Who / What Am I Really?

    Most of us are anxious, frightened & confused about life, aging, sickness & death, so much so, that we try (without success) to not think about or discuss these "depressing matters." Yet it is actually our aversion that keeps us trapped in the thoughts & associated emotions we're trying to avoid.
    We hyper-rational, control-obsessed individuals declare that death is "unacceptable!" Our society has conditioned us to consider ourselves bigger, better, smarter, better looking, and certainly independent of everyone else. How dare life slip out of MY CONTROL with all this aging, sickness & death crap! That's for "losers" - NOT "me"!
    BUT most of us have failed to learn that arguing with reality is THE cause of needless suffering. Only by "leaning into" the very things that scare us, and learning as much as possible about these, by truly becoming intimate with & directly experiencing these challenges physically & emotionally, can we come to a radically different perspective.
    This sounds alarmingly ridiculous to most of us, I know, yet it's true. And you'll only know how true it is AFTER you've given up arguing with & denying reality, have completely accepted the harshest of life's challenges, and awakened to lovingly embracing ALL of life's "10,000 joys AND 10,000 sorrows." Then and only then, can you possibly get how everything is perfect as it is.

    “So, what is it that animates this chunk of meat (our body), that makes it vital? The teacher would call it ‘the vital principle’ or life-force. It is in the absence of this that the body is inert.
    If there is such a thing as life-force, does it evaporate when the body dies? No. This ‘vital principle’ is present in the very movement of the cosmos: evidently, it is universal and eternal.
    So, the teacher would ask: what, then, can we consider real; a piece of flesh which decays and returns to the earth, or the force which is eternally present?
    Without the presence of this universal force, the body does not ‘see and hear.’ We cannot rightly say, then, that the body ‘sees and hears.’
    That which is seeing and hearing right now is not the body – it is the vital Principle. ‘You’ are that.

    When it is indubitably recognized that your nature & the nature of the absolute are fundamentally the same, indivisible nature, this is the ‘recognition of one’s true identity’: the realization that any and all identity is eclipsed by an actuality which renders separative distinctions ultimately meaningless.
    Such a realization, or non-dual perspective or awareness, cannot help but have a profound effect on one’s consideration of ‘personal individuality’. One cannot recognize that truth, of all pervasive indivisibility, and continue to maintain the fiction of separate personification – of the ‘me’ that was born and the ‘I’ which dies.
    This fruit of realization – that the absolute essence of all being does not ‘come’ from some place nor ‘go’ anywhere – quenches our deepest, final fear, the fear of extinction. Then the liberated may, indeed, ‘take no thought for the morrow.’”
    Robert Wolfe. “Living Nonduality. Enlightenment Teachings of Self-Realization.” Karina Library, 2014. 

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this 47min Robert Wolfe video: 

 

One Love

    "Going inward & making a connection to the deepest parts of you — physical, emotional, energetic, or spiritual — is the best, the deepest way to live and the deepest way to create impact." John Wineland
    HOWEVER, the deepest, truest, or most authentic aspect of who we are - according to saints & mystics - is beyond (transcends) the capacity of our usual level of thinking to conceive & of language to express! So the foremost experts at this, again saints & mystics, can at best provide pointers for us to directly experience ultimate reality:

    “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Mother Teresa

    “The problem with the world is
that we draw our family circle too small.” Mother Teresa

    “There is more hunger for love & appreciation in this world than for bread.” Mother Teresa

    “The important thing is not to think much, but to love much, and so to do what best awakens us to love.” Saint Teresa of Ávila  


    “When it is indubitably recognized that your nature and the nature of the Absolute are fundamentally the same, indivisible nature, this is the ‘recognition of one’s true identity’: the realization that any and all identity is eclipsed by an actuality which renders separative distinctions ultimately meaningless.
    Such a realization, or non-dual perspective or awareness, cannot help but have a profound effect on one’s consideration of ‘personal individuality’. One cannot recognize that truth, of all pervasive indivisibility, and continue to maintain the fiction of separate personification – of the ‘me’ that was born and the ‘I’ which dies.
    This fruit of realization – that the absolute essence of all being does not ‘come’ from some place nor ‘go’ anywhere – quenches our deepest, final fear, the fear of extinction. Then the liberated may, indeed, ‘take no thought for the morrow.’ ”
    Robert Wolfe. “Living Nonduality. Enlightenment Teachings of Self-Realization.” Karina Library, 2014. EXCELLENT BOOK

 

    "Even when we've awakened from ego-identification, we still need to unlearn & relearn about love. What we call love, or what we think is love, is often mixed with a lot of early personal conditioning, old belief systems, & emotional attachments. When the heart doesn't go out to look for love, but looks instead back to its source - the ground of Being - we can discover unconditional love as who we have always been. Then this new experience of love can become the foundation from which relationships are formed. A whole different emotional way of being & seeing gives rise to a new, vastly more compassionate & connected way of relating.
    Open-hearted awareness, which is operating from our heart-mind, begins to include necessary judging functions of the mind, but leaves behind the fear, separation, & controlling anger that made us ‘judgmental.’ Our normal judging functions are transformed by open-hearted awareness into discernment & discriminating wisdom.
    The judge, the critic, and the superego are not essential or rigidly fixed parts of the human psyche. As soon as we shift into open-hearted awareness, an immediate feeling of being nonjudgmental & more compassionate arises. We develop a more mature conscience, a sense of integrity, & an acceptance of what is, while having the capacity & motivation to change what needs to be changed.”
    Loch Kelly. “Shift into Freedom. The Science and Practice of Open-hearted Awareness.” Sounds True, 2015.

