Beyond what you call yourself

In the bondage of appearing to be a limited being, an individual, there is a desperation, a trying to hang onto 'things' that are not there - here. - They are all concepts and mind projections. - You imagine terrifying things and you scare yourself to death with them. - You dream of pleasant things that are nowhere to be seen in the actual present evidence. - You dream a stream of dreams and you flutter about in imaginary worlds of past and future. - Anxiety is a regular visitor.
When all obscuring factors are seen through, the portal of what we can call 'Awakened Mind' opens fully - all is seen and the apparent 'believed in' substance of your dreams of separateness vanishes - forever - never to be believed in again. - They may still appear in a transparent form in mind, like a visiting butterfly in the garden - but they are known instantly for what they are.

In naked awareness there is no 'becoming'. - No coming or going, for it is non-dual awareness. - All that comes and goes is merely an appearance. - Everything appears in exactly the same way. - I cannot say what the difference is because it is actually undifferentiated and the problems did not exist in the first instant.
‘I am’, you are, this ‘first and only instant’. - At no point can any ‘I’ or a ‘you’ leave this. All manner of things appear and disappear in this first instant. - None of these appearances last. - All are transient. - The ‘master’ may appear to bring you back conceptually to this first instant (which you have never left). - Because he lives entirely from this first instant, his speech arises directly from it. - He is not speaking from any platform in mind. - His words may seem profound.

This profoundness is the living vibration of unobstructed expression. - It is expressed from and as the immediate knowing, it is a reciprocating resonance in yourself. - It is not some memorized thing that he is telling you. - He is the knowing of what he says.
You may believe that you come and go from this immediate presence. - It is not so. Only conceptually do you appear to depart from this first instant. - The remembering and the forgetting are just mind stuff. - All is as it ever was. - Yet it never was, is, or will be anything other than this first instant. - You are That.

Even though many things are repeated here in this text, direct cognition is unobstructed. - Our habitual way of being is full of repetition.
When the 'apparent shift' takes place, from habitual mind-stuff and recognized things into direct and immediate knowing, then this taste will not leave you. - It cannot leave you because you are this direct knowing and you have always been THAT.
You are in fact, nothing but this. - (Where is the doubt?)
The innate knowing of this is it (also). - The content of this immediacy seemingly arises within an experiential realm (mind) and this is nothing but direct cognition.
It is nothing but this. - It never splits into two.

Know it for yourself!
It is all immediate and never anything else but immediate (There is no ‘ever’ or ‘never’ - ‘past’ or ‘future’ in this). - All of the mind realms, words, images and concepts are nothing but this. - The dualistic mind cannot sit quietly with the non-dual.
‘You’ are taken beyond the dualistic mind. - To go beyond the mind you simply rest in open awareness.

Beyond what you call yourself
Within what you call yourself,
Is this vastness of direct cognition,
Unlimited
Unchanging
Untouched by anything.
The words are pointing at it
All that appears is it
Appearances never move or stray from it
The essence in what is seen
And the essence in what is seeing
are One.
All there is is Knowing.
Even what you call ‘mind’ is nothing but it
knowing.
When you look for mind, all you find is direct knowing
- cognition.

Because it is all there is - and because there is nothing other than this, there is nothing to compare with it. - So you do not notice its significance in what you call ‘mind’. And yet your very ‘seeing - knowing’ is nothing but this.

This knowing does not come and go
It is vast like the ocean
Does the fish notice the clear water?
No water - no fish
The water is full of fish
The fish is full of water
Not two.

See that what you truly are, in essence, which is this direct cognition, do not move - you are not this movement. - You ‘know’ because of this movement. - There is only knowing happening. - The immediate intelligence energy is the pure potentiality of this movement. - You are the movement of knowing - You are That.
I AM THAT.

Who is seeing?

The clear and precise intelligence ‘in’ one who has truly realized THIS, has no interest in telling elaborate stories about ‘how it was achieved’. – Nothing has been achieved at all – all that happens is the stories are seen through.
All mind content is known for what it is – no concerns over the past and the habitual fears about the future have fallen away altogether.

