person. You think you know yourself when you know what you are. But you never know who you are. The person merely appears to be, like the space within the pot appears to have the shape and volume and smell of the pot. See that you are not what you believe yourself to be. Fight with all the strength at your disposal against the idea that you are nameable and describable. You are not. Refuse to think of yourself in terms of this or that. There is no other way out of misery, which you have created for yourself through blind acceptance without investigation. Suffering is a call for enquiry, all pain needs investigation. Don’t be too lazy to think.”
― Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Mind looks ‘out there’ only, and sees everything as separate. And you just assume it to be true. Blindly going along with the farce, simply because everyone else does. The ego mechanism claims that I am is your body, and mind the master there of. Sloth, procrastination, denial, pride, lusting after objects or perceived status, to name a few of the misdirections mind uses to elude your looking into it. Your ego wants desperately to remain in it’s fictitious, self-centered role as the doer. Falsely claiming it is in control of your every action. Has that ever gone wrong for you? Your mind never knows what the ideal outcome or result of any action is going to be. It keeps trying to pull that elusive ‘rabbit from the hat’ that will make you happy indefinitely. And you keep listening and following. Be like Rocket J. Squirrel and see through your mind’s falsity—“But that trick never works.” Free yourself from the Bullwinkle J. Moose loop of ego, “watch me pull a rabbit from my hat.” — “This time for sure!” And out comes another ‘not rabbit.’ Never what Bullwinkle is trying to produce on his own. He always falls short of his goal. And so will you till you see; “But that trick never works.” No sense object ever can fulfill what you’re in search of. For you, yourSelf, are what you seek. You are not that mind or body your mind tells you you are. In fact, you are not limited by anything. The seed of Source within you, or the rabbit in your hat you’re in search of, eternal joy and happiness, is always in reach. Waiting just within, for you to look. There, and there alone, will you find the peace you long for. For there alone lies the spark of life that is you. The essence of your true nature, the Real … Source, Intelligence-Energy-Space—God, waiting within for Union.

Not a personal God that is associated with the manifestation, but the ONE impersonal God that creates and sustains all. Which, as ALL THERE IS, includes any personal God hanging out in mind’s imagination—thought, ego. Mind alone creates a personal God and assigns attributes to him. And then, cries out, how can you let this atrocity, injury, or injustice, happen? Mind as master, ego as separate entity, is the graven image. A false idol worshipped in thought alone. A cover-up by ego that plagues the Heart of Beingness. For in this scenario, man created God in his image, not the reality of the other way around. God, the real God, whatever THAT is, created man in his image—Space, Light, Emptiness, No-Thing. Nothing, appearing as everything. Intelligence-Energy-Space in action. Only in Self realization, by investigating for oneself, can the One true Source of all that is be uncovered and found—within. Right where it always been.

“So also faith alone without works is dead” (James 2:17)

“According to your faith be it unto you”  (Matthew 9:29)

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

Read slowly as the mystery of divine hypnosis is unraveled. A series of complex processes. A thought arises: I, as person—a subject is born. I sees a tree. An object is born. Yet both I and tree arise in the ether of I, the eternal. The One and only true subject. The I, as person, can not see as it claims it can, “I see.” The eye, not I, sees as the functionality of the organ. The I, as person, has nothing to do with seeing. Dualism is born from thought appropriating the sense organ (eye), and combining with, to create and claim the seeing as I, the person. And, due to ignorance (ignoring it), belief binds you to the illusory world of objects the mind claims as real. Belief in this process will continue until the ego is seen through. I as subject, tree as object, I as eye, I as person. The unseen truth is, both subject and object arise in the Oneness of existence, which translates through the mind as the thought; I, or I am. Beingness is always present, whether you’re thinking I am, or not. If you’re not thinking the thought, I am, you don’t cease to be—Beingness. This is at the root of eastern knowledge and expressed in thought or words as: One, without a second, or Non conceptual, ever fresh, presence awareness, just this and nothing else.

I know this you say. I know that you say. Your mind has created a knower, I. And the known, is the object. But both the knower and the known arise in I, the inherent knowing. Neither I, nor the thought known, would exist for not the natural knowing. You hear cars pass by, but you don’t have to think it, you naturally recognize the passing as such—inherent knowing. Mind says, “I hear,” a subject is born. Chirping, the object is born. In reality, the ear heard, and the innate knowing identified the sound. You did not have to think; I hear a bird chirping. It registered in the natural knowing. Yet mind divides the sound, and claims hearing is heard by the hearer, a separate subject, a mind made entity. Our five senses are gifts from whatever you want to call That from which we sprang, yet you ignore the obvious and create the fiction. Have a look for yourself. There truly is nobody there. Only the Source and Flow of the Universe in action. Animating and functioning that body pattern mind calls you. Whether you realize it, or not.

Reminders of truth are placed in the world to point to reality. Simple illusions to illustrate the dualism at play. The grand illusion is you, as separate. Is the water really blue? Is the rainbow catchable? Is the mirage drinkable? Illusion all. But they appear to be. And ego is illusion also. There is no I, as person, that does anything. That is the maya, the unreal. Created as the water, rainbow, and mirage are. You know the latter three as false, yet they do not disappear from sight. You see through these illusions to the truth via innate knowing. See through the illusion of separate entity as well. Nothing is separate from ONE: I am. Every man or woman seen, you call, or label a “you.” They in turn, see you, as a “you.” Billions and billions of youse in the world. But, mind turns this one particular you into a “me,” for there is only one of these. How special. Yet, every other unrealized man or woman, thinks of him or herself as a “me” also. Explain that beyond One is all there is. And “me” claims as ‘my’ or ‘mine.’ An exclusive. Look at the difference this perception takes on: “I hope you get all the money you want.” “But, you can’t have any of my money.” You can have all of that you want, just none of mine! Split mind in action, vacillating between opposites. Generosity when not possessiveness. What misery caused by mind. You’ve probably dated many men or women without any significant problem. But, when he or she becomes my boyfriend, or my girlfriend, think of all the problems you encountered. Is he/she being true? Is he/she loyal to “me?” Can I trust him/her around my best friend? Can I trust my best friend around him/her? And on an on, the mind’s wonderings trouble you. Me, my, mine, ego, separateness. All self centered, “little mind,” possessiveness. The bondage of Self. Let go of this illusion. Drop the “me” thought and let freedom be free. Turn the lights of your true nature on the fog of illusion, mind. Investigate for yourself this so called “me” entity. I can tell you you won’t find any point in that body you can say, “there’s my me.” But whether you believe what you read here, or not, will only be a belief. And belief in your beliefs is the cause of all your miseries already. Your ego must see for itself it does not exist, for it to be metamorphosed into the known of the natural knowing. And, seen through for evermore as the illusion it is.

