Seeing-Knowing

NOTICE:  My new e-book will be released in the next few days – it is called “Resonance in the Heart”.

Also, John Wheeler and Mark West will be in Melbourne attending Bob Adamson’s meeting during the period between the 19th and the 25th of September. There usually is a good roll up for these meetings. I may be there for some of the meetings, depending on my work commitments.

It is not a matter of doing something. All the doing in all the world appears out of the same ‘source’. Everything appears out of nothing, emptiness and it also disappears back into the same emptiness. Everything is appearance. There is no ‘doer’ – the whole manifestation is a movement of energy. That movement appears as the gross explosions of Stars being born, as planets forming and as the microscopic life forms beyond the power of normal cognition. Look through a powerful microscope and recognize LIFE.

“We’ THINK we are SO important as these forms called human beings. There is awareness of the the universe and all the apparent forms. Even the life force can be sensed.
Upon WHAT do the impression register? THAT is undivided and the mind cannot put labels on it. There maybe a sense of awe if the mind ceases its constant conceptualizations.
What you are is LIFE itself. Life does not know death.
What has been born is the concept of ‘I am’.
What the mind adds to that simple and harmless concept ‘I am’ is a translation of events and experiences. This habit happens so quickly, we cannot easily detect the mechanics of it. It appears that ‘I’ gets identified so quickly with ‘stuff’ and it seems impossible to get free.

However, in the simple pausing of thought, this naked awareness is revealed to be ‘presence-awareness’. It does not have a label because it is prior to language….it is prior to all the manifestation of energy appears AS form. Basically the movement of energy is the activity of KNOWING and so nothing can be separated from this knowing. What the mind ‘makes’ from this activity of knowing is based on cultural input and past beliefs. Patterns repeat themselves in the apparent duration – the apparent appearance of time.
The only way out of the mind, which is time, is to stop.
You cannot put any labels on the naked empty cognition that remains.

Getting a taste of it as often as possible ‘brings’ a natural recognition of one’s true nature.
Reality is not in conflict with anything.
The maze of the mind will simply ‘recreate’ itself in endless configurations, so don’t bother trying to rearrange the maze of concepts.
Watch the mind without believing in being a thinker. Simply watch it without grabbing any thoughts through habit.
Everything is fresh and new.

This moment has never happened before and it will never happen again.

It is NOT conditioned by the past.

Every word ‘your mind’ uses to translate what is ‘going on’ has been acquired ‘in the past’. Even if you speak a dozen languages, all the words have been learned. Words are just pointers. The word ‘milk’ cannot be poured into a cup of coffee. You cannot drink the word ‘milk’. All words are the same….they are merely words.
What is being pointed to is beyond language. Contemplate what misunderstanding is, without using words. See if you can find any conditioning without using a single word.
That upon which all words appear is wordless. We can use a word to point to it – but it remains wordless.
There is no transmission of enlightenment or understanding.
The light of seeing-knowing is already shining. Without it ‘you’ would not be able to see or know anything at all.
It is an invisible light.

The ‘you’ that believes it can see is not the naked seeing. That belief in ‘you’ (me) may fall away at ‘any time’, leaving the naked seeing, without any attachment to any form. That pure seeing is happening now, whether there is belief in a ‘me’ or not. So it isn’t a matter of acquiring anything. It isn’t a matter of believing in anything. It is knowing, knowing through being. Knowing IS being.  You are that knowing….it is immediate and it is not conditioned by anything at all.

What you are is invisible. The eye cannot see the eye. The self cannot find the self.
All these words are just pointers. Recognition is a falling away of words…….revealing naked knowing.

There is a common occurrence in teaching and that is the statement that there is no you and nothing that you can do to realize yourself.

Such teachers also say that there occurred for them a spontaneous awakening. This is unbearable for the believed in seeker, because it feeds the imagination that there is some mysterious ‘something to get’ in some future time. The angst of it all is suppressed usually. So, it all appears as a strong sense of frustration for the aspirants. That kind of teaching is not helpful and yet strangely enough it is still very popular. It actually supports the belief in the ‘me’. The teachers are well adapted and have an answer for all the various objections brought up – and they subtly place the responsibility back on the seeker, thus accentuating the frustration for the seeker and making themselves look smarter that everyone. Then they talk about unconditional love. They often express very negative things about any other teacher that may be mentioned in the meetings. Some seekers get very irate and storm out of the meetings and the ‘teacher’ will then wait a moment, then turn that event into ‘a plus’, thus keeping his flock in order and raising himself above them all, once more.

