If this is your first visit to this site I’d like you to be aware this page has been
re-written and the altered version can be found on the page titled ‘As Is Invitation.’
This version is incomplete.

An Invitation

Nothing is needed to Be

Nothing you can know
that isn’t known
Nothing you can see
that isn’t shown
Nowhere you can be
that isn’t where you’re
meant to be
It’s easy

From All You Need is Love
—John Lennon and Paul McCartney—
1967

Space: The final frontier
—From Star Trek opening theme—
—first four words contributed by producer John Black—
1966


    
Just because you believed something to be true doesn’t necessarily make it so. It is easy to believe what others believe. To just go along unquestioningly with the crowd. Never doubting the validity or reality of seemingly normal beliefs. Ordinary, unconditionally accepted beliefs about our world which, unbeknownst to most, cover up a truth so obvious, so simple the mind just ignores it and never looks back. Well, this writing concerns just that. It’s about discovering for oneself a truth that has innately always been known. An uncovering of something so clear, so obvious that when it is seen you’ll wonder how it was ever overlooked. This book is about seeing, knowing and recalling a simple truth. A truth as to your absolute nature. About coming to know who you are and a letting go of erroneous beliefs. A simple guide to discovery. A discovery of that which you already know.

~~~

We all innately know who and what we are, but the mental activity of the mind has veiled this inborn truth. Most of us have lived for “X” amount of years in one facet of ourself, our thought. Then one day, from long term abuse and suffering caused by our oppressive thoughts, and the accompanying feelings of low self-worth, hopelessness, despair, etc… we think “there must be more to my life than this”! This thought, or some such similar thought, leads us to the search for who and what you really are. For some, with investigation, the mental veil thins and you begin to recognize what you’ve always already known. You get a glimpse of your own presence here and now. You may see this presence as the space you occupy. Well now, something is happening here. The mind is recognizing it may not be the only tool in the box. It’s questioning its once sole authority as the “me” you’ve always thought yourself to be. Its role as master of your identity is being disturbed. If you’re not just this person, this body and mind, then who or what are you? This thought, “who am I,” or “what am I,” when pursued, can lead to the freedom you’ve been searching for all your life. The truth of who and what you really are. Start with the only thing you know for sure, the fact that you exist, your thought, “I am.” So, are you aware of this fact? Of course you are. No one can truthfully say, “I am not.” Well, you must “be” then. Could this “be” have something to do with it? Could “be”ing have something to do with the true nature of who and what you are? Seems too simple, doesn’t it? But, think about it, doesn’t the being, the animating life-force functioning and driving the body and mind, have to be some part of what you are? The mind quickly dismisses this thought as being too simple, so on and on you go, looking for the answer again and again with your same old thoughts and beliefs, with the mind telling you along and along, “don’t worry” sooner or later “I’ll get it.” How much later is it now? Will it ever get sooner? Well maybe, just maybe, the mind is not the right tool in your box to find the answer. What else is there without the mind? What about this be-ing idea. May possibly an answer lie here? And, if so how do I access it? Well, you’re off to a wonderful start already. Your recognition that you can not say “I am not.” You know you are, whether you’re thinking the thought “I am,” or not, you still are. So you’ve already seen the mind is not needed to be. Why? Because you do not cease to exist when you stop thinking. This is your access point to what your mind has dismissed as too simple and therefore ignores. Interested? Then read on, but know that nothing written here is the truth. These are all just words that hopefully point you in the right direction. If you’re ready to accept that your mind is not the right tool to uncover who and what you are, you may be open to a radical and absolutely ancient “knowing” of who you really are. A knowing that does not come from intellect.