There is no dependence on any ‘thing’ in the present, past or future.

There is no indulgence or interest in ‘looking back’ into memory, it is known in an absolute sense, that there is no point in dragging up the ‘story’ of ‘the journey’ - and it is known for certain that there is no use in imposing those stories onto others, as if they had some relevant importance.
It cannot benefit anyone.

You may notice that almost all teachers indulge in 'their story of attainment' - and 'seekers', through ignorance, want to imitate that 'story'. - It is all useless.

In the direct pointing, above all else, there is ‘no impulse’ to imply that someone else should ‘do’ some sort of practice – not even one tiny practice, no practice whatsoever – none at all. - This fact alone eliminates 99.99% of teachers - useless, except as someone to imitate. - What joy can there be in that? - Endless notions of 'becoming' is self delusion on all fronts - the teacher is included in that conceptualized realm of mind stuff.

In the direct pointing, there is a knowing that all of the ‘appearance of how things are’, is nothing but ‘an appearance’ of being – it has no substance whatsoever – and the illusion of pushing some concepts via 'suggestion' about some elusive ‘substance of being’, all concerning the re-arrangement of ‘things’, so that enlightenment can ‘come’, that is known in an absolute sense to be a trap for the mind.

The natural state is present - it is just ignored. - It cannot 'come' because it already IS.
Stop ignoring it.
What is TRUE, along with a natural compassion, prevents any such ideas about elaborate time bound methods and practices from misleading the unwary, they never pass through the lips of 'the true messenger'.
The true messenger does not 'play a game' of being anyone 'special'. - He delivers the message. - There is NO interest in collecting 'followers'.

THIS ‘presence of knowing’ can never be about any kind of 'appearance' of any notions of BECOMING – because it already IS – As it always has been.

We overlook the natural state of simple 'presence with what is’ and go off in the mind with stale old habitual beliefs. – Those beliefs cannot stand up to a clear and precise investigation of the substance they are believed to contain. – Don’t be put off by some teacher saying that the investigation is just more seeking. – INTELLIGENCE and SEEING belong to 'presence-awareness' - the close examination of beliefs is revealed to be insubstantial, transient 'mind-content'.
This revelation is totally radical, from the perspective of mind.

Yet it is totally ordinary from the perspective of simple 'silent being' and seeing ‘what is’.

Telling this, does not win me any friends in 'the spiritual circle'. - The spiritual 'business' is rife with practices and methods all leading nowhere at all - good for business though - "good on 'em".
The messenger may appreciate an expression of gratitude but it is not sort after.
If your teacher has these qualities then you may well have found a true messenger.

Email: -
“When I first found your e-book “Everything is Clear and Obvious”, I remember well, reading it, and that night the sleeping was very good – I slept well. - And the next day, in the waking state, it was like, ‘I am in the background witnessing all that happens’. Later that view, (which is probably the 'knowing' you refer to) that view later seemed to diminish, it is like the ‘personality’, that type of limited perspective, came again." – Sergio

Reply: Yes, all manner of things ‘appear’ in that 'knowing', that ‘open view’ – whatever appears in and on that, they are all transient appearances.
The habit is to believe that "I am in the mind", a character in the body. – See it for what it is. - The body and the mind content both appear on awareness.

If the body (your body) is the 'first pattern' to appear in the experience of the world (for you) - The first 'thing' you see is 'space' and the body appears in that space - and if that pattern, which we usually associate our 'self' with, the body, is not recognized as an appearance also - then that is the obscuring factor.
Where are you seeing from? - Is it not from that space? - Does it have any boundary?
Does it have a form? - A color? - Is it not spaciousness itself?

This spacious ‘open view’ is always here – it is the very nature of 'being', of awareness itself. – It is the basis of every experience, prior to whatever the mind translates it into.
– It is knowing.

