Not knowing is the new knowing.
Experientiality is the new no-experience.
“There’s no such thing as nonduality!” is the new definition for nonduality.
Confusion is the new clarity.
Archive for December, 2010
Confusion is the New Clarity
December 31, 2010Greg Goode on Nonduality Street Radio
December 23, 2010December 22, 2010:
On Nonduality Street radio, Greg Goode is interviewed by Chris Hebard in an excerpt from the DVD entitled Illumination: The Direct Path of Shri Atmananda Krishna Menon.
Awareness of Awareness, a nonduality article by Colin Drake
December 18, 2010
Beyond the Separate Self: A Simple Guide to Awakening, by Colin Drake
an ebook published by Nonduality Publications (an affiliate of nonduality.com)
Excerpts, contents, index: http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm
Awareness of Awareness
by Colin Drake
‘By observing mental states you also become aware of the seven factors of enlightenment. These are: awareness of awareness, investigation of the Way, vigour, joy, serenity, concentration and equanimity.’ (The Buddha, Maha Sattipatthana Sutta 14-16)
The first two are paramount and the last five are outcomes of these. This is what my book Beyond the Separate Self is all about, becoming ‘aware of awareness’ through direct investigation and then continuing with further ‘investigation of the Way’ (the Tao, the nature of reality). Once one is ‘aware of awareness’ then one can undertake further investigations not needing to relying on any ‘teachings’, although these may be useful for confirming what one has discovered.
I recently received an e-mail from a reader who said they could not tell the difference between ‘awareness’ and thought. I replied that I did not see how this was possible (please excuse my lack of acumen) and suggested that he consider the following:
(A) Thought (The) Awareness
A ‘sound’ in the mind. That which ‘hears’ (is aware of) this sound.
An object, some ‘thing’.. The subject, the seer of this ‘thing’.
The ‘thing’ that is witnessed. The witness which is aware of this ‘thing’.
The (thing that is) seen. The seer (which sees this thing).
A movement in the mind. The aware stillness in which the movement is noticed.
The (thing that is) known The knower (of the thing).
That (thing) which comes & goes. That (subjective presence) which is always here.
An object of experience. The experiencer.
So awareness is the constant conscious subjective presence which is aware of ephemeral objects (thoughts and sensations, mind and body) as they come and go.
‘Awareness of Awareness’ is the key to awakening by the path of self-knowledge (Jnana), which is the most straightforward of the many paths available. Once one has become ‘aware of awareness’ then awakening is a direct result of this and the continuing investigation of this.
This is extremely simple, almost obvious, just the acknowledgement of the fact that one is aware of one’s thoughts/mental images/sensations and that this awareness is always present whereas thoughts/mental images/sensations come and go.
The danger is that the mind will dismiss this as being too simple (and obvious) and therefore of no value. I urge you not to allow this, for if you do you will be overlooking the most precious realization. The mind naturally does this as it is not in its interests to acknowledge this recognition, for this will undermine its central dominant position.
Most people identify with their minds as being what they ‘are’ and this becoming ‘aware of awareness’ has the potential to completely destroy this illusion. So the mind will try to negate this ‘seeing’; the simple solution to this is, when it comes to reality, don’t believe a single thought. Just rely on immediate direct experience, and this direct experience that you are awareness can be had instantly.
As soon as the mind carries on with its doubts, questions and tricks, notice that you are effortlessly aware of every thought. If you then just watch the thoughts from pure awareness, without following a single one, they soon quieten down and give up. This is an ongoing process but it is no cause for despondency. For every time this occurs these negative thoughts can make you turn to awareness itself and in awareness there is only serenity and peace … In fact, in the same way, every single thing in existence is a pointer towards awareness. For everything perceived appears in this pure awareness that you are.
