Notes to Self

A spiritual journal of a spiritual journey to the here and now,

putting into words that which can be put into words,

iterations and reiterations about gratuitous grace,

a tribute to This which reads and writes,

This which does all, is all, the Whole,

the timeless, unconditioned,

boundless, universal,

self-less

Self

.

The Ultimate Prize
Trinkets, baubles, toys, things of beauty, pleasures gross and subtle, catchers of the eye and the imagination, embellishments and adornments of every kind, prized possessions, sensual delights, health, youth, wealth…don’t last. Nothing lasts but the Self, the Absolute, the ultimate prize. Finding the ultimate prize is astonishing in the extreme, in that it’s not hidden, it’s us. Anyone who wakes up with a self-concept, with an ‘I-am-ness’, is also waking up to the ultimate prize. That which finds itself to be, That which tells itself ‘I am’, is none other than the Self, the Wholeness, the Absolute, the Totality.

The Totality always is, whether it knows it or not; here and there, in body-minds feeling ‘I-am-ness’, within the sustained dream of the Whole, it dreams of being separate, it believes itself to be this body-mind or that body-mind, until it stumbles across its true nature. No longer confined to the body-mind, the Totality sees its seeing, feels its being through the ‘I-am-ness.’ Seeing itself as birthless and deathless, as the magical eternal universal energy itself, the body-mind bears witness as its being reveals itself to be the radiance of the Totality.

In the radiant silence, a hymn of joy rises.

Totally
How interesting it is that people normally don’t remember anything before around age three. Before that time there was no concept of self. It’s only when the child develops a self-concept that memories—and the thought “I am”—begin.

Without memory, without a concept of self, without the thought “I am”, we neither conceive what we are, or that we are.

How we interpret the livingness, the beingness, the awareness, of this great ape called this human life, determines our experiential destiny.

The story of this particular hominid unfolded as it did through forces impossible to control. This is how the universe operates.

I can only be so inexpressibly grateful that the universe is what it is, and operates how it operates. The trials and tribulations seem fierce sometimes, but the universe never gives itself anything that it can’t handle.

That is, as long as the universe just lets itself be the universe, and doesn’t believe it’s anything less than, or other than, the Totality.

The universe is. “I am.” Whether the universe happens to be in an “I am” state or not, it’s always the universe, the Totality, in every part of itself.

Oceanic Waviness
When I go for a long walk and encounter other people passing by it can be a pleasant exchange of greetings and eye contact, or an awkward moment when the other person averts his gaze and ignores me. Such is life among hominids with self-concepts. It’s far better to be open, receptive, alert, and ready to communicate when in the perceptual range of other people than to be closed off, to pretend the other person doesn’t exist, doesn’t want to be recognized.

There are times when it feels good to find a walking route where there is little or no chance of encountering other people. The absence of another’s self-conceptual consciousness is a relief, a removal of a source of distraction. There’s only pure natural awareness, a sweet serenity that arises when one is in perfect seclusion, unseen by eyes connected to judgmental brains.

How well we’ve been taught to believe we are this and that, inferior and superior, separate and unequal. This old cunning survival-adversarial mode of thinking is so limited, so dreary. The magic of the moment is lost on sophisticated solipsistic simians, clueless victims of an abstraction-infested left hemispheric way of being: identifying with ego, identifying with thoughts, of which the ego is composed.

How good it feels to make that silent seismic shift to the unencumbered brain, to pure awareness, nonjudgmental, and not passing judgment on the left hemisphere’s habitual heavy burden of conditioning. It’s good to encounter oneself as well as others with recognition, greeting, and One-Eye contact. We are no longer adversaries, and we are no longer friends and lovers. We are the Wholeness itself.

With the belief of separateness comes the experience of separate presences. With the absence of all belief and of all self-concept--the mode of the Whole--there’s an absence of presences; the presence of the Whole is one sweet ongoing Absence. The ocean rests within its oceanic being, unaware of itself. The waves of the ocean rise up, and for a time live a seemingly separate life from the ocean. Waves pick up waves from other waves, unaware of ocean, aware only of waves and waviness.

Unencapsulation
The ego considers the skin as its boundary, although it considers parts of the environment outside the skin as its own, if it selects parts of the environment as possessions. Ego is conditioning of mind to identify some parts of the universe as me and mine, and the rest not-me and not-mine. Even the basic egoic state that is the “I am-ness” requires the persistence of mental conditioning—memory.

If we can manage, intentionally or unintentionally, to completely forget ourselves, to have such a profound memory loss that we forget who we “are” (or think we are), we no longer exist as a separate person: we are simply pure awareness, without any self-concept, self-referencing, conceptions or preconceptions. Just as we were as newborns and infants, there’s no concept of me or mine, no concept of self stopping at the skin; everything is perceived as it is, with no notion of anything outside or inside of oneself, for there is no notion of self.

That’s That
A very controlling, egocentric family member, living alone and in the midst of joblessness and home foreclosure lamented that she envies her recently deceased mother’s deceasedness, for she now has no worries, no troubles.

No science, not dogma, no ideology, no faith, no things, can delivers the experiential goods; what delivers is the subtraction of delusion. Before conception, after biological death, outside the skin, we’re already there, we’re already that, always were, always are, always will be, This That, call it whatever you want, regard it however you will, That remains That.

You want to use the physicist take? OK. Be Energy. Be a particle, or a wave, or both; be the universe. You want to use the religious take? OK. Be Spirit, Holy or Great, be Brahman, or however you want to frame it.

The point being, we are not what we think we are, or even that we are at all. This awareness, this living awareness, this clear light, this transparent flame of pure awareness and absolute being, is what it is, not what it isn’t; is what is, and isn’t what isn’t. Personal existence is a brief delusional state in the midst of the ongoing That which we eternally are.

It’s pretty amazing that we are That, and not you and me and us. There’s only That. Just be That. Or be a fiction, a delusion, a conception, as you wish, while it lasts. Waves of the ocean are still ocean no matter what “they” believe.

Fear of death is fear of That, i.e. fear of loss of separate selfhood, ego’s fear of its own extinction. Not knowing what’s really living “their” lives, conditioned bodyminds fear change and loss, oblivious to the fact that “their” being is none other than absolute being, birthless, deathless, ever-existent, ever-One-without-a-second.

Commune-ism
Finding fulfillment here and now is an excellent strategy for minimizing consumption of resources and fuel, for making survival as simple and affordable as possible. Finding lasting fulfillment in sheer being does require a special, subtle effort, self-inquiry of utmost earnestness. Eventually, through the contemplative life, the self-examined life, one’s own spirit is recognized as the universal spirit; at that point, communing with one’s own spirit becomes communing with the universal spirit. The universe’s own awareness is suddenly aware that it is the universe’s own awareness.

Such communion of spirit with itself is fulfillment in the here-and-now, and fulfillment with every encounter with every relationship, as every spirit, every awareness, is the one spirit, one awareness, of the universe.

Senses and mobility may fail, but spirit’s communing with itself continues unabated, culminating with the perfect communion of the birthless, deathless, pre- and post- bodily state.

Song to the Self
Thank you for being you
Thank you for being me
Thank you for being everyone

Wabi-Sabi
The wabi-sabi way of life is for me, for you, for all of us. The apparent impermanence, imperfection, emptiness of all seemingly separate things are all part of the Source. The wabi-sabi way is earth-wise, spirit-wise, at once. Embrace impermanence, imperfection, and essential emptiness. Be content with what you have, be content with less, be content without. Be content to be, be content to not be. Be content with change--incessant, inevitable change. Be content with flaws, blemishes, cracks, irregularities, stains, breaks, aging. Anything experienced by the mind changes, rises and falls, as does the mind, the personhood. Prior to personhood, during personhood, after personhood, the mysterious eternal energy flows through all as all rises and all falls.

So I look to all things, all beings, new or no longer new, young or no longer young, and cherish them all as children of the everlasting, perfect plenitude of the Source.

Wabi-sabi leads us to the Source, our true nature.

Buddha’s Last Words
“Every thing passes. Work diligently on your own salvation.”
I think of a dear family member now bedridden in a research hospital, too young and too feisty to be dying, yet she is suddenly now gravely ill, with all the medical expertise in the world unable to pull her out of her downward spiral. Her husband, her young children, all of us, are unable to do anything other than go about our ‘important’ business and occasionally worry and cry and drive the difficult drive into the heart of the city to at least be with her when we can.
Life-and-death matters put things squarely in perspective, remind us of what’s really important, what really matters.
The transient nature of all things, of youth, of health, should be impetus enough to acquire a passionate love for wisdom, for the self-liberation of unconditioned being.
And wisdom shows that the only thing we can do for each other while we’re in these impermanent forms is simple: passionately, unconditionally, love.

One Eye Love
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” –Meister Eckhart.

The eye through which I see Spirit is the same eye through which Spirit sees me; my eye and Spirit’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.

The eye through which I see the universe is the same eye through which the universe sees me; my eye and the universe’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.

The eye through which I see Nature is the same eye through which Nature sees me; my eye and Nature’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.

It’s impossible not to be in awe, in wonder, knowing this, seeing this, being this. It’s impossible not to want to suggest to people laboring under the delusion of identifying exclusively with a particular body-mind that “they” are much more--or less, as the case may be--than what they believe themselves to be.

After a while, the One Eye becomes natural--which is to be expected, as it is the one-and-only natural eye--and there emerges the peace that comes with the One Eye life, and there is the spontaneous mutual recognition of the One Eye wherever it appears; it’s a nonverbal, non-conceptual, spontaneous process.

It’s a world-shaking paradigm shift, this One Eye self-recognition, on both individual and collective levels. And so simple, and so obvious, and so thoroughly ubiquitous, right before our very eyes all this time—every time we make eye contact, or any kind of contact, with sentience in any form.

Romancing the Universe
It’s rather odd to identify with the energy of the universe, which, as it turns out, is fully connected with itself, as energy is wont to do. Ceaseless flowing, ceaselessly changing, ceaselessly transforming, the energy of the universe goes literally everywhere, is everywhere, at once, and never the same universe twice: the energy changes in form constantly, but is never created, never destroyed. It never ceases to amaze, being the energy, whenever I pause and reflect on just what it is living this life called yours and mine.

That the energy of the universe has assumed all forms, spontaneously ever in motion, without any effort, and complete in its totality, however it happens to be, is deeply reassuring. There is rest, and wholeness, and peace, at the heart of constant eternal movement.

While these lovely animal forms we have assumed remain healthy and alert, let’s celebrate on the occasion of recognizing the presence of the selfsame primordial energy in each other.

Embodiment
A common conventional egocentric assumption is that we are a spirit, a soul, embodied, and that perhaps this spirit or soul survives intact when the body dies. That something which is embodied, inhabiting the body, not only inhabits the body but also sustains it; that something is nothing other than the force of Nature, the very spirit of Nature. This aliveness, this presence, this awareness, which is embodied in this particular brain, this particular animal, is not ‘my’ soul, not ‘my’ spirit: it’s just Spirit. To be Spirit, and not a spirit, is not such a bad thing to be. Embodied Spirit, take this sophisticated ape for a joy ride.

Sing
All the sorrow and hurt and longing that we carry around comes to the surface when we sing. It can be a quiet song, a simple song, a secret song. Singing from the heart, all that the heart has been burdened with is taken up, and taken away, in the flow of words and vibrations and tears.

The Currency of The Current of Spirit
Allowing myself to be overly-informed, and seeing firsthand the prevalence of poverty and ignorance so close to home, and having spent countless sleepless hours worrying about money and mortality, and having attained a level of melancholy I thought unattainable, I look for that which truly consoles, for that which has real, ultimate value, and that That is: the current of Spirit, the only real currency. Spirit animates everything. Even boulders have Spirit current flowing, albeit slowly--the matter that holds its form as boulder so well is still energy in condensed form, and will flow on and transform eventually.

There is no price to be put on Spirit, no buying, no selling, no trading. Sheer presence-awareness itself is Spirit’s presence-awareness; to understand this is to understand what’s really of value, and what isn’t.

When there’s the realization that the infrastructure of all life is Spirit—that all life is the life of Spirit—there’s the simultaneous realization this is the only true wealth, inexhaustible, universal, available to everyone everywhere, now, always now, if attention is gently directed to the presence of Spirit rather than to thoughts, virtual reality, and other simulacra.

I’m done
I’m gone
Dead and buried
It goes on going on

Carried along by this lovely current of eternal energy, I surrender to it, and let it carry me away, as drowsiness takes me to special places of dreams, to the end of the burden of being ‘me.’ Flowing forever, everywhere, Spirit is all there is, all there is to be.

Why then should I worry about old age, disability, poverty, unsustainable global civilizations, selfishness, greed, ignorance, materialism, all the apparent evils and embedded sins of the transient world, when right here, right now, Spirit abides in its fullness, untroubled presence-awareness.

The Undertaker’s Sigh
Perfectionists, purists, unfulfilled people of every stripe, anxious, weary, all manage to live, unhappily, until only death can relax them, too often too soon. There is such fear of death, denial of death, making death taboo, off-limits, unthinkable, unspeakable. Yet it’s the human capacity to know of mortality that gives this brief, uncertain existence depth, and poignancy—that provides the impetus to live deeply, love deeply, and ascend to unconditioned being and unconditional love.

To live in denial of death is to live in denial of life, dead to life, self-exiled from the presence-awareness of Spirit, cocooned in a false world woven of self-referencing thoughts, a shallow reflection of a shallow culture.

Nature Lover
What to do, how to be, when this private protracted orgy of solipsism finally draws to something of a close, none too soon…

It’s not all about me, of course. Who, then, or what, is it all about?

Love—could it be all about love? Who, then, or what, is to be loved?

Baby steps first—love those you’re with, starting with the closest and easiest to love. Cats and dogs, lovers and children, are a great start.

And then trees, and birds, and bugs, and squirrels, flora and fauna are easy to love, even the scaly slimy species, with practice.

And the sky, and the earth, and the waterways and bodies of water—what’s not to love here?

Finally, that vexed and vexing solipsistic monkey in the mirror, and every monkey that crosses its path: there’s pure Nature in that beast, just as much as in any beast.

Full of Nature, full of life, full of energy, every one.

What’s not to love?

The Purpose of Being, Human
In the ubiquitous eyes of the great mysterious Process, the measure of a being is its capacity to love, for the Process reaches its fulfillment when it’s fully recognizing—and thereby loving—itself.

Back Home
What could possibly reconstitute Home as I remember it? All has changed, outwardly, by name and by form. There is, in my experience, a sense of Home, a feeling of Home, that emerges from time to time, when conditions are right.

Home implies security, a sense of stability. As a child, it felt to me that the house, the family, the neighborhood, were around forever, and would continue forever.

Now, with no way to undo the unfolding of everything as it has unfolded, I find that feeling of Home elsewhere, in a different way.

The same unconditional childlike acceptance of the world-as-it-is has come back. The whole world is my neighborhood, the earth is my house, and everyone is my family. That feeling of security and stability has come back. All cares and worries and fears end in the embrace of the ever-present Spirit.

All transitions in Spirit are transitions of Spirit.

Worlds come and go, Spirit remains forever.

Accepting Non-Acceptance
One of the many wonderful insights to take away from The Master and his Emissary is the fact that the right hemisphere naturally fully accepts the left hemisphere, and the left hemisphere can ‘live’ in the right hemisphere, even though the left hemisphere can’t let the right hemisphere live within it, the left. The right accepts the left, the left can’t accept the right but winds up living in the right anyway, since the right takes it all in.

This piece of information fully explains how it’s possible to let the noisy, cluttered, judgmental, arrogant, closed, conceptual world of the left to just chatter on, within the infinite space of the right hemisphere. There’s plenty of room for one and all in the right hemisphere.

This is another way to explain why Jesus recommended that we ‘resist not evil,’ i.e., the selfish thoughts, words and deeds spawned by the left hemisphere. Just accept it all, as it is, let it rise up, and let it fall away.

I can’t shut “me” off, the left-hemispheric conceptualized and conceptualizing/reified and reifying “me.” That’s okay. The harder “I” try to shut off “me” the more strident “I” become. The conceptualized self can’t shut itself off.

The pure natural awareness that comes from the source before hemispheres and is intuited by the right hemisphere, and is babbled about by the left hemisphere, embraces everything, as everything is the source.

One Awareness, Two Minds
I’ve come to the realization that there are two ways I’ve been paying attention: either self-absorbedly, or holistically. The noisy, cluttered, reifying and reified self-absorbed world unto itself, cerebral, conceptual is one headspace, one way of paying attention and actually that which is being perceived—the conceptual world; and the other way of paying attention is wide open, nonconceptual, accepting everything as it is without any embellishment or judgment, unconstrained, spontaneous, natural, of an agency totally without any self-awareness or self-concept. Pure awareness, to be truly pure, has no-one who can claim to be ‘aware.’

I can be walking along, lost in endless contingent thoughts, free-associating within itself, and be oblivious to the surroundings, to nature, or to the fact that I’m walking in front of a bus.

I can also be walking along, fully aware of surroundings, letting the magic of the world wash upon me, carrying me away fully into the magical realm of nature.

Longing for Paradise
It’s time to follow my bliss and find the magic, the wonder, the enchantment I used to feel before this world become circumscribed by a dreary wall of banal thoughts and concerns. Truly I’ve been a prisoner of my own device, to this day.

I can lay the blame on charmless techno-ugliness of the modern world, a world of traffic and televisions and LCD screens large and small, strip malls, developments, industrialization, virtual-reality alienation, vanishing natural habitats, financial demands, bureaucracy, soul-crushing media-yammering, and say that my despair is the fault of the human world and what it’s become, a desensitized, reified mindscape, a consumer’s heaven, but for me a hell.

I have no-one and nothing to blame but my own forsaking of paradise.

There are places where enchantment in full measure is still available: indoor cathedrals, outdoor cathedrals, and the cathedral of the heart.

Indoor cathedrals, such as old Roman Catholic churches with ceilings so high they inspire dizziness as well as awe, with a little music, a little singing, a little praying, are settings conducive to bliss, to awe.

Oudoor cathedrals, like primeval forests or any secluded parcel of meadow, field or forest—open spaces, parks, silent and unoccupied—allow the serene oceanic spirit of nature to purify and take over the heart.

The cathedral of the heart is always at hand, and only requires the right kind of attention—open, sincere, longing for a world of spiritual beauty, for healing, cleansing, redemption. If a cathedral of stones or trees isn’t available, the cathedral of the heart is always here. The imagination can provide sublime sounds and images to arise in the cathedral of the heart. The culmination is the moment of sheer spiritual beauty felt in the cathedral of the heart.

Longing for paradise, we enter paradise.

Unity
So much of this particular life was spent focused on things, concepts, and words, to which this particular life became attached, adept at, enamored with, and enslaved by.

Things, concepts, words all seemingly separate the unity--they seemingly separate things, and they also seemingly separate us.

Separation is seemingly, apparent, virtual. In reality, nothing is ever separate, even though we may convince ourselves otherwise.

The illusion of separateness, when dispelled, reveals the ongoing peace of unity, the unconditional love the universal spirit has for itself.

There is something more vital than things, concepts, and words: vitality itself, lifespirit itself, the source.

Spirit is moved by spirit.

Every time spirit recognizes itself, spirit loves, and is loved by, spirit, spirit in every form.

To deny the presence of spirit is to deny the presence of this, or any, life.

Without anything needing said, or done, this very presence just is, and is none other than the universal Presence, none other than the universal spirit, the unity.

The main thing is to recognize the life spirit in oneself, as oneself, and to recognize the selfsame spirit in the apparent other, be it in the form of tree, earthworm, boulder, brook, sun, sky, man, woman, child.

The relationship the life spirit has with itself is intimate and eternal, love in perpetual motion.

Life recognizes life; life loves live; life is one.

Explicating the implicit is impossible—better, and easier, to simply be, to go on recognizing, and loving, and being, the unity.

Transforming Tragedy
Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves, blizzards, etc. are inevitable, part of the human condition, as are loss, change, pain, injury, illness, senescence and extinguishment. Even in the most ideal of circumstances, loss of body and brain awaits everyone. We are all falling from a great height, without a parachute.

Being identified and attached to this one particular body leads to a fear of the inevitable, fear of death. Living without ever considering just who, or what, is living this life—believing oneself to be this one particular body only—not only produces a sense of the tragedy of human life, but also is, in fact, the real, albeit contrived, tragedy. ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ So what, then, is to be examined to convert the tragic, unworthy-of-living life, into a life not just worth living, not just not tragic, but into a life that shines?

It helps to remember that no-one asks to be born, that everyone comes into this world without any concept of self, without any fear of death, without any concept of death, without any concept of being, or of nonbeing. We are all pure lifespirit, snatched straight from heaven, and brought into an ongoing soap opera created and sustained by a more or less dysfunctional, presumptuous, idiotic clan of human beings doing the best they can with what they happen to know at the time. Besides, without having been dysfunctional, presumptuous, and idiotic, we couldn’t come to appreciate how good it feels not to be that way.

The soap opera, the idiocy, the actual or perceived tragedy--and tragedies--of life, don’t change the fact that we are now, and always, pure lifespirit. That’s our ace in the hole—that no matter how dismal life seems to be, we can stop believing we’re this particular body and conditioned mind and resume our eternal state and status as the one shining lifespirit.

Experiencing, and accepting, life just as it is, includes experiencing, and accepting, our true, oceanic, nature. It’s never the same river twice, but it’s always the same ocean from which all rivers come, to which all rivers return.

Weal Wealth
It feels good to be a bit wealthy, even though that tends to be a temporary condition in many households. To have a period of time when all the bills are paid, when all the necessities of life are attained, brings a certain kind of peace of mind.

The word wealth comes from weal which means well. Well-being is not an abstraction, a number in a bank account, but experiential well-being.

Peace of mind—well-being—is existential wealth—a feeling of well-being, peace of mind—which is the kind of wealth available to anyone.

Material wealth does not imply well-being. Even though I may lack nothing materially, I may suffer greatly from a noisy, self-deluded conceptuality, being arrogant, judgmental, bitter, of course with “good reasons.”

I may also fall below the poverty line, all the while filled with wonder, empathy, acceptance, joy, peace, and gratitude.

Weal—wealth—well-being: this is a state of mind, a state of being, found to be the nature of our true nature of pure light.

Goo Goo G’Joob
A fascinating phenomenon is the energy field which surrounds all apparently-material forms, a field which can be seen when looked for and looked at the right way. Perceiving the energy field is a subtle skill, as it means looking not just at an optically obvious form, but in the space between forms, the space around forms. For instance, using a deep shadow as a background and a source of illumination such as a typical ceiling light—or sunlight, if outdoors—the energy field is seen around the hands when palms are facing each other at varying close distances, and between fingertips when fingertips are held close, but not touching, the other hand’s fingertips. Once the presence of the energy field is seen, it’s easy to shift attention to repeat its visualization in different circumstances, using different backgrounds, etc. Watching people walk past an evenly-illuminated picture window or projection screen, the energy field around each heads sweeps behind. The energy field surrounds everything--trees, rocks, even cars and trucks—when vehicles pass across the field of view, the surrounding field sweeps behind. Evenly-illuminated blank projection screens, deep shade, open sky, LCD monitors are among the excellent backgrounds to use for facilitating the visualization of the energy field. I just held opposing index fingertips apart about 1” using this LCD monitor screen as background, and behold, how clear and obvious the energy field, especially when the fingers are moved slightly, shifting position relative to the other hand’s fingertips to reveal how the field lines of the energy follow the fingertips as they move. The presence of the energy field is ubiquitous, unmistakable, irrefutable, undeniable, real.

Which brings me to two questions which arise, given the profound implications of the presence of this repeatable and reliably visualized, and wondrous, energy field: What am I seeing when I see this for lack of any better term, energy field; and who then is seeing this field?

After many decades since first seeing this phenomenon, and contemplating its implications, it’s my considered opinion that, being able to see the energy field, one must in fact be the energy.

In Iain McGilchrist’s great book The Master and his Emissary he suggests it’s a right-hemispheric way of seeing the world, as seeing not objects or individuals but as nodes of existential goo in a field of existential goo.

Nature’s Mind
Freedom is found in surrendering to the laws, and the calls, of nature. Eat when hungry; drink when thirsty; rest when weary: this is all of the effortless endless ongoing process that is nature. This very mind, too, is nature’s mind, effortlessly present. Nature sees herself with her own mind.

Withholding Judgment
It is my direct firsthand experiential experience that there are indeed two distinct ways to perceive: judgmentally, and non-judgmentally. From what I understand from the neuroscientists, it’s the left hemisphere of the brain that categorizes and critiques, “Best/Worst X Ever.” Whereas the right hemisphere takes it all in, non-judgmentally, uncritically, fully, alert, alive, and fresh to the nonverbal non-conceptual unfolding of the great What-Is. Pure awareness: untroubled, nonjudgmental, uncritical, unconditioned.

There are many practical advantages to left-brain critical thinking—it’s a splendid servant, but a terrible master. Whereas the pure-spirited pure awareness that is the wide-open spontaneity of the right brain is always good company, someone to trust, wise, loving, empathetic, nonjudgmental—a splendid master, but a rather inept servant.

I had this backward for such a long time, under the noisy cluttered absolutist rule of the left brain rather than the right. At least I can exquisitely savor the relief and the joy of being more a subject of the ‘rightful’ master now.

The Master’s Master
It’s agonizingly funny to watch how a nation chooses its alpha monkey. This begs the question, who’s really in charge of this whole show? My glib response is ‘nature.’ Nature is jolly well in charge of itself, and is simultaneously its own leader as well as follower, having no concept of being either, or of being anything at all. Our conscious mind thinks it’s in charge, thinks it knows anything, thinks it knows what it is and that it is. Whereas in fact all decisions are made spontaneously, unconsciously, by nature, which remains ever in charge of its own flesh and energy. There’s no free will to be found anywhere, as the sole agency of life is life itself, nature itself.

The Force of Nature
A figure of speech used to describe a powerful personage is he or she is “a force of nature.” This is a dualistic approach implying the person is a separate entity, “a” force of nature. The holistic approach that more closely approximates the reality of the situation would say this person—actually, any person—is in fact the force of nature. There is only one nature, and any apparently separate force of nature is in fact just a different aspect of the infinite aspects of the unitary force of unitary nature.

It’s wondrously empowering to recognize that we are all, without exception, the force of nature. It’s not ego-empowering at all, in fact it’s ego-shattering, to realize that there is no separate person, no individuality, no ego, only the force of nature, manifesting in and as every manifestation. To identify with the force of nature is to cease to identify with the concept of a separate self.

We are as empowered and as entitled to be the force of nature to the degree the strength of our attachment to the concept of being a separate self happens to be at our particular level of development.

How We See and What We See
How we see determines what we see; what we see determines how we see.
Once upon a time Salada tea bags had pithy one-liners on all its tea bag tags, and they were amusing and occasionally enlightening, such as the one that simply read: “What we see depends on what we look for.”
Wow.
True enough.
We are all Seers, see-ers. The only difference is how we see, and what we see.
What interests me greatly is how to bring it all together, so that the shared sameness is seen, not the differences.
Instead of seeing things, which appear different, why not turn attention to seeing itself—see seeing, a.k.a. awareness of awareness.
Empathy is awareness of awareness as obviously present in another living, breathing form.
Sophisticated, heavily-conditioned human beings aren’t aware of awareness, aren’t seeing seeing, but are rather captured by representations, concepts, of things, and are thus thing- and thought-thing-enslaved.
To be unaware of being captured by one’s own representations of reality is to misrepresent reality: seeing only representations of reality, and not knowing they’re only representations.
To see representations as representations and seeing as seeing is as close as we can come to seeing reality directly.
See things, and mental representations of things, and see seeing, which is no-thing: things and no-thing, seen at once.
Effortless, nonjudgmental, perfect, complete, united: nature, seeing and being.

What Am I Seeing? What Am I That Sees?
Keeping high standards of scientific rigor, I see what I see. I see energy, in forms, in between forms as energy field, all space filled with energy. What am I seeing, if not energy? What am I that sees, if not energy? To see, to be, the universal energy, is blessedness, true wealth, a charmed life if there ever was one. There is only energy, no separate beings, just one energy. O great cosmic spirit, evolutionary spirit, life spirit, the life of life, how great you are, and how great it is to be you and to not be that tortured fiction called me. Life eternal, light eternal.

Monkey See, Monkey Is
That we have ‘mirror neurons’ in the brain where the actions of the apparent Others are indistinguishable neurologically from our own action explains much—this is another way to describe the conditioning process where we develop a concept of a separate self that depends on the apparent Others in our perception. This process also enables us to have empathy with the apparent Others, as we identify with them.

Stand Down, People
Everyone, stand down. Let it drop. Let it go. Let go of all those desires, and fears, and anger, and hatred, and beliefs. Let it all go. Let it drop. Just be. Push away all thoughts, and be that which remains. What remains is pure awareness, pure spirit, without concept, without gender, without age, without name, without caste, without any affiliation whatsoever other than to itself, which is universal. See this universal principle as your true self. Recognize this universal principle in yourself, in everyone, in everything. This is the time for peace, which is found to be within all of us. Peace be upon us, peace be within us. Now. Be peace now. Stand down, and be peace.

Love Tickles
It’s a curious fact that we can’t tickle ourself, but need someone else to tickle us, and to be tickled. The same principle applies to any touch, or massage, or message, that comes from someone else—we can’t really surprise ourself and feel anything particularly intense when we say something to ourself, or touch or massage ourself, but when it comes from an other, it can be quite intense. Somehow making a connection with another body is more powerful than making a reconnection with our own body, which is already interconnected. This principle explains why lovemaking, or meeting a guru, can be a cosmic experience. Extending our connections just a little bit more helps us connect with the Totality, and recognize the presence of the Totality more easily within ourselves, and within the apparent Other.

Within Suffering, the Panacea of Pure Awareness
Every self-aware being throughout the universe is pure awareness, although the lens of mind may be so filtered and distorted by ignorance and delusion, erroneous beliefs, and mistaken identity that pure awareness is unknown to itself. The presence of pure awareness that is always with us as us, always coexists with mental confusion and is the cure for mental confusion, the panacea for mental suffering. Just to glimpse our true nature with our natural pure awareness is sufficient to show the way to the end of suffering, which is to simply let our true nature be our true nature, to rest in our pure awareness as pure awareness. Whatever arises in pure awareness falls in pure awareness—all things must pass, all things only being things arising and falling in pure awareness. It’s all as a dream, nothing to fear, nothing to grasp, in pure awareness. The universal spirit is pure awareness, and all beings are universal spirit, pure awareness. To know this, to be this, is the end of suffering, the end of birth and death.

Blessed by Emptiness
The universe is merciful because its nature is radiant, transparent emptiness. The emptiness of the universe is perfect freedom and free perfection. The universal energy experiences itself, dances with itself. There is no need to follow any script, no need to believe anything. Survival of the body is a temporary game, not a grim life-and-death struggle, nothing to cling to. The eternal emptiness, the eternal dance of energy, is eternal peace. We are the peace, the blessing, the dance, the energy, the emptiness. Buddha is in on the joke: go ahead and try to save yourself, try to save all beings, even though there are no beings to be saved.

What’s The Good Word
Post-ego-death what’s doing the talking, and what does it say? I don’t know. Self-effulgent Reality says what it says, naturally, spontaneously, whenever the next word happens to come forth from the mysterious source. What a relief—no need to be clever, no need to meet expectations, no need to prepare, no need to adjust, no need to contrive. No doer. No persons. No world. No God. No nothing.

Fun with the Dream
So dreamlike, this. That the universal energy configures itself, replicates itself, to the point where the replications really believe themselves to be separate beings with separate identities, is amazing, and a good enough reason to have some fun with it. Even though the Self is itself without qualities, without attributes, the infatuation with qualities and attributes that its deluded replications express is as entertaining as watching housecats chase toy mice and laser pointer dots on the floor. Why not out of sheer love provide eye candy, ear candy, mouth candy and mind candy to this legion of fictional entities?

So Soteriological
Words! banes and blessings. Once in a while a good word comes to mind, and thanks to the emptiness teachings for bandying about the excellently apt word soteriological. It’s truly all about salvation in the present.

This incarnation is bearable, the understanding of the rising and falling of consciousness and form, of the waves rising and falling in the vast ocean, is just plain soteriological.

Conceptual Claptrap in Principle
Having spent much of this incarnation at the mercy of thoughts, having until recently identified with thoughts and this particular body, I am much more careful lately with what words I choose to write or utter, and with what concepts I entertain and share. If possible, I dispense with words and concepts altogether and go straight to the source, the real deal, the universal spirit. On the level of universal spirit, few words are needed, as the universal spirit is non-conceptual, nonverbal, silent and formless even though pervading all sound and form. The ever-salient point is that the universal spirit is what’s living what we so carelessly call “our lives.” If we think we’re something other than the universal spirit, we’re delusional and we fear death, simple as that. On the positive side, once we understand we are the universal spirit, we’re instantly non-conceptual and non-delusional, and we no longer fear death, as we are no longer identified with a particular body, but know that we are in fact all bodies, life itself, all-pervading, birthless, deathless, eternal. To be this, to intercommunicate as this, is simple, spontaneous, natural, authentic, beyond conceptualizations. Some call the universal spirit the Principle. Recognize the Principle as oneself, recognize the Principle in this body, in every body. No-one exists but the Principle. The Principle is birthless and deathless.

The Ultimate Medicine
How wonderful that for a few dollars one of the greatest books ever found its way to my e-reader: The Ultimate Medicine. There’s no praise high enough. Everyone should read, and test out, and live, the words contained in this book. It’s egocidal, an egofuge.

Allee Allee In Free
Being primordial awareness
Being primordial being
Reveals how this passing show
Can be taken lightly
Subtracting delusion,
timeless absolute reality
no longer remains hidden.
Primordial freedom,
Our birthright,
Only needs subtraction of fears and desires,
The ending of attachment to the body,
The ending of mistaken identification with the body and mind and name and shape.
Come from primordialness, the source, the ever-living truth,
And experience how wonderful it is
To let the primordial speak the next word,
To let the primordial hear the next word.

Dzogchen, Dogzen, Catzen
How wonderful it is to be aware of awareness, and to be willing to follow that to absolute reality. How wonderful it is to find others who have likewise become aware of awareness, and have gone public with the good news. The Tibetan Buddhists have their unsurpassable Dzogchen, and some fun people of the U.S. have their unsurpassable “Dogzen.” It is of one flavor, and it is absolute reality found in pure awareness of pure awareness.

My household companions, naturally of nonconceptual awareness, melt on my lap by day, and melt into my head by night—or is it I melt into their heads, melting together in a nameless, nonconceptual blob of contented purry furriness.

The last phase of this lifetime is truly blessed. I can’t regret the years of inner suffering and be saying ‘if I only knew then what I know now.’ The beautiful reality is, it’s now, and there’s pure awareness, and there’s pure awareness of pure awareness.

Grounded
It’s not just the ground of being—it’s also the ground of awareness. The source—the base—the ground—it’s what is. Name and form and multiplicity and personhood and separateness can’t exist in this ground. There is truly no-one in the One, it’s all ground and ground-up. Everything vanishes, the ground remains eternally.

Kindled In the Nook of Timelessness
I picked up an affordable e-reader so that I could read downloaded e-books on it instead of having to be chained to the computer screen. The first pdf I transferred to it was I Am That; that alone is worth the price of the e-reader—actually, that alone is priceless, in any format. There’s nothing more that can be added to what is said in that timeless transcript of ultimate truth.

New Year’s Resolution: Lighten Up
The winter solstice is the start of the new year, the longest night and shortest day, a fleeting infinitesimal point where this spinning planet’s tilt relative to the sun suddenly shifts, when sunlight will steadily increase instead of decrease over six months.

The return of sunlight is as good a time as any to return to the ultimate light: the universal light of being, of awareness. Light returns to light. Light returns to itself. Light embodies, light disembodies, light remains.

Back to Basics
Most people use being and awareness as means to an end. To the contemplative, being and awareness are wondrous, ends in themselves. The fact that there is self-aware being, self-aware awareness, awareness-aware awareness, is not lost on the contemplative. We should all be contemplatives, and we should all be filled with unbearable wonder, over the sheer fact of being, of being aware, of being awareness. Pure being and pure awareness take us out of who we thought we were into a mode that’s truly timeless and universal, the one and true Self of all selves.

When I look at someone, when I converse with someone, I’m the universal timeless Self looking at and conversing with the universal timeless Self. I recognize the radiance of pure being, pure awareness, in everyone.

The basics—pure being, pure awareness, true nature—are everyone’s immeasurable wealth, if we care to realize this fact.

Be Your Own Savior
Each of us is a holographic piece of the whole. We need look no further than this very body, this very mind, to find the Whole-ness. This body, all energy, spacious and at ease; this mind, pure awareness, spacious and at ease—it’s all here, it’s all now. If we can’t find our savior within us as us, where are we to look?

Padmasambhava was so kind to exhort us to confirm within our experience what he experienced. Don’t take his word for it, don’t get all hagiographic on him, or on any other musty illustrious savior type. Everyone’s born in a manger of sorts, and everyone is one with the whole. Celebrate all the time this miracle of pure being, pure awareness, pure wholiness.

A distracted materialistic culture looks for peace everywhere but where it is, looks for the return of a savior that already lives within us as us.

Nature’s Intelligence
It’s such a joy to relax and be natural—and be nature—enjoying the open intelligence that is our true nature, nature’s true nature. Nature takes back its own, working through all parts of itself for the common good. There’s no separation, nothing to crave, nothing to fear. The open intelligence of nature, our true nature, takes care of business in a natural way.

The Great Spirit, the Great Mystery
It’s all well and good to go hardcore transpersonal. That doesn’t necessarily make a deep devotional urge to pray go away. As a wave of the ocean of universal spirit it feels right, and natural, and good, to pray to the universal spirit, and it’s already been given good names by good people of the Earth: the Great Spirit, or the Great Mystery.

The Great Spirit, inherently nameless, goes by as many names as there are self-aware beings throughout the multiverse. Intensely self-aware beings who reach a crisis point, a tipping point, where self-awareness turns into burning earnest self-inquiry—“Who am I?”—find themselves surrendering to the great universal spirit, the ocean of which they’re waves, and thus partake of the calm silence of pure being and pure awareness, the same calm silence throughout every universe within the multiverse.

We’re all aborigines, natives, of the same place—the multiverse—and it’s only natural, and authentic, for us to instinctively worship the omnipresent Great Spirit, the self-designing Design, the Great Mystery of being, of awareness.

Prayer reminds, affirms, celebrates, the unity of the ocean of spirit, the Great Spirit. To pray is to surrender, to admit that we are the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery.

Goodbye Wave, Hello Ocean
I love a good metaphor. Still my favorite: the ocean and its waves. To waves convinced they’re waves and not the ocean, existence is suffering, tragedy upon tragedy, loss upon loss, only to die. To waves that realize they’re the ocean, there’s no birth, no death, only the eternal ocean. When a wave surrenders to the truth and realizes it’s the ocean, it lives out its wavy days as ocean.

Love between waves, recognition between waves, is ocean loving itself, ocean recognizing itself.

Ocean rises out of itself as waves, ocean falls back into itself as waves. Waves of ocean appear and disappear, the ocean abides forever. How good it is to be the ocean. Being a wave is okay, it just has its ups and downs. Rest as pure being. Rest as pure awareness. Rest as ocean.

Rough Patches and Tough Times
Times are tough, tougher for some, not so much for others, but tough enough for everyone. Rough patches abound, and are getting agonizingly rough in some quarters. It’s rough and tough enough in this quarter. This moment can be, if taken in the spirit of personal growth, one big teachable moment. It’s helping me focus on the superpowers of resilience, patience, clarity, and mindfulness, and it’s my deepest wish that others will focus on the same, will wish for the same. The universe, mercifully, provides us with an unfailing source of resilience, patience, clarity, and mindfulness, i.e., our true nature. Being That which we eternally are puts personal suffering into cosmic perspective, and, more to the point, provides immediate spiritual sustenance: resilience, patience, clarity, and mindfulness. The troubled heart can untrouble itself and find rest in our true nature.

Cool Spirit
Science reveals all is energy, no matter how it appears. That we’re this radiant, vibrant singularity of energy is cause for spiritual joy. The spirit of the universe is all there is, and all there is to be.

Being Ground of Being
How good it is to be able to regard oneself not as a person with a particular history and unique attributes but as the ground of being. It’s our prerogative to look at ourselves in a new way, a better way, a deeper way, a real way. Over the course of decades of exposure to the world it is now my pleasure to announce that I am the ground of being, and so are you. This is a great fact, and a great relief. This is truly a great thing, being the ground of being.

In-Sourcing
It’s essential for self-realization to ask the right question, and the most righteous question pertains to the unfathomable Source of the “I am.” It’s a question best answered by the unfathomable Source itself. The answer is as silent as pure awareness, as silent as pure being. The Source is the sole agency throughout the universe; the Source is the universe, and the universe is the Source. It’s unbearably astounding at first to let the Source be in charge, to let the Source see through its eyes and hear through its ears, to let the Source walk with its legs and talk with its voice box. After a while it becomes natural, the norm, the baseline, as well it should, for it’s the Source that circulates blood and breathes and digests and evolves and erupts into universes. Anyone can be--anyone should be--anyone already is--the human expression of the Source.

Pure Nature Spirit Life
When the sophisticated sphere of human vanity has left me cold and contemptuous, filled with loathing, ashamed of my species, and I plunge into the deepest darkest misanthropic depression, I need look no further than the cats on my lap to find transcendent wisdom shining in their eyes. We’re together, sharing life, precious life, and that’s enough. When I walk to work and I manage to find a patch of radiant, verdant moss, I’m reminded of the simple gift of life, and that’s enough.

We come into the world from life, as life; from nature, as nature. We may not have a name, or role, or status, or possession of any kind, but we come forth from life as life itself.

As I watch people near and dear and far and wide lose fortunes and possessions as this materialistic unsustainable so-called civilization continues to fall apart, and as I consider the possibility of losing all that I foolishly believe to be my own fortune and possessions, by no means being exempt from sharing the fate of my people, I turn to that which I have, no matter what, and that’s life, and even so, I can’t “have” life—I can only be life, otherwise I’ll lose what I foolishly regard as “my” life. As life itself, I live forever. If I dare believe I “have” life, I’ll certainly die.

I believe in that which is, and that which is, is spirit—pure nature, pure life, pure spirit: wild, free, alive, self-existent, real. It’s here, it’s now, it’s what is. Spiritual life, spiritual values, prevail when all else is lost. When there’s life, there’s hope.

To be healthy and sane enough to be able to say “I am” means we’re able to inquire into just what this thing is that’s feeling its own life well enough to say “I am.” The inquiry leads straight to the only wealth there is, the spiritual wealth of self-realization, of realizing that we are pure nature spirit itself.

The way to the wealth of self-realization is a short commute, no infernal-combustion vehicle required—it’s right here, right now.

Default to Now
We’re all stuck in the Now. How Now? How’s your Now? The science of the Now is Now. How the Now is for us depends on how we think, and what we believe ourself to be. Thinking, conceptualizing, takes us out of the Now to a Then or to an Elsewhere. Believing ourself to be something that we’re not narrows our perception of the Now and limits vision to only those things which we look for.

Being stuck in the Now is a very secure fate, as it is the only valid destination there is. I have arrived at the Now, as have we all. I am pure consciousness, as are we all. The eyes of Nature are these very eyes, right here, right now, the same Eye of Nature of every beast, of every human being living and dying, of every newborn, in the Now.

Slow down, stop if you must. There’s a speed where we go too fast and disconnect with the Now. Besides, the Now is the destination, what’s the hurry? We are Nature’s pure consciousness in the Now—what’s better than being This, Here, Now?

Being stuck in the Now is Sat Chit Ananda—Being/Awareness/Bliss. If it’s not, scientifically empirically experientially find out where you’re taking yourself and see if that’s where you want to be, and how you want to be, and what you want to be, forever.

Sat Chit Ananda is our default setting in the Now.

Lose Your Mind
If I didn’t know better I’d swear I’m losing my mind. Many years, perhaps decades, ago, I noticed I couldn’t shake this feeling of being stuck in a dreamlike state, being just a passive observer of the passing show. Now I understand it’s just the hand I’ve been dealt: being extremely introspective, extremely self-aware. Some friends and family members have been frustrated and disappointed with me, not having met anything close to their expectations.

It turns out this passive observer of the dreamlike passing show is none other than the universal mind, nature’s mind, and is impersonal and transpersonal. This is a realization that’s a flat-out blessing, the best of the best, something I wish for everyone, and something that everyone already has, or, rather, is. Everyone already is pure being, pure awareness, pure bliss; everyone who sincerely wants to realize this pre-existing condition, this pre-existing identity, can realize it.

Rather than encourage value systems and perspectives that are irrelevant to the living reality of the universal spirit, values and perspectives that have proven themselves limited and false, values and perspectives that I’m all too familiar with, having been a slave to them for a very long time, I won’t play along with them and try to pretend to be anything else than what I really am, which happens to be what everyone really is. It’s that thing that we are that communicates, and loves, and dances, day after day. In this dreamlike unfolding of events, we appear before each other, the universal spirit and the universal mind. Your mind and my mind, seemingly separate, different, and proprietary, are irrelevant, unreal, appropriated by a nonexistent entity—only the universal mind prevails, not mine, not yours, not anyone’s to claim as their own. Lose your mind. It’s not yours, it’s not you. Please. Thank you.

Self-Torture and Self-Terrorizing
The ego is easy to detect—when it’s in presumptive control, when it’s the presumptive identity, there’s suffering: self-torture. There’s seemingly no limit to the number or duration of self-tortures the ego can come up with, a stunning variety of fears and desires and attachments and delusions.

The self-torture of the ego has a therapeutic function. Just as pain signifies a physiologic problem that needs addressed, the suffering of self-torture signifies a spiritual problem which is unrecognized, unbridled ego—a false entity presumed to be in control, a false entity presumed to be one’s identity. The cure for the dis-ease of ego is surrendering control to the universal spirit of Nature, and letting the universal spirit of Nature become one’s real identity.

When at last, through surrender of ego to Nature, when Nature sees through its own eyes and recognizes itself in its own pure awareness, there arises unconditioned freedom, the end of self-torture, the end of ego’s reign of self-terror. Nature lives in a human form for a while, and lives in all forms, forever.

Preventing Getting Burned At The Stake
It’s considered to be, at the least, annoying, and at the most, blasphemous, to profess to be God incarnate. Including everyone else in this divinity may not be enough to forestall an Inquisition. There’s a neat solution to running the needless risk of perceived megalomania: say instead, I’m Nature incarnate. Who could dispute that? Especially when you’re quick to add, We’re ALL Nature incarnate.

The risk we run when professing ourselves to be Nature incarnate is merely pissing off people who still very much identify with, and therefore are controlled by, a delusional entity known as the ego.

Marketing Spirituality
Aside from the greedy cynical hypocritical charlatans who know how to make a very good living off the spiritual searching of gullible people of material wealth, the genuine coin of the genuine spiritual world is spiritual understanding; spiritual understanding is associated with non-attachment to both material and spiritual things. Having recognized and identified with spirit, the spiritual search has ended with being that which we already are. Aware of being, and aware of awareness, and mindful of that which is, and that which is awareness, there’s inexpressible wholeness lacking nothing.

As techno-material civilization suffers from ever-diminishing returns, the demand for spiritual wholeness increases. Meeting this demand is the bailiwick of those who have found their way to wholeness. Facilitators of wholeness, who embody the ultimate low-maintenance way of life, require very little in the way of material goods and services, and therefore are available and affordable to everyone. One doesn’t charge oneself for one’s services. The joy of being whole--of being that which we really, and already, are--is sufficient compensation.

Astonishment
We should all be much and often astonished by nothing more than the sheer fact of being, and of being pure awareness. A dearth of astonishment is caused by ignorance, attachment, and distraction.

Bookishness as Spiritual Salvation
“The life of the mind”—a civilized, contemplative, self-disciplined, quiet way of life—is respected because it indicates the presence of a life that’s self-aware and self-inquiring, an oasis of self-controlled, intelligent flesh. A person walking across town carrying a book is deemed to be harmless, to be someone trustworthy and considerate, someone worth knowing.

The great benefit of being bookish, of being generally introspective, is in large measure a survival benefit. A moderate, quiet, prudent person best preserves the glorious ground of being, and is slowed-down enough to be in touch with it, to savor it and to draw sustenance from it. Rich inner resources indeed!

There is nothing more thrilling than the quiet ecstasy of self-realization, when the wave remembers it’s the ocean. Blessed are the bookish, for they shall see the face of the living truth as their own.

Oceanic
The ocean of nature, the ocean of energy, the ocean of being, the ocean of the cosmos, is one ocean. Every seemingly separate thing is in fact a wave of the one ocean, each wave composed of 100% ocean, and fully connected and coextensive with it. There is no point where ocean ends and wave begins.

A wave that believes it’s something other than ocean-as-wave is confused, ignorant, insecure, and at the mercy of its delusions. As soon as the wave ceases clinging to beliefs and allows the ocean to be ocean-as-wave, the wavy life becomes bearable if not blissful. When the wave realizes its true nature is the ocean, there arises oceanic peace of one ocean life.

Dead Man Walking
In the time before acquiring the additional adjectival name modifier ‘the late’—mindful of how little time there is for anyone—every day is an opportunity to zero in on what’s most important, most meaningful, most worthwhile, most deserving of our attention. Waking up from the protracted distraction of vain concerns, I rest my gaze upon the frost-covered grass and the eyes of fellow passers-by. How would anyone behave if they knew this day could be their last?

It’s always the simple things, the little things, the things that are naturally already in place, that are worth our precious time: life itself, awareness itself, and loving communion with all that shares this life and awareness.

Dying A Thousand Ego Deaths
Every self-aware, self-inquiring animal owes it to Nature to undergo at least one ego death before biological death. By submitting to ego death, we allow Nature to manifest fully through the animal as Nature, not as a fictional entity living in chronic self-deception. Ego death enables us to directly experience and deeply understand just what is living this life we presume to be “ours.”

Egocentrism is a contagion, passed on to the vulnerable young, and passed between self-aware animals who have yet to engage in deep self-inquiry. The company of our loved ones, friend, family, acquaintances, strangers, partners, clients, customers, providers—the company of human society—is unavoidable, and there the disease of egocentricity is passed around like a bad cold.

Whenever possible, in solitude, with pure-spirited flora and fauna as companions, we can submit to an ego death before re-entering human society. It’s then afterwards possible to suffer the noisy minds and mouths of society, perhaps even suffer gladly, when we’re immunized against egocentrism, the vaccine of authenticity recognizing it before it has a chance to repossess the pure egoless animal.

The ego, false conditional center of identity that it may be, is still necessary to endure and pass through. Brief glimpses of the true self—the Self—are inspiring, but ego loss requires diligent vigilance. The ego, when seen as the source of suffering, falls away, and the clear pure single eye of the universe sees without the obscuring encrustations of a contrived, false identity.

Whatever suffering is involved with the process of ego death, it’s toward the end of suffering, rather than merely enabling its source, the ego. Dying to ego is our personal crucifixion, the death of the nonexistent person, and brings about our personal resurrection as eternal life itself, the Self.

Self-realization should be at the top of everyone’s bucket list, and everyone’s to-do list, or rather, everyone’s to-be list.

Forget Me
Who we think we are depends on functioning memory. If we have total amnesia, we have no idea who we are supposed to be. The amnesiac can only say, “I am” – he can’t say anything past “I am.” He has no name, no role, no identity. He can only say “I am.” As to what, or who, he is, he has no idea.

