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Question: Your book reminded me of experiences that I have had while
trying to lucid dream where I thought I was lucid dreaming, yet I was
actually just "thinking" I was doing it. I don't know if there is a term for
that so I will just call it "false lucidity."
The problem is that in a false lucidity, I am trying to convince myself that I am dreaming, and I could even agree "yes, I am dreaming" but the shift hasn't occurred where I actually _experience_ and _know_ that I am dreaming. So, with your book and in waking life, I could read the book and say "yes, I never did exist as a separate entity and I am the Pure Awareness that all experience happens on," but this feels more akin to a false lucidity experience where there isn't that "aha!" and the _knowing_ instead of just believing it to be true. Answer: The idea that there should be an AHA is still a subtle conceptualizing. It is still an expectation about THAT what cannot be conceptualized. You see, it is not an experience as such; IT is the in-experience-able experiencing itself. IT is the Ultimate Subject and cannot be made into an object, very much like light, which can never shine upon itself. IT is THAT which sees the true and false lucidity, but remains ItSelf unseen. We can also compare IT to sight. Sight's existence is clear from objects seen, but sight itself can never be seen; it cannot be brought into focus as it is the very focusing. Although sight remains unseen, its effects are undeniable. Hence there is no belief about sight's existence, but a firm conviction. The same is true for the Awareness You are; everything appears to, in and on IT. You AS Awareness cannot be known, as IT is the very knowing. When that is clear the conviction will take hold. There may or may not be a difference to the experience, there may or may not be an AHA, but it is all seen as content to the unknowable/knowing context You are. As Ramana said "Understanding is everything."
If or when you have a question you'd like to see answered in this newsletter send it to:
author@awakeningtothedream.com Painting by :Rousseau. Title: 'The Dream' |
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Q: There's something else going on, when you talk, and there are spaces
between the words. There is this spaciousness that takes over, and
it's hard to concentrate on what you're saying. There's a tendency
to think that that stillness is actually the true nature, but is it just
another experience?
Answer: In the absence of 'I' there is 'stillness'. 'I' reappears and claims stillness as an experience. In fact there is only experiencing, knowing, seeing - which is 'stillness', but is also the appearance of 'I' as part of the scenery in the play of life. Therefore, stillness is not an experience, but neither is anything else. There is only experiencing - with no experiencer - which is simply 'what is'. And that includes any appearance of 'I' as the present configuration. Q: There is a tendency to want to hang onto that spaciousness. Answer: Yes. But there may also be a noticing that when the wanting to hang on occurs, then the 'I' has already been assumed, rather than seen for what it is. Q: If the understanding arises, 'All there is, is what is manifesting in present awareness', where is the difference between that as an idea, as a theory, as an opinion, as a belief, as a faith, if you like, on the one hand, and on the other hand the knowing of that? Answer: This knowing which is our true nature, permeating into the play initially as a reflection in thought, is what we call understanding. Understanding is an apparent process in the play of life, whereas knowing is this, in and as which the play appears. Knowing is oneness, devoid of any necessity for concept or meaning. Q: There is something here, in this body-mind, that increasingly feels that that's right, that 'experiences' that. But there's also something in here that says, 'Well, that could just be brainwashing because I expose myself to this a lot.' Answer: This doubt is undermined in presence, with its two aspects of awareness and the presently arising content, which cannot be negated. They require no belief. When the focus shifts from understanding and belief - which are part of the mesmerising with content - then there is resting as presence. Which is only ever the case anyway, but simply goes unnoticed.
From Nathan Gill's new book: 'Already Awake - Dialogues with Nathan Gill'
For more information click here! Painting by Gina Stark: On a Clear Day. Visit her at: http://www.artgally.com/gina/ |
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First days of spring First days of spring -- the sky is bright blue, the sun huge and warm. Everything's turning green. Carrying my monk's bowl, I walk to the village to beg for my daily meal. The children spot me at the temple gate and happily crowd around, dragging to my arms till I stop. I put my bowl on a white rock, hang my bag on a branch. First we braid grasses and play tug-of-war, then we take turns singing and keeping a kick-ball in the air: I kick the ball and they sing, they kick and I sing. Time is forgotten, the hours fly. People passing by point at me and laugh: "Why are you acting like such a fool?" I nod my head and don't answer. I could say something, but why? Do you want to know what's in my heart? From the beginning of time: just this! just this! Ryokan (1758 - 1831)
From: the book "The Enlightened Heart"
By: , Stephen Mitchell Painting by Charles H. White: Down Spring Roads Visit him at: http://www.picturethisgallery.com/Artists/White,%20Charles/charles_h__white.htm |
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"Doctrines, processes and progressive paths which seek enlightenment only exacerbate the problem they address by reinforcing the idea that the apparent self can find something it presumes it has lost. It is that very effort, that investment in self-identity, that continuously recreates the illusion of separation from oneness. This is the veil which we believe exists. It is the dream of individuality." From the book: "The Open Secret" By Tony Parsons. Visit him at: http://www.theopensecret.com/ Image: The Illusion of Separation Dancers: Tyann Clement and Lucas Priolo Photo: Geoff Winningham Website: http://www.houstonballet.org/program.asp?pgmid=8 |
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A group of monks sat in the great hall of a monastery and copied down holy scriptures day after day and year after year. One day a new monk arrived to the monastery; he was more curious and more eager to gain new knowledge than the others. He saw that for centuries monks had copied copies written by earlier scribes, so that nobody had seen the authentic scripts for times immemorial. He went to the abbot and asked where the original manuscripts were held and was taken into a great vault in the basement of the monastery. The abbot left the monk to study the manuscripts alone in peace. After a long day the abbot started to wonder what had happened to the young monk, who hadn't come back from the manuscript vault. He went down and found the monk crying and banging his head against the wall. "What's the matter? What has happened?, the abbot requested. The monk answered: "Oh, those stupid analphabets! It is "celebrate", not "celibate." |
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