Water

Waves like sheers blades.

Water can cut you

To Shreds.

Safe in unknowing

Only when understanding becomes non-understanding can there be true understanding.

Freedom begins when 'your story' ends.

The End

IN THE BEGINNING

WAS THE END

OF THE STORY... ... .. .

Waking Up from Waking Up

Enlightenment

Was just a dream,

-Now,

There is only

This.

This Horse

This Horse is unpredictable.

It gallops then trots,

This way, then that.

My trusted map turns out to be

Childish scrawl yet we climb through

beautiful valleys, lush with pines.

Abandoning thoughts of past & future

Illumined by the bright Moon,

I hum to myself,

- Squeeze its mane.

The Game

Let's play a game:

First pretend to split yourself into a billion pieces,

Then spend the rest of your life trying to put yourself back together again.

No matter what happens,

You won't move an inch.

Each moment

- a bubble of pure emptiness.

POP!

NOTHING. EVER. HAPPENED.

Day Job

To constantly reject everything but your own obvious freedom is the passion of the true nobody. What could be more compassionate and more loving than to burn all of the excuses you cling to and rob you of every limitation you hold dear?

Pathless

Really, there is no journey towards Enlightenment.

There is only the dissolution of the idea that you were ever a separate individual.

I Am

What I am

Cannot be found

- Yet I am -

And this am-ness,

Is All

Under-Stand

Standing no-where

As no-one

There is nothing to get

And no-where to go.

Who dares to boast Enlightenment?

Who would cleave the universe in two?

Ever-is

So, here we are. This is it, happening exactly as it happens. Nothing to be added to it and nothing that can be taken away. This happening is undeniable and obvious. It is so normal that is doesn’t require words to spell it out. Life speaks for itself.

This moment is total and all-inclusive; everything in the moment is the moment. Even the word moment gets in the way here – there simply IS: IS-ness happening.

Because this ever flowering IS-ness includes all that happens, there is nothing which can stand apart from it. What IS always IS, and in totality there can be no conflict. Even the idea that you are in conflict is simply what is happening. It IS.

So give up the life-sapping effort of trying to maintain the illusion that you are separate and relax into your simple IS-ness. Rest in totality.

How could you do anything else?

The Cave-Dweller (The Café Dweller)

He was sunlit and silent but his eyes glared like moons. Seated in the auspicious place (his favourite café near the Place Saint-German Des Pres) in the pose of the Yogi (leaning back in his chair, legs idly crossed, one hand holding a cup of black coffee), his calm joy radiated out into the passers-by (he read the paper, laughed at a cartoon). His simple clothing hinted at the dress of a Pandit, a learned man who was of the world but not in the world (a white crumpled linen jacket that he bought years ago, an old shirt a friend had given to him, a pair of trousers scuffed at the hem, and a new pair of converse sneakers). Before him lay sacred manuscripts, holy objects which he studied serenely (the Review section of the Paper and Paul Austers’ latest novel). Devotees milled about him (the waiters were very busy it being a public holiday) and before too long the Self-realized One looked up from his ocean of Brahmanic bliss and slowly, ever so lightly, raising his hand, spoke the ultimate truth - "Excusez-moi! Un autre café s'il vous plait!”

Poem to the Sky-clad

How bitter-sweet,

- Heartbreaking really,

That the sky should believe itself

To be a cloud.

How remarkable!

- Truly joyful!

That the sky should suddenly realize

Its unchanging sky-hood!

Solidity Is Boundless Space

There is no referent of your experience.

There is no back wall, no solid entity, no nugget of you-ness, which experience 'hits'.

Every sensation that appears solid is actually pure space. Choose a sensation, the one which seems to be most intimately associated with you and you will soon discover that there is nothing solid or tangible about it. All of your sensations are in flux and that flux is itself empty. Really, there is nothing happening.

Experience happens to no-body and the only referent is empty space.

Spontaneous Miraculous!

It can seem that thoughts get in the way.

But what gets in the way of thought?

Brain Storm

Thoughts are not a barrier to seeing 'This'.

There is not need to fret or panic about your doubts.

Can the sky be toppled by a cloud?

You Are Happening To Yourself

So much of our experience of the world and ourselves is visual, so we’ll begin there. Look at an object, it can be anything; this word, the screen, your hand, a tree, anything you like. Ok, now just stop thinking for a moment and be interested in how it looks. Don’t add names, keep the mind quiet and just see. Easy.

What you are seeing is a fact. It is there. To argue is to think. Be dumb and see. What you are seeing is just there, it is self-evident, obvious. Beyond doubt.