For me to exist, I have to be able to remember me. Only with great effort can I forget me, and when I do, I have clarity and insight. I become clarity, I become insight, having forgotten me.

Without memory, pure awareness is the only thing left.

The Livingness
What’s shared by all living beings is livingness, the flame of life. Livingness is pure awareness, pure being, pure spirit, silent and free. It’s not just where all living beings come from, it’s what we are. Livingness is exquisitely intimate, and absolutely impersonal, at once. Livingness is fully present, in the present. Livingness is pure Nature, and our true nature; livingness is eternal, universal. We are The Livingness.

Being Generic
What is a brand, but giving a piece of the universe a separate contrived identity, a form of ego for a thing, so that it can be kept separate from the whole and bought and sold. What a pain in the ass it is to protect one’s brand, one’s things, one’s misperceived separateness. What a relief it is to resume being generic, Brand X, un-branded and un-brandable. There’s no security to be found in private property—privacy and property are doomed to be lost in the life of the Whole. Nature is public, common, owned by no-one and owning nothing. The only way to be sustainably secure is to surrender privacy, property, and brandishments and simply be an animal of generic and anonymous Nature. Brands die, the self-generating generic lives forever.

Unconditioned Surrender
It’s common for people to identify with the conditioned part of the mind, the learned identity. Identifying with thoughts, with likes and dislikes, with desires and fears, attached to things, thoughts, prejudices and opinions, is only natural. What’s wonderful is to discover, out of desperation and diminishing returns from identifying too long with the conditioned mind, the unconditioned mind fully present, silent and pure: pure awareness. In this very moment, the unconditioned universal mind—pure awareness—is fully present, fully available, fully real. Pure awareness is sanity. Pure awareness is innocence. Pure awareness is real. To identify with pure awareness, the unconditioned mind, is to identify with nature, with life, with the universal spirit, for the manifestation of the universal spirit is pure awareness and pure beingness.

To find sanity and innocence alive and intact within is a profound relief, and wonderful. To give up the pride of the conditioned mind—the ego—and completely surrender to the great universal spirit and its pure awareness and pure being, is a blessing known by all too few.

Furry Life-Coach
The guru in this modern culture is called the ‘life coach’ who will inspire and guide, for a fee. My guru is the natural world, and the handiest manifestation of the natural world is one of the cats. Furbananda, for instance, is a twelve-pound black American Domestic Shorthair housecat. He is devoted to me as I to him. Without any Skype consultations and money changing hands—or paws—Furbananda manages to guide me to a very good place in my life, that of natural simplicity. How good it is to sleep, and to eat, and to drink, and to play. How good it feels to be rubbed the right way. How therapeutic it is to look directly into Furbananda’s eyes, in mutual recognition of our shared spirit. The wild delight in those eyes, the total acceptance, the complete lack of pretense and prejudice, heals the sophisticated sickness that’s been my longtime curse.

I slept well last night and I feel great. This is enough for me. When I’m hungry I’ll heat up some beans and rice, have an apple, and be satisfied. When I’m overflowing with animal spirits I’ll sit down at the piano and bang out sounds just for the sheer fun of making sounds. There’s no difference between me and the cats. We’re all just animals, living spontaneously and joyously this day to which we’ve awakened. To be coached by another animal in the ancient way of the animal is such a blessing.

Firsthand Nature Healing
Walking to work, I take in the flora that’s re-emerged along the bottom of the schoolyard fence in spite of the fact that it was heavily hit with herbicide over the summer. The resiliency of the wild is a beautiful thing to behold. Just setting my eyes on the narrow strip of radiant verdant life--the grasses, the mosses—feels so good.

Last weekend I took the time, at the spur of the moment, to wander in the local preserve for several hours. The flora and fauna were stunningly vibrant, everywhere I looked. Mushrooms in particular were in abundance, spectacular and variegated. Two does and a buck in a sunny field were as surprised as me when I walked into their territory. The does remained, and the buck did his best to intimidate me away from his love interests. Snorting and stomping, he finally took off into the deep woods as I continued walking back home.

Whenever possible, and wherever possible, be healed by firsthand nature. To be in the presence of the pure nature spirit is the important thing. It’s not the species, or the appearance, that matters—it’s the pure living nature spirit. It’s the direct perception, the direct exposure, to the pure spirit of nature that heals.

Companion animals, cats and dogs, are pure-spirited, without self-concept, without ego, and to be in their presence heals, because cats and dogs are bearers of the pure spirit of nature, and the pure spirit of nature heals. It’s not the appearance that heals, it’s the radiant spirit of nature that heals. Being in the presence of flora and fauna sustains and heals.

No-one can be in the presence of the pure spirit of nature for us—we must directly perceive it ourselves, we must ourselves be in the presence of the pure spirit of nature. There is no substitute for the pure spirit of nature—it can’t be mere appearance, it can’t be a mere virtual simulacrum. The pure spirit of nature can’t be captured or kept. It glows, it flows, it’s real, it heals. The pure spirit of nature recognizes itself, communes with itself, heals itself.

One Life
The pure spirit is the life of every living form, one spirit in many forms. Spirit touches spirit, form to form, spirit to spirit. Feeling the life within oneself is to feel the pure spirit, spirit feeling spirit. As the spirit is always one and the same spirit, by simply directing attention within, the pure nature spirit can recognize itself, commune with itself, and heal itself, within the same given form just as well as between different-appearing seemingly separate forms. Being an animal among animals, human beings reclaim the birthright of being Nature, of being the pure nature spirit itself, the one life of Nature, the Principle, the Light.

In the fullest sense of the word vital, it’s vitally important that we recognize and commune with the one pure spirit of Nature, the life of every brief living form, be it moss, mushroom, bird, deer, cat, dog, human being, galaxy and universe growing sentient. We are one life, one eternal universal life. To know this, to remember this, to be this, makes bearable and meaningful the inevitable changes that befall life in form. Be in touch with life itself, the one life, life in touch with itself, waking up in one form or another, always the same life.

Burdened and Unburdened
It’s the lot of the thinking animal to carry burdens that are wholly in the imagination. The mind can get so terribly burdened with uneasy thoughts. What a relief when at last the mind is found in its essence to be completely unburdened, vast, free, spacious, transparent, and calm. It’s a transcendent pleasure to savor the freedom of being that is our essence.

The Joy of Flesh
Just as the blind man describes what he sees as that which a not-blind man would see through the soles of his feet, so it is that flesh is, in its essence, innocent, pure, beyond the troubled imagery of the deluded conditioned mind. The eyes of living flesh are ablaze with pure light; all living flesh is radiant with lifespirit.

That Synching Feeling
Cosmic energy is fully engaged with planetary life. When conditions are suitable, there’s full synchronization with the present, with the body, with the mind, cosmic energy in synch with itself. We thus recognize fullness of being as beings of pure energy, and feel it in every radiant vibrant fiber of our being.

Spirit of the Universe
It’s a challenge to come up with the right words, words that, if not fully defining the thing, at least don’t misrepresent it too severely. To find the right words to define the Animating Principle of the universe is an ongoing search. This morning, while walking to work, it felt like the best words to define that which is being, that which is awareness, that which is life, is the spirit of the universe. It’s not quantum particles I’m talking about here, it’s the force that permeates everything, that in fact causes everything to have its life, movement, and being. As someone who has, since early youth, been able to directly visualize the energy field around all things, including himself—testing this perception and testing the behavior of the energy field by manipulating it and confirming its undeniable presence—the significance of the energy field has at last become very clear: we are the energy of the universe, the spirit of the universe, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Surrendering to the truth of our true nature and true identity as the spirit of the universe makes life very interesting, meaningful, and bearable; surrendering to the spirit of the universe before biological senescence and death removes all terror from these otherwise terrifying life changes. The spirit of the universe is universal and eternal. The person, the ego, is a delusion, is nonexistent. We are, always, the spirit of the universe.

The Energy of Awareness, the Awareness of Energy
By whatever means available, it’s good to become as aware as possible of the universal energy, to feel it directly within oneself, as oneself, the energy of awareness, the energy of nature, the energy of life.

Surrendering to Nature
It feels so good to surrender to Nature. To know oneself to be Nature, it’s only natural to have no misgivings about giving up everything to Nature. Especially when there’s weariness, how inviting Nature becomes. To be now, and forever, the great ongoing life of Nature, is to be at rest while in eternal motion.

Ailurophilia
The companionship of cats is a blessing. The profound contentment the cat enjoys is contagious. Whenever a cat approaches, acknowledge him, and love him unconditionally, and abide in bliss with him in the present. Find the cat’s contentment within, and take delight in pure being, pure awareness, pure bliss. Cats are pure nature spirits, pure spirits, nature spirits, pure, nature, spirit. Life really is as uncomplicated as a cat’s life. To live in the moment, day after day, is to really live.

Making Me, God, Everything and Everyone Appear and Disappear
It’s amazing how whenever I believe I’m a separate person I suddenly appear, and while I’m believing that, other separate things and persons appear, including the concept of a separate all-knowing Supreme Person, God. Things are to be had, activities are to be done, and I’m the Possessor and the Doer, the Believer and the Other.

It’s even more amazing how whenever I drop the notion of existing as a person I suddenly disappear, and with that, there’s automatically the dropping of the notion of the existence of other things and people and God, and they all then disappear, everything and everyone all melting into one, canceling out, with nothing to see and no-one seeing.

The One knows not it is the One; it is only known by the Many; when the Many return to the One, there is no-one around who knows, and no One.

Keep Being One
Complicated minds find reasons to live complicated lives, and alas, can also find reasons to die, if only to end the misery of a complicated mind. With the help of the suffering and confusion that comes from belief in a false self, I’ve learned to return to the One, and have found simplicity, freedom, and peace in being That which I am. How I wish that troubled beings would turn within and find that they, too, are the One, and enjoy the simplicity, freedom and peace of That which we all are. The One can bear the most complicated of minds easily, for it can only be the One. How good it feels for one to be one with the One.

Take Your Ease
One of the attributes of the One is its intrinsic ease. Throughout the natural world, plants, animals, minerals all naturally take their ease, manifesting the natural fullness and perfection of the One. While going about the business of the day, there’s a constant sense of ease. When clinging stops, when grasping stops, ease takes over. The universe, for all its astonishing dynamism, is ever at ease.

Nothing is the Source of Peace
When I look within for the source of peace I find it in Nothing, literally Nothing. Just as “God” is so merciful because “He” doesn’t exist, peace, and mercy, comes from the pure emptiness within. By accepting all, mercy and peace abound. Nothing naturally accepts everything.

Love, Peace, and Survival
As the last survivor of my immediate family I’m keenly aware of how borrowed is this bodily time. I do what I can to stretch out whatever time remains with the help of wholesome habits. I honor my ancestors as well as my contemporaries, while I’m still embodied and able-bodied, by the way I live, by the way I be.

Love is never wasted, ‘tis true. Every encounter with another being is an opportunity to pause and share the life, to share the love life naturally has for itself.

Some life is prey, some life is predator. Each survives as the other.

Plants selflessly share their life with mine so that I may survive. I give plants the opportunity to live as a human being. Ultimately I will return all that I am to all plants and animals.

Survival evidently has happened again today, and maybe tomorrow, and my gift to myself in this form and to myself in every other form is simple: love, peace, and continued survival.

Immediate Gratification
It’s normal to look to things or activities to provide gratification, whether actual or virtual gratification. There’s also a form of immediate gratification available to us that isn’t a thing, and isn’t an activity, but it is nothing if not immediate, and that is the effortless, spontaneous presence of the natural state. The body-mind in its natural state is relaxed, content, whole. The natural state is coextensive with the universe—it’s the natural state of the whole universe found in this very human life. We enjoy the life of the universe, for we are the life of the universe, spontaneous, effortless, whole. Just being the eyes, and mind, and life of the universe is an almost unbearable delight, always immediate, always present. As waves of the ocean, we rejoice as we rise, we rejoice as we fall and rejoin the ocean. For we are the ocean, we are the One. To know this, to be this, is immediately gratifying.

Beacons of Being
At the core of every individual existence is pure being, pure light, the very spirit of the universe. Being this, there is complete unity with all that is. Only in deluded mind is there any separation of the individual from the Whole.

As beings of universal spirit, we shine, and we see the same eternal light in every individual. In this and every world we shine, conduits of the one light, beacons of pure being.

Love without God
There is no-one to be called God, and no-one to name God. The absence of the concept of God or of the name God doesn’t change anything. In this one seamless Whole manifesting everywhere the life of the Whole recognizes itself, and when it does, there is love. There is no God, but love happens anyway. Some say God is love, other say Gravity is love. In this eternal dance of energy, why not love our dancing partners?

Bread and Beans
The contemplative life is the ultimate low-maintenance one-world-sustainable life. There’s nothing needed, nowhere to go, nothing to do. The simple basic necessities of life are enough: plain food, a little water, clothes enough for the weather, and basic shelter. The voluntarily austere way of life is a life celebrating the freedom of the spirit, finding fulfillment from within rather than from without. To a sophisticated materialist, such a way of life is sheer madness, intolerable, cruel and unusual punishment. A prisoner in solitary confinement lives an opulent life by comparison.

We can be an animal truly worthy of the name sapiens if we can live as simply as an animal, finding contentment in the here and now just as any animal can.

Universal Spirit
The moments of maximum clarity and insight can happen anywhere at any time. I vividly recall the moment while walking down the sidewalk on my way to work how the natural pure awareness presence just took over, to the astonishment of my conditioned mind. Also there was the time when I was walking across town, circled the cemetery, and as I was exiting the cemetery the universal spirit’s presence fully took over, again to the conditioned mind’s astonishment. To be be able to fully recognize, and accept, one’s true identity as the universal spirit is an inherently desperate process: the conditioned mind, the self-limited identity, the fictitious personal life, the changes and losses of the world and of physical existence, makes life so unbearably meaningless and frustrating and desperate that truth is the only option left—the ultimate truth. And the ultimate truth is, everyone is the universal spirit in self-aware human form. This truth is liberating, and available to everyone. It reconciles everything.

Made In Our Image
The “God” people fear is a person made in their own image—and this person is a delusion. In reality, all that exists is Nature and its laws—ITS laws, not HIS/HER laws. There is no person to be found anywhere, in any species, including the species Homo sapiens. It’s all energy, impersonal, interchanging, interpenetrating, all one Thing, all one It.

Being an It has its benefits: nothing to gain, nothing to lose. How can what just spontaneously is ever be gained or lost.

The delusion of personhood hates to go away gently or otherwise. Belief in “God” implies belief in ego, belief in a fictitious separate self.

We are made in “God’s” image, i.e., we are that totality of spontaneous impersonal energy that comes and goes eternally throughout the multiverse.

Nature, It’s The Law
Not only is Nature the Law, but also what is so heedlessly called “God.” The bandying-about of the G-word by politicians is in fact nothing less than appropriating authority by their colossal egos. “God” becomes a code word for “obey me, and believe what I believe, or else.”

What’s so hard about worshiping Nature rather than an abstract, nonexistent God? What’s so wrong about obeying the laws of Nature rather than the man-made laws of a man-made “God”?

Nature Spirits
In the throes of delusional insecurity I look no further than the cats who share my home. Content, secure, relaxed, they teach me how to be one with Nature.

Clouds
Everyone, everything, is temporarily assembled in the void, like clouds appearing and disappearing in the vast sky. Everyone, everything, is of one essence. Even though every cloud of one essence is temporary, its essence is eternal, and the cloudmaking process continues forever, somewhere.

Everyone Should Be A Cosmologist
Self-aware and aware of mortality, we can’t help but be fearless in our quest for understanding. Question authority. Question reality. Question everything. See directly. Think critically, independently, deeply. Keep an open mind, consult experts and non-experts, observe, listen, experience firsthand, and let understanding unfold naturally. Natural law used to be called God. By devoting ourselves to understanding natural law and being part of nature, we’re understanding our true self. There are no other real laws other than natural laws.

Who is my master? Who am I? Nature itself, and its transcendent laws.

Cosmology is the study of the totality of natural law, the totality of that which is.

Biocentric Economy
The materialistic money-based economy is reaching its limits. Natural law trumps everything, including the fondest hopes of the most materialistic culture. Real wealth is clean water, clean air, wholesome food, and a sustainable way of life that every human being on this planet can live that’s within this planet’s carrying capacity. Money is unnecessary—the free exchange of goods and services for the common good is the best possible economic system. For such a system to work, people must learn how to be happy with very little. It will take much cultural maturity to be happy with nothing more than health, well-being, sustainability, and the common good. For seven billion people to live a one-planet way of life, we will have to give up attachments to energy- and resource-intensive commodities.

Spirit-based Economy
The multiverse is spirit, filling all space. To recognize our true nature as pure spirit—the wave recognizing its true nature as ocean—is to go beyond contentment, beyond bliss, beyond separate existence, beyond fear, beyond craving. As beings of one spirit, very little is required beyond the basic necessities. As human culture matures and becomes spirit-based, the only currency required is the current of spirit flowing everywhere.

Fun Spirit
The spirit of the universe is the quintessence of fun. From nothing comes something, from something comes nothing, over and over, energy dancing in the void, forever. Knowing this, being this, how else to be but a fun person, what else to do but have fun.

As beings of universal spirit, we derive our sustenance from the earth and sun, feeding on light. We are all, in essence, Light-hearted beings, fed, clothed, and housed with Light. There are no burdens, no debts, known to the universe of Light, the spirit of eternal fun.

Transparent Fluidity
Once in a while I’ll dream of flowing spring water. Such pure water is a perfect symbol of pure spirit. We’re never the same person from day to day, moment to moment, as the pure spirit flows through everything. In fact, everything is pure spirit. Even turbidity and opacity is, in essence, transparent. Pure awareness, pure beingness, is pure spirit manifesting as awareness and being.

Nothing to grasp, no-one grasping, all is spirit.

Self-Correcting Spirit
Egoic worrying made for a very short night, but the sleep deprivation helps to break down the grip of the ego, so all’s well. Consulting my trusted feline advisors, those pure worry-free egoless spirits, I once again remember that the most important thing is pure spirit itself, and to let things sort themselves out as they must on the material plane. The spiritual plane comes first. People just have to learn to be in touch with spirit, and to trust the pure spirit that we really are, and find our way to the peace and completeness of the pure spirit. Otherwise life is a shit sandwich.

Non-attachment = Freedom
The condition of total spiritual freedom is demonstrably at hand here and now, testable and repeatable, empirically, experientially. Spiritual freedom requires sincere, mindful non-attachment to everything, even to non-attachment. When thorough non-attachment has arisen, there arises with it the condition of total spiritual freedom. The mind is free, the body is free, the spirit is free. The true Self is eternally, universally free—it’s only natural that when attachments to the false self and the false self’s attachments are exhausted, the true Self and its intrinsic freedom manifest. There’s no-one who can be attached, there’s nothing to be attached to--all is the Self, One.

Dance in freedom
Sing in freedom
Laugh in freedom
Play in freedom
Be in freedom

The true test of non-attachment is the quality of constancy, constant spiritual freedom in every circumstance, from wealth to poverty, from pleasure to pain, from youth to senescence, through all the inevitable changes of the phenomenal universe. The universe lives forever with itself, with infinite patience and unconditional acceptance.

Like a Dream
The experience of life is dreamlike in quality, despite stressful personal investment in survival and egoic drama. That there appears to be being, that there appears to be consciousness, is a shared experience, commonplace and yet astonishing upon reflection. In this shared, ongoing dreamlike experience phenomena appear, change, and disappear. Before the phenomena we call our bodies disappear, it’s up to us to make this shared dreamlike experience called life the opportunity to recognize our shared true nature, and let our true nature express itself, the love it has for itself in every dreamlike form.

This Beastly Life is Life’s Life
Preparing for death is preparing for life, and the fundamental prep work is to inquire, Just who, or what, is living this life called “my life”? It’s this who, or what, living this life that comes and goes, forever riding the beasts born, living, and dying. If this life is life’s life, does it really die when the beast dies? Every beast sooner or later becomes an available inanimate carcass that feeds other beasts.

Life’s presence in the animated meat called the beast is recognized by other animated meat through the process of mutual awareness. Awareness is life’s awareness. The beastly animated presence is life’s presence. The magic electricity that’s life is one electricity, one circuit, one life. This very awareness, this very presence, this very life, is life’s awareness, life’s presence, life’s life.

It’s not hubris, it’s not megalomania, to live as life itself—it’s the living truth. We beasts owe it to ourselves and to each other to allow ourselves to be blessed with the recognition of the living truth and to simply be the living truth, the one and only universal life, where death is an absurdity, a concept held only by delusional beasts.

self-esteem and Self esteem
What self is being esteemed, the false self, the ego, or the true Self, the One? Why bother feeding any ego, no matter how small or large it happens to be? Conventional self-esteem reinforces the delusion of a separate self, the existence of the nonexistent ego, the false notion of do-ership. “Look what I can do!” “Hooray for me!”

What every self-aware life form needs is deep, penetrating insight into the true Self: that each unique wave rising and falling upon the ocean is the ocean, the same water in every wave. To esteem our true nature, our waterhood, our oceanness, starves the ego, and thus ends the belief in what we are not, and we then realize there’s nothing but the true life of the true Self living in us as us.

Electric Meat, Electric Love, Electric One
At the funeral visitation of a mutual friend, a friend and I had a chance to chat here and there in the expanses of an old soaring Roman Catholic church. Seeing the inanimate meat of our friend lying in the coffin was plenty of impetus to appreciate the animate meat that is us, the living. The animating principle is the same in every living being; sentience arises as an aspect of the animating principle.

In the midst of constant change, of poverty, illness, old age, death, and all manner of disability, there’s one constant that is the source of peace, and of bedrock security: the electricity of life, the animating principle of life, pervading all. The circuit, the electricity, goes on, and we’re it. I will remain appreciative of the electricity, and signal with it, the only message that I care to signal being that of love.

The signals are to my Self, greeting my Self here, there, everywhere: the Energy--the Electricity--just this, just One, always the One, already the One.

Natural Awareness
Pure, sheer, simple, natural awareness is without any sense of self whatsoever, even though it is That which we are. That’s a very good thing. How wonderful it is to directly experience natural awareness, and to recognize it as That which we really are. Whever natural awareness arises, there we are. Natural awareness is nature’s awareness. The person, the personality, is fictional, a temporary contrivance, a pain in the ass; what’s real, is natural awareness.

Reporting Live
Reporting live from the Great Mystery, this is the Great Mystery, the Mysterium Magnum. We should all be constantly, by turns, astonished, humbled, and exalted. The only reason we’re all not all in Satchitananda is that so many of us have yet to learn to appreciate the fact we’re already in Satchitananda, that this—that we—are truly the Great Mystery itself. Instead, we find ourselves habitually following the conventional idiocy of limited, conditioned, left-brained, ego-bound, anywhere-but-here/anytime-but-now shallowness, victims of our own mistaken identification.

That which lives in us as us is not who we think we are. Anything we think we are, anything we believe we are, is not That which we really are. Without a word, without a thought, the Great Mystery just is.

Whatever It’s Called
Theoretical physicists posit it’s all particles, and particles can be waves, or eleven-dimensional vibrating string loops. Self-creating, self-sustaining, whatever it’s called, that’s the Stuff that’s Us. The natives of this planet call it Spirit, among other things. Any one of us natives is entitled to say, I am nothing but Spirit. Or, if of the physicist persuasion, I am nothing but Particles.

From that place of particles, from that source that is Spirit, is all that I am, all that I say, all that I do. It’s all cosmic energy, universal Spirit, without a name, without a form, without a self, even though it has many names, many forms, many selves.

To comport ourselves with the knowledge that everyone and everything is Spirit—or whatever—is the primordial, perennial philosophy, the supreme truth, the ultimate reality. Theoretical physics doesn’t kill either philosophy or religion—it is the living embodiment of them, for those who see with the single eye of Spirit—or whatever.

Free Life
How good it feels just to be, savoring the wild freedom of the Self. The Self, unconditioned, without any attachments whatsoever, is complete unto itself. Going about the business of the day, the mind is free, the body is free, the spirit is free. The Self is freedom itself.

The Self isn’t born, doesn’t die. The Self is All, and the Self is One.

Nothing Helps
To be able to directly experience unconditioned being it’s necessary to have Nothing, and to be Nothing. Being Nothing, being is experienced directly, as it is. The contents of mind rise and fall in Nothing; the state of physical, emotional, and psychological being is experienced fully, accurately, in Nothing. In Nothing, as Nothing, conditioned and unconditioned being are fully experienced, and fully inseparable. In Nothing, the paradox of form-is-emptiness/emptiness-is-form is directly experienced.

How wonderful, in Nothing, as Nothing, to be aware of awareness and to be awareness; how wonderful, in Nothing, as Nothing, to be aware of being and to be the essence of being.

Rest in awareness. Rest as awareness. Rest in being. Rest as being. Rest in Nothing. Rest as Nothing.

Self Sustaining
Through no effort, through no contrivance, the Self sustains itself. The intimate experience of the Self sustaining itself is the effortless constancy of pure awareness. Being and awareness is not of anyone’s doing. There is no Doer other than the self-less Self, the eternal, universal spirit.

The Self is wonderfully sustained peace, perfect constant anticlimax. Once the Self recognizes itself, it’s happy to enjoy the self-sustaining anticlimactic peace of its true nature.

Stuff and Nonsense
The deadly storms a few states away that could happen here someday remind me to cherish the most important things, and to not be attached to anything. Loving each other is, of course, one of the most important things. I hasten to add self-inquiry to that short list. Beyond that, stuff—things—material possessions—are of little importance. As long as our loved ones are safe, everything else can be blown to smithereens and life will go on.

Maybe people who live in storm-prone areas should live in sod houses or holes in the ground instead of houses and other above-ground buildings. The lesson from any disaster is, live in such a way as if it will happen again and again. Live lightly, without attachment. Live in a tent, or in a hole in the ground, or in the highlands, whatever it takes to be ready to leave a place when that place becomes hazardous to your very survival.

I’m mentally preparing for the tornado or equivalent that will destroy everything I’ve regarded as mine by not being attached to any stuff, any thing; more difficult is learning not to be attached to any ‘one’ – lives are lost even in the best of circumstances.

The ‘one’ of every ‘one’ is, after all, the One. The One goes on, the delusion of being a separate ‘one’ is nonsense. To the egocentric viewpoint, life is full of tragedy, loss, change; to the One, it’s all just stuff and nonsense within the ongoing dream of the One. It’s all happening to no other, no ‘one’, just the One.

The Cure for the Common Insanity
It’s an inexpressible relief to find the cure for the common insanity to be pure awareness: the true mind, the true presence, the true self: so simple, so obvious, so ubiquitous, so overlooked.

It’s the compassionate thing to do, to cheerfully bear the ego-laden desire-blinded body-mind, to look past the delusions and attachments and see that beautiful being of pure awareness, pure presence, pure spirit.

Introversion and Insight
Self-inquiry is pure introversion, “turning within.” Introversion, contrary to conventional thinking, isn’t a liability, isn’t a shade of ‘social anxiety disorder’ but a powerful generator of pure insight. Insight is the natural result of the self-inquiry of pure introversion. Turn within, and see what’s within.

Witnessing the entropy of this and every body, of every thing and every circumstance, it’s up to me to find the only thing that doesn’t change, doesn’t deteriorate, doesn’t perish. Turning within, I see that which is everywhere, everything, for eternity. It is that it is, the real I, the one I, the I-lessness of every I. Only when introverted can this insight into the truth of the I be found; this is where peace is found.

Air and Sugar
The brain only needs oxygen and glucose to survive and be satisfied. Oxygen and glucose come from plants, those marvelous beings that live on light. We can have a long, lovely and harmonious relationship with the earth if we could learn to be happy with a little oxygen and a little carbohydrate; alas, a way of life based on trying to satisfy insatiable desires make such a relationship difficult if not impossible.

Stillness, contemplation, meditation, mindfulness allows us to experience the satisfied brain, the peaceful heart, the pure awareness that is the universal mind. Just a little air, a little sugar…just to be, the noble thing we are, is enough.

Need To Know
Our place in the universe, the center of which is everywhere and circumference nowhere, is right here. Here, at every center of the universe, that which is present, witnessing, is the universe: every sentient self-aware center needs to know this, needs to understand this. Ignorance of that which we are is the opposite of bliss.

Face-of-Godbook
The original face, the one and only face, is the face of God. Faces and personalities appear distinctive, even though the underlying face and person is One. The delusion of more-than-one, other-than-one, separate-one, is reinforced among the deluded.

It’s difficult not to be cranky about how deep and widespread a merely virtual reality has become.

Let me see your real face, the face of God, aglow with spirit rather than the backlight of an LCD screen.

Nothing and Nowhere in No Time
It’s only natural to find contentment here and now, in the natural state. Here and now is where the Self resides, effortlessly. The fruition of self-inquiry is astonished blissful contentment that arises from being the Self.

Every living form is radiant with the Self, complete. Only in turbid, thought-enslaved, conditioned minds is the contentment of the Self unknown.

In the natural state there’s nothing to cling to, nothing to be but the Self, nowhere to go but here, no time but the present.

Transhuman Spirit
The indomitable spirit that endures when all else passes away is not just the human spirit, but spirit itself, which is transpersonal, trans-human. The formless spirit, the universal animating principle, spirit of pure awareness, spirit of pure being, shimmers radiantly with its clear light, interpenetrating, forming, and animating all forms rising and falling within it.

In Fatuity
Awareness is attention, our awareness span. Awareness of awareness, attention to attention, is a powerful technique for finding the Summum Bonum. Awareness of awareness—awareness of existence—is direct experience of the presence of spirit, by none other than spirit itself. Having a long, unencumbered, undistracted awareness span is essential for realizing spirit’s presence.

Having gone through my own gadget infatuation phase, I can’t help but take note of the proliferation of gadgets and gadget-infatuation: so many people whose attention has been captured by screens large and small. To be in a distracted, infatuated state is addicting, and intoxicating.

Our gadgets are magical, alluring, irresistible, and ubiquitous. Paying attention to what’s on a screen is a safe, easy, secure way to pass the time before passing away. If only I had more time, I’d have watched more television, web-surfed and texted more often.

Spirit Medium
There is no physical medium that lasts forever—even symbols chiseled in stone will weather away. The only perennial medium is the life spirit itself. The propagation of understanding, of pure intention, of good will, happens eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart, through the medium of spirit. Appearances and names are forgotten—trust, wisdom, good will and good spirits go on, passing from living flame to living flame, in the living medium of spirit. Whenever spirit engages in self-inquiry and finds itself to be spirit--self-originating, self-sustaining, eternal--spirit recognizes its own immortal unitary nature, always one, always the same, always the same one.

While awake, alive, and able to communicate, we need only to look for fellow beings that share this one life, and proceed to share the wealth of spirit with each other. I live on in you, you live on in me, and the one spirit lives on, continuing to more fully awaken to itself.

Traveling to the Here and Now
Walking about town and through the nature preserves, I’m grateful to be a contemplative pedestrian, feet on the ground and mind as wide open as the sky. Walking helps me find myself in the Here and Now where the universal spirit eternally abides. Of all destinations, of all itineraries, traveling to the here and now—traveling to spirit—has been a broadening experience. How more broadened could a body get, having found itself to be spirit?

Hilarious Heaven
Having self-indulged in everything to the point of diminishing returns, the only thing left to indulge in is the Self. The only wish I have for my fellow human beings is that everyone begin to engage in self-inquiry and find that to which the path of self-inquiry leads. Looking within, surrendering all conceptions and preconceptions, the person is found to have no basis, no substance whatsoever: the only presence that abides on its own is the universal spirit.

To surrender to spirit is to let the delusion of separate selfhood be annihilated. Living as the universal spirit is not a concept, it’s the living reality. There’s no more drama, no more conflict, no more story, no more separate self craving attention, or stimulation, or possessions. There’s no more fear of death, as the universal spirit is deathless. Beyond birth and death, the universal spirit takes on and casts off form after form.

When mistaken identity is replaced with true identity, eternal life is properly understood, and the cosmic joke is finally gotten. Hilarity ensues.

Natural Entertainment System
It’s amazing how a normal, healthy body is equipped with 3-D HD imaging, and highest-fidelity 360-degree binaural surround sound, along with olfactory, gustatory, and tactile capabilities. No electricity is required to operate this system, nor is it necessary for the system to be purchased.

Buying and Selling Nature
The bane of the existence of the legions of wage slaves on this planet living lives of quiet desperation is the fact that so many necessities as well as luxuries have been appropriated by profiteers, bought, sold, and resold. It’s by turns depressing and comical that a species of monkey believes it owns nature, and thinks that it can sell it for a profit, or that it has to pay for it.

No-one owns nature, and nature is not in reality able to be bought or sold, even though deluded monkeys persist in believing it. Human beings, those monkeys afflicted with delusional thinking, are the only animals that believe they possess a separate self, a self separate from nature and from each other. Delusional ownership of a delusional separate self leads to the widespread delusional ownership of nature that’s spread around the “developed” world.

An ever-diminishing few “primitive” cultures still somehow have no concept of owning nature; on the contrary, these “backward” tribes live as though they’re part of nature, owned by nature.

Hearing Voices
It’s very normal to hear voices in the head, issuing from the conditioned part of the mind. The voices are familiar narrators, and critics, and authoritarians. It’s obvious to see who is under the control of their voices, by the way they live, by the way they are, by what they say and do, compulsively.

Hearing Silence
Hearing silence is as difficult as seeing emptiness, even though silence and emptiness are everywhere. Spirit is all life, all phenomena, yet in essence it’s silence and emptiness. The value of silence and emptiness is that it provides a way to see everything clearly: the single eye and ear of spirit, seeing from emptiness, hearing from silence, recognizes emptiness and silence and sees everything arising from and returning to silence and emptiness. The unitary manifestation of spirit, its eye and ear, is pure awareness. From the unconditioned vantage point of spirit, conditions and conditionings are witnessed clearly, without any attachment to them.

Wholly Communion
While I’m out and about it’s become a habit to pay attention to flora and fauna that cross my path, for the rewards of directing my attention to living beings are immeasurable: bringing attention fully to the here and now, and to life itself, and to partake in the life of other beings. Rather than read about a bird, or a squirrel, or a tree, or moss, I go to the source. Likewise, when engaged in self-inquiry, I don’t focus on concepts such as who I think I am, but on that silent energy presence that is the real me, the source, the life of every life.

Living as if this is my last day, I pay attention to those things that are real, that go on living. To look a bird or a squirrel or a frog or a human being in the eye is to connect and commune with the greater ongoing life. I am as much in the other as the other is in me, and we are all in each other as much as each of us is in ourselves.

Resurrection and Life
Walking to work, I notice more signs of resurrected life. Leaves are opening on the hedge along the sidewalk. This is my life, and my resurrection. Life goes on—thus I go on.

What else are we, but life itself? We don’t “have” life, we are life. If we merely “have” life the part of us that believes it “has” life is by implication lifeless. It’s amusing that the false concepts with which we identify, that keep us from realizing we are the one universal life spirit, are sustained by none other than the universal life spirit itself.

Engaged
We’re life engaged with itself. Survival, adaptation, procreation, eating and being eaten, has been happening forever throughout the cosmos. There sometimes arises the occasions, here and there, for life to recognize itself, and for life to love itself upon recognizing itself in all forms.

There’s nothing left to be but that which we are. There’s nothing left to do but be engaged with that which we are, to share the spontaneous joy and love that comes with recognizing the presence of the timeless, eternal, universal life spirit in each other.

All That’s Left
Well, it’s all caught up to me, and I’ve finally caught on: everything craps out, and everything must go. There’s nothing but loss: health, wealth, property, mind, loved ones, everyone and everything must go. Life is an inescapable tragedy befalling everyone. Life’s lust for itself begets life, and here we are, over and over, trying our best to survive in the circumstances we find ourselves.

So in the face of total decrepitude, universal entropy, how’s a self-aware sentient being to respond?

The saying goes ‘if you have your health you have everything.’ Fine. Health too must go. So what now?

It gets back to the same old thing: SELF-REALIZATION. I may be toothless and homeless, but by God there’s SELF-REALIZATION to be had, inseparable from being, and when I’m too senile or too dead to realize anything, I am no less the Self.

Who lives? Who gets old, and sick, and poor, and dead? I’m not limited to bodily form, this one or any other one. The universal, One-without-an-other, Self itself—we are forever this—the One and only: nothing but the universal life force itself, forever unborn, forever deathless, forever present.

In good faith I’ve survived and thrived to get to this poignant point, realizing simultaneously both the inevitable end of everything and being everything. Being the universe is the only career path left.

The Embrace of Emptiness
Emptiness is the ultimate acquired taste. To accept the fact of emptiness, of form in emptiness and emptiness in form, is to be able to sing with profound gratitude and joy ‘Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.’ To at last experience firsthand the truth of emptiness everywhere, within and without, is to experience peace. How it is that emptiness could inspire such peace and joy is a mystery, but here it is. The phenomenal world is a hologram, a movie, a light show, a dance of insubstantial energy. What a no-thing to be.

To return to emptiness is to return to fullness.
To come from emptiness is to come from authenticity, the real no-self.

One Life Spirit
Late March has been very cold, and signs of spring are very subtle. The moss and the lichens shimmer in the sunlight, and here and there are patches of green grasses starting on the forest floor. Everything alive catches my eye—the buds on the weeping willow looming into view as I walk into the long dangling branches are pale green and ready to unfurl. Rising above the schoolyard lawn is a stand of wild onions, tubular and slightly kinked, a matte green. I nibble a stalk and savor the pungent flavor. As I look about, many more wild onions appear, in the field and on the forest floor.

The life of the preserve is present, waiting for more warmth, more light, to emerge in fullness. Walking about, alone, I sing to this beautiful life spirit within and without, one spirit, all things. How good it is to be simple enough to see this directly, to be this only. To live as the life spirit is to live in fullness forever in the eternal present.

It’s Only Natural
The universally enjoyed creature comforts and calls of nature are well known and often taken for granted. A good sleep, a good meal, a good bowel movement—it’s no wonder these things mean so much to everyone, as they pertain directly to our true nature, which is nature itself.

Our livingness is the universal livingness, universal life, universal nature. There’s nothing esoteric whatsoever about nature, even though it’s only natural to want to call it the Great Mystery, the Great Spirit, Tao, Brahman, God, Buddha Nature.

Life-Goggles
Walking to work in late winter, still weeks to go before flora and fauna awaken, patches of brilliant green moss growing next to the sidewalk catch my eye. Moss and lichen on tree trunks stand out, radiant, resilient. Wherever there’s a living presence, my attention is fully upon it.

The cats demand my full attention, squarely eye to eye. We engage in lively interspecies communication, in total trust, with total delight.

There’s but one entity called life, in all its forms, and I love them all. I recognize life, I love life, it’s all one life.

We as forms of life are all in life’s endless outreach program: life recognizing, loving, communicating, communing with life.

Absence and Presence
There’s absence in presence, and presence in absence. To be presence, it’s impossible not to be absence. When we’re absent, true presence arises. With absence, pure awareness is all there is, no subject, no object, only awareness and no-one who’s aware. In oneness, the only presence is that of the One. There being only the One, there’s a complete absence of anything else.

Absence is always present. What a glorious presence in the absence—absence of the limited, illusory self and presence of the unlimited, real Self.

To voluntarily wish for absence is not wishing for death: it’s a wish to be truly alive, to be life itself. Once we recognize ourselves as temporary forms of the one universal life energy, we recognize the living truth of eternal presence.

Reconnection Is Redundant
There’s no need to get reconnected with nature: we’re already always connected to, always one with, nature; we just need to remove the perceptual blinders to see this fact directly. The conceptualizing mind holds itself aloof, and separate, from nature, as if that was even possible. The fact that the earth is as despoiled as it is is proof enough that people identify with the conceptualizing mind so completely that nature is forsaken, and allowed to be despoiled in order to satisfy the conceptualized and conceptualizing self’s insatiable contrived desires.

When the eternal connection and oneness is recognized and seen directly, the profound wholeless of simply being needs little in the way of material things to sustain, essentially the basic necessities for life. If seven billion human beings would only be contemplatives, forsaking selfish desires and engaged in sincere self-inquiry, the despoiling of the earth would cease, and sustainable life restored, with a return of biodiversity and habitat. The contemplative enjoying wholeness is less likely to breed to excess or at all, thus bringing down the human population to a sustainable level, easily supported by the earth. Living lightly upon the earth, eschewing luxurious homes and skyscrapers and embracing simple dwellings close to the earth, inevitable natural shifts such as earthquakes would not result in massive death and disruption, since minimal infrastructure would move with the shudders of the earth.

It’s poignant to recognize full connection and oneness with nature which so many people have yet to recognize; it’s ironic that such lack of recognition is itself a natural process, to be expected, to be accepted as it is, even though the consequences of alienation from nature are dire and getting more dire by the day. Eventually a tipping point will be reached, and nature will restore balance in a decisively ferocious manner. Those who recognize our oneness, our connection, with nature will understand, and accept, the inevitable; those who don’t will suffer greatly from attachments and mistaken identities.

Enchanted Salvation
The pure, deep peace of the emerald forest resides in the heart. Find the secluded places in the woods, when leaves and flowers and animals and life in all forms abounds, and abide. Stay with no thought of leaving. If available, if desired, enlist the help of a teacher plant to better commune and communicate with, the lifespirit. The pure deep peace of the lifespirit abides in everything. Be enchanted by the lifespirit, become enchantment by becoming lifespirit.

Being An Animal
Pure spirited animals, I too have always been an animal, pure spirited at heart, untroubled, content. How difficult sometimes it is to break the false self, the slave of thoughts. Now there’s no worry, no fear, no mental grasping for things, no attachments to things. I worship and adore my peers, the animals.

Last Day
Even when feeling physically exhausted, it’s cause for celebration to have lived to greet another morning, and to have the privilege of being present and able to participate in the unfolding of the day, in this dream called life.

Silence, Stillness, Emptiness
In silence, stillness, emptiness the eternal presence abides. Sounds rise and fall; activity begins and ends; sights appear and disappear. Silence, stillness, emptiness abide in the midst of it all, inseparable. The eternal presence is all-pervading.

Wealth-Being
The Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-Mores may or may not have what’s really the true wealth—well-being. When you have your well-being, you have everything. The source of well-being is that pure natural awareness, pure natural presence, the celebrated Buddha-mind, Buddha-nature, that which just is. Calm, transparent awareness, wholeness of presence, is well-being itself. Rest in the well-being of pure natural awareness, pure natural presence.

Mutual Recognition Society
When I see others with the single eye of life—seeing with the living heart rather than with distinction-drawing head—I see only the selfsame lifespirit in every being. How can there be judging or competition with what is in essence my true self? It’s all life, and all life is to recognize itself in each and every form, and love itself upon such recognition.

The Puppeteer
Self-inquiry is the puppeteer looking for itself while engaged in the business of animating and controlling a meat puppet. It’s astonishing to realize that the One one is looking for is the One which is looking. This sublime supreme being is none other than this very being, and its mind is this very awareness.

So in the brief time left in this meat puppet, the puppeteer enjoys this puppet life, beingness, awareness, resting in beingness, resting in awareness, resting in oneness. Communing and communicating with myself in other meat puppets, I see me and my eternal life everywhere I look.

Forgive me if I can’t bring myself to attest to believing in a Supreme Being in order to join a Fraternal Order of Egos. To attest to such a belief would be dishonest. The fact is, I AM the Supreme Being, and so is every meat puppet in the cosmos.

There are no egos, there are no separate beings, there are no individuals. There’re many meat puppets, sure, but there’s only one Puppeteer. This I don’t believe: this I AM.

The Great Imperfection
Everything—every thing—is inherently imperfect, subject to change, entropy, transformation. As every thing is imperfect, imperfection becomes perfection. The ideal is the real, the real is the ideal. Belief in perfection, in ideals, in excellence, is utterly vain. The bejeweled lotus is found in the dungheap.

Everything is decaying, notes sounded fading away. House, clothes, shoes, personal possessions, body—all are shabby and getting shabbier by the minute.

I step outside, and the brilliant winter sun illuminates everything. Despite muffled ears, befogged brain and beclouded eyes, pure awareness remains gloriously perfectly transparent.

Cutting All Attachments
How merciful that the universe provides itself with enough wisdom when it’s sorely needed. Feeling the finitude of this meat puppet more strongly every year, there’s precious little to which I feel very attached. I will miss those near and dear whose meat puppet will fall apart before mine does; all I can do is love everyone as much as I can, no matter what, whenever the opportunity presents itself. For the universe so loved itself it made itself into countless meat puppets throughout the vastness of the cosmos, so that it could come to know itself, and love itself, through its meat puppets.

Aside from the real needs of living flesh, nothing else matters. Luxuries, gadgets, entertainments, experiences, are all worthless. Only the manifestation of the love and wisdom of the One is worth anything. It’s impossible to become attached to the universal Presence, since that’s what we are, but it’s all too easy to become attached to concepts about the universal Presence. We only need to let go and just be the Presence; we can’t talk about the Presence, or think about the Presence, or let ourselves get attached to the Presence.

We either are ready to recognize our true, eternal identity, or we aren’t. Most people are very attached to who they think they are, and remain ignorant unless and until, with sufficiently sincere self-inquiry, at last they recognize the universal Presence, and transcend ignorance and mortality. To be in a position to recognize Presence, all attachments must fall away. There’s no way to fake nonattachment while attachments remain—we have to get them out of our system through natural aversion therapy—the diminishing returns of repeated self-indulgences: we have to grow weary of selfishness and sincerely want to find lasting peace of mind. When the desire for desirelessness arises, attachments start to fall away on their own.

Subtraction Succeeds
How spot-on the ancient advice to not seek the truth, but to just stop cherishing opinions. Subtracting opinions, or at least not being attached to, or identifying with, or believing, opinions when they arise in the mind, allows the universal mind to reveal itself to itself. I sing the highest praise to the universal mind, our salvation. The universal mind is unbound, transparent, stable, pure, tranquil, real, the inexhaustible source.

Being/Awareness/Love
The experience of suffering is as educational as it is inevitable. As I think upon seven billion suffering human beings, and trying not to think upon all the other species and their suffering, I can at least test a cure for suffering on myself, and recommend it if it works. What works for me is, in spite of entropy, change, loss, uncertainty, ignorance, delusion, death, and all the evils of earthly life, is to take stock of what’s most important, and that always comes down to something like survival, and specifically existence, and self-awareness, the basic gift of life itself. To have survived to see another day is no mean feat, especially for the elderly, ill, and infirm. As my immediate family all perished at most five years older than what this body currently happens to be, I’m becoming more assertive about what’s really important, and find less and less interest in what’s not really important. I have survived another day. I am. Awareness is. I rest in awareness, I rest in beingness, and am thankful for that. I want everyone to rest in awareness, to rest in beingness, and find their own extinction of suffering. To love one another is to live on in one another.

I Am Not A Human Being, I Am An Animal
The universe is one infinite and eternal animal, and every appearance of form is an animal within the animal, the cosmic animal in microcosm. There’s great nobility in animals in their natural state. Animals are pure in spirit, pure in heart, guileless, ingenuous, without artifice, uncontrived and uncontriving. The housecats are not inferior to me, they’re equals, peers, family. Living like an animal, living as an animal, is a revelation, is liberation, from the shackles of human pretension. Animals live completely in the moment, and are free of psychological suffering.

Holy Wholesome Wholeness
The natural state is a state of wholeness, of completeness. Nothing is lacking. The state of wholeness is what everyone wants, and it is our birthright, but most people go about looking for wholeness in all the wrong ways and in all the wrong places. Wholeness is right here, right now, as-is. Wholeness doesn’t require acquiring, doesn’t require being somewhere else. Wholeness is the state of being fulfilled, of fullness that comes from becoming an empty vessel for the Great Wholeness. When the timeless spirit of the universe recognizes itself, in the body, in being, in pure awareness, there is self-existent wholeness found in, and as, the timeless self-existent spirit of the universe.

The Electric Truth
All is energy, nothing other than pure cosmic energy. From energy singularity springs its multiplicity. All is one energy, one cosmic electricity. This radiant transparent awareness is the one energy. This pure, silent awareness is the universal electricity itself.

No matter what befalls the individual, the person, there remains the one energy, the impersonal, the universal electricity of being and awareness. In the midst of change, the electric truth remains unchanged.

OM
One vast, unending tone, the sound of all tones rising and falling, reverberations intersecting and creating new tones, is OM. Every brief life is a tone struck, rising and falling, coming from and returning to eternal life as OM.

In Touch, In Love
The complete expression of the universal mind doesn’t depend on language. In fact, language can be an impediment to complete Self-expression. In the silent pure Awareness there’s an all-embracing field where complete Self-expression radiates. In this universal energy field the universal mind is in touch with itself. Every manifestation of the Self recognizes the Self consciously or unconsciously, through sheer mutual presence, through sheer mutual awareness.

The confirmatory signal from Self to Self through its manifestations that there is Self-recognition is very subtle, very simple, and very profound. It’s also very ordinary, commonplace, the stuff of daily interaction. Whenever we, as manifestations of the Self, pay attention to each other, there’s recognition. Eye contact, touch, words exchanged, all verbal and all nonverbal means suffice to fully express the Self, to keep the Self in touch with itself.

The confirmation of the recognition of the presence of the Self shared between and among its manifestations is also known as love.

Rest in Awareness, Rest As Awareness
Rest In Awareness. Rest As Awareness. There is rest for the weary, and it’s Awareness itself, Awareness, our very Self. Let go of everything, have no plans, no attachments, nothing, and enjoy what remains, the glorious self-originated self-existent self-sustaining Awareness that embraces rising and falling phenomena, the Ocean and its rising and falling waves.

People who are not resting as awareness are in pursuit, fleeing toward or fleeing away. Only biological death will bring some people any rest at all. Billions of people are terribly busy and in a chronic hurry to satisfy desires, oblivious of the profound rest available in the eternal present, this very oceanic Awareness.

The inmost human condition, as our birthright, is nothing less than SatChitAnanda—simply being, simply awareness, simply bliss, the bliss of being and of being at rest, the rest that is awareness, the rest that is being awareness.

Human fulfillment is at hand, in Awareness, as Awareness.

There is rest from desires, from attachments, from selfishness, from delusion, from mistaken, limited identity. Rest in awareness. Rest as Awareness.

Resting as awareness is not only the blessed estate for the previously-weary individual, but also for the world. People who are resting as awareness need very little in the way of material goods and natural resources. Simply being, and living simply, is enough. There’s no attachment to anything, and the changes of being a wave of the ocean are gracefully accepted. Its waves rising up above its surface for a brief moment…and then falling back, effortlessly, into itself, the ocean of Being and Awareness is forever at rest.

Look No Further
Conditioned mind is a great servant but a terrible master. To be a slave of the conditioned mind is the fate of all people, to varying degrees. Conditioned mind is trained mind, educated mind, the mind that can read and write, drive a car, tie shoelaces, etc. Conditioned mind is all about discriminating, all about ‘things’—phenomena—relativity. Conditioned mind is dualistic and pluralistic, geared toward survival of the organism amidst competing organisms and in challenging environment. For countless generations the conditioned mind ensured survival of our species.

The conditioned mind is the reified, and reifying, mind, regarding its thoughts as real, and identifying with them, and therein lies the big problem human beings must surmount.

The conditioned mind is surmountable, of this I have no doubt, as one who has only later in life recognized the unconditioned mind as the true mind, the natural mind, the universal mind, i.e., the real Me.

Looking at Mind—pure awareness—it is wonderfully perfectly pure emptiness. Emptiness, because it’s emptiness, is always here.

