Happiness is innate in the so called human being. Happiness is not something new to be acquired, if it was, then there is a good chance that you might loose it again. Happiness is this very ‘fact’ of your own being right here and now. This loving to be which is in every living thing is an uncaused joy, and the very nature of life itself in which there is no death whatsoever. Death is something we have invented, and life as it is given – “as it is”, in nature or the natural state, does not know death as it lives on itself and is thus ever increasing.
This natural happiness of conscious being is the only happiness worth the name. Nothing can be added to this everlasting life essence, and nothing can be taken away from it. Happiness that has a cause is in fact utter misery. You are always and ever happy or blissful but you don’t know it, or are somehow forgetful of ‘your glassy essence’, as Shakespeare puts it in his play – ignorant of what he is most assured – his glassy essence – his transparency, namely this awake, aware emptiness at the very core of your being. The Great Perfection of Dzogchen in Buddhism is, ‘non conceptual awareness’. This self-existing, self-shining, ever fresh and new presence of non conceptual awareness is what you always and ever are, however you are somehow ignoring it or taking it for granted, so to speak.
This happiness that you already are is not in your family, in your friends, in your job, in your country, in your wealth and fame, not in your religion, or in anything else for that matter. This happiness is in your own Self, in your own heart essence, in the very core of your being, but because you have been blinded by illusion, or what we call Maya or appearance, you have seemingly lost hold of your Self or pure being and are hence looking for happiness outwardly in persons, things, and objects. Samsara(the world of objects) is sorrow. Men want absolute and permanent happiness. This does not lie in objects but in the Absolute. It is Peace free from objects. It is a neutral state.
Happiness is your true nature when you come back to yourself as this presence awareness. Self-realization is Bliss. Bliss is not something to be acquired. You are always Bliss…….get rid of your ignorance which makes you think that you are other than Bliss. Happiness is inherent and not due to external causes. One must realize Oneself in order to open the store of unalloyed happiness.
What is it that is seemingly preventing us from realizing this innate happiness that is already present within us? Isn’t the culprit time which we have invented for practical purposes? Time is just a mental concept, purely and simply. Is there any time apart from thinking that there is? What time is there if you don’t think about it, and what is wrong with right now unless you think about it? There is nothing at all lacking in this awake, aware no thing that is this presence of awareness. There is nothing wrong any more. There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
This awareness that you are is fresh and new every instant, time has no effect on it. If you see everything as fresh and new, ‘as it is’, in the spontaneity of the moment, then that is what needs to happen. In this presence is the fullness of life, total. whole and complete, undivided; so what is it that seems to be obscuring this life essence? Isn’t it “me”, the so called separate entity that I am presently taking myself to be? If this ‘me’ is fully investigated it is found to be a non existent phantom, like the horns on a hare, or like the water in a mirage. No “me”, no problem, it is as simple as that when you really take the time to look into it.
Once the me is directly seen to be false on investigation, even then life continues on just like it did before and problems will continue to arise just as they did before, however they loose the sting that they had prior to seeing this, and they resolve themselves much easier and simpler than was previously the case. Whenever a problem arises one then spontaneously pauses and there is a looking to see who it is that has the problem? Isn’t the answer that it is “me”, So and So who has the problem? One then notices that there is no me there at zero degrees from where you actually are, to have any problem. The so called problem then resolves itself spontaneously in due course, but not in the way that the person or entity wanted it to be resolved.
There is then no way that the psychological suffering and problems can remain there, they must and will fall away quite spontaneously and effortlessly, when they are looked at in the clear and obvious light of this impersonal awareness that they are appearing in and on. Psychological suffering is conceptual and not real or actual, when you have the courage to stop or pause your chattering time-bound mind, pause the thinking process for just an instant and have a real good look and SEE for yourself – no one else is going to see this for you – that there is no ‘me’ there at all, that this is supposed to be happening to. Who did suffering and problems ever happen to? Well quite obviously they happened to me. This unexamined “me” or ‘person’ implies separation or duality – me and other than me. Is there any separation or division – me and not me in space? Can something come from nothing – THIS aware no thing that awareness ever is? The suffering is caused by the conceptual stories you are telling yourself in your head, in your time-bound mind – poor me, etc, etc! These are all just mental concepts that you are telling yourself. If you look for your so called mind you can’t find anything there at all that you could call mind apart from this ever-present, naked, unadorned, non conceptual awareness.
Is there any such thing as mind apart from the thinking process, and thinking at the subtle level is simply a vibration or movement of energy. Do you think that energy can think? It can’t, it is simply pure energy – Omnipotence – all power – all energy, limitless abstract intelligence or capacity or what we might call Noumenon. There is no thinker of a thought. Thinking, like seeing, hearing, tasting and touching is happening spontaneously and is undivided, whole and complete just as it is. The thought ‘I think’ cannot think, it is simply a translation or a vibration of energy taking place in awareness. The thought ‘I hear’ cannot hear, hearing is happening spontaneously before the thought ‘I hear’ even arises.
Thinking does not and cannot divide anything. Thinking does not divide space. This ever present space-like awareness is what everything is taking place in, and nothing has ever touched it or affected it in any way. Nothing could happen apart from this Base of awareness-emptiness. Awareness is no thing to the mind. When you reverse the arrow of your attention and look steadily within you see, suddenly and easily and to perfection that you are Empty, Formless, Void – an aware nothing or no thing that contains everything in a perfect unity free of any and all separation.
When thought is paused or stops briefly by itself, you haven’t disappeared or ceased to exist, you are still present and aware. There is no mind at all when you look for it or try to find it. When thinking stops there is just pure mind or awareness. When you pause a thought just briefly, there in that pause you are immediately beyond the mind, it is as simple and easy as that. So called religious people, monks and those who practise meditation spend years and years trying to go beyond the mind, and yet you are already beyond the mind as soon as you full stop with the thinking and endlessly trying to work things out in the mind; when you simply pause a thought, right there and then you are beyond the mind.