Ok, now notice how the object is actually seen only in seeing.

You are seeing and the object is there in it. There is no division between your seeing and the object is there? No, the seeing is the object. We could say that the object is made out of seeing!

So look around and notice that everything you see is made from your own seeing. There can be nothing seen that is outside if your seeing. Everything you look at is made from the fabric of seeing.

This can be a powerful realisation. That wherever you go, all you’re ever seeing is made from your own seeing! The same seeing sees many different things, yet all things can only be made from your own seeing!

Now try to notice if there is any distance between you and the object. Is there a boundary or line between you and what you see?

No. The seen is just there. We may say the bottle is ‘over there’, but the bottle and the distance only exist as part of sight. And where does sight happen? Here – in Me.

How close is here? Well for me, when I look at any object it’s like there’s a wide space where I think my face is and everything fills that space. Anything I look at fills it. It doesn’t just fill it partially – but totally. I am this wide space which contains what is seen. This seeing, this hereness, happens so close to me, so intimately within me, that actually I cannot perceive any distance at all. I am the Here.

So there are two things to notice here; that everything you see is made from your own seeing and that therefore everything you see happens not ‘out there’, but only in your immediacy, right here, and this hereness is so close that you are already merged with it. You are this intimate hereness.

You are what you see because what you see is only your own seeing. It never takes place ‘out there’ for ‘distance’ also happens in seeing and all seeing only happens ‘here’ in the intimate immediacy of your experience.

There is no distance between you and seeing: you literally are what you see.

Now try this with other sensations. Try finding where sound happens, how close is sound to you? Is not sound only made of your own hearing? And doesn’t sound always happen ‘here’?

Are not your current sensations only made from your own feelings? And doesn’t your feelings always happen ‘here’, intimately?

Life is not something ‘out there’. It is so intimate, so close and so full. This is what we miss. We put concepts between this freely given intimacy and the obvious fact of fullness. It’s the labels and words which seem to split things apart.

So what are you amongst all this fullness? Well, you are so full that you are merged with all things, all experiences and sensations. You are merged with every thought and perception. It’s all you. Why? Because there is no boundary between your perceptions and yourself. It all happens Here. Intimately.

You are ALL things. No gaps can be found. Life floods in. No ‘you’ to stop it. Even the idea of ‘You’ has flooded in without your choice; it too is only your own awareness.

Your whole life you have thought that you were separate from the world. In fact you missed how close the world was to you, that it only happens within you. Your room, your body and sensations, your friends and family, the ocean, the Himalayas, the Sun, Moon and Cosmos are all made from you. You are all of these things.

See it all as yourself. Claim your birthright. Even your doubts are just one more flavour of yourself. Just to make life a bit more interesting!

There is absolutely nothing to get rid off or avoid. Just see how everything is already caressing you tenderly whispering your name. When this is realised, then all that falls away is the strong conviction that you were ever a limited separate being, and then this realisation bears its own fruit both in understanding and action.

You are all and all is you. This is not a cliché, this is fact. See it.

Forget emptiness and non-self: See how vast and full you are in each moment.

You are happening to yourself.

Stay with this quiet and obvious fullness.

Ah! Not So Enlightened Any more!

This is just this. This is as it is, simply, obviously; literally.

Just because you are seeing 'This' does not mean that your experience necessarily stays blissful and open. 'This' is free to arise as whatever experience it chooses.

It, has no preference. 'You' do.

Even after Awakening the mind can scream: 'It STILL shouldn't be like this. This feels too normal, where has the emptiness gone? The bliss? The specialness?'

The mind is very subtle. Very sneaky.

and suddenly you're agreeing....'Yeah! Where has it gone?'

We become limited again when we fixate on the special feelings or experiences and prefer them to feeling stressed, angry, upset or bored.

We forget that 'This' has nothing to do with us.

There is only Thisness flowering. Every petal is worthy.

Drop your concepts, throw away your spiritual jargon.

There is only This,

...and This is all.

Just More Fuel....

You have nothing.

Not even realisation.

Watch It burn....

Mute

Realisation rots away,

Nothing left

But this ordinariness.

No Attainment

Realisation

Burning up,

Realisation.

Bad News: It's Nothing Special

First you loose your self,

Then you loose even that.

This is how one becomes

Ordinary.

You're So Ordinary!

Thisness is the freedom for infinity to appear so utterly ordinary and mundane as to go completely unnoticed.

Thing

Nothing,"Thinging" itself, to "know" itself.

Am

Thissing in the wind...

Thisisms

All-being thinging me-you

*

Seeing-being,

Me-ing.

*

I is-ing all-being.

