The Video IS The Totality Of All Things

[Excerpts from ruthlesstruth.com from “First PURE Liberation” from a dialogue with Ciaran Healy. It's from a chat he had with someone, hence the incomplete sentences and typos. He writes prose much better than this!]

it's this
look
think about how we layer cause and effect over the full experience of life
in the present moment
what you'll find
if you focus
and be disciplined with yourself
is that we assume
basically
that 'we'
are watching a video
that is life
and the video effects 'us'
...
this is endemic
everyone does it
and that's because
you don't need to teach this
cause and effect
is the lens through which
we see the world
so the idea
of this video 'we' are watching
that's having an effect on 'us'
just kind of arises
...

the thing to realise
and if you can see this
that is you enlightened
is that the video
IS the totality of all things
you
such as you are
exist within the video
there is no audience
there is just the film
and you are
how to put this
within the present moment
an assumption exists
that there is someone experiencing it
that assumption
is part of the present
as all things are
....

enlightenmnet is not an energy field
it is much simpler than that
it is just the recognition
of the truth
that the 'you'
that you and everyone else on the planet
holds as the foundational assumption
of their lives
is in fact
wholly fictional
....

when you think about enlightenment
it seems hidden
and important
so this makes sense
buit
it is a trap
you do not need to concentrate
at all
in any way
no effort of any kind
except the most minimal effort of looking
is required
....

is that it is very easy
to start seeing it
as a conceptual puzzle
and as i'm sure you know
it isn't
what it is
in its essence
is a kind of pattern
that's a very weird word to use
because yes
technically
it's more like the absence of a pattern
but let's no go down that road
and confuse ourselves
think of it like a pattern
a pattern in a tapestry
that you are looking for
i can tell you
that the pattern
is squiggly
and blue
and shaped like a monkey
but
i cannot see it for you
you have to find it
you have to just open your eyes
maybe unfocus them slightly
and try to see the pattern i describe
now we're lucky
because this pattern
is massively simpler
and we're also lucky
because pattern recognition
as a human faculty
is permanent
once you see that monkey
it doesn't matter if you walk off
and live for another fifty years
the next time you see that tapestry
you will see that pattern
this is like that
the idea
that there is no 'you' living life
but only life
in a real
and literal sense
is actually true
just as the pattern in the tapestry
is actually there
in real life
you can pretend
that you see the blue monkey
here
or there
but
that will always fade
and isn't real anyway
if you see it
you're done
and it takes
well
ten seconds?

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Just look...is there anyone there?

You have a friend that's extremely paranoid and in constant fear and suffering. They believe that they are being followed and watched, that people are hiding behind trees, in his closets...putting cameras in his house and tapping his phone line.

You ask him, "Have you ever looked to see if it's true? Checked to see if there are really people hiding behind trees, in your closets...are there cameras in your house, is your phone being tapped?"

He realizes that he hasn't, that it's just been a belief. A belief that has made his life miserable. So he finally looks and see that there's no one there.

He's at peace realizing that his fears were based on a belief that was simply never examined.

It's that simple, really. Seriously. Really seriously.

The you that's tormenting you by blasting you with negative and unwanted thoughts...that has a body that gets sick and decays...is it there? Hiding someplace? Have you looked?

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Are Gurus Preaching To An Absent Choir?

For a while I believed that non-dualilty teachers and gurus were just stringing along their followers by offering them pretty words that didn't help them at all.

This is a difficult position to reconcile because they are all, at least from my experience, such wonderful and sincere people with a true desire to help others.

What I see the problem now is this: spirituality teachers are describing the experience of no-self and how the world is seen through awareness and presence, but they're not giving any tools to reach the primary understanding of "no self" which is necessary to be able to appreciate these teachings. So their true audience, people no longer being held under the sway of the illusion of self, is not the there: The "absent choir."

It's not that the majority of spirituality teachers are disingenuous or duplicitous but rather that they're not able to bridge the listener from the death grip on the self to the release that opens up the freedom to enjoy the flow of life.

