Pretending Voices
There is a voice in your head, it is pretending to be you. But when the voice is silent and the thought has vanished are you still there?
Read MoreMaya Rules
The reality is that every single word, every single teaching, is specifically set up to keep people firmly entrenched in Maya. There is no word or technique that can liberate. Teachers will fall back on “well there is a good pointer”. That’s nonsense as well. If there were great pointers people would be truly waking up left, right and centre. Yet there has never been a culture of waking up, there has only been a culture of pretending to wake up.
Everything in the universe is designed to entrench in Maya, it’s not designed to liberate. There are no exceptions to this ever.
This is what people do not want to hear or understand…
Read MoreA Test of Letting Go
I am fond of putting things to the test and encourage people to do the same. This one is about discovering what does not work as much as what does. It has to do with intention and problem solving and the art of letting go. You may have noticed that often when we let go of a problem the solution magically appears. It might appear in a dream or in a bath or a long walk. It has happened a number of times in my life and I know it has occurred in other people’s lives as well. So let us see if we can work out what we might be able to use more productively from that phenomena.
Step 1: Identify the problem which needs to be solved. It should be a very clear identification.
Step 2: Instruct your subconscious mind / unconscious helper / inner child / higher self / whatever to please solve the problem. Put the heat on it and time limit it. I suggest 24 hours, at least one night’s good sleep at a minimum.
Step 3. Forget about it. This is where self-discipline really comes in to play. It has to be a real letting go, just like when we let go of a problem and resolve to sleep or relax.
Step 4: Sit down and free associate with the intention of accessing the solution the unconscious has found. A good attitude is to be playful and open. Also be a little persistent as usually it takes a few attempts at least for something to really flow.
Step 5: Be grateful!
If nothing came of it, backtrack it. Pay attention to what went through your mind. Doubt is often the killer as is fear. See if there were moments of doubt and fear. This exercise even if it does not work in terms of solving the problem should at the very least facilitate an understanding of how much doubt and fear is revolving around the problem. If there is a discovery of some blocks then attempt to resolve them.
Try the exercise again. When it does work, then also dissect it. What was different about you when it worked to when it did not work?
Read MoreThe Second Hardest Fantasy
The second hardest fantasy to relinquish is the belief that there is someone out there to fix us, to take care of us and to spare us the hard journey of discovery.
Read MoreWhos a Guru?
S eeking goes a little like this:
There is a spiritual question. An answer will come from the question if we are earnest, compassionate, worthy or intelligent enough! When the question is answered in all its complexity we will finally come to rest and be at peace eternally ever after. Or so the story goes.
It’s a powerful ploy, a great game, designed to exactly keep the seeker mired in a never ending cycle of seeking. People may claim awakening, but usually when they do, it’s the same drivel with no real understanding of reality or navigating the dream… Typically it’s some version of Adviata or positive psychology or Buddhism masquerading as enlightenment.
The problem with all that is that there is only consciousness. Amness = consciousness.
If this is true, then the dream exists as a by-product of consciousness. Think about that because it is an important point. If there is only consciousness, and the dream is a product of consciousness is not everything with the dream, dream-like? In a sense everything is consciousness but everything is also a dream. The two are inseparable, can you see that?
Assuming that consciousness is that, then everything else is not that. Which means Adviata, all the Gita’s, the four noble truths, the bible, the Koran, the Kabbalah, now, presence, what is etc… are just well, how do we say this – dream things!
Our precious questions are also dream things. So are our answers by the way. Everything that has ever been conceived and everything which will ever be conceived is a dream thing. It sounds kind of nihilistic at first but it isn’t really. It’s not that nothing exists, it’s that something exists and that something is the only thing which exists. I might call it consciousness as I have done here, but the label itself is not important.
Believe in answers and questions if you must. Believe in gurus if you like. But in the end what will remain is consciousness.
“Real Enlightenment definitely is not on sale at the corner store, it doesn’t contain preservatives, and isn’t wrapped in plastic. Absolute surrender to God, or the Universe, is the greatest gift, the “pearl of great price,” and it will never be cheap. That is why one should question the ersatz gems that pseudo-spiritualists so readily sell in their fancy packages. If one wants the real thing, one must learn about counterfeits; otherwise, one is showing off a rhinestone to God, convinced it is the Hope Diamond.”
–Mariana Caplan
It seems that the pauperisation of satsang culture began after the death of Poonjaji. Many of his followers started to claim that Poonjaji approved their ‘Awakening.’ It seems that they just took him too literally. It is an Advaita custom to say ‘you are already Awakened.’ This is however more a teaching device than a reflection of reality. And even if some of his disciples had a glimpse of Awakening, Poonjaji knew very well that in most cases neither it was permanent nor the final state.
–Aziz Kristof