There is one popular teacher about today who pushes this ‘spontaneous awakening’ concept but he fails to mention that he actually spent many years after that apparent ‘spontaneous awakening’ quite desperately seeking something more in the company of Rajneesh (Osho).

It is true that there is no separate you that can do anything. However, the seeing-knowing is happening. This seeing-knowing is not arising out of the time/space pattern called the body/mind. The body and mind appear in awareness and are nothing but awareness. There is no separation in the actuality of this immediate natural state of pure cognition. So, if there is belief in ‘me’, then use that belief in me, to explore the idea of a separate individual. Through this looking into, the pattern of belief takes on a transparent nature. It is ‘seen through’. That is a common expression, ‘seeing through’ the belief. What sees through belief? The ‘me’ cannot see, because an idea cannot see. It is the seeing itself that sees. It does not have a form and it cannot be located as a thing. If one is left with concepts about ‘there is nothing you can do’ there will be frustration. How so many pay hefty fees over and over, just to experience endless frustration is amazing.

Seminars, intensives and endless meetings take on a sense of being in a prison for the mind. The most sacred practices turn into a trap merely because there is a belief that there is someone who is going to gain something. There is nothing to get. The core of the whole issue is an erroneous belief – it is called ‘me’ or self-centred activity. There is no escape for that believed in entity. There is something to do. Investigate whatever it is that seemingly obscures this clear and present awareness. Take the belief in me and explore it. Go into it, expand it. See what it is. In that seeing, everything reveals itself as appearance. What is seeing remains beyond conceptualisation. There never was a seeker or an ego. Knowing that is freedom from all concepts about ‘self’. What remains is inexplicable.

NOTICE for local Melbourne residents: John Wheeler will be in Melbourne from 18th to 25th September and those interested can meet him at Bob Adamson’s meetings during that period. Meetings are on Tuesday evenings, Thursday evenings and Sunday Mornings. See Bob’s website for address and times.

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The following, in part, can be listened to on the Audio page – “Gilbert’s Note 1″.

There is nothing simpler than one. One without a second, that is what Advaita means. Dvaita is 2. With the A on the front it means NOT TWO. To explain it clearly they say One without a second, meaning that the use of the word one does not imply a second or third etc. The ancients also say “Space-like Awareness” and this means that awareness is like space. Space is nothing – no thing. It does not have a center or a circumference. There is no data point to measure volume or space, in space. So, this means that anything appearing in space is an apparent ‘location’ which may be relative to some other thing that appears in space. Science tells us that an electron cannot be determined to be in any specific location at any time. It appears as a ‘wave’ and then as a ‘particle’. Time is like space, in fact you can’t really divide them, except conceptually. Reference points in the mind are transient appearances and not one remains still or fixed in the mind.

Mind is a concept we use to describe what?

Mind is simply thoughts, concepts, ideas, memories and impressions registering.

Now when it comes to identity, we find the same equation that ‘fits’ space and time.

Where are you seeing from?

Can the idea of ‘me’ or ‘I’ actually see?

Seeing is happening and that does not have a beginning or an end. Like space it has no center and that is what needs to be discovered. The mind has no words for that experiencing – it is non conceptual awareness.

The Oneness that so many try to find is nowhere other than where the seeing is happening. It is clearly obvious that the view is One view. Even though there may be two eyes, the view is one view. If you draw the attention back into the space where seeing is apparently taking place, you find empty space. No thoughts clutter that space. No memories are piled up obscuring the view.

By simply bringing the attention to this obvious openness, all beliefs fall away.

Now, a ‘person’ is nothing but a belief in a form that has an apparent past. It is apparent duration. The ‘person’ is apparently conditioned. This belief can be exposed as a fiction by simply dropping thought and by simply being what you are in this immediacy, without referring to memory. The so called ‘great revelation’ that the so-called ‘Buddha’ experienced is nothing other than the naked seeing, or naked awareness.

