All spiritual philosophy that can be stated in words is totally false.
We do not live in words. We live in the world and our bodies. Even this is a lie. Even this is not true. It is said only to make a point that the map of thoughts is not the terrain of our experience.
To say all is Consciousness, Brahman, Shakti, One, Nowness, etc. conveys a point of view about our experience, and is a similataneously a both a radical over simplification and over-complication. It adds a spiritual "truth" to experiences which have no truth value, either false or true.
Words twist and shape both our ideas about our experience and "the world," as well as provide "meaning" for those attached to belief systems, whether religious (God, reincarnation, heaven, eternal life, Jesus, Buddha, etc.) which are myths of emotional convenience.
Words and concepts create categories of reality which are only conceptual, attempting to make sense of our experience.
Science too is just that. The theories create worlds of atoms, quasars, electrons, fission, black holes, entropy, etc.) which are "convenient fictions" that help us arrange, order, and control elements of our experience.
"Our experience" has at least two levels: Our experience without words, and our experience with words, concepts, beliefs, and emotional reactions flowing from these concepts and beliefs.
Almost all of spirituality is aimed at reframing your conceptual systems from whatever they were before contacting spiritual teachers/teachings, into the frame of the new teachings, whether of neo-Advaita, Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Sufism, Buddhism, Christianity, Mohammedism, etc.), mostly for purposes of bringing a sense of security and peace to the converts.
Even the teacheings of religions and spiitualities that direct attention to awareness or self-inquiry usually do it with some concept of what you will find when following their methods, such as the instructions of the Diamon Sutra, or of Nisargadatta, his teacher Siddharameshwar, Robert Adams, Ramana, Muktananda, Buddha, etc., who all promise that if you follow their methods of attention direction, you will find what they did, that you will experience what they did, such as "awakening, "enlightenment," "Nirvana," "Sahaj Samadhi," etc.
They all say you are deluded by wrong thinking, but following their methods, you will have the correct experiences, and correct meaning, freedom, enlightenment, etc.
But don't you see, they are all leading you down a path of just reframing your experience, and on a path towards Nirvana, Self-Realization, God-Realization, N0-thought, Choiceless Awareness, etc.
All methods of escape from the network of thoughts appear mostly to change emphasis and meaning within your network, and not to free you.
Freedom from meaning, the network of thought, past experience, judgements, only come when thinking totally stops, or else one goes deeper into one's own experience than living in the map, the network of thought, rather than in experience before thought.
I call such a state moving one's center of consciousness out of the head into the heart or gut--both different experiences--from where the thinking mind, the network of thought, is experienced as just background chatter, and your awareness is of your own experience alone, not of your experience as interpreted or promised by others.
The way is easy, but difficult, because the mind always seeks assurances, security, and raises doubts, making moving your awareness to the heart or gut very difficult.
The easiest way is to "look" for and "feel" for the I Am sensation somewhere in your chest area, the so-called "spiritual heart" area. Find it. Dwell in it. Accept it. Love the I Am sensation, let it in your heart, swim in that sensation as much as possible.
That alone will work wonders. The sensation will grow, become a sense of presence of the energetic being you are, and everything you are will be experienced over time, until eventually all spiritual experiences, meanings, and thinking will end, and you will be your experience as it is before thinking. And you will find then the wonder that you are, experience you never dreamed of.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Friday, February 26, 2016
AWARENESS VERSUS CONSCIOUSNESS
Nisargadatta sometimes made an artificial distinction between awareness and Consciousness, sometimes calling the distinction as Witness or the Absolute versus the Manifest, the world, or the body. I understand the why of that distinction because we all "appear" to experience a witness in our experience, witnessing our minds, thoughts, our bodies, and the world.
Nisargadatta posits the I Am sensation (not the I-thought) as being the intermediary between the Absolute and all appearances, and says we (the Witness, the doer) should rest our awareness on the I Am sensation as a focal point, and awareness will reveal the I Am sensation (and idea) to be the Self (the Atman or Manifest Self), which eventually will dissipate, leaving only One, where there no longer is an identification with the I Am, with the Self (Atman) or the experience of a separate Witness or Absolute. There no longer is any sense of separation, or even an I am everything experience; identification disappears.
Here one can say everything is Shakti, or Brahman, or Consciousness; the words used make no difference, because at this point you are no longer moving anywhere. You are everything, all motion, without desire, without any preferred direction or goal. You are unmoved and unmoving with absolutely no detachment or attachment to anything happening within or without, leaving one in the most exquisite state of subtle bliss, and utter, utter peace.
Monday, February 22, 2016
It is easy to say that there is no Self for someone who has not yet experienced his or her Self. Those who claim there is no Self mostly have not experienced it.
Yes, there is a false kind of self consisting about all the ideas we have about ourselves, such as gender, age, occupation, family, human, etc., but if you look inside long enough, the emptiness you perceive washes away your identity with these identifications with ideas.
But if you "feel" inside for your sensee of self, your I Am sensation, and abide there for a long while, the Self will show itself to you and blow you away with its majestic presentation of energy and light, and you will never be the same. Now you identify with the life force coursing through your body and sense of presence.
Slowly the identification with this manifest self of life, energy, and presence fades in silence, leaving just happiness and complete openess to all that occurs, within and without. Then the Self is no more.
What you are is sentience, awareness, enerrgy and light.
So anyone who says there is no Self should be asked, "What is your experience of you body and your self now?" If they simply say they do not experience a Self, what kind of teaching is that? What is the value in that? Unless they have experienced a sense of divine within, the light of Consciousness, the life force, what are they offering except freedom from identification with IDEAS of who you are, and not the extraordinary experience of your "divine" (seemingly, that is how it feels) Self, and within it the emptiness that permeates and contains all things.
Yes, there is a false kind of self consisting about all the ideas we have about ourselves, such as gender, age, occupation, family, human, etc., but if you look inside long enough, the emptiness you perceive washes away your identity with these identifications with ideas.
But if you "feel" inside for your sensee of self, your I Am sensation, and abide there for a long while, the Self will show itself to you and blow you away with its majestic presentation of energy and light, and you will never be the same. Now you identify with the life force coursing through your body and sense of presence.