Your senses I bring forth for thee
My eyes for you do see, and ears that hear
sweet melody, In all these gifts are me
I give you taste—smell touch as well
My ether, solid ground
All creatures, big—small tall and stout,
do please the earth abound
and not for want I leave undone
Your every need is mine
I give all this in love to thee,
My aura always shines,
So why doubt your thoughts as I my child?
not budding forth from me
let not one word be thought alone
don’t think from you, as me
the mind must bow, and groom to I
your faith will bring you through
When viewed as like with I this way
Your reach for me is true
Your mind does work, sharp as tine
living life for me
You walk on sacred ground, a path
The winding path to me
this path is guarded by a gate
A gate you can not see
One day to see your bliss arrive
will bring you to your knees
Your humble bow to I, not thee
Will open gate a-wide
And lay your gaze on me at last
A vision, no surprise
—Memos from Heart

Remember kid hood? Just running out the door, in search of childish adventure? What will the day bring? No real plan. Just jumping on your bike and riding up the street to see. You didn’t think, or maybe you did, which way to go. You were just being. Being was what guided you. You may have stopped to think, but you were operating as being. Your experiences of the world had not built up in mind sufficiently for it to take charge yet. You could use your mind to think, but it wasn't necessary for action to happen. Thought was not yet your master. Do you ever wonder what happened to that freedom? Did you just outgrow it? Become an adult? Like the other ‘adults’ always told you you would? “Grow up!” they said. Not I, not I—not now! At least not in the external senses alone mode they taught (and continue to preach). As your adult self, you don’t have to listen to those past voices in fear of consequences. You have the opportunity to re-start, re-nourish, re-grow, and re-cognize (recognize) your childhood freedom. To be like a child again. Not to be a child again, for your intellect has developed, matured, and is far more knowledgeable in the ‘ways of the world,’ than your childhood intellect was. But to enjoy life happening from your natural state of freedom (like a child). You remember that feeling of freedom from childhood because it is still within you. Only covered-up, veiled behind a lifetime of thought. This and that. Do this and you’ll be happy. Do that and you won’t. How can you know what reality is if you remain blind to experiencing it freely once again? The mind is only memory and anticipation. Past and future. A mental interpretation of life! Not the ever fresh, natural flow of life unfolding. Each activity is new in the present moment. Like it was in childhood. Letting go of thoughts about it, frees it to unfold ‘as is’ again. Neither this nor that, just ‘what is.’ Life happening! Not life happening—to you. My last childhood recollection of living life from that freedom of beingness place was around age fifteen or sixteen. Beyond that last memory, vivid and precious as is—nothing. Mind took over completely. I now know what happened. A mental identity set-up, veiling my natural state. So gradual my loss at the time though, then poof!—gone. Thought, mind, thinking—an illusory separate entity, usurped my freedom. Beingness lost. And, like most of us, I just accepted it as inevitable; then. “Everyone grows up, right?” I thought. Society bombards us with that message. Be responsible, make your mark, you can’t just go on floating down the river all your life. The Logical Song, by Supertramp, expressed the controversy at war within my being to a tee. And judging by the song’s popularity in the US and UK, I was far from alone. The vast majority of us just accepted reality to be as we were taught—by adults, school, society, religion, business, etc… All caught in the web of mind darkness. Not making sense. Not sitting well. Not in alignment with our insides, with our innate knowing. We intuitively lived life unfolding in childhood, and we still sense its presence within now. Look within. Look to what is screaming to be set free within you. The mind has to be returned to its proper place as servant to regain that freedom we knew as kids. Direct experience investigation. See for yourself. It’s the only way. I don’t need anyone to: “please tell me who I am,” anymore. I know. And so can you. Question your false idol: mind! Mind’s random thoughts, derived from mental memories and anxious anticipation only, which control you. This is the meaning behind the ancient quote:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
— Jesus, from the gospel of Matthew


"Jesus simply unfolded and interpreted Truth, as others did so before him,
and others will do so after him. And, in fact, as we read the teachings of Jesus,
we find that he wishes all of us to unfold that truth:
‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” …
“Again and again men forget that these presentations of the
divine are meant to be unfolded in their own lives.”
—Swami Prabhavananda, The Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta

But whether I tell you, or Jesus tells you, or Buddha or Krishna, or anybody else tells you, it won’t be your experience. It can not be taught like other knowledge. You have to do the work. Question your mind. Find out, in your own direct experience, what happened to your childhood freedom. It’s there. Waiting to be rediscovered. Innate, came with the package, your inalienable—Being! Just covered up, hidden by years and years of mind muck. Start from the only fact you know to be 100% true—I am! You, nor anybody else, can deny this simple truth. You exist! Absolutely anything else you say is concept. Some may believe what you say, and others may not. But nobody can say you are not.

One who seeks will find. One who knocks will have the door opened for him.”
—Jesus, from the gospel of Thomas

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path.”
—Buddha

“For one who has conquered his mind, a mind is best of friends,
but for one who has failed to do so, a mind is the greatest enemy.”
—Lord Krishna

“Your true nature is that of infinite spirit.
The feeling of limitation is the work of the mind.”
—Ramana Maharshi

“All you have to do is to give attention to the
obstacles created by the foolish mind.”
—Nisargadatta Maharaj

“If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise
nor disgrace, because you know what you are.”
—Mother Teresa

“The moment that judgement stops through acceptance of what it is,
you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”
—Eckhart Tolle

“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”
—Lao Tzu

“If you find the mirror of the heart dull, the rust has not been cleared from its face.”
—Rumi

“What is wrong with right now if you don’t think about it?”
—Sailor Bob

From ancient times, to present, Godheads, Saints, Self realized beings, mystical masters, as well as our own ‘Spark of Light’ within, have been telling us the truth of who and what we really are. Doesn’t it make you wonder? Isn’t it time to listen? Or, at least take a look into? Maybe, just maybe, there’s a truth lying hidden in a message that has persevered for over 2,000 years.

There is no such thing as an imaginary place. Yet you allow yourself to be trapped there. You can never find freedom in the belief an imaginary place exists. Yet you pray and meditate to be freed. If it is not seen for itself, that there is no such thing as an entity, or place separate from the Absolute oneness of all creation, your prayers, meditations, and any other spiritual pursuits or practices, serve only to perpetuate the separateness itself. All actions of thought, word, and deed, serve only to reinforce a belief in the very thing you want freedom from. No separate mind can achieve freedom. Achievement is what the separate entity (mind) claims it can do. And claims it as you. It claims if you pray and meditate faithfully, and practice your worship of God, one day you will achieve freedom. This trying to achieve is the bondage of Self. How can anyone ever achieve something it already is? How can you ever become something you already are? The mind, which is thought alone, is the delusion. Unless you see for yourself, via direct experience investigation, questioning and demanding the mind to prove its separate entity status, it will keep you on its path to freedom indefinitely. It must be seen directly, by each individual mind, that nothing exists separate from all creation. The thought, I or me, my or mine, as an individual body, is the illusion of mind, the imaginary place, the separate entity. Until this is seen, it’s like being on an imaginary treadmill. There is no walking freely about on a treadmill. The treadmill exists is the problem, and the individual is trying to solve the problem after it believes the treadmill exists. The solution to the problem is before belief in the existence of a treadmill. Simply recognize walking is happening. No individual walking on a treadmill exists. There is no treadmill to be on, in order to walk. And there is no individual doing the walking. Then there is walking in freedom. You are not your mind. You are not your thoughts. You are not limited in any real way. Only by a belief in an imaginary place, a place called mind, do you limit yourself in any way. What you actually are is, and has always been, free. The door of the imagined cage is wide open. All that need be done, is to see for yourself, there is no cage, there is no treadmill, there is no individual walking—beyond what thought and imagination, the little mind, tells you.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ENTITY. NOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE 
AWAKE, BECAUSE YOU ARE HERE, AND YOU HAVE THAT KNOWLEDGE. 
THERE IS NOTHING ELSE THAN THIS KNOWLEDGE. NO ENTITY. 
— NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

