What we point to and share here is something – no thing; awareness which is fundamental and the base of all our inquiries, and which is being ignored or somehow totally overlooked.  Without Self-knowledge, which is knowing-being the truth of your own nature which includes the ‘appearance’ of phenomena, there can be no wisdom and therefore no love.

 You ‘know’ that you are, which in itself is a miracle, why not pause there and consider that very fact?  I am That I am.  Do I have to consult any guru or anyone else for that matter to know that I am?  Of course not!  See This.  Awareness is self-existing, there is no God as such who created it, it simply is.  “Because awareness is self-existing, there is no effort needed or anyone who can make an effort to get it or lose it.  The natural state is never lost.  It is not an appearance, and therefore it can never disappear.  It is always the same.  It is not an entity.”

 No creator, no creation, no creature.  Awareness is nothing; yet it ever is, THIS is Nirvana, visible in this life, inviting, attractive, accessible to the wise.  This that you are is instantaneous, spontaneous and not a matter of time.  It takes no time to ‘be’ what you are; with a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold nothing.  All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind’s power.  Here thought, feeling, knowledge and imagination are of no value. In this world of Suchness there is neither self nor other than self.

 If something is true you can bet it is simple.  However life is very complex, but surely we must approach it simply.  To be a light to yourself you must deny every other light, however great that light be, whether it is Buddha, or X Y Z.  It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.  If you try to study yourself according to another you will always remain a second hand human being.  A religious brain has no shelter.  It is not scattered.  It is unshackled.  It is non-comparative, utterly free from  all ritual, dogma, and faith.  It is wholly free in independence.  It has that quality of love and compassion, which is intelligence.

 After all, there is no relationship in love is there?  It is only when you love something and expect a return for your love that there is relationship.  But when you love, that is, when you give yourself over to something entirely, wholly, then there is no relationship.  Seeing the actuality of non duality and the utter impossibility of separating or dividing up this non dual absolute or natural state, is the first step in the authentic awakening of intelligence which is love.  Truth cannot be told to you by another; you have to find it out.  No master, no teacher, no guru, no system, no self-discipline will ever lift the veil which conceals wisdom.  When you follow your guru you are neurotic.

 So nobody can ‘give’ guidance, light to another.  Only , you yourself.  The light cannot be “given” to you.  You have to stand TREMENDOUSLY alone.  And that is what is frightening for the old and the young.  Because if you ‘belong’ to ANYTHING ‘follow’ ANYBODY you are already entering into corruption.  If you understand that very deeply, with tears in your eyes, you understand?  There is no ‘guru’, no ‘teacher’, no ‘disciples’.  There is only you, as a human being in this world.  The world, the society which YOU have created.

 Having said all that perhaps we can share some simple pointers and insights that may or may not resonate.  If what is being said rings a bell so to speak, then that indicates that you already know what is being said and so are not dependent on any external authority or agency.  There is no conflict, no control, no reaching out, questioning, demanding, wanting, praying — none of that.  Therefore all the energy that had been wasted is now gathered in that silence.  That silence has become sacred.  In total silence there is nothing.  If there is something there is no silence but noise.  When there is noise you cannot hear or see.  When there is nothing, there is complete stability.  Then only can the mind find out if there is or is not something nameless, something that is beyond time.  All this is meditation.  The natural meditation of being — ‘what is’.

 Fear is the urge that seeks a Master, a guru; fear is this coating of respectability, which everyone loves so dearly — to be respectable.  Isn’t that all an image and a type of nonsense?  What is more important is to directly know your own true nature, this being, consciousness bliss, the truth that makes you free; not bestowed by another, by any teacher or guru.  Life is too much for us, too taxing, too painful, so we want truth away from life.  Therefore we seek a guru who will help us to escape; and the more he helps us to escape; the more we are attached to that guru.  Attachment leads to jealousy, and jealousy can lead to anger and even violence.  Generally the teacher destroys the students and the students destroy the teacher, and you can see this playing out regularly in the contemporary spiritual scene.  If you have an image that you have constructed and accumulated over time then you are going to be hurt when that image is challenged and questioned and found to be false and nothing but a social construct.

 Family is not a means of security.  If it is, then it is a deadly prison. If you are very clear, if you are inwardly a light to yourself, you will never follow anyone.  To look for light from another, without self-knowledge, is to follow blindly.  All following is blind.  Prior to the age of two or three years the child is living in a state of innocence or natural bliss or happiness as the language or words of the society around him or her have not yet been learned or acquired so he has no labels with which to separate or divide anything from anything else that he sees.  The word ‘innocence’ means a mind that is incapable of being hurt.  This guilt-less, innocent mind cannot suffer.  To observe what is actually taking place one must look without the response of the past shaping it.  Can you do this?  Of course you can but there must be a powerful and passionate urge to want to be free from the past, freedom from the known, which is all the acquired impressions, hurts, and incidents from a thousand yesterdays.

