In the direct experience there is the opportunity to simply observe one self. It becomes clear that ‘I’ is not the body. The same process can happen regarding the feelings and the thoughts. As ‘I the soul’ becomes aware that it is not the body, nor the feelings nor the thoughts it can start contemplating itself. At some stage a new realization may happen. The realization that ‘I’ is nothing but a holding pattern based on fear of non existence.
If the sense of ‘I’ is let go of, consciousness reveals itself as the source of being. It is very different from ‘having’ an experience of connectedness. Consciousness itself does not have a centre from which it operates. It is therefore omnipresent.
As omnipresent consciousness is accepted, it is also seen as the source of creation.
Every now is unique
Staying with this ever changing moment means an ever changing approach
The Way is the constant inner revolution, the continuous adaptation to the evolving reality
Awakening doesn’t reach a perfect goal
Awakening is a process
Paying attention is key, both to the process of the inner and the outer world, until they merge into one unified reality
Experience is not needed
Experience is conclusions drawn from a perceived past
Nothing can prepare you for this moment
All you can do is let go of any opinion and arrive in the present
As personalities we humans are often cowards (myself included).
The reason I say this is that the most of the energy that drives our everyday choices is fear. We fear what our fellow humans will think or do if we fail to be ‘acceptable’.
This is not a new thing. For thousands of years we have been indoctrinated to behave like and be like the others in our society.
Most of you who read this will recognise that in certain areas you are a bit different from the rest of the population. So you have done some self inquiry which has led you to make some adjustments to your way of living your life. But we still live in houses, wear clothes, drive cars and shop at the supermarket.
When you walk through the supermarket, how often have you been wondering why unhealthy food is cheaper that the healthy stuff. Why is Coca-cola cheaper than bottled water? And why do we buy bottled water?
Why is there blue colour in my shaving cream? And wtf is emulsifier, stabiliser, natural colour and flavor enhancer?
Very soon I will not be allowed to eat a carrot from my own garden, unless it has been disinfected with chlorine!
Welcome to the System.
The System is there to protect us… to make us feel secure. Unfortunately some beings hi-jacked this system and they are now using it to control us.
But that is really another story. Let us stay with this ‘feeling secure’ thing.
Even if the System was never hi-jacked it is still a bunch of ethical, moral and behavioural rules and patterns that we must follow in order to feel secure and accepted. In every society we have got rules for just about everything which really means that if we believe that we are free, then we are kidding ourselves. Authority rules.
Parents have authority over their children, teachers over pupils, older kids over younger (or weaker) kids, employers over employees, Kings/Queens, Popes, Presidents and other people of status rule over ordinary citizens. There are many other examples like gender, intelligence, physical strength etc that determines who has got authority over who. All in the name of keeping order in the System, so we can feel secure.
BUT!
It is costing us our freedom… the freedom in every second to think and act as true individuals. Because every time a spontaneous idea shows up (they are becoming increasingly rare these days) we have to consider all the rules, norms and laws (spoken and unspoken) that has been made to protect the System (so it can provide security).
Which leads us to the other word in the heading, ‘Freedom’.
Freedom is only freedom if it is free!
Normally ‘freedom’ is a word that is used a lot by those who rule the system.
But most of us would probably be able to agree that the ‘freedom’ they talk about is not really freedom at all.
True freedom is the stepping outside everything that we think we know about reality, and then re-examine this moment.
This re-examining has to be done with total openness, innocence and a certain amount of naivity so we can allow this moment to present itself as it really is… and not the way we want it to be. Because we have been so indoctrinated we have made belief systems (rules) that we find it very difficult to be free from. These belief systems colour the way we perceive reality.
If we try to be free, but still keep ‘our way’ of seeing reality, then we are caught up in a little bubble that distorts our view.
You may believe that your view is more real than most other people’s, but that is not really the point. The point is that Any preconceived idea will apply ‘authority’ onto reality and thereby force it into the narrow band of your pre-determined belief system.