~~~

Your being presupposes your thinking. In actuality, being is what you are. Just like a bear is being a bear, a lizard is being a lizard, and a bird is being a bird, you are being a homo sapient, a human being, or in context you are being a human. A bear, lizard, or bird, and, every other creature appearing on this planet, has only one “being,”— one life, or life essence. So why do humans seem to have two? Didn’t know you seemed to have two? Did the mind hide this simple truth from you? Did you think, “I don’t have two?” Take a closer look at some simple thoughts you may have. Thoughts such as, “I don’t know how I did that,” “I don’t know why that happened to me,” or, even worse, “I can’t live with myself anymore.” I’m sure you can identify several more similar thoughts in yourself if you take a look. Don’t these thought statements imply two? Don’t these thoughts have both a subject and an object referring to the same one being? Is the mind the subject? Or, is it the object? And, if it is the subject, how can it be the object? Or vice versa? Gets a bit confusing when you take a good look at it. Now, doesn’t every creature born have a unique special attribute, an innate ability, or gift, it uses naturally? The bear has great strength, the lizard can change colors, the bird can fly. And, the human can think, reason, and conceptualize. None of these creatures, including you, created these natural abilities, they came with the package. The mind then must be our inborn gift, right? Now point to the mind. Did you point to your temple or forehead indicating what’s located behind it? Nope, wrong, that’s the brain. And all these other creatures have a brain too. So where’s your mind? Does one really exist, or is what you call “mind” just a word you use to identify your natural ability to think, reason, and conceptualize? So, you have no organ called “mind.” Yet thinking, reasoning, and conceptualizing is happening. Could this “being” previously mentioned have something to do with this too? If there is no mind, could this “being” allow for the thinking to happen? What do you mean happen? “I do my thinking” you say. Then why do you have unhappy thoughts? If you’re doing the thinking, why are you choosing to beat yourself up with your own thoughts? Why not just think happy thoughts, since you’re the thinker of your thoughts? Okay, a lot of questions come up when you start questioning the mind. Time to start looking for some answers. But maybe the questions are the answer. Maybe it’s time to unlearn what you believe. So, if there is no mind apart from thinking, reasoning, and conceptualizing, maybe you are the awareness of these abilities. Maybe what you really are is this being. Not being as in “human being” but being in the sense of the activity of being. Being aware. Maybe what you are is the activity of thought arising in the awareness of being. I told you it would be a radical idea. You may want to throw this book down right now, thinking this is a bunch of bull, just mumbo jumbo. And, of course you’re free to do that, free will and all. However, if something is still pulling at you to investigate for yourself, read on. You can always return to your beliefs later. So, if you’re not this mind you think you are, what went wrong? Well, nothing. All is just as it’s supposed to be. It’s just not appearing that way to a “me”. A me is what your mind has identified you with.  Your mind tells you it is this body-mind, this person, this “me.” Try this definition of Me: the non existent mind’s fictitious self-centered concept of who you are, a separate body-mind entity. “Wow, you mean this “me” I’ve always thought I was is fictitious?” Yes, a me only exists in thought. It is “mind made” and you’ve now seen “mind” is only a word and does not exist. Therefore, the me cannot exist either. So, in reality, the thought “me” arises in and from the awareness of being.

~~~