“Self-Liberation through seeing with naked awareness” is an ancient expression handed down from Tibetan Dzogchen Buddhism. Dzogchen is radical and demolishes all the ‘paths’ and ‘traditions’ that are clung to by most Buddhists.

What is curious yet understandable is that teachings, such as Dzogchen are ignored or not even known about by most Buddhists. One could say that the average aspirant does not have the capacity to understand what these teaching are pointing out. If you have been following what has been written here and some resonance with it is present, that means that you are not one of those who lack the capacity to understand.

The grasping mind can NEVER get a clear understanding….NEVER.

Why? Because the very nature of belief that I must get something by some sort of effort, merely keeps the consciousness on a ‘path’, like a donkey with a carrot on a stick.

The belief in ‘me’ is the appearance of a seeker. It is nothing but the ignoring of our true nature.

Get a taste of non-conceptual awareness as often as you can. The rest will take care of itself.

Be happy for this news. Even if you cannot follow what is being spoken of, you already are THAT.

Whatever you are seeking, you already are. Doubt is merely a thought.

The mind is time.
The believed in entity is just a non-investigated habit of belief.
That belief appears to want confirmation from outside about what is going on. No one can give you the answer……and any answer will be ADDED to the story of me…..however subtle the explanation may be, it will just be an addition. This ‘point’ I am speaking about is missed by just about everyone, even teachers appear to not know the subtle qualities of pure knowing and the mechanics of what is appearing to happen.

Everything is Clear and Obvious – right NOW, just as it is.
All that can be done is to point you in the right direction. Since ‘you’ have been looking in the wrong direction for ‘so long’ there is a resistance to the direct and obvious. It is not noticed because the mind (mind is time) or what we might call the movement which comes out of emptiness and appears as body, the world and all the apparent states is dynamic……and it appears to grab the attention……and the clarity of seeing-knowing is engaged……the spaciousness is missed.
Space itself is an appearance. Everything is an appearance.

The eye cannot see the eye.
Bring the seeing back so that the eyes, the body and the whole appearance is included AS the appearance. Then ask yourself where the seeing is actually happening.
Do this and include in that seeing, every notion or point of view that the mind ‘comes up with’. Keep doing this and it cannot fail…..the mind will come to a standstill. It will be exhausted and empty. The natural cognition is always empty.
Naked awareness. Space-like awareness.
There is a subtle bliss – expansive – it is Cosmic in its nature. This experiencing is not conceptual…..it is not a thought.
No one to claim it.
The insight is that it has always been so. And since there is no time other than now. You KNOW in that moment, which can only be this moment of immediate knowing,  that you ARE – you are THAT.  No separation.
How could you ever go back into erroneous beliefs?
The past is dead and gone.

‎”People’ spend their whole lives wanting to wake up – so it seems. But are you unaware right now?

Isn’t it obvious that the wakefulness is present?

What is actually wrong with that wakefulness?
Doubt is a thought. All the conceptualizing and the making of problems is due to misunderstanding.
Stop pretending to be on a path of becoming and be what you ARE, right NOW. Now is all there IS.

Someone says: “I have utmost respect for Advaita but I am a westerner. I am also influenced by my genetics, etc. I simply don’t buy that all of the Advaita teachers online today are living it out inwardly 24/7. It is a struggle to transform one’s consciousness.”…….

WHO can transform consciousness? To even entertain such a notion is delusional. Consciousness is ALL there is. It does not need to be transformed – it is transforming consistently before your own eyes. Being a slave to concepts about liberation and endless methods and practices is useless.

The ‘Eternal Truth’, if we can actually use such words accurately, is right here, right now. All you need to ‘do’ is SEE what it is that seemingly obscures you from its obviousness. It is not about being convinced about someone else living a 24/7 state of mind.
‘People’ try to stay in the NOW. It is all useless. Turn it around.
SEE if you can actually GET OUT of this NOW.
It is impossible….and in recognizing that simple fact, all the beliefs about some future time of deliverance, falls away naturally. Spirituality is complete nonsense. The ACTUALITY of LIFE itself is obvious.