So, if it is freedom that you want, (and as mentioned in the beginning ‘we humans are a bunch of cowards’) then you will have to lay down your beliefs and enter reality with an open mind.
So, what IS this reality then?
Well I can’t tell you, because then I become this authority that we are trying so hard to get rid of.
What I CAN tell you is that it is not about anybody else (no Prime Ministers or Presidents, no Masters, angels, God or goddesses, no extra terrestrials, gurus, teachings or whatsimacallits).
The system is much larger and far more complex than most of us know.
Inside this system we are born, we live and develop, we die, we go to heaven or hell (or a million other places), we re-incarnate and we do it all over and over again.
Inside this artificially created control system we are indoctrinated and hypnotised to the extent that we fully believe that this is all there is.
Because we are essentially creative beings, we keep on trying to look outside the square.
Therefore the system has supplied an endless array of things to catch our attention… to believe in.
And we have been ‘infused’ with addiction programs that are triggered as soon as we try to remember what life is all about.
So we become hooked and start believing in whatever takes our fancy.
Once you realise the extent of ‘stuff’ we are enticed into become addicted to, it becomes very obvious that we are all being taken for a ride.
“Why?” You may ask. “What is the reason for this huge elaborate hoax?”
The reason is energy. Personal, emotional and mental energy.
The beings that run this system are addicted to energy.
They vacuum and gobble it up in vast quantities.
This is their addiction. They use it to be enormous, powerful, god-like beings… and yes, they do make themselves known from time to time, just to ensure that our religions have got plenty of fuel to create huge crowds of divinity-addicted people.
Whenever we are scared they vacuum all that ‘freak-out’ energy off to make themselves stronger.
And whenever we pray to our personal saviour, they have a party because now we are sending them energy of our own free will. Of course they sometimes give a little of it back, or make an apparition or even give us stuff to answer our prayers. But only enough to make our belief stronger, so we send them even more energy. A bit like a slot machine. The odds are against us, but we keep on playing.
The main problem with making this claim that we live inside a controlled system is that most people don’t want to know about it. Fortunately some people are not just waking up, but also sharing their insights. It is becoming ‘normal’ to discuss conspiracy theories and non dualism, and whether global warming is just another revenue gathering game.
Let us have a closer look at some of the controls that are in place:
On the physical level we have the artificially created concept of ownership. This concept of ownership allows those in power to almost completely control who is allowed to do what. Some bloodlines are born into plenty while others are born into poverty. This only makes sense if ‘someone’ is deciding who is born into what body (more about that later).
To make matters worse we have got an I.O.U system that we call money. In and of itself money is not really worth anything. It is an idea. The material of a several thousand dollars in cash is just a block of paper and maybe a handful of nails. So money is only of symbolic value. As debt!… to who?
Most of us in the western world have got loans and credit cards. That means that we owe a lot… to ‘somebody’. It is not the local bank that we owe this money to, because the bank owes this money to a bigger bank, that owes it to a bigger bank… that is privately owned! The whole purpose for our economic system is to siphon money from us, the people, to ‘Them’, whoever they are.
On the emotional level we have all our addictions. By addictions I mean everything that we want. Like with ownership there is nothing wrong with wanting in and of itself. But when wanting is artificially directed towards certain products or feelings, then clearly manipulation is taking place.
Our society is a clear example of a systematic addiction building experiment. We are everyday being brainwashed into wanting more than we need. More love, more sex, more deodorant, more cars, more insurance, more comfort etc. The interesting part of all this want is, that even if we get the sex, the car or whatever, it doesn’t seem to take away the want for even more or better. That is addiction! This feeling of unfulfilled desire/want creates stress and dis-satisfaction. And this stress energy is exactly what feeds the ‘Them’.
I have here on purpose kept from entering into talking about the billions of people that are really suffering. Imagine how much yummy despair energy can be siphoned off those people.