Note: The mentioned e-book is a free download-able pdf file on the shining through the mind website - top right hand side of screen.  http://nondualitynotes.blogspot.com/200 … eeing.html

Email:

Hi Gilbert, - Sometimes there is a seeing of the personality as a thought. - It is so simple that I can hardly believe it. - The seeing is usually brief and followed by a sort of return to the previous way of perceiving. - Is it really this simple?
I see the seen but not the seer. - The seeing seems to just happen out of nothing.
Is nothing the seer?

Although there are occasional 'glimpses' of this seeing, the understanding is not on gut-level. - I still suffer, although there is an increased ability to let emotions and states just be and float on by at their own pace.
Sometimes I feel almost desperate, because I really, really want to understand this now. - I do not want to seek anymore, I want to live. - I do not want to be obsessed by this anymore.
Best regards – Jens.

Reply:

Yes, it is so simple we miss it.
SEEING is happening. - Always.
There is No seer that has any independence or substance 'apart' from SEEING.
There is NO 'entity' that is seeing anything. - Believing there is is just a thought.
The 'thinker' is a thought.
"I am thinking" is just another thought appearing in the knowing-seeing.
It is the emptiness that is seeing-knowing.
This emptiness is not a void - it is pure intelligence.
There is no benefit or harm in it for anyone.
Believing there is is just a thought.
There never was a 'someone'.
The 'person' is NOT reality.

Whatever you see is not you.
The 'seer' is a thought only - 'I see'.
Have a look - does that 'I' have any substance?
If it did, surely you would know that by now. - You are not a fool and yet this obvious fact has eluded you. - Why?
The duality of 'the seen' and 'the seer' are only appearances in SEEING.

You say you want to stop seeking - that 'you' is nothing but thought based habits.
That 'you' may want to add substance to 'itself' by attaching itself to anything and everything - but nothing works for long.
What you actually ARE can never seek - because it is already THAT. - Start there as THAT and then the seeking cannot even 'get off the ground'.

The moments of seeing clearly (the glimpses) you speak of are moments when the 'me' is absent. - The 'space' in which a 'thick forest' appears in, is always there, whether deforestation happens or not.

These glimpses appear to come and go - but is that actually true?
The momentary glimpse of the Ocean does not mean the Ocean disappears. - SEE what it is that seemingly obscures the view. - It is inevitably 'mind content'.

The seeing is always present - what comes and goes is the thoughts, concepts, images etc.

In the appearance of 'things' you identify yourself with (those) thoughts.

My advice is: Drop them - and just BE the seeing.

Even though this is pointed out over and over, no one seems to hear it - actually quite a few have heard it and seen the truth of it - but generally the habit of identifying will not allow any 'space of knowing' to remain uncluttered. - The nature of mind is to divide. - Even though it has no power at all, that habit of believing in a 'me' reappears simply because it is believed in and never questioned.
WHO is it that believes it?

See if you can find any substance to that self-center that you believe is 'you'.
That is what needs to happen - it cannot be done by a 'you' - intelligence 'does' it.
Be that intelligence that you ARE.

Yes, it is indeed so very simple. - But you must persist in this examination - this exploration of what you are.
The mind will not want to stay with it - it will throw up all manner of diversions because that is the habit.
Do not hold onto anything - let the thoughts flow freely, let them appear and disappear - do not take delivery of them. - They will be 'Returned to sender' - They will lose their apparent 'attraction' and will recede into being only transparent 'visitors' or a slight 'buzz' in the background.

Realize this profundity: What you truly are has NEVER stepped OUT of presence.

You ARE present and aware - As Bob says: 'you are not asleep'.
Awareness is not a concept.
The concept about awareness is just a name, a concept.

Write again if needs be.

Warm regards - Gilbert.

Incomprehensible for mind - yet natural for being.

Incomprehensible for the dualistic mind. - Being is Knowing.

Being a slave to concepts about ‘special states of being’ is foolish.

Let me state clearly that there are no concepts being indulged in here. - I have no investment in a self-image, that I am 'someone special' or that something special has happened to me. - I have not attained any state of being - either enlightenment or whatever name you want to give it. - It could be said that it is 'the ordinary' that contains the miraculous. - We overlook the ordinary 'pure functions of being' and go looking for some 'thing', some idea of 'becoming' - imitating what is suggested to us by 'suggestion' itself. - We ignore the FACT of wonderment - the fact of our own being - just as we are. - What a miracle.