*

Thisness Am,

Me-ing.

*

Me am this all.

*

I, Amming this me.

*

Me-be,

Amming.

*

All-am,

Happening happening.

*

Me-ing this,

Thussing all.

*

Spaceness,

Me-ing being

Now.

*

This-that Am,

I is.

*

Am is

- Happening.

*

Open Am Is.

*

This,

Ising thinging.

*

Me-is,

Flowing-knowing,

As.

*

Openess,

Seeing-being

Is.

*

Open being

Do, As, Is.

*

Thisness

As-is,

Shining.

*

This,

Amming me.

*

All-being

Being-all.

*

This,

Me-ing you.

*

This Thissing Thus.

*

This Am,

As.

*

Am happening,

Is.

*

Opening Now,

This Am.

*

Am is

- Spacious.

*

Being, Amming.

*

All-ness Am,

I-ing Me.

*

Is Am I.

*

I-ness,

Spacious Am.

*

Fullness is,

Amming all.

*

Being Am

Is all.

*

Cup-Am,

Is-ing Me.

*

I seeing,

Am thissing.

*

Is Am As.

*

Life-ing,

Happening,

Is.

*

Being-seeing

Doing - Who-ing?

*

Am,

Perceiving

Amness.

*

All this is,

Everything Am.

*

Silent space,

Amming I.

*

As is All Am.

*

Am,

Shining as all,

Now.

*

Empty Am,

Thissing all.

*

This Am

Is-ing all.

*

Loving being doing is.

*

This is

As I.

*

I am

As Is.

!

This!

No Names!

See!

Kali

Awareness is both the lover and executioner of all forms

One

Sitting in Zen,

Head, pumps out

Birdsong.

Concept-Consciousness

A concept is a lens through which Awareness becomes conscious of itself by objectifying itself. The duality this produces and the original unity it springs from are both, simultaneously, true.

Maxim

You are what you do not have to remember to be.

Ripple

Early morning Zen,

Nana, coughs

From void.

Natural State

Lone Heron,

Perched on the rocks,

In Zen.

Feast

Don't get caught in any particular expression or flavour of seeing 'this'.

Life is a shifting flux of flavours and qualities.

Sometimes it appears to be complete fullness, love and bliss, or a heart-wrenching compassion. Sometimes it's just emptiness and silent aloofness.

Sometimes it is the thought that 'I am Enlightened' or 'I have the answer and can tell others about it', other times it is a total disinterest in thinking or talking about 'this'.

Sometimes it can be an almost fervent desire to communicate and share this with others, to scream it from the rooftops. Sometimes, not to be able to share this is a cruel loneliness.

Sometimes it's the impossibility of ever understanding this; a kind of lostness or confusion, which happens to no-body. Other times it may appear that there is someone there to be confused.

There are many experiences arising and passing endlessly.

But they cannot catch you. They will not cut you. Their blades are blunt.

They come and go in awareness as awareness.

It is this play of spices which gives life its profound and unique flavour. And...you are only ever tasting yourself. So enjoy the feast. Eat well and drink well.

The banquet is just for you.

You Are Un-likeable!

With words we can say that 'This' is like fullness. We can say that it is also like emptiness. Or perhaps it's more like bliss? Or maybe all three together, or maybe none of these things.

What is it like?

This is the question we want to know. Then we can compare it, understand it, move towards it. But saying it is like anything is to kill it. This is not like anything but itself. It is not like anything because it simply is everything.

It is not like a table. It is the table. It is not like the clouds. It is the clouds.

It is every detail you perceive because those details are known in your awareness as awareness.

It is everything which happens exactly as it happens. And what happens is not like anything, it is only itself. It is unique.

To compare it is to kill it.

So fall in love with This. Fall in love with experience moment by moment. No gap, no separation, no need for a label, no need to understand. Just rest in undeniable this-ness.

Adore the uniqueness of life,

It's what you are.

Do It Yourself

To try and describe this is to kill it. To limit and imprison it. To incarcerate it in a word. It's also a way of duping you. Believing the words we attempt to nourish ourselves on dust and bones.

Don't fool yourself. Don't listen to me, to my words, to anyone's words. There is nothing outside of yourself to search for. No 'other' you must 'get'.

These words are only your words. They are your own spontaneous awareness. They are you.

I cannot and will never be able to point to anything other than yourself. For all is you. I don't want to rob yourself of resting in yourself, of being yourself. I don't want to add to the propagation of the idea that there is a separate 'you' which needs to find 'Enlightenment'.

Recently I haven't wanted to write anything at all. This is just this. It doesn't need to be constantly interpreted through concepts. I don't need to understand it. When I don't want to understand it I don't want to write about it.