It's like someone sitting in front of a group of people telling them just how beautiful the Grand Canyon is, the vast expanse of openness and wonderful array of colors and how the sunset is so gorgeous..., but they're either unable or unwilling to give a map showing how to get there! So satsangs end up being someone talking about how wonderful enlightenment is and the audience begging in their minds, "Just tell me how to get there!"

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Controlling Thoughts...I Don't Think So!

Trying to control, shape, steer, or manipulate thoughts is the most futile exercise you can engage in. If it was possible then it's obvious, isn't it....Just don't think negative thoughts! Don't let them come up in the first place if you are in control.

I love to kayak and go out whenever the weather's nice. While I'm paddling the thoughts are coming a mile a minute...back and forth...up and down...left and right. It used to bug the hell out of me. But once you see that they're totally out of your control...and that in certain situations - in my case drinking too much coffee or doing anything athletic - they seem to be on high volume, then they're just noise. No more, no less important than the sound of the paddle hitting the water.

Problem is that if there's a belief that they're "my" thoughts and about "me" then all attention and energy is going to go towards them. If it's seen (and it's pretty damn obvious) that they're not mine (I don't control or own them) and they're not about me, then they're just jibber jabber.

Try this exercise: What's the next thought you're going to think?

Put that one in your pipe and smoke it!

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Get Real!

If you were trying to lose weight, would you sign up for a program where 95% of the members were obese and had been involved for years and years? Every week go to a talk by the person running the program, skinny and in shape, talking about the joys of being thin?

Then why keep going back to the same satsangs and watching the same videos and reading the same books of the same teachers and the same gurus year after year? Ever notice how the same people keep going back over and over? "See ya next year, "Schmooji!"

Are the pretty words that the gurus use to make you feel good really working?

I used to watch videos on Youtube over and over and over, waiting anxiously for something new from my latest favorite teacher. I knew for sure that the next one would do the trick! I'm close, I'm almost there...the next word will do it!

Or I'd read "I Am That" until it was dog-eared and turning brown. One more flip of the page! I know I've read this 5 times before, but this time! This time!

Einstein said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results.

So what do I suggest? Read my posts over and over! ;^)

But seriously folks...if you just look and see if this thing that you're trying to enlighten or bliss out or improve really exists...if there is such a thing as a "you"...a "self"...Then maybe, just maybe, you can get off of the rollercoaster.

Rollercoasters are fun, but after the 10th or 11th time around you start to get kind of nauseous, don't you?

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Time, Space, and Self

Time, space, and self all have one thing in common: none of them are real.

If there was no movement of objects then time would have no meaning. Time is only observable through movement, and movement is only observable through time. It's the measurement of time that defines movement, and the recording of movement that defines time.

If there were no objects then space would have no meaning. The space between two objects can only be measured because those objects define the space. Without objects and only unbounded space with no references, measurements of distance have no meaning.

In the same way, if there were no experiences then a self would have no meaning. A self is only definable through experiences, and experiences are only definable through a self. Me as opposed to you, me as opposed to a tree, me as opposed to life, and me as opposed to death are only meaningful dichotomies when delineated by experience.

Time/Movement, Space/Objects, Self/Experience: All are inextricably bound to each other and therefore have no autonomous existence.

A self cannot be the instrument of experience because it has no independent existence outside of experience. A self cannot be the witness of experience because it cannot stand apart from experience to do the witnessing.

All of these truths can be verified by observation. If they remain simply as conceptions and are not investigated through observation the result is a life lived in a veil of illusion.

Yet, if these truths are verified what happens is not that they disappear but rather that in the midst of knowing that time, space, and self are not real it is also recognized that they are the very concepts through which life is lived. With their disappearance life itself would cease to be because it is through these three necessary illusions that life itself is known.

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From the "Diamond Sutra"

Buddha then asked, "What do you think, Subhuti, does one who has entered the stream which flows to Enlightenment, say 'I have entered the stream'?"

"No, Buddha", Subhuti replied. "A true disciple entering the stream would not think of themselves as a separate person that could be entering anything. Only that disciple who does not differentiate themselves from others, who has no regard for name, shape, sound, odor, taste, touch or for any quality can truly be called a disciple who has entered the stream."