 Whatever knowledge you have at present, whatever has been learned or acquired for making a living, and also whatever so-called spiritual knowledge you may have, see how it stacks up in the light of this next quote and pointer from Sri Ramana Maharshi.

SLEEP AND IGNORANCE

 Mr C sat near the Master’s couch and read aloud the following verse from Vivekachudamani:

 “The blissful sheath( Anandamaya Kosha) has its fullest play in deep sleep, whilst in the dream and waking states it has only partial manifestation, occasioned by the experience of agreeable objects.

 “In sushupti(deep sleep) one enjoys a whole ocean of bliss like a king; whereas in the other two states the range of bliss is as wide as the classes of men, from the king down to the penniless.

 “Mr C:  Sushupti is often characterized as the state of ignorance.

 Bhagavan:  No, it is the pure state.  There is full awareness in it and total ignorance in the waking state.  It is said to be ajana(ignorance) only in relation to the false jnana(knowledge) prevalent in the jagrat(waking).

   Really speaking, jagrat is ajana and sushupti, (sleep) prajnana(wisdom).  If sushupti is not the real state where does the intense peace come from to the sleeper?

   It is everybody’s experience that nothing in jagrat can compare with the bliss and well-being derived from deep sleep, when the mind and the senses are absent.

 What does all this mean?

  It means that bliss comes only from inside ourselves and that it is most intense when we are free from thoughts and perceptions, which create the world and the body, that is, when we are in our pure Be-ing, which is Brahman, the Self.  In other words, the Be-ing alone is bliss and the mental superimpositions are ignorance and therefore, the cause of misery.  That is why samadhi is also described as sushupti in jagrat(sleep in waking), the blissful pure being which prevails in deep sleep is experienced in jagrat, when the mind and senses are fully alert but inactive.

                  THE MAHARSHI  Vol 15 No 4.

 In other words deep sleep represents wisdom and the waking state is pure ignorance.  It is the complete opposite of the way it appears to the unenlightened whose deep sleep is considered ignorance and the waking state is the real and interesting state, full of colorful, enjoyable, and varying experiences.  The so-called ‘person’ So and So, who appears in the waking state is not the real, and only an appearance in consciousness.  The word person means persona or mask and is as ephemeral as a dream, and if understood rightly is a dream character without any independent nature of its own apart from the consciousness that is the animating force or essence.

 “When you understand that names and forms are hollow shells without any content whatsoever, and what is real is nameless and formless, pure energy of life and light of consciousness, you will be at peace, immersed in the deep silence of reality.”

 If there is no apperception of this true state of affairs so to speak, what you have is a dream character parading around in the so-called waking state claiming to be very knowledgeable and wise.  Whereas these three changing states are appearing on an unchanging screen or background of non conceptual awareness.  This awareness is self-existing, no creator, no creation, no creature, only THAT, non dual absolute.

 See that you are That absolute whether you know it or not.  Are you aware?  Yes, you are aware.  Notice the awareness, unchanging, unceasing, unborn, ever-fresh presence awareness.  Remain as the awareness without being carried away by the rushing thoughts and residual impressions of objects that come from beginningless time, as it were.  It is possible for the residual impressions to be utterly resolved and for one to remain as the pure Self.  It is possible because you are the Self right from the get go and you must come to realize That for yourself through the inquiry, who am I?  This is the direct path and the yoga of knowledge, jnana yoga, the jnana of the jnani.  The only knowledge that you are absolutely certain of and that is the knowledge I am, not just for a hundred years or so, but infinitely and eternally — I am That I am.  See the simplicity of it and drop all the mental chatter instantly otherwise you will go on story after story, why did this happen, why did that happen? and on and on it goes endlessly when you engage with the time-bound mind.  There is no time needed, no extraneous effort required for This.  What effort am I making to be aware?  None at all.  What time do I need and what choice do I need to make to be aware?  None.  Choiceless-effortless awareness is enlightenment, Self-realization – That non dual essence, absolute or Suchness.

 In this world of Suchness there is neither self nor other than self.  No existence or non existence, there is neither being nor non being, so this you cannot grasp or understand with the mind, so give up trying to grasp this with a concept.  One thing, all things; move among and intermingle without distinction.  To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.  To live in this faith is the road to non duality, because the non dual is one with the trusting mind.

  Words!  The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday no tomorrow no today.

 THIS is it.  Full stop there, and you are home, the Home that you have never truly left.

  “We shall not cease from exploration

   And the end of all our exploring

   Will be to arrive where we started

   And know the place for the first time.”

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