Slowly the identification with this manifest self of life, energy, and presence fades in silence, leaving just happiness and complete openess to all that occurs, within and without. Then the Self is no more.
What you are is sentience, awareness, enerrgy and light.
So anyone who says there is no Self should be asked, "What is your experience of you body and your self now?" If they simply say they do not experience a Self, what kind of teaching is that? What is the value in that? Unless they have experienced a sense of divine within, the light of Consciousness, the life force, what are they offering except freedom from identification with IDEAS of who you are, and not the extraordinary experience of your "divine" (seemingly, that is how it feels) Self, and within it the emptiness that permeates and contains all things.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
I have always told you, my readers, the truth.
I speak about all aspects of spirituality, and especially against teachings that deaden you to your life by convincing you that the ego must die, that the real self is entirely untouched by life, humanity, and that one should steadfastly attempt to go beyond life.
I constantly talk about my own experiences and speak from them whether I am wrapped in extreme states of bliss or grief from the loss of a pet.
I speak from a place where emotions are to be embraced, not simply observed to rob them of their importance.
I always speak from a place of experiencing a vast, spacious emptiness that pervades my body and the world and is lighted by its own essence.
I never say to ignore the world or your feelings because they are temporary and impermanent.
Three years ago while embraced by endless and continuous states of bliss, that is what I spoke of, as well as my sense of presence, my energy body permeating my physical body and emmanating into the surrounding space.
Now I speak more of the emptiness that pervades all phenomena including my body, my sense of presence, the light of consciousness, thoughts, and the external world, leaving me totally content as I am in whatever temporary state may be happening.
I argue against teachers who teach that continuous bliss is the end state and one needs to do chakra meditation, awaken the kundalini, do endless mantra, pranayama, and visualizations in order to pump up one's energies.
For I have found even the Self is empty, and the empty Self is happiness.
The Void robs all teachings of any meaning, so the head no longer rules your life. Your center of gravity sinks into your heart and gut, revealing the world and one's own self to be entirely different than you thought, and extremely peaceful. And very, very deep.
Now you are totally open to whatever is, not needing to practice or pump yourself up through any method.
I speak about all aspects of spirituality, and especially against teachings that deaden you to your life by convincing you that the ego must die, that the real self is entirely untouched by life, humanity, and that one should steadfastly attempt to go beyond life.
I constantly talk about my own experiences and speak from them whether I am wrapped in extreme states of bliss or grief from the loss of a pet.
I speak from a place where emotions are to be embraced, not simply observed to rob them of their importance.
I always speak from a place of experiencing a vast, spacious emptiness that pervades my body and the world and is lighted by its own essence.
I never say to ignore the world or your feelings because they are temporary and impermanent.
Three years ago while embraced by endless and continuous states of bliss, that is what I spoke of, as well as my sense of presence, my energy body permeating my physical body and emmanating into the surrounding space.
Now I speak more of the emptiness that pervades all phenomena including my body, my sense of presence, the light of consciousness, thoughts, and the external world, leaving me totally content as I am in whatever temporary state may be happening.
I argue against teachers who teach that continuous bliss is the end state and one needs to do chakra meditation, awaken the kundalini, do endless mantra, pranayama, and visualizations in order to pump up one's energies.
For I have found even the Self is empty, and the empty Self is happiness.
The Void robs all teachings of any meaning, so the head no longer rules your life. Your center of gravity sinks into your heart and gut, revealing the world and one's own self to be entirely different than you thought, and extremely peaceful. And very, very deep.
Now you are totally open to whatever is, not needing to practice or pump yourself up through any method.
Friday, February 19, 2016
Robert Adams clearest espression of his teachings and path
Sadhana is like going to school. You have to start in kindergarten, go to the first grade, the fifth grade, junior high school, senior high school, college to university. This is true of sadhana. You practice one form of sadhana for years perhaps and then you may grow out of it to other forms, to higher forms. Until you come to the realization that there is no sadhana. All these years I've been spending standing on one foot with my arm in the air, chanting mantras, doing pranayamas has been unnecessary. Now you can only say this when you've arrived a certain place in life. The stronger you're attached to this earth the more sadhanas you have to do. But as you begin to lose attachment to this earth your form of sadhana changes. Your spiritual practices change. They become less and less. Since you're beginning to realize that you are the pure awareness. Does the pure awareness have to do sadhana? Or does God have to do spiritual practices?
You begin to feel your reality. The more you feel the reality of who you are the more the body keeps dropping away. Until again that day comes when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have no body. Yet the body appears. This part becomes a paradox when you try to use words to explain it. You have no body and at the same time you have a body. You appear to be demonstrating a body. Others see you as a body but you realize that this is a cosmic joke. For there is no body, there is no world, there is no universe, there is only consciousness, effortless, choiceless, pure awareness, boundless space.
Prior to total enlightenment you feel this about yourself. That you are consciousness, that you are not the body, you're absolute reality. As you go deeper into that, you become like boundless space. You no longer are confined to a place. There is no longer confinement. Now the body appears like a jail for you. You appear confined to your body. It's like you're in prison. There is no freedom. As you come closer to enlightenment, you begin to realize you are not the body but you still feel confined without a body. Then the final stage you become the Self of everything.You realize that you are in the trees, the ocean, the planets, the stars you are everything.You have become all-pervading, omnipresence. Yet when people look at you, you seem to be a body. So you keep silent. You do not try to explain yourself or prove anything.There is no longer anything you have to do. You are completely out of it.
Now why would you want to become like this? What is the purpose of being this way? If you've heard about bliss, the peace beyond understanding, you have become that, total happiness.The substratum behind all existence is total joy, total happiness, total peace, bliss consciousness. This is your real nature this is what you are.
Robert Adams
This too is my experience. I had a five year adventure into the worlds of the Subtle or energy Body, healing energies, long periods of great bliss and energies, the astral worlds, etc. But now, only expanse, space, totality, pervasiveness. There is bliss too, but one far more subtle than before. But I do get irritated when the world tries to drag me back into a focus on it with its endless problems, thinking, noise, discussion, and non-harmony.
If you want peace, be quiet and go within. Feel the I Am, let it grow, let the energies blossom, feel the ecstasies and love, and then let it all go; let them all evaporate into non-differentiated spaciousness and the peace of being at rest in unbounded, undifferentiated awareness.