So what is this 'This' ?

It is the muddled conversation of everyone around me, the Music coming through the speakers, the man outside in a white hat passing the estate agents with his shopping, the newspaper on my table, the smell of my coffee, the hissing sound of the steam-arm, the sensation of gripping this pen and the words it produces, the vague unformed idea of what to do next...

It is all of this.

It is everything which arises without exception. All and always.

But don't believe me, don't believe anyone.

Be brave. Be your own authority. Be your own 'All'.

With Love x

Always the Observer Never the Observed

Can we state what we are (because surely we must know!) without it being something which is itself observed? Can we define ourselves without observing our definition?

Answers on a postcard please.

Multiplication

We get so absorbed in the adding

That we totally forget what we’re adding to.

Question:

Well, who needs Enlightenment?

Exactly...

.....you tell me..

Missing the Obvious

You think you are looking at words....

You're not...

You're looking at the screen....

The Cats Conversation

It’s a beautiful summer’s day in an English garden. Birds hop in the shining grass, blue-grey pigeons coo in the branches of an apple tree, bees and wasps hum about the flowers and bushes. A man sits on a chair reading his newspaper and enjoying the weather. Just then, a slim black cat slides into the garden and settles down effortlessly in the heat of the sun.

The man stares at the cat, the cat stares back at the man, blinking heavily, the sunlight illuminating its silky hair. After some time the cat follows its curious nature and asks the man in a friendly voice what he is up to.

After an initial shock and hoping that the heat hasn’t got to him, he replies that he is reading.

Cat: Reading? What’s reading?

Man: Well, it’s a human activity. I’m reading words which are basically symbols representing ideas. These words are placed in sentences to communicate thoughts or information.

Cat: Ah, I see. But where did these words come from?

Man: Well, erm… we… I mean… people… made them up. We… invented them….really.

Cat: Invented them!

Man: Yes…. because we’re more intelligent than other animals... (ahem, like cats…)

Cat: So you make up words with meanings and then you spend you time reading these invented words to give you information?

Man: Yes. Our whole education and culture is really based on words…and numbers of course…

Cat: Numbers?

Man: Yes, numbers. 1-10 etc., something cats wouldn’t know anything about.

Cat: And where did numbers come from?

Man: Well, we invented them too! As a mark of our intelligence we’ve invented words and numbers. We can communicate meaning to each other with words and measure things with numbers.

Cat: But you said you invented words and numbers.

Man: Yes, and we’re very glad we did thank you very much. Do cats have a Shakespeare? Have any felines ever been to the Moon? I think not.

Cat: We don’t need to. We’re quite happy sunbathing and chasing bird’s thanks. So, if your whole culture is built upon words and numbers which you say you yourselves have invented…then how do you know they really apply to reality?

Man: Ha! A cat talking to me about reality! We made these words….these numbers….these names and ideas….to understand the world…we need to understand you see! – That’s the whole point!!!

Cat: If you say so. What exactly is there to understand?

Man: Life! You poor little cat-brain! The reason why we’re here! Why we have to die! Why there is suffering! What it all means!

Cat: Ok. And have these words and names given you the answer yet? In the time since you invented them, have you humans come to any solutions?

Man: Well….not a definite solution….Everyone has their own ideas of what the best solution is…wars have been fought and millions murdered over what the right answer should be.

Cat: So the problem hasn’t been solved yet?

Man: Not yet…

Cat: Maybe it won’t ever be. It seems to me that you humans have invented arbitrary symbols which you believe to be absolutely true. You sit there reading scribbles which only apply to you – to humans – because you have invented them for yourselves in order to understand yourselves! You’re all living in a bubble of your own making!

Man: Ah but! -

Cat: But what if all your names and words and numbers don’t really apply to reality? Because as far as I can tell there’s only really this…..right now….it doesn’t need a squiggle a symbol or a number. It doesn’t need to be interpreted. It just is what it is. Simple! Probably too simple for your signs and symbols! This garden doesn’t have a name or number. It doesn’t need to be understood. It’s just here isn’t it? Don’t you see that?

Man: Oh I see alright!!! You would like to us abandon our words, our education our culture our politics, sciences and religions and just lay about in the sun all day like a lazy simple-minded cat!!! That would be the end of civilization as we know it!

Cat: I’m just suggesting seeing things the way they are for a change without adding anything to them. This garden doesn’t need an education or culture or politics, it just is. We cats don’t need anything like that either. I just am. Plain and simple! I’m part of nature – in fact I am nature! Keep your so called civilisation if it means so much to you, but just see what happens if you see things as they are, not as you think they are…

Man: It is what it is! Plain and simple! What utter nonsense!!!