You may have noticed the phrases “just a word” and “only a word,” used in previous sentences in conjunction with the word “mind.” Let’s take a look at the concept of “word,” for a bit. Words are just words. They are not the actual thing. Everything in existence was given a word, a label so you and others can identify it. The object or concept must have a word attached to it for you to know, indicate and communicate what the word is referring too. For example the word “house” is not the brick and mortar object. The word h-o-u-s-e doesn’t have a door or windows. You can’t get inside it. But the object it points to, the actual, has a door, windows and you can enter it. Since we all learn or acquire words we can associate the actual with the name attached to it. This is elementary and really old stuff. The process of naming things has probably been around since humankind first appeared and pointed at something. Many objects and numerous concepts have more than one word naming them as well. All this is just to say “don’t get too hung up in the words.” They’re just words, “mental naming.” Now, let’s look at an ancient naming from an age old book: The Bible (which also is only a word identifying a specific book). This book states; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Let’s use some different words for this concept of creation. In the beginning was expression, and the expression was with creation, and the creation was expression. When applied to all there is, you and everything else are the expression of creation appearing here and now. The ancient’s word that pointed to this activity was god. That’s all god is, a word that is not the actual but points to it. This ancient word being used to refer to that which can never be known or described. How everything came to be and appeared. A word that points to whatever THAT is. The ancient’s word, “god,” being the word devised to label, or identify, that ultimate mystery we all ponder from time to time: where did I come from? Why am I here? Now if you shrink away from the word, “god,” choose another word. That ultimate mystery doesn’t mind what you call it. THAT can’t be named precisely. This writer has called it by many names (without being struck down by lightning once): That, Presence, Awareness, Source, Consciousness, One, All There Is, NoThing, Beingness, the Absolute, to name a few. Words used as identifiers only, pointing towards what is trying to be written about here. Trying? Well yes, all words fall far short of the ultimate subject that can’t be grasped as an object. Ineffable comes to m…, whoops, arises in THAT too (forgetting is natural also). Point is there is an emptiness nobody can know, except the Knowing itself. Certainly the human brain can’t know it, after all, the brain was conceived by THAT as well. Has anyone met their maker? I doubt it. Usually if a person meets his maker, so the old saying goes, they’re assumed to be dead. But maybe that’s not the case. Maybe there’s no person per say to meet their maker. Maybe the so called person is the Knowing itSelf. The “person” being only a thought arising in that awareness of being or ultimate unnameable. An appearance or expression of creation. Could “person” be only a word you learned that has been identified with? Is that why you think you are this physical body-mind? Look at the word itself, “person.” It’s origin derived from the Latin word “persona.” Look persona up in the dictionary and you find; “the mask or facade of identity,” “the role adopted or assumed,” “a character in a fictional presentation.” All these definitions lending credence to the person being only an illusion of thought. An appearance in the emptiness of open space. Which brings us back to that radical idea I mentioned earlier. Why not take a look for yourself. See if you are the activity of existing, or the Knowing itSelf. A thought arising and manifesting only. Why not see for yourself? After all, what have you got to loose? Your personal (person) suffering. One more thought arising about words. Don’t take for granted or assume (ass u me) the so called mind knows for a fact the actual definition of any particular word. It may just be the mind’s way of ignoring the simple and obvious truth. Dismissing it only because, well, it’s just too simplistic to merit consideration. Keeping you in ignorance (Ignorance: the lack of knowledge or information). Take a moment to lookup the intended use of a word. Know its meaning in your own direct experience. You’ll be enlightened you did. When you were a child you delighted in new experiences and learning new things. As an adult you can rekindle your childlike wonder, and delight again by exploring the simplest of venues (Venue: the place where something happens).

