Noticing This

"The world is illusory

Brahman alone is real.

Brahman is the world."

- Ramana Maharshi

Are you breathing?

Are sounds appearing?

Are thoughts coming and going?

Are feelings in the body happening?

Could it be that you are already awake?

Could it be that you were never actually asleep?


***

This is all there is.

What's happening is all that's happening.

Pretty damn obvious right?

And yet you believe that you are an individual who experiences life. An individual who is somehow separate from life. But is there really anyone here experiencing life, or is there just life happening, to and for no-one? Just life seeing itself, hearing itself, tasting and touching itself? Just this spontaneous present appearance? Just the dance of life, in love with itself?

Notice: Everything that happens happens right here.

Notice: Sounds come and go, effortlessly. There's nothing you need to do, or give up doing, for this to be. Sounds simply happen. They arise spontaneously in this aliveness. They appear here.

Feelings in the body happen. Perhaps a tightness in the chest. Perhaps a rumbling in the stomach. Sensations appear and disappear. They arise and fall away.

And there is something here that gently notices all of that.

Is there a sense of a presence that sits 'behind' everything, watching everything?

Has it always been there?

Is there the sense of something here that is already aware of sounds coming and going?

Something that is not really a 'something' at all, because it is not part of that which comes and goes?

Could that 'something' be the no-thing that allows every-thing to be?

***

Notice: feelings in the body simply appear in presence. Simply, effortlessly, ordinarily, they appear.

And thoughts too. Thoughts come and go. See how they arise, linger a while, and pass. And there is something here that watches silently as all thoughts come and go. All the thoughts in the world come and go in this presence.

Something here is already free from all thoughts. Something here is already liberated from the entire story that thought has constructed about "me and my life". Something here is already free from "me and my problems", "me and my spiritual seeking", "me and my difficulties", "me and my successes and failures". There is something here that is already free from past and future. Something that is already free from "you".

"You" are just a bundle of stories, arising presently. What you are cannot be touched by any of those stories.

Notice: sounds come and go. Clouds in the sky come and go. Cars and trees and people come and go. Smells and tastes come and go. Feelings in the body come and go. Thoughts come and go. An entire world comes and goes. And there is something here that is not touched by any of that coming and going. There is something here that never enters into the stream of coming and going, cause and effect, time and space. There is something here that is already totally, radically free.

There is a freedom here that does not come and go.

Could this freedom be identical with what you are?

***

Is there really an inside and an outside? Or is that just another thought, another concept that comes and goes?

Notice: sounds in the room come and go. Bodily feelings come and go. Thoughts come and go. None of these are 'inside' or 'outside'. They are just happenings. 'Inside' and 'outside' are just more labels that appear. 'Inside and outside' is just another story that comes and goes in this awareness.

Prior to the story of 'inside and outside' can anything really be inside or outside?

That bird singing. Is it happening inside of you, or outside of you? Is there really any division there, or is that just another creation of thought? Come back to the bird singing. Is there really an inside and outside, or is there just the bird singing? Is there even a 'bird' that's outside of you, or is there just the singing?

Tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet!

***

Everything seems to arise within presence, within awareness, within consciousness, within being; you can give it a million different names. But should we really call it 'awareness' or 'consciousness' at all? Doesn't that suggest that there is something there that is separate from everything else? How can we speak about it when it's not an 'it' at all?

Should we even speak about it?

Notice: you have no way of separating yourself from what you are seeing, touching, hearing. Awareness-presence-consciousness-being seems to mingle with everything that you see, hear, touch, taste. So much so that it seems to be identical with everything that arises.

Presence is not separate from the sounds in the room, from the feelings in the body, from the thoughts that arise and fall away. In fact, presence is the sounds, presence is the feelings, presence is the thoughts that arise. It is all a play of presence, a play of consciousness, a play of being, the play of the divine.

Can you find anything - anything at all - that separates you from the sound of that bird singing? From that feeling in the stomach? From these presently-arising thoughts?

You have no way of separating yourself from life.

So, who are you? Are you the sounds in the room? Well no, you might say; you are aware of sounds, so you are not those sounds. Are you feelings in the body? No, they arise and fall away, and there is something here that does not fall away when they fall away. Are you any of the thoughts that arise? No, you are aware of them, so you are not them. They come and go. Everything does.

There seems to be something here that is already free from the world of passing forms. There seems to be something here that remains when everything else has come and gone. A 'peace that passes all understanding'. An openness that is already open and never closed up. A gentle seeing that welcomes everything as it is born and dies.

