There is an appearance of multiplicity. But behind the appearance are clues pointing to oneness. . .

Friday, August 31, 2007

Havasu Falls

Canyon Dusk

Crabtree Falls

Nature Photography

Those of you who enjoy the nature photography appearing here might like to check out my new photography website.

Full-resolution images are available free for personal use. . .

Saturday, August 18, 2007

The Grim Reaper's Request

Bitter Symphony

No Story, No Person, No Suffering


What are teachers saying when they tell you, “There is no one to be frustrated”? They are really referring to the story you have to be making up all the time in order for there to be a person, and in order for there to be frustration. It’s the story that is at the root of the belief in a person. You’re making up the story, and so you’re making up the person, out of your own imagination. No story, no person.

A story needs to be told for there to be frustration. Without telling a story, is there frustration? Where? How? Look for the story you are telling. Look for the narrative you create for the frustration to thrive in. This narrative creates the person out of thin air. This is something you're doing all the time – you’re creating the person all the time with your inner narrative. And this is the center of every problem, every speck of suffering and seeking.

So what can you do? What is needed is not action, it’s inaction. Stop making up a story.

Having no story amounts to the same thing you’re asked over and over: Who is frustrated? Where is the person? But, “getting” that there is no person is not something you just have to wait around until you "see" – making up the person is actually something you are actively doing all the time. You don't have to do it. You don’t have to make up a story. And without the story, "This is so frustrating" has no place to take hold, no place to bloom. It just blows away like dust. Nothing has any place to take hold. Nothing can harm you. You are at total peace.

If you don't tell a story right now, there is just a watching, a peaceful noticing of the current moment. No problem arises, no frustration, no irritation, until you start constructing the narrative. Until then, it doesn't exist, and it's just pure consciousness, you, peace, that's all. - Annette Nibley

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Roan Vista

Brilliant Bald

Yet. . .


Is this your story?

“It hasn’t really taken hold yet.”
“The full realization is not here yet.”
“I’m not completely detached from my story yet.”
“The last penny to drop seemingly hasn't happened yet.”
“Although I have read everything, I feel like I don’t get it yet.”

Any of those sound familiar? Sure they do. And they are all false. “Yet” is only a misunderstanding – a mistake in your thinking – that something is supposed to happen. Nothing is going to happen, and misunderstanding this is your only obstacle. Would you be waiting or trying for something to happen, if you were convinced nothing was ever going to happen? I doubt it! So the seeking stops.

Once you know that nothing is going to happen, and there is literally no one for anything to happen to, then you will naturally stop trying or waiting or expecting. And what becomes obvious is that there never was a person who needed anything – knowledge, realization, freedom, integrated understanding – nothing! Not even “knowing that you know”! There is simply no one here to need anything. You are not separate and trying to regain your status as whole. No, you've always been this, never apart from or other than this whole.

The mind will jump to “I understand there is no one to awaken, but I want to really get this!” That’s a contradictory statement, and so take a look at how it still assumes the belief that there is an “I” who gets something. There is not. Go after the belief that you are a separate “I,” instead of going after the promised land of “after the penny drops for me.” The seeking can only be stopped by going after the false belief. The belief you still have is that there is an entity, and it will experience a penny dropping. It will not. But you still believe that it will, and that's why you're still working towards it. Aren't you sick of it? . . .

The seeking does not stop because one “finally gets” the realization, or one “completely detaches” from the story. No! The seeking stops WHEN IT IS SEEN THAT THERE IS NO SEEKER. That's all there is to it. There is no seeker, no “you.” That someone is not real. What is real is one life living, impersonally, and it is experienced by you now as awareness. . .

See that there is no seeker, and it's over. That's the only way! As long as the seeker believes there is more to get, more to learn, a final dropping to feel, then the search goes on. As long as there is a seeker, there is a search. Blow the seeker out of the water, and the search is over.

I know that this can be heard at one level, and yet there is a nagging "I'll do what she says. I'll try this and then I'll finally get it." No. The point is that "getting" is for people. Being a person is suffering. Finding you are not a person is to see that the suffering never existed, nothing was ever needed. Nothing to get, for no one. There is just this hereness, now, with no “you” to know it, and that's it. Nothing else is happening. - Annette Nibley

More from John Wheeler


How far are you from being? How far are you from consciousness? If you are distant from these, you may speak of progress. If you are not distant, then the only reasonable alternative is to drop the concept of progress and BE WHAT YOU ARE.

*

Looking for the cause of the ego is a fool's errand. The ego is an erroneous belief. The assumed ego is not present on direct investigation. Is it reasonable to search for the cause of something that is not there?

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The experience of getting invested in the reality of the "I" is resolved by simply looking for it. We assume that the thought "I" points to an actual entity, a separate, limited self. But when you look for such a self, you cannot find it. You can no longer believe in something that on direct evidence is not there. Searching for the "I", all you find is non-conceptual awareness. All troubles are over at that point.

*

When the central belief, the existence of the assumed person, is examined and found as false, the whole network of suffering collapses, for there is no one to whom it applies.

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The notion of the false, limited self comes and goes as an object in the mind. That is why it can be seen and discarded. You, as the conscious presence, are already standing outside of the mind.

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All questions, doubts and problems about "I" or "me" are groundless, for the "I" does not exist.

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Awareness is already awake. The person who would desire to awaken does not exist. Therefore, the concepts of awakening, liberation and enlightenment are entirely fallacious. Awareness is already free. There is no entity present to be bound or liberated. - John Wheeler

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