You are always and ever beyond the mind. Don’t you say my mind, my coat, my car, etc. Are you the mind, the coat or the car? Of course not! Who is the owner of the coat, the car, and the mind, isn’t it you the pure, ever-fresh, ever-new, impersonal awareness? See for yourself, investigate for yourself and realize the illusory nature of this apparent separate entity – ‘me’, So and So. See for yourself, no one else can see this for you, and that is the very ‘fact’ that the person is not the Real or the actual, the unchanging essence. You are the sole authority there where you are at zero degrees from where you are seeing. See just where you are seeing from – the actual seeing is taking place from boundless clarity and emptiness – there is not even a speck of dust there in this boundless Space and clarity where your are truly ‘seeing’ from. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself, you are the authority there where you truly and ever are.
The so called person or persona is a mask seemingly covering and obscuring your deathless essence. Also this sentience or consciousness that has seemingly come out of nothing, is really something new to us in a way, is it not? Even though the so called person may be 50, 80, or even 100 years old, what shape, form or color was that person prior to its conception in the mother’s womb; and how long was it in this nothing before it suddenly appeared as a fully formed infant? Also what shape, form or memory will be retained by the ‘person’ when the body breaks down in the natural aging process, and the basic elements that constitute the body are returned to nature through the cremation or burial of the worn out body at what we commonly call death?
There will be nothing left at all, which is actually the case right now, even though one may ‘appear’ to be a person, so many years of age, fair, dark, tall or short etc. Can something come from nothing? No it can’t, even if it appears to be something, it is still nothing. Form is nothing but emptiness, and emptiness is nothing but form. Everything is resolved in this unborn awareness emptiness. Awareness is nothing or no thing, an empty cognizance or naked ‘knowing’, it is not an object or any ‘thing’ at all, yet you cannot negate it. You are not unaware, but what that awareness is, you as the entity don’t know, and will never know, you cannot grasp THIS with a concept. The result of all of your arguments, as Nisargadatta Maharaj clearly pointed out to me – “is that you have tried to grasp this with a concept, and you have failed, and you are bound to fail!”
This ever-present unqualified immediacy of awareness is no thing to the mind, and the mind does not want to know about no thing – it does not want to be nothing you see, as there is nothing that the mind can do with it. The mind is time and THIS ever present awareness is timeless, birth less, deathless, body less, mindless, and space less. What more do you want, what more can you want? Can you ever stop wanting? Full stop! right here and now! Where does that leave you? It leaves you here and now present and aware as you have always and ever been. See this for yourself and relax back into this uncontrived singularity, simply be as you are in the natural state.
This that is being pointed to is perfect, whole, and complete and nothing can or need be added to it or taken away from it. Isn’t there a naked knowing there with you right now? This knowing which implies intelligence is an endless movement without beginning or ending which is taking place presently. It is not what was known or what will be known, it is this activity of knowing that is happening presently – Omnipresence or all presence, as it is timeless – beginning now it is also ending now, and as it is ending it is beginning again, so it is unceasing, a throb or vibration(which in Kashmir Shaivism(a non dual teaching) is called spanda or divine vibration) somewhat of a movement, changeless, ever-fresh and new. This you will never grasp with your mind or with a concept.
So, quite obviously you will never find any answer in the mind which is time. There is only one way out of the mind, and that is to stop looking there. You have worked a lot of things out in the mind but you have never worked this out – this mystery of your own being. How did you come to be, this apparent ‘person’ that you appear to be? No thing(awareness) ever happened. You have simply been duped by illusion or what we call Maya in Advaita Vedanta – the truth or very actuality of non duality.
Of course Reality or what we call THAT, for the want of a better word, in the great word or statement of Hinduism – ‘I am That’, is neither dual nor non dual as no words or concepts apply to THAT, or can encompass it. THIS is a non experiencing state, there are no experiences good or bad in this – just this – pure experiencing – knowing – being – living – nothing else – not two – non dual – nothing other than THIS. Got it? Who? There is no one to get it, you are THAT! When you full stop looking in the mind, when you pause a thought, or give up, even temporarily this compulsive indulgence in endless thinking, this conceptual binge that one seems to be obsessively engaging in through habit energy; where does that leave you? Doesn’t it leave you present and aware as you have always and ever been?
Begin to notice this awareness instead of ignoring it and indulging in mental concepts, be warm towards this awareness and it will reveal itself to you and give you all the answers you will ever need, better answers than any jumped up guru will ever have. No one ever lived or died, nothing ever happened, reality is that which never changes. Would this be acceptable? Who to? This is not a matter of acceptance or rejection, this is a matter of “what is” – unaltered, unmodified, uncorrected. This is it – ah THIS.
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Beautiful. A deep resonance happening to no One. Thank u.
Thank “you” for “your” “efforts”. (With the quotation marks I’m trying to be politically or “nondually” correct) after all shouldn’t all reference to supposed “real” things be in quotation marks? Anyway your use of the phrase “can something come from nothing” clicked with me. I somehow saw the ever present background awareness. Maybe this time it’s certainty will not leave me. A couple other things you said helped hammer it home. Like “if you look for your so called mind you can’t find anything there at all that you could call mind apart from the ever present naked unadorned nonconceptual awareness” and when you said “thinking seeing hearing tasting and touching is happening spontaneously and is undivided whole complete just as it is”. I guess I was just ripe for it. Goes to show that it is worthwhile to write and talk about this stuff. I’ve been pretty intensely involved with this stuff for years and the gentle bliss of clear seeing comes and goes and it might go again but thanks.