***

You are not sounds, smells, thoughts, feelings. But it would be equally true to say that you are those sounds, smells, thoughts and feelings.

Non-duality does just not mean "not duality". It also includes apparent duality. It is not duality, but it is also duality, because it is everything.

You are everything that arises. And, at the same time, you are nothing, because you are also the wide open space that holds everything. You are everything, but because you are aware of everything, you cannot be any of the things of which you are aware. Nothing, everything. Everything, nothing.

And so that bird singing over there. You are not that, because you are aware of that. But at the same time, you have no way of separating yourself from that. At the same time, you are that.

The bird sings, and you are the bird singing. The bird sings, and that is you. How intimate this is!

***

And notice, even these are just more thoughts that arise. I am nothing, I am everything. I am nobody. I am somebody. Self, no self. Me, no me. Just thoughts. What are those thoughts trying to capture?

Forget the words. Going on present evidence, what is clear? Is it clear that you are no-thing, you are the empty space, the vast openness in which an entire cosmos arises? And yet, because that spaciousness can in no way be separated from everything that arises, you are everything too? Don't believe me. I don't want you to believe me. Come back to what's actually happening, right now. And there is no other time!

A bird sings. Aliveness dresses up as a bird singing, and as the one who hears the bird singing.

Upon hearing the bell ringing, the Zen master said "there is no bell, and no I, just the ringing."

No bird, no I, just the singing.

***

Notice that what we are pointing to is very ordinary and everyday. Nothing special. Just sounds, thoughts, feelings happening. Just life happening, as it is happening. What is, as it is. A bird sings, a dog barks. Just that, and nothing more.

Do you believe that there is an event called 'awakening' that will suddenly transform everything? An experience called 'enlightenment that will come along and solve all of your problems? An 'energetic shift' or 'transformation of consciousness' that will strike you if you're lucky enough or dedicated enough? A 'falling away of the I' that will happen one day, if you just wait long enough?

Who told you that? Why did you believe them? Didn't that just lead to feelings of inferiority? To the sense that you weren't good enough? To more seeking?

Notice, that all of these stories are just thoughts arising in this ever-present awakeness. All beliefs are just that: present thoughts. The beliefs and concepts about awakening, about spirituality, nonduality, Advaita, enlightenment – all of these arise and fall away in what you are, which cannot be touched by any belief.

You see, there is something here that is already awake, and has no need for any 'future event' to be so. This awakeness, this aliveness is what you already are. You are not asleep, you are awake! And this aliveness is not separate from everything. It is not separate from the world. You could so far as to say that this awakeness is the world in its entirety. You are the world, and the world is you, something which Krishnamurti often repeated.

There is only now (and of course even 'now' is just another idea.) So who cares if you were 'awakened' yesterday? Who cares if you'll be 'awakened' tomorrow? There is only now. And this is the only awakeness there is.

If there is any awakening, it is here and now. If there is any awakening, it is this.

This is life, awake to itself.

You are the awakening. You are life seeing itself. Meeting itself in a million different forms, and delighting in that.

***

Notice, there is nothing to awaken from. And nobody there who could do that awakening. The person who would awaken, or not, is just a thought-story, arising here. The person and all their seeking, all their suffering, all their problems, is just a huge bundle of thoughts arising in this ever-present awakeness. "You" are just a story.

That is why, ultimately, nobody "notices" this. There is nobody there who "sees" this. Nobody who is awakened, nobody who is enlightened. Nobody there who thinks, breathes, hears, smells. Everything just happens but there is nobody there doing any of it. Ultimately, this life has no centre. There is only life happening, but to no-one.

The thought "I see" cannot itself see. The thought "I hear" cannot hear a thing. The individual is only an apparent individual.

And yet this is not about rejecting those stories. This is not about rejecting the apparent individual. Notice that nothing could ever be rejected in this awakeness, because this awakeness is everything that arises. Notice that any rejection would just be something else happening in this awakeness.

Even the appearance of the individual is welcome here. This intimacy rejects nothing.

***

This is already awake. This is already enlightened. Can you see how enlightenment has nothing to do with a separate person becoming something?

Enlightenment does not exist outside of a thought story about it.

Enlightenment. Literally: to en-lighten. To shine light upon. Notice that everything is already enlightened. The light of awareness is already shining upon everything, allowing everything to be. Allowing everything to arise and dissolve exactly when it does, and not a moment before.

Breathing happening. Heart beating. Hunger in the belly. Cars beeping their horns.