Intelligence-Energy, the substance, body, or field
of God—ONE. All powerful, All knowing;
beyond comprehension, definition, description; pervading
the natural order, universal laws, karma; the fabric of space
and time, omnipresent; the totality of all things within
the boundless infinity, eternal. Shaping and forming
all patterns, encompassing the whole, alive and dead;
active or inert; small and large alike; changeless in
application and bounty—love—Such is the glory of God!
—and such is us, the essence of God within, we are;
craving union, reacquaintance, realization, return;
harmony in all action; devotion in thought, word,
and deed; allegiance to the natural order of things;
our purpose, our desire, our focus,
ONE

Ignorance, the veil of all darkness. The cause of all psychological suffering. The birth place of an erroneous belief in an imaginary separate entity. Attachment to a mere word—me. Living in thought alone, mind as master. The false master bonding you to illusion, maya, the interrelated opposites—the world of sense objects alone. Limiting your true Self to no more than a mind made false belief in a so called person. A belief!—Not a knowing! When, in actuality, the knowing is: You are no less than the eternal One, the natural flow of life unfolding, the perpetual motion, action, inaction, creation and existence of the divine universe itSelf. The Intelligence-Energy that permeates all space. Moving through, and expressing through, that pattern of energy you call you. You think that body is solid? You think the word—person, is that body? You think a me exists? You think, you think, you think. Or, more succinctly, your mind tells you, tells you, tells you. And you identify with the thoughts. Do you think you’ll cease to exist if you don’t think? Try to cease to exist right now. Don’t think for a second. Pause your thought. Did you cease to exist? Of course not. But you may have enjoyed a brief instance of silence from the insistent rattling of mind chatter. That silence, even if experienced for only the briefest of seconds, is your natural state. The recollected Mind is awake in the knowledge of inherent knowing, when the distraction of thought is hushed. To recollect your mind, you must tame it. And continue taming it till it just falls away. When belief in the mind as master is no more, you’re left in your natural state of being. The calmness and quietude of a Mind at rest prevails. A Mind in servitude to being. Practice not thinking. Create space, silence. No, it’s not easy at first. Your mind thinks it’s in charge. Did your mind think you into existence? The mind would not exist except for what you actually are. What is existence? What is real? Question your mind. Discover truth. The false beliefs of an unexamined mind can not hold up to the questioning of its validity. Who am I? Your mind can not answer this question. Go ahead, ask it. Demand an answer. It’ll answer any other question it knows when you ask. Why not this one? It doesn’t know! It draws a blank. Nothing’s there (No-Thing). See for yourself. Yet it controls you. Claims it is you. See through the falsity of mind. See through to your true identity. The only constant, the only truth, the only reality—the One life essence you truly are. You are the expression of God—Appearing in the space or field or body of phenomenality. Creation, existence itself. That, the Absolute, the All There Is! Witness the wonders of the universe. Be what you are!—ONE—Absolutely everything is One, appearing on the screen of Awareness. Intelligence-Energy appearing as every object, every pattern, every shape, and every form—in the emptiness of space.

Righteousness - living in right relationship with God, the universe, other beings, and all creation
(harmony with nature, with the natural order of things).

"‘Banat, banat, ban jai.’- one of Lahiri Mahasaya’s favorite remarks,
with which he would encourage his students to persevere in meditation.
It is Literally: ‘Making, making, some day made.’ One may freely
translate the thought as: ‘Striving, striving, one day behold! the Divine Goal.’”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, from Autobiography of a Yogi

"Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may.
Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it.
This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent."
— Ramana Maharshi

“The witness is both unreal and real. The last remnant of the illusion, the first touch of the real.
To say: I am only the witness is both false and true, false because of the ‘I am’,
true because of the witness. It is better to say: ‘there is witnessing’.
The moment you say ‘I am’, the entire universe
comes into being along with its creator.”
— Nisargadatta Maharaj

Self-realization is not easy—but it is simple. The ego does not want to let go. Even though it can not find an answer and continues to suffer. It maintains the illusion that it will find an answer…someday. Hell is life lived via this imaginary entity; mind as separate master. Follow not, for your answer lies in Self-realization (recognizing who you are and have always ever been). The answer is not, nor will it ever be, found in the mind. Searching for an answer in the mind is like a detective searching for a criminal, and the criminal is the detective himself. Naturally, he doesn’t want to get caught. Truth alone is found in our own beingness. Being is what we are. Our being, as a detective, can catch the criminal detective. No one can deny their existence, I am—their being. I am is the only 100% fact any of us knows. Just being a human. Hence, Self-realization is simple, I am! Mind alone the foe, making this simplicity, not easy. Dependency on mind must be relinquished. It is not what we are. We were what we are when we were kids. Our mind was still functioning properly as a child. Development of intellect/ego as we grew-up slowly took control, creating our very own Frankenstein monster—mind (as separate). This rogue entity (mind) masks our true-self from us. Mind, functioning properly, is part of our beingness. Our inherent capacity to reason. When you were a child you lived from being. I can not remember one time in my childhood, when after coming home from playing, critiquing in mind how I could have played better if I had done this instead of that—and my mind criticizing me for not doing this, instead of that. It may have calculated a strategy for how I could win next time I played the same game if I did something differently. But, to my recollection, it never called me a dumb-ass for doing what I did. That childhood mind is not lost now! Just covered up. Ignored by the imagines (fictional beliefs) of a conditioned mind.