The Way of the Falling Leaf
There are people who totally misunderstand my message on spiritual seeking, thinking I am siding with the Neo-Advaita do-nothings and know-nothings in their denial of spiritual paths and effort. Just because their are many spiritual paths with differing goals and experiences, yet everyone ends up where they started as ordinary humans confronting problems of everyday life, does not negate seeking and spiritual effort. Every moment of effort is transformative.
Anyone of integrity and honesty to self, who sincerely seeks truth, God, Self, or to understand Consciousness over a lifetime, and who comes to a position of rest, reaches rest because he has found what he did not know he was looking for, whatever that is for him. That path has transformed him into a different kind of ordinary man. The ordinary man who started at 0 degrees, is not t ordinary man of 360 degrees.
At the end of his path he has seen and experienced things 99% of the human race regards as pure fantasy, such as directly experiencing emptiness or the Void, the inner light of Consciousness, periods of great bliss, internal energies and healing, and has lost his primary identification with his body, identifying now more with different aspects of Consciousness, and different spiritual stations such as one of being totally surrendered to life in the moment, the relative disappearance of mind, yet living day to day with appropriate actions and attitudes, as well as recognizing that all life is precious.
He has truly been transformed with nothing special to do except to live out his life, letting it live through him rather than attempting to master or control anything. He is a renunciate who renounces nothing, a veritable vagabond with no path, no sustained desires, just touching earth in the gentlest way, and living in peace. He has been transformed into a cloudlike form, with continuous change totally embraced, forged by 20, 30, 40, 50 years of spiritual effort, and thereby transcending all teachings and all practices.
Therefore do not despair that your path is long and difficult. Do not despair that you know nothing, because all teachings and all spiritual states are eventually experienced as empty.
Do not fear that you will never find your way, nor chafe at the drive to endless spiritual practice. Not one minute of effort goes to waste and every obstacle is a blessing, forging, transforming. The key is perseverance and constant movement and growth until your specific spiritual path flowers through you.
FROM STEVE
FROM STEVE WHO IS DOING NICELY. He is passing through the overt bliss states of the bliss body to find a deeper bliss and peace.
Good Morning Sri Edji, Thank you for being here Master.
I seem to be losing interest in listening and feeling music all night long (for about 2 years now) and.don't need the blissful states, as there seems to be a deep underlying bliss that is always present anyway.
I am seeing the Earth and all the objects, things, experiences as predetermined stage plays. The play is always changing, coming and going people, places, events.
I am losing everything/belief systems.
Its weird and scary sitting back somewhere and watching all the mechanical people, cars, buildings, sky...everything just move to some invisible force.
And even this body is doing that shit too! This body is just a damn robot.
This is 'my' normal state a lot of the time now. Feel like I broke through a barrier.
I see my wife's emotions and mouth moving but it is just meaningless.
Right now the pets and beautiful little bugs, gnats, little worms, fish are most interesting but nothing else is.
Kashmir Shaivism emphasizes a truth, a repeated experience, that one can remain idetified wiuth the day to day experiences of your body, or open up your field of experience through meditation and other spiritual practices, until you primarily dwell in the expanded, then universal Void, the totality of empty space, self-illuminated by the light of Consciousness itself. This is not a cold dry place, but one of a very calm joy and continuous background bliss, subtley pervading ...everything.
Then all objects, including your body, are apprehended as illumined Void, empty space itself, and your identification passes to that void rather than your body or possessions.
You have broadened and expanded who and what you are.
This is exactly the same teaching as Advaita Vedanta in the end. Shaivites call if becoming Shiva. Vedantists call it residing in the Absolute. So few ever reach this. let alone going beyond it.
The paths are different in the beginning with Advaita emphasizing self-inquiry and abiding in the I-sensation, while the Shaivites emphasize energies and Tantric practices. Practicing both is a miracle!
You have broadened and expanded who and what you are.
This is exactly the same teaching as Advaita Vedanta in the end. Shaivites call if becoming Shiva. Vedantists call it residing in the Absolute. So few ever reach this. let alone going beyond it.
The paths are different in the beginning with Advaita emphasizing self-inquiry and abiding in the I-sensation, while the Shaivites emphasize energies and Tantric practices. Practicing both is a miracle!
Some people feel confused by changes in my teaching.
Six years ago I spope of the Absolute versus the manifest including the world, body, and mind, and spoke of the path of self-inquiry through inner observation, and all that there is ultimately is emptiness. All objects, all the world and our bodies are permeated by a lighted emptiness.
Then I spoke of realizing the Manifest Self, divine sentience itself living thrhough the body. I spoke of finding God within, first perceived as Other, then seen as your own deeper Self. The manifest Self is found through devotion, love of other, and feelinh the explosion of light, energy, and bliss welling up from the dark depths of your Self.
For six years I taught this, how to realize that life fore, that inner light, that Shakti within through inner, feeling exploration of emotions, light the energy body, one's sense of presence. I taught self-inquiry through feeling, not looking, through love, not meditation, and self-inquiry, by focusing on the I-sensation, letting it grow into one's sense of presence ravealing the energy or Subtle body.
I truly believe that pursuit of an awakening the Manifest Self, actually of becoming aware of the Manifest Self within, and then is brought forth into the human world to bring love, light, compassion and service is the best teachings for our time, our era of a dying world filled with death, war, terrorism, mass shootings, and politics of corruption.
But, all that arises from within in terms of feeling relates to the body, which narrows down one's focus, contracts one's being into a body and relationships, and I am so much more than this.
By focusing on the I Am sensation, the energy body, love, sadness, depression, anger, and body sensations, I have found they all evaporate again, and there is only space, lighted emptiness, vast without border, wherein everything is seen/felt to be empty, and all concepts left behind. The yearning and burning, the big emotions, awakening gthe energy body, the heart and gut, realizing the divine within were necessary before stepping back into the Void, leaving nothing undone.
Without concepts there is no self, no Self, no inner, outer, manifest or unmanifest. There is just total freedom, and I cannot say I am any of this. There is no longer anything to identify with, even emptiness. Emptiness itself is empty, and exists only in the mind.