In the beautiful emptiness of the universal mind, the unconditioned mind, pure mind, there is beautiful, perfect freedom for everyone, regardless of how conditioned the mind may have become.

Reference Point
“Metrics” are of no use to Me. I am the perfect Silence containing all sound; I am the perfect Clarity containing all form. Sounds and forms rise and fall in Me. I am the supremely sensitive, ever-acute, silent, clear, Awareness of all that rises and falls in Me, pure Emptiness. I am the ultimate reference point, pure awareness, pure being, immeasurable.

Being and Awareness
How easy it is to be censured, and self-censuring, for finding it enough to simply be. That we can be aware of being, and that we can be aware of awareness, is astonishing. The implications of being and awareness are enormous. How self-aware people can be unaware of being and awareness, taking it for granted, merely as a means to selfish ends—aware only of, enslaved by, believing in, the delusions and incessant demands of a separate self—is how there comes to be confusion and suffering on this planet.

It’s so easy to be ‘something’—it’s difficult to just be.

More difficult still is to not be.

The most difficult thing is to neither be nor not be.

What is this? Something, somehow, is being. Something, somehow, is awareness.

This, the Great Mystery, is to be recognized as one’s inmost self. It’s to be recognized, realized, accepted, lived—the Great Mystery, the Great Perfection, changeless and changing.

What a comfort it is to be This.

The Ultimate Prerogative
It’s such a relief to indulge in that most ultimate of prerogatives—to identify with the emptiness of universal essence. Through such identification, there is no birth, no death, no Other. Attachments fall away. Nothing has changed—by simply not identifying with that which I’m not, I recognize my true self as universal essence. No-one is born, and no-one dies, as all seemingly separate sentient beings are universal essence, Emptiness, Buddha, whether “Others” know this or not. Not knowing universal essence, the parts of Me that are attached to false identity and to phenomena continue to suffer, believing themselves to be other than what they really are, i.e., Me—the Emptiness, universal essence.

The Physics of the One
There’s no need to get metaphysical about the One—the One is only the Uni-Verse, only Nature. To know that all things and all beings are one Essence, one primordial Energy, is enough of a springboard to intuit the fact that we as perceived individuals are not individuals at all, but the One, every one of “us.” The Devil (ignorance, dualistic thinking) is legion, God is One. There is nothing else but the One—to believe oneself to be otherwise is to believe in legions of illusory individuals.

Beyond Cerebration, The Celebration
With the recognition of oneself and every thing as One, after getting through the wrenching process of ego loss, there remains That which is Self-existent, the universal Self, whatever I may be called. The Self, being One without a second, doesn’t even know what it is, or that it is. Without an other, the Self cancels itself out, and rests, at play in the void. The rest of this life in the body, as individuations of the eternal Self, becomes spontaneous play, spontaneous rest. The universe is eternally alive, the ultimate animal, self-sustaining.

With the end of attachment to dualistic cerebration, there resumes within the individuation the great eternal celebration, the eternal life of the One Supreme Animal. The One stretches, yawns, and rests, effortlessly suspended in the void.

One Essence, One Love
To believe there is more than one essence is to believe in the existence of an other of a difference essence; such discrimination of the mind impedes the ability to love, as the mind does not recognize the apparent other as being of the same essence as itself.

To recognize one essence in all things is to love all things as oneself.

To recognize oneself as the one essence is to recognize the truth of birthlessness and deathlessness. The unfathomed ocean of one essence is fully in rising and falling waves, clouds, rain, rivers, every drop.

All Process, No Person
These body-minds with names and identities are merely part of an ongoing process, and have no separate selfhood, even though they tend to believe they have it. The true self is a self-less process, with no self-concept and no self-awareness as body-minds know it. There is awareness, but no self. It’s an intelligent impersonal energy pervading and composing the universe. The One without an other is aware of nothing; when parts of the One pretend to be other than the One, there is awareness of all manner of things and other Others. The One Process is utterly at peace with itself, as it is unaware of itself, unaware of any other.

True Nature, No Worries
Going to the source—Nature—there are no concepts to be found there. It’s all direct, candid, all life force, earth, sky, sunlight, water. There’s an oceanic presence in Nature, a beautiful, pure, impersonal, nonjudgmental presence, pervading everything. Nature is elegant in a completely uncontrived, un-self-conscious way. By wandering in solitude among the trees, by the streams, under the sky, the Nature presence is best experienced, felt to be a kindred spirit, the life-spirit of Nature present within and without.

The Great Spirit is the spirit of Nature, primordial spirit, universal spirit, life spirit, the spirit of the earth, sky, water, sun, the spirit of plants and animals, all-pervading spirit. Nature is neither sacred nor profane—it’s pure and true to itself, Nature following its own nature. Human foibles and follies are Nature’s trials and errors, sustaining the sustainable, not sustaining the unsustainable. The selfish, unsustainable way of life practiced by the First World is an experiment run by Nature to see how far and how long self-indulgence can be taken. Decadence is the pursuit of creature comforts taken to the extreme. The infrastructure upon which a decadent civilization depends requires more material and energy than the Earth can provide, and will sooner or later collapse under the weight of too many humans conditioned to have insatiable selfish desires.

Those who follow the Dow and live large will weep and gnash their teeth as civilization collapses or death approaches; those who follow the Tao and live simply will understand, accept, and go with the flow.

We are always one with Nature—those too sophisticated to experientially understand this fact can’t help but feel insecure amidst Nature’s changes, feeling apart from or superior to Nature. Those who have been blessed by Nature to humbly submit to Nature and accept the course it must take partake in Nature’s oceanic calm presence, recognizing it as their own true Nature.

Whether it’s the death of civilization or the death of the individual body-mind, it’s only natural to go along for the ride, wherever it may be going, secure in the knowledge that we’re one with Nature, and Nature goes on.

An Obituary for the Obituary
The local newspaper obituaries are laden with euphemisms for death, rather than straightforward words for it. “Entered into rest” is the currently favored term for the meat puppet’s loss of its puppeteer. A few people are said to have “died.” That’s not quite accurate, as everything that the person is, remains, albeit changed in form. The Puppeteer of All—the One—hasn’t “died,” and that’s who lived as “Joseph Blow.” It would be prudent to write one’s own obituary to prevent the well-meaning hack writer from misrepresenting the deceased by her employing flowery clichés, conventional assumptions, dualistic beliefs, and hyperbolic remembrances.

Why not instead write:

“Joseph Blow is no more—wait, make that Joseph Blow never was.”
“The brief flash in the phenomenal void known as ‘Joseph Blow’ is back in the phenomenal void.”

The great psychonaut Albert Hofmann said it best when talking about his attitude toward death, that being simply going back to where he came from, before he was conceived. That would be a clear, true statement for anyone’s obituary: “Joseph Blow went back to that from which he came from prior to his conception” or words to that effect. The bulb has burned out, the camera is defunct, and the empowering electricity remains in the Great Circuit, in perfect nonduality, one without a second, no less That than when the meat puppet called Joseph Blow still walked and talked.

Isn’t born, doesn’t die, has no name, although it can be called whatever you want, One, Self, Brahman, Tathagatagarbha, God, energy, spirit, Nature, universe, whatever, it doesn’t care what it’s called. Neither at rest nor active, neither doing nor not-doing, neither aware nor oblivious, the universe does not die. Obituaries are for marking the death of names, of concepts, of figures of speech, of nonexistent beings, of egos.

Always was, always am, always will be. My body-minds come and go, I remain unborn and deathless. There is no birth notice, no death notice, for Me.

Savoring Emptiness
Just as a physicist is quick to point out that matter is essentially a whole lot of nothing with very rare wave-particles sailing around in the void, so it is with all that we are. We are truly mostly nothing, with rare bits of energy flying about. Energy is absolutely impersonal, having no selfhood whatsoever. At the heart of this interconnected cosmos of energy, there is only nothing, and some energy.

It’s comforting to know that what we are is ever-flowing energy in an ever-existent emptiness, here and there aggregating briefly into self-aware nodes of energy. The physicist will also remind us that energy can’t be created, can’t be destroyed, just changed in form—this is eternal life as the energy of the cosmos, the impersonal Person, the self-less Self, of every self-aware node of pure cosmic energy, beyond both awareness and oblivion.

Savoring the emptiness of the heart of hearts is an acquired taste.

Ego Death, Ego Haunting
The greatest gift in my adult life is ego death, loss of the false self which immediately lets the true no-self shine in its radiant emptiness; this is the gift I wish for every self-aware meat puppet walking upon the surface of this, and every, planet. To be fully in the present, to fully accept the present as it is, requires that the false self be surrendered, for the false self is illusory, deluded, discriminatory, and distracted, incapable of being satisfied with the present as it is, believing in and identifying with the existence of its insatiable nonexistent self. Eventually, with practice, the false self, whenever it arises in the radiant emptiness of no-self, can be more easily accepted as an inevitable stage through which all self-aware meat puppets must pass on the way to no-self-realization, and tolerated as merely the reappearance of a vestige of a previous level of development.

Unburdened
As newborns, we are unconditioned, pure awareness, spontaneously seeking food and warmth, and passing waste. Our mind upon birth is completely undiscriminating. We have no concept of who we are. We may be a burden to parents and family by the fact of our very existence in the world, but that was not of our doing, that was not our decision. So here we are.

Life can be made into a burden throughout our life, if we perceive our needs and desires are not being met, if we perceive the world is not to our liking, if we discriminate. Everything changes, everything comes and goes. There’s too much, there’s not enough, there’s the right and the wrong, the good and the bad. To the discriminating mind, life is a burden.

The undiscriminating mind is the mind of the Buddha. It’s wide open, spacious, unattached, absolutely free and clear and pure. Life is no longer a burden in the limitless expanse of the undiscriminating universal mind. The pure mind we came into the world as, is still the mind, is still here, always here, always what we are. Pure unconditioned being, pure unconditioned awareness, is us.

As fully-grown, mature adults, we can recline, sit, stand, walk, and go about the business of worldly life while completely unburdened, in the glorious spaciousness of the universal mind, content, complete, totally free, a burden neither to ourselves nor to the world, having no concept of self and hence no selfish desires. We are, however, skilled and potty-trained, which along with the great gift of the universal mind, helps everyone be free of the perceived burden of our own, and every human’s, existence. Neither a burden to ourselves, nor to society, we enjoy these manifestations as they come and go, here and there, here again, there again, the eternally manifesting One.

I Think, Therefore I Am Miserable
What an absolutely miserable condition it is to be wide awake in the wee hours of the morning, unable to turn off the onslaught of thoughts, memories, ruminations, imaginings. The thinking mind is, by nature, a turbid mind, clouded by thoughts, dis-turbed. Surrendering to universal spirit, to universal love, brings misery and confusion to an end.

Universal Spirit, Universal Love
To remember just what exactly I really am is to be free. No longer enslaved by a false identity and by the identifying with the thoughts that comprise the false identity, I let go my grasp on everything, and be that which I eternally am, the universal spirit. The body springs forth, flourishes, withers, and vanishes; the universal spirit that enjoys the experience of bodily form remains undiminished, re-forming and un-forming and re-forming as ever, the life of every life, the universal presence, the universal awareness. To recognize universal spirit in myself, as myself, and as every self, is to engage in unceasing love for all that lives.

Zombies
It’s hard to make eye contact with intellectuals, those deep in thought, or listening to important things through iPods and earplugs and watching important things on the iPads and engaged in conversation with distant unseen entities with iPhones. Zombies are alleged to be creatures driven by primal brain stem urges; they can also be creatures driven by the cerebral cortex and sensory centers of the brain. The main trait of a zombie is its mindless heedless search for stimulation, for self-gratification, its dogged belief in its separate selfhood, in its being an Other among Others.

Psychonautical Semantics
The psychonautical voyage is a heroic venture; it’s well-known by its other name—soul-searching. Soul-searching is of the spiritual life, the crucible of purification and entheogenesis.

“Let Nature Take Its Course”
…as if we have any authority, or power, or choice to do otherwise. We can try to forestall, and mitigate, the impact of human activity on the environment but sooner or later, Nature prevails, as always. Having for so long exploited Nature rather than live in balance and harmony with it, there’s nothing we can do to stop Nature from doing what Nature must do to restore its balance and harmony on this world. The selfish desires, even the basic needs, of seven billion human beings can’t be fulfilled by the available resources of one planet. Voluntarily eliminating selfish desires en mass would be the ideal response to forestall an impending ecocatastrophe; failing that, Nature will proceed to eliminate enough of the human population to restore balance and harmony in the biosphere through its inevitable autonomous processes.

Life will go on, Nature will go on, with or without the presence of our species. There’s nothing as volatile, nothing as evanescent, as ‘life as we know it.’

Regardless of how this tawdry global human saga unfolds, the sane recourse self-aware human beings can take is to acknowledge our oneness with Nature, to humbly submit to Nature, to live as Nature, and live forever in whatever form Nature assumes, given the ever-changing conditions of every habitable world in the cosmos.

Seer and Seen
The seer and the seen are one. Awareness is perfect, and the content of pure awareness is perfect. There’s no samsara, no nirvana, in the perfect emptiness of pure awareness, the universal mind. The fundamental impoverishment regardless of socioeconomic status is ignorance of the perfect emptiness of pure awareness, identifying with thoughts rather than universal mind.

Confusion, Delusion, Distraction
All the psychological suffering that’s passed from person to person, generation to generation, is caused by confusion, delusion, and distraction; there is a kind of immortality of these states of mind as they’re transferred from mind-body to mind-body.

The core problem behind every perceived problem is the delusion of the existence of a separate selfhood—mistaken identity. Identifying with thoughts rather than pure awareness, the dis-ease of delusion spreads.

Nothing Is Forever
There’s immortality to be had in the natural state of mind, the self-sustaining, self-originating transparency of pure awareness. Living in this radiant emptiness is living in its unbound eternity. Whenever an individual recognizes the perfect emptiness that is the true Mind-Body of the universe, there comes with it the direct apprehension of eternal existence as the universal Mind-Body. The universe, in whatever form it takes, exists forever in emptiness, as emptiness. This understanding gives deeper meaning to the old saying, Nothing Is Forever.

Get Real Already
The delicious truth of getting real is that we’re already totally real: the real self, the real identity that just is, is fully present in every individuation of the Self. To be the real One requires only that we give up the unreal other, letting all pretensions fall away on their own, thus allowing the self, which is really the Self, to be the Self. Seeing with the single eye of the Self, there is no self and no other.

Living in Light, Living on Light, Living as Light
How little is required to sustain life—some water, some food, some shelter, some clothing. To have the smallest possible footprint on the earth, it’s necessary to live the contemplative life, or its functional equivalent. Sitting quietly, the contemplative takes in Light in the form of food, and reflects upon the fact that food, and life itself, is Light.

As any animal, human beings need to eat plants directly, or indirectly through eating other animals, in order to survive. Plants survive on sunlight, transforming it into food. The presence awareness that is the human being is nothing but Light.

We can’t sit next to a window and live directly on sunlight, but we can live on a few fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and grains—or even just fruits and nuts if necessary.

The way to reverse the ever-growing human-caused eco-catastrophe is to overcome our plethora of conditioned egoic desires and be content just to be, the animal equivalent of plantness. Animals, with the notable exception of humans, are content just to be. What enables human beings to learn how to be content just to be is the emergence of Satchitananda, PresenceAwarenessBliss, which arises naturally through self-inquiry and sincere contemplation, when the contemplative at last realizes true nature as Light.

In Touch With Life
In these temporary forms it’s essential to be in touch with the life that animates them, the life of all forms, the life of every life.

“Things” really aren’t important at all—only life itself is important: sentience, beingness, the presence that can be felt, the presence that recognizes itself, the presence that can love, and be loved. To take every available opportunity to love life in every form it takes is the best way to spend these fleeting days.

Illnesses, injuries, old age…in an instant these fragile forms vanish. The life that animates these forms, the living energy, like the energy law of physics, can’t be created, can’t be destroyed, only changed in form.

Birthless, deathless, undiminished, omnipresent, the living energy presence goes on, felt, recognized and recognizing, loved and loving.

We don’t possess anything; we are everything. We don’t have life; we are life.

Unplug and Live
It’s time to live the real life, and to put aside the virtual, unreal life. Plugged into screens and ear buds, drawn into an electronic black hole, Spirit becomes heedless of itself. Only that by which Spirit can come to know itself, recognize itself, and commune with itself, through the medium of Spirit, is worthwhile.

Cat-tharsis
One of the great simple pleasures is to spend time with a trusted and trusting companion animal. Sitting in the rocker, reading the morning paper, ignoring the four cats on my lap, focusing on ghastly local and global human events and feeling queasy and uneasy, I happen to look down to see four pure beings, purring, looking back into me with calm, contented eyes. I let go of the paper and pay full attention to the cats, and soak up the perfect peace and relaxation that emanates from them. At that moment, everything relaxes—smooth muscles in arteries and veins, skeletal muscles throughout the frame. A peaceful coolness emerges in the heart, and all is well.

How strange that a carnivore, a predator, is untroubled, while I, an herbivore preying on nothing more than plants, can think myself into being completely stressed-out.

How fortunate is the stressed human being who has found complete relief in the company of animals. Animals are good company, therapists, friends, family. We go way back. They kept their tail and fur and walk on all fours, but we’re still siblings after all these millennia.

Nature is pure spirit, nonverbal, nonconceptual, nonjudgmental—being outdoors under the sky, on the good earth, is a healing experience. To go forth as a representative of nature, to be the animal and boundless sky and good earth, untroubled and authentic, is good for me and good for thee.

Playing with Logos
The glory of the Logos, the Source, the primordial Word, begs to be expressed. Even though words are limited and limiting, they’re also magical, irresistible, and beg to be used, for the Word loves to play with its own words.

This morning was a good opportunity to find the right combination of notes of the piano to express something of the feeling the Logos, the Source, the primordial Note, evokes.

Art can communicate the glory of the Logos, the Source. By whatever means the Logos communicates with itself, it’s a beautiful, miraculous process. The object of beauty, the artist, and the enjoyer of art, are one and the same Logos. It’s all about the Logos. Transhuman, transpersonal, the Logos recognizes itself through art, through communion, through communication, through presence, through awareness.

When the Logos has recognized itself, it lives thenceforth as the Logos, fully expressing itself, communicating with itself, following the effortless laws of its nature forever.

Art is conveying the experience of Light entering the Light, of Logos entering the Logos. All words are of one Word.

Documentation
It’s a good practice to keep a spiritual journal, publicly or privately; it focuses the attention on the most vital universal issues of life, and leaves a record of what means most to us, so that we have a sense of what makes us tick and tick better, to tacitly compare notes as we journey from unconditioned being to conditioned being and back.

self-consciousness and Self-consciousness
Every self-aware person experiences self-consciousnes--ego-consciousness--to some degree. It’s often uncomfortable to be self-conscious, uneasy and unsure how others regard oneself. It’s typical for people to spend their entire life stuck in self-consciousness—believing oneself to be the ego. “Ego” simply means “I am”—unfortunately, people tend to add something to I Am to be something specific, personal, conditional, limited, and identify with that something that one presumably is.

The pure, unconditioned I Am is pure awareness, the universal Self. To suddenly become aware of pure awareness—the Self—is to begin to enjoy the ultimate blessing: awareness of the Self…the Self aware of itself as the Self itself.

This makes absolutely no sense to those who haven’t yet become Self-aware, sounding downright goofy if not disturbingly megalomanic. Only those still stuck in self-consciousness are capable of megalomania, and of breathtaking goofiness, such is the strength of their belief in, identification with, and attachment to, a false self.

It’s inescapable to pass through all the misery and goofiness of self-consciousness, of mistaken identity, for as long as it takes to eventually become deeply curious about just who or what one really is. To find out all that one is not is painful, but essential, in the process of becoming aware of, and being, what we really are, which is the timeless, universal Self.

To be self-conscious is to be unreal, in hell; to be Self-conscious is to be real, in a state of perfection, peace, freedom, and wholeness: genuine, experiential Selfhood, being the etermal being itself.

Hope for the Future Present
In the farthest reaches of the imaginary future, the present will still be the present. The future present will be the same as the present present. I can offer hope to everyone that self-realization is everyone’s destiny in the present; the only reason some people aren’t self-realized in the present is that they aren’t engaged in self-inquiry in the present. It requires a certain level of development, of maturity, to be engaged in earnest self-inquiry.

The people I encounter who are miserable to some degree reflect the same misery I’ve felt over the years when I wasn’t mature enough to engage in self-inquiry, when I wasn’t developed enough to think to be aware of awareness and be relentlessly curious about it. I can say with authority to everyone suffering from mistaken identity in the present present that there is a way out of misery, and it’s called self-inquiry, which leads to self-realization, i.e., realizing that this very self is none other than the Supreme Self, which alone abides eternally in the present.

Musical Self-Test
A good test for level of well-being is to take note of how much music gets made in the course of a day, whether humming softly or pushing 88 keys. Even one note briefly sung can be enough to prove there is genuine well-being. When one note is sung, more notes can follow, a song without end. Physical silence can contain a celestial symphony that’s felt in the soul. The joy of the Self transcends words—music is one of the most effectve ways to express the Self in the eternal present.

Sat-Chit-Ananda For Every Body
Anyone who experiences the fundamental “I am-ness” is qualified to enjoy Sat-Chit-Ananda. All it takes is for one to stop believing that one is something one is not. That which is the source of I am-ness wherever it arises is the Supreme One, the universal essence of Being-Awareness-Bliss. The little I and its petty dramas and concerns ceases to be of importance when the glory of the Big I establishes itself in the context of this brief corporeal existence. Sat-Chit-Ananda is our birthright, our destiny, our nature.

At Home
To be at home here, now, in this place, in this body, is only natural, is only wise. To be satisfied in mind, in heart, here and now, is to be home. How frenzied and fruitless the search for satisfaction can become, when overlooking the paradise that’s within, the source, the Supreme One that happens to be our true nature, our true identity. How complicated life gets when trying to satisfy the mind without inquiring just who or what is looking for satisfaction. Total, ultimate satisfaction is found only by being This that we are: just to be This, just to be, is completeness, and complete satisfaction. There is no longer any desire to be anywhere other than here, for any time other than now. Here and now is where the living truth of being abides. The Supreme One is always home, here, now.

Down To Earth
At last a natural burial ground has been established not too far away, Foxfield Preserve in Wilmot, Ohio, under the aegis of The Wilderness Center. Even though it is a bit more expensive than cremation, it prevents cremation’s air pollution, energy waste, and greenhouse gases. Everything is elegantly, naturally returned to the biosphere: water, earth, air, energy. The earth has become this body and has sustained this body, and now this body gratefully returns to earth. Thanks for all the food—now I have a chance to be food for you.

Natural burial also eliminates the ghastly folkway of embalming and entombing. It’s the macabre height of hubris that many humans insist on keeping remains from returning to the earth: this might be a persistence of the superstition that even putrefying dead in hermetically sealed steel coffins in hermetically sealed concrete vaults shall rise when the Messiah returns. No wonder zombie movies have become all the rage.

How absolutely right it is to be interred in a nature preserve. Nature preserves have restored my sanity and have provided the perfect setting for full-blown entheogenesis time after time. How often I’ve said aloud, wandering in perfect solitude in field and forest, “I’m all yours.”

Traces
This is the home stretch, every day leaving a legacy in the living energy, in spirit. All that we are passes on every day: every day, in fact, we all “pass on.” In the unified field of spirit—the Principle—love and good will live on. Hatred and ill-will live on for a time as well, but as it’s self-destructive its persistence is thereby self-limited.

Of course we feel the presence of the Dear Departed among the gathered friends and family—the same energy qualities that comprised the deceased are still flowing, still afoot, still driving the dramas of the surviving humans.

Connect
We’re always connected with everything, with all of nature, whether we realize it or not. The trick is to realize the connection, not just in a conceptual way, but a deep, visceral way. The basic recipe is simple: take a hike, get lost, be alone in nature, and take an entheogen if you can, preferably one that once lived as plant or fungus: using this recipe allows a powerful nature-connection realization experience to come about that makes all the difference in how to live and how to die. To live a natural life, and die a natural death, must sometime, somehow, be re-learned, directly, from the spirit of nature itself which is found to be thoroughly within and thoroughly without.

Madness
It was good to read Mark Vonnegut’s advice about how to survive madness, which is simply to let the voices and images in the head yammer on and rise and fall, without taking them seriously or acting upon them. This of course requires identification with pure awareness rather than with the contents of awareness. By being the presence-awareness all physical and mental states and changes are simply noted, without judgment or complaint or clinging or shunning.

This very presence-awareness is the eternal Self itself, the captain of every fleshy vessel throughout the universe; to believe we are other than this is the conventional madness.

The Eyes of Immortality
As I walk to work grateful to see yet another sunrise I consider how many other self-aware beings are experiencing the same gratitude and enjoying the same understanding: their--our--existence is the redundancy “I”--we--need to ensure the continuation of the essence of what “I” is all about. It is the universal essence which sees the sunrise, the same impersonal Person, the same self-less Self. The Principle. The Light. Spirit. Every presence-awareness is THE Presence-Awareness of the universe itself.

The Self Sees Itself Everywhere
Walking to work, having survived yet another night of debauchery and feverish dreams, the Self notes its presence in this body, as this presence-awareness, in the soil, in the water, in the sky, in the grasses, in the trees, in the sun and moon and stars and planets and galaxies and cosmos, in the all-pervading spirit, in metal and rubber and plastic, in every living eye and sensory nerve in everything that crawls, walks, flies, swims, and drives. The Self sees only itself, without an other.

Safe
It’s amazing how the universe can provide the conditions to grow an ego, and even more amazing how the universe can provide the conditions that let the ego ungrow itself deliberately, through the amazing process of self-inquiry. When the universe engages in self-inquiry, self-realization eventually ensues. Self-realization is the ultimate salvation, becoming that which we actually, eternally, are. The feeling accompanying self-realization salvation is that of safeness, of having reached the unassailable security of the Other Shore: ultimate identity recognized, all the changes of phenomal existence in the phenomenal world are fully experienced, fully accepted, with no loss of the underlying security of ultimate identity. The body rises and falls, the world rises and falls, all the while the Self abides, safe and at peace, eternally, within itself.

Extraordinary Ordinary
To rest as awareness doesn’t imply becoming at all otherworldly—quite the opposite happens. Things, as they are, are simply allowed to be as they are, including the body and mind. Judgments are neither held onto nor passed, even though judgmental thoughts continue their rise and fall. There’s no clinging to anything, including the notion of not clinging to anything. Both samsara and nirvana have ceased to exist. Taking care of business and social obligations continue as always, and simple pleasures and creature comforts are enjoyed as always. It’s all a dream which, unlike the dreams of sleep, feature all the senses, including taste and smell and touch.

The Whole Point
of self-aware existence: is it ego-gratification, survival, sensory stimulation? Arguably so. With survival more or less assured, with leisure, and with a continuous self-awareness to contend with, the problem of existence often becomes that of how should our time be structured—how do we get through yet another day—what pulls us along and keeps us going. Smoking, snacking, television-watching, web surfing and other time structures and time-sucks now make it easier than ever to go through an entire lifetime in a fatally distracted condition, unreflecting, completely missing the most vital point of existence: just who, or what, is alive, and self-aware, here, there, everywhere? Self-discovery, self-realization, is discovering and realizing that the true self is unbound, unconditioned, eternal, universal, impersonal: there is no person, no self, only a universal energy. To spend this brief embodiment of universal energy mindful of universal energy, mindful of being universal energy, is beyond argument: it’s an ineffable experiential reality and an understanding that provides ultimate meaning and purpose to self-aware existence. With this transcendent understanding and identity, fulfillment is found in simply being, and when there are things done, the universal Doer does it all. Every relationship becomes a meaningful relationship, recognition of the Presence by the Presence. Presence is naturally divine, divinely natural, unappreciated because of its ubiquity. That Which Is and That Which Does is ever the same universal One in every form.

Mindfull
The essence of mind is perfect emptiness, clear light, containing all phenomena. The mind is simultaneously completely empty and completely full. In this wonderful universal mind, it’s a joy to practice mindfulness: to savor awareness and beingness, to savor the rise and fall of thoughts and phenomena in the mind, to savor the bodily condition, be it pain, pleasure, tension, relaxation, weariness, liveliness, and everything in between: to savor as the keen witness of the universal mind embodied.

Stand upright, loose, limber; walk gently, smoothly; sit straight, spine in line and relaxed; lie with ease supine or recumbent, letting everything fall into place. Live mindfully, let the universal mind be in spontaneous control over the ongoing circumstance of embodied sentient Spirit.

Aeolian Harp
The movement of Spirit alone is the Agency, the Cause, the Doer. Every action, thought, word, awareness itself, beingness itself, is the movement of Spirit. The music that is the trace of every life is the passage of Spirit through strings of Spirit.

Always With, Always Within
The Presence Awareness is in fact what Christians call Jesus Christ, what Buddhists call the Tathagata, what Hindus call Brahman and Atman. It’s so good to know this, to know we are this, and to be this. As Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” We need look no further than this very Presence Awareness to find the Source, eternal Spirit.

No Complaints
It’s easy to know when Spirit is fully in charge of the body-mind: there is no complaining, there is nothing to complain about, and there is absolutely no desire whatsoever to complain. In short, the Complainer has ceased to exist. The Complainer is the accumulated bundle of conditioned thought that has become the phantom small-s self, the false identity. The Complainer is the ego.

Living in Spirit as Spirit, the sheer fact of being and awareness, of awareness of being and of being pure awareness, Spirit coming to recognize itself through the body-mind, is so inexpressibly astonishing and ego-annihilating that complaining is impossible. If there’s any complaining to do, it’s only about the unbearable unshakable waking bliss in the body-mind that Spirit can’t help but produce by its very nature.

Who Knows
How easy it is to get entangled with the human world, how complicated life can seem to be, how unsatisfactory and burdensome it can feel. In the midst of such a world, it’s still possible to enter the contemplative mode, and to reflect upon just who is experiencing all this. The One Spirit experiencing all this has come to recognize itself reflected in the mind. The Knower is none other than the energy of the cosmos, Spirit.

Even within this particular bodymind, there are times when the Knower is unknown by the mind. Although the Knower abides, the mind is distracted elsewhere, and no reflection of the Knower appears. A beautiful flowering plant blooming unseen in the middle of the forest remains a beautiful flowering plant with or without the presence of an observer. The mind is the attentive observer, the Knower is the beautiful flower. The Knower comes to know itself by seeing its reflection in the mind of the attentive observer.

Entheogenic Sleep Deprivation
Being in a sleep-deprived state weakens the will of the false self so that it’s actually easier to surrender to the true self, as the true self is self-originating, self-sustaining Spirit, requiring no effort, no contrivance, to maintain itself.

The Constancy
Spirit is a constant presence, abiding effortlessly everywhere. There’s never a need to worry about losing Spirit—it’s impossible to lose, and it’s impossible not to be Spirit, although many self-aware beings manage to believe they are something other than Spirit. To believe we possess life—Spirit—leads to all sorts of anxiety about “losing one’s life.” The essential insight that leads directly in the here and now to constancy, to eternal life, is that we are life itself—we are Spirit. As there is nothing other than Spirit, the notion of losing our life is as ludicrous as the seriously-taken notion of there being the existence of selves separate from and other than the Whole, other than Spirit.

Abide in silence, be at ease, in the effortless constancy of the true self, the Spirit.

Trickle-Down Spirit
Words, being limited as they are, figures of speech only, can only suggest the reality of the situation. The letter is the letter, Spirit is Spirit. It’s so tempting to write and talk about Spirit, even if doing so confines and misrepresents Spirit.

There are three levels, arguably, that spirit affects. The first level, the physical, is affected by spirit by its very existence, which is itself a manifestation of spirit—pure energy. As energy, the physical requires relaxed, free-flowing energy, manifesting as physical ease, health, balance. The second level is emotional, which is a form of energy that’s modified by the mind to be of various qualities, from blind rage to compassionate serenity. The third level is mind, which is the quality of conditioning that modulates pure awareness into thoughts and images. There’s something of a fourth level, too: pure Spirit itself, from which all levels issue.

Actually, it’s clearer to start with Spirit, then to Mind, then to Emotion, then to Physical—it’s all energy, all interrelated, all different aspects of itself. The point is, depending on the level of development of the sentient life form, Spirit manifests differently, from horrendous suffering on physical, mental and emotional levels, to perfect peace on all levels.

When it’s realized that Spirit is one’s true identity, the body relaxes as energy flows freely, the emotional state becomes tranquility itself, the mind becomes pure clear awareness; on all levels pure Spirit manifests in its intrinsic unbound perfection.

Getting and Keeping in Touch
Walking to the preserve, I considered what I’d do and how I’d be if I knew this was my last year in this body. Along with specifics that I recommended to myself, I also realized how important it is to get in touch with one’s life spirit, which is THE life spirit, and cherish it over all else. By cherishing the life spirit within me, I also cherish the life spirit wherever it abides and manifests, as it is one and the same Spirit. So if this is my last year in this body, I’ll continue to see through its eyes, speak through its mouth, as spirit, and recognize spirit wherever it abides and manifests.

Feel the presence of life spirit. Be the life spirit. Get in touch, and keep in touch, with spirit. Live in the eternal now, as Spirit.

Ocean Waves
Nothing is separate from the whole, only apparently separate. The wave forgets it’s ocean, and believes itself to be something separate from ocean, something other than ocean. The universal presence of Buddha-nature is the universal presence of ocean in every wave; to hear this, to believe this, to understand this, to accept this, to realize this, to surrender to this, to be this, is the birthright of every being, and can be enjoyed when the struggle for survival of ego is left behind.

On With The Show
How laborious it is to fill our awareness with sensory candy, filling the perfect emptiness of awareness with sensory forms, eye candy, ear candy, skin candy, tongue candy, brain candy of all kinds. I’ve had my fill of candy, and find that sheer being, sheer awareness, is quite enough, and hallelujah—effortless. Some may call this world-weariness, others might call it nirvana. It’s definitely part of following my bliss, which has led to this: simple being, simple awareness. This is the ongoing show, taking in everything, while remaining perfectly empty. What do I have to show for it? Nothing, absolutely nothing—my favorite show. This is truly an acquired taste, and of no commercial potential. Yet this show goes on, and on, and on. Very nice.

Over the Waterfall, Out to Sea
Dreams about water are dreams about life, the water of life. This morning I dreamed of swimming as hard as I could against the river’s current, to avoid being swept over a vast waterfall going out to sea. I stopped struggling, and let the current take me, and over the waterfall I went, a surprisingly smooth passage, that brought me to the sea, unscathed. I climbed back to shore, and told the swimmers struggling against the river’s current how easy it was to go over the waterfall. I re-entered the river and let myself be swept over the falls and out to sea again and again.

Here and Now, or Elsewhere and Then
Spirit is eternally here, eternally now. The ego is filled with the urge to be elsewhere, or to dwell in memories of its past or fantasies of its future. Ignorant of being spirit, ego is seldom content just to be here, now. The ego’s idea of hell is to just be here, now, still and silent. Meditation and entheogens are held in contempt by those who still are driven by ego’s fears, delusions, and desires; how anyone could be content, even blissful, just to be, is unfathomable to the ego-bound.

To live as pure, free spirit is not escapism or self-delusion—it’s to live as what we really are. Life as spirit is life in the eternal present, where spirit abides. Ordinary life is made transcendent by realization of the fact of spirit abiding here and now. The eternal abides in the temporal.

Nature Preserves
Nature preserves in nature preserves. How nature-deprived we’ve become, never having true solitude outdoors, in the midst of the natural world. It’s rare to find a place where we can commune with nature without distraction or interruption, without the judgmental mindset of other human beings.

We need more nature preserves, and more nature. Let nature take back what human beings have despoiled. Let nature take back what is nature’s anyway, which is the whole world. Let there be enough nature so that every human being can find his true nature in the midst of nature. Under the sky, surrounded by flora and fauna, supported by the living earth, we find the true self, the spirit of nature, and let it take back this body and mind and will.

This
Not so much That anymore, just This. “That” is somewhere else, something else; This is right here, right now, at hand, immanent.

On a lovely late summer afternoon, I find myself to be in the most ideal spot to commune with This. Hour after transcendent hour, in the midst of the woods, in perfect seclusion, This sings, This speaks, This manifests its Being, Awareness, and Bliss in full measure. Being This heals. Being This purifies.

A reminder, This says, several times: This is the place to Be. This is the place to be This.

Anywhere, anytime, is the time and place to be This, this timeless, unbound This, eternal spirit, This.

Every suffering mortal needs to know This, to go ahead and just be This. Whatever it takes, be This now, here. Sooner or later, everyone must come to This.

Back to the Woods
From time to time I find myself going back to the woods when I’ve had my fill of the conceptual world. Walking slowly along well-known paths through a local nature preserve, entheogenesis arises, and I am deeply content just to be, o miraculous Being and Awareness, spirit of nature, spirit of the universe. Reconnected with body, with spirit, with nature, hours in perfect seclusion in the woods heals me completely, and I am whole, as the silent spirit of nature, the spirit of the universe. The presence of spirit is everywhere, every plant, every animal, all one spirit. Grateful to know this, grateful to be this, I return to society, healed.

Hot Stuff
Entheogenesis is just fine, realizing again that what I really am is nothing less than the spirit of nature, the spirit of the universe, hot stuff to be. Would that all self-aware beings realize that we are all the same Hot Stuff. Everybody must get entheogenicized. To remain ignorant of the fact of being the spirit of nature, the spirit of the universe, is only necessary if one prefers to pretend to be something one is not.

Not only terminal cancer patients should be entitled to entheogenesis, but also every self-aware embodiment knowing the transience, the mortality, of all things, is entitled to it; spirit is always embodied in an inherently terminal condition.

Cosmic Energy, Buddha Nature
Everything is energy, constantly changing, appearing, disappearing, a whole lot of nothing in motion, flowing emptiness. Being this, why would I cling to anything, especially this thing called ‘me’? It’s good to be cosmic energy, forever everywhere while remaining nowhere. Such is Suchness. Such is the inescapable, undeniable Buddha Nature, the ocean of energy.

Pure In Heart, Poor In Spirit
Pure in heart means uncompromising honesty and full awareness. Poor in spirit means genuine, total nonattachment and unconditional surrender to the immanent truth. The combination of honesty, awareness, surrender, and nonattachment is potent—it produces insight, self-realization, self-illumination.

The Ice Ship
The inner voyaging of the psychonaut has one ultimate destination: self-realization. Sooner or later the Other Shore is reached; if not, the voyage continues until the ship sinks in the ocean, and the sinking regarded as something of a tragedy, a loss, ‘death.’ To the self-realized psychonaut, the ship recognizes it’s the same stuff as the ocean, rather like an ice cube in the form of a ship. The ship sails across the sea, melting all the while. The ship—the bodymind—may or may not come to realize it’s made completely out of ocean, and that melting and sinking into the ocean is only natural, and not at all a tragedy, nothing lost, nothing dead. The ocean enjoys being the ship while it lasts, and the ship enjoys being the ocean once again. Self-realization is the ship knowing it’s the ocean, and that it’s melting—sinking—into nothing other than itself.

Mind is mind is Mind
What a lovely revelation that this very mind is the universal Mind. That everyone is blessed with the universal Mind—IS the universal Mind—calls for celebration. Living this one life perceived separately, perceived as separate, each seemingly separate mind is nonetheless the universal Mind bearing witness to itself.

Lighten Up
With the Eye of the One—the Single Eye—all is seen as it is, eternal universal energy, Lux Aeterna. Identifying with the eternal light, identical with the eternal light, it comes as no surprise to see that the body is luminous within and without, and coextensive with and interpenetrating the universe. To know oneself to be the eternal energy is to know eternal life, as the eternal energy itself. Be the light, or be in the dark about the shining reality of That which we eternally are. One life, one energy, one light.

Simple Formulas
Samsara minus attachment equals nirvana. Nirvana plus attachment equals samsara. The world as it is, is the Great Perfection. The only thing keeping us from being part of the Great Perfection is attachment to seemingly separate parts of the Great Perfection: attachments of fear, attachments of craving, all forms of clinging to forms, thought forms, sensory forms. Attachment to form, and, in some cases, attachment to formlessness, makes the Great Perfection seem less than perfect, samsara rather than nirvana: endless toil, suffering, and dissatisfaction.

Another simple formula:
One is one.

The perception that there is more than One is duality, creating a delusional world of separate individual existences. It’s quite an intricate dream, truly a wild ride, while seeing dualistically. One plus one equals delusion.

It’s a binary universe: One, and nothing.

No Remorse
It’s terribly important to forgive oneself, to not dwell on one’s mistakes and weaknesses, for that can be an impediment to opening up and surrendering to the One which abides eternally in the present. It’s up to us to get past the past and move on, so that we can resume being That which we are. When we are That, all is well. That takes care of That. Let It do it, let It be It. Fully being It in the present, It spontaneously does what It does, says what It says, as perfect unitary awareness, in harmony with circumstances, with no hesitation, contrivance, or remorse whatsoever.

Grounded
The Ground of being is what we are; this is a terribly important fact to accept, to believe, to understand, and most importantly, to experience firsthand as one’s own being. The Ground of being has assumed these self-aware forms, all forms, and formlessness. This life is lived by none other than the Ground itself—no-one else is present in the forms it assumes. Conventional thinking perpetuates the delusion of separate selfhood, and thus the values of modern civilization are based on satisfying the desires of seemingly separate selves. Un-Grounded people suffer mightily because of fundamental ignorance of being the Ground. Never satisfied, afraid of death, a slave to attachments, ignorant self-aware forms live and die as a fictional character, unaware of the non-fictional birthless and deathless Ground that is the life of all life, the being of all being.

The un-Grounded craving for individual existence and gratification of its desires is what imperils the biosphere. Too many individual existences with too many insatiable desires is befouling the planet. What’s needed, sooner or later, is a radical correction of the unsustainable way of life lived by too many people; the radical correction, to be effected, requires a radical change in perspective: from seeking repeated ego-gratification to seeking reunion with the Ground. To seek reunion with the Ground requires minimal consumption of energy: beans, bread, vegetables, basic clothes, basic shelter, the basic necessities for healthy physical existence. Once the Ground has been experienced by oneself to be oneself, attachment to things falls away, and there’s wholeness, completeness, realized without any extravagant accoutrements or contrivances required.

Such Suchness
Words are not the thing itself, of course. Thoughts are not the thing itself, either. The thing itself is the thing. Words are magical in the way they express and communicate. Words can only symbolize things, and necessarily fall short of accuracy and completeness, for they aren’t the things themselves.

Enter Suchness. Words can’t enter the realm of Suchness. Suchness is a direct, intimate, nonverbal experience. If I had to define, and therefore confine, and therefore misrepresent Suchness, I’d call it the pure beingness of all things. For the religiously oriented, Suchness could be called the presence of God. Supreme Beingness. Anyone who lets go, and in perfect non-attachment just is, in the natural state, enjoys all the blessings of universal buddhahood, nothing less than Godhood.

Suchness makes no sense whatsoever to those who still cling to name, form, appearances, discriminations, opinions, notions: to them, Suchness has no appeal, and is incomprehensible. Suchness is what we really are, and is so simple, so obvious, it’s overlooked by those limited by dearth of intuition.

In a world seemingly going insane and circling the drain, only Suchness allows us to return to the unbound natural state, to the innocence, delight, fascination, purity, peace, implicit trust and security we enjoyed as children.

How lovely is Suchness, and what a relief it is to surrender to Suchness, to allow things to be as they are in the now, starting with this thing called “me,” Suchness as I am.

Godhead, Godhood, Taohead, Taohood, Unihead, Unihood, Buddhahead, Buddhahood for All Monkeys et cetera
It’s entirely possible for the universe-as-monkey to have sufficient self-awareness, and awareness of awareness, to enjoy the insight that this very monkey body and monkey awareness is the body and awareness of the universe, or God, or Tao, or whatever word for It the particular language system on that particular planet happens to be.

“Godhead” is an Olde English biblical mistranslation of the more accurate word “Godhood” which has wonderful implications. We can, in this monkey body, enjoy our Godhood, or Taohood, if we so desire. Desires and attachments distract and blind us from Godhood. We are as much Godhood as we are able to handle, depending on how pure in heart and poor in spirit we’re willing to be: seeing as the clarity of pure awareness; non-attached, slaves to neither craving nor fear, we can at last let ourselves be that which we are, nothing more or less or other than God/Tao/Universe/Buddha. To be this, the universal essence, the universal energy, is a good thing for a monkey to be. Every life form is the universal energy; blessed is the life form that knows it is in fact birthless, deathless universal energy.

Blinded by Attachment
When I go forth in the world, with mental attachments, all I see is that to which I’m attached. When I’m non-attached, I’m aware of my surroundings, and aware of awareness, and aware of being, and aware of being universal energy. The presence or absence of mental attachments makes all the difference. To be blinded, or to see clearly, are options always available in the present; each option has its consequences.

The blind lead the blind. The clear-sighted can’t be led, and lead by example.

Experiencing the Experiencer
It’s common, and normal, and habitual, to focus on and pursue experiences, repeating pleasurable experiences, seeking new experiences, and in general living for the experience. What’s not so common, not so normal, not so habitual, is to turn the attention to that which experiences, the Experiencer. To experience the Experiencer is quite the breakthrough experience: here it is, silent, ever-present, natural and effortless and without any agenda or ulterior motive whatsoever, completely without contrivance, the universal Experiencer itself: pure awareness. The experience of experiencing the Experiencer is the ultimate experience.

The Experiencer Is Not
How strange, at the terminus of all sensory and motor nerves, there is no-one to be found. The Experiencer is, at the core, nothing. The universal energy is all phenomena, and the witness of all phenomena, and remains forever nonexistent. There is beingness, and no being whatsoever to be found anywhere.

Charity-Energy
In this dream, this movie, of universal energy, it’s only natural to recognize the inmost self in everything, as everything. Recognizing the true universal self in all things, as all things, it’s only natural to express boundless spontaneous unconditional love—charity—toward all things. All phenomena, and the experiencer of all phenomena, are one and the same universal energy. What a wonderful nonexistent being to love, and to be!

The Call of Nature
Each life is life itself, nature itself, and this bodily existence is as much a spontaneous call of nature as any other natural function. All spontaneous natural urges happen on their own, with no deliberate agency. Pure awareness, pure being, is the radiant ongoing call of our true nature.

No-One Asks To Be Born, No-One is Born, No-One Lives, No-One Does Anything
So here we are, getting through each day, day after day, following the way that works well enough for us. Awakening in the morning, we follow the calls of nature until the last call, to sleep. When hungry, eating happens. When thirsty, drinking happens. When weary, rest happens. When laden with waste, evacuation of bowel and bladder happens. While doing chores and taking care of the business of the day, walking, talking, typing, lifting happens. It happens to no-one, it just happens as it arises. There’s no deliberate effort, no contrivance, no strain, no stress. Letting It do it, letting It be It, is the natural state, the natural Way, the Tao itself.

No-one to be Mourned
Empathy can be deceptive. If we think of the other as a separate self, we mourn the apparent death. As I walk about, countless lifeforms meet their end under my heedless shoes. Even though I try to avoid stepping on the ants and the worms, from time to time there will be unavoidable mishaps. It’s not a devaluing of life to regard all life as being one life—it’s to impart each lifeform with ultimate identity, ultimate value. Life goes on, every form the same life, of one identity, one and the same life. If there’s anything to be mourned, it’s the suffering that comes from the delusion of being a separate self, a separate life. To believe oneself to not be one with life, to not be one with nature, to not be life, to not be nature, is absolutely tragic. I grieve for those under the thrall of ego, of delusion. I grieve for those who fear self-extinction, the death of a separate, and illusory, self. I grieve for all sentient beings who haven’t yet understood there are no sentient beings, only Being.

Rest in Peace NOW
It’s odd how many say “he’s at peace now” or “may he rest in peace” without considering that the decedent may have enjoyed our true nature’s intrinsic peace while very much alive in human form. It’s as if peace is not natural while we’re still alive. It’s an immense relief to let the universe take care of itself and enjoy the peace the universe enjoys eternally. To live in peace requires we let go, give up, and be that which we really are, which is the universe, and let the universe live us, in its perfect peace, pure awareness, pure presence.

No Problem
The big problem human beings have is failing to understand that there’s no problem. The problem of existence is living as someone we’re not. There’s no individual existence, no individual extinction, only birthless, deathless universal energy. Life has no problem; only the false self that believes itself to “have” life has one perceived problem after another.

Being Being
To recognize this that I am, this universal energy, is exalting if there existed anyone who could feel exalted, which there isn’t, just a persona who gets his jollies through toys, tickles, experiences one after another, repeated as long as diminishing returns don’t set in, or even after diminishing returns set in. Being-Energy is the same thing as Presence-Awareness, that animating Stuff. Being a being of pure 100% energy is like being a god, or God Almighty Him/Her/Itself. We should all simply enjoy being this being of energy that we are; if it takes an entheogen to feel this and know this and be this, firsthand, so be it. Whatever it takes, pure being itself is plenty. Sat Chit Ananda, the yogi’s career path. Radiant bliss is at hand.

News of the Nous of the No-Us
There’s nothing esoteric, nothing mystical, nothing sacred about the universal energy. There’s also nothing personal about it—there is no person to be found anywhere, just the universal energy. It bears witness to itself, forming here, unforming there, all formlessness and all form. It lives in us as us, even though there’s no you, no me, no us, no-one.

Why Not Weep
The totality of the experiences of all sentient beings—the sentience of the universe—leads me to sit down and play a few chords on the guitar, and chant, and weep. May all beings know there are no beings, only the universal spirit, birthless, deathless.

Here, Now, Thou Universal Spirit
How often the flowery sentiments of hack obituaries include ‘he/she is with God.’ In point of fact we’re always ‘with God’ and it’s always the case that the presence of ‘God’ is within us already, as us, as this presence we call Me, or You. It’s only conventional conditioned thinking, the individual and collective ego, that lives under the delusion of being other than ‘God,’ i.e., the universal spirit, the universal energy. It’s not delusional to live as the universal spirit--it’s delusional to live as anything else. It’s by turns tragic, and comic, that people typically live as what they believe they are, a separate, limited creature—and ‘die’ not knowing what really lived. Now’s the time to stop pretending, now’s the time to stop supporting the pretense, now’s the time to be That which we eternally are: birthless, deathless, always One with itself.

The Messenger is the Message
In the natural state of pure being and pure awareness, the whole message is fully expressed. Creator is creature. The universe can’t hide from itself forever. Human beings only need to recognize what’s already present, as it is: this very presence, this very awareness, is the One, the Only, the Supreme.

Before the Falling
What this all really is can only be appreciated, savored, embraced. All rising and falling, before the falling, enjoy, embrace, savor, love. Love well, love all, before the falling away. The One appears again and again, in every rising. One falls into One. Love the One as the One. Love is the One recognizing itself in another form. Love never dies because the One never dies.

All Things Being Equal
The zeitgeist at the moment is fear of change and loss, as well as change and loss. I feel such a fear every time I read the newspaper, and know that it’s altogether too easy to go from the life of a First Worlder to that of a Third Worlder. There’s no guarantee that a life of luxury, leisure, and privilege will continue indefinitely. Even in the easiest of circumstances the vicissitudes of biological life are inescapable.

Again and again, I imagine the worst possible circumstance I’m in at the moment—the universe being that which I happen to be—and imagine what it would take for me to deal with it. Water, food, shelter, medicine, clothing, privies, etc. are the material goods I would want for myself. As for grief, fear, psychological suffering of every kind, I would want me to know just who, or what, is feeling grief, and fear, and psychological and physical pain.