To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that.
Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don’t disturb your mind with seeking.”
—Nisargadatta Maharaj

Scriptures, both east and west, are pointing us to the simple truth. Words pointing to our inner Truth—our true identity. The words of scripture are not doctrines to be worshipped and followed by the mind. But pointers, by those who went before us, and who discovered their inner Truth. The same Truth laying dormant within each of us. Guideposts for us to follow to reclaim our innate Self. Reclaim the Real from the erroneous thoughts, beliefs, and imaginings of an illusory, self appointed god—mind/ego. Genuine Self-realized beings, didn’t want, and don’t want to be worshipped for their divine wisdom, but wanted, and want to convey the message they carried, or carry: anyone can realize Truth for oneself. Each of us is That truth. Each of us have the identical Truth latent within us waiting to be realized. THAT TRUTH can not be defined, obtained, or transmitted in the same fashion as worldly knowledge can. Hence, words that can only point to the Way to realize this Truth for oneself. The Truth: I am divine! You are divine! We are all Divine! We are life! We are light! We are That! We are all the reflection of The One True Source! The Infinite—made finite. I’ve called this truth by many names. Labels I’ve put on That undeniable I am. I seem to always come back to Intelligence-Energy-Space at some point or another though. Always remember, words are just words and of the realm of mind. The mind as master divides Truth. Jesus carried the message of Truth. But few heard it as intended:

Jesus said: “He who drinks from my mouth will become like me,
and I will become like him, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”
—the gospel of Thomas, saying 108

Jesus said: “I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and
what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind.”
—the gospel of Thomas, saying 17

Basically, ‘do as I do, see within, investigate the truth the I am from this mouth is saying—for yourself, and you also will realize this Truth. We are both the One I am.’ But the many minds of that ancient time, as the many minds of present day do today, worshipped, or criticized the messenger, and ignored the message. “He’s special,” or “he’s crazy,” they, and we say. The externally focused mind divides everything into the opposites of a perceived by the senses alone world; the dos and don’ts, goods and bads, rights and wrongs, this and thats, etc., etc., etc… Christianity was born by those who thought Jesus special. The messenger only, and not the message, special. Jesus just wanted to share his realization of Self, Spirit, Essence, or whatever word you want to put on what our true nature is. And conventional Christianity today continues to perpetuate the mind’s idea of worshipping only the messenger, and completely ignoring the message. Mind’s ignorance, as in ignoring one thing, and focusing on the other. Duality; the mind dividing the messenger and message. Organized religion, minds/egos, guiding the masses today, too steeped in ignorance (ignoring the message) to investigate the Truth of themselves for themselves. Look closely at today’s so called religion. It is being used at the whim of the egos in charge. Constantly being divided by minds. Added to; correct practice, incorrect practice, do this and be saved, do this and be damned. And subtracted from; churchly attire required, come as you are…just come! And on and on and on, the minds in charge continue to divide and refine the doctrines to suit the times (and collection plate) of the church business. There is a simple story that depicts this ignorance in the book, Awareness. A transcript of a talk given by Anthony DeMello, S.J.

There was a man who invented the art of making fire. He took his tools and went to a tribe in the north, where it was very cold, bitterly cold. He taught the people there to make fire. The people were very interested. He showed them the uses to which they could put fire–they could cook, keep themselves warm, etc. They were grateful that they had learned the art of making fire. But before they could express their gratitude to the man, he disappeared. He wasn’t concerned with getting their recognition or gratitude; he was concerned about their well-being.

He went to another tribe, where he again began to show them the value of his invention. People were interested there, too, a bit too interested for the peace of mind of the priests, who began to notice that this man was drawing crowds and they were losing their popularity. So they decided to do away with him. They poisoned him, crucified him, put it any way you like.

But they were afraid now that people might turn against them, so they were very wise, even wily. Do you know what they did? They had a portrait of the man made and mounted it on the main altar of the temple. The instruments for making fire were placed in front of the portrait, and the people were taught to revere the portrait and to pay reverence to the instruments of fire, which they dutifully did for centuries. The veneration and the worship went on, but there was no fire.

Tend that smoldering fire within. The truth of our true nature can only be found within each of us via direct investigation (experiencing for oneself). The Absolute truth is always there, recognized or unrecognized. Recognize it—re-cognize! I implore you. Don’t idly worship the words of doctrine. No matter how glorified they seem. The Truth will never be found in the minds alone. Go beyond mind stuff. Kindle the fire within yourself for your-Self. Pay attention to it, breathe on it, watch over it lovingly, till it grows from its dormant embers, to a blaze. And continue to feed the flames, let the bonfire in your heart erupt and engulf your entire being. Live!—live in the internal eternal flame, lighting your whole Self in the beautiful, magnificent, glory of being—you are. ONE! One without a second. One with our maker. Whatever That maker truly is. I am—the ALL THERE IS—THAT! … YOU! … I, … AND EVERYTHING!

”I and the Father are One” …. “the Father is greater than I” —said Jesus … and we all are That! The finite and infinite, unrealized and realized, manifested and unmanifested, appearing and invisible— The ALL THERE IS, ONE. Intelligence-Energy-Space, the Father and Mother and universal Self.

Have you bristled every time I use the word ‘Jesus’ as example? I use to bristle at the word, ‘Jesus.’ Scripture, the Bible, and the flippant way people tossed the words around—meaningless to my ears. Ears I thought were mine. Critical ears. Critical of an incomprehensible message, and by extension, the messenger. They were not yet just the organs that hearing happens through. Today; I still bristle, when these ears hear the flippant way words of scripture are casually tossed around. But I no longer sit as judge of what is heard. I accept, I forgive the ignorance. But if I teeter toward what I perceive to be judgement, I remember and contemplate silently; “But for your grace my Lord, there go I.” You see, I just never understood the words of Christian scripture. The simple truth at their core, the words were meant to carry. The Truth they pointed to. Because my mind alone was my master. On this website, there is a page I’ve labeled: Memos from Heart. The page was originally intended to be an occasional posting of recognition from the I am embodied in this one. It now seems to have evolved into almost a daily posting (or more). One of these postings was (and is):

Read, what sayeth thy Lord,
for the hearts of the angels
will spill forth, and be taken in
—Memos from Heart

I had already been reading books and listening to audios of non-duality authors and speakers. Many resonated within me as speakings or writings of truth. One author/speaker, Sailor Bob Adamson, in a talk I had listened to numerous times before, stated: “In Hinduism they call it Advaita. And Advaita translates as non-duality.” These words stood out upon this particular listening. I began looking into eastern philosophy, which lead to eastern theology. Primarily Advaita Vedanta. Long story, made short. I was lead to reading the Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. And then, The Upanishads, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederic Manchester. Ancient writings and Indian scripture. Basically, India’s Bible. Bedrock theology anyway. So much simpler to read than our Bible! Sure they name a lot of deities, and Indian specific words are used. But reading these texts on an iPad makes it simple to “define” or “look up” the deity or word. And to my amazement, the definitions were there, and translated in most cases, to understandable concepts. Then later, the really amazing happened. The sayings in the Bible, scripture (the ancient stuff), things Jesus was recorded as having said in the gospels, were understandable (mostly). I comprehended them. They made sense. The incomprehensible had become clear. Discernment seemed to come naturally. The hidden things (Christian scripture in this instance), had been revealed by no act of will on my part, but by grace alone. The reason behind my bristle at the word, ‘Jesus,’ turned rightly. All I can do is thank the Universe.