Cat: I think talking to a cat is utter nonsense…

At this the man rustled his paper noisily, huffed angrily and pretended to read. The cat watched a bumble-bee float past, yawned and rested its head in the sun.

Empty Abundance

Nothing is happening.

Being in Love

Bodhidharma sat facing a wall

For seven years –

Ah,

But what a wall….

Empty Dream

The dream is empty

Because

Emptiness is the dream

This is Empty

It’s not that there is a you perceiving these words but rather that perception is perceiving itself. All perception is only ever awareness which is itself empty both in-itself and as apparent forms. Therefore, ultimately, emptiness is perceiving itself.

Only Light

The dream is awake.

Ah!

There is nothing for you to get!

Get it?

Transparent Walls

It's funny,

All of your expectations about 'IT',

Your concepts, ideas and prejudices;

They DON'T EXIST!

And yet they get in the way of 'IT'....

Can you?

Can you simply be in this moment without adding anything to it?

Can you stop and rest in this without labelling and naming it, without thinking about it?

Can you see your obviousness?

Can you?

Nightmare

This dream-world

For which so many kill and are killed,

So thin,

So, so thin...

Impossible

Can you capture space

With a net?

Clothed with Nakedness

Awareness is the material from which each perception is made.

Its creativity allows it to be tailored into any and every experience.

Yet – and here’s the confusing part – this so-called cloth just doesn’t exist...

Proof!

Human BEING

…the clue is in our name…

Simplicity

Meet yourself without names and labels.

Be innocent not clever.

It really is this simple.

Wake up!

You are HERE

To WAKE UP to what

You ARE.

(or aren't)...

Dew

The reflection of the garden

In the morning dew

Is only water,

- And yet! And yet!

(with thanks to Issa)

Perception

It is perception itself which is ‘enlightened’ for without the light of perception there is only darkness, the unknown. I don’t mean a particular perception and I don’t mean my perception; Just naked perception – free and as-is.

There are no gaps in perception. No subject-object, no inside-outside. Take a look: there is just the perceiving, the seeing, the experiencing. Separation is a superimposed thought onto what is. Nowhere in any perception is there a line between you and what you perceive. You ARE perception.

Perception is always TOTAL.

Perception is always WHOLE.

The gaps just don’t exist.

If this doesn’t satisfy you – what will?

Scrub it clean

Scrub any object, label or experience with earnest investigation and you’ll find yourself looking back into your own freeing emptiness.

Loneliness

Sad horse,

I'll be,

Your friend.

See-through

There are no objective appearances.

There is no objectivity.

Only Awareness-Awarenessing.

This is your inherent and obvious freedom.

Birds

Magpies at dusk,

- Crisp, clear, alive.

Reality is inHEREnt -

Love

If I could only tell you

How things really are,

Oh,

How you would laugh....

Joke

I don't have anything to say;

Nothing to sell,

No point to make,

No argument to defend.

My life's a mess,

I'm sliding into debts,

And I need a new pair of shoes.

I take public transport.

Don't ask me why all of this

Makes me laugh.

Only awareness arising as this, this, this....

Unlearning

This is not about naming.

This is about being nameless,

and nameless being.

Reality

The answer you’re looking for is not contained within the Mind. It is not contained in Knowledge. Mind cannot understand reality for the Mind can only produce concepts and ideas which it then takes as an authentic self-existing reality.

It then devises ways to go and 'attain' those ideas, conveniently ignoring the fact that it is only ever searching for its own creations and therefore suffering when it can't seem to find them.

The Mind has nothing to do with true understanding because true understanding is and always has been implicit and obvious as experience. Not in labelling experience, nor in a particular experience, but experience per se.

Reality is always present but can appear to be covered by mental concepts and labels such as ‘Me’, ‘You’ ‘This’ and ‘That’. Through a sincere investigation of these labels it can be seen that they are just concepts produced by the Mind, and do not relate to any concrete realities.

Once these inadequate ideas have been seen through, then reality shines forth, luminous, obvious and free. Reality is not, and has never been, anything other than what you truly are but without interpretation through mental concepts.

Reality is only experience – just as it is - arising and passing away just as it has always done. The view from your window is reality. The toast you had for breakfast is reality. The only difference is that with the realisation that the concept of a separate individual is invalid, then experience no longer refers back to anyone. Then reality simply is, happening to no-one, spontaneous and free.