You may imagine that you are in the process of ‘becoming’ – you may have been given many tools to achieve your desire of becoming something ‘more’ than what you are.
Who is the observer of this ‘becoming’?
Is that anything stable?

Is it not merely thoughts about becoming and self-assessments, more thoughts and judgments made about some self-analysis?
Where do all of these activities take place?
Isn’t it all simply an appearance in being?

We can re-arrange ‘the furniture’ in our minds but nothing of this activity will ever ‘become’ anything but what it is.
The appearances cannot be THAT, which is unchanging, that 'one without a second' – they are appearances and they cannot be that changeless fact of being, it is THAT, the changeless, in which ALL the appearances appear. - You are THAT - not the transient appearances - That fact is obviously here right now and it permeates this living moment - totally ascertainable (for anyone at all, right here, right now) because it is a FACT. - What prevents the seeing of that fact? - It can only be mind stuff that gets in the way. - Drop it.

Some say that such expressions are from the Absolute, not from where they see things from. - The fact is that ALL true SEEING is not actually 'happening' via the mind's content. - The translations of the mind cannot SEE. - These translations appear to be so quickly 'on the scene' we habitually believe that this 'believed in entity' is seeing - is knowing. - It is simply NOT true. - There is only ONE Seeing happening. - Where are you Seeing from? - Don't be tempted by any 'idea' about that. - Where is the seeing happening? - This question delivers the mind to beyond its realm. - No conceptual answer can satisfy - Frustration or denial is a usual response. - The SEEING is prior to all concepts. - Calling it an 'Absolute View' which only a 'sacred few' have access to is just a story for the mind. - Believing in stories in preference to the actuality is an 'insubstantial problem'. - A problem that dissolves instantly if it is truly questioned thoroughly and actually.

Believing in ‘the process of becoming’ is the error.

99.999% of teachers are ‘guilty’ of proliferating concepts of ‘becoming’.

It is all useless and it leads ‘you consistently away’ from the obvious FACT of Being.
Place your trust in one who ‘points’ directly at the facts.

Is it not obvious that all these years of following the practices of ‘becoming’ have not led you anywhere – that fabulous and imaginary ‘realization’ keeps slipping out of view. – It remains ‘up ahead’ somewhere in ‘the future’. - It will continue to do so – because it is only a concept. – Being a slave to concepts about ‘special states of being’ is foolish.
Stop ignoring the natural state of simple being. – It is non-conceptual.

I can almost hear a reply. – “That is too difficult, to just simply be”.
Why is that so difficult?
Are you so sold on the idea of making effort, that ‘the simplicity of being’ is turned into an unattainable ‘thing’?
Being is Being is Being.

A lion is not making an effort to be a lion. - Effort may appear in the activity of a lion chasing a deer - the Being of the lion or the deer is not changing or becoming anything but what it is. - Why do you imagine that you can become something 'greater' than what you are? - Because it has been suggested and it has been believed in - that is why.
Mere concepts - concepts that fill a space called 'mind' and thus an ignoring of natural being as one is, seemingly takes us away from that simplicity of 'being what I am'.

Being is there timelessly, naturally, 'before' such erroneous efforts are even indulged in.
Being requires NO effort whatsoever. – effort appears in being - not for the sake of being. - No ‘person’ has ever ‘become’ more than the being-ness. – The ‘person’ is just a bunch of thoughts. - See if you can stand on those beliefs. - They are an erroneous foundation - a delusion. ("Build your house on the Rock - not on the shifting sands")
Many aspirants go into hiding at this point, the shutters come down and a defensive mechanism kicks in. - Reaction is behavior - not being.