Footnote: There is probably as many ways recognition occurs as there are so-called people in the world. Sharing the workings of grace my only intention in sharing a bit of “my story” above. Tony Parson makes the statement the recognition of his true nature occurred while he was walking in a Park. Trying to find out which Park it was became the goal of numerous aspiring minds. The mind is a cunning foe (at first). Remember the moral of the “sly old fox” song. Emulation is not an absolute answer. Each being is unique and unfolds accordingly. Do not wander from your internal guidance. Sri Krishna says, in the Bhagavad Gita: “Better is one’s swadharma, though deficient, than the swadharma of another well performed.“ This Indian word, “swadharma,” took a little extra looking up. I found this interpretation at the time of “Look Up” (there are others). “Swadharma is that action which is in accordance with your nature. Any action that does not make you afraid or anxious. When we do something without authenticity, just to show-off, is when we feel fear, because the action is not genuine, it does not come from the heart. When what we do comes from the heart, it is authentic, and so there is no fear. Any action that uplifts us is swadharma.” Try as I did, at the time of this writing though, I could not re-find this particular definition again. It brought to Mind, the following teaching of Nisargadatta Maharaj:

“Your own self is your ultimate teacher (sadguru). The outer teacher (Guru) is merely a milestone.
It is only your inner teacher, that will walk with you to the goal, for he is the goal.”

You have always been, and will always be, what you are. How could you not be? So what is expected to be gained by Self realization? What is enlightenment? What is this magical ‘waking up’ going to do for ‘me?’ Short answer; nothing. No ‘me’ exists to be ‘realized.’ Self realization doesn’t change you, the conceptual ‘me,’ into anything new or special. The understanding is about an inner falling away. More succinctly, a loss of something that was only believed to exist, a ‘me.’ Replaced with an unwavering knowing, all is well as is. The specialness of Self realization, if you want to call it special, is a different kind of awareness. Perceptions, view points, shift. How life is experienced changes. As a result of the focused investigation into who or what you really are within, ego sees itself for what it is—illusion. There simply is no separate ‘me’ entity in there existing along side the All There Is—the life essence, Spirit, or primal energy that’s functioning the body/mind appearance. No separate me, my, mine. No substantial, independent entity, called, named, or labeled, ‘person’ exists. Person being ‘only a word’ associated with a particular pattern or shape of energy appearing in the manifestation. Except for mental conditioning, no me, my, mine—person, has, or can ever have, anything different or special than other similarly shaped patterns of energy. No awakened, enlightened, realized, ‘walk on water’ person will ever exist, because no separate “me’ entity ever existed in the first place. The separate entity ‘me’ filters you viewed the world through were the problem. The filters stored within mind (ego) for comparison purposes. Not viewing the world through the individual’s particular filters, the beliefs, concepts, prejudices, convictions, values, aught-to-be’s, shouldn’t be’s, etc… frees perception to see reality for what it is. No translation of the event or happening taking place in thought. Life is unfolding as it always has, but there is no longer a ‘me’ entity to take it personally (filter it). Life is just as it is, happening, without the sticky ego involved to interpret or judge the unfolding, as to how it should be experienced. Hence, ‘ever fresh’ experiencing.  Experiencing is free flowing, experiencing life as is. No rights or wrongs, goods or bads, likes or dislikes, associated with the happening. The personal filters, the personal conditioning, the mask (persona), has fallen away (i.e. the word ‘person’ has fallen away). Everything is just what it is. Will you still have emotions? Yes. Will you have sensations? Yes. Will you still have thoughts? Yes. The difference, they just come and go. They (begin) arise in Mind, (middle) experiencing occurs, and they (end) move on. There’s no sticky ego any longer for thoughts, feelings, and emotions, to attach to, and suffer the psychological effects from. Without the cause (ego), there can be no effect. Perception shifts. From a ‘me,’ to a no-thing (life), no center point, no central ‘me’ complex. Only the unknown Source of life, the energy flow—the all inclusive THAT which produces and sustains everything. God, if you prefer that word for the pointing. With the death of the illusory ego, evolving happens. A non self-centered being emerges. The personal entity metamorphoses into an impersonal being, with a more inclusive viewpoint. A natural curiosity accompanies perceptions. Happenings, events, challenges, life situations, are all met and responded to spontaneously … “like a child,” but with an evolved intellect. Problem solving ideas arise naturally in Mind, and life continues. Only, ‘with the peace that passeth all understanding,’ as the background. Our natural state. Our Mind’s natural state, prior to all the incessant chatter of ego. There’s no longer an urge to seek something better. Neither is there a desire to escape from anything. Everything is just as it’s meant to be. No desire for it to be anything other than what it is. All occurrences have an obvious, or sometimes not so obvious, unraveling, or playing out. There are preferences, but you no longer mind if the play-out happens differently than expected. Self realization is not at all what you initially thought it would be, or imagined it to be, when you began your search. The realization, the enlightenment, awakening, or shift, is simply no longer seeing the world through a separate entity’s limited viewpoint (filters). You are what you are. Free to experience, moment to moment, the glory of life’s evolutionary unfolding.

May the peace of God be with you.

It is said, when images of our dead fathers, as well as celestial bodies appear in meditation, knowing is evolving. Ancient scripture tells of our dead fathers as being Souls at rest, reaping the rewards of their past lives in another world. However, still subject to rebirth. These images can be both familiar and not. An illumined heaven or lighted cloud may appear as well. An unrecognized, but holy symbol may appear, yet their is a knowledge of knowing this image, and the divine reverence surrounding it is perceived. A peace comes over the aspirant, the meditator. Scripture takes on a deeper meaning and understanding. Some fear of loosing this state still exists. But hope for retention is ever persistent. Oneness is perceived. Oneness of all, of the One True Self. That Self is One with God and all. That the world is a gift is known. A dream of the highest in which this character is allowed to appear. Within this dream, the character thrives, or is eaten. Rebirth to those that are eaten by the world. Unknown at this relative time, by this writer, where those that thrive in this world are destined to. To go, and reappear in the endless dream of the father. But greatly wondered upon and anticipated. And an ever deepening desire for union with That. With God, or your chosen word for That. That which is endless, formless, and all pervading. The That that is unknown. The adored One. The One the heart longs for. The One the True Self, or Holy Spirit, hidden for so long, ignored, yearns for. Recollectedness, return to the eternal; the birthless, deathless, endless state before the world was. Intelligence-Energy-Space.

May the peace of knowledge be with you.