When thus I rest, I am everywhere and nowhere, coextensive with emptiness, yet not emptiness. I am not a witness anymore of emptiness, because there is no witness, nor is there identification with emptiness or the body. Identification is gone.
I only know there is nothing to be known calmly and equally resting in the unchanging Void and ever changing world.
Like Almaas, like Nisargadatta, like Robert, I keep unfolding, changing, expanding.
The Need to be Empty--a Long Conversation
The utter first step, but a most essential step, in opening yourself to truth, to God, to Self, is to encounter, absorb, and penetrate the Void, the experience of a continuous emptiness that interpenetrates inner and outer worlds like space. It penetrates all things: thoughts; words; concepts; questions; sound; vision; smell; taste; touch; body; mind; internal energies; one's sense of presence, and ultimately Self.
It evaporates all understanding, mundane, scientific, and spiritual. All theory, all states, all words are empty, and being empty, there are no objects to point to. No me, no you. That is, labels are not us. We are enigma, and an enigma surrounded and interpenetrated by emptiness, the Void.
I have met few people, even spiritual teachers who who have truly and deeply absorbed emptiness, but without it, there is no room in you to experience deeper states of being, because words, beliefs, perceptions, sounds, images, etc., act as a cloud of ignorance and keep you contracted into your body/mind.
There are other paths that do not deal with emptiness, and because of that they are nothing but magic and story, belief systems, and witchcraft, alchemy, and astral projection. Without emptiness, one cannot even love or surrender completely, which is the only other kind of method that leads as deep.
COMMENTS:
Elaine Kelly YES !!
Elaine Kelly I am in this place right now… finding it increasingly harder to find others like this who understand this process .
Doug Sandlin Edward Muzika - "without it, there is no room in you to experience deeper states of being, because words, beliefs, perceptions, sounds, images, etc., act as a cloud of ignorance and keep you contracted into your body/mind."
Yep - and as is often the case, you get to the very essence, simply and clearly. Thank you.
Edward Muzika You are most welcome Doug.
Pierre Thériault heart emoticon keep going....so love what you write now smile emoticon
Magdalena Zajac I feel its pulling, and yet I am afraid of letting myself fall into it...
Thanks for sharing.
Stephen Austin I just read your story on the wanderling........ No I. It's an illusion.
Matthew Brown Yes, it's a kind of suspension of all usual assumptions--a space in which other impressions and realizations can come in and disappear, which would not be normally available to you as a person.
Edward Muzika Fantastic Grasp!!!
Matthew Brown Many thanks, Sir.
Matthew Brown In theatre school when I was 19 profs would yell at me to "Get out of my head." All the art and literature I liked was absurdist and experimental, and came directly from intuition. The country of India and all its paradoxical coexisting extremes reallly attracted me, and being there pounded me into this space. Finally, desperation and despair drove me to make a commitment to learning how to meditate in 1997. However, your teachings have brought all of these beginnings much further. Thank you!
Matthew Brown Including the swearing. And the advice not to quit when other people were driving me crazy.
Matthew Brown You are a great teacher (and friend.)
Geoffrey Levens Of course difficult or impossible to really "know" what you are pointing at when you use the word "void" and vis versa, for you to know what I am pointing at BUT experience of the void, very briefly, when I was 15 1/2 (now 66) I think a key pivot point in my life. The "experience" or encounter lasted maybe a couple seconds and after it faded, I found myself standing there knowing for absolute certainty that single thing I knew, had been taught or learned, everything I thought, everything I believed, my (to then) apparent life path, was just completely and arbitrarily made up. FUCK ME! and my horse. And back then, there was really no one I could even tell about it, too damn scary and far too dangerous; I was pretty certain that if I told parents etc I would quickly find myself under psych care and likely drugged to the gills. I have spent my entire life since switching between trying to hide from what I now "knew" and trying to integrate and develop it. Always sensed it as a big arrow pointing toward a path to freedom but the path was not clear.
Geoffrey Levens Now it seem pretty darn clear, in large part because of things you, Ed, have written and posted. Thank you!!!
Stephen Austin Thank you. I also experienced the absolute. And hid it. How can you tell someone " I know God "? I know that there is only God or the absolute or any one of 100 different terms that will not convey what is truth.
Edward Muzika What was your experience of the absolute like? How did you hide the absolute? You cannot distinguish between God and anything else? What do you mean by your experience of God. Please use experiential terms, not Ramana-speak.
Geoffrey Levens For myself, not "hide the Absolute" but rather attempt to hide from my conscious awareness what I now knew to be the truth. Distract myself from my really obvious path. Mostly though I followed my nose as best I could in our confused and messed up, ignorant world, did 20 years or so of pretty intensive TM practice, then another 20 or so years of confused "inquiry" and maybe just sitting staring into the void. Lots of emotional work, somewhat conventional therapy, hippy type seminars, and finally several years working w/ a very Tibetan Buddhist (American) psychotherapist and I started to get a clue of the difference between thought and feeling. Last 3 or so years practice of Vipassana has gotten that very much clarified and finally, I think I am finding the actual "I am" sensation and just hanging out with that....
Stephen Austin Edward Muzika , I was bathed in Love, light and devine music. I KNEW it was God. I hid the experience because I thought I would be considered nuts. I was 17.
Edward Muzika Geoffrey Levens Exactly right. Hang out in the I sensation. Love it. Accept it. Let it into your heart and it will grow and grow into something marvelous.
Geoffrey Levens Counting on it
Edward Muzika Stephen Austin But a perfect kind of nuttyness.
Stephen Austin I'm 65 now. I goofed up and hit the enter button. Thus the 2 posts. I completely let go at age 23 and again experienced the divine. Every cell in my body was being loved, warmed and cleansed. A complete washing of the divine. So exquisite that it can't really be described. At that very moment the knowledge that this is your heavenly father is being transmitted. Nothing is missing. These experiences took place as a result of letting go. I have let go to the point that there is no I. Only God exists. No duality at all. It's all just a thought. God is , All there is.
Edward Muzika Stephen Austin Very good Stephen, and it will just get deeper and deeper, more subtle and clear.
Stephen Austin Thank you Ed.