Why is simply being so difficult?
Being has nothing to do with that believed in ‘entity’ called ‘me’.
The ‘me’ is a fictional character. – It has NO Being whatsoever – it is only belief.
Empty rhetoric about "that me must be what I am because there is no separation".. is flimsy intellectualizing – it is 'a cowards excuse', NOT to investigate that ‘me’ and truly find out what is real about it, if anything.
Habitual resistance, to really taking a good look, is like a fortress wall around the ‘me’.
A self-made prison – full of fictional drama and suffering – all of it is unnecessary.
"I can't let go of this idea about 'who' I am, because if I let go of that, who or what will I be?" - Like the man who couldn't knock on God's door - self-exiled because the courage to really KNOW was smothered by self-doubts.

All these points may be a bit sharp, too probing for the average ‘seeker’.
It is not meant for them - they get what they need through beliefs - they are not happy - but they won't hear what is being offered - so what else can be done?

No matter how sharp it appears to be, it really needs to be looked into – putting it off is tantamount to another ‘ten year sentence’ in that ‘cage of limited views’.

We must recognize that the open view of 'simply being present to what is', is clear.
It is the belief in what the mind brings into the picture, that is what 'seemingly' clouds the view.

A certain concept may appear to help but if it is clung onto, it will obscure the view with a mind set, which is not the clear view at all.

Our habit is to believe what the mind translates from 'what is'.
All the while, 'What is' is totally available 'ever-prior' to mind translations.
In the midst of a 'sticky belief' the clear view is actually unobstructed for BEING, which is the SEEING itself.
For the believed in 'entity', all it has is concepts and it cannot truly see anything at all.
There is only one SEEING happening - and the 'me' is nothing but an appearance in that seeing. - See that fact and relax in being.

The Profound Evidence is (the) Knowing.
Today's Note is not for the timid or the meek and mild - in fact many will not be able to follow what is being pointed out - if only one does, then these words are not wasted - As Nisargadatta pointed out about what he was expounding: "There are no customers for this knowledge".

Those who gather customers (seekers) are not telling it straight - because they obviously don't know the essence of it clearly. - Ironically, it seems, this one here makes virtually no money from this 'pointing' at what is true. - If there was any ambition here, this 'knowledge' could 'set me up' into a very comfortable life style, with hundreds of followers and all the trappings that come with it, women hanging around like flies, all wanting some 'shaktipat' or whatever you call 'it'.

- Not even a thought of such things can survive here, not for even 2 moments. - The direct message must be told. - It cannot have any conditions placed before it. - Payment is not a prerequisite. - It may 'come after' or not. - Whether gratitude arises anywhere for these expressions, is not of any concern to 'me' because there is no 'me'.
The 'seeker' is 'self-absorbed' illusion - a pattern of energy. - There is no self - 'who' really wants to know that?

The Profound Evidence is (the) Knowing.

The Knowing is the Profound Evidence. - They are One.

No separation.

The most profound evidence of reality is right here, right now. – The only ‘reason’ it is not recognized is because of ‘reason’ itself – thought patterns ‘apparently’ obscure reality. – The obviousness of ‘space’ is overlooked in the same way that this profundity of ‘presence’ is overlooked.

The reality that 'you are' is THAT in which space and time ‘appear’ – space and time are known from beyond space and time – These attributes of ‘the manifestation’ appear or register on THAT 'knowing', which is not actually subjected to clarity, nor to obscurity. – No matter how much thought is given to this – no matter how much ‘effort’ is made to perceive THAT fact – those activities are only appearances in THAT direct and immediate cognition. - This subtle point is registering in that knowing and the description, and the images in mind, are never the 'thing' being described.

That is a movement in mind, a process, in time.

Knowing is not in time - it never budges from THIS Instant. - It is only the description and mentation that seemingly moves away (into a landscape of thought) - but even that has no existence except AS the immediate vibration that IT IS.

Such information may still the mind. - The wonder of 'knowing' itself may arise (or not).

Any concept about an ‘entity’ being present in THAT knowing, is only 'a transient appearance'. – It has NO duration at all. - Repeated belief lends those appearances in mind an apparent duration and 'being'. - 'The source' of noticing this fact (or anything at all) is knowing and the mind content is an 'appearance'. - It may be an appearance of a ‘turning point’, a 'profound insight' – one that has no actual physical existence in space or time and it is totally impersonal. - It remains 'as if' totally stationary - it is THIS knowing-presence.