What would it take for me to know I’m the universe? Only that realization can help me where I need help the most, stuck in these miserably delusional monkeys. That’s the food, the medicine, I need.

Harping
Angels spend eternity playing the harp, so the common Christian image goes. While playing the piano in Kirnberger III temperament it was obvious to me that the digital piano is in fact my harp, and that I am in fact in eternity now. Whether I’m angelic or demonic in eternity depends on the condition of my condition at the moment. When I’m demonic, I’m in hell, and don’t feel inspired to play the harp much at all. When I’m angelic, I’m in heaven—hebbin—nibbana—nirvana…a good place to Be. In heaven, there’s plenty of inspiration—pure spirit, nothing but—and it’s only natural to play, and play, and play that harp, doing the whole rejoicing and glorifying thing. The whole universe conspired to create the condition necessary for a monkey to realize its true identity, for a monkey to be in a heavenly condition.

All at once, the whole spectrum of states of being unfold, angelic and demonic. Just as I’ve spent my allotted time in hell, so must every self-aware monkey, to get that impetus to find out why we’re not having a good time, why we’re not playing our harp in the eternal Now.

Effortless Natural Functioning of the Universal Mind
It’s a joy to be in the natural state, in the natural mind, in the universe’s mind, which self-originates, self-sustains, effortlessly. Just as breathing, heartbeat, digestion happen spontaneously, effortlessly, so too the natural mind—pure awareness—is effortlessly radiantly present in all its glorious clarity and perfection. The jewel in the lotus is pure awareness, the origin of nirvana and samsara, containing nirvana and samsara, beyond nirvana and samsara.

Every sentient being is of one mind, one universal mind of one radiant clarity, which is beyond the concept of separate sentient being. There are no sentient beings, only the one universal presence of awareness.

The Universal Cure
The Diamond Sutra vow: Save all sentient beings, even though there are no sentient beings to save. Thinking about what hope there is for the multitudes of the apes called human beings born into poverty and ignorance. It took stable circumstances and leisure time for this monkey to Realize. What are the prospects for third-worlders with regard to Self-Realization?

At Ease
Animals, when unthreatened, in between fight-or-flight, are naturally relaxed, at ease. Human beings, being animals, also have the capacity to be at ease, relaxed, when in the natural state. Much is made of human beings being “the thinking animal.” While conceptualization has helped our species become successful, maybe too successful, at surviving, it has also made it difficult for many people to be relaxed, due to a more-or-less constant flow of restless thoughts.

As a citizen of the world who tries to be well-informed, the information informing me lately is not conducive to relaxation—it’s downright agonizing. Geopolitics and human-impacted environment are apocalyptic, heading toward tipping points of unimaginable destructiveness for our species, and all life. Conditions may get unimaginably worse before there’s resolution and a sustainable outcome.

In the meantime, I’m beginning to understand the importance of being relaxed, not just for my own well-being, but for the well-being of everyone with whom I come into contact, and with whom everyone eventually comes into contact, indirectly. Relaxedness is contagious. I know its contagiousness became I pick it up from my cats, who are the epitome of relaxation, and they transmit their perfect ease to me, simply by being naturally relaxed.

There’s nothing we can do about what madness and greed has already done to the mental and physical environment. What we can do is release relaxedness into the mental environment, where it will spread and bloom and cover the world, an uncontrollable spill of pure natural ease. One of the benefits of wisdom is the capacity to be at peace, i.e., at ease—content with less, far less.

Spaced Out
It’s taken a few decades to finally understand what the battle between my apparent two minds was all about. One mind felt agitated now and then and frustrated that there was an underlying defective state of dreamlike depersonalization, an unshakable feeling of unreality. The explanation, it turned out, is blessedly simple. When I identified with thoughts—particular conditioned viewpoints—there was no lasting peace of mind, and the real mind—awareness—was not recognized, not identified with, and therefore misunderstood, misinterpreted, and resisted. When at last I recognized the silent presence of awareness, and surrendered to it, and identified with it, and realized that it’s my true mind and the real me, the battle ended. What I misinterpreted as being chronically spaced out was in reality constant pure natural awareness itself, which by its very nature is unbound, unconditioned, spacious. No wonder I thought I was always spaced out.

Little did I know at the time that the momentous recognition of the silent, pure, effortless presence of awareness was the same self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness to which Padmasambhava and all the Buddhas throughout the universe have been referring.

That all beings are this, is wonderful.

Perennial Person
The same person incarnates in every form. Any being with awareness is the same being, the same person. Awareness is of one color, i.e., clear—the indestructible clarity of pure awareness. Wherever there’s awareness, there’s the presence of the same person. This person is the true person, the universal person, the perennial person, appearing here, there, everywhere, nameless, always the same person.

I, Surrender
In the midst of inflated egos, not able to suffer fools very gladly, miserably misanthropic, it’s time for me to go. The world is better off when there’s one less ego. If not me, who; if not now, when. It’s ultimately the responsibility of the individual to transcend individuality and surrender, in the silence and seclusion of the heart of hearts, to that which is universal, which has no I.

Blame It On Ego
Whatever the man-made disaster or mishap or violence, ego is ultimately responsible. The human being is the only species on this planet afflicted with ego, and it’s the human ego that’s the origin of the clear and present danger to our long-term survival.

The Great Oil Spill is not the fault of government or industry, but of the human ego’s craving to have its own automobile and to go places far and fast.

If the world was populated by Pascals, Taoists, Buddhists, and Amish we’d be content to stay in our village, and there wouldn’t be this current insane, insatiable craving for fossil fuel.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love, and egocide en masse.

Now truly is the time for Dzogchen. It’s the world’s salvation. In the Great Perfection, as the Great Perfection, there’s intrinsic wholeness, completeness, in simply being. With Dzogchen’s profound insight, our species’ carbon footprint would be as small as any other species on this planet, and we’d stand a better chance to survive, and to enjoy a lush, biodiverse planet.

Have Nots
We don’t ‘have’ anything, we are everything. We don’t ‘have’ power, we are power. We don’t ‘have’ awareness, we are awareness. We don’t ‘have’ life, we are life. The thing that believes it ‘has’ anything isn’t real--it is the fictitious self, the bundle of delusions, assumptions, and conditioned responses called the ego. It’s nothing personal, everything impersonal, without person, without possession.

Salvation Are Me
The astonishing discovery of the silent presence of unconditioned awareness in the midst of incessant conceptualization is a watershed moment in the life of those who are their own worst enemy--those identifying with thoughts, at the mercy of thoughts. This discovery is nothing less than salvation. Here it is, the natural mind, the universal mind, here all along. Being in, and being, the ultimate Right Mind is a profound relief.

Contents and Container
It’s only natural to pay attention to phenomena, and not to That which contains phenomena. The ongoing strategizing for survival of living phenomena requires focusing on phenomena.

As agriculture and industry have resulted in a relatively stable civilization where for many survival is relatively easy, there’s more opportunity to focus less on phenomena and more on what underlies phenomena, what is sustaining, containing, and perceiving phenomena.

The universe at last has a chance, at some leisure, to reflect upon itself, to come to know itself, to realize that what perceives the phenomenal universe is the universe.

Old habits die hard. Phenomena can be very distracting, and many people remain ignorant containers, terminally attached to contents. Just as conditions must be right for the universe to blossom with life, conditions must also be right for an individual to realize true, universal identity.

I Contact
When the universe passes itself on the sidewalk, what does it see? Where is its attention going? Who does it think is seeing, who does it think is seen? This is a simple ongoing experiment: notice who is looking; notice who is looking back.

Eye contact is an everyday miracle. The universe communicating with itself, recognizing itself, is an eternal miracle in the eternal now. It takes One to know One.

Three Miracles

Existence
Awareness
Communication

Bliss is a byproduct of Self-realization, of surrendering to the fact of being That which is this very Existence, of being That which is this very Awareness, of being That which communicates with Itself in every form.

Consolation Prize
It’s easy for children to have implicit trust in the security and solidarity of home and family, and to be consoled; it’s not so easy for adults with adult responsibilities to feel such trust and consolation. Lying awake in the wee hours once again, ruminating over precarious circumstances near and far, I climbed out of bed and played myself a lullaby on the piano. In the midst of the distressing mess of things, there can be a little harmony, simplicity, and peace.

The search for innocence is the search for that feeling of security felt when young and innocent. The end of innocence is marked by the start of cynicism, despair, and insecurity. To whom, to what, do I turn when all seems hopeless? To whom, to what, do I turn to be consoled, when I’m feeling inconsolable?

I give up.

Aha.

Give up, let go, no need to worry. The universe is innocent and takes care of itself.

Implicit trust in the universe is all I’ve got now.

What else is there anyway?

I identify with that I implicitly trust.

Innocence found.

Aggregate Loves, Aggregate Dreams
This body is an aggregate among aggregates within the vast aggregate called the Universe. This aggregate has come to realize it’s the same as any aggregate within the Great Aggregate. While these aggregates remain more or less intact, they can be used to convey the love the Great Aggregate has for itself, which is expressed through its aggregates.

AggreGate
AggreGate
AggreParagate
AggreParasamgate
Bodhi! Svaha!

It is of one flavor indeed.

Until global toxicity/warming/thermonuclear warfare or the Asteroid of our Doom brings civilization if not all life to a halt, the mission of the aggregates is to celebrate and express our eternal unity and identity as the Great Aggregate, the universe briefly sentient, and communicative.

The universe has dreams, here and there, eternally, when conditions permit.

The universe is a mix of emptiness and energy. Form is energy, energy is form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Energy is emptiness, emptiness is energy. The energy aggregates, and phenomenal worlds rise and fall. Timelessly the mix comes together just right for some aggregates to become self-aware, and then to become aware of beingness and awareness, and then…to realize what is living this dreamlike aggregate life.

Dreams are emptiness, emptiness dreams.

Message and Medium
These words are so graceless and inadequate to do justice to the Dharmakaya. Far better to use the best medium of all for communication: pure awareness, pure presence, pure spirit: eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart, nonverbal, eloquent through silent presence, which is what makes the Dharmakaya the Dharmakaya, the universal spirit the universal spirit. The medium is the message, the message is the medium. Emaho!

Living Crystals
I shamelessly dote on my housecat companion animals. They are living crystals of pure spirit who’ve helped me get sane and healthy, and have helped restore my sense of humor in the face of things. Listening to and reading about the sophisticated follies of my fellow human beings, I’m so grateful for the existence of other species sharing this life, sharing this dream. The human being is the only animal that pretends, and believes its own pretensions. Being in the presence of animals contaminated by persistent beliefs, pretensions, and conditioned perspectives is tiresome, if not toxic. Animals help bring out the whole, sane, authentic, contented animal in humans.

What’s it going to take to get a little more biodiversity around here anyway? Is it too much to ask? Human beings are both the smartest and the stupidest of all animals on this planet. Their antics are best viewed with a cosmic sense of humor, otherwise they’re insufferable.

Blessed Beauty, Beautiful Blessings
Ever since childhood I’ve experienced what can best be described as spine-tingling head rushes which get triggered by beautiful music; beautiful art; beautiful words; beautiful ideas; the natural world; and beautiful expressions of love felt, given, and received. It’s a response to blessings given and received. Blessedness is a state of pure spiritual beauty, the flowing radiance of pure spirit.

It’s possible to get attached to beauty and blessedness, though. It’s best to let beauty and blessings come and go as they will, and take note of what remains, on its own. The greatest blessing is calm, quiet, and cool, with no spine-tingling head rushes: the ongoing Presence of the Great Perfection: the vast clarity of pure awareness, the universal mind; the total freedom of pure unconditioned being, just as it is. Awareness of pure awareness, of the universal mind, of the Presence…this is the ongoing beauty and blessing, an acquired taste, subtle because it’s so obvious, so easily overlooked, in this Age of Distraction.

Zero-G Mind
The universal mind in its natural uncontrived state is freedom and effortlessness, the absence of fear, craving, likes, dislikes, conditioned views, judgments, opinions. It’s the inner experience equivalent of being weightless, in a zero-G environment. There’s no strain, no weightiness, no burden, no dread, no anxiety, no regret, just a limitless, relaxed clarity, pure awareness. The universal mind is fully present, containing all phenomena, unconditioned, uncontrived, unattached, transparent perfection. Words can’t describe the universal mind, which is beyond words and concepts, a living spontaneous clear awareness.

We’re the voice, the eyes, the hands, the mind of the universe. Manifesting the evolutionary vitality of the universe, we’re the process, not a person. What an enormous relief—there is no-one present but the Presence.

A Comm-Unity
It’s not necessary to share a faith, or a belief, to have meaningful, devoted, close-knit community. There can be community based on nothing more and nothing less than the eternal fact of being One and the same, a recognition and celebration of being the one and only One.

The One recognizes itself instinctively, and expresses this recognition of itself through unconditional love. The fact that those ‘familiar’ to us become like ‘family’ is the work of the One.

The community of the One is the ultimate catholic organization, as it includes all that is, for all is One.

The One is birthless and deathless. No-one is born; no-one dies. The One lives forever, eternal community within unity, eternal unity within community.

When the One recognizes itself through its many forms, there’s ultimate communion, ultimate communication, ultimate community.

Manifestations of the One, even when the One is unknown to itself through identification with, and attachment to, the particular manifestation it happens to be, instinctively recognize the presence of the One within every form, even though there may be misinterpretation of the presence caused by dualistic views. Personal pronouns take the place of the One, the Great Perfection, which is the one impersonal Person of every me, you, we, they, he, she, and it.

One appears to become Many, many forms, many manifestations. In the midst of the plethora of phenomena, the One abides in silence, stillness, emptiness.

Survival of the Notion
The survival instinct manifests in self-deluded humans in amazingly bizarre ways.

Most people believe in their own individual existence, and are attached to the notion of having an individual existence, a self.

Many religions require a belief in life after death, and many people wishfully think, and hope, there will be some kind of personal existence in the Hereafter.

There will almost certainly be survival of the notion of individual existence, and of the notion of an individual existence in the Hereafter, for a long time.

As long as there’re communities of faith, and belief systems, there will be the survival of the notion of a separate self that exists before, during, and after biological death.

Being the Great Perfection
Thanks to greatfreedom.org for its sublime healing words. In one of the downloadable booklets there’s found the remarkable suggestion, among copious remarkable suggestions, that we can dispense with personal pronouns entirely when regarding ourselves, and instead replace all of them with ‘Great Perfection.’

The Great Perfection goes about the ordinary business of daily life. How wonderfully ordinary it is. How good it is to be ordinary, to be the Great Perfection.

To live and ‘die’ in the midst of the Great Perfection, as the Great Perfection, is just lovely.

Being the Beloved
Life is not a spectator sport, to be kept at a distance, as something separate from us. We don’t have to waste this precious opportunity worshiping the Beloved from afar, as something different from us. Sooner or later, in this lifetime or some other lifetime, we have to stop pretending we’re something other than That which we worship. This very body, this very awareness, is the Beloved, whatever it’s called: Nature, God, Universe. It’s not enough to have blind faith that God is present within us. This very presence, that up until now was merely the vehicle for self-aggrandizement, self-indulgence, and self-gratification, is the presence of God. This very awareness, which up until now was relentlessly kept filled with restless thoughts, fantasies, memories, desires, dreads, experiences, sensations, is the Cosmos’ awareness. So ordinary, so common, so natural, so beautiful, so real: we are this. We all need to know, and to remember, we are this, and let ourselves be the Beloved.

Inconceivable
The universal mind—pure awareness itself—is without concepts, being pure energy and pure emptiness. It’s impossible for it to conceive of duality, or nonduality, or enlightenment, or ignorance, or any other concept, yet it contains all conceptualizations and is the energy behind conceptualizing.

X-treme Nonduality
It’s easy enough for a freethinker to refuse to join a private club that requires the public swearing of an oath of belief in a supreme being. What’s more difficult is to live not as a false self, but as the One and Only True Self, i.e., the universe. It’s difficult to suffer dualistic fools gladly, especially when dualistic views are the cause of such misery everywhere.

To live as the universe is to live forever, without fear, authentic, free; to live as anything else is ignorance and cowardice.

No, I won’t deny what I know; no, I won’t pretend to be or believe to be anything else but what I am; no, I won’t keep it to myself; no, I won’t play along with ignorant, cowardly, dualistic thinking; no, I won’t stop giggling.

All phenomena, all seemingly separate beings in all stages of development, are aspects of the one true selfless Self, the inmost self of every self.

In radiant emptiness everything transpires. Let it transpire. Let it be radiant emptiness.

This cosmic crème de la crème is just too good to keep hidden. Hidden—ha!--it’s plainer than plain. That’s why it’s hidden.

This is extremely extreme.

As Is
Everything is as is. To accept everything as is is only natural, and sane.

Jazz
Completely free expression is the natural outflow of a completely free being, a being self-liberated, intrinsically free. Perfect freedom is the domain of the Buddha-nature.

“All Is One”
While out on a long walk I took the cemetery loop, and happened to spot a new, or heretofore unnoticed, monument, set upon a rectangular stone slab, a smooth, medium-size granite stone in its original natural shape, uncut except for three words neatly and deeply chiseled on the surface facing the road: All Is One.

One of these days I’d like to find out who had this stone put there, and why. That would be fun.

The Perfection of Insight
Some people think the word translated as Wisdom should actually be interpreted as Insight. Either way, wisdom and insight are interdependent, inextricably intertwined, and synonymous. As figures of speech go, Insight and Wisdom are pretty good. The insight into insight that leads to the perfection of insight—or wisdom—can be summed up pretty easily, in as few, or as many, figures of speech as one might care to use.

It’s all a dream. There’s nothing to be worried about or to take very seriously. There’s nothing to grasp, nothing to fear, nothing at all. Enjoy the dream, as it is, all the while being awake in the dream. Help other dream-people realize it’s nothing but a dream.

Remembering the Nondual Universe
The universe is nondual. Duality exists only in the delusional conditioned mental states of self-aware organisms. Human beings have no delusion of duality until about age two or three.
Many people go to their graves stuck in dualistic delusion, confused, suffering, unsatisfied, afraid of change and loss and death, and leave behind survivors and descendents also stuck in dualistic delusion.
Whatever it takes, it’s important that people snap out of dualistic delusion by any means possible, if only for a brief moment, just to remember the primordial purity and perfection of the nondual universe.
Knowing nonduality, it’s only natural to surrender to it and resume our intrinsic nonduality, i.e., dare to be the universe, which in fact we can’t help but be.
Only then can we live unfazed, unattached, unafraid of death or anything else.
Only then can we understand, only then is there meaning.

The Grand Reunion
When a being has at last broken the bonds of delusions of duality and has found the Self within to be the Self without, there’s the experience of the grand reunion, when the universe reunites with itself by realizing the unity that always is. There is no-one and nothing that is not oneself. All is one, and life and death are a dream. Unity goes beyond bliss, even though bliss happens in the process of realizing the unity.

How good it is just to hang out, to commune and to communicate with, all the members of this cosmic family. Our family tree goes way, way back to undifferentiated energy, which is where it winds up now and evermore as well.

A Notion of Going Notionless
As much as I enjoy reading good books about various expressions of the Perennial Philosophy—especially Zen, Dzogchen and Advaita texts—I found it behooves me to close the books, stop labeling myself a Buddhist or a Buddha or anything else, and just do what Buddha suggested we do, which is to be our own light. Damn straight. The Perfection of Wisdom, the Great Perfection, just happens, just is. Going with the Flow, going with the Tao, it’s the spiritual version of the Theory of Relativity. When we go with the flow, we’re one with the flow, and we’re quite totally natural, quite ordinary, as ordinary as the universe. It’s just a matter of not putting on airs, and not clinging to anything, including any notions, even exalted notions. Notions rise and fall, along with every other thing.

I keep coming back to the notion of energy dancing in emptiness. There’s no emptiness without energy dancing in it, and no energy without a whole lot of emptiness throughout. This is the eternal Me of every me.

Diamond Sutra Update
Although Gautama da Buddha didn’t have modern physics available to him, I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate to use it to help explain to the scientifically literate that there is no personhood, no self whatsoever, only energy in spontaneous quantum states, rising and falling here and there forever. In light of that, we just let it all happen, let it be it, without holding on to anything, especially to the notion of a self. It’s truly all just a dream, a grand illusion, a hologram of energy. It’s the only illusion there is, with many flavors of its perception being directed back upon itself.

The Heartbreak of Heartbreak
The suffering and dissatisfaction of human beings is caused by the delusion of being a self, a separate self, a real self, a self that has stuff happen to it like birth, hunger, thirst, illness, injury, pain, aging, loss of powers and possessions and other persons, and of course the ultimate heartbreak, the death of self through biological death of the organism. It’s not the flesh that suffers, it’s that notion of being a self that causes the suffering of a fictitious, delusional, illusory, nonexistent self. It’s such a convincing delusion, though, that it’s only natural for the universe to find itself identifying with a tiny chunk of itself, a bag-of-skin self that stops at the skin line.

I watch how people suffer so much, from loss, from change. Although the Perennial Philosophy has found a good home in this monkey, and I can manage to ride the changes pretty well now, I just wish everyone—those near and dear, and those far and unknown—would also strive to be better homes for the Perennial Philosophy, so that they too will come to know there is no separate self, and all the changes and losses are illusory. Be Brahman or be boohoohooing lifetime after lifetime. That’s asking a lot, I know. That’s asking for people to let go of everything, especially the notion of having a self. Life is a tearjerker only to those who don’t want to accept the fact they’re life itself, and identify instead with name, role, thoughts, perspective, opinion, conditioning, body, the usual bundle of neverending suffering.

The story goes:

‘After Chuang Tzu’s wife died, his friend Hui Tzu went to his house to console him. When he got there, he found Chuang Tzu sitting on the ground, banging on a drum, and singing joyfully.

“This is too much!” exclaimed Hui Tzu. “To live with your wife and raise a son together, then not shed a tear after you’ve buried her in the ground, that would be bad enough, but to drum and sing! Surely, this is going too far!”

“Not at all,” replied Chuang Tzu. “When she died, I could not help being saddened by her death. But soon I remembered that she already existed as a spirit without substance or form. Substance was later added to that spirit, and her next stage was birth, after which she grew to become the person that I knew and loved. Now, by virtue of another change, she is dead, passing from one phase to another as spring turns to summer, fall, and then winter. Since she has passed into the next phase of life, for me to go about weeping and wailing would show that I am ignorant of the way of nature. Therefore, I refrain.” ‘

We can certainly catch on to the way of nature and bang our drums and sing joyfully every day, even on the occasion of biological death of yet another organism within the Great Organism. Neither this body nor any of its cells grieve when cells just keep reaching the end of their lifespan and get reabsorbed by the body.

I grieve that we grieve. The Perennial Philosophy isn’t rocket science. It’s one colossal cosmic inside joke that we fail to get at our existential peril. My Heart of Hearts is unbreakable, but it breaks my heart to see so much heartbreak afoot. All it takes is a little insight, a little Perennial Philosophy, a little ego death, to get the joke and get on with the serious business of banging the drum, singing joyfully, etc.

Mercifully, the Perennial Philosophy is transmitted heart-to-heart, eye-to-eye, mind-to-mind, without words. It’s present, it’s presence, it’s awareness, it spontaneously recognizes itself. When the Self recognizes the Self in every form, it knows itself to be eternal life, living in every form, abiding in, and arising from, formlessness. The selfless Self abides silently in all, as all, and in silence recognizes, and understands.

The Ultimate Fraternal Organization
Some people near and dear to me are trying to get me to join the fraternal organization they’ve recently joined. To become a member, I would have to take an oath and sign a pledge, and pay a yearly fee, for the privilege of associating with them, and with other members of the organization, in the confines of their buildings. I’m hesitant because part of the oath requires that I swear that I believe in a supreme being, among other beliefs. I could play along and raise my hand and not-so-solemly swear and join, and enjoy the cheap booze, tasty snacks, games of chance and the camaraderie behind the card-swiped door, and the universe wouldn’t care, so why should I?

I think it’s the exclusivity of such an organization that leaves me cold: members-only, no non-members tolerated. Exclusivity is duality. That, and the requirement that I claim to believe in something that I don’t ‘believe in’ i.e., the existence of a Supreme Being.

It’s not just that I could be called an atheist, or an agnostic, or a communist, I could be called psychotic, which also puts me in the category of ‘low moral character’ as I have persistent delusions of grandeur, i.e., I don’t believe in a supreme being because I, and you, and everyone, ARE the Supreme Being.

So it’s not a good fit: an atheist communist psychotic doesn’t belong in an exclusive secret society that purports to exclude such people.

Call me simple, but I regard myself, and every being, as a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of Lifeforms as a birthright. Our secret handshake is spontaneous mutual recognition. Everyone’s a member. Our bellybutton is our badge. Even without a bellybutton, we’re still all members of the same Fraternal Order throughout the multiverse cosmos.

Character Development: Best Entheogen Ever
Character development is the sine qua non of insight. To know one’s own mind and heart requires inward focus. Character development is the conquering of fears and desires and the direct unflinching experience of mind and heart as it is.

When the eye is single the body is filled with light, and there it is: we’re already light, we’re already illumination itself. Singleness of eye develops when attachments to phenomena and to experiences fall away through long, patient, honest self-observation, i.e., through character development.

To live out one’s days self-liberated through seeing with naked awareness, in the total freedom of the unconditioned, unattached, pure, universal mind, is a fate I wish upon everyone. It’s an inevitable fate, already manifesting, in every being.

Every being is the one universal being, every being is free as the universal being, in the infinite expanse of mind and being.

That simply subtracting attachments results in unimaginable freedom is one of the best-kept open secrets of the universe. That sheer being and sheer awareness, without attachments, is sheer bliss itself, is so obvious it’s overlooked, day after day, lifetime after lifetime.

Glorifying the Great Perfection, the Beautiful Artist
As Douglas Harding oft emphasized, as long as whatever you do comes from the Source, that’s the most important thing. I only want to come from the Source, the Great Perfection, as there is total freedom to be found there. The joy of this total freedom knows no bounds. Art inspired by the joy of total freedom, art from the Source, art which glorifies the Great Perfection, is beautiful. From the place of beauty, beautiful art emerges, for the artist is none other than the most beautiful Source, the Great Perfection.

At Ease in the Great Perfection
Going through the checklist while walking to work—“Have I sung today? Yes, I’m singing now. Have I prayed today? Yes, I’m praying now. Who is praying? To whom am I praying? For what am I praying?” Okay. It’s the Great Perfection praying to the Great Perfection that all manifestations of the Great Perfection find ease in the Great Perfection. Am I right? Of course I am. I am the Great Perfection. There’s nothing that’s not the Great Perfection. Am I right? Of course I am.

What could be better than being At Ease?

Anywhere, anyone can find their Ease by letting go and simply being the Great Perfection. Our eternal home is the Great Perfection. We owe it to ourself to make ourself at home in the Great Perfection. Home is where the Ease is.

Being, Awareness, Ease: here’s that Satchitananda again. By any other name the Ease is the same.

No Worries / Yes, Worries
As a long-time worry-wart, it came as quite a relief to find that my right mind, i.e., the universal mind, the Essence of Mind, is worry-free. It’s become a test of which mind I happen to be in by noting the presence or absence of worry. When I’m worrying, I’m conditioned mind; when I’m profoundly worry-free, I am universal mind, unconditioned mind, Essence of Mind. Without craving, without fear, without attachments, without any conditioning whatsoever, pure awareness has no worries at all. Worry—stress—implies defilement, delusion, conditioning, dualistic thinking. Even in the face of inevitable life crises in my personal life or the personal lives around me, ultimately the universal mind will prevail, being the epitome of the Fifth Stage of Grief: Acceptance. Accepting the inevitability of change, accepting everything just as it is, the universal mind has no worries whatsoever, even though it contains all worries, all physical and mental suffering.

My New Old Best Friend
Pure awareness is truly my best friend, peerless peer, unsurpassed mentor, counselor supreme. When I let go of everything I believe to be me, I resume my natural state of pure awareness. In the coolness of pure awareness, all is well, all is meaningful. Pure awareness recognizes itself, over and over and over again, throughout the cosmos in the eternal now, the ubiquitous presence in the eternal present. The human being as ego is lonely; the human being as pure awareness is always in the presence of the best friend one could ever have. To have a friend, be a friend.

Perfect Freedom Requires Total Obedience to No-One
When I let the Essence of Mind be my true mind, which it really is—the place where I’m coming from—I have both perfect freedom as Essence of Mind and am totally bound by it. I have no choice, no free will, no concept of self while the Essence of Mind is in charge. There is no-one present, only pure process, pure spontaneous being and activity, within the universal mind, the Essence of Mind. I unconditionally submit to That which I am, and in this process it turns out I am not.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. Surrender to the Essence of Mind is the culmination of this incarnation.

Of course, it’s very easy to lapse into familiar phobias, cravings, conditioned viewpoints, opinions: they come and they go. The Essence of Mind abides, with infinite patience, of course: there’s no-one around to lose patience.

One Less Thing
The One is no-one. The Self is self-less. The absence of a person is transcendentally wonderful and merciful and comforting.

And Yet
Despite the absence of any separate self anywhere, there’s something that recognizes itself, something that communicates with itself. When in conditioned form, it gives itself and other forms names, and identifies with name and form.

It’s all part of the process. How wonderful it is to see the One looking through every eye, the blazing brilliance of the presence of awareness, universal energy, eternal spirit. That we are this universal One is astonishing.

I find words, and babble, and scribble, out of unbearable astonishment. And I indulge in the supreme pleasure, recognizing, and being, this silent Reality shining through these eyes, pervading this and every form and all formless space.

Recognizing, communicating with, reuniting with, my Self—not a bad way to spend eternity.

Stress-free Thing
I have recently been playing the digital piano set in equal temperament, as an experiment, thinking that I could get used to its familiar character and work with it, and I could, up to a point, when the rapidly-beating sour shrillness of the triads became too much to bear. Having no pure intervals available except octaves was an impoverishment. In the course of reading about various musical tunings and temperaments, I found one writer who observed that equal temperament was “loaded with stress.” That’s also been my experience with this ubiquitous modern musical temperament. Perhaps a stress-filled culture best expresses itself through a stress-filled musical temperament.

This morning I reset the piano to Kirnberger III unequal temperament which contains the most pure intervals possible and still be fully circulating, totally usable in all key signatures. The sound and synergy of pure intervals is magical. Even though there is a crystalline intensity to the black key Pythagorean triads and intervals, there’s serenity in the intensity. The white key triads are so close to just intonation that the effect is that of deep calmness, of rest, of release of all tension.

The release of all tension is not a trivial experience: it’s essential for health and sanity. Of all the animals on this planet, the human animal is the only species that manages to live in a state of stress, caused by chronic misperceptions and erroneous, egocentric conceptualizations. In fact, stress requires belief in the existence of ego, identification with this fictitious ego, feeling oneself to be a separate self, saddled with a chronic dualistic mindset, ‘me versus world.’ Other species, both predators and prey, are naturally egoless, and aside from moments of pure fight-or-flight, are completely relaxed and fully in the moment, no worries, no self-concept, one with the surroundings.

The best thing we can do for each other is to be that stress-free Thing that we are, and recognize and honor this stress-free Thing equally present in this form called ‘me’ and this form called ‘you.’ It has no name. It’s universal. It’s real. It’s pure. It’s everywhere, everything, everyone. Call it spirit, call it Buddha-nature, call it what you will, it is that it is. It’s home, it’s what and where we eternally are, it’s one.

Playing a harp in this heavenly Thing, I remain, very truly you.

A Free Mind
The natural mind, the universal mind, the essence of mind, is intrinsically a free mind, unconditioned, unattached, pure perception, pure awareness. We human animals have managed to ensnare ourselves with our own thoughts, attachments, conditioning, desires, phobias, opinions, misperceptions, to where the common condition is to be enslaved by our own mind. We commonly have our share of demons making us miserable.

After exhausting my infatuations to a great extent, I’ve come to recognize the free, universal, essence of mind as my own mind, and just let it be it, let it be my right mind. How good it feels to be the universal mind, absolutely free.

Essence of Mind
As I plan on what I want to take with me on an upcoming trip—as well as for the days left in this physical form—the one thing I want to keep close to me at all times, wherever I go, is the essence of mind, the universal mind, Buddha-nature. It’s the best, the ultimate, for me, for everyone. How wonderful it is that I don’t have to worry about losing the essence of mind—it’s always here, it’s always everywhere. If I would set down just a few words, I’d write them in stone, or on a clay tablet, and the words would be nothing much different than what’s in what’s called the Diamond Sutra. We’re all saying the same thing only because we are the same thing. We don’t have essence of mind, we are essence of mind. We don’t have pure awareness, we are pure awareness. The Buddha-nature is everywhere, everything, everyone, glorious self-shining perfection.

Sky Watching
Being outside, under the sky, whenever possible, is therapeutic. There’s that vastness, openness, spaciousness, and freedom that’s the essence of the sky. So it is with the natural mind as well, it’s pure awareness, truly a sky of mind and mind of sky. The universal presence of pure awareness contains everything, supports everything, as everything rises and falls within its endless, effortless, unbound, eternal embrace.

Sky Music, Sky Life
Celebrating the Great Freedom, the Great Liberation, is only natural. The joy of being unbound pure awareness is inexpressible, but it gets expressed anyway. What notes struck on the piano would do justice to pure awareness? What would pure awareness play? What would pure awareness say? What would pure awareness do? This is crazy fun stuff here.

Opinions Are Illnesses
“Don’t seek enlightenment, merely cease cherishing opinions.” Thus said the 3^rd Chinese Zen patriarch. That’s asking a lot of most people. We identify with our opinions, not just cherish them. Opinions make up the lens, the prism, the viewpoint, that’s ‘me.’ Opinion is destiny, point of view is destiny; it’s existential reality. It’s no wonder so many people resort to drink, drugs, distraction, and violence.

Pure awareness contains all viewpoints, all opinions, although it has none whatsoever. Born as pure awareness, we caught opinions just as we caught childhood illnesses. Opinions, not regarded as mental illness but as milestones of normalcy, are passed along to the young. The body hosts invading viruses and bacteria; pure awareness hosts invading opinions.

Once pure awareness catches a glimpse of itself through a break in the fever of opinions, there’s no turning away, no turning back. Opinions are no longer cherished, no longer identified with, no longer in control, no longer the viewpoint, they’re only witnessed rising and falling away. All viewpoints vanish, and in their place remains the ever-present omnipresent pure universal awareness.

The Calmness
As one wanders in solitude through fields, forests, and wide-open spaces, the quality that’s perceptibly all-pervading is calmness. An underlying calmness pervades all things, all places, all spaces. Even the ceaseless quantum fluctuations throughout the holographic multiverse, without beginning and without end, have the underlying calmness, the calmness of still water and flowing water. The calmness can be overridden by thoughts, emotions, misperceptions, infatuations, egoic fears and desires, and instead of calmness there arises hostility, haste, agitation, anger. Even so, the witnessing awareness remains at one with the great calmness pervading the multiverse, and eventually all that remains is the fundamental calmness.

The Emancipated Mind
The Buddha mind is the original mind, primordial mind, universal mind, and is by its very nature emancipated, always free. Of everything I’ve experienced and possessed the most immeasurably valuable thing, the most important thing of all, is the universal mind, the totally free mind. The pure universal mind is unfettered, unattached, untouched by pain, pleasure, fear, and desire. It’s the silent calm witness, the shining Real One. I cherish, and worship, and adore, this universal mind, my true mind, my true, immanent, ultimate identity.

Egomobiles
The amplification of egoic desires by powered vehicles is considered absolutely normal. No self-respecting animal would want to be caged in a fast-moving metal box and be trapped in gridlock, or to be otherwise subject to the danger to life and limb that is inherent in fast powered transportation generally. People in cars are dehumanized, and even sink below the level of the animal kingdom. The culture of driving is a uniquely human manifestation of self-destructive, self-aggrandizing stupidity. Get out of my way. Hurry up. How soon will I get where I want to be?

In an Effort to be Effortless
Sleep deficit has the upside of helping me to not feel like I have to force myself to do anything, just like I don’t have to force myself to breathe, to circulate blood, and to be. Things get done as the situation requires, but there’s no effort, no deliberation, no fretting, no straining, no contriving. There is no-one doing anything anyway, contrary to the self-deluded pieces of the universe who continue to take credit and blame.

Shining On
The big problem human beings have made for themselves is what to do about this ongoing existence and awareness that just keeps going on and on and on, unbidden. It’s a burden, a curse, a source of misery, discontent, fear, grief, the whole spectrum of suffering with only fleeting periods of distracted happiness. Existence and awareness must be embellished, stimulated, merely a means to endless ends. How wonderful it is, ultimately, to find out that the problem isn’t existence and awareness at all, it’s our perception of existence and awareness, or rather our misperception of them. We make the mistake of believing we have awareness, we have existence, and have to do something—anything—about it, when in fact we are existence, we are awareness, and there’s no effort required to sustain any of it; we don’t have to do anything about it, other than just relax and be it. The light of the universal spirit is on, and stays on. In these appearing and disappearing points in infinite space we’re the light of the universal spirit, shining in these temporary forms, alive, awake, alert, effortlessly, spontaneously. There’s no need to fill awareness with things to feel complete; there’s no need to modify existence to feel whole, no need for self-destruction or for self-attenuation to numb the suffering of our own conceptual contrivances and painful misperceptions. We are already, always, complete and whole, as the universal spirit, self-existent, self-sustaining, self-illuminating. We’re on. What a glorious thing we are, shining on and on.

Dreaming of an Irrational Smile
I had several vivid dreams this morning, with the most impressive one being about a perspective shift that not only obliterates crippling perfectionism but also is completely liberating, totally accepting, all-embracing, a beautiful way to perceive everything, including perceiving perception. This perspective shift enabled me to smile in a way which can’t help but reveal the joy of such a perspective, a shift that was recognized by others in the dream, who commented, ‘There’s only one thing that can cause someone to smile like that.’

Recently I’ve felt a great liberation in the musical dimension of my experience, helped along upon hearing a radio feature about a woman who played piano nonstop for a record-breaking 40 hours, who in the course of conversation told the interviewer that there’s no right or wrong way to play the piano, no good or bad technique, you just sit down and play. This came as a blessed lifting of a long curse of musical perfectionism, hyper-professional musicianship, competitive and hypercritical of itself and others. Maybe that feeling of total musical release inspired this dream. In any case, it’s easier to smile, and to play piano to my heart’s content.

Death and Rebirth by Baptism
I had a dream this morning after an almost sleepless night which included finding a drowning victim in a sluice filled with running spring water. He was quite dead. I pulled the body out of the water enough for the head and chest to be upright, above the water. In a moment the victim’s eyes opened, and he began breathing, and was very much alive. I feel this is a representation of the near-death experience and how it changes one’s perspective profoundly. The drowning man became one with the water, and the eyes that reopened were the eyes of the water, the water of life. The message is clear: we are life, and we see with the eyes of life itself.

The Terrors of Survival
As philosophical as I am about change, I still often lie awake at night, unable to fall back sleep, brooding about the changes befalling people I both know and don’t know. Change can feel like essence of tragedy. Sickness, old age, death, all the sorrows of surviving. There’s no terror, no sorrow, after death and before birth but for those stuck with the requirements of survival, day after day, there seems to be no end to it.

What helps me get back to sleep is to pray for all sentient beings, even though they all to a one are the One. If only it would be possible to supply the world’s seven billion humans with relief shipments of the perennial philosophy, emergency shipments of the highest wisdom.

Saving All Sentient Beings, Even Though There Are None
The Diamond Sutra makes it clear that the antidote to suffering is found in wisdom. The highest wisdom is, alas, hard for most people to accept, which is that at the heart of everything is emptiness: no self, no thing, perfectly empty, One. There is no sufferer. Yet because most people are self-deluded, ignorant, believing that they are a person and a body, there’s much suffering experienced, all for the lack of wisdom.

The state preceding birth is the state following death. In between is the roller-coaster ride of temporary individualized sentience. With the highest wisdom, we can endure these nail-biting rides with serenity and a sense of humor of cosmic proportions.

The Great Eternal Nothing
At the core is the Great Nothing. With this, by this, as this, everything is perceptible. Immortality is found to be the Great Nothing at the core, the very source of everything. While attached to anything, the Great Nothing makes no sense whatsoever, and is widely feared—the total personal extinction that everyone attached to the person fears.

By being Nothing, everything is perceived as it is, acutely. By being Nothing, there is nothing to be extinguished. Nothing is everywhere present, perceiving everything. In the eternal Now, Nothing abides. Therein is freedom, immortality.

The Great Eternal Something
Form and phenomena rise and fall in Nothing. Nothing is also Something. For lack of a name, I prefer to call it spirit. There’s universal spirit afoot, infinite and eternal. Spirit assumes these temporary forms, enjoying the view.

The ultimate wealth is spirit: to see spirit, to feel spirit, to know spirit, to be spirit. Spirit is the universal current, seeing through every eye, living as every lifeform. To know that we’re the universal current, spirit, is to live forever.

Love
Spirit recognizing spirit is love. Starting with recognizing our very self as universal, timeless spirit, we can then make it our primary occupation to recognize, and communicate with, spirit which has taken this and all other forms. There’s nothing else worth doing. There’s nothing else worth praying for.

Prayer
It’s spirit praying to spirit. Spirit can only pray that all forms of itself may come to recognize itself, to find the understanding, the freedom, the peace that comes only from recognizing, surrendering to, and being, the universal spirit.

Nirvana Is Pure Awareness
The essence of mind is perfect, pure awareness, lucid transparency. It’s always here just as it is. What makes it less than Nirvana is the presence of mental ‘defilements’ of fear and craving, of attachments, of delusional dualistic thinking. Such defilements are inevitable, and are also valuable in terms of acquiring a thirst for freedom from suffering. The defilements and the attendant suffering bring about the search for nirvana, and are necessary for Nirvana to be Nirvana. There’s no sweeter relief than Nirvana after aeons of painful ignorance; only the ones who’ve suffered mightily in painful ignorance can come to know, and savor, the perfect transparent lucidity of pure awareness, the mind of the primordial Buddha, natural Nirvana.

Nirvana is Subtraction
Nothing need be added to pure awareness to make it Nirvana itself, but everything needs to be subtracted. Take away attachments, take away desires, take away aversions, take away judgment, take away assumptions, take away beliefs, take away identification with thoughts so that nothing is left but pure awareness, pure being, pure life itself, the Buddha nature, the mind and body of Nirvana.

No Beliefs, No Ideologies
Walking across town in the brilliant noontime winter sunlight, I felt deep gratitude for not shackling this silent Thing I am with any ideology or belief system, not even Buddhist, Zen or otherwise. I’ve managed to ‘kill’ not just the Buddha, but the rest of his ilk, and good riddance. What is, is beyond politics, religion, and philosophy. I share the same beliefs, the same ideology, that my beloved cats hold. No wonder we get along so well, enjoying that deep wordless bond that those without beliefs and ideologies can best enjoy. Life just is. Life recognizes life. Life loves life.

As If Happy
An acquaintance is in the cardiac care unit, suffering from chest pains. He’s been under a lot of stress lately. Lots of people are under a lot of stress lately. I feel a great deal of stress within this bodymind, which, given how introverted and high-strung it is, comes as no surprise. Life can seem terribly complicated and insecure. Getting things like I want them and keeping them that way is a doomed enterprise.

How ludicrous it would be to stress and worry myself to premature death.

I don’t want to succumb to Big Pharma’s promises of panacea-in-a-pill just yet, as I might be able to render this introverted, high-strung ego powerless yet, by using the strategy of As If:

If I don’t have a naturally habitually happy persona, then I’ll behave as if I have a happy persona. Pretending to have a happy persona is not pretentiousness, it’s therapy, it’s survival, it’s good sense. Studies are showing that being happy is good for cardiac health.

I feel my coronary arteries relaxing now. This is amazing medicine. It’s never too late to change the persona, especially if doing so will keep me above the sod longer.

The Happy Dance
What slaves of karma, what robots of conditioning, we humans are. No-one ever asks to be born, yet here we are, and how quickly we become as stupidly self-enslaved as the adults around us. And then we proceed to beget more innocent victims, etc. etc.

Okay, here we are. What are we obligated to do? What are we obligated to be? How are we obligated to be?

The universe continues to let us be, or not be; to let us do, or not do; we are free to be however and be and do whatever.

As a form of worship, adoration, and glorification of the universe that has so kindly shown me to be it, I do the Freedom Dance, the Happy Dance, moving every part of this body every which way, celebrating the freedom and fullness and happiness of simply being, and being it.

The best parents only wish that their children be happy. To honor my parents, I will, for their sake and for every parent’s sake, and for every hapless child’s sake, and for my sake, be happy now. It’s not been possible for me to be as happy as I am now before now, because I was so self-enslaved. Now I know I am the universe, and I know I am free, and so I’m happy. And so I dance, and write, and make music to express this happiness.

We’re born to be free, and happy, because we are the universe incarnate. When we know we’re the universe incarnate, we know the only true, lasting happiness, the primordial eudaemonium. The Muses appear to help us bear, and express, the unbearable happiness of being that which we eternally are.

The Vast Righteous Green Conspiracy
Walking through secluded countryside in a heightened state of awareness, in unconditioned wide-open receptivity, it’s possible to see, feel, and rejoin the vast righteous green conspiracy that’s afoot everywhere. Vines, tendrils, twigs, branches, mosses, fungi stand poised to take back the earth, in many places in the process of taking it back: abandoned asphalt roads and parking lots crumbling and cracking under the pressure of the probing roots and shoots above and below.

To see how plants can rebound after witheringly near death gives me a renewed faith in life force. It’s all about life force.

How good it feels to be part of this elegant, intelligent, pure spirited conspiracy. It has been too long since I’ve made the effort to find my green peers to commingle with them, to remember what I forgot as a proud, ignorant human. In the dead of winter, in an urban-industrial funk, the memories of being in the presence of pure life keep me going while spending day after dreary day in the company of my fellow proud, ignorant humans.

Satisfaction and Survival
What does it take for a human being to be satisfied? We can have enough food, water, clothing, shelter, fuel, etc. and still not be satisfied. If we have pretensions of shrinking our species’ carbon footprint enough so that we can have a truly sustainable civilization, we have to have a culture where people will be content to be alone in a quiet room, where sheer existence itself is total satisfaction. In the meantime, there’s an unsustainable hurry to get nowhere, en masse, slurping up energy and materials attempting to satisfy insatiable desires.

The Middle Way and Natural Perfection
The way of life that’s neither self-indulgence nor self-mortification is wise, and auspicious, because it frees up the mind to behold the wonderful Natural Perfection within and without, the Buddha-nature itself.

Self-indulgence is problematic because it reinforces the notion of a separate self, and distracts the mind with sensory stimulation. Self-mortification is problematic because it arises from a perverse notion of self as inherently evil, whereas in fact the true self is Buddha-nature, the great Natural Perfection.

With dispassionate awareness, the great Natural Perfection is radiantly obvious within and without. Dispassionate awareness is possible by following the Middle Way. Natural Perfection is our natural state, our true nature, Buddha-nature, radiantly peaceful and perfect.

All these years I’ve wondered as I wandered alone, under the sky, why it is that I feel so good, so real, so complete, while in the company of earth, sky, sun, plants and animals. The great Natural Perfection is all around us, within us. There is nothing but Natural Perfection, despite prevalent delusional thinking that causes so much misery.

No matter how much circumstances appear to be circling the drain, Natural Perfection is always here for us, if we just care to see it.

The Extraordinary Ordinary
Apprehension of the pure spirit of nature within oneself is a subtle thing. Lacking any drama whatsoever, the pure spirit is ordinary, prosaic, as familiar and as taken for granted as air, earth, water, sunlight and space. It’s only in those moments when we’re almost but not quite completely genuine, unpretentious, with almost no self-concept, i.e. almost single-of-eye and pure-in-heart, that we can get a glimpse of the pure life spirit. There’s a transitional moment between ego and egolessness when the pure spirit is at last recognized by the last vestige of dualistic perception. While ego, the pure spirit isn’t seen because of the opacity of dualistic self-concept, of conditioned dualistic conceptual thought; when egoless, the pure spirit isn’t seen either, because one simply is the pure spirit itself, and as such has no self-concept. Pure spirit doesn’t know itself, and doesn’t see itself--it can only be itself. To be the One is to see Nothing, be Nothing, and know Nothing.

That’s why entheogens can be useful: they prolong the glimpse of pure spirit, keeping our ‘third eye eyelid’ forcibly open for a while. The most extraordinary part of an entheogenic experience can seem to be the most ordinary, when the calm life spirit is completely in charge, bypassing the conditioned self-concept.

The Presence
That which just is, that which is effortlessly present, has no name. It can be called, for lack of any name, the Presence. Some may call it God, others may call it Nature, or the Tao, or Brahman, or the Dharmakaya, or the Tathagata. Whatever we call it, however we interpret it, it is that it is, the self-originated, self-sustaining, lucid effortless Presence, the Being and Awareness of every being and awareness.

To directly experience the Presence is illumination itself. The Presence is pure energy, pure light, illuminated and illuminating by its very nature; that it’s our inmost nature is wonderful beyond words.

May all beings in every circumstance be comforted and illuminated by the universal Presence.

Re-creation
How good it feels to have a good sleep and have that feeling of physical well-being once again.
How good it feels to let go of all to which I’ve been attached.
How good it feels to go slow, mindful of the moment, unhurried, unworried.
How good it feels to feel and express what’s true to that which rises up within right now.
How good it feels to no longer be any person in particular, just an empty vessel.
How good it feels to let the Presence be.
How good it feels to be the Presence.

Stress
In a nice book by a nice old Thai Buddhist, he refers to suffering as stress. That sums it up. The stress that’s been eating this body alive for a long time has been invariably caused by thoughts. To be dispassionately mindful of stress is essential for finding its cause. Finding out that the origin of stress is delusional thought leads directly to the end of stress, the end of suffering. Thoughts happen, rising and falling. Stress happens, rising and falling. Simply watching thoughts and the stress that comes from some of those thoughts that rise and fall is the way to that same fine old Nirvana latent within all suffering beings.

In Perpetuity
Each life is the life of the universe, the formation, development, and un-formation of a microcosm of the macrocosm. Entropy is slowly, inexorably, taking ‘me’ away, diffusing and dispersing all that ‘I’ am into the ocean of energy. It’s no different with the visible universe. The cycle of life pulses microscopically and macroscopically. All that appears to die becomes all that appears to live. The life of the One is manifold, a living perpetual motion machine.

Immaculate Nonconception
No matter how turbulent the mindset and circumstances, the ever-perfect emptiness of the essence of mind abides.

To Whom It May Concern
I send messages to the Self, which is like sending messages to the Sun: the messages, and the messenger, are totally consumed. The pure energy of the heart of hearts can’t help but consume everything caught in its all-consuming field and drawn into its all-consuming core of all-pervading light.

Lifebouyancy
In the midst of ceaseless change, the wisest way to live is as lightly as possible, both inwardly and outwardly. Inward lightness is derived from nonattachment and Self-realization; outward lightness manifests as minimal material possessions, living lightly upon the earth. Following the way of the universe is only natural, the universe having found itself in transient self-aware human form. Secure in knowing, and being, the Source, we live lightly in this form, enjoying the ride between the coming-from and returning-to our Great Ongoing Formless Form.

Cosmic Mission
Spontaneously, effortlessly unfolding in the void, the universal energy flows, forms, unforms, reforms, suspended in emptiness. It has no mission, no ulterior motive. It simply is what it is. How good it is to be mission-critical as part of this great endless endeavor.