Buddha continued, "Does a disciple who is subject to only one more rebirth say to himself, 'I am entitled to the honors and rewards of a Once-to-be-reborn.'?"

"No, Lord. 'Once-to-be-reborn' is only a name. There is no passing away, or coming into, existence. Only one who realizes this can really be called a disciple."


"Subhuti, does a venerable One who will never more be reborn as a mortal say to himself, 'I am entitled to the honor and rewards of a Non-returner.'?"

"No, Perfectly Enlightened One. A 'Non-returner' is merely a name. There is actually no one returning and no one not-returning."

"Tell me, Subhuti. Does a Buddha say to himself, 'I have obtained Perfect Enlightenment.'?"

"No, lord. There is no such thing as Perfect Enlightenment to obtain. If a Perfectly Enlightened Buddha were to say to himself, 'I am enlightened' he would be admitting there is an individual person, a separate self and personality, and would therefore not be a Perfectly Enlightened Buddha."

Subhuti then said, "Most Honored One! You have said that I, Subhuti, excel amongst thy disciples in knowing the bliss of Enlightenment, in being perfectly content in seclusion, and in being free from all passions. Yet I do not say to myself that I am so, for if I ever thought of myself as such then it would not be true that I escaped ego delusion. I know that in truth there is no Subhuti and therefore Subhuti abides nowhere, that he neither knows nor does he not know bliss, and that he is neither free from nor enslaved by his passions."

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Swapping out "I am this" for "I am that"

Because the sense of a self is so strong there is the need to attach this sense to some object. Normally, this sense of self is assigned to the body and mind. There's a belief that what "I" refers to is the experiences and actions that take place "here" in the body and mind. Yet what happens is that the body is seen as the receptor for physical pain and the mind is seen as an enemy that barrages us with negative thoughts constantly.

Therefore there's a movement towards spirituality where the promise is that the body and mind can be transcended. No longer will I be subject to the death and decay of the body! No longer will I be a slave to the crazy ramblings of the mind! What is offered is a new truth; that what you are is not the body and mind but God, or Love, or Awareness.  These alternatives are so easy to accept because they are big, vast concepts that offer a warm and inviting alternative to an identity that we're all too ready to discard.

What happens, though, is that one identity - as the body and mind - is simply swapped for another - as God, or Love, or Awareness. These vague notions are also so appealling because they are absolutely non-falsifiable! How to prove that what you are isn't God, or Love, or Awareness? People already at a vulnerable stage in their life are given a spiritual bait-and-switch; promised the freedom from suffering of the body and mind but given just another concept to hang their identification on.

As long as there is an idea of an "I," whether this "I" is a bag of bones that's getting old and dying and/or a mind filled with crazy thoughts, or whether this "I" is Love, God, Awareness, Emptiness, then there's an idea that there's something that's outside of Life and which Life is happening TO.

Swapping out the identification of the self with the body and mind for some big, all-embracing idea such as God, Love, or Awareness means that this sense of self is still embraced. "I am God, I am Love, or I am Awareness" instead of just "God, Love, Awareness." The sense of a self is still believed to point to something. It is a point of reference for all that happens in life. Therefore, when life is seen as undesirable suffering continues.

When this need to indentify with something, anything at all, is examined and understood, and when the belief in a self that's separate from life is investigated  and seen to be just a belief and nothing more, only then can the freedom that life itself offers - which includes the pains of the body and mind - be enjoyed.