On the mental level there is the whole issue of reality control. Everything we believe is being directed and fed absurd pieces of information, so we cling to our belief systems out of fear. We actually believe that without our trusted beliefs we would go insane (out of our mind).
The fact that there are so many opposing belief systems available is a very clever way of creating divisions and friction. If I make a statement that you seriously disagree with, chances are that you will get agitated. This agitation is then siphoned off by whoever or whatever is running this system.
Once again I have refrained from mentioning topics where people are disagreeing to the extend that they are willing to consciously harm another being. Imagine how much fanatical energy can be harvested in real conflict areas.
Then there is this thing called the soul. The eternal part of you as a being.
When we die we step out of our bodies and discover that we are not dead after all. We have just shed our earthly shell, the body. The soul then starts to unravel all the impressions that it has had during it’s life on Earth. Guess who/what is right there with you, ready to grab all that energy for their own use.
Here are a few versions of what would then take place:
If you are a devout religious person you might be sent to ‘Heaven’ where you will be so grateful that you will pour out all your devotion energy towards the ‘Higher Power’. When you are all drained of energy they will clear your memory and send you back down into yet another incarnation.
You are totally unaware of this having taken place.
If you know that you have been a bad person and that you expect to be sent to ‘Hell’, then that is exactly what will happen. They will torture you for what will seem like an eternity and they will harvest all the desperation energy that you release. When you are empty they will clear your memory and send you back into yet another incarnation.
If you are a serious addict they will send you to an area where you can wallow in your distorted desire while you release huge amounts of phychosomatic goop. When you are all spent… guess what happens? That’s right… return ticket to Earth.
If you are a New Ager who has lived a fairly pure life, you will end up in front of ‘the Karmic Board’ who will inform you that you are not quite pure enough for Paradise/Heaven/Nirvana. You can choose between ‘Hell’ or being stripped of all your energy and memory and then be sent back into incarnation. Guess which option you will take?
The possible variations on this theme are endless, but the end result is always the same. We are stripped of every last drop of energy and then we are sent down to do it all again.
The result is always the same…
Unless!
As we awaken to the reality of what is taking place we are faced with a choice.
We can choose to believe in yet another system/religion/policy/norm/common sense/ philosophy/belief/explanation.
Or we can choose choice itself.
If we are awake enough to realise that any structured belief system is prone to hijacking, then we might be ready to take a big jump into the unknown… and choose freedom.
Freedom in its pure form does not mean that we have to be rebellious.
It means that we can choose freely at any given moment.
It means that only This Moment counts.
Only your reality counts in your decision making.
Only my reality counts in my decision making.
Most of what we as humans consider true is in fact our personal opinion.
There is no good or bad about that. It simply is. This can be observed in our own life.
Consider an object (any object). Look at it. How do you know what this object is? Most likely you will call it a name, a description that, to you, closest resemble what the object is (in your opinion).
Can you see that the terms ‘call it a name’, ‘description’ and ‘resemble’ are not the actual object?
Or as Zen Buddhism puts it: The finger that points to the moon, is not the moon.
What actually happens is: An object, according to modern science, is a collection of electromagnetic fields called atoms. In other words, what we perceive as ‘stuff’ is in reality fields of energy that reflect light.
A very small amount of this reflected light shines through our eyes. Inside the eyes the light hits some receptors. The receptors create an electrical signal which is sent to the brain. The brain sorts these electrical signals and if (and only if!) the brain can ‘make sense’ of the signal it will translate them into an imagined image and a recognition. Ahhh… I see!
From this it is fairly easy to understand that the connection between what the object really is and what we perceive it to be, is a bit like the connection between a cow eating grain… and a cheese sandwich.
So we as humans do not actually perceive the world as it is.
We only use enough of our senses to get by. For the rest… we make it up!