There is only reality - despite all appearances - and reality is unity.

www.beingordinary.org

Latest podcast from Being ordinary, this time we tackle the big E - Enlightenment...

http://www.beingordinary.org/2010/03/5-the-taboo-of-enlightenment/

Understanding must also fall away

The clarity of seeing ‘this’ can often become clouded again by the very attempt to ‘understand’ it. Life is as it is, obvious, silent and ordinary, yet the mind begins to label this clarity with more ‘accurate’ concepts. It picks up some ‘clearer labels’, some ‘non-dual’ jargon and then begins to construct what it believes is an ‘understanding’.

“Great”, thinks the mind, “Now I can express this, write about it, talk clearly about it. Now I know what I’m talking about, I know what it means, I’m certain, I have authority’.

All of which is just mind trying to get its job back. Poor mind; it tries its best to assert dominance and authority by claiming to ‘understand’ life, but this is something it can never do. Concepts cannot touch life and no amount of ‘non-dual pointers’ can immerse you in your own clarity.

Non-dualism is. It cannot be expressed for the moment it is spoken of it is dualistic. Any attempt to prove you have an ‘understanding’ or some kind of experiential ‘authority’ misses the point and suddenly you find yourself having to define and defend labels which in reality have absolutely nothing to do with ‘this’.

We abandon our unbounded freedom and cling to a mere concept.

‘This’ is so bright that it outshines any idea. It dissolves all names and forms. It destroys the imagined boundary of separation. Give up trying to understand it. There is no authority here, no certainty.

No-one to say “I know”.

There is no structure - only free-fall.

Seeing Oneness

Oneness is clear and obvious not as phenomena but as the spontaneous knowing in which all phenomena arise.

Seeing the obvious - being the obvious

The realisation of the ordinariness of impersonal spontaneous awareness eliminates the notion of a separate, self-motivating individual who is seeking something called 'Enlightenment'.

Then it is seen that this so-called 'me' was only ever an idea arising within the impersonal spontaneous awareness which was - and always is - present.

See your obviousness.

It's the one thing that's truly yours.

You can’t get Enlightened twice

Many people seem to have an Enlightening experience, then subsequently loose it. There is then the sheer frustration of trying to get it back.

But once it is seen that what you essentially are is the spontaneous ‘knowing’ or ‘awareness’ in which all perception takes place, there is no possibility of forgetting it or loosing it. This is because, once seen, it is obvious that any further thought, doubt, emotion or action, only ever appears within ‘knowing’ or ‘awareness’. No amount of mental noise nor the opinions of others can then dissuade you from the obvious fact that any appearance, any phenomena, perception or experience can only ever arise within ‘knowing’ or ‘awareness’.

When you realise that you are essentially that knowing awareness then it is impossible to loose yourself, for you see that you always were and always will be everything and nothing.

You cannot become what you already are

We often hear that we must be more mindful, more aware, more conscious. We strive to attain perfect mindfulness, perfect awareness, perfect consciousness, as if that were something apart from ourselves that we have to create or manufacture in order to be 'better' or 'enlightened'.

Instead of spending time and effort (and ultimately frustration) in attempting to 'create' awareness, just see that all your actions and thoughts already take place in awareness naturally and spontaneously. Even your effort to produce awareness happen in awareness.

The fact that you know you are - that you are conscious - is the clue.

Awareness or knowing happens spontaneously, it is not produced by an individual. In fact the sense of a separate self arises within that aware space as a known thing, for no-one can deny they lack self-consciousness. Your sense of self is therefore only an uninvestigated assumption a which arises and falls within the net of awareness.

Awareness or knowingness does not rise and fall. It is the condition for all further conditions, the paper upon which the words are written, the very material of which your thoughts and actions are made and known. It is an infinite net from which you cannot escape, it is not something that a so called 'individual' can produce.

So, does an ocean need to be more like water? A flower more like a flower? Does awareness need to be more like awareness?

See what you are and be what you are.

There is only recognition

What we call the world is made up of a lifetime of experiences. All experiences are made up from perceptions. All perceptions have the inherent quality of knowing or awareness (e.g. We know that we perceive).

To reverse this order:

What we call perceptions have the inherent quality of knowing or awareness (e.g. We know that we perceive). Perceptions make up our experiences. What we call the world is made up from a lifetime of experiences.

Therefore to recognise that the world is ultimately only awareness and that awareness is none other than the world is to see the non-duality of reality.

Ultimately there is only recognition.

To recognise this is freedom.

Freedom has no name.

No distinctions, only being.

