Pointers

The Matrix:

COMPUTER SCREEN

--Wake up, Neo.--


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See that you are only the seeing. Nothing else.


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You never fully come out of deep sleep (which is awareness without thoughts, images, feelings, etc). Presence remains firmly in the background during your day-to-day activities, witnessing your varying states of consciousness, as well as radiating through them. Indeed, all is awareness.


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Being in love is the closest thing that one can compare to self-realization. But it is a love that is wholly without deception, turmoil, disappointment, or end. There is no personal element to it at all. And yet, it is the most giving, the most intimate, and the most radiant of things. Its Adoration is fully present. It is love beyond Love: It is Love itself.


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True Self-inquiry isn't a practice. It is, as the name implies, an inquiry that is allowed to easily unfold. Let us say you have the thought, "I am brilliant." What you're looking for is the quick, out-of-the-blue response, "Who is brilliant?" It is only when this response is natural and unexpected that it delivers a deep pause. And if you remain with that pause, you may see that there is no "who" present at all; but rather, a magnificent spaciousness that is both untouched and unborn. This is the Self-inquiry about which Ramana Mahashi was speaking.


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You are not your thoughts, body, and feelings. You are the awareness that is aware of your thoughts, body, and feelings. Intuit the clear and simple reality of this, and you needn't concern yourself with attempting to cease identification with your physicality and concepts. This will happen of its own accord.


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Four A.M. -- Coffee, Bach, email, blog-work, unfathomable beingness....


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You would not be able to perceive that you are awake and conscious if you were not that that is prior to consciousness. Allow yourself to be halted by this glorious truth. Don't rush back to thoughts and thinking. Self-knowing is one of the sim-plest of things. There is absolutely nothing abstruse or theoretical about it. Nor is it anything that you have to strive for or achieve. Simply see what is being pointed to--an utterly peaceful and inherent presence that is prior to all thoughts and conceptualizing.


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What is it from which you never move? It can't be your body, because--among other things--your body is clearly animated by something other than itself. It can't be your thoughts because your thoughts come and go. Ditto consciousness. What is, at this very moment, that is subtler than consciousness? Find it, see it, revel in it. This is your Reality.


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You are already That which you are seeking. See this subtle whatness that is both before you and within you. It is pure intelligence-- sheer, knowing, and eternal.


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Self-realization is the seeing or understanding that you are awareness itself. There is no need for you to practice, become, or achieve anything. That's the glory of nonduality, which is the ultimate Truth. And you, quite literally, are that Truth. It is supremely present at this very moment. It only appears not to be evident because you are overlooking it. Back up, back up! See that there is a felt-presence and sheerness that is prior to your changing states of consciousness. That is what you are! That is your essence and freedom. Do Not Move From This.

Q & A: Clear and Direct

Question: We have come across your blog via John Wheeler's website. I want to thank you for your clear and direct pointing to our natural state.

Rodney: You are welcome. And I'm glad that you discovered John's fine site. It's a pristine multiplicity of bright truths and pointing. All one needs to do is heed what is there. And because pointers don't have to be verbal, John is now including beautiful pictures of the universe that just may give you pause. Other powerful visual pointers you might want to check out is the picture of the park in Tony Parsons' As It Is, the cover-photo of U.G. Krishnamurti on his The Mystique of Enlightenment, the dock-image on Charlie Hayes' Website and blog, and certain pictures of Nisargadatta gazing directly into the camera.

Question: Yes, I will look into those. And I love the information that John includes at the bottom of each image.

Rodney: After reading the info, go back to the picture itself. Allow the beauty, power, and majesty of it to bring you to a stillness that is nothing less than your true Self. Don't make it an effort. You will resonate with some pictures more than others, of course. Or you may not resonate with stellar images at all. Every personality is different.

Question: Relatedly, I wonder what the process was for you, subjectively, on how were you able to recognize your natural state?

Rodney: I could easily go into detail about that. And by "easily," I mean give an even and accurate accounting how this seeing occurred. Why do I bother (though I have grown a little bored with telling it)? Because the answers to such inquiries can sometimes help point the way to someone else's understanding, as long as that someone knows that there is no actual "person" that awakens, and that his or her understanding will, in all likelihood, not occur the same exact manner. It's the knowing that's paramount here, not the manner in which is happens. That said, it would be, easier for me to give you a link in which I speak about the recognition of my natural state in the spring of 2007:

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/vastness_stevens.htm

This is an article I did for Advaita.org last year. If you have any questions after perusing it, please feel free to write.

Question: Thank you, I eagerly look forward to reading it...One quick question--How have you been able to abide in that natural state, without the mind or the ego constantly over shadowing the pure awareness that you are?

Rodney: Abiding as pure awareness involves no effort or maintenance. It is a discovery that you are That, presence itself. You never move from this. Thus, the mind, which is nothing but the appearance of thoughts, is never an over shadowing presence. Thoughts and emotions appear in awareness, and then disappear. There may be some brief and occasional identification with them, but it's never a problem. Having thoughts is a normal functioning of life. It's a part of this body/mind being lived. What's vital is to take note of is that there is a boundless and unchanging background that is nothing less than your true nature. Thus, it is the what--not the who--that is to be discovered and understood. Just see this for yourself. It isn't at all difficult to recognize. You're simply looking passed it, thinking that it is somewhere outside of yourself, or even heavenward! But it is the Presence behind these very words that you are reading right now. You know doubt feel it: An indefinable immediacy and spaciousness. Allow that feeling to bring you to pause. Because in doing that, it is bringing you to yourself. Then you see that were always home.

Question: Thank you for the beautiful response, Rodney. I'm tearing up a little, but don't know why.