All there is is LIFE.
There is no ‘owner’ of a life.

Chat conversation……..

Q: Hi Gilbert
Gilbert: Hi.
Q: what is the observation?
Gilbert: Impressions registering
Q: Ah
Gilbert: All there is, is observing – no observer and no observed.
Q: then there would be no observing either?
Gilbert: The mind splits up the observing into observer and observed – but it is not really split in two. In recognizing that, you are already beyond the mind.
Why sacrifice that clarity for more thoughts and beliefs?
Q: what is emptiness?
Gilbert: No Thing.
Q: I see emptiness as transcendence.
Gilbert: WHO sees transcendence?
Q: nothingness too is transcendence – transcendence exults, nobody sees it
because the seer is transcended.
Gilbert: Seeing is happening? Is that seeing yours?
Q: seeing is absorbed.
Gilbert: When did you claim the seeing?
Q: in transcendence – only linguistic habit.
Gilbert: Who transcended?
Q: transcendence is in relation to the encompassed.
Gilbert: It is all conceptualizing – which appears in the seeing
No relationship in non duality – Nothing (no container) can ‘contain’ No Thing.

pause……..
Gilbert: Mind is time. You will NEVER encapsulate THAT with a concept – so stop trying to.
Q: just BE?
Gilbert: BEING is – it requires no action from ‘you’.  What effort are you making to be?
Q: so the unpleasant is resisted.
Gilbert: Everything registers without bias.  Who says something is unpleasant?
It is all energy- there is no right or wrong to energy.
Q: memory.
Gilbert: See everything AS IT IS.  Memory is appearing spontaneously and registering as impressions in the immediacy.
WHO is it there in any particular memory?
Q: unfulfilled desires?
Gilbert: WHO owns a desire?  All desires are actually unfulfilled.
Once a desire is fulfilled it disappears.  Who wants (something, anything) ?
What is actually missing?  There is no answer in the mind.
The mind will come up with all sorts of questions……for ever.
Q: I am afraid of emptiness.
Gilbert: WHO?
Q: The sense of ‘I’.
Gilbert: That is not what yo are.  You are not the sense of I nor the sense of being alive.  You ARE emptiness – in that emptiness, go into the sense of ‘I’ and really see it for what it is.
Q: is emptiness deprivation?
Gilbert: No emptiness is fullness….Joy…Bliss – Some call it ‘Sat Chit Ananda’ (It is subtle).
Q: Then why is it empty?
Gilbert: It is empty and full in the same instance.  There is no ‘WHY’. Who wants to know?
Q: You mean it is empty of matter and full of acausal ecstasy of pure being?
Gilbert: It IS all emptiness APPEARING as things….  Cause and effect is duality.
Buddha pointed out all this over 2 thousand years ago….where have you been?
Q: In Sanskrit there is the word Shunyata, Shunya, which is not correctly translated as emptiness but as transcendence.
Gilbert: beyond the mind….that is all transcendence means. Mind is time.
Q: All encompassing, all transcending existence consciousness bliss Absolute, eternal and ever-new.
I can see what you are saying because I have experienced the emptiness of phenomena and the profound peace beyond.
Gilbert: No ‘I’ ever experiences anything.
Q: That is inconceivable
Gilbert: You are THAT. …… and notice that you cannot actually conceive of what you are.
Q: That’s linguistic convention, the meaning is that the dissolution of ‘I’ occurred.
Gilbert: The mind translates the experiencing into a story.
Q: That’s true.
Gilbert: Nothing ever happened.
Q: In the Absolute nothing happens…or happening and non-happening is one and the same.
Gilbert: When a dream ends – it is gone – and never was. – Absolute MEANS everything.
Q: And nothing….nothing….the nothing, which encompasses everything and the everything which is nothing.
Gilbert: The mind objectifies the word absolute and divides it up – and that is a problem
Q: Yes, mind cannot conceive of the Absolute – the mental absolute is not real.
Gilbert:  So, now will you carry on in the mind or will you SEE the mind for what it is?
Understanding is Silent….is Wordless.
Q: Yes…..it is wordless.
Gilbert: Simply Know that….that is all you need to know.  The knowing of that is wordless.
Q: Language is a mistake if internalized – its helpful only in conversations not as baggage.
Gilbert: It is all we have….to use to POINT.
Q: The thorn to remove the other thorn.
Gilbert: In the appearance of things most ‘teachers’ point in the wrong direction – a direction that is popular but it does not free anyone.