Notice: there is a perfection here that could never be reached by a seeking mind. Perfection because it couldn't be any other way. A perfection that includes all apparent imperfection. Only thought would say "this should or could be otherwise". Beyond that story, this is as it is. And it is enough.

I am describing the state you are already in. And there is no other state. (Or if there is, it is something that comes and goes in this. All 'experiences', all 'states', all 'events' arise and dissolve in this. This is the stateless state, if you will. The event-less event. The eternal experience.)

I am describing what you already are.

I am describing what is already the case.

You have always been this.

***

The world is illusory – everything, literally, every 'thing' is a passing form. Everything is a form passing through awareness. Nothing has any existence outside of a thought story. Everything is empty of self-nature. Everything is impermanent, as the Buddhists have always known. (The word 'existence' literally means 'to stand out of Being'. In other words, to be separate from Being. And of course, that is the illusion - that there is anything separate from anything else. Anything that 'exists' in an illusion.)

Brahman alone is real – behind all the passing forms of the world, behind any 'thing' that 'exists' there is awareness. There is this. Not the thought of it, but the undeniable actuality. Can you deny that you are present and aware, right now? The world comes and goes in this. The "I" comes and goes in this. 'I' and 'world' arise and dissolve together, and only this remains. And even the thought that "only this remains" is something that arises in this. You cannot escape this. Trying to escape from this is just this trying to escape from itself.

Brahman is the world – awareness and the passing contents of awareness are not-two. And this is about as far as we can go with words.

This is not about an intellectual understanding, because all the intellectual understanding in the world is just something else that comes and goes in this. The truth cannot be told, but whether or not it can be told, this is.

All words can do is suggest that everything that arises in the vastness is not separate from the vastness. Everything that arises – the 'world'- is not separate from Brahman. Brahman is the world. And so there is no Brahman and no world.

In other words, this awakeness was never born and will never die. And it is what you are. You are already free.

***

And so what does all of that mean? To where is it all pointing? Where does it leave us?

Here, right here. Radically so. Breathing happening. The heart beating. A bird singing. Feelings in the body happening. The refrigerator buzzing. Right here, right now, the miracle shines.

This is the only miracle: that anything is happening at all.

This is the awakening: here and now.

This is the grace: drinking a cup of tea. Watching the sunset. Chatting with a friend. Ordinary life, as it is. Ordinary awareness, as it is. Aliveness dances in and as everything. It is aliveness drinking a cup of tea, or watching a sunset. And the tea is aliveness playing at being tea, and the sunset is aliveness playing at being a sunset. In everything, as everything, life dances.

Home was always here: where you are.

You spent a lifetime looking for what was always right under your nose.

No matter. That 'lifetime' is just a thought arising now.

Good to notice.

By Jeff Foster

http://lifewithoutacentre.com

Meeting with remarkable man - Jeff Foster

The End of The Search

Wonderful Friends and Host Menno van der meer and Jeannine

Life Without a Centre- Great Thinker-Jeff foster

No one meets No one!!! With Jeff and Amy

Awakening From The dream of Seperation

The Revelation of Oneness

Beyond Awakening

"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 the essence, concentrate on the light.

In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,

In the light stream towards you from all things,

All people, all permutations 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 diamonds,

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."

(By Rumi)

For Details visit Jeff foster website:

www.lifewithoutacentre.com

NOTHING TO GET, NOTHING TO DEFEND

THE NONDUALISTIC COMMUNICATION:

NOTHING TO GET, NOTHING TO DEFEND

by Jeff Foster - November 2008

“…a sense sublime

of something far more deeply interfused,

whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

and the round ocean, and the living air…”

- Wordsworth 

This is not a teaching. It’s not even a communication from one person to another.

 

It is a sharing, from nobody to nobody, from Source to Source, of something so intimate, so present, so damn alive that words cannot even begin to touch it.

 

From the moment I started talking about this, I knew that not a single word I said about it could ever be true.

 

*

 

The wonder and the grace of this: nobody can own it. It cannot be held, cannot be possessed, cannot be grasped in any way. Although I’ve been writing and talking about this for a few years now, I have never, ever had the sense that it has anything to do with me, with the character called Jeff. Never felt that I was in any way special.

 

In fact, that’s exactly what fell away: the specialness of Jeff. Yes, that was the shocking realisation: this had nothing to do with anything I’d ever done, or not done. Nothing to do with a separate “me”, a separate self. Nothing to do with effort or attainment or adding anything to the seeker.

