02
Who has a problem?
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?
Today, driving to an appointment, feeling the old fears rumbling within, I for the umpteenth time asked, “Who is afraid?” And after so many cognitive exercises, I at last saw that the fear – like the joy, the sorry, the happiness, the morbidity – was a thought. Just a thought. It was so clear. It’s all thinking. Looking closer, it hit me, “The thought is necessarily relative – it must take place in relation to something else it cannot MEAN anything.” So the “fear” is nothing more than a thought contrasted to some other thought or thought pattern.
I realize this is 101 stuff, but there was a peace in seeing it vs. the cognitive gymnastics I usually bog down in.
Normally at this stage I would ask for “Thoughts?” but the irony is too great, so I’ll instead solicit any feedback you’re willing to offer.
Thanks as always.
Doug
Gilbert says: The confirmation is implicit in the immediate experiencing. Thoughts cannot see or know anything. The seeing is naked of concepts. The concept ‘I see’ cannot see, it is simply the mind translating the pure functioning of seeing. Seeing and knowing are not two different ‘things’. They are the same ‘pure functioning’. You cannot separate the seeing from the knowing. Cognition is another word for ‘it’.
Everything is Clear and Obvious, just as it is. What the mind makes of it is ‘created’ from ‘past’ impressions and memories. We recognize ‘things’ because they have been ‘seen’ or ‘known’ before. The ever present cognition is formless. This is why it has a quality of ‘spaciousness’ or non locality to it.
That ‘glimpse’ is a good sign that things are ‘opening up’, if I can say such a thing.
Reading some good text will resonate in a fresh way, since this ‘opening up’ has ‘occurred’. Nothing really happened, so don’t dwell on the memory of any event.
Just be open and see things fresh and new.