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Free Form Spirituality Rant

trying to make yourself bigger, better, and brighter
but there is no yourself
shoveling dirt into a bottomless pit
trying to control  thoughts
are they  your thoughts?
people have been trying for 5,000 years of recorded history to control thoughts
but you’ll do it! I have confidence in you!
sit on a zafu…just 5 more minutes…and another 5…give it time
people respect me, people love me, I’m a great person!
people don’t respect me, people don’t love me, I’m a loser!
one more spin on the roller coaster
the next ride will be the last
no time to look
packing your bags for the silent retreat
the next teacher’s words will crack it for you
or that next video or book
the words of those much more special than you
or so it seems
become a groupie on a satsang tour
flip through “I Am That” one more time
the next page will enlighten you
join the Zen center…put on the robes
other members have been there for 30, 40 years
hmmm, maybe in your next life
once more incarnation, if you’re good enough in this one
it’s tiring, isn’t it?
better not to think about it too hard
“ You are Awareness…Emptiness…Love!”
damn that feels good
(because if I’m this depressed, rotting bag of skin and bones
I just can’t take it)
thank you mr/ms guru ma’am sir
after all, cheaper than psychotherapy
wouldn’t want a professional working on your mind
let the amateurs give it a shot
go check out facebook one more time
to get some wisdom  from others
much easier than in the past
when you had to travel to the himalayas
to get your spiritual gibberish
post quotes by ramana and nisargadatta
a much wider audience than the bathroom stall
wouldn’t dare post your own thoughts
maybe be mocked by others
oh, it was so much simpler back then
when you thought that getting rich and getting laid
would make you happy
how the hell did you get caught up in this spirituality shit anyway?
oh well, too late now

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Nothing To Stick To

Why is it that the peace gained through meditation leaves…and has to be gained all over again?

Why is it that  self-esteem and confidence  that were once so high fall so low?

Why is it that happiness and joy so quickly turn to sadness and anxiety?

The answer is that there is no entity for these things to stick to…they don’t belong to anyone or anything.

Because they’re experiences and states they come and go. There is no self that contains and owns them, able to lock them up for future use.

Suffering comes in the belief in a me that these things belong to and a me that deserves the peace and happiness and joy and that doesn’t deserve the anger and confusion and unhappiness.

There’s an attempt to keep these things secured  in a storage box, but there is no storage box and there is no one that could own such a box.

If you can see that there is no separate entity from life that life is happening to and that deserves to own particular states and experiences then life just flows. There is no longer a struggle for a perfect me.

So rather than trying to grab on to pleasant experiences and states question this very entity that is just a belief…and see that not only is this belief  not necessary for life to happen but that in fact this belief is the root of all attempts to control life.

The belief in a controller of life results in the attempts to exercise this control in shaping thoughts and experiences. This is an exercise in futility.

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What Direct Seeing Means

When someone says “Just look” what do they mean?
It means seeing what’s in direct experience rather than assuming what’s in direct experience.
Right now a computer is being experienced.
How obvious is it?
Do you have to be convinced that a computer is being experienced?
If I told you, “You’re not experiencing a computer” it would sound absurd, wouldn’t it?
Of course you could philosophize and say, “Quantum physics shows that even though we believe that we’re experiencing a computer, in fact the photons…blah, blah, blah…”
But that doesn’t nullify that fact that a computer is being experienced.
Thoughts are being experienced, totally obvious, isn’t it?
Do you need to be convinced of it?
So what is this you that you believe yourself to be?
The body? The mind?
Is that true? Or is it true that what we think we are is really the controller and experiencer of the body and mind?
We think we own the body and mind, don’t we? My thoughts, my head, my nose, my arms. I think my thoughts and move my body.
So just look, is this true?
Is this self that controls and experiences the body and mind part of direct experience right now?
As obvious as the computer?
Or is it just being thought of? And therefore real as a thought, but not real as an object. Not real like the computer is real.
Is this true?
A notion of something or a sense of something doesn’t bring that something into existence, it doesn’t make it real.
I can be thinking of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes is real as a character in a novel but he’s not someone that you’re ever going to meet.
Are you mistaking a thought of something as something real?
Real like the computer?
Take a look.

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Try imagining yourself without a self

While it's possible to imagine ourselves without an arm or without a leg, or imagine ourselves to be tall instead of short, or black instead of white, it's not possible to imagine ourselves without a self.

That's because there's no discernible experience of a self that we can imagine being without.

The sense of self is never separate from any experience that takes place and therefore, not being separate from experience, the self is simply a convenient way to place experience.

It's a grammatical rule to put a subject before a noun, to say "I am walking" rather than just "walking."

Yet the "I am" is never separate from the "walking."

Therefore, ironically, what's believed to be the most obvious thing in the world, the "I" that is experiencing, is never experienced at all!

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