Seeing-Knowing

Something to cheer you up.

You don’t mind boring all your friends with your story and you keep them up to date. Isn’t that what friends do? But you have to listen to their story too! Stories and more stories.

If you can find someone willing to listen to your sad ‘story of me’, for even ten minutes, then you are fortunate, no?

You may have a close friend who is usually easy going, then one day they start to complain, endlessly and you get weary of it. They just wont shut up. Once they seemed to be wise and now they display craziness. What ever happened to the wisdom?

Most listeners only want to talk about their ‘story of me’.   What is interesting is that since it is so hard to find anyone who will take an interest and really pay dutiful attention to your story of me, then why do you find it so interesting and end up telling it to yourself so often?

If you stopped telling yourself all these stories about, me, me, me, then you might notice that there is no actual ‘me’ to tell stories about.   Now, wouldn’t that be a novel way to live?   You might even find folks willing to listen to you talk about that fact that there is no ‘me’.   Unlikely, of course.  Too scary, liable to make one depressed even at the thought of there being no me.  :-)

Many ‘radical thinkers’ have been banished from ‘society’ and ridiculed down through history – yet their discoveries were totally accepted long after they were dead and gone. Why were they not accepted? – Why were they banished or even executed?  Simply because the habits of belief are rigid and dead and fear springs forth when the belief is threatened by something that undercuts it.  A fictional idea can be easily dismissed but something that carries the signs of reality are very threatening to the mind.  Letting go of belief is far too terrifying for the believed in entity – yet it actually does not exist. Things are still like that today.

Seeing through the habits of mind is not something that ‘you’ as a believed in entity can do.   However – Seeing is happening and the core and salient point is that ‘you’ are not doing it!

That is a key, if I can put it that way.  The habit is to believe in what the mind translates, all the events and experiences are translated by mind and it is believed to be ‘real’ – it is not reality. The appearance of things is not reality.   What appears to be is not – it is appearance.  The entire universe is appearance.  It is not what it appears to be.  Reality is unchanging and does not appear as anything – it is everything but NOT as it appears (to be).

Imagination is image-ing, conceptualized imaging.

‘Graven Images’ is what the Bible names it as.  Fixations in mind are reference points and they all come and go.  What you ARE does not come and go.  What you are you cannot say.

What we are talking about is not something that the mind has any words for.  If anyone could point to it with words, it would have already transformed all of humanity. Spirituality is nothing but a belief system.  It achieves nothing at all.  It may make you feel special, warm and fuzzy for a little while – but life kicks us in the guts over and over.  Reality is not compassionate or ruthless – reality is what is! 

Hiding away in a cave with a crystal and some mantras is little more than madness.  No guru can truly give you anything at all.  The BEST anyone can do is ‘point’ at THAT which is beyond all appearances and yet it is the obvious true nature that ‘I am’.  It seems that everyone misses it but there is no one that misses it.  Everyone IS THAT……whether ‘they know’ it or not.  It is the seeing-knowing – an activity that is beyond the personal realms of mind.

There is nothing ‘you’ can do as a believed in separate entity.  Realization is impersonal, empty cognition, where there is no reference point or IMAGE.   It is naked, space-like awareness, forever present and yet unfindable as an object.

Like a gold miner standing in the entrance of the mine, looking for the entrance, thinking it is somewhere else.  Most seekers, no, all seekers are like a man sitting on a box full of precious jewels, begging passers by for a few coins.  Sometimes a passer by (one who knows) points out that the box this man is sitting on needs to be investigated and even some tell him that it is full of jewels.  He just looks at the box and agrees most wholeheartedly and carries on begging.

The simplest truths are overlooked because the mind says ‘Oh that can’t be true, it can’t be as simple as that’.   Being convinced that there is a problem is brought about by belief in language, words, concepts and ideas, believing that that translation is ‘real’.  If you remove all the meaning from the words and allow everything to be just what it is, then (miraculously it seems) the problems cease to invade the mind.  

It is in the naming of things that ‘causes’ all the psychological dramas.   Finito! 

But……….

Yes, the mind says ‘Yes But…..’  and a story about ‘me’ kicks back in.  

Watch the mind and see if it is not so.  

Get a glimpse of the truth of this and one of the foundation ‘bricks’ of belief are shaken loose. 

Keep investigating into this fundamental ‘truth’ and a realisation simply opens up like a flower.

I have witnessed almost everyone I meet in ‘meetings’ keep going back into the mind looking for an answer. 

Even though it is pointed out many, many times that there is no answer in the mind, they agree most emphatically and carry on as usual, looking into the mind add nausea (ad-nauseum). 

The key point here is paradoxically hidden in the explanation (words).  It is in the naming of things, that is where our problem lies.  Seeing through the habits of mind, that is not something ‘you’ as a believed in entity can ‘do’.  It happens by itself and there is no mistake about it.  It is actually happening as the pure function of seeing (for everyone right now – it is simply ignored usually).  Many clear pointers are a shock to the mind, simply because they cut to the core.   One teachers says “It does not matter whether you are praying in church or shooting up drugs” – and it is true but if you believe that taking drugs is going to help you get clarity of mind, then you have jumped on the wrong train.  

Avoiding reality is common however no one can actually avoid reality – because reality is what everyone truly is.  Pretending to see through everything is a fruitless mind game – common as it is, it is like a barren tree that can never bear fruit.  You can water it every day for a lifetime.  It CANNOT bear fruit.    However, the image of a tree is not separate from the tree.   When the apparent separation collapses the tree is what it is – what it always was – One Essence appearing AS a tree.  You are THAT!

A good friend sent me this quote below.