This is easy to see by investigating the nature of one’s moment-to-moment experience, and my book aims to provide a framework within which this investigation may be successfully carried out. This results in becoming ‘aware of awareness’, after which one can carry out deeper investigations into the nature of reality with this awareness (of awareness) as the starting point. The great masters say that there is no end to awakening and spiritual experience, there’s always more to be found – what a wonderful idea! Sri Ramakrishna used to continually tell his devotees to ‘go forward’ and make further discoveries. You will find this is more than an idea, for you will discover that the deeper you go, the more you become ‘aware of awareness’, the more that will be revealed.
Beyond the Separate Self, The End of Anxiety and Mental Suffering may be sampled, and purchased, at http://nonduality.com/colindrake.htm
Jerry Wennstrom on Nonduality Street Radio
December 14, 2010On Nonduality Street radio, Jerry Wennstrom talks about the ending of his life as an established artist in New York City, marked by the destruction of all his paintings, what that act meant, and the life that followed.
He says, “With no money or job, I learned to be present with what came. Every imaginable experience came. I was present with each one as though dealt from the hand of God.”
Jerry Wennstrom’s website, where you may view his art, writing, and videos, is www.handsofalchemy.com
The Music of James Carson
December 13, 2010
Listen to the piano of James Carson.
Towards the end of his junior year Mr. Carson experienced a life-altering epiphany. He spent the summer camping in the Canadian Rockies and meditating for hours in parks and cemeteries, and began feverishly reading philosophical and spiritual texts. “People thought I had taken LSD or a similar drug,” recalls Mr. Carson, “but I hadn’t. Simply put, everywhere I looked, I saw a vast array of patterns: residues on windows, wood grains, sidewalk cracks, pieces of garbage in the bin. In every direction, I saw a million colors; at times, rooms would change colors and glow vividly. It was so overwhelming that many days I had difficulty functioning. But I also had a vague notion that I wanted to hear music from that kind of consciousness—one that wasn’t afraid of impermanence or death, that fully embraced life, that spoke using the patterns of the true universe.”
Online events with Rupert Spira
December 11, 2010
Review of Life With a Hole In It, by Vicki Woodyard
December 7, 2010
Vicki Woodyard’s new book, Life With A Hole In It: That’s How the Light Gets In, would make a great Christmas gift.
In this issue is my review of Vicki’s book. If you’ve enjoyed her writings, you have to see them in the totality of a book, with wholeness and continuity. It’s a much grander experience. I recommend it.
Vicki Talks Truth and Requires You to Face It
a review by Jerry Katz
Vicki Woodyard tells about her experiences, feelings, friends, teachers, and spiritual realizations during her husband Bob’s nearly five year struggle with the cancer known as multiple myeloma.
Vicki says on page one, “I just want you to have an experience.”
This book IS an experience. You’re going to take Vicki’s approach:
“Oh God, I am not strong enough. I can write, I can joke, but I cannot cure my own heartache. The irony is that I know that nothing will take it away. I would choose insanity if I could, but choice has nothing to do with things like that. My teacher [Vernon Howard] said, `When you are carrying your cross up Crucifixion Hill, offer no resistance whatever.’”
You’re going to walk the chemo halls with Vicki, yes, but you’ll also share a table with her and the Buddha at the Waffle House. More buttah? More wisdom that brokenness brings?
While experiencing these stories of struggle and humor, and while being brought as low as one human spirit can go, you somehow rise to an experience of rich wholeness and the truth of being human.
How is that done? By facing pain and suffering so that you see it in fullness, which is its abidance within a peaceful energy field.
Regardless of what Vicki went through in the loss of her husband, the loss of her seven year old daughter to cancer, the losses of close friends to cancer, there was never a severing from inherent wholeness, nor, as Vicki says, can there be. “The eye of wholeness doesn’t cry.”
This book is often hard-going, sometimes light, deeply loving and humanitarian. It requires the reader to face pain and suffering. This is a powerful, cleansing, truth-talking book. No other nonduality book has the texture, the quality of writing, the points of focus as Life With A Hole In It. It is an extremely worthwhile addition to one’s nonduality education.
Read an excerpt and order “Life With A Hole In It” from Booklocker.com
Order “Life With A Hole In It” from Amazon.com