 

No, no. The seeker is destroyed, once and for all.

 

*

 

And so of course, there is nothing – and will never be anything -  to defend here. There is no need to make any claims or promises about “my” communication of this message (and I’ve never, ever, seen it as “mine”.) No need to compare and contrast Life Without A Centre with any other teaching or non-teaching. No need to condemn teachers who aren’t quite as ‘nondualistic’ or ‘awakened’ as me. (Whatever the hell any of that means.)

 

No. This speaks for itself, and doesn’t need me to defend it. It’s not a teaching; it is simply an expression of the inexpressible, a putting-into-words of that which is totally beyond words.

 

I don’t own it. And even if I could own it, I wouldn’t want to. It’s too precious.

 

And with that I think, comes a certain humility. If there is any “hallmark” of liberation (or whatever you want to call it) perhaps it’s that. I can only speak from experience. You see, Jeff is constantly humbled by the wonder of what is, by the grace of this divine, purposeless, priceless play. And he knows that his words are always and forever equal to the barking of a dog or the miaowing of a cat. They are simply part of the song of being, the divine dance of nothing and everything which reveals itself in and as everything and nothing, which sings and shines from the toothbrush as I brush my teeth in the morning, from the fish and chips that I munch on the beach, from the cold autumn breeze as it lovingly caresses my cheek, from the dog shit that I step in on the way home, ruining my new shoes, for a while, anyway.

 

Life happens, but there is nobody there to whom it happens. And when there is nobody there, there is nobody there who could ever become defensive, possessive or even smug about their own understanding or expression of this.

 

There is nobody there who could ever believe their own bullshit anymore.

 

Nobody there who could possibly care about what the world thinks, or doesn’t think, of them.

 

Yes, nothing to defend – that goes right to the heart of this message.

 

*

 

To the individual, this freedom, this grace, will always seem out of reach. The moment you have an individual, you have separation, and the moment you have separation you have the longing to end that separation, to heal the divide, to come home. It’s the wave longing to return to the ocean. And of course on some level the wave knows that it was never for one moment separate from the ocean - that the sense of being a wave is merely a temporary contraction of the whole.

 

The little wave is inherently a seeker, and he runs around the world like a headless chicken, trying to find something which of course he never lost in the first place. And he never lost this because he never had it. He always was it. The wave was always, always, a perfect expression of that which cannot be expressed. You – the character, the person, the individual – were always the divine expression, expressing itself perfectly, completely, and exhausting itself in that expression, leaving no trace, no residue.

 

And the cosmic joke? Even the individual’s endless and exhausting search to come home – even that was always the divine expression. It was always Oneness seeking itself.

 

Well, of course it was. There is only Oneness.

 

*

 

And so when the search collapses, what goes along with it is the sense of being an individual separate from the whole, the sense of being a little wave in a big ocean. It’s not an intellectual thing. It’s a collapse into Intimacy. Totally beyond the intellect. Totally beyond words.

 

But here’s the rub: it’s not something that you could ever have, or do.

 

Why?

 

Because you are looking for this in all the wrong places, and all your doing is directed towards a future that will never arrive. You are looking for this within the world. That is to say, you are looking for it within your world. And there is no other.

 

You see, the character and the character’s world are inseparable. Once you have a character, you immediately have a world in which that character functions. A world in which that character lives and breathes and sees himself. An angry character sees an angry world. A depressed character sees a depressing world. A spiritual seeker sees a world full of things to look for, a world full of teachers and teachings and the hope and promise of salvation.

 

The seeker only ever sees his own world.

 

And within that world, the seeker hears about awakening or liberation or whatever you want to call it. And he begins to look for it within his world.

 

Anything is possible within the seeker’s world. Within the seeker’s world there are a million different spiritual paths and processes and practices and goals. A million things to do, a million things on offer. Within the seeker’s world, you can look for enlightenment, you can wait for liberation, you can anticipate some sort of energetic transformation. Within the seeker’s world, you can go to meetings and hear about future events that might or might not happen to you. You can believe that “there is no person” or “there is nothing to get” or that one day separation will fall away. It’s a world full of belief. It’s a world full of second-hand concepts passed down by well meaning people who really believe what they tell you.

 

But what the word ‘nonduality’ points to has nothing to do with any of that. It allows it, embraces it fully, but really what we are pointing to has nothing to do with that whole seeking game. It’s not something that the seeker could ever find in his world, because what we are pointing to is the dissolution of the seeker and, along with it, his world. It’s a falling away of seeker and world, and a plunge into something much more mysterious, vibrant, and alive than the second-hand concepts ever promised – and that’s not something that could be found within the world!