Even so the dream ends.  Once the dream is gone are you concerned with it?  You can’t get it back, so let it go.  It is the same with the waking state.  Thoughts appear and disappear.  Let them be and let them go.  Do not fixate on them.

Q: Aware of awareness and ignoring the content as shallow dream empty of content.
Gilbert: NO, awareness is not aware of awareness. It IS awareness – it is self-aware. And…….Everything is THAT.
Q: Awareness is free of content…it’s rapture.
Gilbert: Content IS awareness. No separation.
Q: Yes.

1977, April 15th:  “What is the use of wearing trinkets, bangles and beads, etc?  Your true nature does not require anything.  You have to find out that the most important thing is this consciousness of I AM, and only through this is any importance given to anything else, for without this consciousness of ‘I’ there is nothing there at all.  Try to find out yourself, what you are in reality, then you will know that you need nothing.” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a short extract from a book by Mark West, titled “Gleanings from Nisargadatta”.  I assisted in getting Mark’s notes from 1976-77 into book form, a few years ago.  It is an excellent book with many pointers not found in other books on Maharaj.

There is a link on the link page to Mark West’s website.

SEEING that the ‘me’ is only a concept is IT.   There is no one that sees that there is no ‘me’.  Everything appears in the SEEING. There is ONLY ONE seeing happening.  The ME can’t see at all.  It is just an idea, a thought.  How can a thought SEE?
The problem is a repeating one. The ‘you’ that is believed in keeps asserting itself as being the ‘knower’ or the ‘seer’ etc.
If it is truly seen or recognized, without a concept of being a seer, that the ‘me’ is an appearance, then that cuts through it all. (Cheese or no cheese)
This CANNOT be contrived by the mind – and the mind cannot SEE. The body cannot see. A dead body has no ability to see or hear, taste or touch.
What is it that animates the body? LIFE. That life essence is what you are.
But the habit of going with what the mind translates and then projects out onto ‘the world’ (inner or outer world) is the sense of separation. It is ALL in the mind.
Awareness contains the mind. Mind is a concept attributed to awareness. There is NO MIND apart from the appearances of thoughts, concepts, memories and states or moods.
Where is the confusion? It is nothing but conflict between thoughts and held onto ideas etc. The one who claims these is a fiction. SEE that in the immediacy of its arising and don’t buy into it. The confusion will dissipate naturally. The pointers are NEVER addressed to a ‘person’. It is the natural intelligence that sees, hears, tastes etc.
What the mind translates from these impressions is ONLY images, appearance. They have NO substance and their ground is emptiness. See that.
It is only the mind that starts adding conditions and a story again – that is where the confusion re-enters. SEE it for what it is.
You can’t see through someone else’s eyes and you can’t just accept ‘beautiful pointers’.
If ‘you’ are dazzled by the beauty of some ‘pointer’ then the pointer has been missed – it has been taken up by the mind.
A ‘pointer’ cuts through the mind stuff and renders that mind stuff passive.  Doubts are removed naturally in the knowing presence, which is not a thought and so cannot be limited by any thought.
There is an unbound OPEN SPACIOUS ‘quality’ about ‘the mind’ or awareness when a pointer ‘calls forth’ recognition.   It is NOT a THINKING about anything.  It is immediate seeing.

(Posted on the Urban Guru Cafe by gilbert on 03.06.09 9:24 am)

These points are expressed thousands of times in various formations of words.   There is no one to claim anything.  No guru, no teacher and no pupil.

But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he is most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As to make the angels weep. – William Shakespeare.

There is NO entity in the manifestation, none whatsoever. This is clear and obvious. To introduce the concept of ‘God’ is completely misleading. The most arrogant idea is “Me and God”.
What we are talking about is Non Duality. There is only ONE.
So if there is a God then YOU must be that GOD.
Since the very concept of ‘God’ is obviously a concept, what on earth is anyone talking about when they say GOD.
The ONLY thing you can be absolutely certain of is the fact of your own being.