Rodney: No worries. If tears appear, tears are fine.

Question: I will check into the article above. I'm sure I will have an extra question or two. In the meantime, thank you again.

Pointers

Truly, the simplicity of this cannot be imagined.


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Be still a moment and see that you are stillness itself.


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Before any thoughts or concepts about awareness arise, awareness is thoroughly present. It is a felt-transparency that is, at once, subtle and profound, pristine and manifest.


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Consciousness, being a state, changes. But presence, the unmoving background, simultaneously knows consciousness, penetrates consciousness, and is the essence from which consciousness is derived. It takes less than a second to see this for yourself, to see that you are completely beyond all space, time, and even the scriptures. For you are That to which the nondual/advaitic classics are pointing.


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Life is Existence, Knowingness, and Peace. But all of these are manifestations from a single reality: Nonconceptual awareness.


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Deep sleep proves that something continues to exists when there is no ego, no mind, no bodily sensation, and no consciousness. You are that something at this very moment. You needn't look for it at night (in deep sleep, there is only unconditioned awareness, which isn't aware of itself). Discover this for yourself. What is it, right here and now, that Does-Not-Sleep?


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Attempting to live in the "now" is utterly foolish. Who is the person or individual that is trying to achieve this? You are timelessness itself. Why (seemingly) obfuscate your innate clarity by attempting to bring in a fictitious person to attain something that you already are? Like meditation, mindfulness, mantra-chanting, and forced silence, this seeking the "now" is a complete waste of time and energy.


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Self-knowledge isn't something that can be acquired by the mind. You can only understand who and what you are after the thinking stops.


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Thoughts, concepts, and conjecture are totally irrelevant when it comes to nonduality. For before any scriptures can be parsed and debated, you are That. These three words capture what cannot be expressed in the sum of all books and teachings. You never move from this radiant spaciousness. Every thought, emotion, and perception is a mere momentary manifestation of only That.


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Forget such expressions like "Inner Witness", "Absolute Subjectivity," and "Self-Existent Reality." Even knowing the exact definition for each term would not help to know yourself. Why? Because your knowledge would only be conceptual. Take an easier and more direct "route" by attending to what Zen master Huang Po repeatedly affirmed: "It's right in front of you!"


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You are seeking that which you already are. Allow the clarity and truth of this statement to give you pause. Just sit with this, whether on a park bench or your high-end Aeron chair. Or perhaps you would like to go to some desolate beach (where, ideally, you can walk with this). Just know that you needn't go anywhere all; for this seeing or understanding is easier to come to than batting an eyelid. But if nature or the beach helps you to be more reflective, then by all means go there. But keep things simple. Begin with the bare fact that you are this sheer immediacy itself. See that there is an actual presence of awareness before you and as you. It is ripe with peace, love, and fullness. Keep coming back to this, in an easy and natural manner, until it is a rich and living reality.

Trio of Topics

I'm only now getting around to Sailor Bob Adamson's Presence-Awareness: Just This and Nothing Else ($13.88/http://www.non-dualitybooks.com/). Published in 2004, this gem of a work collects over 40 of Adamson's talks with earnest seekers from around the globe. John Wheeler--Bob's most celebrated "student"--edited and transcribed these talks from a trio of CDs. Bob's clarity and directness are in peak form in this gathering, e.g., "There is no sense trying to grasp it with the mind. That is where you are personalizing it. Realize you don't have to do it. The mind is appearing on that. Sit with it as much as you can...Stay with the subtleties of this, and you will start to sense what is there."

Be sure to check out Bob's excellent Web site Non-Conceptual Self-Knowing Awareness at: http://members.iinet.net.au/~adamson7/.



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Charlie Hayes' No Way Out: The Gift of Absolute Freedom (Nonduality Expressions, $16.99) is a splendid collection of 70-plus essays and dialogues, two appendixes, choice quotes, recommended books and Web sites, an autobiographical page, and even an illuminating Coda. Charlie's sentences blasts you with their energy and clarity. And he refuses to indulge any inquirer's wailings about agonizing spiritual journeys and Dark Nights of the Soul. In a word, Charlie's pointing is spot-on. Ponder these potent ABCs:

A) "What gets irritated?? Only a self-center (the false sense of being apart from the whole) can be annoyed or offended."

B) "You will never grasp or own this with the mind! Don't try to analyze pointers; LOOK where they are pointing.

C) "When it dawned that all my knowledge was actually ignorance, this got real clear. Really!...The end game begins in not knowing a thing. Be in unknowing awareness. Just be. Just be. What never changes? Concepts change. Feelings change. Experiences change. Knowledge changes...[But] what does not come and go...and yet IS?"

Go to Charlie's new and marvelous blog--http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/
--to learn how you can directly order a copy of this book. You can also get it through Amazon, if course.


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I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Charlie for one of his podcasts. You can hear or download it at the following link:

http://charliehayes36.tripod.com/podcast05lknowingthyself.mp3

Below is a text excerpt from the interview, where I'm explaining how I came to nonduality and to knowning John Wheeler:

"...I remember coming across a copy of Osho's Enlightenment: The Only Revolution, which was a commentary on the Ashtavakra Gita,...an ancient Indian treatise which consists of a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and his disciple, King Janaka. That book help lead me to nonduality and Nisargadatta. After reading Nisargadatta's I Am That, I sought out more contemporary teachers of nonduality. This led me to Sailor Bob Adamson and his premier student, John Wheeler.

For whatever reason, I immediately resonated with John's writing and style...and especially the in-depth ways in which he answered seekers' questions. Everything about this guy just felt so completely right."