 

And that plunge, well the moment we talk about it, we are into the language of seeker and world. But of course that’s the only language we have.  All teachings function within this realm of seeker and world (taken together, we could call this the “dream world”). Even these words, and the words expressed in the meetings, function within the dream world, and that is why, as I said before, I know that the moment I speak about this, it’s simply not true. The moment I speak about this, I’ve made it into something, something in the dream world, something for the seeker to hold onto and attempt to understand. I’ve turned it into something foryou to get in the future.

 

In a sense, if you want to talk about nonduality you’re doomed from the beginning. That’s part of the humility too: the seeing that you will never be able to express this. And that even the idea of a perfect nondualistic communication (if that was even possible) is still totally and completely within the dream world.

 

*

 

In this dream world, everything is in perfect balance. A depressed character is met with a depressing world. A fearful character is met with a terrifying world. A seeker is always met with teachers who will cater to the seeking, feed the seeking.

 

In fact, the teacher needs the student as much as the student needs the teacher. The student functions in the teacher’s world in the same way as the teacher functions in the student’s world. He meets a need. Because of course, a teacher cannot know himself as a teacher unless he, in some way, uses the students to create and maintain that identification. And so he clings to them as tightly as they cling to him. In the dream world, in your quest to be a person, to be a somebody rather than a nobody, in your attempt to make your life work, you always meet your own reflection.

 

And the teachers promise you so much! They promise a future event called enlightenment, or awakening, or liberation, or some sort of shift or change in perception that you can or cannot obtain.

 

But in the falling away of the self-contraction and along with it, the contracted world space in which all teachers and teachings operate, the grace is revealed, and it has nothing to do with any sort of future event, or spiritual experience, or shift in perception, or transformation of consciousness, or anything else that was promised by the dream teachers. And it’s shockingly ordinary. It’s drinking a cup of tea. It’s eating fish and chips. Except now, nobody drinks the tea, and nobody eats the fish and chips. Drinking tea just happens. Eating fish and chips just happens. Tea drinks itself. Fish and chips eat themselves. That’s about as close as we can get in language.  

 

It’s totally beyond anything you expected. And it’s not something new that appears - it’s a revelation of something that was already there, apparently hidden but really always in plain view. This ordinary life has always been longing to reveal its secrets. The fish and chips and the cup of tea (and yes, even the dog shit on the pavement) were always the Beloved trying to calling us home.

 

This is not an intellectual realisation. If it were that simple, it would just be a matter of changing your thoughts, for example from “this isn’t it” to “this is it”, or from “I’m not awake” to “I am awake”. Within the dream world, of course, changing thoughts can be a wonderful thing. If you’re going to have a dream, it’s probably better to have a happy dream. If you’re going to have a dream, why not think positively instead of negatively! Why not think you’re awake instead of asleep! Within the dream world, the individual can do a million different things to their thoughts, and thoughts in turn can create a million different experiences. But what we’re talking about here is totally beyond all of that. It cannot be captured by any thought-created formula. In fact, “there is no person” and “there is a person” both miss the point. “There is choice” and “there is no choice” both miss the point. Within the dream world, these pairs of opposites arise together and fall away together. But they cannot take you to where you really want to go: your own absence.

 

*

 

Beyond the opposites of the self-contraction, this grace, this wonder constantly shines, and in fact it is only because of this grace that the self-contraction can appear to operate at all. Being plays every role, even the role of the one who appears to be ignorant of Being. It’s all Being. That is the revelation. For no-one.

 

The person was always imprisoned by their world, without ever realising it (and then they imagined that freedom could be found within that world!). In the falling away of person and world, there is no person to be imprisoned, of course. There is just what is. Just nothing being everything. Just this – and even that is saying too much.

 

All we can really do is try to point back to this as clearly and as honestly as possible, using words to go beyond words. And in the dream world the arguments go on: “My teacher/teaching is better than yours! Teacher X is completely dualistic, she gives people a spiritual practice, which means that she still sees separate people! Teacher Y teaches purely from the intellect! Teacher Z still uses the word “I", he couldn’t possibly be liberated!” (You wouldn’t believehow often I hear comments like this!).

 

And in the dream world, some of these arguments may have some validity. But they all completely miss the point: nobody can teach this. Nobody owns this freedom. There are no enlightened people, no awakened people. No person has ever reached liberation. Because there are no people at all. The person is the mirage.