Any distinction between experiences is only ever the minds interpretation, a learnt label added after the fact. So whether your experience may be the product of drugs, dreams, or dzogchen, the raw immediate fact of the experience is always its being (the fact that it is). You could say that being is appearing as a hallucination, nightmare or deep meditation just as the ocean becomes tidal waves, cross-currents, or flat calms.

The 'out there' is also only a label for what is; a learnt distinction. There is only this raw nameless perception which is simultaneously a know perception. Perception has the character of knowing or awareness. We may say 'I perceive' but really, there is only perception which is itself aware - an action which has no actor (try looking for the so-called person who claims awareness).

If we really see the ordinary directly - as it is - we will discover that actually it belongs to no-body and that therefore no-one can become attached to it. This world of ours is a floating one, without an anchor or base. Just awareness or being bubbling up into apparent forms before fading back into nothing.

But this is of course not something that the mind is interested in hearing.

February evening rain,
Homes light up
Like lanterns.

Failure

Everything I've written here fails.

Any description of this points in the opposite direction. Words like emptiness or fullness, being, awareness or no-self, become objects for the hungry mind to hunt down and capture so that it can 'know' the truth, possess the truth.

It fails to recognise that those very labels are themselves only ever sounds and images appearing in the vast suchness to which they attempt to point.

And look, here I am leading you astray again..

Home

This is my home -

My walls have fallen down,
Flowers and weeds overrun my garden,
Animals roam where they please.

But I'm past committing to repairs.

Jobless and free,
I let nature be my care-taker.

Conviction

Everything is Awareness,
- There is only Home.

Only openess

The swoosh of a car
- passing through me

Like space
Slicing through

Space.

Space

Only space
- Dreaming.

Dirt

Even your fear, your shame,
Is a clot of gold.

(With thanks to John Steinbeck).

Miraculous thoughts

Thought is not your enemy
- It is a miracle.

The Answer

The answer lies in the falling away of questions.

Can you stop THIS?

Without thinking about it, can we stop or prevent what is happening right now in this moment? The room I am in, the music playing, the slight chill in the air, the sounds of the keyboard, my full stomach, the sensation of sitting...can I stop these from happening without thinking about it?

Well let's see.

I stop thinking and see, quite plainly, very obviously, that these things are just happening. They are facts. The room is here, the music plays, sensations happen. It's all just happening. The fact of it is effortless. It is very fresh and beautiful actually. Very simple.

Yet the mind does not have time for this silent simplicity and quickly buries the fact of this effortlessness with thoughts and opinions, imaginations or memories. The mind ignores the simple fact that everything is just here, easily, without requiring thinking to interpret any of it.

Right now, without thinking about it the sun is quickly setting, clouds move across the sky, I feel a sensation of tiredness in my eyes, I hear the dull and distant movements of my house-mates. This all just happens, regardless of whether or not I'm thinking about it.

Without thinking about it things are just as they are. Ordinary and simple. These are our only facts, the Mind is only ever interpretation and opinion.

Can you see this fact without the Mind's distraction?

Try it. Suspend thought. Just see. See the ordinary as it is, without names and labels. See its there-ness, its being, its fact.

See the quiet stillness of things.

Sign above the entrance to the Universe:

WELCOME TO EXISTENCE:

- Everything is Awareness -

(although appearances may vary)

This

Just this,

Without anyone to see

This.

Flame

The invisible flame of awareness
burning even the concept
of 'awareness'.

Water

A wave cannot sway
the ocean.

Nature

Suddenly,
No more stepping stones!

We simply swim.

Language

The world is made
of scribbles.

Open Essay II

Without jumping into analysis and philosophical systems, let us relax the mind and look directly at experience as it arises, raw and naked. Let us drop names and ideas, comparisons and memories, likes and dislikes, and just see. Let us be like scientists without even the idea of science to colour our perception, or like children who have not learnt all the names of things and are still open to wonder.

Let us ask ourselves a question:

What is the one thing in this moment can you be certain about? What is there in this moment that is real and actual beyond all doubt or criticism? Is there anything available now which presents itself beyond all supposition or belief?

If we are totally honest and clear with ourselves we may see that the only certainty we have in this moment is that - in the most simple terms - ‘something’ is happening.

It might be a sensation like hunger or a tingling in the face or fingers, the sunlight coming through the window, a birds shriek, an itch, numbness or warmth, but before we even begin naming and describing, the only fact we can be certain about is that ‘something’ is happening.

Now all you have to do is discover just what that ‘something’ is.

The Value of Dust

In this space
even the loudest thoughts are mute,

The most solid sensations
appear as mists.

All of this dust,
is really

Gold.

THE MINDS JOB IS TO IGNORE THE ORDINARY

Beyond

Now
- Not even a thought.