It evaporates all understanding, mundane, scientific, and spiritual. All theory, all states, all words are empty, and being empty, there are no objects to point to. No me, no you. That is, labels are not us. We are enigma, and an enigma surrounded and interpenetrated by emptiness, the Void.
I have met few people, even spiritual teachers who who have truly and deeply absorbed emptiness, but without it, there is no room in you to experience deeper states of being, because words, beliefs, perceptions, sounds, images, etc., act as a cloud of ignorance and keep you contracted into your body/mind.
There are other paths that do not deal with emptiness, and because of that they are nothing but magic and story, belief systems, and witchcraft, alchemy, and astral projection. Without emptiness, one cannot even love or surrender completely, which is the only other kind of method that leads as deep.
COMMENTS:
Elaine Kelly YES !!
Elaine Kelly I am in this place right now… finding it increasingly harder to find others like this who understand this process .
Doug Sandlin Edward Muzika - "without it, there is no room in you to experience deeper states of being, because words, beliefs, perceptions, sounds, images, etc., act as a cloud of ignorance and keep you contracted into your body/mind."
Yep - and as is often the case, you get to the very essence, simply and clearly. Thank you.
Edward Muzika You are most welcome Doug.
Pierre Thériault heart emoticon keep going....so love what you write now smile emoticon
Magdalena Zajac I feel its pulling, and yet I am afraid of letting myself fall into it...
Thanks for sharing.
Stephen Austin I just read your story on the wanderling........ No I. It's an illusion.
Matthew Brown Yes, it's a kind of suspension of all usual assumptions--a space in which other impressions and realizations can come in and disappear, which would not be normally available to you as a person.
Edward Muzika Fantastic Grasp!!!
Matthew Brown Many thanks, Sir.
Matthew Brown In theatre school when I was 19 profs would yell at me to "Get out of my head." All the art and literature I liked was absurdist and experimental, and came directly from intuition. The country of India and all its paradoxical coexisting extremes reallly attracted me, and being there pounded me into this space. Finally, desperation and despair drove me to make a commitment to learning how to meditate in 1997. However, your teachings have brought all of these beginnings much further. Thank you!
Matthew Brown Including the swearing. And the advice not to quit when other people were driving me crazy.
Matthew Brown You are a great teacher (and friend.)
Geoffrey Levens Of course difficult or impossible to really "know" what you are pointing at when you use the word "void" and vis versa, for you to know what I am pointing at BUT experience of the void, very briefly, when I was 15 1/2 (now 66) I think a key pivot point in my life. The "experience" or encounter lasted maybe a couple seconds and after it faded, I found myself standing there knowing for absolute certainty that single thing I knew, had been taught or learned, everything I thought, everything I believed, my (to then) apparent life path, was just completely and arbitrarily made up. FUCK ME! and my horse. And back then, there was really no one I could even tell about it, too damn scary and far too dangerous; I was pretty certain that if I told parents etc I would quickly find myself under psych care and likely drugged to the gills. I have spent my entire life since switching between trying to hide from what I now "knew" and trying to integrate and develop it. Always sensed it as a big arrow pointing toward a path to freedom but the path was not clear.
Geoffrey Levens Now it seem pretty darn clear, in large part because of things you, Ed, have written and posted. Thank you!!!
Stephen Austin Thank you. I also experienced the absolute. And hid it. How can you tell someone " I know God "? I know that there is only God or the absolute or any one of 100 different terms that will not convey what is truth.
Edward Muzika What was your experience of the absolute like? How did you hide the absolute? You cannot distinguish between God and anything else? What do you mean by your experience of God. Please use experiential terms, not Ramana-speak.
Geoffrey Levens For myself, not "hide the Absolute" but rather attempt to hide from my conscious awareness what I now knew to be the truth. Distract myself from my really obvious path. Mostly though I followed my nose as best I could in our confused and messed up, ignorant world, did 20 years or so of pretty intensive TM practice, then another 20 or so years of confused "inquiry" and maybe just sitting staring into the void. Lots of emotional work, somewhat conventional therapy, hippy type seminars, and finally several years working w/ a very Tibetan Buddhist (American) psychotherapist and I started to get a clue of the difference between thought and feeling. Last 3 or so years practice of Vipassana has gotten that very much clarified and finally, I think I am finding the actual "I am" sensation and just hanging out with that....
Stephen Austin Edward Muzika , I was bathed in Love, light and devine music. I KNEW it was God. I hid the experience because I thought I would be considered nuts. I was 17.
Edward Muzika Geoffrey Levens Exactly right. Hang out in the I sensation. Love it. Accept it. Let it into your heart and it will grow and grow into something marvelous.
Geoffrey Levens Counting on it
Edward Muzika Stephen Austin But a perfect kind of nuttyness.
Stephen Austin I'm 65 now. I goofed up and hit the enter button. Thus the 2 posts. I completely let go at age 23 and again experienced the divine. Every cell in my body was being loved, warmed and cleansed. A complete washing of the divine. So exquisite that it can't really be described. At that very moment the knowledge that this is your heavenly father is being transmitted. Nothing is missing. These experiences took place as a result of letting go. I have let go to the point that there is no I. Only God exists. No duality at all. It's all just a thought. God is , All there is.
Edward Muzika Stephen Austin Very good Stephen, and it will just get deeper and deeper, more subtle and clear.
Stephen Austin Thank you Ed.
NISARGADATTA BLAMES HIS STUDENT'S THICKNESS AND MY RESPONSE:
"You people come here wanting something. What you want may be knowledge with a capital 'K' - the highest Truth - but nonetheless you do want something. Most of you have been coming here for quite some time. Why? If there had been apperception of what I have been saying, you should have stopped coming here long ago! But what actually has been happening is that you have been coming here day after day, identified as individual beings, male or female, with several persons and things you call 'mine'. Also, you think you have been coming here, of your own volition, to see another individual - a Guru - who, you expect, will give you 'liberation' from your 'bondage'.
Do you not see how ridiculous all this is ? Your coming here day after day only shows that you are not prepared to accept my word that there is no such thing as an 'individual'; that the 'individual' is nothing but an appearance; that an appearance cannot have any 'bondage' and, therefore, there is no question of any 'liberation' for an appearance.