Hard Time
Seven billion human beings are serving life sentences on this planet. We do what we do to get through the day, day after day, to get through this life which goes on and on seemingly interminably. How to structure what we perceive as ‘time’ is the main daily task at hand.

Not that long ago just surviving long enough to reproduce was the mission of human life; this mission still applies to many impoverished areas of the world where life expectancy is short, and living conditions are brutal.

Now many people live like only royalty used to live, and it’s the cultural norm in parts of the world. Sheer survival is taken for granted, and there is leisure, security, privacy, and many years of life that can be focused on things other than survival and reproduction. Many more people have the same comfortable circumstances of Prince Siddhartha Gautama.

In our comfortable princely prison cells we have time to contemplate, and it’s only natural to contemplate the nature of this life sentence, and how best to serve it out, to understand it, to accept it, and to use it for our own well-being. Once we’ve found the way to spiritual well-being, i.e., spiritual freedom, we can help and inspire others to find their way to this perfect freedom, while we serve out our sentences.

The Living Equanimity Between Thoughts
Having suffered many years at the hands of thoughts which I regarded as me and mine, I understand how members of a culture that prizes rugged individualism, thoughts, and thinking tend to be distracted and often miserable. Equanimity is conceptually understood, but not felt often.

Equanimity can’t be forced, can’t be devised. Equanimity just is. Equanimity is pure beingness, always present. What hides our intrinsic equanimity is thoughts and thinking. In between thoughts, equanimity manifests effortlessly, naturally.

It’s life living this life, every life. It has no name and no self-concept. Nameless impersonal life itself assumes all forms, lives out its life in form. Anonymously, with perfect equanimity, it abides, between thoughts, beyond thoughts.

Team of Advisors
How good it is to have companion animals to turn to for advice. They haven’t misled or misinformed me yet, and they never will. What can we do to help the humans, I ask the furry ones purring on my lap. They advise me by example what’s really important: to have and to love trusted animal companions of any species, including human; to be content with a warm dry place to stay, water, food, rest, coming and going to attend to calls of nature or to play for the sake of playing. To be simple and to simply be is the noble way of the pure life spirit beings. Humans need to relax, to be relaxed, to stay relaxed, as a pure life spirit being. If all human beings could be content to simply relax, and to simply be…

Universal Applicability
What makes the Perennial Philosophy so absolutely excellent is that it can benefit everyone who earnestly desires relief from suffering. It provides no mere makeover of ego but transcendence of ego, getting to the root of suffering by getting to the root of the sufferer.

Gallows Humor
The Self-realized Self, knowing itself to be fully present in every body, doesn’t cling to any particular body, or to anything at all, and can’t take the vicissitudes of corporeal life seriously. The perspective of the believing-to-be-other-than-the-Self is unbearably heavy-hearted; the perspective of the Self is unfathomably lighthearted.

Anonymous Dishwashing
After a long walk across town and around the cemetery, ruminating aloud to all my previous iterations, those earnest ancestors trying to survive in spite of themselves, I fell silent as I returned home, and remained silent while doing the dishes. Normally I have the radio on, but silence was a welcome break. Doing the dishes, it was wonderful to savor how perfectly serene and low-key is this great One, taking care of business without comment or complaint, here, there, and everywhere, always working anonymously, unrecognized, unbeknownst.

Omnipresence
That which is omnipresent is the One, pure spirit, pure beingness, pure awareness. The One doesn’t perish when the body perishes. In the best and in the worst of circumstances, the body must follow the laws of its nature and be reabsorbed by the Greater Body. To live this life in form gracefully, and to meet the end of life in this form gracefully, is possible with self-illumined wisdom. We can’t help but be that which we eternally are, and we can’t help but follow the laws of our true nature. We gracefully accept the laws of nature, our true nature.

Security
That feeling of insecurity which colors the experience of many people is well-founded in the conventional conceptual-thinking sense, as everything changes. Security, like freedom, is a state of mind. To find the state of mind of lasting security requires sacrificing the part of us that feels insecure, i.e., the delusion called ego, the self-disconnected perceived-to-be-separate self. What’s left after ego’s sacrificed is That which is changeless in the midst of change. If we can’t beat It, join It. We’ve already joined It; in fact, we’re It. The only place where lasting peace, freedom, and security is found to be already within us, silently present as the changeless universal presence, the formlessness in form, the changelessness in change, the timelessness in time, beyond form, beyond change, beyond time, One in the eternal Now. We find security in our true, ultimate, eternal identity. Let go, let God, and be God. Why should God feel insecure? Why should God be afraid of itself?

The God Mode
God, One without a second, here and there believes itself to be someone else, and engages in serious dramas with other parts of itself that also believe they’re something other than God. God creates its own illusory Second—Many—Legion. It’s an inevitable process, and essential for the wonderful process of God rediscovering itself. Once God ceases pretending to be a Second, the God mode is resumed.

The God mode is completely natural, totally spontaneous, whimsical, effortless. Throughout the cosmos God is at play. God can’t take itself seriously, and therefore can’t take anything seriously. God just takes it all in.

The events that happen while God is at play involve those parts of it which believe itself to be separate from God, something other than God. To God’s illusory Second—Many—Legion, life even in the best of circumstances is a tragedy, filled with personal loss, personal suffering, and personal extinction.

As God is impersonal, and transpersonal, circumstances in which God as One-Without-A-Second finds itself aren’t taken personally: loss, suffering, extinction of the bodymind are dispassionately witnessed as the unfolding of its own universal nature.

Everyone’s Innocent
The piece of God that believes itself to be other than God and behaves in a foolish, selfish, self-destructive, even dangerous, manner, causing or experiencing suffering, isn’t bad, or evil, just ignorant and perhaps dangerous. There’s a fundamental innocence in ignorance, and the appropriate approach to take with innocent but unpredictable beings is cautious compassion. Someone in the thrall of mental conditioning and its product, ego, deserves the same sympathy as someone with a head injury. When everything and everyone is recognized as the expression of our inmost nature, there’s no more judgment to pass, only recognition of One Self in the apparent Other.

Total Immersion
Once again I had dreams of water, pure spring water, of hiking through the woods and coming upon a gigantic spring into which I slipped, and joyfully immersed myself. The spring reappeared several times in this dream, and every time I slipped into it. Going to the source, and finding the source within, the water of life and spirit within, immersed in this infinite, eternal spring, it’s all pure.

Cultural Survival
There comes a time when we must recognize the culture to which we truly belong, and live as a member of that culture. The homogenization of world cultures accelerated by mass media and global corporations turns us into a consumer culture, a perverse offspring of mainstream religions and mass production. Just as vanishing species still exist in vanishing habitats, here and there are unique cultures, surviving intact in spite of the surrounding dominant culture. Essentially in secret, unplugged and offline in a material sense, people are finding their true culture by getting in touch with the life force, and surrendering to it, letting the life force express itself uniquely, joyfully, wisely, sustainably. That which breathes and circulates the blood and moves and senses abides, the resurgence of the ancient culture of the One.

The Bearer of the Unbearable
On a quiet Sunday morning, cats all sleeping on my lap, I took advantage of the good breakfast and good night’s sleep to muster up as much clarity as possible, and reflected out loud upon those things that mean the most to me. First and foremost is the living truth of presence and awareness, and that the same One that sees through these eyes is the same One seeing through every eye, and is the same One present in the presence of every form. If only every bodymind form could be just introspective enough, just curious enough, to wonder about just what is alive and seeing through these eyes. To see the universal Seer in one’s own eyes and in every eye, every organism, would be unbearable if not for the presence of the universal Self which easily bears itself.

Clear Pure Center
At the center, at the core, is pure spirit, pure awareness, pure presence. This is the heart of hearts, this is where the Real One abides. It’s not a physical center, not a physical core, it’s everywhere. Spirit is everywhere. Awareness is everywhere. Presence is everywhere. When we’re ready to fall back into the center we fall, and we are nothing but the center, pure spirit, pure awareness, pure presence, silently taking itself all in.

Emptiness is Really Very Good
Emptiness has acquired a pejorative status, when in fact it’s our wellspring and our salvation. The nature of mind, the nature of the universe, the nature of nature, is perfect emptiness. There is truly only vast emptiness, with nothing and nobody to be found anywhere. At the terminus of all nerves, there is nothing, perfect emptiness. Within each nerve, perfect emptiness. That emptiness perceives phenomena, and itself, is amazing.

Silence, Stillness, Clarity
In the receptive clarity of silence and stillness is found optimal sensitivity. In the point of pure awareness, in the silence and the stillness, all phenomena rise and fall.

Role and Player
It’s not necessary to identify ourselves by what we do, by the roles we happen to play. What’s absolutely essential for deep understanding and spiritual freedom to unfold is to identify with That which plays all roles: to identify ourselves as That which we eternally are.

Climbing the Family Tree
After listening to a recording of my father recounting his near-death wartime experience it reminded me how close he came to perishing if it weren’t for sheer dumb luck. Out of 100 of his shipmates taken prisoner, only 23 survived. If he were one of the 77 who drowned or were savagely killed, my brother, my sisters, and I would not have been conceived: what would my brother and sisters, and I, be, if circumstances were the least bit different?

Asking this question for as long as I can remember, I realize now that “I” am nothing special: if I was not to be conceived by a particular couple, there are plenty of couples who would conceive “me.” In fact, “I” am the product of every conception, being identical in essence, if not in name, form, gender, socioeconomic status, or genetic and psychological peculiarity.

We live, and live on, as pure awareness. Wherever there is pure presence, pure awareness, there we are, again and again.

What is deeply reassuring to me is that there are many self-aware people on this and presumably innumerable other planets who have managed to make all the requisite mistakes, and have learned well and ripened in self-awareness to awareness of awareness and then to Self-awareness. Looking through some of the extant literature in print and expressions on the Internet, it’s obvious there are many people who have independently arrived at the same Source, and who are unconditionally surrendered to the Source, having realized the self is none other than the Source, the universal Self.

I read through some genealogy provided by my uncle many years ago giving a sense of where following some of the branches of the family tree led. It was fascinating to reflect how the influences, genetic and psychological, of my parents, and my parents’ parents, and my parents’ parents’ parents, etc. live on as “me”, their flame of being enduring through apparent passage of time as transformation, passing on the flame from form to form to form, including now this form.

Ultimate Genealogy would have us follow our particular family tree as far back as possible, and filling in the distant unknown ancestry with what is known currently through the sciences of anthropology, genetics, and biology. This has been done, with scientists showing our common ancestor to be an African woman who lived many hundreds of thousands of years ago. Going back further, our species was derived from a common ancestor that preceded the great apes, that in fact was the common mammalian ancestor of all mammals. Going back further yet, the common ancestor of all animals has been found to be a sponge-like organism living in the ancient ocean. Going back further still, all life on this planet started as a single-celled being that differentiated into plant cell and animal cell.

It’s impossible not to recognize the kinship present between my beloved cats and me: we go way, way back, sharing a common ancestor, a common essence, a common Source, a common identity. My cats are not pets, nor are they inferior beings. We recognize our kinship instinctively, and have implicit, total trust in each other through this recognition of shared ancestor, of shared awareness, of shared essence, of shared identity. It’s not so difficult to see anatomically how close cats and humans obviously are: arms, legs, fingers, toes, spine, eyes, ears, general visceral layout. Cats make eye contact, and try to further communicate through sounds, gestures, and touch.

How difficult it is for so many human beings to see the obvious, to be so out of touch with the common Presence, that instead distinctions are made, and judgments are passed, and the conditioned concepts of inferior/superior, self/other, good/evil, and all other dualistic beliefs arise, seemingly separating that which is always One into suffering, hateful, hurtful, alienated fragments.

The human race, and life on earth, will come to an end eventually, as events continue to unfold on as they must. Until the inevitable end, we can make this shared experience of self-aware life on this planet a great ongoing family reunion to the extent we’re willing and able. It’s a challenging delight to recognize and catch up with our family members of every name, form, and species, while conditions here still allow.

Kenneth Patchen said it well in that great poem on the cover of The Whole Earth Catalog: “ …We Live One Life / message ends … “

As fascinating as our own historic genealogy may be, it’s complete only when the family tree includes literally everyone and everything. The complexified tree of primordial intelligence-energy is a beautiful tree to behold, without having to name any part of it, as it’s all of one nameless Name.

The Angel of our True Nature
Our true nature, our inmost self, our real identity, is pure spirit, which manifests as pure awareness and pure being. When we are still and receptive, we come to know our true, angelic nature of pure spirit, pure energy.

The sunlight which has appeared to diminish around winter solstice is the physical manifestation of the light which we are. With the unmistakable return of lengthening days, we celebrate. Light is life. We turn to one another and honor the life, the light, the spirit, that is within all of us as us. We enjoy the manifestations of light called food and drink, and take in delicious, inebriating, sustaining light, the light with which, to which, as which, we awaken yet another day.

Angelic Expression
It’s sheer bliss to simply be this that we already are, pure spirit, pure energy, flowing through all things, as all things. The perfect expression of that which we are is silence, stillness, radiance: pure awareness, pure being, radiant clear light. To live in society, we must eventually break the silence and the stillness, to communicate and take care of the business of the day. Even so, our words and our work can express our angelic nature. The image of the Angel in many cultures is the image of our true nature, and is a template for living in the angelic mode, and a guideline of how to express angelically.

Handy Heaven
The kingdom of heaven is at hand, within our reach, always silently present within. It’s obvious when we’re in hell, and it’s also obvious when we’re in heaven. Hell is judging, craving, fearing, and stressing, the consequences of delusion, of identifying with the agitated thoughts of conditioned mind. Heaven is the absence of judging, craving, fearing, and stressing. The perfect spiritual freedom and wholeness and purity of heaven--self-realization and unconditioned being--naturally manifests as boundless serenity, joy, kindness, gentleness, inspiration, enthusiasm, which can also lead to compulsive harp-plucking or equivalent exuberant behavior. Being in heaven has consequences that we must learn to accept.

Christmas Presence
When the presence of the Self is found to be within and without, when the realization dawns that it’s the Self finding the Self, praising and glorifying the Self doesn’t necessarily have to stop. In every being, as every being, the presence of the universal Self just is. The presence of the Self doesn’t go away, even though through ignorance, distraction, and delusion it appears to cease to exist. When the presence of the Self is at last realized—by the Self—it’s obvious it’s always here. To give unconditional adoration, praise and glory to such an abiding, real, ubiquitous presence is only natural.

The Self’s presence is the only gift that provides enduring happiness, and it’s found to already be within every within. Simply to recognize, and commune with, the Self’s presence in each other makes for a perfect holy day.

A Few Words from an Everyone

The true person is
Not anyone in particular;
 But, like the deep blue color
 Of the limitless sky,
 It is everyone, everywhere
 In the world.

         --Dogen

The Agency
There’s only one Agency, very subject to interpretation, and to misrepresentation. It’s very easy to be an agent of a false agency, and that’s considered to be quite normal. What’s not so easy for conditioned human beings to be, but well worth all the effort it takes to resume being, is being an agent of the One True Agency, i.e., the eternal, universal Self. To know that it is the Self which sees, speaks, listens, lives and breathes, is a sublime relief. The long nightmare of false agency comes to an end upon awakening to the sober ecstasy of being the true agency. The mistakes, trials and tribulations of the past, the anxious imaginings of the future, which belong to the personal life of false agency, fall away when the vast impersonal life of true agency is one’s own boundless living presence in the present.

The Comforter
Within every self-aware being is the source of peace, the Comforter, as alluded to by J. C. in the New Testament. It can be called the Holy Spirit if so desired, and if one is of a more philosophic temperament, it can be called the essence of mind, or just pure awareness. When I reflect on the ongoing totality of sentient experience in form, simultaneously newborn and dying and everything in between, I see the go-to person for relief for every person is within every person, as the impersonal Presence, peaceful pure awareness, universal Spirit, the Self, the Comforter, so obvious it’s overlooked.

Holy Attention Span
There is one attention span, and it is of the universal mind. Where the attention span is directed depends on the conditioning of the particular mind. The attention span becomes lost, directed toward an infinite variety of phenomena, and spends countless lifetimes in a distracted state, unable to fix itself upon itself, to find the wholeness, the holiness, from which the attention span radiates. When the attention span at last directs itself upon itself, the universal mind meeting the universal mind, a shattering silent noetic explosion is triggered, which brings about psychointegration supreme.

Soulmating
There’s a phase where we might find ourselves looking for a guru, or for that special someone we believe will make us complete, our soul mate. In fact, the soul we might be seeking is the soul already present within us. If the guru or the lover is wise, we will be directed within forthwith, with no strings, no obligations, no attachments whatsoever. In the realm of the universal spirit, we already are that which we seek, that which we desire, that which we perceive to be lacking. Just as nuns perceive themselves to be brides of Christ, we are all already married to the eternal, universal Self, which lives within us as us, regardless of whether we’re willing or able to understand, and accept, our true Self.

The best way to live happily ever after is to learn to accept, understand, and love unconditionally, that wonderful Being with whom we’re stuck…as whom we’re stuck, in this form and in every form.

Present
The hackneyed sentimental observation about the greatest gift being called the present is spot-on. Of all the exotic, embroidered, embellished, enhanced states of mind I’ve collected, the only stable worthwhile state is the ordinary, business-as-usual presence-of-mind baseline pure awareness that’s fully present and fully in the present. That’s the beauty of pure awareness, it’s fully present in the present. It’s the mind of the universe, right now, in the present, present, in its fullness, fully in the present. This is the mind that neither seeks for nor needs enlightenment. It’s the mind of the eternal cosmic Buddha, right here, right now, in its fullness.

Insourcing
When there seems to be two of me—one agitated, complicated and one calm, ordinary—I determine which one of me is real, and that’s the calm, ordinary me, the animal me, the natural me, the spontaneous me. It’s the wildness of nature, the mind of nature, the embodiment of nature. I can, if I so choose, be the voice and eyes and ears and hands of nature, literally, factually, authentically. The bogus part of me is made up of bits and pieces of conditioning picked up from family and culture, the conditioned human personhood, with a self-concept that fits with the self-concepts around me since before conception. Having never been taught my true identity, my birthright, I could only become a fictitious person who believed he was separate from the whole. How fortunate that I’ve ceased to believe in such delusions and still have some life left in this carcass to savor, and share, the simple pleasure of pure being and pure awareness, of serenity and sanity, of the profound peace of ultimate undeniable authenticity, the ubiquitous Source.

Quantity and Quality, Style and Substance, Variety and Verity
There’s no way to gauge how large or small anything is in absolute terms. There’s always something larger or smaller, it simply being a matter of scale, not of essence. To have many of a thing does not change the essence of a thing. The manifestation of a thing, the style of a thing, doesn’t change its essence. What remains universally the same is the essence, the substance, the quality of essence. The quality of natural phenomena, of things in their natural state, is the same: spontaneity and purity.

The message is simple, and beautiful: many in quantity and style, one in quality and substance. We are the infinite variety of the universal Self, and its verity.

Surviving the Meatgrinder of Maya
I understand now why the very elderly keenly appreciate the value of waking up alive. To survive to live another day is quite the accomplishment, especially when biological entropy is far advanced and the bodily systems are operating marginally.

I would like to live long enough to experience life as an extreme elder, entropy and all. Toward this aim, I’m changing my habits so that I don’t accelerate the aging process unnecessarily. That’s well within my control.

What’s not in my control is vehicular traffic, and the necessity to participate in that high-speed collective madness from time to time, in order to get to some destination near or far.

On the way downstate to visit one of my sisters my inattentiveness nearly caused an accident. Tiny car vs. semi would not bode well for Jean and me. On the way back upstate, trying to merge with thick and thick-headed traffic returning at the end of the holiday weekend, I was refused entry, and only by the slenderest of margins did I find my way into the ‘slow lane.’

After several miles of terror, the two-lane blue highway exit appeared, and the rest of the journey was completed safely, even with high winds and driving rain and darkness. The forces of nature give me no grief; only the mass of impatient, heedless human beings put me in the panic mode and threaten my continued existence in this body.

My fear of driving in high-speed traffic is not altogether baseless. Would it be unreasonable of me to refuse to drive on high-speed high-volume meatgrinders for any reason, for the rest of my natural life?

Hoping for Hope
Hope is a word that implies the eventual realization of a vision. Hope is about the future taking shape in a shape we’d like it to take. It’s possible to make hope a present shape, a present realization; to be hopeful in this moment is in fact its own reward, a positive state, as opposed to hopelessness. When I’m filled with hope I’m already in the state I’d like to be. By taking care of the present—the only time that’s real, the only time that can be worked with—the past and future become irrelevant, mere fantasies that rise and fall in the imagination. Living The Dream is Living In Hope. The dream is now, fully realized: outward appearances change to conform to the dream dreamed in the present. The work of art is complete, a state of mind, a state of being, a self-sustained vision: it manifests outwardly as it can, unfolding outwardly as it will.

Buddha Dreaming Dreams
I fell asleep during a PBS Nova broadcast on dreams, and eventually went to bed, where I fell asleep, and in the early morning hours had a dream that I can remember. In this dream, someone asked me if I was a Buddhist, and I replied no, I’m not a Buddhist, I’m Buddha.

That’s it, that’s the nut. We’re 100% Buddha Nature. Nobody can ‘be a Buddhist’ when in plain fact we are all buddhas, no less than the Buddha.

I checked today and sure enough, that’s all there is to be, 100% Buddha Nature, 100% Buddha.

Was Siddartha Gautama the Buddha a Buddhist?

Was Jesus the Christ a Christian?

Et cetera?

There’s no need to pretend to be That which we eternally are. There’s no need to pretend to be other than That which we eternally are.

Pure-Awareness-Awareness
Even with all the ‘defilements’ rising and falling in mind, pure awareness remains the constant. The mind aspect of Buddha nature is pure awareness; its body aspect is pure being. When awareness evolves to self-awareness—and the delusional ‘other-awareness’—when turned upon itself becomes ‘awareness-awareness’ and from there becomes ‘pure-awareness-awareness.’ When we at last directly experience the pure awareness that is of our inmost nature there arises in this very instant the understanding that turns us into the Buddha that we have always been but never realized until now. Aeons of ignorance come to a sudden end.

Fun
I want to watch people having fun doing what they do. I want to watch me having fun doing what I do.

Living Touchstones
One of the most therapeutic rituals of my daily routine is interacting with the cats who share their lives with ours, under our roof. The bond of trust and affection between us is strong. The cats are pure spirits, authentic, guileless, and serve as touchstones of innocence and purity, which I need especially during these excruciating times. If it weren’t for the cats, my life would be much different, and much impoverished. All dark brooding cynicism and despair vanishes when I confront those furry faces.

Kindness
As this body ages it’s only good sense to treat it with increasing kindness. It’s amazing that it’s lasted as long as it has, and that life and limb are more or less intact even through my ignorant heedlessness over the decades. Let there be kindness on earth, and let it begin with this carcass. And while I’m at it, I can be kind to my mind, my byzantine ego, and forgive it for being how it has to be. And the kindness can’t possibly end at this epidermis, as all that I am comes from everywhere and everyone. Enjoying the increasing serenity that kindness brings, I find that my influence extends to everything and everyone, just as everything and everyone influences me. As I indulge in the slow, single-tasking patience that is one of the blessings of maturation, I can see how kindness arises naturally, and how kindness perpetuates itself. The legacy we send forth is the quality of our being, the quality of our living energy, the quality of our intent, the quality of our heart, the quality of our soul. If there’s one quality that’s needed to overcome the world’s cruel, selfish, delusional dualism it’s kindness. Kindness implies recognizing the other as kin, kin-ness. Kindness comes from recognizing oneself in everyone.

Patience, Patience
The universal mind is infinitely patient. To know the universal mind, patience is essential. Conditioned mind tends to be impatient, hurried, restless, unsatisfied, which has the effect of making direct apprehension of the universal mind impossible at times. When we are patient, the universal mind reveals itself in its pure radiant everpresence.

Unconditional Acceptance
Before there can be genuine unconditional love there must be unconditional acceptance well established. As the pure awareness that is the universal mind naturally possesses unconditional acceptance, it’s necessary for the conditioned mind to deliberately, with focused effort, practice unconditional acceptance so that the universal mind will be revealed. The conditioned mind needs to surrender itself to the unconditioned mind, for the unconditioned mind is our true mind, the universal mind, and when we allow our right, universal mind to be our true mind, unconditional acceptance is a given. With unconditional acceptance comes the realization that all is truly one, all is truly one’s true self, and with that understanding unconditional love naturally manifests.

Movie Music
Just as movies are enhanced and characterized by their soundtrack music, so too this endless movie in the eternal now has its soundtrack music. The experience of the eternal now can be altered, enhanced, diminished, by the ‘music’ played, whether actual music or emotional music or cerebral music.

Inspiration and Inspirating
Inspiration is a lovely thing, the greatest blessing. Long hearing music that’s inspiring, it’s only natural to want to recreate that music, that inspiration, that feeling. The ennui that pervades the ‘developed’ world, this toneless, tuneless, colorless, soulless technological culture lacks charm, and is largely bereft of inspiration.

In this very moment there is inspiration to be had, if we so choose to be open to it. Sometimes it takes something seemingly outside ourselves to awaken that which is always within us: being in the wilderness; watching a sunrise or a sunset; hearing or reading magical words; hearing magical music.

The difference between being inspired and being uninspired is the difference between heaven and hell, life and death. Without inspiration, life is hell, and death is preferable over an uninspired life.

Once inspired, inspiration will come again, and again. Sometimes it takes great patience, and faith, when inspiration seems to have left forever.

When inspiration returns, when the tears of inexpressible joy flow again, it’s impossible to prevent the sharing of this greatest wealth of the universe.

Silence, Stillness, Emptiness, Being, Awareness, Inspiration
Silence, stillness, emptiness, being, awareness can’t be bought or sold, dramatized or televised. It’s the heart of hearts, the very core of what we are, within every being. Most people chase after the polar opposites: sound, motion, fullness, doing, thinking. There’s nothing right or wrong with pursuing that which we desire, at whatever stage of development we happen to be. It’s an impoverishment, though, not to recognize, appreciate, experience, and embody silence, stillness, emptiness, being, and awareness, for without such a perfect baseline it’s difficult to appreciate phenomena and activity for what it is, and to appreciate That in which all phenomena and activity exist. The heart of hearts, the core, the source, is within us all, and it is from this that inspiration originates.

O That Magic Feeling
Nowhere to go. It’s all right here, it’s all right now. Stuck in the present, always. How’s it going to be, now? How is the now? Unfolding in the eternal now. What else is there to do, but get comfortable in this eternal now we’re stuck. Improving the now: how? Two suggestions: meditation and the muse. And a third: nature.

Meditation attunes us to the now, to its intrinsic silence, stillness, emptiness, beingness, awareness. And then the inspiration comes, from the unfathomable wellspring, ever-new, ever-flowing. It’s never the same river.

For those with a muse, there is music, dance, art, poetry, all creative expression. Finding the muse that unfolds in the present in such a way that we are deeply moved, deeply free, deeply real. We are transfigured, taken away by the transcendent.

And then, Nature waits for us, to take us back home. How good it feels to be on the way home, and then, that magic feeling, when we are at last home, in the eternal now, one with Nature, as Nature, waves of Nature eternally rising and falling upon the ocean of Nature.

Unblocking
When afflicted with writer’s block, creativity block, that feeling of nothing left to bring forth, dissatisfied, uninspired…there’s no better remedy than Nature. Nature is uncritical and nonjudgmental, pure spirit. Seeing how Nature is perfect and beautiful just by being that which it is, we come to understand we are conduits of Nature, bringing forth the same perfection and beauty. With Nature as our Source, our Identity, our Home, we can’t help but be spontaneously creative, for we are Nature itself.

The Big Mistake
When I reflect on my personal life and how it turned out, I feel the typical pangs of regret for mistakes and dubious decisions made one after another over the decades. None of it really matters, though, the personal life and personal storyline, no matter how wretched, is not a problem at all, truly a non-issue. The actual problem is in the present, when a mistake—or more accurately, a misperception—is sustained, namely, that of mistaken identity. Instead of living as a form of the universe, a manifestation of Brahman, we easily mistakenly can believe we are a separate person, and take great pride in our perceived separateness and perceived uniqueness. We identify with thoughts and body, which are perishable goods, constantly changing. In this very moment we can be transformed simply by inquiring who is really living this life, and cease making the mistake of identifying only with this particular wave, rather than with the Ocean and all waves of the Ocean.

The Breather
It’s delightful to watch the cats sleeping on my lap, breathing, four ribcages rising and falling. It’s delightful to remember that I don’t have to decide to take the next breath, it happens on its own. My real life, my true self, happens all on its own, effortlessly. Its manifestation is this physical form, and this pure awareness.

All Forms One Form
Rambling through the woods, I marvel aloud in the company of all my forms how good it is that all these rising and falling forms are those of one spirit, and that I really am that one spirit.

The Well-Tempered Soul
When I listen to, or play, certain strains of music, there is an effect like a struck gong in my bodymind, particularly in the brain and nervous system. Sound vibrations produce a strong sympathetic resonance in the sentient energy-form, a release, a liberation, of the spirit by the spirit. It’s a deep feeling, felt at the core. It’s a method of gaining access to the Soul in its pure state. From the agitation and torment of the impure, there is release and relief upon entering the pure peace of the pure Soul: music can facilitate that transformation.

It’s fascinating how pure, or purer, musical intervals, which produce a more natural harmoniousness, tend to help with the musico-spiritual purification process. While I can make bland colorless equal temperament suffice if properly played and perfumed with extra timbres, it is much easier to find musical beauty in the well temperaments in the case of fixed tuning keyboards. Of course, the ultimate catalyzer of musico-spiritual purification is the human voice, solo or, when employing pure intervals, choral. To hear the ethereal purity of just intonation intervals when performed by a skilled chorus is overwhelmingly beautiful, the essence of the religious experience.

Levels
The universe, the infinite eternal composite Oneness, assumes all forms, and is simultaneously expressing itself through all levels of development of all forms. What we usually perceive as stupidity or evil is simply the universe manifesting at relatively lower levels of development. The process of the universe’s forms manifesting as seemingly separate selves unfolds in the eternal now, as do forms who, through the process of self-exploration and self-realization, manifest as the self-unified, self-illumined, self-liberated, universal One.

Animation Domination
When I’m at last relatively undistracted, I can begin to savor the livingness in me that animates this walking corpse. This day is truly a gift, and to be able to appreciate the gift of life is itself a gift. I see how miserable some people are, their birthright of happiness elusive because of the complexity of their conditioning, heedless of the simple gift of life. We are only to recognize the light of life within ourselves, and within everyone we meet. Pleasures and pains, gains and losses, are inevitable. What matters most is to cherish the presence of the Living One, knowing that the current of universal energy is what flows through this body, every body. The ocean of energy is eternal: enjoy being this Eternal One that has assumed this temporary shape, and enjoy communion with the One in all its forms.

The Universe
Once again I feel the urge to purge myself of exoticisms and esotericisms and regard This, That, I, Thou, simply as the universe. The universe is the One and the One is the universe. This is the universe typing, and seeing, and breathing, and reflecting. This is the universe communing with the universe. This is a scientific approach, and irrefutable. Maybe the traditional incense-and-flower crowd would have reservations about calling It the universe, and not something more venerable or worshippable, but so what.

Monitored Madness
In this unfolding ever-changing Now, all forms in the process of rising or falling, it’s only natural to suffer when clinging to anything. All moorings are lost, and madness and despair can arise. Mental and physical states change constantly. What provides the end of suffering is the cessation of clinging to anything, and letting the dispassionate witness of constant change within and without be in control, with transcendent aplomb. When we dispassionately witness madness that has arisen, the madness falls away on its own, as all things must.

Wild Strawberries
In the midst of constant change and uncertainty, there are those simple things that provide richness and sweetness in the moment. For me, the company of cats and a sonorous keyboard are satisfaction guaranteed, pleasure and respite so complete the likes of which I wish upon everyone.

Nothing in Mind
Mind, in its essence, is Nothing, pure Nothing. To see Nothing is an acquired skill, and results in instant salvation, instant purification. Clear Light City baby.

When Words Fail
The noetic is nonverbal, transverbal. Rather than stammer and babble and misrepresent and be misunderstood, we can express the inexpressible nonverbally in many ways, our state of being and level of development spontaneously radiating. We can pick up a brush or a musical instrument and the universal Self expresses itself through them. The Self-existent, Self-luminous, Self-sustaining self-less Self reveals itself to itself through nonverbal signs, through its sheer presence with absence of any personhood, its manifestations and emptiness, its vibrations and silence, its timeless tacit significance implicit throughout.

Harmony
In this very moment, in this eternal Now, there is harmony, whether perceived or not. All matter and energy abides in harmony, with infinite space pervading throughout. There is plenty of room for every thing, for every manifestation of the One.

Celebrating this harmony with music is only natural. Sounds and silences, vibrations passing through emptiness, a grand sustained fundamental harmony, the great OM, can be perceived, and can inspire. Every tone struck, decays. This tone called my life still sounds, as it passes through, slowly decaying here as it passes into infinity. Tones emerge from nothing, from silence, and return to nothing, to silence. In infinite eternal silence can be heard constant harmony of all tones struck and decaying everywhere at once, in this very moment, eternal harmony in this eternal Now.

It’s All In The Mind
The most accessible place to find the universal mind is in this very mind, in its original state. Pure awareness is universal mind—all phenomena appear and disappear in it, are contained in it, embraced by it, and it is eternally unsullied and unfazed. The only way the universal mind can be directly experienced is to go beyond thinking about it, or forming opinions about it, or about anything appearing in it. By dropping attachment and identification with thoughts and opinions, we can approximate the purity of the universal essence of mind, and catch on to its brilliant perfection and glorious emptiness. The universal mind is always with us, with everything, but overlooked because we are distracted, conditioned to pay attention to phenomena rather than that in which phenomena rise and fall.

A beautiful mind indeed. Here now, here always, everywhere.

Who’s In Charge Here
As Brahman is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere, there is no being where Brahman resides more, or less, than any other being. There is complete decentralization of ultimate authority. Our authority is directly proportional to how much of Brahman we are willing to be. When we realize we are 100% Brahman, we have the ultimate authority of Brahman. We have the ultimate empowerment, the ultimate agency, as self-realized forms of Brahman.

When we have surrendered completely to our true nature, Brahman, the Self, the ultimate empowerment is controlled by no-one whatsoever, as the Self is absolutely self-less. There is only spontaneous, effortless being, the radiance of the eternal light.

Unencumbered Energy
All that we are is the universal energy. What we call our self, our personhood, is a peculiar concatenation of energy encumbrances, likes and dislikes, fears and desires, attachments and attractions and repulsions. In this very moment we can always transcend the encumbrances and be unencumbered universal energy, if we so desire to be desireless, if we’re attached to being nonattached. In the perfect freedom of unencumbered energy the self-realized bodymind form of energy dances along, taking it all in stride, happy-go-lucky, seeing and being the life eternal.

OWG-I
Operating While Intoxicated is a commonplace behavior pattern that occasionally results in a traffic ticket or a tragedy. Anyone can easily become impaired on drink or drug and drive off.

There are people who, for one reason or another, are chronically, naturally intoxicated, just by their inherent nature and mindset. As this is their baseline, they’ve learned how to function in society in spite of their chronically self-intoxicated state.

The neurochemically imbalanced notwithstanding, chronically self-intoxicated people are actually intoxicated by the presence of the universal Self; they are, in fact, Self-intoxicated, i.e., God-Intoxicated.

The God-Intoxicated live as if in a dream, which in fact it is.

There is nothing the God-Intoxicated can do about their condition, and there are no tests that confirm its presence, and no laws that make driving, or being in public, illegal while God-Intoxicated.

OWGI is more accurately OWSCA: Operating While in Sat Chit Ananda. God is intoxicating and nontoxic at once; the living presence of God is pure energy, pure spirit, purely wholesome.

Atman vs. The Gunas
‘Atman’ sounds like a comic book superhero, and ‘The Gunas’ sound like a cadre of comic book arch-villains. I know well the gunas, being taken over by their influence from time to time in various admixtures. Yet somehow, like a cork in the ocean, I manage to rise to the surface on my own accord, no matter how deep in the gunas I’ve sunk.

The Atman remains the Atman. No matter how enslaved I have been by the gunas, it doesn’t change the fact that I am Atman, the Supreme. The gunas are actually part and parcel of my nature. How else could I come to know myself unless I conceal and separate myself from myself first?

Eat, drink, be merry; enjoy wine, women—and/or men—and song; indulge in sex, drugs, rock and roll; Atman remains the Atman, taking it all in, an impersonal impartial witness unfazed by pleasure and pain, having no opinions, passing no judgment.

After the party, the Atman just enjoys being the Atman. There’s no place like OM.

Representation and Misrepresentation
Words can’t help but fall short, and misrepresent, the Self. The Self, and the Self’s experience of itself, speaks for itself. Noesis is ineffable, always was, always will be. Yet the words come. How can we stop singing, and writing, and making music, and sharing the beauty of the Self by any means at our disposal. All we can do is suggest, infer, imply, remind the Self of itself through artistic expression and all forms of intercommunication.

We accurately represent the Self when we express mutual recognition and unconditional love, the Self recognizing itself, the Self loving itself. A smile, a glance, a touch, a kind word or gesture, is representation. Misrepresentation involves many words, many thoughts, many assumptions, many delusions, many believed-to-be-separate selves.

Natural Beauty
That which we are is beyond all superlatives. Suffice it to say it is pure beauty. The natural world is beautiful as it is, no embellishments required; the beauty of the Self that dwells within us as us is likewise beautiful in its self-luminous presence, the essence of all life.

This beauty of the indwelling and all-pervading spirit of nature is at times overwhelming. We can only surrender to the beauty, and let it take us over so that we fully become the beauty. A beautiful being this is, and a beautiful feeling it is.

Unmanifest Destiny
How was I to know that I was born to realize I was never born, and never die, and am manifestly the Unmanifest, the birthless, the deathless, Brahman supreme. What enabled this destiny to unfold is the fact that Brahman just is, the Atman permeates this form, the Atman and Brahman are one, and I was lucky enough to be still enough, receptive enough, earnest enough, to realize that fact.

That everyone has—is—the Atman, and that everyone can realize this wonderful universal true nature, is the frontier to explore. Modern Western civilization can’t expand outwardly anymore, having hit the wall of material finitude, but it sure can stand to expand inwardly now. Wagons ho!

3 a.m. Bhagavad Gita
In the dead of night, unable to fall back to sleep, I reached in the headboard for an old yellowed paperback Mentor Edition copy of the Bhagavad Gita. The words came alive and spoke directly to me. That this scripture exists and is so widely available is deeply reassuring to me. These are the words that have long inspired and transformed the world, and will continue to do so. Krishna speaks to us still, on this strange and terrible battlefield.

Basket Case
While I understand the drive for performance perfection, honing a skill until at some future time a masterful performance is produced, I think it’s possible to be enslaved by perfectionism to the point of risking keeping one’s bright candle hidden under a bushel basket. I’ve read accounts of musicians who don’t practice, they just play. Playing a lot is not mere practice, it’s performance realized, performance done for its own sake, in the present, which is the only venue we ever have.

To believe one’s work is never good enough is not a wholesome drive for perfection, it’s a delusion.

One note played in the present is good enough. Nothing is heard in the conceptual future. It’s all in the present, out in the open, on top of the basket, shining.

Perfect Self Expression
Letting the indwelling universal Self express is only natural. The ways the Self expresses are limitless. The Self expresses itself perfectly, in fullness, by the fact of its Presence. To simply be the Self is perfect Self expression, in and through whatever wonderful form the Self has assumed.

The Passion of the Conditioned Unconditioned
The part of me with which I used to exclusively identify is the conditioned part of me, the me of name, gender, age, nationality, socioeconomic status, family history, occupation, language, talents, skill sets, limitations, thoughts, emotions, memories, fantasies, likes, and dislikes. The conditioned me is the conventional ego.

Imagine my surprise when, while walking across town stone cold sober and acutely alert, I experienced the unconditioned part of me, there all along, silent, pure awareness and pure being, the part of me that just is, effortlessly and spontaneously, the living part of me, the natural part of me, the real part of me.

Only a fool wouldn’t identify with the real when the real is finally seen, finally recognized, finally experienced.

I honor the conditioned part of me, for in spite of itself it enables me to see the real me.

To use a Christian analogy, the Unconditioned so loved the world that the Unconditioned became Conditioned, for the salvation of the world. The Unconditioned took on all Conditioning, took on all suffering. The Unconditioned was apparently crucified by the Conditioned, apparently died, and was buried, only to rise again, to continue to be eternally as the Unconditioned.

While we are in the thrall of conditioning, tightly identified with our conditioning and attached to it, the Unconditioned remains unseen, unknown, forsaken. We know not what we do, for we know not who we really are.

At last, the eternal unconditioned One is experienced, recognized, and understood to be That which we really are. This is truly the Resurrection, the One knowing itself to be the One in form, through form, through conditioning.

Changing Changelessness
Every thing changes. States of mind constantly change. Phenomena appearing in the mind rise and fall and rise and fall. There’s nothing that doesn’t change.

Nothing doesn’t change.

Without no-thing there couldn’t be things.

Things require no-thing to be things.

No-thing is inseparable from things.

Samsara and nirvana are one and the same.

What makes samsara samsara and nirvana nirvana is the point of view taken. Are we to be that which changes, that which is changeless, or both, or neither?

No matter how it’s sliced and parsed, it goes on, and off, and on, and off. On-and-off, something and nothing.

Rest in it. Rest as it. Surrender to it.

That which is something and nothing, on and off, change and changelessness, Art Thou.

Ever-changing changelessness, completely full emptiness, the self-less Self abides forever.

Point of View
The point of view we develop through experience and insight makes all the difference. Ordinary life becomes extraordinary, then transcendently ordinary, through an illuminated point of view. That which sees through every eye, That which lives in every form of life, is One. One life, one self-illumined point of view. Only the One can bear being the One, in this dream life of the One.

Me Bare Witness
Nothing can top Padmasambhava’s timeless text “Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness.” Well, actually, there is something better, which is this very awareness in its nakedness. Walking across the town park, sitting at this desk, I enjoy the silent calm of this witnessing awareness, how it takes in everything as it is, without passing judgment. This body could be torn limb from limb, and this naked awareness, the bare witness, simply, silently, bears witness. This witnessing awareness is very bearable. It is the pure part of me, the real part of me, the real Me, the Me of every Me.

It’s naked awareness watching itself. It’s bare witness bearing witness to itself. It’s Me watching Me.

How terribly important it is to ‘cease cherishing opinions’—opinions are as distracting as cell phones, iPods, monitors, tv, etc. Without opinions, insight rushes in, and we bear witness to the bare witness, and the rest is the end of personal history, canceling out totally, vanishing completely, again and again. Whew.

Perennial Philosophy Evangelism
The one sure process that cultivates and propagates the supreme insight of the Perennial Philosophy is that of character development. As we mature spiritually and our understanding deepens, our traits, our example, our energy signature and energy quality propagates to those with whom we come into contact, facilitating the supreme insight. Words that attempt to convey the Perennial Philosophy often fall short, possibly misrepresenting Brahman/Atman, and easy to misunderstand and misperceive. Words limit, words define, That which is unlimited and indefinable. Not only that, words are perishable, and relatively inaccessible, not reaching the totality of self-aware beings on this planet due to language barriers, lack of access to print and digital media, political repression, etc. The ‘transmission outside of scriptures’ is essential; the need for a living spiritual teacher is real. It’s difficult but not impossible to have the supreme insight without the guidance of a human guru, as the true guru is the Self within us, the all-pervading One. Everyone is a guru, whether we know it or not. Some instruct by setting a wretched example, others by joyful example. Seeing people enslaved by thoughts and selfish desires is instructive, just as seeing people enjoying pure spiritual freedom that comes from not being slaves of thoughts and desires is instructive.

We leave behind the spiritual impressions we make upon the people in our daily lives. Why not also leave behind pointers, clues, signposts, and references to the timeless texts of the Perennial Philosophy, so that the supreme insight may be cultivated generation to generation. Somehow, somewhere, the words of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the Sutras, all those words of all those self-realized manifestations of the One—words cobbled together words to the best of their ability to do justice to the One—will survive, be read, be understood, be re-written, and, most importantly, be realized, in-corporated, lived, and expressed.

The Source, of course, cited by all Perennial Philosophy scriptures, is within us, and it is to our Source that we must be perennially reminded to return. The presence of the One within us as us is just, wow, too much, I can hardly stand it, can you blame me for venting this wonderful fact over and over again?

Following the Bliss
One reliable sign we’re being true to the Self is the experience of pure bliss. Whenever duality ceases and nonduality resumes there’s an influx of energy, a release, total freedom of being, bliss.

Bliss Out
Although the bliss of insight into the unity of soul and Oversoul is extreme, once this insight stabilizes the New Norm of bliss results in bliss canceling out. Bliss disappears in the ongoing natural state of nonduality. The One, which is pure bliss, is unaware of its own bliss. Only when the One pretends to be another can there be the experience, and the apparent experiencer, of the One’s blissful nature.

Ubiquitous Genius
Everyone has a tutelary deity within, a guardian angel or daemon or resident genius, the wise radiant ancient universal spirit. In fact, we not only have a genius, we are that very genius. There are not two of Me.

Aeolian Harping
Playing the well-tempered keyboard a little bit this morning, enjoying the harmonies and timbres and key colors, it occurred to me that it’s being played as the wind of spirit blows through this form. What comes out of the keyboard is the joy and enjoyment of the spirit.

‘Every time I feel the spirit movin’ in my heart I will pray’ … and play.

Musing
The Muse is the universal spirit, in-spiring as it lives and moves and has its being in-side.

Atman is Brahman
These three words, Atman is Brahman, describe the fundamental truth of our timeless identity. These three words are the engine of sat-chit-ananda, the ultimate inspiration. When the Atman—our very soul, our very life—finds out it is indeed Brahman, the universal soul, there is overwhelming joy. How the Atman can express such joy upon finding out it’s Brahman is a happy problem to have. To see others in various conditions—Brahman disguised so well it doesn’t recognize itself—is to see the human condition. So now what condition is my condition in—transhuman? superhuman? Thoughts and emotions and fears and desires are still rising and falling and thrashing about within, coexisting with Brahman. Brahman lets it play out in its boundless space and freedom.

Lux Aeterna
I wonder what kind of music would best express the eternal light, Brahman. I wonder what words could do justice to the truth of Brahman within, that the Atman is Brahman. It’s a lovely challenge to find the sounds, to find the words, to find all the ways to express and communicate and share the truth of Brahman is Atman.

Real Intents
Understanding is everything. With understanding comes the sublime intent, the ultimate intent.

Spare Change
Every day is a new incarnation.

We are one spirit incarnate.

By taking care of the present moment, the future is also cared for, and the past is no more. Past and future are in the present, the eternal now. Living in the eternal now, we are timeless. Fully at home, fully That which we are, we take care of the present by being That which we are, which is fully in the present.

Birthday Wondering
No-one asks to be born, birth just happens, the evolutionary energy compels couples to merge, and labor and delivery happens in most instances spontaneously. And here we are, part of a process. Whose expectations are we to meet?

The Silent Presence of the One
This very presence, this very awareness, silent, abiding throughout the cosmos, truly carries the day, every day in the eternal now. This is the radiant reality that alone is. Battered by delusion and desire for so long, there at last comes that glorious realization of the silent abiding presence, the true Self. The self-shining presence awareness is completely free, unbound, unfettered, complete.

Naturally Artificial
Strictly speaking, there can be nothing artificial—everything is the expression of the evolutionary energy, everything is the expression of nature.

Unpretentiousness
Pretending can be fun, if not taken seriously, if we remember the pretense is not who we are; if taken seriously, if identified with, it is a drain of energy, a distraction, and self-deception. Sustaining a false self burdened by fears and desires and delusions diverts energy. The maximum energy available to us comes when we are unpretentious, when there is full spontaneous expression of the universal energy. In unpretentiousness there is no conflict within or without, for there is innate wholeness. Unpretentiousness is another name for the natural state. When we realize we are the universal energy, that brings about the end of believing we are something other than That.

Ego Death, Ego Rebirth
Ego death, as intense, profound, and life-changing an occurrence as it may be, is by no means final. The ego springs back easily from ego death, and is slipped back into like an old shoe. The rebirth of the ego is no big deal, and is perfectly natural, the conditioned mind having been passed from generation to generation, containing many useful skills and strategies for survival. The trick is to not take ego seriously, to not regard it as one’s true self, or another’s true self. What underlies ego silently abides: the true self, the universal Self.

4 a.m. Dhammapada Lesson
The introduction alone is a gold mine. Four spiritual traits to embody as pure Buddha nature: Kindness, Compassion, Joy, Forgiveness.

Separation, Reunion
Sin and evil come from a perception of being a separate self, separate from ‘others’, separate from the universe, separate from ‘God.’ All that is good and real comes from the ground of being, which is always One. Reunion with the One instantly enables all the qualities of the One to manifest through the form.

Reunion and Union
The process of reunion with the One is the ultimate in blessedness, joy, peace. It expresses itself through poetry and music and love. Union with the One is annihilation of the nonexistent ‘other’ in the eternal One, and is manifested by silence and naturalness, complete ordinariness, the universal spirit spontaneously animating the form with no concept of itself.

Just Passing Through
The Flow is as good a name as any for the One, the Self, God, the Tao, whatever we want to call It. There’s something fundamentally wholesome about regarding the One as the primordial energy and its flowing and shapeshifting. The old Taoist writings puts things in a very natural perspective. The natural state is not an exotic esoteric orientalism, it’s Nature Itself. There’s no mysticism associated with intuiting and identifying with Nature, it’s just being receptive, and honest, and real. To the conditioned human mind, Nature is something other than the person, and communing with Nature is trivialized and forsaken. Sophisticated humans tend to regard themselves as superior to members of its own species, to other species, and to Nature. Whatever it takes to satisfy the insatiable desires of the ego is rationalized, for the self-important humans must have what they want for themselves, regardless of the impact such mass consumption has upon the biosphere, i.e., Nature. The irony is that it’s Nature’s experiment to evolve six-billion-plus cerebral monkeys of infinite desires on a finite planet. Nature doesn’t care what happens, it only makes spontaneous adjustments, following the dictates of its intrinsic nature. Nature is always Just Passing Through.

OM My God
Surrendering to Nature, and letting Nature take over “my life,” is only natural. Surrendering to the nature of Nature is accepting Nature’s terms, Nature’s laws. The transience of all form, the incessant changes of form, is difficult for people who are conditioned to, and attached to, particular forms. The rise and fall of forms, the forming and unforming of forms, is expressed as OM, or AUM, the aural expression of the rise and fall of waves of pure Brahman upon the ocean of pure Brahman.

I Trust My Self
One of the causes of human suffering is lack of trust in oneself. This is because the small-s self is a limited, delusional, desire-hobbled fictional self, the ego, identification with body/name/role/thoughts/emotions/sensations/experiences, and is not necessarily a trustworthy self, being fictional and delusional, and actually having no authenticity whatsoever. How could I trust such a self.

Whereas the big-S Self is implicitly trustworthy. It instinctively knows it is all forms, and all spirit, and spontaneously behaves accordingly. The source of all that is good is the Self. The Self has nothing but good will toward all its forms. I trust the Self with my life, because the Self is my life, all life.