In THAT, there is no one (no separate pattern of energy) to indulge in fantasies or stories of someone that is 'enlightened'. - All such talk is fanciful notions and belongs to dualistic mind. - This is known to be true in your own essence.

One cannot, and need not, place oneself anywhere 'apart' from the 'knowing' - THIS knowing has no detectable form or location.

The simplicity of whatever is ‘happening’ (right now, as always) is registering in the ‘knowing’. – In THAT there is No ‘knower’ and No ‘known’ - No Subject and No object. – It is Non Dual. - ALL Inclusive. - Reality.
Because there is no separation, there is no one that can separate this knowing from whatever it is that is known - except conceptually (mind stuff). - To believe that there is, is mere transient content of mind. - No proof can ever support it - but such facts are avoided by the mind, because it is 'too close for comfort'.

A cognitive Scientist may spend a life time trying to establish what the 'I' is. - He remains searching with nothing to rest on - nothing substantial - all he has is theories. - Theories are patterns in the mind. - Not a lot to show for a life times work.

The ‘activity of knowing’ is the ‘foundation’ of every experience – 'the activity of knowing' is not what the mind translates that or any experiencing into.

This is where 'everyone' stumbles - and that could be said to be a natural occurrence because the 'personal approach' is weighted by the bias of an 'attachment'. - The subtle notion of a 'someone', (a thought of being someone) a someone that is wanting a preconceived 'outcome'- which can only ever be more transient content of mind.
The bias of the mind is 'ME'. - The 'me' is NOT reality.

This fact, when it 'finally sinks in', it confounds the intellect and leaves it in a ‘state’ of poverty (a sense of "I don't really know") - that may transpose as a very subtle experiencing of 'expansion' of this 'space-like awareness'.

(A weight is lifted from being)

The profound revelation that may be so easily missed is that at no point is the intelligence incapacitated. - Intelligence remains throughout all experiencing and apparent ordeals.

Knowing is presence.
One could say that 'intelligence' is witnessing 'the whole universal activity' - all 'time and space patterns' appear in THAT - 'IS That' - Intelligence.

The intelligence and the knowing are ONE.
You KNOW that you exist – any expression about that fact is a translation in the mind, words, concepts, ideas. - The expression may be witnessed and known to be only an appearance in what is 'totally indescribable'.

Belief has nothing to do with it. – Belief belongs to the realm of dualistic mind. Knowing is ‘at all times’ beyond the mind content. - We can call it 'Pure Mind' if that helps. - Pure Mind is not limited to any of the content of mind.
What you ARE is 'seemingly connected' to 'the world of impressions' via ‘knowing’ – not via thoughts etc. – The ‘entity’ one may believe one is, depends entirely on ‘mind content’. - And that does not have the capacity of knowing - only apparent 'connections'.

The knowing suffuses all.

A lot of ‘people’ get hot and bothered about ‘who is clear and who is not clear’, when it comes to the so-called Non Duality ‘teachers’, websites, books and so on. - There has been some not so subtle pointing out of erroneous teachers on this website as well.

It is all futile, nothing but a game of opinions and bias – all of it belongs to the appearance of transient ‘things’. - Entertainment only.

The point is that when one hears a clear message, it is like 'a hunting dog' picking up on the strong scent of ‘the fox’. - Nothing can put that dog off the trail, he is totally ‘one pointed’ from the moment he picks up the scent. – All he needs to do is ‘follow the trail’.

In other words: Follow that resonance in being. - Innately we KNOW.
One 'appears' to retrace ones own Being 'back' to this immediate presence - this Knowing.
In this 'way', one need not worry about who is clear and who is not.

You realize that you ARE the ‘space of clarity’ in which everything appears….and NOTHING can remove 'you' from THAT Knowing….Everything, without exception is known to be an appearance in THAT.
Such profound 'pointing' is not welcome for most 'adherents' because of 'erroneous knowledge' that is being held onto. - Knowledge that some guru or teacher has convinced them is true.
"Who cares?"