Robert Wolfe “Quenching the Thirst: Fundamentals of Nonduality”
CONCISE 47-minute interview:

 

Live, Love, Learn, Enjoy

    Meditation teachers often repeat Ajahn Chah's guidance: “No one to be, nothing to do, nowhere to go,” reminding us that during meditation, we have the opportunity to assume the spacious awakened perspective of witnessing awareness, by simply letting go of the role of a separate "doer."
    Our conditioned mind constantly wants to be someone, do something & go somewhere. Completely identifying with the content of our conditioned mind (from "noisy ego" to narcissism) is very common & problematic. Just for the time we set aside to meditate, we can gently accept our conditioned mind's chatter, allowing thoughts to settle down (like mud settles in a jar of water), until the clarity & freedom of our mature, peaceful, joyful true nature spontaneously emerges. 

    "The only thing that makes us suffer, is resisting what is." Helen Hamilton

    "Everything yearns to resolve itself in love – that love being the open space of acceptance, of allowing, of staying resolutely present, & unconditionally open to every nuance of your inner experience. In that way, awakeness can filter into every aspect of your life." Amoda Maa. "Surfing the Heart of Darkness: Suffering as a Doorway to Liberation." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXlUsBYbv0w

    “We are one, but we will only feel that when we love everything.” Ram Dass

    "To be enlightened is to be intimate with all things." Zen Master Dogen  

    “The only real purpose of being here on this earth is to learn or to re-remember our original nature state of no limitations.” Lester Levenson 

    “The only service you can do for anyone (including yourself) is to remind them of their true nature.” Stephen Levine

    “… there is one, indivisible, unborn, ultimate reality beyond time & space, name & form. The discovery of this reality as our own true nature is the real opportunity, possibility and purpose of human existence. … suffering & delusion (is) caused by ignorance of the real Self.” Mooji

    Helen Hamilton skillfully incorporates the above in her meditation instruction:
    “The separate sense of self is really obstructing our peace. It’s not an entity. It’s a movement, a habit, an energy, a vibration. And when we look at what it is really, it’s trying to change this moment in some way, isn’t it? And it will say, ‘I’m not how I’m supposed to be. You’re not how you’re supposed to be. This moment isn’t how it’s supposed to be. This meditation isn’t how it’s supposed to be. This contemplation isn’t going the way it’s supposed to be.’ It’s not always so overt, but it’s kind of this one-track, very single-minded pushing against what is. And if you’re sitting in meditation, getting nice & deep, and this thought comes up, ‘I should be doing something different.’ What we really experience is the meditation & the thought, and that is all there is. There isn’t a separate being thinking. There isn’t a separate being meditating. If you can just let that thought happen in its fullness. Just let it happen, not being at war with your mind for just a second, not saying it should or shouldn’t be this way – which is also mind.
    What happens when you just let that thought happen? Even if your attention goes with it for a certain amount of time, it comes back eventually. And the more you fully go with that thought, let it exist. Whatever wants to exist in this moment can. I’m not going to try & police that at all, most of all my own thought process. What happens when you do that? Because the essence of this ‘should & shouldn’t’ is a trying to control, isn’t it? Trying to keep this moment in a way that’s going to make me feel better, or keep me safe, or something like that.
    And if I don’t have any thoughts, and don’t allow my thoughts, mind says then I’m more awakened; and if I have lots of thoughts, I’m less awakened. What if that’s not true? What if it’s what I’m doing with those thoughts, or perhaps more importantly not doing, when they come up? The essence of awakening is really just being with what is, and not really being able to, or wanting to do anything other than that.
    So you’re sitting in meditation or just having a happy moment with your family, some real resistance comes up. What do you do with that? If it’s, ‘OK now, there’s resistance,’ - that’s a very awakened way of being with it. If instead we go, ‘Why is this here? What do I need to do to get rid of it? I thought I got beyond this. Why is it happening again?’ These are all very subtle ways of trying to push against that resistance and going to separation in relationship with it. And then by doing it, we’re trying to change ourselves, change this moment, change reality – all those are the same.
    Myself, this moment, reality – they’re all names for you. Have a meditation session where ‘I’m just going to let it happen.’ Even if ‘this shouldn’t happen, I’m going to let that happen too.’ Love sees these thoughts as its creations, arising out of it like steam off of hot water. And the water isn’t trying to control how the steam is going, is it? It’s just arising, whichever way it wants to arise.
    We can be like that with all phenomena, just this is what is in this moment. Some of them you might like better than others - some thoughts, some emotions. Of course we like bliss better than physical pain, or we like joy better than sadness. We like a self-loving thought better than a self-critical thought. But we still have the ability none-the-less to be with that. You can actually feel a deep sense of peace, contentment, & eventually bliss, if you just let your mind be how it is right now. If it’s running rampant, just stop trying to control it completely. Abandon all attempts to change it, and you’ll feel extraordinarily peaceful, even before it stops talking. You won’t even need it to stop talking. You’ll begin to feel bliss and some deep, deep sense of joy. This isn’t my work to manage my own personal universe.”
    Helen Hamilton. “I am alone but not lonely.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zCrl6a5HEA