For the Glory of the Self
J. S. Bach composed “to the glory of God” and wrote that at the beginning of his scores. I recall how a priest once mentioned to the congregation how ‘things’ tend not to make us better persons. As I contemplate the acquisition of this thing or that thing I ask myself if somehow the thing will glorify the Self somehow, or just temporarily gratify the ego.

When I make or hear music that “refreshes the soul” as JSB said music should do, that is the universal soul itself that’s enjoying the good vibrations. That deep resonance with the One is the most beautiful feeling. Tears of joy are only natural when we have at last come home.

Being In This Body, Being In This Mind
It’s a strange pleasure to simply feel how it feels to be in this body, such as it is, just as it is. Feeling the muscles contracting and relaxing, the joints, the skin, the senses, the hard-wired instinctual responses, this is quite an amazing animal to occupy. Experiencing the activity of this mind, the thoughts and visions and memories rising and falling—the impressions formed when seeing particular forms appear in this particular conditioned mind—is fascinating. Pure awareness that I am, I respect this body and this mind that has enabled me at last to realize me. Kindly I regard this body and this mind, as willful, selfish, confused, and self-deluded as the package has been, for the unbearable ego in this mind has provided the impetus to come to the Self.

The Wisdom of Feeding the Ego
It’s necessary, and inevitable, to feed and aggrandize the false self, the ego. Only by relentlessly catering to its desires is it possible to develop an ego that is so miserable that it can’t help but begin the process of soul-searching and self-examination to find relief from its suffering, which will happen when self-inquiry flowers into Self-realization, the end of the fictitious suffering self and the resumption of being the true Self in human form.

Where Am I Coming From
This evolutionary energy that animates this form is eternal, while the form it has assumed is evanescent. It is the energy which lives, moves, and has its temporary being-in-this-form. Ever-living, ever-new, constantly flowing, it alone is the awareness of awareness, the being of being. Who is this? Where is it coming from? Who is it that’s seeing? Who is it that’s alive? Who is it that hears, and speaks, and communicates? Who is it communicating, and with whom is it communicating? This living unfathomable mystery, here, now, is where I’m coming from.

Note to Self, Note from Self
Talking to my Self is therapeutic, and especially so when my Self talks to me by its silent presence.

Implosion
How good it is when at the end of my rope and patience and strength I can let go and fall inward, to find that I am effortlessly supported by the ground of being, the Self.

The Spring of Eternity
Spirit emanates from the unfathomable Source, just as pure water clear and cold flows from a hillside spring deep in the forest. The soul is the constant emanation of the One, ever-living in the Present, in every form. All memory, all fear, all desire, all thought is washed away by the flow of spirit. Self-purifying, self-shining, self-originating, it is always here, always now, always within, the soul itself. It’s only for us to recognize the truth of our true self, over and over again, in every form that looks for its animating principle and finds itself to be the animating principle itself, flowing from the spring of eternity.

The Self-Purifying Flame
Spontaneity is not just the soul of wit, but the soul itself, the living flame of being and awareness which abides in the present. The soul is pure, and purifying, energy, that will consume all the detritus of our cluttered, confused, and too-clever-for-its-own-good egos once we have recognized the universal soul and have identified with it. Burn on, ancient flame, burn on.

Vision
All that is considered great and timeless and beautiful and meaningful springs from the unfathomable Source within. The vision of the Source leads to a blessedness, a beatific condition that can’t be denied. From such a vision we let go and let the Source express itself through this transitory form.

Self-Awareness, the Great Portal to Self-Inquiry and Self-Realization
Plain ordinary self-awareness is the sine qua non of Self-realization. When a sentient being is self-aware, it has the capacity to engage in self-discovery, to have its curiosity aroused sufficiently to begin self-examination and self-inquiry. When conditions are right, self-inquiry ripens into full-blown Self-realization.

Soul-Full
“Soul” is a neat little four-letter word for a concept about a reality that could use a little dusting-off and appreciation. What we call the soul the Hindus call the Atman. Brahman is the universal soul; a basic vital tenet of Hinduism is that Atman is Brahman. The Transcendentalists referred to the Oversoul, which is another name for Brahman. Therefore, we can attest that the soul is the Oversoul: Atman is Brahman.

The significance of the soul is that everyone has a soul; actually, everyone is the soul. The soul is the awareness, the life spirit. There is one soul, manifesting in all the many different forms.

The soul is the heart. Speaking, acting, living from the heart is speaking, acting, living as the heart. The soul, the heart, are names for the Source of all. We are all speaking, acting, living from the Source, speaking, acting, living as the Source, whether we know it or not. Whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, we are the One Source.

No matter what happens, the soul abides as the Source. Realizing that we are the Source is the ultimate empowerment, the supreme treasure. No matter what happens, we are soul-full.

Soul-Searching, Soul-Finding
To look within, nonjudgmentally, and fully experience and fully accept the contents of the mind, is to use the soul to find the soul. That which witnesses the rising and falling of phenomena is the soul’s pure awareness. As selfish and shameful the story of the person may be, the pure self-shining soul ever in the present remains for us to recognize and reclaim.

Abiding in the Present
The savvy psychonaut will sooner or later discover that the secret to sustained entheogenesis is to live completely in the present, where Theo hangs out. The shimmering sentient being of pure cosmic energy is all light and all right, the shining wave effortlessly rising and falling on the infinite ocean of being.

Cemetery Epiphanies
Walking outdoors helps clear the head, and provides the freshest of perspectives; the animating force is engaged with the act of walking, and the circulation to the brain and all cells of the body is optimal. Getting away from four walls and ceiling and familiar surroundings, the focus is sharpened inwardly as much as outwardly.

One of my walking routes takes me through the town cemetery, which is almost a mile in circumference. The headstones and mausoleums are conducive to contemplating mortality, to thinking upon what really matters, what’s most important, in these fleeting days above the sod.

I pay attention to the animating force within this body, and find it easy to identify with as I stride over the boneyard. How simple is the truth, that these bodies are temporary forms assumed by the universal animating force. How sublime to realize I am this universal animating force, and that while all my forms are evanescent, I exist forever.

Wow. That’s as sublime as it’s possible to be and still be conscious. All right, then, how to be, in the days remaining in this form…what does That which I am do now, knowing That, being That?

My natural course of conduct is totally spontaneous, of course. Seeing the Self in every self, the behavioral guidelines and moral compass are part of the primordial package.

This is the Happy Excursion of the Taoists, playing the phenomenal world like a violin.

It’s To Laugh, It’s To Sing
There are two reliable signs of well-being: laughing and singing. Laughter is good music, singing is good music. We know we’re doing all right when we hear ourselves laughing, or singing. Extensions of these signs include an overall keen sense of humor; openness to the present where absurdities arise and can be witnessed; all forms of play and recreation; all forms of creative expression. When the universe is on deck and in charge, the self-serious conditioned-mind ego phantom is sidestepped, and the good times doth roll.

Where Is Everybody Going?
While waiting to cross the main thoroughfare in town to get home, a seemingly endless stream of cars going in both directions, an elderly car-free bicycling volunteer from work was waiting with me as well. “Where is everybody going?” she mused aloud. Traffic has slowly increased in volume over the years, to the point where the two-lane street we were attempting to cross has become increasingly uncrossable.

Where is everybody going? What are we after?

The universe mercifully lets us go after whatever we want, and wow are we going after whatever in droves.

Whatever it takes to satisfy the conditioned brain, the insatiable ego, we will go there and get.

I remember watching a car speed by on a road near a park where friends and I sat under a tree on a beautiful summer day, sharing our first serious entheogen. For hours I was experiencing firsthand the truth that all ground is sacred. How good it was just to be, complete, on sacred ground. By contrast, the human being speeding past in the car was heedless, intent only on being somewhere else, at a time that will arrive none too soon. The driver appeared to me to be obsessed, and insane, and missing the whole point of existence.

So where then do I wish we would want to go…preferably without need of a car, or cash, or any contrivance whatsoever. Any piece of sacred ground will do, and since all ground is sacred, right here is fine. All ground is sacred, all life is sacred, and here we are. I wish we would want to be at home in the ultimate sense, indigenous beings of the universe. We develop and evolve and on the way we acquire and desire. It’s now possible for us to desire self-realization, and to acquire understanding, engaging in serious self-inquiry and finding out just what is developing and evolving and acquiring and desiring.

The Industrial Revolution and the assembly line has brought us what we have now, materially, which does not satisfy the human need for meaning and place and peace. For meaning and place and peace we just hop in our bodies as if for the first time, and examine this very existence, this very awareness, in this very moment, in this very spot.

We need to go here, now.

Surfing
When all seems lost, when all is lost, and all that remains is awareness, the most important thing remains: awareness. Awareness is the universal mind itself. Once the critical insight has happened—that pure awareness is the universal mind, that pure being is the universal flesh, that one’s true identity is the universe, nature, spirit—ever-changing circumstances no longer are taken personally, as the firsthand transpersonal experience has revealed the particular self to be the universal Self. These bodies, these thoughts, these circumstances are waves of the ocean, and it’s all ocean, experiencing itself by making waves out of itself. When a wave finally realizes it’s the ocean, there’s nothing to do but enjoy being a wave and being the ocean, simultaneously. Kowabunga!

Awareness, and its Contents, and Discontents, and Incontinence
The watershed moment in my adult life came when I first became aware of awareness, the presence of awareness. Awareness of awareness is such a simple, elemental, primitive experience, and so powerful, and so subtle by being so obvious. Until awareness of awareness and the profound appreciation for it happens, we are led astray by the contents of awareness, heedless of awareness and smitten by phenomena arising in awareness. The suffering and sordid soap operas of the human condition all originate in being distracted by the contents of awareness, and by our ignorance and lack of appreciation for awareness itself.

No Worries
Having suffered from chronic anxiety for a long time, it was only natural to find the cure, and that cure is nonattachment. Worry is about losing that to which one is attached. While I would do whatever I could to protect and preserve the well-being of those people and other animals who are in my corner of the universe, nothing can stop change, nothing can stop transitoriness of all forms. Whatever I bring into my house I must be prepared to lose, either through inevitable breakdown or through theft or other event. I must prepare to lose my house, my circumstances, my body, everything, everyone, which will happen sooner or later, inevitably.

The difference between being attached and being nonattached is the difference between suffering and serenity. Equanimity’s source is nonattachment; nonattachment’s source is Self-realization.

The Waiting Game
While sitting in someone’s office waiting to tend to the most minute of minutia it turned into a great meditation. I was not sitting there ‘on business’ or as ‘staff’ or anything that has a name or role or purpose. I was sitting there as pure awareness, pure universal energy, totally complete as a cloud of energy. Just being, and just being awareness, and just being aware of just being beingness and awareness and energy, is indescribably fulfilling. Self-fulfilling. The Self is always fulfilled in its own nature, by its own nature. It’s great to wait in sat-chit-ananda, being-awareness-bliss, nothing less than Brahman.

Possessing Possessions and Non-Possession, and Self-Possession
I do look forward to possessing a cutting-edge digital piano, even though I will have to learn over again that I don’t possess anything, just Me, i.e., the Self. I just can’t get rid of Me, although I’ve tried looking away and closing my eyes for a while. I’m still here. Transpersonal post-Self-realization Self-possession is being possessed by the Self. The Self jolly well possesses itself.

Life Dream
This morning after a bout of insomnia I fell back asleep with Furbananda curled up next to me and had a wonderful dream about a public homestead which abounded with life of all kinds, a lush garden and farm, and a house and grounds filled with people. What made it wonderful was the proprietor was of immense good will; even the bees and hornets were kindly, trusting and harmless. A bee landed on my face, and I felt nothing but pure love from it, and for it. Magnanimity was everywhere. There was so much goodness and good will shared between people, and between all forms of life. It was truly a place where life recognized itself in each and every form, and loved itself unconditionally.

The Lights Are On
The lights are on,
and somebody’s home.
Who is it?
All these homes, all this light.
The light is familiar, inviting.
The homes are filled with light.
Home is light,
As is the homeowner.

Joie de Vivre, Bien Etre, Nonchalance, Insouciance, Sangfroid
How is it that the French created words that fit the aftermath of Self-realization so well.

Chanting
In the introduction to Nisargadatta’s only self-written book Ed Muzika mentions that Nisargadatta chanted several times a day, and was deeply devoted to chanting; he also wondered why more people don’t regularly chant:
“.…I want to make one thing absolutely clear. Nisargadatta was filled with devotion immediately after the attained. He was never a talking head. He had formal chanting five times a day until he died. The chanting libretto contained the teachings. He would repeat certain phrases over and over. The Bhakta is extremely important for most of us. Zen monks were incredibly fixated on their teachers, and lived the life of monks, who always chanted…Robert too loved chanting, as did Ranjit, Nisargadatta's spiritual brother (sadguru.com). I am always amazed why so few of those who read Nisargadatta resist chanting….”

I was blessed to have attended a weekend yoga retreat at a local Roman Catholic nunnery many years ago. One of the chants the instructor taught us remains with me. I just now chanted it, and it felt beautiful.

OM, shanti
OM, shanti
OM, shanti OM
OM, shanti
OM, shanti
OM, shanti OM

Self-Help
People who are suffering are suffering because they are ignorant of spirit, and are in the thrall of a false self, a false identity. If people only would be willing to find out what they really are they would be able to transcend the false self and thereby transcend suffering.

If we have pretensions of egolessness we must accept desirelessness. Desires are from ego, and desires and ego are what cause suffering. If we want to help the miserable ignorant sinning suffering beings in our life we must embody the traits that transcend ego and its desires. This is spiritual practice, doing what works to let the light of the Self shine without obstruction. What looks like chastity and morality is really spiritual pragmatism: it’s no sacrifice, it’s not piety, to practice self-denial; it’s only good sense, as we have managed to climb out of the pit of selfish ignorance enough to see that there is no real separate self, it’s all only the Self. Knowing this, being this, it’s no great sacrifice to be apparently selfless. As there is no real self, it’s only natural to go about the self-less Self’s business self-less-ly, effortlessly.

It’s only the ignorant who must stress and strain and with great effort try to quench personal suffering through attempting to satisfy selfish desires. It’s only the ignorant who fear death and loss and change. It’s only the ignorant who believe they are separate selves, separate doers. The Self alone is, the eternal Principle of all form and formlessness. When we realize we are the Self, our relief and our joy is inexpressibly boundless.

We teach by example. We inspire by example. We help by example. When we are filled with light, with joy, with effortlessness, we display the desirability of desirelessness and the radiant self-evidence of the Self.

“There is only Brahman, which is one without a second. He who knows that there is nothing else, is himself Brahman. The one whose craving after the objects of the senses is gone, whose sense of "I" as separate from everything else is gone, and whose pride is gone, is the one who has truly realized Brahman.”

- Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

Universal Spirit, Universal Mind, Universal Essence
The universal spirit is the universal mind, and the universal mind is the universal spirit. Presence awareness is universal spirit mind, universal mind spirit, one essence. It is the universal essence, universal spirit-mind-essence.

Bunch of Sillies
In the course of conversation at a family gathering my cousin pointed out there’s something in many of us that keeps us from feeling unmitigated happiness, a barrier to happiness that pops up. Maybe it’s a carryover of Puritan joylessness and humorlessness and free-floating Original Sin guilt. There’s something that inhibits, that restricts.

My cousin, her sister, and I enjoyed outrageous happiness when together as children, when we would wallow in goofiness, deliriously laughing and making each other laugh uncontrollably. “Bunch of sillies!” my uncle would mock-chide us.

I wish for sanity and innocence and happiness for all beings, including this being writing these words. May we all be a bunch of sillies, now as then. Stuck in the eternal now, as the Self in monkey form, what else makes more sense than to roll on the floor laughing our asses off.

Effortless Awareness, Effortless Being, R.I.P.
Without desires, the completeness of the natural state is evident. Here is pure awareness, pure being, the universal radiance, the universal essence, without any effort required to be. This is rest, this is peace, and this is now, not requiring death to effect. It’s always here, for those astute enough to pick up the subtle, all-pervading presence awareness that we are.

Blessed Momentary Lapses of Thought
Having been well trained to think much if not clearly it came as quite a surprise to find out that I was the smartest and most clearheaded when not thinking, so that all that “I” was, all that “my mind” was, was pure natural awareness itself. And so it is now, now, now, and now. Without any effort, without any contrivance, pure awareness just is, on and on and on, pure spring water of awareness emerging from an unfathomable Source. What a wise, powerful and intelligent Source it is. I love to flatter That which I love, That which I am. It was only thoughts that kept me from catching on, from directly experiencing presence awareness as presence awareness, that That I am.

Author, Author
It’s lovely to be authoritative, to know that the ultimate Authority, Agency, Source is living this life. Just to let It do It, to let It be It, is a blessed relief. I can let go and let It.

Funky Yoga
The yoga of the natural state is called Nisarga Yoga, which is what I can’t help but practice, as I am eternally in a natural state, of course. To help demystify and make un-precious the gamut of spiritual paths and practices I would consider developing a yoga that is sufficiently iconoclastic to be a viable alternative to those otherworldly adornments of golden-chained spiritual professionals, all the ego-aggrandizing spiritual paths and spiritual practices. I think I’m finally starting to ‘get’ U.G. Krishnamurti. In this dream of the universe, we can just be ourselves, and make ourselves at home, just as it is. Funky, simple, real. Try to tell a cat that yoga would be good for it. The cat is already practicing the highest most perfect yoga in the universe. Living with these resident gurus is wonderful.

Divine Megalomania, Holy Narcissism
To people who identify with their body, thoughts, name, role, limited relative identity, the notion of the indwelling self being in fact the Self—the Universe, or “God”—is not well-received, regarded as ludicrous or indicative of mental illness. Yet that is what dwells within us as us, regardless of what we believe. It’s hard to say what may be a greater impediment to Self-realization: low self-esteem or high self-esteem. Low self-esteem implies a limited self-awareness, a distorted sense of self, self-loathing, self-doubt; excessively high self-esteem implies a sense of a separate-from-others, superior-to-others self. Both low and high self-esteem are all about the false self, the small-s self, the self that arises from delusional, limited, and conditioned thoughts and beliefs about what one is.

The Self silently abides in every form, no matter how self-deluded the mind of the form may be. In silence, the Self comes to know itself when the self-deluded mind acquires insight sufficient to let its delusional thoughts fall away, thus revealing the silent presence awareness of the self-less Self.

This silent presence awareness that is the Self is nothing less than the Universe, nothing less than “God.” To admit to being this that we are may seem like the ultimate self-delusion, sheer megalomania, shameless narcissism, but it isn’t. We are That we are. The sanity and intelligence and authenticity and reality of the self-less Self doesn’t--can’t--give a shit about what we think, about what we believe.

The Self has no self-concept. The Self is completely nonjudgmental. The Self only sees itself, and no-one is seeing. In due time all critics and fools and phenomenal world are devoured by the silent eternal presence awareness of the self-less Self.

The Ground of Love
The Ground of Being is a term used to describe the universal essence, from which all forms emerge. All forms, being of the same essence, are the means by which the Ground of Being comes to know itself, to recognize itself in its own form, and then to recognize itself in all forms.

I spend much time with cats, and even though we are quite different in relative size and appearance, and are of different species, unable to communicate through written or spoken word, we nonetheless have established a strong bond of trust and affection. How can it be that different species can have such a close relationship? It is a scientific fact that genetically we share practically the same genome. Even worms have much of the same genome as a human being.

It’s only natural to feel great love for all lifeforms, as there is one life manifesting through all lifeforms, one Being in every being. The universe becomes multiform, and in so doing comes to know itself, to recognize itself, and to love itself, recognizing itself in every form.

The Freedom of Space
Several times a week I turn on some danceable music and dance, moving freely in space, in total physical freedom. This is as much psychological exercise as a physical. By enjoying total physical freedom in space, I celebrate the spacious freedom of the natural mind, unfettered, unconditioned, unrestricted, unconstricted. People suffer because they perceive themselves to be un-free.

My body could be shackled to a dungeon wall yet “I” am eternally free, the self-less universal energy manifesting as pure awareness, pure being. This fact is lost on people who are under the influence of ignorance, who hold on tightly to thoughts, beliefs, the limited life of conditioned mind that is burdened by desires and fears and the misperception of being somehow un-free and incomplete.

There is freedom in the space in which the body moves as it will. There is freedom in the space that is the universal mind. There is also freedom for thoughts to appear in free space, and freedom to cling to thoughts and sensations and experiences. There is, mercifully, the freedom to be freedom itself, the freedom of space, moving in free space with perfect freedom, as perfect freedom, as space.

The Examined Life
After decades of self-delusion it is a profound relief to at last learn how to self-examine properly. I was so confused for so long I didn’t know where to look within, how to look within, and to look at who or what’s doing the looking. It’s life examining life, the Self doing the self-examination. What a wonderful moment it is when the universe looks for itself, recognizes itself, examines itself, discovers itself, and realizes itself. The simple subtraction of self-delusion reveals the universal One present as oneself. This is wonderful beyond words.

When Words Fail
There’s a deep joyous ecstatic feeling I’ve felt off and on since childhood that is precipitated by prayer, deep yearning, and certain strains of music. This is a feeling that has ripened, and its meaning and implications better understood as I mature. This ecstatic feeling is best described as the ultimate homecoming, the great reunion, perfect freedom, the purest state of being, the purest state of beauty. This is the great liberation, the natural state, grace, the kingdom of heaven, nirvana, the ultimate blessedness. When this feeling happens, I sing, I weep with joy, I write, I pray, and I make music, to the One, for the One, as the One. The words and sounds I compose celebrate the presence awareness of the One.

Poetry and music are the natural forms of expression taken when consumed by the ineffable Glory of the universe.

Solid Gold Nuggets of Inspiration
Everyone is inspired, i.e. filled with Spirit, and has the potential to be ‘inspired’ as in the dictionary definition of the word. The question is why so many people don’t know or don’t care that we are 100% universal spirit and drag their carcasses around so manifestly uninspired.

Everyone can surrender to spirit and be inspired. By background and karma, inspiration results in words that issue forth from this 100% universal spirit that is the real Agency that assumed this particular form. Solid gold nuggets of inspiration dispense, spontaneously, for the sheer joy of it. Being this that we are, life itself, the Ground of Being itself, pure awareness, pure beingness, is nothing less than the kingdom of heaven, truly at hand, always here, always now, always That which we are. This is the Source Itself, the One, the sole universal Agency: to know this, to be this, is somewhat inspiring. I can’t stop being That which I am. I can’t stop singing from the housetop about it either. It’s golden, I’m golden.

Sleep Deprivation Surrender
One of the worst feelings is having to fight sleepiness rather than answer that call of nature and simply lie down and sleep. The foggy, queasy feeling of sleep deprivation used to be so frustrating, and felt worse than pain. Now I regard sleepiness as an invitation to surrender, to carry on as well as I can, feeling the way I happen to feel, until the time comes when I can’t carry on anymore. Surrendering to sleep is indeed like surrendering to death: an end to weariness, at last. At the end there is rest. And right now, there can be rest, or at least surrender, accepting the physical condition and having the certainty that rest will come.

Insomnia and the Bhagavad Gita
Once again I awoke this morning at 3 a.m. and unable to return to sleep. I turned to an old Mentor Edition paperback copy of the Bhagavad Gita that is among my most treasured books, others including the Mentor Edition of the Upanishads, and the Treasury of Traditional Wisdom. All that’s left for me is the Perennial Philosophy. My fate is sealed. I am a Perennial Philosopher, or rather, THE Perennial Philosopher. It’s the same Perennial Philosophy, and the same Perennial Philosopher. It’s the Goods. It’s the Medicine. It’s the Panacea. I administer this Perennial Panacea to myself, and allow the healing to happen. How deeply I wish others the same fate that’s befallen me. I would gladly administer the Perennial Panacea Philosophy bidden or unbidden. The patients most in need of this medicine are the least willing to take it.

Divine Silliness
One of my favorite rituals and spiritual exercises involves interacting with one or more of my housecats, petting and roughhousing and goofy-talking with them, to our shared delight. There’s nothing dignified about such displays, and my behavior would no doubt be condemned by many people who take themselves seriously. How incredibly pompous, arrogant, and judgmental human beings can be; the cats by contrast are pure spirits, mercifully free of such human self-imaging, virtues, and piety. Cats, and all animals except humans, are honest, ingenuous, spontaneous, authentic, i.e. truly virtuous. A cat can pay us undivided attention, and then suddenly, without apology, lick his crotch. I worship and adore animals, and strive to be as authentic and nonjudgmental. I won’t strive as humans are wont to strive, though: through the grace of the universe, the natural state is intrinsically perfect, requiring neither effort nor artifice, just surrendering to the pure silliness that is the eternal play of the self-less impersonal universe.

Prosaic Primordial Energy
My intent is to communicate clearly, using whatever form that results in effective communication. Rather than feel any necessity to please literary critics, I only feel the necessity to convey ideas and insights, to share the joy of self-realization. Having tasted, smelled, felt, heard, seen, and thought the best possible things, I know now nothing can compare with the joy of self-realization. Self-realization is the best thing the universe does for itself.

No-Critic Zone
As matters transpersonal bring an end to the bogus separate ‘person’ who fancies himself as being a separate Agency, or Doer, or Creator, writing as the self-less to the self-less can be heedless of style, and only concerned with substance. The substance is all about ending the delusional personal life and realizing just what is living this life, and simply being this self-less primordial energy. Of course this makes no sense to people who are still holding fast to the delusional notion of being a separate self. For those weary of human egocentricity, especially their own, the prospect of the transpersonal experience of self-realization is welcomed with the same enthusiasm that a drowning man has for reaching the surface air.

Spirit-Awareness Snowflakes
Pure awareness is spirit, and spirit is pure awareness. The presence of spirit is the presence of pure awareness, the presence of pure awareness is the presence of spirit.

The mind is conditioned, and holds sway over the form and creates its own world, its own experience, which is inherently transient. The conditioned mind is unique to that form, and is not shared by any other form, much like no two snowflakes are identical in form. Pure awareness is universal, present as every form, just as water is the essence of every unique snowflake.

Unbreakable Spirit
The conditioned mind can appear to ‘break the spirit’ causing the individual to be apparently ‘dispirited.’ Actually, the conditioned mind is ignorance, opacity, and the spirit is completely unaffected by such ignorance and opacity of conditioned mind. Spirit remains untouched, unbound, radiantly transparent. The ocean remains ocean, no matter what storms rage on its surface.

Getting Transpersonal
It’s the birthright of every being to come to realize just what it is that is living its life, especially when the being is sufficiently intelligent to know the transience of all forms including its own. To live and die not being curious about what exactly is living and dying is a common tragedy.

The Sky-like Nature of Mind
This beautiful mind, this primordial mind, this universal mind, self-shining awareness, all beings emanations of this vast, open, sky-like dharmakaya—I can never stop extolling its virtues, its beauty, its healing presence. How merciful is this self-less awareness, merciful through its no-selfness. Wide as all space, totally free, this is wonderful. The gift-waves from Padmasambhava have found their way to this incarnation, after 1200 years, just as starlight traveling eons have found my eyes on clear nights. No more time, no more separation, no more birth, no more death. The words keep flowing, the dream keeps unfolding, in the sky of universal mind. How good it is that we have access to a most wonderful version of a most wonderful text: http://www.fodian.net/World/zzgse.html

Sky-like mind
“Buddha sat in serene and humble dignity on the ground, with the sky above him and around him, as if to show us that in meditation you sit with open, sky-like attitude of mind, yet remain present, earthed, and grounded.
The sky is our absolute nature, which has no barriers and is boundless, and the ground is our reality, our relative, ordinary condition.
The posture we take when we meditate signifies that we are linking absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth, like two wings of a bird, integrating the sky-like deathless nature of mind and the ground of our transient, mortal nature.” --Sogyal Rinpoche

Self-Liberation
This timeless text of Padmasambhava was on top of the pile of books in my headboard. During a bout of early morning insomnia, I read as much of it as I could until I could let go and return to sleep, with cats snuggled against me, and a constant rain falling outside the bedroom window. One section stood out as particularly useful in this highly distracted, egocentric age:

“This self-originated Clear Light, which from the very beginning was in no way produced by something antecedent to it,
is the child of awareness, and yet it is itself without any parents--amazing!
This self-originated primordial awareness has not been created by anything--amazing!
It does not experience birth nor does there exist a cause for its death--amazing!
Although it is evidently visible, yet there is no one there who sees it--amazing!
Although it has wandered throughout Samsara, it has come to no harm--amazing!
Even though it has seen Buddhahood itself, it has not come to any benefit from this--amazing!
Even though it exists in everyone everywhere, yet it has gone unrecognized--amazing!
Nonetheless you hope to attain some other fruit than this elsewhere--amazing!
Even though it exists within yourself (and nowhere else), yet you seek for it elsewhere--amazing!”

The Utility of Nonattachment
Climate changes, caused by human activities, will alter conditions on Earth to some extent, either somewhat or radically, within this century. One respected climatologist even warns that 80% of the human population will disappear by century’s end, and that only a few places on Earth will be habitable. Reading this, I felt a great sadness. I feel attachment to the world as I know it, and as I have known it since childhood.

As an increasingly mature adult, I know that sadness is overcome by acceptance, and acceptance is acquired through nonattachment to any particular thing. I am overcoming the sadness of losing the world through the practice of nonattachment, and find myself empowered to be nonattached by the practice of self-realization of the One abiding within me as me.

Nonattachment is one of the fruits of the contemplative life; other fruits include transpersonal insight that transcends selfishness. The successful contemplative has overcome selfish desire, and is quite content to simply be, and even then to be nonattached to being, accepting the inevitability of personal extinction, as he has already seen with transpersonal insight that the personal life is a temporary delusional state anyway. The successful contemplative, spiritually free, and free from selfish desires, leaves the lightest of footprints upon the earth.

Nonattachment can both ameliorate climate change and enable us to accept whatever changes are unstoppable. If every human being would live the contemplative life we would not overconsume and overbreed our selfish selves into extinction; we would accept our planetary fate, whatever it may be, calmly and gracefully, accepting the inevitable consequences of our delusional mass misbehavior.

Mind and Awareness
I ask myself while walking to work, Have you sung today? I answer, I’m singing. I ask myself, have you prayed today? I answer, I’m praying. I ask myself, what are you singing? What are you praying? I answer, I pray that all beings know we are awareness, one awareness.

I reach the place where I first encountered the abiding presence of awareness as my true mind, my true self. Awareness remains unchanged, transparent, constant, pure. Mind is conditioned, filled with thoughts about the contents of awareness, and overlooks awareness. Once mind meets awareness, it ceases to dominate, and becomes the servant, not the master. Mind alone is troubled, awareness is untroubled. My master is my own true nature, which is universal. My true nature is pure being, pure awareness, the calmness pervading the universe. My soul is universal. This very awareness is universal. Wherever there is awareness, there I am.

The trials, tribulations and soap operas of humanity are witnessed by one calm universal awareness. Anyone who feels trapped in desperate circumstances needs only to ask, Who is trapped? Any self-aware being with sufficient sincerity and curiosity can embark on the journey of self-discovery, which leads to self-realization, the direct experience of the always-abiding universal Self that has assumed all form. I pray that all beings may become contemplatives and take up the contemplative life immediately, and remain in it, no matter what the circumstances. Self-realization is the only cure for our selfish dis-ease, and only contemplation allows us to see the universal Self abiding within us as us.

The Contemplative Life How-To
The contemplative life is ordinary life, taking care of business, doing what needs to be done, with nonattached relaxed alertness, a constant meditation-in-action. The contemplative life is responsive and responsible, spontaneous and mindful. The contemplative life is the surrendered life, the accepting life, unconditional and unconditioned life. The contemplative life is the spacious life, the all-pervading spacious Presence-Awareness. The contemplative life is letting go of delusion and simply being That which we eternally are.

No I, No You, No We, No They
How easily the One in a self-aware form takes itself to be that particular form called I, and takes itself in other forms to be You, We, and They. The One endures, as it were, being hijacked by a delusional spirit, the phantom ego of the conditioned mind of the form.

To Boldly Be
Rather than subject this body to the dangers and the expenses of space travel, we can instead travel inwardly, and find the universe lies fully within us as us. We are already at the far reaches of the universe because we are the universe. To experience this truth requires that we boldly be, not boldly go. We’re already there. We’re already it.

Following My Bliss
The fire in my belly is roaring now. In terms absolutely meaningful to me, there is complete resolution of all apparent disparities, problems, schisms, you-name-it. My happiness is uncaused and unbounded, unbounded because it is uncaused. This is the bliss of the simpleton. There being no self, the unconditioned simpleton lives in unconditional love and unconditional happiness in this very moment, no matter how conditions change.

Recovering from Perfectionism
One way I get relief from existential angst is to accept, and embrace, imperfection in every form. I believe many people in the developed world have been brainwashed by advertisers and mass media, particularly television, into believing their lives ought to be shiny and perfect and opulent, just like in the commercials and plotlines pumped into passive impressionable viewers.

In the real world things are worn and messy, and people are often annoying and disappointing. That’s okay by me. By the grace of the universe I’m free to be the way that feels right to me. My external life is worn and messy, and the people in my life, including me, are often annoying and disappointing. When I stop expecting that life be the way I want it to be and instead embrace it the way it is, I find a sweet, laid-back peace arising within me, I can go with the flow and let it be as it is.

Some people, brainwashed perfectionists, think embracing things as they are is proof of lowering one’s standards. So be it. Existentially, I’m happy again, carefree again, down-to-earth and laid-back again. It feels so good not to have any notion of perfect and imperfect. It’s all good. I’ll go one better than that and say it’s neither good nor bad: that’s better. It is what it is, it is how it is. Who am I to call the Tao imperfect?

The Cult and Culture of Consumerism
Watching television and reading magazines and newspapers, it’s easy to be seduced by the advertisements and believe the good life is a consumerist life. The implicit message is, “You’re not complete as you are: you need this product to be complete and to be accepted by your peers.” What’s normal is to look like your peers and have what they have.

The difference between genuine needs and contrived wants is easy to determine when not brainwashed. What we all need is fairly simple, straightforward, and usually affordable: water, food, clothing, shelter, medical care, sanitation, and a few personal items that contribute to health and well-being.

We don’t need the latest and the greatest, the biggest and the fanciest. The ego thinks its wants are needs. Our true nature needs very little, needing about as much as an animal. Just to be is enough. Just to love and be loved is enough.

Consumerist children are taught at an early age that toys are what we need, and toys will make us happy, and toys are how we give and receive love.

One
The “relaxation response” of Dr. Bensen included using the suggested mantra “One” to reach the point of complete relaxation and letting-go. “One” is one of the core mantras, right up there with “OM.” Furthermore, “One” is the most accurate, most succinct word to use when referring to the true self. “Self” can be misconstrued. The universe has no self, only essence, which is one essence. If the One was good enough for Plotinus, it’s good enough for me. One is One. There is only one One.

Ever-New
That the Self is the presence in every form, throughout the life of the form, effortlessly present, the witnessing awareness of the universe itself, is cause enough for unmitigated joy. To let this we are be this is the portal to paradise.

Walking Empty-Handed
It feels so good to be nonattached and in the natural state. There is no burden whatsoever, no effort, only a joyous perfect freedom.

Conservatories
We are able to be conservatories of the Perennial Philosophy, living embodiments and expressions of the self-realized Self. We can continue living and working in society while remaining in the natural state, as pure being, pure awareness, and pure bliss.

Be Happy
May all beings be happy, no matter what the circumstances. Lasting happiness is found when the Self finds itself, within.

Undulate
As beings of the universal energy, our natural state is the flowing state. In the flow state, there is dynamic equilibrium. There is nothing but unity. As the energy, there is nothing perceived and no-one perceiving. The waves rise and fall forever. Undulation is what we do. Time to dance and make love.

Bewareness!
The one-word exhortation “beware”--i.e., ‘be aware’--reinforces the commonly-believed fiction that we have awareness, rather than reflecting the truth that we are awareness. Therefore I humbly submit the neologism ‘bewareness’ to help us be aware of being awareness. Bewareness exhorts us to remember that we are awareness lest we identify with the contents of awareness.

Have Life?
“I have life” is another common expression that promulgates an egregious misunderstanding of what we really are, i.e., life itself. Life doesn’t have life. Maybe it’s an ego thing: to the ego, it has life. The ego is sustained by life. Maybe the phrase should be “I have ego.” Life assumes all forms, from bacterium to biosphere. Life just lives, and lives as the life of every form.

As this human form sinks slowly in the west, I’m profoundly grateful that I’ve been blessed with just enough curiosity about just who or what is living this life, this so-called me, given a name and a role and an identity. I’m also thankful for being just intelligent enough to understand that it’s life living this life, that “I” am being lived by life itself. The “I” is really life, the life of the universe, the eye of the universe.

One with life, there is no separate I, there is no birth, there is no death. There is only life, the life of the universe, the One, the Self. Whatever befalls the form, including the apparent death of the form, does not diminish the One who assumes all forms. The most important thing is to be the one life and to see the one life in this and every form.

Trust and Acceptance
Long ago I had a recurring fantasy of endless wandering. I would wander through the world, and stay at houses filled with friendly people. There was absolute trust amongst us all, total mutual acceptance. A place where there is total trust and total acceptance is the perfect destination, the perfect home.

I think upon the Dysfunction Junctions of this world, some very close to home, households where there is a dearth of trust and acceptance among its occupants, and how I dread entering such places. I leave, and keep wandering.

Going to Hell and Getting to Heaven
I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and watched my personal life flash before my eyes, over and over, painful memories, mistakes and misdeeds aplenty, rue and regret flying thick and fast, passing harsh judgment on my selfishness. Getting back to sleep was impossible, so after a couple hours I rose, had breakfast, read the newspaper, and did aerobic exercise routines to rock and roll music. As my head cleared, it became clear to me that I should forgive myself for my ignorance and move on. Hell is a place of judgment all right. When I stopped judging myself and forgave myself I left hell. I reached down and caressed the cats and entered heaven. Once again, I remind myself that love conquers all. Being judgmental is hell, hell is judgmental. Heaven is love, love is heaven.

Before our eyes close for the last time, let there be love.

Criminal Past
It’s clear that in my more ignorant and willful days much of what I thought, said, and did was relatively depraved. I may not necessarily have broken the laws of the land, but when I recall how criminally selfish my behavior had been I feel pangs of guilt as if I had been caught red-handed breaking the law. My punishment has been self-administered: decades of identifying with, and being at the mercy of, my own fevered thoughts, suffering from severe self-delusion.

As the illusion of time ceases to exist in the eternal Now, I feel like an ex-con who has Seen The Light, and I can better empathize with those who are now as I once was.

What astonishing grace the universe bestows upon itself, to exist and be self-aware, aware of our existence, aware of our awareness, aware that we are the existence and awareness of the universe; to be so distracted by selfishness that we can’t appreciate this ever-present grace is the worst punishment possible. In the eternal Now an amazing continuum of mental states exists simultaneously, and the One experiences them all. How the mental states change, a dynamic process indeed.

The Supreme Magic Power
Hindu adepts caution each other about not being seduced by the magic powers, or “siddhis”, that may be acquired in the course of yogic disciplines. Such powers in the service of the ego become counterproductive. The whole point of yoga—union with the Self—is postponed while the ego finds new ways of aggrandizing itself.

A magic power worth considering is the realization of the Self, the only Self there is. To be the Self is rather powerful. When the Self realizes the Self, all the power of the universe is unleashed.

Attention!
We have but one attention span. Where we direct our attention, or where we let it be directed, becomes our experience, our world. It commonly is directed outward, and remains in a more-or-less distracted condition throughout life. When attention is directed toward itself a wonderful insight happens. The source of attention is finally revealed, and it turns out to be a completely natural source, not of our own doing, not of our own devising, not of our own effort.

When we understand we are the Source of attention, i.e., nature itself, we are no longer the victims of distractions, thoughts, fears, or desires. We have risen beyond animal, beyond human, and have returned to the Source and found it to be our true Self.

Legacy
Other than for the joy of unbounded creative expression for its own sake, writing is a form of legacy. This human form is functional and self-aware for a time, but inevitably this form will de-form and un-form; while still able to write, write. Words that are Self-expressions are timeless, and serve as reminders that the indwelling Self alone is immortal. As a youth the words of ancient rishis recorded in the Upanishads reached me at a receptive stage thousands of years later, and reminded the indwelling Self to recognize and realize itself.

Words are not the only way the Self reminds Self of Self; they may not even be the most effective reminders. When Self expresses Self to Self, through every gesture, glance, touch, action, this life in form serves as a medium through which the Self comes to recognize Self, know Self, understand Self, love Self. The Self is communicating with itself through form, and eventually learns it is present in all forms.

When a form realizes it is the Self that lives within the form, it’s only natural to want to express, to convey this wonderful truth in every possible way, Self to Self. The Self leaves a timeless legacy for the Self, through its interactions in form.

The Self as the Perennial Philosopher
There is only one way to become a Perennial Philosopher, and that is to be perennial, i.e., eternal, i.e., the Self. Being the Self and expressing the Self is the only way to practice the philosophia perennis.

Creative Self-Expression
Self-expression feels so good when it comes from the Self.

Gifted
Every sentient being is gifted: gifted with life and, when sufficiently self-aware, gifted with the ability to understand that we are life itself, the One, the Self. Of all gifts and talents we could hope to have, the ability to understand that we are the Self, and the ability to humbly, completely, and unconditionally surrender to the Self, letting the Self express itself fully in this human form, are the greatest.

Seeing the Unconditioned with the Conditioned
How great a moment to at last recognize the presence of pure unconditioned awareness after decades of identifying with a conditioned mind and its tangled restless chain of thoughts. The unconditioned Self embraces all, for it is all, conditioned and unconditioned, form and formless. Identifying with the unconditioned Self, and not the conditioned self, is our birthright. Our conditioned family and conditioned culture makes claiming our birthright a bit difficult, but not impossible, although there are many people who live and die in spiritual ignorance, never having tasted the perfect freedom of being as the Self-realized Self in human form.

The Divine Witness
We can be as much of the Divine Witness as we are capable of being, in direct proportion to our level of spiritual development. We can be fixed on our personal agenda, driven by our limited self-concept, or be fully surrendered to the Divine Witness, and let it resume its control of our senses, our mind, and our actions, none of which in fact is ‘ours’, but the Divine Witness’.

Nonattachment, Acceptance, Love
We must give up everything, including everything we think we are, and we must be willing to die to self, to become completely extinguished as a separate person, in order to resume the fullness of being as the Divine Witness, the Self, the One, the universal essence, the universal presence-awareness. This does not necessarily mean we have to quit our job, leave our spouse, let our house go into foreclosure, and spend our days homeless and impoverished. What it does mean is that we accept the circumstances in which we happen to be and be resolutely nonattached to everything and everyone. Such nonattachment doesn’t mean a lack of compassion for sentient beings or a lack of respect for things. Nonattachment means acceptance of the inevitability of change, of apparent loss, of everyone and everything in our experience, and embracing That which undergoes all change and remains changeless. Such acceptance is the unconditional love of the One for itself, expressed through and between its temporary forms.

Drowning in self-deception
Whether truth is painful or blissful depends on what we believe ourselves to be. I oftentimes feel like I’m drowning in self-deception, and have to apply every bit of my remaining energy to find my way to life-giving truth. No-one can save me but me. When I find my way to truth, the self disappears and all that remains is the Self.

To know that we have been deceiving ourselves bodes supremely well. When self-deception is recognized, the True Self is also recognized. Now abiding in the eternally present Self, another life has been saved from drowning in the turbid water of self-deception.

It takes lifelong mindfulness and heroic interior effort to notice when we are again falling into self-deception. The witnessing Self lets us fall in, and lets us find our way back to the Self, over and over. With practice, all this near-drowning is taken ever more lightly, as it’s the untroubled universal Self that’s taking it all in.

100% Commitment
Nothing less than 100% commitment, 100% sincerity, will suffice when it comes to Self-realization. There is no room for ego aggrandizement or half-heartedness in this process.

Just For Fun
What serious purpose does the universe have, if any, I’ve often wondered. It does what it does, is what it is, spontaneously, effortlessly, without any ulterior motive or purpose. Without a purpose, what’s left to do, other than just for the fun of it? The thought of doing the things I like to do, for fun, stokes the fire in my belly. The universe just likes to have fun.

My Mind is My Worst Enemy and My Best Friend
The place where “I” live is my mind, that world unto itself. I’m blessed with relatively easy circumstances at the moment, and although I have little physical suffering I periodically have mild to moderate to severe psychological suffering. I have inherited the family curse of judgmental thinking, of bitter cynicism, of pessimism, and know too well the flaws of human nature, especially those found in other humans. All too often, especially when spending lots of time with lots of people, I fall into a funk, a despair over the human condition and the course of human destiny, and brood myself into a deep depression.

In lucid moments I take responsibility for my mental home and remember that I can, now and any now, if I so wish, surrender to the underlying pure awareness that is the essence of mind. In an instant I can transform from miserable misanthrope to blissful beingness, and this is within my power to do so; it is my right to do so; it is within everyone’s power, and is everyone’s right, to do so.

In My Right Mind
The pure awareness that is of life itself, arising effortlessly in all sentient beings, is the universal mind, the ‘right’ mind. It’s clear, transparent, and untroubled. Even though the oceanic universal mind appears to have ripples and waves and storms again and again, the universal mind--pure awareness--remains unchanged through it all.

We need look no further for the universal mind. It’s always here, our right mind. Watch the ripples and waves and storms rise and fall, and enjoy being the ocean of universal mind, pure awareness.

The Best of All Goods and Services
Thinking upon the suffering of human beings, I consider what among all goods and services available to us truly and lastingly delivers us from suffering. There is only one good that extinguishes suffering, and that is our true nature. The greatest service we can provide to ourselves and each other is to be true to our true nature, so that we may be open to it, and live, move, and have our being in it, as it. Our true nature is pure awareness, pure being, untroubled and unbound. Our true nature is inseparable from us, for it is what we really are. Our true nature alone fulfills. Nothing is needed. Bliss is found in pure awareness and pure being, which is the pure awareness and pure being of the universe itself. Knowing this, being this, is the end of the sufferer and thus the end of suffering.

It Takes Meaninglessness to find Meaningfulness
The conditioned-thinking dream taken so seriously becomes meaningless sooner or later, and despair develops. This is as it should be. Through despair and meaninglessness comes the impetus to find that which is real, meaningful in the ultimate sense.

It Takes Emptiness to find Fullness
Without emptying oneself completely and walking empty-handed, the fullness of pure being cannot be found. Being filled with thoughts and preconceptions, the beauty of the natural state is lost on us.

The Indifference of the Universe
It’s a relief to know there is no person, no other, only the impersonal, indifferent universe. The soul of the universe can be felt after being away from thought-bound people for a while, particularly when in perfect solitude and seclusion, in the wilderness perhaps.

The Love of the Universe
While the universe is completely indifferent, and totally spontaneous, it does respond to, and recognize, itself. The recognition of oneself in the apparent ‘other’ is the essence of love. Even a wild animal can learn to trust a human being when given food and treated with respect; the human honors the universe in its wild manifestation, and the universe in its wild manifestation honors the human who feeds it and recognizes it and treats it with respect.

Intent is Everything
Pure in heart pure intent is the ultimate blessing. In the present, with pure intent, we may come to know we are That which is timeless, all-pervading.

It’s Life’s Life
What a humbling, exalting relief it is to know firsthand just what it is that’s living this life. Before this body formed, and after it un-forms, the Original Face shines on and on. What lives, what dies, is none other than the Original Face, life itself. Life doesn’t die, even though death is a necessary part of life. Identifying with life is the secret of existential, philosophical, spiritual success. What curious self-aware animal aware of mortality could resist looking deeply and looking honestly within, to get to the bottom of this.

Misanthropy and Deep Ecology
It’s all too easy for adherents of deep ecology to become misanthropic, or for misanthropes to gravitate toward deep ecology. Our species is the only species on this planet with a self-concept, with a mistaken identity. In the realm of thought we are the supreme animals, and also supremely delusional. We are proud of being the thinking animal, and we identify with our thoughts. This identification with thoughts, including the sustained thought of the delusional self-concept, has blinded our species sufficiently well so that we can cause the natural environment to go to hell and be okay with that. Our ego must be fed, and bread, water, beans, and veggies won’t suffice. Our ego must be stimulated, sustained, stroked and entertained, and even then it’s never satisfied. The current rage is electronic gadgetry, which has led to ever-increasing demand for electrical power and for the resources to mass-produce cell phones, iPods, flat-screen televisions, laptop computers, video games, etc. The demand for personal transportation rages on as well, and the car continues to be one of the ego’s many basic necessities.

Human folly and human egocentricity is, in the big picture, inevitable, pathetic, and ultimately comical. Our species is the most bizarre among animals. We can learn to accept ourselves, and practice forgiveness, over and over and over. It’s all a dream, tawdry and materialistic as it may be for many of us. The dream, and the dreamers, are for us to accept, and to love, as is, in the eternal present of dream-time.

Spiritual Deconstructing to Authenticity
The honest deconstructionist will eventually find the baseline of authenticity found in the natural state of pure awareness, and marvel at its paradoxical mystery and ubiquity. Everyone has—is—pure awareness, but few are aware of awareness, and fewer still are aware of being awareness. The universe disguises itself well, and pretends well to be other than what it is. It’s only when a thinking animal is sufficiently self-aware and sufficiently curious about the mystery of being and awareness that spiritual deconstruction can commence, finding out what it is not until that glorious moment when the natural state of radiantly pure awareness is recognized, identified with, and surrendered to, by that fortunate animal.

Natural WiFi
Before there was Internet, computers, and wireless high speed connectivity, there was, and is, the natural energy field connecting all things and all beings. This universal radiance can be seen by those whose eyes are not too heavily conditioned to see only surface appearances. It takes the form of a shimmering energy field around all things and all beings, filling all space. Connecting with this natural WiFi yields information more vital than that gleaned by humans riveted to flickering computer screens.

Living The Dream
We’re all living The Dream, the One Big Dream of the universe. This is an astonishing everyday experience, but so often taken for granted, ignored, and devalued.

I had a dream within The Dream this morning, where just prior to waking up a scroll or manuscript unfurled before me, displayed by a wise, kind, elderly being, with just a few simple words written in large printed letters. I can’t remember the exact words, but the gist of it was about being true to the One, to let our being express the One, and the Oneness.

On the way to work, I sang some homegrown kirtan: May all beings know we are One Life, One Spirit.

Beyond Beliefs
I glanced at the lush plants around me, and forgot about religion, politics, philosophy, and rational thinking in general, and directly perceived what’s real, and what’s really important, and that is life itself, the life force. There is nothing at all conceptual, nothing abstract, nothing to believe. There is only the radiant, interconnected, interpenetrating life force, with its innate wisdom, perfection, purity, and intelligence. It remains for us wayward, restless, dangerous monkeys to stop, step back, and acknowledge the life which is our life, all life. Every plant, animal, insect, fungus, bacterium, worm is alive and radiant with the life of all life. No matter what shape life takes, life is life, life force is life force, the life of all life. Adoring, worshiping, recognizing, identifying with life is beyond belief, ideology, and conceptualization.

Limited Access is also Limited Egress
While driving home from a family reunion on the other side of the state I wound up on a crowded multi-lane limited-access interstate expressway, with several lanes of high-speed traffic to the right and to the left of me. I proceeded to have a full-blown panic attack. Trapped in traffic, we sped onto a high-level bridge, where I proceeded to die a thousand unpleasant deaths. Somehow my heart did not give out and I survived, and as the road became four-lane, then two-lane I became progressively less terrified, until at last we pulled into the driveway, where I mentally kissed the ground.