An example of how this has been used is in the production of film. A film is a collection of still pictures shown at such a speed that the brain stops seeing them as still pictures, but instead imagines that the objects on the screen are moving. What happens is that the brain has to make sense of the signals that it perceives. If there are gaps in the understanding, then the brain fills out the gaps using imagination so that the separate bits are seen as hanging together.
If we start looking, really looking at the details of our lives we end up with a disconcerting realisation. The world as we understand it is not ‘real’. It is continuously made up by the brain. Or as some would put it. The world is an illusion.
Realising that the world is an illusion doesn’t seem to make it go away though. In fact, the world appears to be quite persistent. But, the problem does not lie in the illusion. The problem lies in the believer of the illusion. Now who is that then? That is ‘me’ of course you silly. All right then… the problem lies with the ‘me’.
Who is ‘me’?
Me is the identification of ourselves as an individual, separate from all the other stuff and beings. And even though we believe that this ‘me’ is real, I am sorry to say that it is not. ‘Me’ only exist as an interaction between the self and other. And if the ‘other’ is an illusion, then there is no real interaction and no real ‘me’.
But, you would probably say, I am having this experience, I have to exist… and you are right (to a point). The ‘me’ which is involved in the world is part of the world. The ‘I’ which experiences the world is not of the world. So, in order to be able to say “I Am the Truth….” you have to be in the world, but not of the world. (Sounds familiar?)
So, if ‘I’ is real, or at least ‘more real’ than the me and the world, why don’t we study the ‘I’?
Bingo!!!
The persistent focus on ‘I’ which is Universal Consciousness, brings about Truth. That does not mean that the thinker (part of the me) should start making up theories about this Consciousness. It means that I can be allowed to be aware of everything and no-thing.
And as ‘I’ allows itself to be the centre from which we are aware, reality starts to unfold itself as truth … and not as opinion.
This video is from a talk I did in February 2013 in Nelson, New Zealand. You are welcome to share this and comment as well. It is my hope that this talk will inspire us all to look at what is really going on, rather than what we believe is going on.
Religions were all started by individuals who suddenly realised themselves. Their followers tried with their minds to understand and implement the techniques that their teacher used to awaken. This particular way of ‘doing it’ was then written down and has therefore survived in its various forms until present time.
Awakening is the return to ourselves. The realisation that we are consciousness itself.
This blog is meant as an open exploration into spiritual reality and the many pitfalls that appear so real and feel so powerful.
When we look at the spiritual market place today, we see a huge variety of beliefs and religions. This is quite confusing because most of these belief systems claim that there is only one true belief (normally their own). How do we as seekers avoid being taken for a ride in this overwhelming jungle of spiritual diversity?
Unfortunately/fortunately the best way to develop discrimination is to make mistakes (and realise that they were mistakes!)
The first question to ask oneself is: What is my aim? Where am I going with this seeking?
Dependent on your answer you have various options:
You could join the local church if you answer is: I believe that I am a sinner and I want God or his son to sort out my inner turmoil. I believe that Jesus came here to save me, and if I believe in him and follow the Bible, then I will go to Heaven when I die.
You could join the local mosque if you answer is: I believe that I am a sinner and I want Allah to sort out my inner turmoil. I believe that the prophet Muhammad received direct instructions from Allah which were then written down in the Koran. If I follow these guidelines I will enter Jannah (muslim paradise) when I die.
You could join the local satanists (believe me, there are some) if your answer is: F*** off! God is a nasty piece of s***. I want to rule my own destiny and hopefully others’ as well. I want to learn how to use the power of the universe for my own ends.
You could join a New Age group if your answer is: I want to be loving like the Masters. I will learn to communicate with the inner guides and together we will develop through increasing levels of light. I will learn to work with crystals and colour meditations and Oming.
You could follow a guru if your answer is: I believe in the divine through another more enlightened human. If I can find a fully awakened person, then I can give my personal will away and the guru will help me attain the enlightened state for myself.