---------------------------------------------------------
Like Krishnamurti he blames his students for not getting what he offers. It just takes a long time, perseverance, and earnestness on a path of self-exploration.
He was far too much stuck in theory and Hindu spiritual terms which caused confusion.
He needed to emphasize that there is no truth in words, including his, because words cannot convey his state. All words cause problems until and even after one has entered emptiness, but gradual identification with emptiness removes the importance of words and their deluding capacity.
Second, he needed to emphasize even more the necessity of finding the I Am sensation and dwell their for a long, long time. Not searching for the I-thought or where it arising, but feeling the I-sensation, the I Am.
But he talked too much about too many things, which made him an entertainer instead of the greatest guru ever.
Fortunately Pradeep Apte combed through all of Nisargadatta's book and abstracted the 100+ paragraphs dedicated to the I Am and self-inquiry.
The exact same criticism can be leveled at Ramana. He had a simple and clean awakening to the nature of his existence, but because he did not see through words and concepts, he kept adding Advaita concept after concept for the next 50 years, totally obscuring the simplicity of what his teachings could have been.
COMMENTS
Tony Daniels: You make a distinction between finding the I Am sensation and searching for the I thought. There is no difference. The "I" or "I am" thought is the primary thought of the mind. Putting the attention there causes it to finally dissolve revealing only undifferentiated awareness without thought. To become established in that as your true nature is to know the Self.
Tony Daniels: You write about wanting to come back to simplicity yet you are adding complexity to what is essentially very simple. The "I" thought is what gives you a sense of egoic identity as individuated consciousness. It doesn't matter whether you refer to it as a feeling, sensation or something you inquire into. You are turning the attention back to the source. As Ramana said, if you inquire into this primary thought it cannot sustain itself without identification with an object and therefore dissolves, showing the ego to be an illusion like the rope and snake. The void may appear to be a cold unfeeling place for many at times, but if you persevere, there will come a time when it is seen as vibrant and full of life, inclusive of everything, both unmanifest and manifest. That is a permanent state, but prior to that realization it will be temporary until the mind finally dissolves into the spiritual heart that is the Self. The only obstacle to revealing your true nature is mind. It must be transcended to reveal what is already there. The way you present it is as if there are two alternative truths, one pointing to emptiness and one to being alive as a person. There is just one truth totally encompassing both as a unified whole. That is the true meaning of Self Realization.
Edward Muzika Tony, why do you deny that we exist as human beings in a context of relations as human beings, experiencing life, even while our primary identification drops to deeper levels of Consciousness.
Why use terms like transcendent that are so abstract they help no one?
Why fail to make the distinction between observation and feeling?
Why use a term like ego, about which no two people agree what it is?
What is a spiritual heart?
Why are you trying to fix me, I am fine without such abstract fixing?
This is what I dislike so much about Ramana and all the neo advaitins who claim him as their source: the very abstract nature of the terms and metaphors he uses that fail to convey the experience?
I am conveying my experience using my words, which do not use abstractions.
Tony Daniels · I don't deny we exist as human beings. Where have I said that? The personal aspect and changing phenomena don't disappear after Realization. The great maya shakti is an expression of infinite consciousness. I said that the totality of what you are is all inclusive. The crucial thing is dropping identification and attachment to objects. Once there is a shift to identify with the unbounded, the expression in the field of diversity and as a human being is all one movement of the Self. But this has to be realized. What I see happening is that you get teachers who have glimpsed a deeper aspect of themselves and then get embroiled in all the non duality stuff and then go round saying things like, there is no one here, I am not the doer etc. it's often just an intellectual understanding, but they're doing satsangs already. It only has truth as a realization. It is beyond words.
The word "transcendent" is perfectly clear to anyone who experiences silent awareness. There is nothing abstract about it. It has meaning. When you throw around words like "energies" would you say that is less abstract?
Your determination to make a distinction between observation and feeling is not an important issue. What matters is going back to the source, to cultivate the discrimination between awareness and thought.
In psychology circles with which you will be familiar, it is true that ego can be defined in so many ways. But to suggest it is confusing to use the word ego to describe a simple sense of identity as I have is baffling to me.
Spiritual heart is the Self. You know how it is Ed. You use some of your words and I use some of my words. We don't need to call the cops to arbitrate on what is acceptable. Or do you want to set the rules on acceptable terminology.
I am not trying to fix you. Do you think you are in need of fixing?
I am conveying my experience using my words, which do not use abstractions.
Edward Muzika Define ego Tony, I have no idea what it means. Define transcendent in another way than silent awareness. I have no idea of what that term means. What do you mean by "simple sense of identity?" Identity to what and what identifies?
"Energies" to me is self-evident. They arise from various places in the body and course through it, and are experienced something akin to a subtle electrical shock, which gradually become more organized the deeper on efeels them, eventually becoming an observed "presence" within and around one's body.
The distinction between observation and feeling is absolutely critical. You can observe an emotion dispassionately, or feel it fully, allowing it to enter one's heart so to speak, one's essence, where it comes alive and dissolves into bliss.
The energies eventually transform into bliss.And yes, you have used many abstractions, such as ego. What is your experience of ego, silent awareness? Flesh these terms out so that I can understand what you are saying as I fleshed out energies and emptiness.
You see, we do not have the same expressions, we do not have the same experiences. We are different as are all human beings. Each has his or her own truth, and I can only express mine, and you yours.
Tony Daniels: Are you serious. You have no idea what ego means? You refer to the I Am quite frequently. Everyone is aware of I am, the sense of a personal self. We can call it ego. Anyone can understand this. What is your agenda in seeking more and more complexity. I feel it is merely a strategy to repudiate what I have written so as to assert your perceived authority.
Energies to me is not self evident. In fact I cannot find a post from you that is not full of abstractions.
Energies don't transform into bliss. Ananda which is the peace which passes all understanding is the essence of what you are. Nothing transforms into it. It is always there but for the veil of ignorance which obscures what has always been there. Is this too abstract for you? You put too much emphasis on emotions and mistakenly think that a deeply felt emotion is indicative of your essence. It most definitely is not. Why? Because it comes and goes. You have to transcend (please look this word up in a dictionary) mind to experience the unchanging reality of unbounded awareness. Does this not mean anything to you? Have you not experienced the clarity of a still mind, or do deep emotional states appeal more to you. It appears to make you feel alive, but so does silence. More so.