If this is what ‘you’ mean by the word GOD, why not use the word BEING instead. It is less confusing and does NOT imply an entity.
There are many so-called teachers who are very unclear in what they express. If they are not challenged by those who sit and listen to them, they will continue to mislead those who seek their own true nature.
Your true nature is clear and obvious – it is NOT in any concepts.
It is prior to any concept and basically it is the activity of knowing. There is nothing outside of this activity and nothing inside it either. Shakespeare using the words “man, most ignorant of what he is most assured of, his glassy essence’ is pointing to our true nature and also to the image of a self that is ignorance itself. All labels are from the translations of mind and are ONLY labels. Recognize in this instant, that the image of self CANNOT see.
If you cannot recognize that, take a look and try and find that image of self. And if you find it, who or what is finding it – via the activity of pure seeing?

Some guru says: “Simply welcome what is here and do not deny what is here.”

Who is going to welcome what is here? Who can deny what is here? What is actually here?   WHO is here?   The answer must be ‘ME’.

Well what is that me if not a mere image and a label or name?

The mind divides and assigns identity to THAT which is ONE, one immediate, clear and present activity of knowing.

There is nothing outside of this immediate knowing and nothing inside of it. There is actually no entity here to accept or reject anything.

Even to entertain such a concept is misleading due to the habit of belief.
Now, did you welcome these words, or did you reject these words?

‘We’ are so entrenched in belief in separation, the clear and obvious nature of the emptiness of phenomena is missed.
Belief in ‘me’ is the reference point that ‘creates’ duality.
Imagining that one can rejoin what appears to be separate is an illusion – because it has NEVER ever been separate.
There is no need to take a stand, to decide, to accept, to welcome or to deny anything.

This is so obvious (without thought) and yet it seems that everyone misses it, completely.

You cannot go back and live any moment in the past. It can be recalled as a memory and that memory appears in this living presence of what we call ‘now’. Whatever has been learned is available in the Totality of What IS. The implication of ‘past’ is appearing in the living presence, which is Eternity (all time) and Eternity is NOW.

Eternity is not a Long Time, it is this ever present presence and that is what you are – this immediate cognition (knowing) which is not limited to language and is actually wordless and silent.

Nothing ever happened – it is ALL appearance only.
Who has a problem with a mirage? You cannot wash your feet in the water of a mirage. Why make a problem out of nothing?
Does the mirror argue with the reflection?
No. The mirror simply reflects, without preferences, without judgement and without bias. Reflections come and go freely.
Let thought come and go freely, without grasping at them.
In this way they will be seen for what they are.

There never was a seeker. That is the ‘point’ that is missed over and over. As soon as you look for the seeker, it loses ground and the closer you look, the less ground it has. It is ALL appearance only.

There are no good connections and bad connections in reality. There are no parts to reality. It is one reality. There is no personal reality. ‘People’ speak about ‘my reality’ and ‘your reality’ and it is a fiction, a dream.
Accusing me of wrong doing or whatever is not a problem for any me here. All I am doing is pointing at the same ‘thing’ in hundreds of ways, thousands of ways. Words serve well enough but they all fail to encapsulate what is being pointed at – and that is not a failure – it is a success in the moment of recognition.

Unless that recognition happens, it is all useless. In one moment the world is turned upside down and all beliefs are seen through. All you need to ‘do’ is investigate the one who does not know and realize that there is knowing. There is nothing other than knowing.

It is not personal.
If you perceive a problem, then you have a problem. But who is that ‘you’ that has a problem?
What is being pointed at is that which is being ignored. A recognition happens, to no one. The clear in-seeing is not personal. It is already happening. What the mind translates the seeing into is a ‘seer’ and the ‘seen’ and that is where duality appears to divide this oneness.

Who cares? Has any division actually happened?
It is not a matter of convincing anyone of anything.
It is simply to recognize what is appearing to happen, is not actually happening.
True understanding is wordless and silent.
Who can argue with that?