You could join the Hara Krishnas if your answer is: Krishna consciousness is the divine state of a human being. By following the instructions in the Baghava Gita, by becoming vegetarian and abstaining from sex I will be able to shed my desire nature and learn to live in bliss and joy.
You could become a Buddhist if your answer is: The Enlightened One showed us that it is possible to gain full enlightenment in a human body. If I learn to visualize the 16 visualizations of the Shakyamuni Buddha then I can reach full enlightenment under my own steam and in this lifetime.
You could become a Hindu or a Wikkan if your answer is: All forces in nature are aspects of the divine. If I pray to these aspects and do certain rituals I will be in good standing with the gods/godesses and they will assist me on the spiritual path.
And so on …
Even if you think that all belief systems are rubbish and you only accept what is proven by science … that is still a belief system, a religion if you will.
This ‘believing in’ also covers our political view point and most of the norms of the society we live in. These views are personal and created by us. They are not absolutes or even at times logical or desirable.
If, on the other hand we look at the process of believing, then we discover that believing in … (no matter what) is our own private interpretation of reality.
If we accept the above statement, then it becomes clear that it is not possible for the person to know the truth about reality … ever!
It is however possible to experience reality and therefore truth… as long as we don’t interpret it.
In order not to interpret what we experience we have to approach our experience of reality with an open heart and an empty mind, so we can fully feel and experience ‘it’, but we abstain from having thoughts about ‘it’. Another way of putting this is that we ‘allow everything to be as it is’.
It does not mean that we have to stop thinking, but rather that we recognise that the ‘thinker’ continuously makes up beliefs, and they are just that … made up.
This is a completely different way to live and to be, but it is not a belief system because it does not involve interpretation of that which is experienced.
This approach to life does not mean that we stop being involved in life. It just means that judgement and justification falls away. It means that anything can happen (it does anyway) and we accept that this is what reality is, right now. This too will change (as it always does) so there is no need to attach meaning to the event.
A rock breaks, a flower dries out, a cat gets squashed, a person dies… has it got meaning? Does it matter how and why? It matters to our opinion/belief (made up), but it doesn’t matter to reality.
To live like this does not mean that we detach from reality and become complete space cadets. It means that we practise non-attachment so we are not desperately trying to make time slow down or speed up in order to fulfil our desire for a particular version of reality. It means that we do not waste time and energy fighting ourselves and our surroundings trying to ‘make it better’.
We have always got the option to act, or not, in any given situation.
Some people would argue that living like this would make us cold and unfeeling. But that could just be our self created sentimentalism not wanting to give up it’s stronghold as the dictator of reality.
If someone I knew died I would probably cry. If my wife kissed me I would probably laugh. These are spontaneous reactions from the emotions. I didn’t make them up, they just appeared.
But if I cried or laughed because I believed that I should, or because it would affect other people in a certain way… that is a different story.
As long as we try to manipulate reality to fit into our personal belief system, then we are living in an illusion.
So we can either keep on deceiving ourselves… or we can get real.
30 years ago when you mentioned meditation people thought that you took drugs and were part of a cult. Of course that was often the case. 🙂
These days when you mention meditation everybody seems to have an opinion about it.
In our society meditation (along with Yoga and Tai Chi – both highly respected spiritual development methods if applied correctly) is unfortunately often turned into an exercise.
Most people wrongly assume that meditating longer and developing a meditation schedule/habit will ‘get you there’ faster.
Meditation using willpower will only strengthen the personality’s view that it is doing something ‘spiritual’. It will build a stronger spiritual pride that will get in the way of opening.
So, what actually is meditation?
Often it takes years of ‘meditating’ before you realise that what you are doing is not IT. That is because our ego keeps on believing that it can do meditation.
Mostly what the ego is really doing is ‘tripping out’. By that I mean that the ego focuses strongly in a way that makes the brain create dopamine which makes us feel good. This in turn makes us do positive action which leads to a better life.