Even this,

Veils.

January morning

One more crow,
And my heart
Will break.

Without words,
Without thoughts,
The world is as it is.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

The raw and direct experience of whatever you are doing right now transcends all and any concepts which might overlay it. Life doesn’t require concepts to be.

Reality cannot be described,
It simply is.

Dreamality

Not quite a dream,
Not quite reality:
- Dreamality.

Hoodwinked

Thinking your mind can solve this is like trading gold for straw.

Misconception

What lies between
You and God,

But a squint
Of the eye?

There are no gaps in reality.

Wall-paper

Stripping wall-paper,
What a shock to find
Not bricks,
But infinity.

Open Essay I

The world as we think of it is only a web of concepts and associations which exist as mental translations of sensation and raw experience. In this sense we could say that there are two worlds, the one which exists in our heads and which we imagine to be real, and the one which exists simply as it is without need of concept or translation.

Without the habitual translation of experience into thoughts, memories, comparisons etc, there is no 'World' and without a world there is no 'Me' and no 'You'. There is just what is. It has not changed, but it is not weighed down and buried beneath a life-time of labels and attachments. Without belief in labels, things come to life as life itself.

The borders, boundaries and limitations such as 'out there is the world' or 'this is a bad feeling' or 'this is a chair' or 'I am inside this body' all fall away when the inadequacy of labels are seen through. The imagined separation between ourselves and the universe then ceases to be, and the mind-altering revelation occurs that up until now we have been experiencing life through the narrow and energy sapping lens of mental concepts. Most of our experience is channelled into thought and the energy of these thoughts have distracted us from the raw simplicity of life which - if we look at it directly - we find as spontaneous, free, formless, intangible and boundless.

Indeed once this is seen, the world in which we live seems dream-like, incredibly fragile and transient, yet heart-wrenchingly beautiful and profound. We may still refer to ourselves as an individual, but the belief in these concepts as realities falls away. Language and concepts are for our convenience only, not for leading us to reality. All language is therefore poetry and poetry cannot tell us the truth, but only, beautifully, point towards it.

Thinking continues but its authority has been exposed and it's hypnotic power is weakened. We may use it to read a map or talk about our day, but we will not use it existentially to search for reality, God or Truth. Even if we do it will be with a clearly marked caveat: Life itself does not require a name.

Ultimately, even the thinking mind and belief in concepts and labels are but facets of the intelligence of life. They are not to be forcibly removed or denied or even surrendered to, because when seen clearly we find that the some-one who would repress, silence or deny the mind is itself just another thought. We do not have to get rid of a 'Me' or stop our thoughts. We just need to look directly at our experience to see that there never was a 'Me' and never will be.

The 'Me' is the ultimate label, the Queen of concepts, and yet it has no root, no core, no connection to reality. The 'Me' is but a dream, a thought which comes and goes. Once this keystone concept is seen as essentially invalid all thoughts pertaining to this imagined entity weaken, for we do not hold conversations with ghosts and we do not continue to wait up for Santa Claus after we discover him to be unreal.

All that remains is this. But even this has a variety of concepts and labels associated with it such as flow, being, suchness, life, consciousness or awareness. These may give a flavour of reality, but are really only more refined pointers. This cannot be named and never has been, it is the slayer of words, the destroyer of unreality. Our entire lives we have been one-ness, yet our thoughts convinced us that we were separate. See these thoughts as the dreams they are, look at what is happening right now and try to see if there is any separation between you and the world, between your thoughts and the awareness of them.

There are no gaps in reality and these very words - although but a collection of dreams - are in fact none other than yourself; One-ness staring back at one-ness.

We are on
Thin ice.

Phantoms

You
Believe
- In ghosts.

Space

My head
gone.

Face falls
away.

This is life
In widescreen.

Nameless Now.

What name can smother the nameless?
All mental efforts evaporate into the air
Like morning mist in the face of the dazzling
Sunshine of simplicity.

Life

Most of what we call 'Life' is only an opinion or an interpretation, it is conceptual or various flavours of mental noise. For many of us raw immediate experience is habitually channelled into mental labels, thinking, memory and analysis. Few are those who are content with the simple peace of Life as it presents itself.

ephemeral nonsense

All of these sensations,
Perceptions, feelings, thoughts,

What dreams!
What wordless miasmas!

The wind loves to play
at catching itself.

Be a non-stick pan

Not oil
Nor butter or lard,
Not tofu, sausages or noodles,
Not eggs or fish or bacon.

Nothing sweet or savoury,
Sour or bitter:

It is best to be
a non-stick pan.