Edward Muzika: Finally. You have offered a definition of ego. It is the I Am. But it is absolutely not true that everyone is aware of the I Am. Are you speaking of the I-thought or the I Am sensation? They are not the same. You are just absolutely wrong here. The sense of personal self is not real, but the I Am sensation is as real a subjective sensation as one can have, as real as anger or love.
True, energies are not self-evident to everyone. One has to dig deep inside to penetrate through to the energy body. You just have not experienced it yet, that is why it is not self-evident to you. But they are self-evident to energy workers like Reikei or Quantum Touch, to Kundalini students, to kriya yogis, etc.
Emotions and energies are gateways to bliss and emptiness is deeper than emotions, bliss, or the body sensations and penetrates them all.
Don't you see Tony, you are taking your own words and experience as the total and only truth.
Your truth is not mine. Yes, I have experienced the clarity of a still mind, but my emphasis is on the empty space that pervades both the body and mind, which apparently you do not experience.
We are different, don't you get that? Different experiences, different "truths." I speak to those who want to experience or have experienced what I have. But you come onto my page arguing with me. What is the point of that? Do I come onto your page and say you are wrong?
Tony Daniels: I understand. You only want to invite those to comment who agree with you and follow you.
Edward Muzika Tony, there is a big difference between you and I. You think that you have reached the final truth, and can faithfully repeat Ramana's teachings as your own.
I know I am not finished. But I also know that I have experiences and understandings you have not yet reached. You have silent mind and ego transcendence, whatever that means for you.
I have the Void, emptiness lit by the light of Consciousness,
I have an energy body, the Subtle Body which you have not yet experienced. I have had long periods of ecstatic bliss, and the experience of God living within and through me. I am able to experience deep sadness and joy and totally let both flow in and through me.
I have experienced complete surrender to God, and realized the Manifest Self arise in me as a volcano of light and energy which as never left.
You have a silent mind.
Tony, you don't have a clue as to what I am talking about, and I don't want to shrink to fit your experience.
Geoffrey Levens If you don't know the difference between a thought and a feeling i.e. sensation, then it seems like an arbitrary, semantic quibble. Once you "get it" you will start to see that it is the root of much of the interpersonal grief in the world, ruptured relationships, arguments, divorces, destructive child raising practices... the list goes on. Try reading some Alice Miller, "Drama of the Gifted Child" is probably best place to start. If you read slowly and really pay attention to what she says and your own inner reactions it might reveal...something.
Edward Muzika Thank you Geoffrey for expanding on the distinction. I would also recommend "Focusing" by Eugene Gendlin who describes "felt sense."
"You people come here wanting something. What you want may be knowledge with a capital 'K' - the highest Truth - but nonetheless you do want something. Most of you have been coming here for quite some time. Why? If there had been apperception of what I have been saying, you should have stopped coming here long ago! But what actually has been happening is that you have been coming here day after day, identified as individual beings, male or female, with several persons and things you call 'mine'. Also, you think you have been coming here, of your own volition, to see another individual - a Guru - who, you expect, will give you 'liberation' from your 'bondage'.
Do you not see how ridiculous all this is ? Your coming here day after day only shows that you are not prepared to accept my word that there is no such thing as an 'individual'; that the 'individual' is nothing but an appearance; that an appearance cannot have any 'bondage' and, therefore, there is no question of any 'liberation' for an appearance.
---------------------------------------------------------
Like Krishnamurti he blames his students for not getting what he offers. It just takes a long time, perseverance, and earnestness on a path of self-exploration.
He was far too much stuck in theory and Hindu spiritual terms which caused confusion.
He needed to emphasize that there is no truth in words, including his, because words cannot convey his state. All words cause problems until and even after one has entered emptiness, but gradual identification with emptiness removes the importance of words and their deluding capacity.
Second, he needed to emphasize even more the necessity of finding the I Am sensation and dwell their for a long, long time. Not searching for the I-thought or where it arising, but feeling the I-sensation, the I Am.
But he talked too much about too many things, which made him an entertainer instead of the greatest guru ever.
Fortunately Pradeep Apte combed through all of Nisargadatta's book and abstracted the 100+ paragraphs dedicated to the I Am and self-inquiry.
The exact same criticism can be leveled at Ramana. He had a simple and clean awakening to the nature of his existence, but because he did not see through words and concepts, he kept adding Advaita concept after concept for the next 50 years, totally obscuring the simplicity of what his teachings could have been.
COMMENTS
Tony Daniels: You make a distinction between finding the I Am sensation and searching for the I thought. There is no difference. The "I" or "I am" thought is the primary thought of the mind. Putting the attention there causes it to finally dissolve revealing only undifferentiated awareness without thought. To become established in that as your true nature is to know the Self.
Tony Daniels: You write about wanting to come back to simplicity yet you are adding complexity to what is essentially very simple. The "I" thought is what gives you a sense of egoic identity as individuated consciousness. It doesn't matter whether you refer to it as a feeling, sensation or something you inquire into. You are turning the attention back to the source. As Ramana said, if you inquire into this primary thought it cannot sustain itself without identification with an object and therefore dissolves, showing the ego to be an illusion like the rope and snake. The void may appear to be a cold unfeeling place for many at times, but if you persevere, there will come a time when it is seen as vibrant and full of life, inclusive of everything, both unmanifest and manifest. That is a permanent state, but prior to that realization it will be temporary until the mind finally dissolves into the spiritual heart that is the Self. The only obstacle to revealing your true nature is mind. It must be transcended to reveal what is already there. The way you present it is as if there are two alternative truths, one pointing to emptiness and one to being alive as a person. There is just one truth totally encompassing both as a unified whole. That is the true meaning of Self Realization.
Edward Muzika Tony, why do you deny that we exist as human beings in a context of relations as human beings, experiencing life, even while our primary identification drops to deeper levels of Consciousness.
Why use terms like transcendent that are so abstract they help no one?
Why fail to make the distinction between observation and feeling?
Why use a term like ego, about which no two people agree what it is?
What is a spiritual heart?
Why are you trying to fix me, I am fine without such abstract fixing?