Of course there is nothing wrong with feeling good or having a better life, but it should be called energy manipulation or ‘magic’ instead of meditation.
If you focus strongly enough in this way you will get visions and sensations of light. This can often include incredibly strong and beautiful energies. Whether these experiences are real or fantasy depends on your belief system. But they are still happening in the form world. They have certain limitations. There are still beings of Light and beings of Darkness.
Most importantly, there is still a ‘me’ which feels that it has ‘got’ an experience.
It is still duality. It is part of Maya, the illusion.
The purpose of meditation is to allow the “me”, the self identification, to dissolve so consciousness can be experienced without an ego claiming that it ‘has’ an experience.
Meditation takes place when the ego/me is observed and realised not to be the centre of consciousness.
Merely sitting for days on end does not necessarily achieve this.
It is more a matter of discovering/knowing what Not to look for.
Or to quote a couple of the great teachers:
“Don’t try to understand! It’s enough if you do not misunderstand.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Meditation is allowing everything to be as it is” Adyashanti
The realisation that can happen during meditation cannot happen as long as we try hard. Because the mind, trying hard, is in the way.
Instead, allowing the field of consciousness, the sense of awareness itself, to be present will melt away the illusion and re-assemble reality as it is (not as we want it or wish it would be).
Because meditation is about going beyond the mind it is a matter of developing ‘not knowing’ or ‘beginners mind’.
This can practiced by focusing on a candle, a dot on the wall, your breath, your heartbeat or a colour or a mantra. By focusing on something that doesn’t allow the mind to make a story, a dimension shift can happen spontaneously. Suddenly you become aware of the mind starting to do something else, but you the observer are free from the mind. You don’t have to pay attention to whatever the mind is doing. You can allow the mind to think, the ears to hear, the feelings to feel, the body to breathe and the heart to beat. All while you observe it happening. Meditation is taking place.
It is not easy to describe the human experience without running into our preconceived belief systems.
Even though I have read descriptions by Enlightened beings of what is real and what is illusion, it was still a total surprise for me to experience life outside the human square.
I have spent many years meditating, channeling energy and communicating with non-physical beings, but this has always taken place with ‘me’, the person, as the experiencer.
Recently changes have happened to the placement of this ‘experiencer’.
It began with an encounter with a group of gifted people at the Body Mind Spirit festival in Christchurch.
Margaret and I had gone to advertise our Soul Necklaces as we do every year. As I interacted with these people I knew that this was different to anything I had ever encountered.
The first sign of change was that I forgot to drink coffee the entire weekend. As a hardcore coffee addict I have never forgotten my daily shot without getting severe headache and dizziness. Anyway, I haven’t had coffee since (3 weeks and counting) or the desire to indulge.
After the weekend I started having very intense encounters with what some of you would probably say are human archetypes. I had discussions (sometimes very heated) with Jesus/Sananda, Ashtar, Archangel Michael, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Azrael and several other beings at the forefront of the struggle between Light and Dark.
I know, I know… if anybody had told me a similar story I would probably had written them off as borderline crazy.
As these meetings took place, with me as the mediator between the beings of Light and the beings of Individuality (as they prefer to be known) I noticed that my focus became more and more like a field/space rather than a person.
At some stage this consciousness field turned the world inside out and from then on I was not inside the Universe. Rather the Universe was inside the field of consciousness.
The whole issue of good and bad disappeared and I now see how both the Light and the Darkness act out of ignorance. Nature takes care of itself. Our nature takes care of itself.
Building and breaking down are two sides of the same coin. Without one, the other couldn’t exist. It is so simple that it is impossible to explain.
You ‘experience’ right now.
Allow that to be enough.
When we strive we fight. When we strive there is good and bad.
If we allow being to express itself; then and only then can wholeness take place.
Soul Insights 