Many so-called ‘teachers’ talk as if they know the Self, and see it to be obscured and clouded by ignorance and illusion, however that very notion is incorrect as the Self is “as it is”, real and unchanging – indicating that even though they talk as if they ‘know’ the Self, it is quite evident, from what they say and profess, that they don’t really know it at all.  By pretending to know the self, how can anything be taught about the self?  Nothing can be taught about the self – it is what you ARE.

“Neither ignorance nor illusion ever happened to you.
Find the self to which you ascribe ignorance and illusion and your question(s) will be answered.
You talk as if you know the self and see it to be under the sway of ignorance and illusion.
But, in fact, you do not know the self, nor are you aware of ignorance.

By all means, become aware. This will bring you to the self and you will realize that there is neither ignorance nor delusion in it.

It is like saying: If there is sun, how can darkness be?
As under a stone there will be darkness, however strong the sunlight, so in the shadow of the “I-am-the-body” consciousness there must be ignorance and illusion.
Don’t ask ‘why’ and ‘how’.
It is in the nature of creative imagination to identify itself with its creations.
You can stop it any moment by switching off attention.
….Or through investigation.

                                                                             ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Just to show that the message is not new, here is a quote from an ancient text.   It is still as fresh as the day it was written hundreds of years ago.

“Should your mind wander away, do not follow it, whereupon your wandering mind will stop wandering of its own accord.

Should your mind desire to linger somewhere, do not follow it and do not dwell there, whereupon your mind’s questing for a dwelling-place will cease of its own accord.

Thereby you will come to possess a non-dwelling mind – a mind which remains in the state of non-dwelling.

If you are fully aware in yourself of a non-dwelling mind, you will discover that there is just the fact of dwelling, with nothing to dwell upon or not dwell upon.

This full awareness in yourself of a mind dwelling upon nothing is known as having a clear perception of your own mind or, in other words, as having a clear perception of your own nature.

A mind which dwells upon nothing is also called ‘realisation that the nature of all appearances is unreal’.”   – from the 8th Century AD

The first published text by myself, Gilbert, was The First Instant – a collection of notes – The manuscript started as ‘notes to myself’ because of the profound nature of the regular insights.  Now the book is available as an e-book in Spanish thanks to Fernando Rozas, a friend of Gilbert.  The English version is also on the book page for purchase.  There are other e-books in Spanish and Portuguese.  Dutch versions may be finished in due course.

‘One Moment’ is a CD of pointers.  See the Books and CD page of this website for details.

This moment now is one moment, the only moment. 

Many believe that they are trapped but they do not understand the nature of the trap.

Many seek what they already are.   If they (you) do not recognise that they (you) are already what they (you) seek, despite being told a hundred times – what can be done – except to point in various ways until something penetrates, something resonates in being – and the true and clear resonance reaches beyond the body mind.  Reverberations in the intellect lose their force in a flash and so are impotent.  This is why most teachings lead to nothing except more belief – and the central belief is in the guru – he has ‘got it’ and ‘I don’t have it’.  That is the sign of a false teacher – one who has no compassion to release the seekers from the illusions of his own attainment, which is obviously useless.

Who is trapped and what is the trap?   The trap is ‘made of’ erroneous beliefs and a reference point called ‘me’.

Only by recognising the ‘trap’, by making the unconscious, conscious can the trap be released from apparent existence.

Some call it a dream – Maya.

Identify yourself with that which does not change and nothing else.

Words have apparent power to bind and release. Use it.

One thorn removes another thorn and then you throw them BOTH away.

Words can communicate very well:

Your preciousness lies in your essence;
it cannot be lost by anything that happens. ~ Chuang Tzu

By simply witnessing the disappearance of a thought, one must be present as thoughtless reality.   The habit of believing that thought is real, one may miss the subtle living presence that is thought free.  Some call it the natural state (nature).  With a simple intention to watch the mind, the intention may well stop the habitual identification with thought.  Non conceptual awareness is not something that one can observe – it is the observing itself.  ’When’ the mind has tried all avenues in an effort to grasp the nature of simply being conscious, then an effortless witnessing may well appear.   The habit of the mind to formulate a new perspective is not necessary.  Keep shaking the reference points ‘off’ until there is naked awareness obviously present.  Of course it is here right now.  The only ‘thing’ that appears to cloud the view is belief in concepts.   This ‘belief’ has been unquestioned for ‘so long’ it appears to be ingrained in the consciousness but it is not so.   Thoughtless reality is always present but it is never an object.    It is the ground of being.

All conflict in mind is due to reference points that do not sit together well.   Observe the mind and see what is going on.  Witness the disappearance of a thought and realise you are this uninterrupted consciousness.

P.S.  Anyone who says that this does not work is not really watching the mind.  Observe the mind quietly.  The fixation will abate.   If it does not abate then you are not watching the mind.

Window on the World – Photo by Gilbert

The world and the mind are one and the same.  The world is the mind and the mind is the world.  The mind is concepts.  The world is concepts.  What you are seeing is not the world.  The world is perception based on memory.  The nature of ‘what is’ is ‘seeing-knowing’.  The nature of the world is a story of time and space.  Time and space are the same, both are appearance only.   What appears, disappears instantly.

Watch the mind and see what happens.  It is all appearance.  The world is apparently infinite.  As you move ‘your attention’ the world unfolds as ever fresh impressions.  Where does the last impression go, when the new impression appears to take place?

Where does everything register?

With the slightest shift into a fresh interest in what is actually happening, the mind ceases to engage in habits of perception.

Get familiar with this ‘movement’ and be free from the habits of mind.

Don’t ask ‘who is going to do it?’ – drop it all.

See and be what you truly are.