ATTD News Letter number 15
Saturday, September 27, 2003




Q & A

    Question: Really enjoyed all the excerpts and newsletters. Your explanation is profound and understood, perhaps only because I have been reading about the awareness/observer for so long. Unfortunately, I get in this loop of my mind trying to go beyond my mind, out of the ego.

    "So nothing happens. I decided to put off the awareness until I die! Otherwise it is too painful and I cannot cope with this life."

    Answer: The main thing to see is that there is no 'I' to either get in or out of the loop. It is also not 'your' mind it is just mind. Nor is it you that has to see this. There is just seeing without someone doing the seeing. The command structure of our language demands there to be an 'I' to do the seeing and then it is forgotten that this 'I' itself is nothing but language/thought. The 'I' in 'I think' has as much substance as the 'it' in 'it rains.'

    Observe and see that thoughts simply come up without a you doing the thinking and they will no longer be seen as problematic. It is just what is, complete to ItSelf and in no need of alteration or modification.

    It can also be seen that something is aware of the minds activity, otherwise it could not be reported. This Awareness can not be an object to itself. It is the knowing that cannot be known and the seeing that can not be seen. Realizing that THAT is what you truly are, is not an experience for some one; it is the inexperience-able experiencing itself. You Are THAT.

    Waiting for this to become clear is again just self arising and spontaneous thought, which is just the way IT appears to ItSelf and not 'you' not getting it. Everything is IT and you are THAT. It is not about something that you can put of until you die; IT is what you truly are, just like the wave and the ocean are nothing but 'One Water.' This is so, even when IT is expressing AS an apparent separate you and everything else that appears; including, stars, birds and doubts whether or not this is really so.

    As you said 'nothing happens.' It is as it is and there is no need to wait for an experience. All experiences come and go, but THAT which is aware of them does not come and go. It is the Aware Space in which it all arises and dissolves, just like yesterday's thoughts came up and dissolved again.

    There is no you that has a life to cope with. Life is simply 'living' life and IT does it also AS 'you.' Painfulness may arise, pleasure may arise, but THAT in and to which it arises is the uncaused joy that knows no opposites. IT is the still heart at the centre of the storm, IT is the self shinning mirror, unaffected by whatever is reflected in it. You are THAT.
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter mail to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com

Cygnus Loop supernova blast wave. This is an image of a small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, which marks the edge of a bubble-like, expanding blast wave from a colossal stellar explosion, occurring about 15,000 years ago.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/pict/deep-sky.html

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From the book 'Awakening to the Dream.'

    Throughout this text, I'll keep reminding you of the book's conceptual nature and of the fact that this writing is simply a pointer or signpost, constantly repeating the same directions in different ways. Climbing the signpost will not get you to your destination. It is like Zen describing itself as "a finger pointing to the moon." If you focus on the finger, you will miss the luminosity at which it is pointing.

    The moon for this textual finger is the ultimate subject, or that which cannot be made into an object. It is the source beyond space and time, which escapes all attempts at labeling and yet has been given many names, such as God, the ultimate ground of being, The Tao, your original face, or the deep Self.

The paperback is available at: http://www.awakeningtothedream.com/purchasebook.html
The eBook can be found at: http://www.awakeningtothedream.com/purchase.html

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From Alan Watts' "The Drama of it All"

    Suppose you're God. Suppose you have all time, eternity, and all power at your disposal. What would you say to yourself after a while, "Man, get lost." It's like asking another question which amounts to supposing you were given the power to dream any dream you wanted to dream every night. Naturally, you could dream any span of time---and it could be anything you wanted---because you make up your mind before you go to sleep. "Tonight I'm going to dream of so-and-so." Naturally, you would start out by fulfilling all your wishes. You would have all the pleasures you could imagine, the most marvelous meals, the most entrancing love affairs, the most romantic journeys; you could listen to music such as no mortal has heard, and see landscapes beyond your wildest dreams.

    And for several nights, oh maybe for a whole month of nights, you would go on that way, having a wonderful time. But then, after a while, you would begin to think, "Well, I've seen quite a bit, let's spice it up, let's have a little adventure." And you would dream of yourself being threatened by all sorts of dangers. You would rescue princesses from dragons, you would perhaps engage in notable battles, you would be a hero! And then as time went on, you would dare yourself to do more and more outrageous things, and at some point in the game you would say, "Tonight I am going to dream in such a way that I don't know that I'm dreaming," and by so doing you would take the experience of the drama for complete reality. What a shock when you woke up! You could really scare yourself!

    And then on successive nights you might dare yourself to experience even more extraordinary things just for the contrast when you woke up. You could , for example, dream yourself in situation of extreme poverty, disease, agony. You could, as it were, live the essence of suffering to its most intense point, and then suddenly, wake up and find it was after all nothing but a dream and everything's perfectly OK.

    Well, how do you know that's not what you're doing already. You reading, sitting there with all your problems, with all your whole complicated life situation, it may just be the very dream you decided to get into.

    If you don't like it, what fun it'll be when you wake up!

Photography by Alain Briot.

Visit him at: http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/

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Awakened Poetry


Seeds of Light by Nancy Alexander
Visit her at: http://www.spiritart.net/

    'One, One, One'

    The lamps are different,
    but the Light is the same.
    So many garish lamps in the dying brain's lamp-shop,
    Forget about them.
    Concentrate on essence, concentrate on Light.
    In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
    The Light streams towards you from all things,
    All people, all possible permutation of good, evil, thought, passion.
    The lamps are different,
    But the Light is the same.
    One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
    Endlessly emanating all things
    One turning and burning diamond,
    One, one, one.
    Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
    To blind loving silence.
    Stay there, until you see
    You are gazing at the Light
    With its own ageless eyes.

    Rumi

    From: "The Rumi Collection" - Andrew Harvey



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Quote of the moment!

You are the unchangeable Awareness in which all activity takes place.
Always rest in peace. You are eternal Being, unbounded and undivided.
Just keep Quiet. All is well. Keep Quiet Here and Now.
You are Happiness, you are Peace, you are Freedom.
Do not entertain any notions that you are in trouble.
Be kind to yourself.

Author (the) unknown

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Smile of the moment!
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