 

Nobody owns this freedom. And that’s the beauty of this, that’s the joy of it: what we’re talking about is totally free, constantly available, always and forever offering itself unconditionally. And when this message is really heard, when the seeking dissolves and the self-contraction heals, what these words are pointing to are revealed in absolute clarity, and the my-teaching-or-teacher-is-better-than-yoursgame that gets so very serious and tedious is seen to be what it always was: an intellectual game, a battle of egos, a distraction from what, for this character anyway, has always been at the very core this message: unconditional love, and the revelation and expression of that.

 

And all the while, beyond the futile attempts of the character to communicate this message and defend their communication, this intimacy which is beyond measure and yet totally so ordinary lies quietly in the background, whispering so very softly that all is well, and that, of course, there is “nothing to defend… nothing to defend…”

IN THE ABSENCE OF THE PERSON

No wonder "you" cannot see this : This is a freedom that a "person" will never see. 

How could a "person" ever accept that everything happens spontaneously, of its own accord, in the absence of the person? 

The Tao (or Oneness, or God, or Life, or Spirit, or Emptiness…) has no centre, no mind, no personal volition. It appears as everything, but itself is nothing. Nothing manifesting as a world, as everything there is and is not. And there is only the Tao, which is to say there is no Tao at all.

And even to speak of it, even to think of it, even to do that is to lose it forever. 

And yet the thinking and the speaking are fully the Tao; there is nothing that it is not. 

It is the no-thing by which everything appears. And it’s not even that, because it’s not an “it” at all.

When speaking of the Tao, silence is the only way…

---

Yes, only the Tao, only Oneness, only One without a second, appearing as a “world”, endlessly, continuously, without beginning or end.

The “mind” could never see this. How blind it is to all this, and yet howperfectly blind it is, how it couldn’t be otherwise!

This world is a perfect world, perfect in its apparent imperfection, extraordinary in its ordinariness, Divine in its perfectly acceptable and appropriate and inevitable search for “something more”.

In the absence of the person, in the absence of the world “out there”, everything is. And that’s the miracle that will never be spoken of. These words hint at the miracle, but will only ever hint. Pointers will only ever point. 

The futility of trying to communicate the incommunicable is at once comical and utterly Divine, as it is. It couldn’t be otherwise.

--

Everywhere you go, people believing they are separate from each other, arguing, wanting to be right, wanting to know.

How to communicate to them that nobody is speaking? That there is only noise, and nobody doing it?

No, there is no way.

The silence is always apparently ignored. Because what is silence to a person? What use is it?

No use, of course. To a person, only noise is of any value at all. Hence separation, hence suffering, hence the human condition.

But Forgive them Father, because the silence is All, and All is the Silence. And even the noise arises in the Silence of all Silences, and so there is nothing to forgive, nothing at all.

But how could a person ever see this? A person is nothing but noise, nothing but an attempt to fill the silence, to avoid it, to resist the Nothingness at the heart of all phenomena.

Because to a person, silence is death.

And yet, what the person cannot see is that he has no existence at alloutside of the silence. Without the silence, he is nothing. No thing at all. And so the person is really always at war with the ground of existence itself.

And it never ends. Computing, competing, the mind searching for something it can never really have. Until it all ends, that is.

But never mind. Searching is all a separate person can do, because a separate person believes they have lost something. Forgive them Father, they have no choice, no choice at all.

--

And really there are no “people” in the first place. No people separate from the silence. The mind itself has created “silence and noise”, created them and separated them, separated them and kept them apart, never to be reconciled.

But in the absence of the person, in the space where  a person once was, the noise never began, and the silence never ended, and there is no death.

No death, no life, just this, beyond all knowing and all knowledge and all words and concepts, beyond all beyonds.

And nobody here to know all this. Nobody writing it. Pen moves over paper. No volition, no control, no centre.

No idea what the pen will say next. God Himself writes, Spirit writes, the Buddha writes, Life Itself writes, and yet Nobody writes at all.

What freedom in this – a freedom that isn’t really a freedom at all, because there was never any bondage to be free from!

When the person is no more, when the search is undone, when the demand for life to be anything other than what it is collapses, the noise and silence, the freedom and bondage, the Yin and the Yang are all seen to be illusory, simply the mind’s attempt to cut the world up into manageable little pieces, and the truth is revealed: there is only the whole.

And that “When” is now, and there is no other time, and the whole spiritual search will only ever be a cosmic entertainment.

 

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By Jeff Foster