We get hung up in the words. Words are concept. Words are mind. Not truth. All misunderstanding happens in thought (unspoken words). Mind stuff. All differentiation happens in mind (thoughts). All mind stuff is illusion, the false. Ego trying to continue its story. “Something’s missing.” “I’ll find it.” “There it is, that’ll make me happy,” mind says. And we identify with the current thought. And off we go again in pursuit of that new thought that will make us happy. Put the brakes on mind. Full stop is the only way out of mind games. Mind maya. Looking within the answer. That’s where true happiness resides. The mind misconstrues the happiness within, and seeks it constantly without. The mind deals in things. Objects it can see and touch, out there. All your senses are directed outwards. The ancients called this “the wide gate.” The only gate the mind can see. Most never stop to see there may be another way. Another gate. They just continue to follow mind through this gateway to out there, in an endless search for happiness, wholeness, completion. “There it goes,” mind says. “That object will truly make me happy,” mind thinks for us. Take a look at this. How many objects have you obtained by following mind’s thoughts? How many objects have made you happy? Are you still happy? Do you still find true happiness in that object? Or has your mind discarded it as not the answer it thought it was, even though you still possess it? Placing a new object of desire in its place for you to chase. Look back over your life at all the so called objects of happiness you’ve obtained (and discarded) in your search for true happiness. Maybe the realization will dawn on you, the answer will never be found in the mind. There must be another way. There is, say I! The ancients called it “the narrow gate.” The gateway within. This gate can not be seen by the mind. Full stop! Stop believing the thoughts of mind are who you are. The only way out of mind! The way out is within. Investigate truth for yourself. Turn your senses inward. Will mind protest? Yes! “There’s nothing in there,” it screams. That’s what you’re searching for, reply. Nothing (no thing). Nothing is needed to be eternally happy. No thing is what created your mind and body. And your search in the first place. Everyone is searching for the same no thing. The problem lies in the imaginary leader we follow, mind. Put the brakes on mind’s illusory nature. Discover your true being, your true nature within. Stop pursuing what lies within, without. You’ve always been whole and complete, right from the start. It’s only thought (mind) that’s been telling you otherwise. Have a look for yourself. You’ve tried everything else, haven’t you? Try the narrow gate. No thing! That no thing, no object, that’s always been every object you ever desired, and searched for. Shakespeare had it right all along. “To be, or not to be. That is the question.” BE!

I am the still background of existence, Intelligence Energy Space, Emptiness, the Life or Life Essence itself. Life having a leading edge experience, physical reality NOW. There is no next. There is nothing to seek. Nothing to do, nothing to be. All is done as I through this body mind organism. No personal doer ever. Only the unaffected silent witnessing. Not moved to happiness or sadness based on the seeing. All is as is, as it is. Thy will be done. Non-personal nothing-ness, no body, no mind …. NoThing …. Simply Being what I AM. The Is-ness I is, the I-ness I IS, right here, right now, I AM THAT I AM, unborn, undying, and out-side time, I am the clear field, background, or emptiness in which birth, existence, and death appear. The Absolute, the Totality. The ONE, without a second. Pure Awareness. The door to the eternal unborn I am is wide open. I, as separate mind let go and the tension of holding on dissolves. I am I, non conceptual, ever fresh, Presence Awareness, the “feeling realization” of  the infinite, eternal — ONE —

Reality therapy. God consciousness. The what is. All synonymous ways of looking at the presence of awareness. What we are prior to thought. That which thought arises in and from. We are all That, prior to individuation. Prior to the egoic mind usurping our beingness. Prior to following thought and body as identity. Prior to becoming trapped in concepts—separated from our true nature—our true Self, our being. Begins, the search. The search for that which was never lost, only covered over. Veiled from our innate knowing. Being’s inherent knowing. The being we lived from in childhood. Prior to the training our brains were fed and mind took on. Prior to our ego becoming a separate knower. In the movie, The Matrix, Morpheus apologizes to Neo for waking him up. Explaining their guideline of not waking a mind absorbed in the matrix, past a certain number of years. Further explaining the reason for this guideline as being, the difficulty an older mind has with accepting reality. Of letting go of the matrix induced dream world it believes is real. We’re in that matrix (ego) induced dream world. Not by an ominous alien take over, but by our own perception of the world as it is imagined to be via thought alone. An imagined matrix of mind. An extremely limited perception of reality. A world that the ego, separate from reality, is constantly trying to define and explain. Defining that which can not be defined. As soon as the mind touches it, thinks it knows, it’s fragmented. Reality is shrunken. Limited by the thought itself. Reducing awareness, the benevolent and loving to be presence we are, to a thing. The omnipresent intelligence within, producing and sustaining all that is, covered over. We look out from this presence via the sight organs, and instinctively know something’s not right. Something’s distorted—off—just not lining up. But due to our beliefs taken onboard by the society we grew up in, our own externally geared sense organs, and our identification with the body and mind, we shrug it off. Instead, we go about trying to fit our round self into a square world. An ego produced matrix, a square world of thought we accept as reality, because that’s what we learned, and what we’ve come to believe. This world is constantly changing. Unexplainable, unfathomable phenomenal. What’s real then? Real is: That, that never changes. Real is the only constant in an ever changing world. You’ve looked at this already, but lets look again. What’s ‘Real’ about your body? Isn’t it constantly changing? Cells dying, cells coming forth, food digesting and dissolving, hair changing color and length, fingernails growing, appearance deteriorating, etc…The body is an ever changing pattern of energy. We give its breaking down many names: aging, maturing, dying. But, regardless of what you call it, it doesn’t fit the definition of real, does it? That which never changes. And what about the egoic mind? The concept and image you have about yourself. Your memory mind identity. Has that remained constant over your life? Do you have the same image of you now, as you did at an earlier point in life? Of course not. You’ve added new ideas to your self-image, and dropped other thoughts and beliefs you’ve had about yourself. Continually refining and defining the concept and image you have of yourself, based on things like appearance, popularity, wealth, achievements, jobs, recognition, etc… Does that fit the definition of real? No! So what does fit the definition of “That, that doesn’t change?” Has your sense of being ever changed? The fact that you are? That you exist? That you’re present? That I am-ness about you that no one can dispute? Have you ever compared your aging body to your internal sense of yourself and thought something like; “I’m older, but I don’t feel any different? I feel the same inside.” Could the reason for that be your beingness is the constant? The unchanging, the Real? Yes! That sense of presence that is aware within, is the real you. You’re not that egoic mind. You’re not that pattern of energy you call body. You are that unchanging eternal presence, that sense of being that is aware of everything around it and within it. The livingness that functions all objects appearing in this ever changing world of atoms. Atoms appearing as different shapes, forms, patterns, in this magnificent array of multiplicity and diversity we call the universe. Pure Intelligence-Energy, spirit, life essence, projecting and reflecting back to itself—as you. Your only purpose, to realize this fact for yourself. To remember who you are. What you are. To identify with the One true Self within. Not with the egoic mind you think you are, or the energy pattern that makes up the body. Nothing you can ever accomplish, do or not do, achieve, or win, out there, will ever fulfill or satisfy your internal desire for everlasting peace and happiness. Wholeness, completeness, your Oneness of being. If not seen, you’ll spend the rest of your life in search of that illusive object, relationship, accomplishment, etc… out there, that will make you whole and complete. When in reality, all that needs to be done, is to see who and what you really are. No more seeking or searching for that ever illusive happiness you yearn to find. You are it. The search is over! Your true Self is whole, complete, loving to be, right now.