~~~

If you’re still reading this in spite of the radical mind twisting concepts thus far, it means your innate knowing resonates with what it’s interpreting. It’s now time to recognize, with clarity, this fictitious, separate mental entity for what it is and lay a solid foundation to re-cognize as your true identity. It’s time to unfold. Nobody can do this for you. You have to do the work. More to the point, your ego/mind has to see for itself that it is not. And it may not let go easily. After all, it’s been sitting on the throne and protecting its authority over you for quite some time. In fact it has even created its own time, “past and future,” and takes refuge in each (more on that later). It’s pretty firmly entrenched. But, if you follow the pointers while traveling the pathless path, in much the same manner as a signpost directs you to a particular point, you will be guided to a  place that you actually never left, and as the ancients say, you will see the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You think you were born. In a way “you” were, at least your body appears to have been born. But the animating life essence that is you, was never born and will never die. It just changes form. Life, or your living-ness is a natural function of nature. When your eyes opened for the first time post womb, you had no words. In fact, you had none of the abilities a human develops as the organism grows. But your five senses came with the package just as your cognitive attributes did. Basically a human brain is an organic computer with an operating system all ready for input via the senses: Seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, and touching—all ready to go, right from the start. Only there’s no differentiating the input. Your innate gift of cognition has a learning curve it has to experience. So at this stage in human development every sensory perception is an experience only. The computer/brain has no language. It has not learned words yet. So the natural undifferentiated functioning of the human life form stores the information—shapes, forms, sounds, tastes, pleasure, hunger, discomfort, etc…—in the brain as the infant continues to develop. Around age one and a half to age two reasoning kicks in. The processor starts trying to put the “stored in the brain” information into some kind of order. In most cases the majority of input stored comes from parents, siblings, and relatives. Easy to see where this is headed, right? Since the likelihood is high that these early sources of input never investigated who or what they are for themselves, their minds are telling them they are a body-mind me and the input the baby “you” receives is the same old “follow the crowd” information. So, as development progresses, the be-ing-ness of baby you translates the provided information through this newly formed reasoning capacity and the notion takes hold “hey, I’m this Joe or June, or so and so” they keep calling me. That’s who “I” am. There is now an idea of a me. “I am this body.” The once undifferentiated brain has split the one into two and now there is a body associated with the thought, me. Voila!..the birth of a body-mind, a separate entity, or, a baby ego now seemingly exists. And since creation is dualistic (there can’t be one without the other; subject-object), another thought arises, “they.”  Not me. “They are other than me.” So the newly formed conceptual entity, “mind” attaches itself to the body-me image to hold this concept of identity. The mind now thinks its me, this body-person. And all those other body-persons out there are others. But isn’t life or be-ing-ness still there? Whole and functioning as is? As nature intended before the misidentification with the newly formed “me” concept. Since there was no input of vital information needed regarding our true nature, the belief most of us adopted about ourself was flawed from the get go. We started with a false premise. And the human organism continues on its innate development path but now the input stored in the brain is accompanied by the thought “me,”“mine,” “my,” etc… This seemingly simple “me” mistake in identity becomes the error that leads to all psychological suffering. As input about self and others continues, this “me” or “I” thought continues to accumulate information about itself, and others, from parents, siblings, friends, schools, teachers, events, society, etc… and a feeling of separateness and vulnerability takes hold. This anxiety is eased by the safety of a warm and loving family that cares for “me,” but the sense of me and them, persists. All this positive and negative dual input is continually running through the mental processor of the brain and eventually a mind made image of who you are takes shape. Where this “I” fits in in the pecking order. The so called me is comparing itself to others, and to itself to see how it measures up. It has appointed itself judge and jury—hangman and savior of the I entity. Describing, measuring, comparing every event, situation, happening, and relation that enters via the five senses and reasoning; “I come out on top if I do this and I like it.” Or, “I feel bad about myself if I do that and I don’t like it.” So this phantom mental image, “mind,” is cranking up and claiming sole authority as to what makes “me” happy, what “I” want and don’t want or what I like and don’t like. Constantly trying to avoid don’t wants and holding on to wants in an ever changing environment. Suffering when losing the like and suffering when not being able to keep the don’t like at bay. Mind forges ahead, solidifying its position as sole authority by utilizing a little slight-of-hand trick. It now veils the pointing words, “I am,” that refers back to your be-ing-ness, or true nature, behind the “I am” it claims to be (this is sort of like hiding your be-ing-ness in plain sight). And as this phantom, mental “I am,” your mind is continually feeding you the message, “I am so and so,” an autonomous, limited, separate entity, and as an effect, identifies itself more and more and more with the words “me” or “I” or “person.” Now take another look at the word “person,” derived from the word persona (mask an identity). Doesn’t this evidence point to the so called person being nothing more than a mental illusion the mind attaches itself to, a word giving itself a seemingly concrete identity? A mind made identity.  The mind continues this assault, year after year after year, widening the divide and burdening the so called person with feelings of lack, disgust, pride, sorrow, joy, happiness, incompleteness, pity, pleasure, separateness, loneliness, etc…, which the mind, sitting as sole authority of the illusory person, dutifully continues to like or dislike, depending on its current image of itself. It refers every thought, event, seeing, hearing, etc.. absolutely everything back to its likes or don’t likes. It resists what it doesn’t like and tries to hold onto what it likes. And it applies this principal to the things it sees “out there,” such as money, jobs, events, relationships, a new this or that, prestige, power, spiritual pursuit, ad infinitum. Constantly accepting or rejecting. Feeling good or bad about itself dependent on every outcome. All this continuously going on because of a simple mistake in identity that has been passed along throughout the ages of human existence. At this point a footnote is warranted. Don’t take anything written here personally. There is nothing you as an identified ego could have done or not done then to change any of this. You simply did not have the vital information.

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The altered version of this writing can be found on the page titled ‘As Is Invitation.’
There is no further continuation of this writing on this page foreseen,
however, the page will remain here as is.