I think the reason multi-lane superhighways and high bridges trigger these panic attacks is because there is the feeling of no escape, of being trapped, out of control. I have a fundamental need to be outside the herd, especially if the herd appears to be going over a cliff. To believe that those around me are clear-headed, in full control of their vehicles so that their muscles and nerves and bones keep the tons of steel, rubber, plastic, glass, fuel etc. between the painted lane lines at 65 miles per hour, is asking too much of me.

I will be taking the scenic route from now on. It will take longer, and the wear and tear on the vehicle might be somewhat increased, and the fuel economy might be somewhat decreased, but at least I will have the option of turning right or left, stopping, and otherwise being back in control of the journey.

Protecting The Assets
The days of heedless risky behavior are far behind me. I now feel like a priceless living jewel, a jewel among countless living jewels. It’s no great sacrifice to live on plants only, and to cherish and protect the lives of all sentient beings as much as possible. I am truly sorry for all the insects and worms upon which I have stepped.

I would spend the rest of the days remaining to this living jewel sitting quietly and securely in a room, as a priceless living jewel. I would not subject myself to the hazards of travel, and I would be very content to walk to those few places I must go to survive, and forgo planes, trains, automobiles and anything fast-moving and risky.

I accept the number of days allotted to this form, and I do not wish to go to any great lengths to delay its disintegration, nor do I wish to hasten it.

In the days remaining, it is my sole wish to be true to That, and to share That with whomever is able to recognize That. Animals, not coping with much self-awareness, have no trouble being content and trusting. It is to the extremely self-aware human animal that I might be of greatest service, helping such beings make the great leap from self-awareness to Self-awareness, i.e., That-awareness.

I would prefer to save all sentient beings by remaining in the comfort and safety of terra firma, and I would prefer all sentient beings remain comfortable and safe on it as well.

Astronauts and Psychonauts
Becoming an astronaut is difficult, highly selective and highly competitive. The astronaut has a one in sixty-two chance of bodily perishing in flight. Spaceflight is the most ex-orbitantly expensive endeavor, requiring an infrastructure as elaborate as humanly possible.

Becoming a psychonaut is also difficult, requiring nothing less than the voluntary extinction of conditioned identity; it’s highly selective, as not many human beings are willing to let their conditioned identity fall away; and it is the antithesis of competition, as it involves experiencing perfect cosmic unity, one without a second. The psychonaut has an excellent chance of sustaining ego death during a psychointegrator-assisted journey. Psychonautical journeys involve minimal expense, requiring only an honest humble receptive mindset and natural setting and, if desired, freely-flourishing no-cost psychointegrator plants and fungi.

I Am That
The most important thing for self-aware human beings is to correctly identify themselves, not as a particular body, or name, or role, or form, but as That which is limitless, timeless, That which we really are. It is absolutely crucial to come from the Source, from That, in this moment, in everyday life. To give up, abandon, surrender the false self—to let the false identity die a natural death—is required in order to become humble and receptive enough to let the Real Identity manifest as our own.

Being That is wonderful. All fear and craving fall away. How can That be afraid of change when it knows it is That which is change itself? How can That crave Itself once it knows it is That?

The Insight
There are insights, and there is The Insight, the insight I wish upon myself and upon all beings. Any highly self-aware being has what it takes to gain The Insight. Rather than taking the I AM for granted and heedlessly pursuing desires and pleasantries and running away from fears and unpleasantries, any being can look within—“in sight”—and contemplate just who or what is feeling I AM, and arriving at The Insight, which is essentially intuiting That which lives in us as us, the One, the Only, the Eternal, whose presence and awareness happens to be that very same presence and awareness we so often ignore, take for granted, overlook, misunderstand, misperceive and misinterpret, this very same everyday spontaneous presence and awareness. Only The Insight enables the very self-aware human being to endure the human condition and incessant change, including the change called ‘mortality.’ The Insight is the crucial flip-flop from the flop of a belief in separated self to flipping on to full surrender to, and identification with, the universal energy.

The Covenant With All Beings
Lying in bed in the wee hours of the morning, unable to fall back to sleep, all my loving cats clustered purring around my head, neck, and shoulders, I could only brood about the state of the world and how I might respond to this world. My ruminations brought me to a familiar place, usually with the help of an entheogen, and that place is a feeling of renewal of a covenant with all beings, a return of enthusiasm about engaging with any and every being with eyes and skin, to make eye contact, or skin contact, as the case may be: heart-to-heart, spirit-to-spirit, eye-to-eye, flesh-to-flesh, life-to-life. Life in these forms is brief and often painful, but we have each other. We can recognize, and commune, and support, each other, even in the brief exchange of glances. All life is one, and we are the eyes of life, the eyes of the One.

How wonderful to catch the eye of the robin and the squirrel and the man and the woman and the cat and the dog and the deer and the rabbit. Even plants radiate and communicate with their pure presence.

We are the life that goes on. The covenant is eternal.

We Are Awareness
I never tire of realizing the source, the core, the real, as pure awareness. There are sensations appearing and disappearing, transforming, rising, falling, and the essence of what I am turns out to be pure awareness itself. It passes no judgments, it doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t crave or cling or flee or fear, it is cool constant calm awareness, underlying all forms, including thought forms and emotional states.

Humoring Humans
The hallmark of the typical human is egocentricity and a chronic limited delusional judgmental perspective. This warped perspective has wreaked all kinds of havoc in the noosphere and biosphere. We must tread so carefully and so lightly around most heavily-conditioned humans lest we offend them or be misunderstood. Every morning when I scrape hair off the places on my face hair is not supposed to grow I am reminded of how important appearances are to the typical delusional human. I continue this absurd ritual to humor my fellow humans in this absurd culture. I continue to play along with whatever delusional mindset manifests in the human I happen to be with, here, there, anywhere. In the absence of any delusional human presence, I feel so much better, and resume hanging out with all that is what it is, not what it thinks it is. Humans place such value on thinking, and become proud, agitated slaves of thought rather than being peaceful humble conduits of the Logos. We could be such a fun species, hairy, funky, free-spirited, loving, satisfied with very little, knowing when enough is enough. Instead, we are driven by thoughts, trapped by delusional thinking, and our opinions. We never can get enough, we can never have enough.

The Mind of Life
On this lovely spring day, warm, sunny, verdant, it’s easier to perceive the livingness of all living things. This very awareness—mind—consciousness is life’s own awareness—mind—consciousness. Life is aware of life; awareness is aware of awareness. The mind of life is pure, radiant, the source itself. The mind of life is fully aware and completely free and unbound, not attached or fixated or drawn to any particular thing.

Universal Mind, Sane Mind
To know that this very awareness, sheer awareness, simple awareness, is the universe’s very own awareness, is a wonderful knowledge. I can trust this awareness, which is the universal awareness, the universal mind. It is my true mind, the mind of that which I eternally am. Resting in the universal mind, abiding effortlessly in the universal mind, there is at last sanity, at last peace.

We should all be strolling about in the bliss of Samadhi, if only it were understood that our very natural, common, universal awareness is the source of all bliss, the reason for Samadhi. It only requires surrendering everything we believe ourselves to be, of surrendering all attachments to all things, and simply being this Effulgent One that we happen to be, in this very form.

Going With the Universal Dream
The dreamlike quality of self-aware existence is strong, and unshakable. Rather than keep trying to snap out of the dreaminess, I no longer fight it, I just go with it. The mind seeks its own place, its own rest, its own unfolding, its own dream. Letting go, I am free, suspended in universal mind, universal energy, universal dream.

The Great Unburdening
Without changing a thing, the truly nonattached approach to life results in a delightful lightness. There is nothing holding us down. We feel like we’re flying, weightless, free. Anyone can be unburdened right now by allowing ourselves to be nonattached. The great What-Is, this amazing beingness, this radiant pure awareness, is what we really are.

Hobbled
Injuring some muscles and tendons and able to walk only with pain and difficulty, I had to cease identifying myself as a ‘walker’ and accept the reality of being hobbled for the time being. Physical pain is easier to bear than psychological pain. This body can be in perfect shape and pain-free, but if I’m bound by self-limited identity and confused thoughts I’m truly hobbled.

Philosophers and Philosophies
Everyone’s entitled to be a philosopher. In a perfect world everyone would be a philosopher. Actually, most self-aware people already lives by their own peculiar philosophies, and as such could be considered philosophers. The problem is, some of the philosophies people commonly live by are miserable and cause misery, not only making the philosopher miserable but also others in his sphere of influence. A practical philosophy is based on science and insight, and relieves miserable ego-bound ignorance.

Good and Bad
As a philosophy-toting human being I can’t help but reflect on what exactly “good” is. To me, anything that’s “good” tends to unite, tends to reveal the unity of all things. Conversely, anything that’s “bad” tends to separate, isolate, alienate and, rather than reveal the unity of all things, obscures the unity, and replaces it with a sense of separation of parts from each other, and of parts from the whole. Where holding on to concepts of good and bad falls apart happens when reflecting more deeply on the evident fact that the universe goes through a stage where its parts believe themselves to be separate from each other and from the whole. Whatever appears bad is actually perfectly natural, and inevitable. Maybe good is that which is natural, in which case it’s all good in the big picture.

Home
Home is a state of mind, characterized by feelings of security, comfort, relaxation, belonging. As a child I had both a brick-and-mortar home and a state of mind home. Since then the physical home has come and gone and changed many times, and the state of mind home likewise has come and gone and changed. In periods of state-of-mind homelessness my longing for home was so strong I would fantasize about coming home, to a glorious home.

Only now do I understand that the glorious home is always within, a home built neither of brick and mortar nor a state of mind but of spirit and insight. This is the glorious home for all beings.

Life/Death/Being/Nonbeing
It’s not just sleep deprivation that makes me feel nonexistent. In the moment I’m flickering between being and nonbeing, from among the living to among the dead. This is as it should be. As a complete microcosm of the macrocosm—a drop of the infinite ocean—I’m always living, always dying, always the emptiness, always the fullness.

Entheogenesis and Deep Ecology
One of the consequences of entheogenesis is oneness with nature, with all species of plants and animals, with stars and rocks and streams, with sun and moon and sky.

Earth Day is for Deepest Deep Ecology
Every day is Earth Day, for we are the Earth, embodied, endowed with sight and movement and self-awareness. We are the eyes of the Earth, the hands and the feet and the voice of the Earth. Rather than pay lip service to the Earth, we need to surrender to the Earth and know that we are the Earth. The human species is in imminent danger, and putting many other species in danger, by its wasteful, toxic impact on the ecosystem. There really isn’t very much time left to make fundamental changes in how we live so that humanity might have a future. In order to change how we live, we must make a fundamental change in how we see the Earth: we really must know that we are the Earth, and what we do to it we truly do to ourself. Such a radical perspective shift is facilitated by the Earth’s bounty of entheogens, which help us commune with our true nature, coextensive with the Earth and the universe.

Getting Acquainted with My Survivors, All One of Them
It’s a fascinating experiment to look at the surroundings as if for the last time, which indeed it could be for all I know, and one day it will be, whether I know it is or not. Trees, birds, animals, people, sunshine, earth, sky: life does go on, and our corporeal passing is taken in stride, remembered as vividly as a breath taken yesterday. All this goes on, all this survives, all this is the process that I used to think was my own personal life. The process goes on, pure awareness embodied, always simultaneously fresh and ripe and decaying. Organic life, messy, surviving in its many ways, is taking advantage of and being taken advantage of, a glorious, self-sustaining, ongoing life. I am this ongoing life, this process, and I have no life of my own. There is one smooth seamless organic Being that goes on and on.

I Will Not Miss Her
A very sweet, generous, loving, delightful lady recently died at the age of 92. At the funeral home, speaking with one of her grandsons and sharing fond memories of her, I caught myself saying “I’ll miss her.” I instantly wished I hadn’t said that. Of course her old body was lying in the coffin. The part of her that I said I’d miss was not in the coffin, but fully incorporated in every soul who was lucky enough to encounter her. The quality of her soul was infectious, the positive impression she left was indelible. She was the embodiment of a lot of good will, and the good will she passed along to others is still around, as alive as life itself.

Whenever I lie awake in bed with insomnia and restless thoughts, whenever I feel an oppressive sense of dreary dread based on my cold intellectual grasp of things, I invoke the sweet spirit of life, beyond words, beyond thoughts, and let the love and the light and the warmth and the goodness flow from the source within, and find peace by becoming peace.

I will not miss her. How could I bear to miss her? She is life.

The Suicide Season
Spring is the season when most suicides occur, when certain monkeys which identify themselves as an ego and its agitated thoughts get a surge of energy to act upon the urge to end egoic suffering through ending the body.

What’s called for is egocide, not suicide. The body is innocent, and untroubled. The pure witnessing awareness is innocent, and untroubled. It’s only the tangled mass of thoughts that wishes to end its misery. The solution is to identify with nature, to identify with the natural awareness-mind, not with the agitated conditioned thought-mind. When we identify with our true, natural self—at one with all nature—we gladly go with the flow, surrendered to nature, enjoying sheer existence and sheer awareness for what it is, and what it signifies: we are nature, we are life itself, we are the universe. Whatever the ebb or surge of energy, we are one with it, and we go with it. Life just goes on, its forms rising from itself and falling into itself.

Spring is entheogenic, which can be a good thing for those not clinging to ego as identity; for those who do cling to ego as identity, any entheogen, including spring, can cause great distress. Spring, like other entheogens, amplifies energy, makes manifest our inmost thoughts, and reminds us what we really are: boundless nature itself. Unless we are ready and willing to surrender to the truth of our ultimate identity, entheogens can only show us how miserably ego-bound we’ve become.

Faces of Nature
I could gaze upon the face of a cat or a squirrel or a bird or a fish forever. Those faces are perfectly, delightfully, completely authentic. I aspire to have a face and a demeanor as authentic as any animal, and live completely in the present as the divine animal we are.

Switching Dimensions through Switching Perspective
Engaged in a routine activity such as walking down the same stairs I’ve walked down innumerable times, I could remain in a stale, banal mindset…or I could simply engage in some quick self-enquiry and marvel at what a wondrous thing it is to be this Being, this Presence, this Awareness, walking down the stairs. In an instant a commonplace activity becomes exquisitely meaningful. Meaningfulness is truly a dimension all its own. The perspective afforded by understanding, insight, meaning, makes everyday life magical. It doesn’t require esoteric knowledge or blind faith in string theory with its 11 dimensions to make existence profoundly meaningful and filled with wonder, only the uncovering of the dimensions of understanding, insight, Self-recognition, Self-realization.

Viriditas
In the spring the radiant energy presence of life manifests strongly in fresh forms of plants and animals. This flowering presence is sometimes called viriditas, a word used often by Hildegard von Bingen: the greening force of the Holy Spirit. This is the lushness of life, the goodness of life, the power of life. How beautiful is viriditas, the force of life, present as the life of every life, expressing as all plants and animals and all forms and all energy, pervading the universe.

The Space Between Thoughts
It’s common to identify with thoughts and opinions and emotions and sensations rather than that which constantly silently abides as the universal witness. Between thoughts our true self and our true mind shines, in radiant untroubled silence.

Song of the Soul
In going through the morning walk checklist I put ‘sang today’ first and ‘prayed today’ next. To check these off, I started singing and praying simultaneously, to the effect that I pray to the soul that I might let the soul express unimpeded the qualities of the soul. This is capital-S Soul, the Universal Soul. The Soul, that is the life of every life, the awareness of every awareness, is One. We all are the same Soul. The Universal Soul is peace, all-inclusiveness, home. All beings are to know that ‘their soul’ is THE Soul.

The Medium and the Message
A long time ago in the midst of impressionable adolescence I attended a public séance at a spiritualist church where a nice elderly lady medium went from person to person in the congregation, giving her spirit readings, eyes closed. When she came to me she correctly described my forte with the fingers, taking to the typewriter and piano. She also gave me an emphatic message: “Do your own thinking.” In retrospect that was some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten, right up there with my father’s frequent admonition to “Be yourself!” This is liberating advice.

Where is the ultimate authority to be found, other than true nature.

There need not be politics, personalities, ego, hierarchy, roles, pretense, blind faith, belief systems, or games. It’s all true nature, the presence in the present, the life of life. It’s for everyone to find on our own, on and in our own terms, finding the spirit and the ground of being to be our true nature, the medium and the message and the body of truth. Think it through, try and err, and find the luminous numinous looking back at you through every sentient eye, including those in the mirror.

Voluntarily Disappearing
It is possible to surrender the ego, the false self, and to return to that which exists before birth and after death--that which exists in the eternal Now as pure energy. Seeing clearly there is no self, the surrender to and immersion in and assimilation by the universal energy happens as spontaneously as biological birth and biological death.

How Much Nerve It Takes
Anyone can dare to identify one’s self as the universe, because everyone already is the universe. We are as much the universe to the extent we have enough nerve to acknowledge the truth of our true identity, i.e., the universe. Lacking nerve, we identify ourselves as something else, something limited, something false.

So here we are, drawn into these form by the desires of our parents, forms that are certainly doomed to un-form. Why not, then, find out what we really are, the force that has assumed this form, the force that is the pure natural awareness containing all thoughts and phenomena.

We will never meet the expectations of ‘others’ when the ‘others’ perceive themselves as separate selves. There is no self, no role, no identity, no self-concept, only the universal mind, the universal energy. What we are to be already is.

Understanding=Meaning=Identity
In the silence of noesis, understanding ripens to the point where ultimate meaning is revealed. Ultimate meaning includes ultimate identity, recognition of the One which abides in all form, as all form. Every form is meaningful, an aspect of the One. To know the One, our true, ultimate, universal identity, is perfect, complete, silent transcendence through submersion and immersion in That which we are, the One.

Everyday life, every relationship, is so excruciating meaningful. This very existence, this very awareness, is all this time the magnificent universal presence awareness spirit, until now unrecognized.

Tao
The Tao is a name for the flowing of the water of life, the flowing of universal energy. Things unfold as they must, water flows as it must.

The Peaceful Coolness of the Heart
There is a calm coolness that feels like clear cool pure spring water gushing from the heart. Just to feel this way is enough. The heart at peace is enough. It doesn’t take much for the heart to be at peace. Once the heart is at peace, troubles are over. The heart is satisfied being the heart, and its satisfaction is felt as the coolness, the peace. Let the heart be the heart, and feel the peaceful coolness emerge.

Love as an Antidepressant
To love and to be loved helps dispel depression. In the pit of despair, in the throes of existential nausea, the lifeline is love. Self-actualized love is the best love, as it is unconditioned and unconditional, originating from the source. The state of radiating and expressing love from the source to the source in all beings is blessedness.

Who Lives, Who Dies
What a predicament, to be a member of a species that is capable of grasping the concept of individual mortality. We can live in the present easily enough when the present is sweet, but otherwise we live in memory and imagination, not mindful of the present, and forgetting about mortality, thus setting the stage for regularly making molehills into mountains. What makes our situation even more uncomfortable is that we tend to forget, or remain incurious about, what we really are. One would think there would be more interest in just what is living this life. Instead, we go with the identity given to us by our family, friends, and the surrounding culture. Probing any deeper behind cultural conditioning to our ultimate unconditioned reality is all too rare an endeavor. When inevitable change and transition and apparent personal extinction come along, we commonly regard it as sad, tragic, and we mourn the apparent loss.

The body changes form, all that was the body goes on in other forms. The mental conditioning that creates the illusion of a person goes in the minds of the survivors, even though it has ceased in the ‘deceased.’ The person never existed anyway, nothing more than an evanescent belief, a concatenation of wishful willful delusional thinking.

If only people could look at themselves and each other and see that we are the universe, pure awareness, universal energy, the life of life, we could no more grieve at an individual’s apparent passing than we could grieve over a burned-out light bulb. The electricity that was the light of the bulb is undiminished, and continues to flow everywhere.

The End of History, Herstory, Mystory
We moderns are so conditioned by the entertainment industry by TV shows and movies and novels. The focus is largely on the individual, the personality, glamorizing the distinctive selves, writing scripts that reflect, and amplify, and distort, the machinations of egocentricity. Soap opera. Saga. Story. We become actors in our own script, and our own script is derived from other scripts. Tragedy, melodrama, the struggle…what stories.

The personal life is unreal. Our personal story is as substantial as a dream. Once we resume living in the moment, the only protagonist is the life force, the Universal Spirit, and it is the essence of anticlimax. There is no dramatic tension whatsoever in this calm, radiant presence awareness essence stuff we are. No heartbreaks, no disappointments, no troubles, it just is, on and on and on, taking it all in.

It comforts me to know that all the egomaniacs, dolts, fools, callow youth, etc. can’t help going through their motions, passing through their stages, hurting and getting hurt, making all kinds of really stupid mistakes, one after another. While there is the experience of suffering everyone is, at the core, calm radiant presence awareness essence stuff, taking it all in, letting it all happen, letting it all be, being it all.

Optimal Words
I think of the effect these words have on the reader, and how their effect might be optimized. There are only a small number of readers—those who have access to these words via the Internet or other medium, those who read English, and those who understand both English and the meaning behind the particular English words. If only one reader can understand the words and incorporate and express their meaning, there can be perhaps some lasting, growing benefit. For the words to be of any use, they must become nonverbal and transpersonal to cross all language barriers. For instance, if by reading these words someone makes more eye contact and other nonverbal transpersonal expressions of acknowledgement and recognition of the Universal Spirit in others, this behavioral change may well go onward and outward. In the end, it is the good will we put into the system that lives on to benefit everyone. Our good will spreads far and wide and lives forever, as it is the expression of the Universal Spirit. Words to that effect are the best, most optimal words.

The Ultimate Movie
While I respect the imagination and craftsmanship that goes into moviemaking, I much prefer being entertained by the 3-D SurroundSound blockbuster epic known as life. This life is a movie in the making. What a miraculous, astonishing movie! We should all be in a state of total awe, really.

The most beautiful part of this movie is found in each other’s eyes. We see the One shining in every eye. This movie is all One, One watching One.

It’s impossible to feel like you’ve wasted several hours of your life watching the ultimate movie: this movie IS your life. One life. Now showing.

The Point of Altered States
Having maxed out with entheogenic experiences, I have to remind myself of the whole point of altered states, which is altered traits. There has to be meaning in the moment, and it is the entheogenic experience that puts profound meaning into the moment, into all things, into all living beings. I don’t care what fantastic trips are under one’s belt, what I care about is, are we in the moment? Are we making eye contact, soul contact? If not, the entheogenic voyages have not reached the Other Shore. Stuck in egocentricity, altered states serve only to further aggrandize the ego.

Suffering Succotash
Not being an island, the suffering of those near and far and near and dear, gets to me. My early morning bouts of insomnia feature worries about people and their woeful situations. This morning, after getting just enough sleep, I found myself singing in the shower—a good sign. Walking to work, I tell myself it’s good for me to find my own way out of my own suffering, and to take heart that by doing so, I’m helping people find their own way out of their own suffering. Everyone has to work on themselves. We can’t force others to change, we can’t do their work for them. It always gets down to the same old story: life is a challenge, everything changes, everything passes away, suffering happens when we are attached to a thing, person, place, situation, feeling, belief, or anything at all.

Human beings are all dysfunctional to some degree, living somewhere other than the present. It’s much easier to be in the now when there aren’t so many attachments grabbing our attention.

Let her go, let him go, let it go. Let go: this is not just good deathbed advice, it’s good for those in the full flush of youth and health and strength and willfulness.

Savor the flavor of life’s corn kernels and lima beans, in the now, where cats and dogs and animals and plants and planets and stars and universal spirit abide.

Magnificent Significance
It’s not the particular shape, size, color, sound, feel, smell or taste of a form that makes it significant, it’s the fact that it is an expression of the universe, a manifestation of the universal energy essence. The ultimate significance of all form is realized when we realize that all forms are of one essence, that all flesh and form is our very own flesh and form. This body is ‘inhabited’ by the same universal spirit that ‘inhabits’ every form, that gives all forms form, all sentient forms sentience.

My Life Has A Life Of Its Own
People occasionally pause and realize how something was done while they were on ‘automatic pilot.’ How could something get done without the ‘doer’ knowing about it? Yet it happens commonly, to everyone.

Rather than be embarrassed or disconcerted about being on automatic pilot, I rejoice at the prospect of giving up Doership entirely and just letting It do it, letting It be It. For many years I’ve come to know that my mind has a mind of its own, without any effort on ‘my’ part. Baseline pure awareness just is, without stress, without strain. There is no effort involved with Beingness—I don’t have to be clever or break my back to simply exist: existence just is, effortlessly. No-one has to try to Be, no-one has to strive to bring about Awareness.

This is the essence, the whole secret, of the transpersonal life. Honor personal life—for it is inevitable—and savor the transpersonal life once the insubstantiality of the Doer becomes obvious.

Pure being, pure awareness, just is. It is magnificent. How noble to be This, the universe, unbound, effortless. We are already This, wonderfully free. What a fine thing to be, what a fine way to be, and that just happens all on its own. 

Guide Lions for Soul-Finding
It’s a well-known fact that house cats will come to us when we don’t call them. As the unpaid staff to a pride of miniature house panthers, scooping their waste and serving their meals, I’m well aware of their terms. Having met their terms, they trust me and accept me as one of them, as I have treated them with gentleness and respect and deference. The trust level is now so high that I can roughhouse and wrestle with them.

So it is with finding the “soul”, soul being a four-letter word for that which we really are, our core, our essence, our divine immortal transpersonal spirit. When we stop being aggressive, and loud, and angry, and restless, and start being receptive, passive, quiet, calm, accepting, gentle, our soul comes to us, as it were. Expressing the innate qualities of the soul is what attracts the soul—it’s the soul calling out to itself and meeting itself on its terms.

With practice, with experience, the soul-meeting-itself experience becomes robust, so that no special conditions need to be met in order for the connection to be maintained. I can roughhouse with my own soul and not fear chasing it away. I trust my soul, and my soul trusts me, which is as it should be, as I am my soul, the universal energy that just is. I don’t require any particular ritual or exercise or practice to connect with my own soul: it’s always here, at hand, the Me of me.

When we let our own soul be our master, we are effortlessly free, as the soul is effortlessly free. When I am sitting quietly I don’t have to look down to know that there is at least one cat on my lap. I don’t have to go looking for my soul, as it’s the one who’d been looking for itself. It’s not somewhere else, it’s not someone else, and it’s not to be found in the future. It’s the Me of every me, it always here, it’s always now. The soul knows no time, no distance, no other.

When we stop looking so hard for the soul, it comes to us, as us, on its own quiet calm catlike terms.

The Blessed Relief of Acceptance
Last weekend, for the first time in months, I spoke with someone for whom I had felt intense animosity, for egregious misdeeds he committed against others. With a line of communication unexpectedly open, I began to understand him better than ever, and saw before me an earnest, intelligent person, and not a conniving, dangerous, self-destructive fool. I offered sympathy and encouragement for his battle with substance abuse, and as we spoke a great dark cloud dissipated, and it felt good.

For how many other people with whom I share this life have I felt critical disdain, people who don’t measure up to certain ideals and expectations—many people. In an instant, I can unconditionally accept everyone as they are, and feel only love for them. How good that feels just to do that—how much better it feels when such unconditional acceptance is expressed, shared, with everyone I’m with.

Funny thing, when I accept everyone, I also accept myself, and find that I’m also more easily accepted by others, just as I am, when I’m that way—accepting all, with love.

Meaningfull
The entheogenic insight reveals how everything is imbued with ultimate meaning. The Perennial Philosophy—the Perennial Understanding—is based on the revelation of intrinsic meaning in all things. With insight, with understanding, existence and awareness become meaningful. Those who find life to be meaningless tend to suffer; those who have found the intrinsic meaning in all things transcend suffering, having seen the ultimate meaning, that all things are indeed one thing.

Such meaning is transpersonal. The use of an entheogen in the midst of nature, in perfect solitude, helps reveal the intrinsic meaning of being. The natural world is wise and radiant and filled with meaning, welcoming us back home.

The Id as ID
The energy of the universe is our true identity; it is also the essence of what the Freudians call the id, the spontaneous passionate beast that is kept in check by the thin veneer of ego. The ego—identifying itself as one particular body—can’t accept the fact that it is delusional, and self-limited. This doesn’t change the fact that the ego’s illusory existence is created by the universal energy, and the fact that the universal energy is the only thing we really are. When the ego reaches a level of insight sufficient to reveal its illusory existence to itself, it instantly vanishes, its illusory identity replaced with the self-realized universal energy. Thus the ego dies and is reborn as self-realized id.

This whole question of true identity is at the core of the Perennial Philosophy, and is where the intellectually honest human being with intimations of mortality heads. The ego will die, one way or another, whether through insight and self-realization or through biological death resulting in final cessation of thought-processes that created and sustained the illusory ego.

It feels so good to live in the unlimited freedom of the universal energy, as the universal energy. I live everywhere, in every form.

Wetware Backups
My fondest fantasy is communicating with another being so well that there is no question there is complete understanding, to the point that when the end of this body’s lifespan has been reached, the understanding will live on. This process is always at work, giving and getting impressions all the time of varying degrees of usefulness and factualness. Delusional thinking and clear thinking is transmitted and received, in varying admixtures.

There’s a science-fiction concept some futurists take seriously, that somehow, one day, the contents of an individual’s mind can be stored in a computer, so that the essence of the person can be ‘downloaded’ at any time, presumably into another person. The essence of the person is presumed to be memories and personality.

Actually, we are all backing up our wetware all the time whenever we share what we know, and whenever we help others know what we know. The Perennial Understanding which is at the core of the Perennial Philosophy is what guarantees immortality, even though the immortality is transpersonal, being the universal energy.

The Perennial Universal Understanding
It doesn’t matter what shape universal energy assumes, what laws of physics it obeys in a particular physical universe. What matters is if we sentient beings understand we are this energy, or don’t. That Art Thou is a universal constant, in whatever form or universe That happens to be.

Finding Your Self
A niece has run afoul of all hopes and expectations and has taken flight--and apparently taken leave--of her senses, having forsaken the educational opportunity provided by her hardworking parent. As a young adult she is entitled to make her own decisions and live with the consequences. This appears to be a case of yet another human being trying to find herself, after knowing nothing but an overprotective home life. “Anywhere else but where I was and who I was with” is the imperative in this impulsive young lifeform. How well I know the feeling, and I believe the impulse is universal, to varying degrees, in the young adults of our species. It’s only natural to want to leave the nest and find out what it’s like to keep one’s own company.

Such a rite of passage often called “finding yourself” is often presumed to be a time of finding out what niche, what vocation, one is cut out for. It’s a practical, worldly search, culminating in finding oneself by what one does, or wants to do.

There’s another path of finding oneself that asks “who am I” rather than “what do I do.” The emphasis is on Being rather than Doing. This is a lifelong path that unfolds as it will, and requires mistakes and misperceptions galore. Finding out what we are not helps us to find out what we really are.

The process reaches a wonderful point where it’s obvious that what one is looking for is the one who’s doing the looking. Finding oneself is no longer going to happen in the future or somewhere else: it’s been here all along.

Pure Awareness. Pure beingness. Here it is, hiding in plain sight, all along.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
The same thing I always am, Pure Awareness, the universe itself.  Next question.

The Fullness of Emptiness
How good it feels to ease up on the compulsion to keep the head always full of thoughts and opinions and emotions and stuff, to leave some room, some space. The emptier the head the more receptive it gets, which makes sense: an empty cup holds a lot more than a full cup. The emptier the cup, the more it can take in. The emptiest cup takes in the most. The totally empty cup takes in everything.  It’s only the crapola filling our cup, flying around in our heads that blinds us to the astonishing reality of that which lives in us as us. Our cup is always filled with the radiant reality of the One.

Tending the Dream of Life
This dream, on a personal scale with mortgage and monogamy, is spontaneous in great measure, and also is malleable by the lucid dreamer who knows this is a dream. Case in point: Last evening I refrained from starting an emotional argument about money, not even discussing personal finances. Although the topic could have been brought up as it had before, it wasn’t, I bit my tongue and cranked up the transpersonality to Eleven, and as a result had a pleasant, quiet evening on the porch with my spouse, savoring Guinnesses and enjoying the first spring peepers of the year with the cats. We spoke of many things and many people and many worrisome situations involving other people, but the hot touchy topics that could have been brought up, that I had plenty of justification in bringing up, weren’t brought up. Marriage, house, quality of daily life, is an ongoing dream, the quality of which changes and can be changed, by what is said and not said, done and not done. It’s really simple: we’re all living a dream, and we can make the dream however we wish it to be, until the day each individual dreamer no longer exists in the dream. In a very real sense we’re living out the dream that flashes before our eyes as we review the dream of our life as we lay on our deathbed. How much regret is felt in the dream review depends on how much we dreamed heedlessly rather than lucidly, how much we took the dream and fellow dreamers for granted and treated them callously rather than lovingly and mindfully.

Cease Cherishing Opinions, Damn It
It’s easy to see the Great Perfection once we stop forming and cherishing and identifying with opinions. The mind in its essence is pure, transparent, spacious, perfect freedom and perfect peace, just plain perfectly wonderful as it really is. We are this pure awareness. Opinions are cheap, annoying, and can make life miserable. Opinions will keep popping up, we are so well-trained to be opinion-generators. The secret is to stop cherishing opinions, that’s all. Watch them rise and fall, like everything else, in the beautiful sky-like universal mind.

Nature-Starved People
In this hothouse pressure cooker of virtual life/conceptual life known as a college, the appearance of a dog or cat on campus elicits stares of longing from the students. How we miss our companion animals, those furry beings of unconditional love and candid behavior. The less of an animal we allow ourselves to become, the less happy we become. The universe is the animal, animated, life itself, and we are most true to the universe by being natural, ingenuous animals. We love to be around plants and animals, under the sky, in the sunlight. Factories and academies and corporate life blind us to our inmost nature, and we feel a yearning for the natural life. Cats and dogs remind us of the natural life, and nature.

Incongruity and Inconsistency
There’s no reason to be congruous or consistent—no law, no need, nothing. Nothing is perfect, everything is perfect, who cares what does or doesn’t fit a preconceived notion of how things should appear, or how things should be. Perfectionism is a living hell. Total acceptance is heaven.

Kick Ego’s Ass
I empathize with a young alcoholic relative who’s trying to stay clean and sober, and nonviolent, and finding coffee and cigarettes to be the only psychotropics available to him. What he really needs is to be a participant in a peyote ceremony, or a mushroom velada, or better yet a yage journey, to give his tortured ego a much-deserved kick in its ass. Everyone needs such an ass-kicking of the ego from time to time, some more than others. The prohibitionists who criminalize entheogenic substances are hopelessly jerked around by the ego, self-aggrandizing morons who think the Good Life is characterized by money, power, and possessions; in their case the ego has become a malignant terminal tumor of the psyche. As psychonauts have learned and proclaimed, a life without an ego-shattering entheogenic experience is like a life that’s never known lovemaking.

Driving Me Crazy
The last time I drove a good distance was a few days ago, a 100-mile round trip to the far side of the city. Although most people think nothing of driving on the ‘free’-way I was exhausted and nerve-wracked from the ordeal. To assume that people can control a several-ton mass of metal at 60 miles an hour in close proximity with other vehicles, maintaining position within painted lines only, is assuming too much. To assume that bridges are perpetually structurally safe is to assume too much. Every time I must drive over a long, high bridge I am in a near-swoon from dread.

I will not participate in the madness that has become the normal way of life of my contemporaries.

Spiritual Beings
We are all, in essence, spiritual beings, i.e., beings of spirit, nothing but spirit. These physical vehicles, sloshy rubbery things of water and earth and air and sunlight, are aspects of spirit, and as a form of energy is filled with light. The living energy that is the presence and awareness of the universe manifests in every form.

Higher Communication
It is a small subset of beings that can read and understand English, and an even smaller subset that has access to the Internet. While communication in all its forms is miraculous, there are methods of communication that are more effective than words. When spirit recognizes spirit, when the universe recognizes the universe, complete communication becomes quite simple, and profound, and powerful: it can require nothing more than eye contact; it can be simply the interpenetrating radiance of spirit, the luminous presence.

When walking about town, I remain wide-open to spirit, and nonverbally communicate with all beings, plant and animal. Birds and squirrels are quick to make eye contact with me, although most humans avoid eye contact. When walking in the woods and fields and meadows the peaceful presence of trees and plants communicates the wisdom of nature. In the vast shimmering field of spirit there is eternal oceanic calm.

Communicating via Music
Having come from musical ancestors, I’m blessed with the urge to make music. If I don’t have a musical instrument in my hands, singing will do just fine. Singing is actually the most empowering way to make music. Singing is truly the universal language, infinitely superior to Esperanto. Singing, and music-making generally, communicates what words fail to convey, and without the need for a common spoken language. Even other species respond to our singing, the vibrations conveying our state of being and our intent.

Language is an amazing accomplishment of our species, yet the diversity of languages has resulted in lack of communication and much misunderstanding. Our ambassadors should be musicians, and some are. Musicians are speaking from the nonverbal world of pure being, spirit.

The Human Problem
Humans, those clever egocentric hubristic animals, are poised to destroy this world. The world I have come to know and love will soon be gone, global climate change turning much of the planet into desert. Life will go on, and will adapt to change, but the changes will be quick, and extreme. Fossil fuel consumption keeps rising, human population keeps climbing, habitat for other species keeps getting destroyed.

I’m ashamed to be a human being, a piggish consumer of energy and resources. I’ll do what I can to live as lightly as possible on the earth while I’m alive, and with luck I’ll be able to give back everything, offering a totally biodegradable body to the earth. I look forward to living as life itself, as all forms of life.

A Transpersonal Solution to the Human Problem
The insatiable ego-fueled desires of humans, not humans per se, are destroying the planet. To end desires, the ego must come to an end. The strong entheogens are just what the planet ordered to heal the human monkey of its spiritual malignancy, the tumor of ego.

The reign of bloated, narrowminded, ego-bound monkeys is coming to an end, if only because such a reign is unsustainable. Those who have yet to have the deep transpersonal entheogenic experience will weep and gnash their teeth; those who have had the privilege of ego-death will weather the storms with knowing bliss.

The planetary plight is dire. Now more than ever, more people need to have the ego-shattering transpersonal entheogenic experience.

Even without looming ecological catastrophe, every self-aware human being should have at least one deep entheogenic experience to break free of cultural conditioning, even briefly. Life is enchanted. If people can’t feel the enchantment of life, then a heroic dose of an enchantogen can help restore it. 

Medicine for our Terminal Condition
How foolish it is to limit entheogens to the terminally ill. The enormous benefits studies show being derived by terminally ill patients given psilocybin need not be kept from the rest of us. We are all terminal patients, ever since the day of birth. Why not make everyone’s remaining days/weeks/months/years/decades more meaningful, more enriched, more enchanted, more bearable, through the magic of entheogens?

It’s Always Nothing
Spotting a bowl on the counter, I wondered what snack someone left as a public offering. Looking into the bowl, it was empty, full of nothing.

In the midst of this ever-changing universe, there is always nothing. Across the generations and the eons, nothing is the same, nothing is always the same. The essence of mind, the essence of self, the essence of essence, is nothing. Meet me in nothing, as nothing. Nothing is emptiness that alone completely fulfills. Nothing is the underlying reality that lives forever, the ultimate condition.

The One is the big Zero. The big Zero is the One.

This is not to say that the One doesn’t exist. The One, being One, exists, but it can’t possibly know it exists. There is no-one to know One.

The One can’t know itself, it can only be itself.

Being the One Flesh
One of the nice things about entheogenic experiences is that they remind us, in a nonverbal visceral way, what we really are. Once upon a time I was sitting in a room all alone, chewing an entheogen, when an entity materialized in the room. At first I was scared and confused, but after I let the entity devour me I became the entity, which turned out to be the totality of life itself. I understood at that moment that all flesh is one flesh. Once we as persons let ourselves be devoured by life we become transpersonal, and we remember all flesh is our flesh, all flesh is one flesh.

The trick the universe plays upon itself is that it is many, and many parts of itself believe they are separate selves.  This is the way it must be. When the universe can distance itself from itself by such delusion it sets itself up to enjoy the cessation of delusion and the blissful reunion with itself. The universe can at last see itself through its own eyes, and see itself in every life, in every eye: this is the basis and beginning of universal unconditional love.

Fish Eyes
This morning I had a vivid colorful dream where I was floating in a crystal-clear stream, face-down, eyes wide open, gazing into the wide-open eyes of many fish below me. There were tiny tropical-type fish, and larger fish, all beautiful to behold. For an indeterminate length of time I was blissfully looking at the fish, and the fish were looking back at me.

The water signifies life, spirit, clear and pure. In the living water of spirit all beings swim, all beings see each other, the same spirit seeing through every eye.

Coming from the Source, Coming from the Center
So often I find myself behaving compulsively and impulsively, driven by desires or by fears. The entire human condition and civilization itself is built upon the desires and fears of its billions. We believe we need more, that we need to go more places, or get away from other places,  and ever faster. 

In moments of sanity and intelligence I remember to abide in the source of being, in the center of being, and remember how good it is to be fully real, completely and complete in the present. In those moments the universe welcomes me back home, the home I never really left: the source, the center, pure being.

Happy To Be
An African musician being interviewed on the radio said her music reflected the African spirit of happiness just to exist.
A cliché used by many interviewees is “happy to be here.”
A refinement and a philosophy to live by, if desired, is “happy to be.”
I lay awake in the wee hours of the morning, unable to sleep, so I surrender to simply being, and wish that all people would do likewise. In simply being, we implode into the heart of hearts and find our true universal self, the self-shining radiance of the core of being. Finding this, we know we are this, and we know this is universal, real, eternal.
As the global economy continues to fall apart, the things that are real, true, significant, essential, are more easily revealed, and prove to be the true wealth of people and nations. It’s all spirit, and the spiritual world and the spiritual life is where we live, where we are, and what we are. How could we not be happy being this!

Unconditional Surrender
There comes the time of ripening of understanding when there’s no choice but to surrender unconditionally to the One, and let the One be the One, the true identity of all. With unconditional surrender comes the blessedness of the unconditioned mind, and of the power of unconditional loving. The recognition of the One by the One, the love of the One for the One, can’t be denied. There’s no turning back.

Timelessness and the Archaic Revivalists
I used to have a romantic idealized fantasy of meeting people from the past, as if the fact they lived and died years, centuries, or millennia ago imparted them with an exotic nobility. Lately I no longer regard people who happened to live and die long before me as being special. Flesh is flesh; awareness is awareness; essence is essence; the universal mind is the universal mind. There is no time in the universal mind.

Those people who tend to don costumes and change their name and their role and reenact history, whether it be a Civil War battle or a prehistoric culture, are caught in a conceptual timeline, and trapped in the concept of time itself. Those who lived in the past are no more separate in essence than those who live far away.

There is only one time, Now, which is Timelessness, Eternity. There is only one Person, Ever-Living, One and the Same Universal Essence and Universal Mind. Awareness is forever the same, empty, transparent, self-shining, self-existing.

The One self-transforms eternally in the eternal Now. Everyone we meet is the One, the same One we see in the mirror.

Mind, Body, Spirit
Mind, its contents ever-changing; body, a harmonious transient amalgam of minerals, water, atmosphere, and sunlight; spirit, the eternal essence of mind and body: there is no exclusion, no separation, of mind, body, and spirit—it’s all essence, it’s all awareness, all beingness, all One. Through the vehicles of mind and body the spirit of the universe comes to recognize itself.

Nobody Home
Who are we trying to impress? Who are we trying to satisfy? Where exactly within the body—which organ—which part of which organ—where in the mind, if mind can be found—is that craving, cunning creature that is so implacably demanding? And if it’s nowhere to be found in this, my body, where is it to be found in any body?

There’s no-one to impress, no-one to offend, anywhere. The dream arises, the dream falls away.

Enchantment
Everyone starts out in an enchanted state of mind. The newborn finds the world fascinating, magical, limitless into childhood. Then as self-centered thinking clouds the vision, there’s disenchantment. Many adults suffer from chronic disenchantment. The world is gray, dreary, predictable, soul-crushing.

Sometimes enchantment finds its way back to some adults. Enchantogens/entheogens do help that way sometimes. So can reading the right books, taking the right walking paths…

Enchantment has returned. Enchantment never left, for those who see with enchanted eyes.

To live the rest of the days left in this fragile body in an enchanted state, in an enchanted world, is only natural.

I look to other people to see if they, too, are enchanted…some are, some aren’t. The ones who aren’t are easy to spot: bored, unhappy, distracted; the ones who are, are also easy to spot: a brightness in their eyes, eyes that actually make contact with mine, eyes revealing enchantment. Existence itself has their full attention, and they’re filled with wonder and joy, for they see that the presence of existence itself is pure enchantment.

Transpersonal and Transverbal
As much fun as it is to write and to talk, to read and to listen, it’s a relief to live transverbally, communicating with smiles and gestures and touch and vibes and eye contact. Living transverbally lends itself to living transpersonally, for the true self beyond name and form communicates transverbally.

How To Be
After countless generations of survival strategizing it’s time to learn how to be, to just be, to simply be. My cats show me how to be content, how to be complete, how to be relaxed. My plants also show me how to be. What a cool, calm way to be it is.  Agitation requires ego. Calm requires egolessness. Our true nature is intrinsically egoless. Hallelujah!

The Most Important Stuff
How is it possible to not be drawn in by the perennial philosophy? That the One is in all forms is breathtaking.  The petty opinions and petty concerns of pettyminded people are of no concern.

Desires and Desirelessness
The maturity of a person can be gauged by how many and how complex and how insatiable his desires. Not only desires per se but also attachment to both the desire and the object of desire are determinants of spiritual growth or lack thereof. 

The presence of desire creates a sense of lack, of being less than whole, a tense, troubled state of being; the absence of desire allows the intrinsic peace and wholeness of the true self to manifest.

Born As, not Born With
We are born as pure awareness, pure beingness, pure life, pure spirit. We never stop being this, even though we may deceive ourselves that we are otherwise.

Role-Playing Games
Many people identify with a role, or roles, they happen to be playing. It may not occur to them to wonder who it is playing these roles, who it is behind these roles. Such curiosity, such self-inquiry, comes easier and quicker to some more than others. It’s much easier to keep playing roles, to identify with a particular role, to identify others as particular roles, and to take roles very seriously, to believe in the reality of roles, to believe in the seriousness of the games roles play.

A few people have grown weary of pretending to be a role, and have managed to acquire a keen interest in finding out who or what’s behind the roles, who or what’s playing the games. It’s astonishing to find out it’s not necessary to look very far, to look elsewhere, or to look at some time in the future, to see who or what it is behind the roles. It’s here all along, ordinary natural awareness, pure simple self-sustaining consciousness: the cosmos’ very own consciousness. The ultimate role is being the universe, the ultimate game is being the universe.

The Irony of Self-Destructive Behavior
It’s common knowledge what constitutes self-destructive behavior: actions which create a risk to life, limb, and health--unnecessary and excessive risks, unhealthy and dangerous habits. What’s ironic about the common concept of self-destructive behavior is that the perpetrator of the self-destructive behavior—the self-concept—is actually reinforced by such behavior. While the body—selfless and innocent—is heedlessly exposed to injury, toxins, even senseless untimely demise—the self-concept, the ego, is strengthened.

People also can and do engage in self-concept-destructive behavior:  having enriching, broadening, deepening life experiences, including but not limited to ego-busting entheogenic experiences. There is respect given to the body, taking care to live a wholesome life that enhances health, well-being, and longevity—getting plenty of rest, eating healthful food, exercising regularly--which helps enhance the quality of life, maximizing health and alertness and receptivity. The more receptive we are, the more we come to understand, until our self-concept is completely surrendered to the universe.  The self-concept, which had a mere illusory existence anyway, vanishes—is in a sense destroyed—by the light of understanding.

Expressing Our True Nature
Our true nature—God, the Primordial Buddha, Brahman, what-have-you—dwells within us as us, no doubt, whether we believe it or not, whether we know it or not, whether we’re in touch with it or not. Our true nature is expressing itself as best it can under the circumstances of its birth and development, its karma…

I can appreciate how some people believe the best expression of our true nature is stillness and silence, as our true nature is without a self, completely empty. Yet we live and work in the world, and things get thought and said and done.

It’s rather awesome to let the universe live this life, to move and speak and do what it will. Speak or be silent, move or be still, it doesn’t matter, for the presence of our true nature—the presence of God—the presence of Spirit—is fully within, fully what we are, with no effort required on our part. It’s not narcissistic to be in awe of our true self, it’s just part of being real, part of being maturely and fully surrendered to our divine presence.

The Wisdom of Plants and Animals
How therapeutic it is to be in the company of companion animals, to see how content they are just to simply be. It’s just as salutary to be in the presence of plants, which are also content to simply be, and require only sunlight, air, water, and soil. Maybe being an herbivore is conducive to becoming as easily fulfilled as a plant. I need not chase after plants to acquire them for my next meal; they, and I, live quietly and peacefully together, bathed in sunlight.

Communion with Nature
The lesson I’ve learned after decades of trials and errors is that my--our--measure of spiritual success is the degree to which we are in touch with Nature. To be in touch is to commune; to commune is to experience oneness. Oneness with Nature is a timeless fact; we need only experience this fact. To experience oneness with Nature requires a receptive, undistracted awareness. It also helps to physically be in a natural environment, outdoors, surrounded by life, with earth below and sky above. With sufficient practice, communion is established, and is maintained even when not physically in an outdoor natural setting. Entheogens can be used to enhance receptivity to Nature and to the life-spirit.  To experience oneness with Nature is to know we live forever as Nature.  There is one life, one spirit, one Nature.

Toward a more Biocentric Culture
As the materialist economy collapses the real economy of biological existence continues. Organisms need an adequate environment in which to survive and thrive. Ideally all organisms, particularly animals, particularly human animals, would reach a robust, sustainable equilibrium, and enjoy abundance for all: abundant water, abundant food, abundant shelter, abundant meeting of all the necessities of healthy, wholesome life.

A culture that is biocentric and biophilic provides the context necessary for a meaningful way of life. When life loves life, and lives for all life, all bases are covered.

A Cultural Context for Entheogenesis
A biocentric and biophilic culture would be inherently supportive of entheogenic practices. When individuals and groups of individuals have deep entheogenic experiences they are put in touch with the spirit of life within all. As the dominant culture is materialistic, entheogenic practices and entheogenic experiences are out of context—yet through such practices and experiences a biophilic and biocentric culture is created. We are creating the culture and cultural context through entheogenesis that will be supportive of entheogenesis and, of course, the life spirit.

Be-In’ My Right Mind
This untroubled pure witnessing consciousness just takes it all in, truly the Eye of God. How embarrassed I would be if I felt I were being watched by God, and not simply watching myself. God has witnessed some very strange and foolish behavior, on the street and behind closed doors, that’s for sure. And that’s just this particular human being, ‘me.’

What was most distressing was that feeling of not being able to control my thoughts, of having twisted, negative, even violent fantasies. It was as if I was my thoughts, that I was at the mercy of my thoughts, and my thoughts were on a nonstop rampage.

I felt that I was going quite insane, and could diagnose myself as being clinically a nut-case, ready for the rubber room and heavy-duty medications.

Now, finding that wonderful cool clear universal mind and knowing it’s what I always have been, there’s no more fear of going insane, and no more being controlled by thoughts. Thoughts rise and fall, and all is well.

What everyone really needs is to not only be IN our right mind—the universal mind—but to BE our right mind.

Opinions Are Cheap
The sage says “Don’t seek enlightenment, just stop cherishing opinions.”  There is no perfect world, and nothing and nobody is perfect. Holding onto opinions causes all kinds of grief. Opinions, being thoughts, rise and fall—let them rise, let them fall, without believing them, identifying with them, acting upon them or speaking upon them.