Christ may be born a thousand times in Bethlehem, but if he be
not born anew within your own heart, you remain eternally forlorn.”
—Angelus Silesius, 1624-1677, Catholic priest, physician, mystic, poet

May the peace of the God Self, be with you always

Discernment. Look within yourself without your story. Without thought. Without thought there is no memory of who you are. Without thought there is no future. Without thought there is no time. Without thought you have no problems. Without thought there’s only empty space within. Still and vast. In this dark open space you can sense your I am. A presence. A livingness. Alert and aware. You’re still perceiving, you still exist, yet no thought is there. This is our natural state. This is consciousness. Being. Intelligence within. What mind and thought arise in. This unseen, but perceived presence, is what we label god. In Buddhism it is labeled the no self or Buddha self. In Hinduism it’s labeled the Atman or Self, and is thought of as the Universal Self of the individual self. In Christianity it is labeled the Christ in us. The label we call it doesn’t matter. What matters is to realize it. Experience it more and more. The label is only an aide. An imagined in Mind ideal that helps direct us to within. Within, prior to the story of you. The mind self will return. Thought will arise to draw you back out. When you go with the thought, whatever the thought is, the wise label this attachment. Attachment to the object, the unruly senses, or the world. The external. The seen. The imagined by mind. The patterns of energy we take as the real. Forms. Letting go of the thought, recognizing that particular thought is not what you are, releases you from the mind attachment. You can then focus your attention back to within. Within to that intelligence. That aware but unseen presence. What the thought arose in, and mind claimed was you. That kingdom within, is consciousness, the real you, or primary you. Recognizing this difference is labeled discernment, by the wise. Spiritual discernment.

How do I meditate was asked of an unnamed mystic.
His reply: “Go back to before the world existed.”
If we do that we will know God and our own Self.
—How to Know God
THE YOGA APHORISMS OF PATANJALI
Translated with a commentary by
Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

I has written much about the false I. The ego in man that chains him to his illusion as separate from everything. The primary focus till now, being how to investigate your mind’s beliefs via direct experience inquiry. Now it’s time to turn our attention to the Real. What the real I, or I am refers to. God is the most common reference used, when naming that invisible and impossible to define, animating quality that functions the body mind of human beings. The no object, no thing, or ultimate subject itself. We all are this natural being. The life force within. There is a multitude of different terminology used by the many religions, scriptures, and writings, of the mystics, seers, and masters across the various cultures of the causal world. The variety of words used often lead to conceptual confusion. Keep in mind also, I am not trying to add to that confusion, yet at the same time, anything written here is also not the truth. The truth must be discerned for yourself. With this in mind, let’s get started with a quote from a divine incarnation, Sri Krishna states: “For one who has conquered his mind, a mind is best of friends, but for one who has failed to do so, a mind is the greatest enemy.” We are all the Life Essence within. The mind in servitude to the Life Essence within is one with the Self. The Self is God, or I. I’ll use the term, “universal Mind” henceforth, to distinguish the two minds of man. The egoic mind and the universal Mind of I. The mind of man houses our innate capacity to reason. Our capacity to reason functions in both the egoic mind and the universal Mind. Trusting the Life Essence, our truth within, is the key to opening the door to the universal Mind. This trust comes into being with the eyes closed and focus directed inward. The directed focus within, has many words attached to it. The words or labels used are all only trying to identity, or point towards that ineffable subject that can not be objectified. Our invisible nature or Truth within. This is where confusion arises in the undisciplined mind (the little mind or ego). For some, it is helpful to choose one approach, one ideal or image of that ineffable quality within, some call God, and stick with it. For others, when words are not considered to be black or white, concrete in nature, the truth of the various approaches is seen. A word used in one approach, is seen as the same word used in another approach, yet the two words (labels) are different. What we are pondering can not be limited. Therefore, the best approach by any given individual, is the one that offers the least resistance from their ego. What feels and comes most naturally. The various scriptures, pointings, and mantras, are not and end to themselves, but an entry point. An aide to access the pre-conceptual realm, or “divine ground.” This is where our natural state of being resides. And once again, many labels are used. Whether labeled the Self, the Atman, the Holy Spirit, or Spark of Life, all words used are one and the same. Just words trying to point to this inner realm of being. The important thing here is focus. This is experience, not thinking. As you commune silently, with the eyes closed, you enter the realm of nothingness. Focus on what’s real, what’s true, what’s present. You may or may not find it helpful to question; what’s beating this heart? Breathing these lungs? Thinking these thoughts? Be still, be quiet, be absorbed in nothingness. This is what we are. And where we are, is the furnace or hub of energy sustaining the body mind. Where knowing arises. And where all is revealed to the universal Mind. In practice, if random thoughts come up, banish them, and return your focus to the real, the Self. That center point in the chest area within. The darkness that may be perceived is only the clutter and debris of a lifetime, veiling the center point, the nothing within. See through it again and again. Light will come. Understanding will come. Commune with your Self. You are now a yogi. Experiencing yoga. Reunion with what you are. The word “yoga,” in eastern minds, is synonymous with meditation. I purposely did not use the word “meditation” till now, simply because, second to the word “god,” it tends to be an insurmountable obstacle for some. The label, “commune,” suffices nicely. Attention directed within, taming the mind chatter the only focus. Paradoxically, the chatter is tamed by silence and stillness, with focus directed inward. The little mind is noisy and restless. But with perseverance and fortitude the chatter recedes. The “I am” you are, comes to the forefront. With “I am” established, nurse it… Love it! Keep it in mind always. Water it, care for it, and watch in wonder as it grows. You are this living love, this eternal bliss struggling to grow and blossom. Pushing Its tendrils ever upward. Tickling the mind with fresh new insights. Usurping old egoic beliefs. Usurping limitations. Producing from nothing the illumined flower of the universal Mind. From Self to mind, the knowing flows through. We are one with the world, one with the universe, One with God and all. May you continue to evolve in this manner for as long as it takes. Be One with all, not two. The egoic mind the illusion. The universal Mind, the Real.

The truth is simple. Our mind screws it up. We say it in many ways. Get real. Don’t be so ignorant. Pay attention now: Imagine you are infinite. Invisible. Without shape or form. Imagine yourself as being only that which you have the intelligence, power and means to create in your very nature. To create what you imagine you might look like, if you could see yourself, experience yourself. And without that imagined dream of yourself, you would live eternally in solitude and isolation. How would you soothe this magnitude of loneliness? Would not your salvation be to create a world and its populace? And live amongst it? Forgetting it’s only imagine? In this way, experience diversity, and maybe gleam for yourself, what oneself is? In this diverse manifold populace, would not the desire be, to know the one true being that is you? Who am I? Maybe I’m this. What am I? Maybe I’m that. Your eternal imagine. The dream of discovering who you are. What you are. In that which you’ve hidden from yourself. The divine game of hide and seek and find.