This is what I dislike so much about Ramana and all the neo advaitins who claim him as their source: the very abstract nature of the terms and metaphors he uses that fail to convey the experience?
I am conveying my experience using my words, which do not use abstractions.
Tony Daniels · I don't deny we exist as human beings. Where have I said that? The personal aspect and changing phenomena don't disappear after Realization. The great maya shakti is an expression of infinite consciousness. I said that the totality of what you are is all inclusive. The crucial thing is dropping identification and attachment to objects. Once there is a shift to identify with the unbounded, the expression in the field of diversity and as a human being is all one movement of the Self. But this has to be realized. What I see happening is that you get teachers who have glimpsed a deeper aspect of themselves and then get embroiled in all the non duality stuff and then go round saying things like, there is no one here, I am not the doer etc. it's often just an intellectual understanding, but they're doing satsangs already. It only has truth as a realization. It is beyond words.
The word "transcendent" is perfectly clear to anyone who experiences silent awareness. There is nothing abstract about it. It has meaning. When you throw around words like "energies" would you say that is less abstract?
Your determination to make a distinction between observation and feeling is not an important issue. What matters is going back to the source, to cultivate the discrimination between awareness and thought.
In psychology circles with which you will be familiar, it is true that ego can be defined in so many ways. But to suggest it is confusing to use the word ego to describe a simple sense of identity as I have is baffling to me.
Spiritual heart is the Self. You know how it is Ed. You use some of your words and I use some of my words. We don't need to call the cops to arbitrate on what is acceptable. Or do you want to set the rules on acceptable terminology.
I am not trying to fix you. Do you think you are in need of fixing?
I am conveying my experience using my words, which do not use abstractions.
Edward Muzika Define ego Tony, I have no idea what it means. Define transcendent in another way than silent awareness. I have no idea of what that term means. What do you mean by "simple sense of identity?" Identity to what and what identifies?
"Energies" to me is self-evident. They arise from various places in the body and course through it, and are experienced something akin to a subtle electrical shock, which gradually become more organized the deeper on efeels them, eventually becoming an observed "presence" within and around one's body.
The distinction between observation and feeling is absolutely critical. You can observe an emotion dispassionately, or feel it fully, allowing it to enter one's heart so to speak, one's essence, where it comes alive and dissolves into bliss.
The energies eventually transform into bliss.And yes, you have used many abstractions, such as ego. What is your experience of ego, silent awareness? Flesh these terms out so that I can understand what you are saying as I fleshed out energies and emptiness.
You see, we do not have the same expressions, we do not have the same experiences. We are different as are all human beings. Each has his or her own truth, and I can only express mine, and you yours.
Tony Daniels: Are you serious. You have no idea what ego means? You refer to the I Am quite frequently. Everyone is aware of I am, the sense of a personal self. We can call it ego. Anyone can understand this. What is your agenda in seeking more and more complexity. I feel it is merely a strategy to repudiate what I have written so as to assert your perceived authority.
Energies to me is not self evident. In fact I cannot find a post from you that is not full of abstractions.
Energies don't transform into bliss. Ananda which is the peace which passes all understanding is the essence of what you are. Nothing transforms into it. It is always there but for the veil of ignorance which obscures what has always been there. Is this too abstract for you? You put too much emphasis on emotions and mistakenly think that a deeply felt emotion is indicative of your essence. It most definitely is not. Why? Because it comes and goes. You have to transcend (please look this word up in a dictionary) mind to experience the unchanging reality of unbounded awareness. Does this not mean anything to you? Have you not experienced the clarity of a still mind, or do deep emotional states appeal more to you. It appears to make you feel alive, but so does silence. More so.
Edward Muzika: Finally. You have offered a definition of ego. It is the I Am. But it is absolutely not true that everyone is aware of the I Am. Are you speaking of the I-thought or the I Am sensation? They are not the same. You are just absolutely wrong here. The sense of personal self is not real, but the I Am sensation is as real a subjective sensation as one can have, as real as anger or love.
True, energies are not self-evident to everyone. One has to dig deep inside to penetrate through to the energy body. You just have not experienced it yet, that is why it is not self-evident to you. But they are self-evident to energy workers like Reikei or Quantum Touch, to Kundalini students, to kriya yogis, etc.
Emotions and energies are gateways to bliss and emptiness is deeper than emotions, bliss, or the body sensations and penetrates them all.
Don't you see Tony, you are taking your own words and experience as the total and only truth.
Your truth is not mine. Yes, I have experienced the clarity of a still mind, but my emphasis is on the empty space that pervades both the body and mind, which apparently you do not experience.
We are different, don't you get that? Different experiences, different "truths." I speak to those who want to experience or have experienced what I have. But you come onto my page arguing with me. What is the point of that? Do I come onto your page and say you are wrong?
Tony Daniels: I understand. You only want to invite those to comment who agree with you and follow you.
Edward Muzika Tony, there is a big difference between you and I. You think that you have reached the final truth, and can faithfully repeat Ramana's teachings as your own.
I know I am not finished. But I also know that I have experiences and understandings you have not yet reached. You have silent mind and ego transcendence, whatever that means for you.
I have the Void, emptiness lit by the light of Consciousness,
I have an energy body, the Subtle Body which you have not yet experienced. I have had long periods of ecstatic bliss, and the experience of God living within and through me. I am able to experience deep sadness and joy and totally let both flow in and through me.
I have experienced complete surrender to God, and realized the Manifest Self arise in me as a volcano of light and energy which as never left.
You have a silent mind.
Tony, you don't have a clue as to what I am talking about, and I don't want to shrink to fit your experience.
Geoffrey Levens If you don't know the difference between a thought and a feeling i.e. sensation, then it seems like an arbitrary, semantic quibble. Once you "get it" you will start to see that it is the root of much of the interpersonal grief in the world, ruptured relationships, arguments, divorces, destructive child raising practices... the list goes on. Try reading some Alice Miller, "Drama of the Gifted Child" is probably best place to start. If you read slowly and really pay attention to what she says and your own inner reactions it might reveal...something.
Edward Muzika Thank you Geoffrey for expanding on the distinction. I would also recommend "Focusing" by Eugene Gendlin who describes "felt sense."
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