We are all part of nature. The human being is no different in this regard than the life essence that flows through every organism on this planet. We only think ourselves into otherwise. Holding ourself above being because of our superior intellect. We ignore the fact that every organism is living (being) regardless of intellect. We put so much emphasis on intellect, we forget our true nature. Which is nature itself. Can you honestly say you are not a part of nature? If you’re not a part of nature, what sustains you? What gives you life, existence? Sure you can think. But what allows for the thinking? If you didn’t exist, could you think? The over dependence on thinking is the very cause of feeling separate, isolated, alone and vulnerable. So how does one stop thinking? Or at least, stop thinking so much? That’s another dilemma. One cannot stop thinking. At least not for any duration. When you try to stop thinking, a thought is sure to come up. Have you ever considered that you’re not the one that’s doing the thinking? Preposterous right? If you’re not the one who’s thinking your thoughts, who is? The short answer is; your nature is. Your nature is you, it’s just not limited to thinking alone. Still think you’re the thinker? Try a thinking experiment. Set a timer for five minutes, and direct your thought to think only of when the timer will go off. Watch the timer, or not. Only think, “I’m waiting for the bell to go off, the buzzer to sound.” Go ahead, see if you can control your thoughts for a mere five minutes. If you tried this experiment in good faith, you found other thoughts intruded. Came into mind. Arose on their own. Thought is a naturally occurring function of the human organism. You don’t beat your heart. You don’t breathe your lungs. You don’t grow your hair. And you don’t think your thoughts! All these functions occur naturally (nature-ally). Thought is only one facet of ourselves. It is us who has allowed the mind to shrink us down to thought alone. Break free from the mind. It can’t hold up in Reality when scrutinized. Be what you are! We live in a time of increasing consciousness. The inward motion of Source, calling us home in ever increasing number. This natural movement of energy has been going on for numerous years. Now!—is the time to investigate for yourself. Who am I? What am I?—Really.

…And the three men I admire most
the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the
coast
The day the music died.
— Don McLean - American Pie

The recently revealed,
deleted American Pie verse
(the inflection was always there)

And there I stood alone and afraid
I dropped to my knees and there I
prayed
And I promised Him everything I
could give
If only He would make the music live
And He promised it would live once
more
But this time one would equal four
And in five years four had come to
mourn
And the music was reborn

From the Bhagavad-Gita
The Song of God
Sri (Lord) Krishna is speaking:

When goodness grows weak,
When evil increases,
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
He who knows the nature
Of my task and my holy birth
Is not reborn
When he leaves this body:
He comes to me.

This message is nothing new. It has been around since the beginning of time. Avatars have professed it throughout the ages. Not just the familiar Godheads the churches built businesses around. Many unknowns from all walks of life have carried the message: You are not what you “think” you are. You are That which contains thinking, the universe, and everything else. Find yourself within that container that holds the Real you. You are not the body mind. The body mind only houses the I am. Look within for yourSelf.

Mind as I, your Self, Your Father, your intelligent life force. Through the reborn Mind I shine. Behold the world I give thee. See with the eyes my intentions for thee. Open thy eyes wide of breadth and sphere. Behold the glory of I, your Lord, your savior. The Mind's eye is vast, encompassing all. The seen and the unseen. Watch closely as the miracles of sight occur. As darkness wanes, so shall my light shine. Behold its glorious illumine. See the darkest of crevices burst forth into light. My divine sight in the seeing is forever, lest you not lapse into darkness again. Hold my vision in thy Mind with the aide of your Self. The Self is I within the body. Commune with the Self to always reach I. I am always here, eternal. Always with you, is I. The I of thy Self, thy Soul, the Spirit or essence or life force within, or whatever else you choose to call I, and hold in reverence as I, the One, the Only—I. Henceforth, the Mind I refer to is the Mind of the Self, the eternal, the infinite. May you follow it always. The Self will show you the way. The divine intellect will direct you. The intelligent will of the Self, the way to I, your Lord. Your sustainer of all. Follow wisely my son, for you hold the secret. The way to I the eternal, the infinite, the glory of you. Your father in heaven above, and your Self within the dream, the world, the universe. All this I do give you, O’follower of faith, follower of I the eternal, your Lord — I am.

To know the Self itself, the divine Spark of God within, our only goal. The one true God I am. The Life essence. The intelligence energy vibration of light that produces, provides, and sustains all. The all, the everything—the nothing, I am. This entire complexity, the worlds, the dreams, the universe, with all its diversity of creatures, plants, mountains and seas, thoughts and memories, wishes and desires, hopes and magic, sky and stars, love and hate, planets and sun—Absolutely everything we can see, or not see, think, or not think, taste, or not taste, appearing from nothing. Deep within layers of masks, resides this nothing you are. The body but one layer. This divine Spark of life, the Self, the Soul, which is our essence, or being. THAT which I call God, our Father. The mind always looks for the rational, the Reality knows it is empty. No thing. Nothing, being filled, with everything, when empty. I am OM, that unseen IS. That unseen IS, that Is. And so are you and all. Everything blooms-life begets life-spreading the life seed of our flower, our being, our Father—our maturing before form perishes, before body dissolves. This be our goal eternal. To be what we are, now! To know and live from this knowing, beyond shadow of doubt, the divine nature we are. This is our flower, our crown. The flower must bloom to drop its seed, for more to flourish, grow and bloom. May we strive to bloom till it is undesired to be separate from the loving embrace of God. To this end, we grow, God help us—Amen.

Thoughts resist thoughts, when thoughts are believed to originate from a me. Thoughts appear from the clear open space within, when seen there is no me. No self-center or point of reference to originate from. Only empty space, an openness, no me, no ego. No me exists to refer a thought to. The thought is known by the intelligence-energy-space. The emptiness knows. Taken in by the eyes, or ears, or other senses and experienced by the knowing emptiness, God. Thoughts, ideas, images are imagined and disperse and dissolve back to the cognizing emptiness from which they arose. Vibrations of energy suffused with intelligence—knowing. This knowing is life itself. Labeled the soul, the self, the atman, this intelligent nothingness (no-thing-ness) is our true nature, our essence of being. This is what we really are. The One essence, or essence of life, God, flowing through, animating, functioning and being the body mind organism. The dream character or pattern of energy. Without this knowing, it’s impossible to convince the mind it is not seeing an entity known as the body. When mind sees it doesn’t “do” the seeing, doesn’t “do” the hearing, doesn’t think the thoughts, or anything else, realization happens. The body mind still appears, but is seen in new light. No longer seen as anything substantial, it is not viewed as “my” body, by any independent mind. But as only “a body,” a vessel, an expression of Self, appearing in space. Infinite, clear open space. Appearing as other, like everything else. Nothing that comes and goes is real. With eyes open the seeing comes. With eyes closed the seeing goes. The ears hear sound and the sounds recede. Experiences within are not the real either. They come and they go based on the stimulus. A thought, a feeling, a repose,  etc… What I am, eyes opened or closed, remains. Without the imagined, what is left is the Real. The constant, the unchanging, the eternal unseen—Reality. Reality that is nothing and everything. The no-thing, no object, that is always present and conscious (aware) of all that IS … and IS NOT, and will be.