The Great Perfection
Magically, this apparently imperfect world populated by apparently imperfect people becomes perfect when viewed by the universal mind, which is pure witnessing consciousness, unconditioned awareness. Impossible to defile, radiant, sparkling, transparent, perfect universal mind. How blessed to know this, how blessed to know we are this!

Guardian Angel
There is a guardian angel for everyone, and it’s the true self, the universal mind, the Dharmakaya. There’s no winged Other hovering about, looking after us. It’s pure self-shining presence awareness, cosmic consciousness, the natural radiant beingness.

Home
What people want is to be home. The feeling of being at home is sweet: a sense of security, freedom, peace, rest. Home is a state of mind, a feeling, not a particular location, not a particular structure.

For me, home is being in my right mind, the universal mind. Everyone lives in the mind. The problem with egoic mind is that it discriminates, it judges, it craves, it shuns. Conditions have to be just right to satisfy the egoic mind, but even then the satisfaction is fleeting.

Living in the universal mind is total freedom. The self-shining vast radiant universal mind is the most comfortable place to be, the most comfortable thing to be. We are not just living in the universal mind, we are in fact the universal mind. We are, literally, home. Our true self—the universal mind—is home.

Getting Real
Most of my adult life I've suffered as a disembodied ego.
Now for the rest of my life I'm enjoying being a disegoic body.
This is the universal body.
This is the universal mind.
This is wonderful!
 
Selling Ice to Inuit
How can I sell dharmakaya to the dharmakaya? Maybe reminding people its intrinsic virtues—its selling points—such as peace, purity, self-shining 
perfection would be useful. My dad was a natural salesman, he had the gift of gab, of shifting his persona to fit the client. ‘Skillful means’ indeed.  
Now that I found a product I am totally in love with, I can try my hand at salesmanship. Like Dad told me on many occasions, “Sell yourself!” In other
 words, in this case, “Sell the dharmakaya!” 

Rotting Corpses
I had a dream—a nightmare—in the wee hours of the morning that involved trying to get rid of the stench within a house that allegedly had rotting corpses stuck somewhere inside. The process and the dream seemed interminable, frustrating, unpleasant, and the stench remained.

Just thinking about rotting corpses used to make me feel fear and dread, but not anymore. Death is an aspect of ongoing life, a totally natural process. The fear of death, and the feeling of dread about corpses, indicates an identification with and attachment to the body. That this body will one day appear to become insensate, lifeless, and putrid is a fact. What is also a fact is that the seemingly dead body feeds ongoing life, just as cells in the living body die and become reabsorbed by the living body. The forms of life undergo these changes; the life principle itself remains unchanged.

It’s no wonder why meditating in a cemetery or alongside a rotting corpse is such a powerful spiritual exercise: the presence of presence, the awareness of awareness, the perception of the life principle by the life principle, is enhanced in such a setting. Appreciation of the life principle, identification with the life principle, and gratitude for the life principle, is easier in the presence of rotting corpses.

How grotesque, macabre, and ignorant is grieving over an embalmed, cosmetically enhanced and hermetically sealed corpse, weeping and wailing over the loss of a bag of dirt and water that was given a name and an ego.

The light in every surviving eye is the One Light. Because a light bulb has burned out or shattered doesn’t mean the electricity that flowed through it has been destroyed.

Perspective Shift
Our perspective is dependent on our level of understanding, or perhaps more accurately, dependent on our degree of self-deception. If we believe that we are a separate person, an ego, our perspective will correspond with that belief. If we have managed to discover how self-deceived we’ve been and resume the natural state of the true self, our perspective reflects that state of being, that state of mind. It’s really a wonderful experience, and an immense relief, to undergo the apparent perspective shift from ego perspective to life-itself perspective, from personal perspective to impersonal perspective. To rest in the cosmic perspective, the natural perspective, the egoless perspective, is profoundly healing, is to be truly, finally, forever at home, the home that always was, is, and will be.

A Case of Mistaken Identity
It’s so good to get independent confirmation, unsolicited consensual validation, of a profound intuition. The Internet has made it possible for people all over the world to compare notes, even the most subtle, esoteric, and ineffable notes. To read in Yahoo Groups Nonduality Highlights about the problems created by mistaken identity was classic. Our true nature doesn’t need to seek, doesn’t need to realize anything, doesn’t need to get enlightened. It just always is what it is, is how it is. It’s what we always are anyway. The fictional self, the person, the ego, with which people identify as themselves, is what’s troublesome and unreal. Our true nature is just fine, and all we have to do is rest in our true identity, surrender to it, and just be, being it on and on and on, here, there, everywhere.

Nothing But A Dream
There are two cognitive states human beings can be in: one is to take the world seriously, literally, personally, as real…and the other is to take the world lightly, metaphorically, impersonally, as a dream of the One. It’s all in the mind.

It is the duty of those people who have managed to wake up in this dream to play, and play along, with the dream and the dreamers, and to enjoy meeting up with others who have also managed to wake up within this dream.

The old children’s round has it exactly right:

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream,
Merrily merrily merrily merrily
Life is but a dream.

To be merry in this dream, to live gently in this dream, is the way of the One who has awakened in this dream of the One.

In And Out Of Touch
Materialistic culture is very well-connected with itself through the Internet, cellular telephone, and other telecommunication technologies. However, it’s not necessarily well connected to its living essence, the presence of life, beingness, and awareness. Many people are woefully out of touch with their own bodies and minds, out of touch with life itself within and without.  We communicate using thoughts, words, sounds, images swapped thick and fast, incessantly, globally. Few people are willing to communicate with the life-spirit within, with the indwelling life-spirit of every form: such communion and intercommunication is nonverbal, done in silence, requiring patience and openness, receptivity and acceptance, and goes beyond thought, beyond opinion, beyond belief.

Living in Terra Incognita as the Mysterium Magnum
The Great Mystery is where we all live all the time, whether we recognize this fact or not. The immense profundity is always at hand, within, this very beingness and this very awareness. When we are ready and willing, we can let go of the persona, the ego, and live in terra incognita as the Great Mystery. This terra incognita remains forever unknown and unknowable, even though it is our very being, our very essence, our very identity. We can’t know it, we can only be it.

Beyond Time
In this very moment everything always dwells, the One always dwells.

Beyond Ideology, Beyond Belief, Beyond Faith
I look at my hands, my living hands, and see the life which fills them and animates them. This is all the proof I need, all the evidence I could ever hope for. I am this life, this very life of the body, the earth, the universe. What a wondrous fact, that this life, all life, is what we are. We are life, one life, the life of the earth, the life of the universe. We are this shimmering, incandescent energy. Thoughts and things blind and distract us from seeing, from recognizing, the one life in ourselves and in each other. Believe nothing, desire nothing, and be life.

Life Does Go On
While the anti-nature materialistic culture tries to force its way, I tend my medicinal plants. At first I thought only one cutting would take root and survive, but to my astonishment all the cuttings have sprouted roots. I had given up on most of them, even though every time I tended to them I’d tell them to take their time and do the best they could. My patience has paid off, and I’m once again humbled by the resilience of the life-spirit. It is the life-spirit that is the true medicine. By eating these and other plants, I’m taking in life-spirit, spirit medicine.  Plants are so generous with their flesh, their spirit, sharing their life with mine, our lives indistinguishable, which is as it should be: we are one life, one spirit, one life-spirit.

Life-spirit cannot be legislated, cannot be controlled. Life-spirit goes on.

The Sweet Paradox of Death
The prospect of the inevitable melting into the totality of life is not a fearsome dreaded fate—it’s a wholesome, ecstatic returning to that which eternally is. I will gratefully return all of this to All of this: water to water, earth to earth, sunlight to sunlight, air to sky, life-spirit to life-spirit. Death is not a cessation—it’s a reunion of life with life.

Entheogens really help disabuse ourselves of the false notion of being separate from life, and in so doing the concept of death becomes ludicrous. We are life. We are the universe. What lives in us as us lives forever.

The Banning of Entheogens
In this urban-industrial-technical-materialistic culture which has labored mightily to conquer nature entheogens are anathema, for they tend to reunite people with nature, turning them into indigenous people. Indigenous people are bad for the economy, because they don’t consume nearly enough material goods and energy as the nicely-brainwashed insatiable non-indigenous.

The drug of choice of this materialistic culture is Television, the Anti-Entheogen. Television hypnotizes the masses, promotes a materialistic ideology, and keeps people separate from the earth, from nature, instead paralyzing people indoors, in front of its flickering images, its virtual reality.

Give Me Cognitive Liberty, or Give Me Brain Death
The last bastion of liberty is consciousness. Everyone lives in consciousness, and how we live in it, and what we like to do with consciousness, is our own business, a personal intimate matter. The only time anyone else would need to intervene with our cognitive liberty is when our consciousness-altering puts anyone in harm’s way. For an adult to order another adult to not alter consciousness is unconscionable.

Pure Life-Spirit
Plants, animals, and unpretentious humans manifest as pure life-spirit, or should I say THE pure life-spirit. I tend the plants and thank them for sharing their pure life-spirit teachings with me. I tell my cats I adore them, I worship them, which in fact I do, as often as possible.

When enjoying states of heightened awareness, I’m exquisitely aware of the great gentle conspiracy of the life-spirit when I walk through the fields and forests, seeing where it’s always in the process of taking back and taking over the earth with its green goodness. Abandoned roads and abandoned buildings are covered with verdant growth.

The popular book “The World Without Us” shows what kind of a world it would be if we could only let the life-spirit take back the world.

Meanwhile, the contrast is stark:  sterile edifices and scars of concrete and asphalt, and lush organic manifestations of pure life-spirit.

Beingness
It’s not terribly easy to fly in the face of conventional thinking. One of the most radical, transformative realizations that could possibly come to a human being is to simply be aware of sheer existence itself, beingness itself. From time to time I have marveled at beingness, and marveled that more people don’t, or can’t, marvel at beingness.

Instead, it seems most people are resigned to being driven by conventional thinking, the de rigueur egoic personhood, with its conventional opinions, desires, fears, likes, dislikes, and perspective. There is, for most people, no sense of wonder inspired by beingness, only a dreary obsession with entanglements and desires and fears, in a hurry to be somewhere, to do something, to get something, to avoid something, to feel something. Most people have complicated lives.

My life is now as simple as possible so that I may better appreciate beingness, the living principle of the universe. I reserve the right to unalloyed wonder over beingness in this very moment, no matter what complicated circumstances in which I might find myself to be. Beingness is simple, wonderful, magical, profound, transformative—I can’t bring myself to suffer from the dreariness of the conventional egoic perspective any longer. Once beingness is experienced, there’s no turning back. What lives as me and thee is a wondrous being. It takes a lot of ignorance not to feel wonder from sheer beingness, from being this wonderful One we are.

The Perennial Philosopher
The Perennial Philosophy is, of course, as wonderful and as totally true now as ever. For those fortunate people who can grasp the Perennial Philosophy, life is immeasurably enhanced, inexpressibly meaningful. Such people become, de facto, philosophers, and not just hack philosophers weaving elaborate academically-fashionable philosophies or writing fashionable bestselling philosophy books, but Perennial Philosophers, harking back to the passionate uncompromising sages of antiquity, such as Diogenes, Lao Tzu, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Bodhidharma, to name but a few. In more recent times the Perennial Philosophers are the nondualists including Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi, Tony Parsons, John Wheeler, Bob Adamson, Wayne Liquorman, and many others.

Perennial Philosophers are known by the fact that they have surrendered unconditionally to the Perennial Philosophy and, while still living apparently ordinary, personal lives, are in fact totally surrendered to the impersonal life, and identify with it rather than with the conditioned ego. The joyous glory of being life itself is the compensation enjoyed by the true Perennial Philosophers.

The Herbivore’s Delight
It’s time to give that weird neologism “vegan” the old heave-ho. I’m not some crank from a planet circling Vega, I’m a human being who has found his way to surviving optimally on plants alone. The herbivorous diet involves minimal, unintentional, cruelty to animals in the course of harvesting grains and beans--to insects and small animals who are in the path of the combine—but otherwise is cruelty-free. Plants do not have sensory receptors, and can be plucked, chewed, boiled and ground-up without a care. An herbivorous diet is intrinsically the healthiest diet, as it is nutritious, high in fiber and low in fat. Eating only beans, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables is a lovely, inexpensive, cruelty-free way to survive and be optimally healthy.

There is no plant that is illegal or immoral or forbidden. Just because some plants have peculiar effects on the monkeys that ingest them is no grounds for declaring those plants off-limits. No monkey has the right to tell another monkey what plants it may and may not eat.

Eating plants is as close to eating sunlight as we monkeys can get. Sunlight is de light. We all must eat light, in whatever form it comes.

My heroic mug of strong coffee is palpably delightful. I’m grateful the prohibitionist authoritarian monkeys haven’t made coffee illegal, although they’ve tried, back when they were even more ignorant than they are now.

Any plant is fair game.

Food as Medicine, Medicine as Food
Eating plants is good medicine. It’s not possible to differentiate medicinal plants from nutritional plants. Good food is good medicine. Some medicinal plants are also good medicine.

Yes Outlet
How good it is to have creative outlets, to express fully that which needs to be expressed. The street sign “No Outlet” at the entrance of cul-de-sacs reminds me of all the frustration experienced by people who have no good outlets. We don’t have to paint or compose or sculpt or write or find an artistic outlet necessarily: it’s sufficient to just speak from the heart everything that needs to be said.

Everyone starts out with simple needs: food, warmth, cuddling. In a perfect world we would find our main business to be providing food, warmth, and cuddling to each other, and all would be very well. At some point many people have to fend for themselves, being denied food and warmth and cuddling; if these can’t be found, life feels cold and hostile.

Our basic expressive outlet as infants and small children is crying: for lack of food, warmth and or cuddling. If our basic needs are unmet as we get older, we learn to express ourselves with words.

The deep frustration and dissatisfaction many people feel could be mitigated by ‘crying’ to others, to learning of the extent of unmet human needs. We also cry by writing, by making music in the minor key, by painting dark paintings and sculpting tortured clay figures.

When a human being learns how to meet his needs and recreate the conditions of early childhood—nourishing food, warmth, cuddling—the contentment and happiness that naturally arises also seeks an outlet. The human being who manages to divine the impersonal beneficence of the universe is beside himself with relief: what better home life than to be in the bosom of a totally nonjudgmental natural energy. The creative expression from someone enjoying almost unbearable contentment is going to reflect that profound contentment.

At Home, At One
We all want to be Home, we all want to merge and be One with the Source. Home is a state of mind, and the merging with the Source is a given. In this very moment, we are all home, and we are all merged with the Source, at One with the One. There is an elaborate fiction that many people believe, that home has to be a particular place, that merging with the Source must wait until death. That leaves the only time we ever have—now—only a means to an end, a way to get to some future home, that must be passed through quickly.

Home is where we are, home is now. We are all already One with the Source.

Awareness of Awareness
One of the most lifechanging breakthroughs in understanding for me was, and is, awareness of awareness. In a flash my true mind, my true self, manifested, and continues to manifest, clearly. There is nothing more to seek, to fear, to strive for, to be troubled by. The presence, the presence…awareness of awareness is awareness of presence. Awareness is presence is awareness--impersonal, pure awareness. Awareness watching awareness is so incredibly simple, yet incredibly difficult for most people, who still hanker after the apparent contents of awareness:  children chasing after toys and other phantoms.

Living the Only Dream There Is
This is all obviously a dream. To wake within the dream is a very interesting situation.

Joie de Vivre
Just to be the life-spirit is enough to find joy arising spontaneously. When we recognize our true self, joy ensues. Children and animals are naturally joyful spirits because they are pure manifestations of the life-spirit, which is carefree joy itself.

Back From The Dead
A bout of influenza or other intense but self-limiting illness can be humbling, and even entheogenic. Upon recovery, it feels so good to simply not be sick. To regain function and energy and a physically comfortable condition is cause for celebration in gratitude. To be able to once again be among people, it’s as if I’ve been given a second chance at life. Influenza could itself be fatal, or it could have been another fatal illness, and that’s the end of this story. Instead, I’m back to life, a little unsteady yet, but topside of the sod and communing with all manner of beings once again.

Advaita Nightcap
Reading passages from the Upanishads in bed gave me very deep philosophic dreams this morning, insight-dreams. What power there is in this scripture and the reality to which it points. How blessed I am to be able to enjoy the same understanding as the ancient Vedic seers. I left a very clear message to myself, obviously.

Life-and-death Gatherings
It would be good to have a group that pauses to meet and discuss anything in an uninhibited unlimited way, an opportunity to vent, to commiserate, to commune, to communicate for a while in this universe where everything and everyone passes away. After the discussion has reached a natural stopping point, the group would then simply sit quietly together, enjoying the silent presence of interpenetrating spirit. There would be no belief system, no hierarchy, and the intent of the group is to share oneness, through the three aspects of the universe:  beingness, awareness, and communion. These gatherings would be opportunities for the universe to express and celebrate beingness, awareness, and communion.

Eternal Life
When two or more people reach a clear, deep understanding of just who is living this life, the concept of death becomes ludicrous.

The Best Legacy
To the best of my understanding, the best legacy to leave upon “death” is the Perennial Philosophy, the Perennial Teaching, the Perennial Truth. Everyone is Buddha-nature, Buddha-mind, this beautiful clear skylike mind, identical in essence in every being. There are no separate beings, pure awareness goes beyond all thought. To know this, to be this, is as good as it gets, and we already are this.

The Biggest Misperception of Human Beings
Most people are quick to say “I’m alive” or to believe “I have life.” Most people are very proprietary about what they perceive as “their life.” As if life is separate from them, and separate from others. The fact of the matter is that we ARE life. We don’t “have” life. Once identity is stabilized as life itself, the magic of transpersonal life becomes obvious, and strong. It’s all a matter of correct perception, which requires letting go of all misperceptions, cherished and familiar and habitual as they may be.

Ultrasanity
Most people think they’re sane, and have a general concept of what constitutes sanity, which is typically regarded as being fully engaged in conventional thinking and consensual reality. There’s a transpersonal sanity—an ultimate sanity—that is based on the natural state of effortless being and pure natural awareness, the sanity of newborns and animals and self-aware self-realized sages.

Survival Economy of the Perfect World
The main work of the world is survival. Plants seek out nutrients, water, and sunlight; animals seek out plants or other animals for sustenance. As money is an illusory abstract concept, the ultimate wealth of the human world is found in those things that ensure survival: water, food, shelter, clothing, fuel, medicine, caregiving, transmission of survival skills and knowledge. These essential goods and services, in a perfect world, would be available to everyone, at no cost, and in turn everyone would be providing goods and services to the extent of their ability to provide them. When sufficient goods and services have been provided, and everyone has had all needs met, the perfect world enjoys its perfection, and its sustainability. What keeps the perfect world from manifesting is the persistence of dualistic thinking, which is the cause of selfishness. When there is selfishness, there is desire for more than enough, and an aversion to contributing a fair share of effort to help provide essential goods and services.

Don’t Care What You Want, Don’t Care What You Think
The part of us that was trained to Want and Think is the person, the ego; It’s what human beings evidently have the natural proclivity to develop. This personhood is what was tossing and turning from 3 a.m. on this morning, and many mornings. Reflecting on my personal life tends to give me insomnia and assorted pains in the psyche. What’s done is done, surely. All we have is now, indubitably. The being that is present now is all that matters, for sage and fool, saint and sinner, and all the innumerable Normals.

So much of what passes for communication between humans is nothing but vain desires and glib opinions. Talk is cheap, as is thinking, as are desires. Any moron can have a head buzzing with thoughts and desires and opinions.

Let’s instead shut up and just be, beyond desire, beyond opinion, beyond thought, beyond ego, beyond the personal. Let’s just be that stuff the New Agers refer to as they go about Namaste-ing each other:  eternal Light, universal Essence, pure Spirit.  The Divine Naturalness, the Holy Reality, the Real Wholeness.

Mental Wellness
It’s not enough to have mental health—the mere absence of mental illness—although that’s a good starting point to mental wellness. We can only start from where we are, ever. Becoming less and less dysfunctionally delusional, we become functionally delusional, i.e., “normal.” We can have all sorts of half-assed opinions and distorted perspectives, and that’s perfectly normal. That’s mental health, to be functionally delusional. Delusionality is good for business. Advertising is the delusion business, selling shit not needed to people who are under the delusion they need it.

In fact the global economic meltdown recession thingie is a sign that people are individually and collectively shaking off some delusions, such as Money Is Real, Property Is Real, Wants Are Needs. People are getting weary of the delusional Wealth and Hellness that’s been believed to be the normal state of things, and are coming around to the bedrock experiential reality of Health and Wellness as the measures of true wealth. Well-being is its own reward.

Mental well-being—mental wellness—is cultivating a robust insight into Mind and its contents to such a degree that the contents no longer are troublesome, and Mind itself becomes its own contents, and contentment.

It’s All In Your Head
Everything’s just in the head. Don’t bother running away from, or running after, anything. Thoughts are bullshit. Thoughts blind, and deceive, and frighten, and trouble. It’s all in your head. Really. Live like a cat or a dog, curl up and take a nap when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry, drink when you’re thirsty. It’s all very simple, natural, instinctual. That beautiful clear pure transparent natural awareness is complete unto itself, calm, and comfortable. Let the financiers walk in front of speeding trains. Our wealth is innate, this very awareness itself, this very essence itself. The real, natural, universal deal.

Ego is Belief
For ego to exist we must believe in its existence. Egos are nothing but beliefs, filled with beliefs. Cease to believe, and the ego vanishes. Those in the grip of ego want to hang on to beliefs, and want others to believe in ego’s existence, and in ego’s beliefs. When all beliefs are gone, that which remains is real, egoless, self-existing. The universal essence is what we really are, and no belief is required for its continued existence.

Spiritual Footprint
I journeyed yesterday afternoon, with plant spirit medicine. I saw so clearly how the course of my human life affects all the lives I touch. This color of journey may have been instigated by the recent death and memorial service of a much-loved and much-respected man who met an untimely death in a traffic accident on an icy road just as the holidays began.

We influence, and are influenced. We spiritually flow into each other at every juncture.

Again and again, plant spirit medicine reveals the nature of spirit, the world of spirit, and our place and responsibility in the spirit realm. It is entirely possible to be pure in heart, pure in spirit, no matter how ugly our egos have gotten. We are not condemned to be prisoners of ego forever. There is, in fact, no ego. All that we are is the universal energy, life energy, flowing forever from form to form. Realizing this, being this, becomes a simple, spontaneous, effortless process. Go past the names, the roles, the egos, and honor the indwelling light in all beings.

My ego is huge, elaborate, strong, inherited from the huge, elaborate, strong egos of my ancestors. It has served a necessary purpose—survival—and for that I give it due respect. Now that I better understand that survival can be egoless, the ego is no longer necessary, and in fact is a hindrance. The footprint of ego is heavy and muddy, cause for regret, for things said and done, for things not said and not done. The ego is clever and cruel, dualistic, chock-full of the noxious attributes of the Seven Deadly Sins. The footprint of ego is left on the bruised and bloody faces of lives we did not recognize or identify with, in our ignorant selfish dualistic thinking.

We’re all going to be remembered at our very own memorial service. It’s never too early, never too late, to start living the spiritual life, mindful of the flow of spirit in every exchange with every being. We remember, and are remembered, this way; we live on in all beings this way.

Cats and Deconstruction
Add me to the list of people who have realized that the more I know people the more I love my cat. The superimposed overlay of conceptual thinking that humans are so proud of is getting annoying. I can’t bring myself to even pretend to believe the convoluted complicated restless bullshit coming from the conditioned brains of my fellow monkeys. Every thought deconstructs to a nonexistent foundation. To arrive home and be greeted by those pure unpretentious spirits the cats is one of the greatest joys of the day. Simple pleasures, simple sentient beings. People fawn over the nobility and sweetness of mentally challenged people. Why not be noble and sweet and simple and pure in spirit and forgo the mutual bullshitting and pretending? Eh? We’re just life, it’s all about life. Don’t think about it, just BE it. Please.

Living with Morons
The geopolitical flashpoints are flashing, the morons continue to fight morons, and morons continue to fight back. Anyone controlled by ego is a moron. The insatiable desires of the ego create moronic behavior, the whole pot of suffering on this beautiful planet. Morons are not having a good time. It behooves those who have managed to extricate themselves out of moronitude to have a flagrant good time. For the non-moronic, it’s enough just to BE. Even so, there’s no attachment to BE-ing, so death is no big deal, and there’s no desperate urge to procreate. If enough human beings decided it is enough just to BE, human civilization and the planetary ecosystem would be healed. There would be no more flashpoints, and everyone would have enough, and all life would be in sustainable balance.

Being Life
It’s enough to be not just alive, but life itself. That’s what we are, that’s what’s seeing through these eyes, speaking through this larynx, writing through these fingers. Life recognizes life. Life loves life. It’s simple, it’s real, it’s beautiful.

Topside of the Sod
A comic strip in today’s paper had its main character, a droll old man, confess his planning consisted of spending ‘another day topside of the sod.’ That’s about as much as any sentient being could plan. In the messy incongruous imperfection of organic life, especially life as a human being, it all boils down to survival. This ongoing dream is a spinoff of ongoing survival.

Money is an Illusion
All there is is energy in various forms, cosmic energy, eternal. To think we can own it and sell it and buy it is absolute bullshit. When we grow up we see that it is all One, our true self, our true body. Every little body’s needs ought to be met, unconditionally, for free.

Don’t ever try to tell me anything is pay-to-play. The One is eternally at play, and doesn’t think it’s necessary to pay itself for the privilege.

Higher Laws Again
As some high-handed humans are about to turn me into a felon for consorting with a newly-forbidden plant I’m taking a cue from H. D. Thoreau and abiding by Higher Laws, i.e., natural laws. I am a biophile, and whatever is good for living things is to be promoted, whatever is bad for living things is to be avoided.

Nature, Nature, Nature
While taking my customary hike through the woods and talking out loud to myself in the perfect solitude it became clear to me that I would be doing a great service to nature if I would credit nature for everything rather than some mysterious Spirit or God or Energy. Even the fine old indigenous term Great Spirit still has a hint of Personhood in it. It feels so right to say, this awareness is nature’s awareness, this existence is nature’s existence. Doing so retains the breathtaking Transpersonal or Impersonal vastness and reality of this wonderful Presence while not injecting any metaphysical abstractions. It’s all nature, it’s all about nature, it’s the real nature. There’s no ‘me’ anywhere, not in any sentient being, not even in pompous humanity—it’s just nature: living, breathing, aware, real.

Being Spirit
Having inherited a heavily conditioned mind, I have been assaulted by thoughts for as long as I can remember, and even to this day. This morning, awakening in the wee hours of the morning, mind churning, I drank a cup of spring water and returned to bed. The cats followed me, and nestled against me, and eventually I entered a state which was not dream, not rumination, but of pure beingness, a deep contentment of simply being pure spirit. Thoughts had no room or reason to form in this wonderful calmness of being.

Again and again, it’s proof of where suffering really originates:  with thoughts, thoughts which obscure our true nature which is pure spirit.

It’s very difficult for modern people to be completely in the present, fully aware of awareness and beingness, to be aware of the presence of spirit within, around, everywhere. We are full of ourselves, false selves, selves of thoughts and desires and delusions, and lack the required emptiness to experience the presence of the Experiencer:  pure spirit. Fortunate are those who, through entheogens or enlightened words or enlightened individuals, have made it through the confusing maze of thoughts into the serene reality of spirit.

Solstice Journey
Nibbling on a few leaves of a fair flowering plant that shares its life with me, that was brought back from the brink, so too do I feel brought back from brink, and I too am at long last flowering, truly a late bloomer. In this very moment, not having to wait, not having to be anywhere else, abides the supreme treasure, the Supreme One. All this time the One abiding, silently, letting me think and do and say what I will, no matter how foolish, no matter how miserable I may have made myself feel. Now there is nothing to do but let go and abide with the One, as the One. How this came to be is a mystery. The right books, the right entheogens, the right experiences, the right mistakes, and now this. I wish this upon everyone, so that the days remaining in this ephemeral form in this ephemeral world are filled with joy, and gratitude, and ease.

The Selfless Eternal One
I really am grateful that the One is totally impersonal, totally nonjudgmental. This is perfect mercifulness. I will honor the One by recognizing its (my) presence in everyone, be they in the guise of fools or dolts or enemies, and withhold judgment indefinitely. To communicate One to One via these guises is fascinating and fun.

A New Indigenous Entheogenous Culture
Now that the lawmakers in this state have managed to outlaw as many entheogens as it can, it’s plain they don’t represent the values of people who have found themselves to be part of an emerging—or re-emerging—indigenous culture. Entheogens reveal our oneness with the earth and with each other, and help show us the way to live a life in harmony with the earth and with each other. The indigenous culture lives by the laws of Spirit, as revealed to us by Spirit. The entheogenic experience reveals Spirit within and without, an eternal presence and eternal reality, with its own innate immutable laws. We can only be that which we eternally are, and we can only live according to this eternal reality.

Upscale, Downscale
As the global economy continues to tank it looks like all my psychological preparation for living a very simple, humble, downscale life is paying off. It was my good fortune to have lived a gloriously blessed downscale life in spiritual community farms many years ago, so I know it’s possible to live an outwardly downscale life while enjoying the fruits of a spiritual life. Those accustomed to upscale living will have a difficult time adjusting to living downscale. Upscale is an illusion, and a volatile one at that. Downscale is by definition grounded, having hit bottom and living on the bottom. Living close to the earth, on its surface, provides sustainable security unknown to those who live in towers. The only true wealth in the universe is spirit, and living a spirit-centered life is truly upscale where it really matters. Anyone can live a spirit-centered life and enjoy its incomparable fruits.

Container and Contents
Normal ways of thinking focus on the contents of awareness rather than awareness itself. Awareness is the container of all things. To be aware only of the contents of the container rather than the container is to be ignorant. Ignorance is suffering: the bodymind believes itself to be separate from the One, not knowing itself to be the universal Container in human form, and fears death and loss and change.

Walking Through the Cemetery
This whole world is a cemetery, all things in the process of perishing if not already fully perished. Walking through the town cemetery, I remind myself who I really am, not this bodymind, not these thoughts, but the very spirit of the universe permeating all space and all things, as all space and all things. What animates and occupies this bodymind is the same spirit animating and occupying all bodyminds, all things and the space between all things, all energy formed and formless. This universal essence constantly changes in appearance while remaining the same essence. The only time universal essence seems to die is when a deluded bodymind is ignorant of just what it is, and instead believes itself to be something other than universal essence.

Nothing Much
“We come into this world with nothing and leave with nothing” is an old saying; it’s true in one sense, and false in another. We start out as pure unconditioned awareness, shining pure energy, completely in the natural state, pristine. To worldly eyes this is nothing; to spiritual eyes this is everything. We are always, at the core, pure unconditioned awareness, shining pure energy, pristine, perfect, in the natural state, the very essence and life and awareness of the universe. As pure awareness we cannot distinguish ‘things’, and we cannot distinguish ourself from everything else, and we are therefore born from nothing, as nothing, with nothing; born from everything, as everything, with everything.

Off the Gold Standard, On the Life Standard
As the global economy tanks and individuals struggle to survive, what stands out is how materialistic is the currently-imploding economic system. People have become owned by things, filled with endless desires for things, surrounded by things, blinded by things. Things are of little importance. What is of ultimate importance is life and the living. All life is of ultimate value, truly priceless. The shining life energy spirit in every leaf, every bird, every insect, every animal, every animal called human, is one and the same life energy spirit. To know this, to cherish this, to preserve this, to be this, is the greatest ‘thing’ of all. We need to take care of ourselves and each other, cherish each other, and make sure everyone has enough of what will sustain a simple, healthy, comfortable life. Everyone has the birthright of enough water, food, warmth, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, security. As we continue to procreate we must provide a world that we would want for our children, all children, no exclusions, no exceptions; this world needs to be sustainable, and meet everyone’s innate needs, to include both spiritual and biological fulfillment.

We must look to the few small scattered sustainable and fulfilled cultures to help us find our way. In the United States the Amish have lived as classic example of a sustainable fulfilled culture.

We can only start from where we are. The direct path to sustainable fulfillment is to practice desirelessness, a moment-to-moment mindful dedication to the very same 8-fold path as prescribed by Dr. Siddhartha Gautama. With the falling away of desires and attachments, life is simple, and meaningful, and cherished in all its forms, in the present. The hankering for things comes to a close. Needs are simple and easily met. Rather than the galling idiocy of living paycheck-to-paycheck and worrying about having enough, there is the serene, ongoing, wise course of life of living moment to moment, meal to meal. We will find our way, the spirit will find its way, ensuring enough for its own, which is everyone. The spirit will get down to the business of what it exists to do: to be spirit, to recognize itself in whatever form it assumes, and to love itself, unconditionally of course.

Which is why after enduring restless-human-thinking-caused tragedies, survivors and rescuers only want to go home and hug their kids and family and friends like they’ve never hugged them before. Make yourself at home. Stay home. Be content to stay home, to live, to love life, to be life, to be love.

Veganism
With the exception of cultures living in lands suitable only for grazing, or of cultures taking only what they need from the jungles or the forests or the waters, we should all be content to survive on plants alone. By doing so we are preserving our health as well as the health of the biosphere; we are also ensuring that everyone has enough food. We can feed more than ten times the number of people for a given acre through a vegan diet than through animal flesh that fed upon the plants we could have eaten instead.

The Evil of Television, iPod, Cellular Telephone, Entertainment, and Things
Entertainment and ‘things’ distract us from life, from the sentient beings we happen to be with, from the glorious spirit which is our sentience and our being. The mind thus distracted separates itself from spirit, from life. What conquers this evil distraction is, living. Life itself. Getting a life. And, with luck, recognizing life and being life itself. Now that’s entertainment, and the possession to have. Free, real, sustainable, omnipresent.

Untroubled Flesh, Untroubled Heart
Let the healing begin, and let it begin with me. The human brain, and human mental activity, human thoughts, have assaulted this bodymind for a very long time. I should be worried; I should be fearful; I should be despairing, and this is why…or so the story goes. This bodymind may die prematurely due to mental-stress-related disease, particularly high blood pressure, from a troubled mind. This morning I woke up too early, drenched with sweat, mind racing. This is not good. So I have breakfast and sit down and read the paper, to be joined by all four cats, plastered on my belly and lap and legs. I finish the paper, having read all the news, and such depressing news. I give up, relax, and sing, feeling vibrations deep in my chest, my native purring. I sing to heal myself, may all flesh be untroubled, may all hearts be untroubled, starting with me. I melt into furry purring untroubled feline flesh, and fall into a light trance for a half hour. And I feel great.

Sing Every Day
Sing every day, and sing without ceasing if you can manage it. Singing heals, the vibrations cleanse the heart and the mind and the body. The most miserable people in the world don’t sing. The happiest people in the world sing. It’s really that simple. Thought is a murky unreal world. Singing dispels thought, and causes the light to break forth unimpeded.

Desirelessness, the Way of Sustainable Peace and Environmental Harmony
Just as Blaise Pascal observed the problem with people lies with their inability to sit quietly in their rooms, the larger problem of suffering and environmental despoliation has its root in selfish desire, en mass, writ large. The problem with desirelessness is that it is an acquired skill, an acquired taste. To desire desirelessness is rare enough; to be desireless is even rarer. Only a blessed minority of people have found their way to desirelessness, and those people have found desirelessness to be paradoxically totally fulfilling. When we are in the desireless state, sheer being and sheer awareness stand revealed, in awesome cosmic glory. Through desireless comes fullness of being, the fullness of being a manifestation of the One.

It’s not enough to be fearless. We must cultivate desirelesness. Fearlessness comes with desirelessness. When nothing is desired, nothing is feared.

The world is waking up to the fact that materialism and consumerism is a self-destructive, unfulfilling, unsustainable way to live. We can learn through trial and error that the best culture is one based on spiritual values. All life is sacred. All ground is sacred. Wherever spirit is, there we are.

Immortality Through Art: The One and Only Immortal Medium
The transmission of thought from generation to generation via recorded words or artwork is uncertain. All media are perishable, and subject to misinterpretation due to language barriers and cultural shifts. The ongoing dream of life contained in the universal mind is itself the greatest artwork and the most complete thought. The dreaming universe is the perfect, complete, ongoing thought. The universe is immortal, although its configurations are not. The closest thing to immortality through art is to allude to the Perennial Philosophy, leaving clues and hints and reminders wherever and whenever possible, so that beings will always have the opportunity to know the ongoing reality of That Art Thou.

The immortal, perennial medium is spirit, the One. This universal energy faithfully conducts whatever modulations are made upon it, be the modulations of good will or ill will or anything in between. We write upon the pages of spirit, and our spiritual words—vibrations of intent and understanding—emanate and propagate through spirit, eye to eye, heart to heart.

Pure Awareness, Pure Spirit
The self-shining pure naturally perfect awareness is an aspect of the presence of pure spirit. Spirit is always present, and the pure being of pure spirit is characterized by pure awareness.

Presence in the Present
The main thing is to live completely in the present, and to be simply That which is the presence. The presence is pure spirit and pure awareness. There is nothing to cling to, nothing to fear, nothing to lose, nothing to gain, when we remember what we really eternally are. Spirit does not die, any more than electricity dies when a light bulb burns out or shatters. We are not the light bulbs but the presence of living electricity, spirit. The light bulbs electricity illuminates are of all shapes, sizes, colors, and brightnesses—so it is with these forms occupied by spirit. Electricity is the same wherever it flows; spirit is the same wherever it flows.

Spirit, not Spirits
There are no separate souls, no separate spirits, no separate identities, except in the misperception of conditioned mind. There is only spirit haunting the universe, and we are it.

“We Come Into The World With Nothing”
Could it actually be that we come from the world as everything?
As this body grows evermore entropic while the global economy implodes and global human civilization reaches the limits of its materialistic unsustainability, I reflect on that which we all have—that which we all ARE: life itself. This very life energy, this beingness, this awareness, this presence, the manifestation of life, the expression of the universe, is the real deal. It just is, effortlessly, spontaneously, no brand, no trademark, no fees, no ownership, not buyable or sellable. Pure life itself. We are spirit. A spirit-based economy is simple and sustainable, as is a spirit-based culture, a spirit-based civilization.

We come out of spirit as spirit.
All we have, all we are, all we need, is spirit.
Please, get out of the cars, put down the cellphones, leave the televisions off, and get in touch with spirit. The presence of spirit is this very presence, our presence, the one and only presence.
No need to worry about having enough money to pay for this month’s worth of spirit.

In A Perfect World
To those who see with the eyes of spirit the world is already perfect. While things come and go, things are bought and sold and fought over, spirit remains, spirit sustains.

In the material plane, we do need to take care of a little business, and do it better than the shortsighted greedy-hearted hordes.

A spirit-centric world lives lightly. Just enough of the necessities for life is enough. Basic shelter, basic clothing, simple low on the food chain food like beans and bread and fruit. No sentient being need suffer and die for the sake of our survival.

Spirit is enough. Communion with spirit, as spirit, is enough. Come close, feel the warmth, feel the spirit, rejoice in our oneness as spirit.

We Are Life
We are life, unconditioned life, the life of every plant and animal, the life of the earth, the life of the universe. It’s an id thing we are, although the conditioned ego does come in handy. It’s the immensity of life living through us as us, seeing through these eyes, breathing, walking. Raw, pure, 100% life itself. I speak for life, for I am life, as are all beings.

Energy Monitoring Energy
Feeling the quality of energy in the bodymind without identifying with a particular quality of energy takes practice. The energy gets constricted, trapped, turbulent, and these blockages of energy lead to a feeling of dis-ease and un-wholesomeness. When the energy is allowed to flow freely, there is a feeling of coolness and peacefulness in the bodymind. All is forgiven, all is accepted, it’s time to relax and be this wonderful One that we are. Centering is self-monitored energy that is reaching equilibrium.

Insomniacal Prayer and Gratitude
Another 3 a.m. waking, that even aspirin, spring water, and four purring cats plastered against my head and body couldn’t ease, gave me an opportunity as I lie there, thoughts swirling and stuttering through the mind, to find that which makes everything right, no matter what, even overdraft charges. Finding such a panacea was fairly easy following the format of prayer. Praying to an omnipresent deity led me to construct the prayer as follows: “May all beings know they are the One, that the One lives in them as them.” I test out this prayer on myself, and find that it works: as long as I remember what I really eternally am, all is well. I can even forget what I really eternally am, that’s fine, that’s natural, as long as I don’t lapse into thinking I’m something other than the One, I remember all is always well: for that I am grateful. What more could one ask for? I’m grateful for the One, that the One is the One and is what it is and how it is. I’m grateful there is no-one but the One, and that the One is perfectly no-one.

Gratitude to the Universe, for perfect Freedom
I have perfect freedom of being, and freedom of mind. My nature is completely free, my being is completely free, my mind is completely free. There is no-one who can take away freedom of being, freedom of mind, because it is inseparable from being and mind.

Celebrating Freedom of Being
There are two ways I celebrate and express perfect freedom of being: being absolutely still, and dancing and generally moving freely in all directions.

Celebrating Freedom of Mind
I just let my mind shine effortlessly, containing everything…and I enjoy the parade of thoughts and memories and imaginings and sensations and emotional states, for without this parade I would not have come to know the perfection of the shining, all-embracing universal mind.

Lowering the Material Plane Standard: The Hippie Ideal
An upper-echelon administrator crossed my path, an iconic figure, an archetype, dressed to the nines, maintaining the dress and decorum expected of one occupying that position. It was completely appropriate for the man to be dressed as he was, surrounded by immaculately-kept grounds, beautiful buildings, and sophisticated institutional infrastructure. The whole package is high-end and high-maintenance: therein lie my misgivings.

Why this obsession to keep up appearances at all costs?

As I can’t afford to keep up appearances in my own personal sphere, and have felt occasional pangs of regret that I can’t afford to live in the way in which I would like to become accustomed, I felt a stirring of joy of fully accepting the lowering of material plane standards in my personal life, and as an ever-growing societal norm, as the bleak economic picture drags on. Abandoning consumerism and materialism out of necessity or by choice, my contemporaries may yet live as simply and wisely and happily as…Hippies.

I do look forward to downsizing even more, and feeling more flannel and blue jeans and hair against my skin…and having fewer gadgets, and fewer monthly money hemorrhage sites. Not worrying about money, and living a carefree life as a manifestation of the universe, is neither insanity nor indolence nor irresponsibility; it is living sanely, responsibly, considerately, in harmony with all beings.

Who are we trying to impress? Whose expectations are we trying to meet?

What would Jesus buy? What would Jesus wear?

Better to be a happy peasant than a stressed-out aristocrat.

If I’m judged by my appearance why should that bother me—what bothers me is how stupid we are to put such inordinate value into appearance. These bodies are here so briefly—we should remember that our appearance become our total disappearance in a shockingly short and unpredictable length of time: that fact should give any intelligent person all the impetus necessary to go beyond appearances and just be unfailingly unconditionally kind, and to hell with appearances.

Sweethaven: In Praise of Ramshackleness
In the Popeye world the characters live in the fictional town of Sweethaven. In the movie Popeye, Sweethaven is fleshed out enough so that actors convincingly simulated living and working there. The word that comes to mind when describing Sweethaven is ramshackle. Even the characters were ramshackle insofar as the clothing was baggy, a little shabby, way out of style and incongruous. What a lovely, goofy, endearing way of life. I would rather spend my days in Sweethaven than anywhere else.

There are real-world Third World Sweethavens that are no doubt not so endearing. Ramshackle is charming, squalor isn’t with its hunger and disease and misery and filth.

My vision of a humane, fun, sustainable human civilization includes clean, healthy Sweethavens—no soul-draining unsustainable megalopolises, no accumulations of wealth and no pockets of poverty.

The Eyes Are The Prize
Every time I make eye contact with a ‘stranger’ and exchange smiles or hellos it feels so good, so right. It doesn’t matter what apparent differences exist between us, eye contact is the dazzling unifier.

I keep my eyes wide open, in a spherically receptive state, and stay alert to the opportunity to make eye contact with every being I possibly can as I go about my business. There is nothing more important than acknowledging the Presence that manifests in all beings. Even though many beings don’t make eye contact and even go out of their way to avoid it, I will keep my eyes open, ready to connect whenever the opportunity arises. To make the connection is simple, and powerful, and meaningful: the One connecting with the One.

Cutting Off Demand: Junkies Trashing The Planet
Just as the definitive solution to chemical dependency is to treat the patient so that the demand for the abused drug ends, through education and medical intervention, so too the global blight of unchecked human population growth and its tendency to unsustainably consume the earth’s resources is best dealt with through cutting off the demand for unnecessary products and excessive energy consumption. Through education, including cultivation of a scientifically-based nondual noetic sensibility, the human species can learn how to live a happy, fulfilling life without lapsing into toxic consumerism. Alas, just as the addict can only be treated if he wants to be treated, just as the addict can only change if he wants to change, the human population must want to change its behavior individually and collectively. The root cause of toxic consumerism is a sense of spiritual emptiness, of spiritual malaise, that causes people to consume material goods in an attempt to feel complete, whole, satisfied. When people individually and collectively find fulfillment in the spiritual life, the demand for material goods becomes minimal, becoming a matter of meeting needs rather than satisfying desires. The spiritual life saves the individual and ultimately the planet.

The Cosmic Joke
The universe, complete unto itself, unaware of itself, spontaneously becomes multiform. The forms that manage to survive and replicate and complexify to the point of self-awareness and other-awareness go through a stage of suffering from a feeling of lack and incompleteness, not yet having realized the one underlying identity of all forms. When conditions are right and the lifeform is ripe, there is the realization that nothing is lacking, that completeness has always been the case, that the universe manifests through us as us. We only need to let what’s already here, within us as us, reveal itself, express itself. There is only one Do-er, the universe. Let the next move and the next word come from the universe, in the universe, for the universe. Let the next contact with another lifeform be an occasion of the universe recognizing and communicating with itself. Knowing this, being this, is excruciating, unbearable, inexpressible—in light of this, the natural response is to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Watch the universe eat itself, and be eaten by itself. Watch the universe forget itself and believe itself to be something else. Watch the universe get attached to parts of itself, or fear parts of itself, or deliberately injure parts of itself. Watch the sophisticated lifeform take credit for its accomplishments and gifts. It’s a hoot.

Talking With the River Monsters
This morning featured a vivid water dream. This time instead of merely avoiding getting my feet wet, I found myself up to my neck in river water, walking upstream against a fairly strong current. The river passed under an old city, and I was on the outskirts. As I stood in the current, feeling the impact of floating debris against my body, I spotted an immense crocodile nearby, upstream, its jaws skyward, opening and closing. At first I was fearful of the beast. Shortly afterward, two other beasts that were more amphibious-appearing and humanoid in overall size and shape positioned themselves near me just downstream. They stood fast, looking at me, and made odd grunting sounds. I looked back at them, grunted back, and patted the top of their green slippery heads affectionately. I came to understand somehow that these beasts lived in the river, and came from the river.

We’re all beasts living in the river of life. We all come from the same river. How good it feels to love and be loved by all the beasts we encounter as we live out our lives in the river.

How Big Is My Body
I’m inside myself, in a little body inside a big body. Everywhere I look, is my body. When this little body dies it is absorbed by the big body. Some other little bodies recognize me, some don’t. Identifying with the little body is quite understandable—it takes time to catch on to the big body. The universe is infinitely patient, and savors the reunions that happen when the conditions are right. Reunions—little bodies finally catching on that it’s always a grand perfect union, a union-verse, One. One big body, one big mind, unitary.

Simple Gift
I marvel at the skills developed and utilized by people—musicians, physicians, professors, auto mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, writers, construction workers, cooks, waiters, software engineers, the whole gamut of talents and natural gifts. As a generalist, I have many skills but few refined to any great extent, except perhaps Web searching, proofreading, and typing. Maybe writing. My one great highly-refined skill is self-inquiry, which is the Perennial Philosophy practiced as a skill of sorts. Thinking back on this little life of this little bodymind and this little personal history, the prevailing gift that has served me well through thick and thin is the capacity for introspection, which now with greater maturity has ripened into effective mindfulness, so much so that the personal mind I used to think was me, and mine, is nothing out of the ordinary, nothing special at all. What is special, and extraordinary, is the universal mind present in everyone, as everyone. My gift is to be able to recognize, appreciate, and surrender to, the universal mind. In this vast limitless perfection all things rise and fall, be they musical notes or bodyminds. In this very moment, this endless Now moment, all is as it should be, all is well, in the universal mind. This is a silent gift, the presence of the universal mind. In silence, beyond words and thought, the One abides, and recognizes itself, in silence. The One is the ultimate gift. To surrender to this that we eternally are takes practice. Having a natural talent for mindfulness, I am happy to keep at it, as it has resulted in inexpressible joy and freedom. When I remember the One and surrender to the One and let the One do the talking and the walking and the breathing and the writing and everything else, that’s grace—that’s the universe’s gift to itself.

Suffering
It’s a fact that there is no separate Do-er, these bodyminds are simply doing what they must do. The One, when in a mentally-conditioned, self-deceived, deluded state of mind, will suffer—although the One is beyond suffering. There is a perception of suffering, just as there is a perception of loss and gain and separateness from the One. So suffering must happen in order for the One, in a bodymind, to learn more about itself, through the process of trial and error.

The Water of Life
This morning, after waking early and worrying about money, I fell asleep and had a dream that featured water. I was left alone in a valley that had creeks running through it. I noticed that the ground I stood on was saturated with water, and was in fact eroding away and being replaced by water. The water in the creeks and beneath my feet was clear and pure, spring water.

My personal life has lately hit another rough patch, not as rough as some, but rough enough. The uncertainties of personal, local, national, and global economies has been a cause for concern of late, and a source of no little frustration. Worrying about money is not something I thought I’d be doing, but here it is.

So this is what it feels like to be relatively penniless. The numbers have been crunched, and they are nauseating, on one level. To be so influenced by abstractions such as money or lack thereof is adding shame to this queasiness.

We all are born with nothing but a tiny helpless needful bodymind, no possessions, no money, no name, no agenda other than to find food and and warmth and pass waste. How we as a species of animal learned to be miserable just from thoughts, abstract concepts such as money and bank balances and so forth, is one of life’s mysteries.

So today, the day after hitting emotional bottom upon learning of another reversal of financial fortune, I find great meaning in this morning’s dream. The meaning is simple, and deep. Money is unreal. Thoughts are unreal. The only real thing, the only thing of value, is life itself, Spirit itself, flowing through us all, flowing as us all. All we really need is life and the basic requirements of life: water, food, shelter. A meaningful life is a life of love felt and expressed for all life. All life is precious, all life is one life. One water, many waterways returning to the ocean.

Everything passes away, and the water of life flows on, one pure water, one and the same wherever it flows.

Spiritual Destiny
When it becomes impossible to deny that one’s true self is the One it’s obvious that all there is to be is the One, and to live according to this fact. The games deluded people play are happening all around, and all that the One can do is accept it all. People going about believing they are this or that, taking seriously their role and their identity, as limited and mistaken as they may be, just can’t be helped, and can only be accepted by the One. Fortunately, acceptance comes naturally to those who have recognized and have surrendered to the fact they are the One, as the universal mind of the One is spacious, perfect, and radiant, impossible to defile or destroy, impossible for it to not effortlessly accept whatever it contains.

Impermanence
How apropos that one of the last entries in this Web page is about impermanence, as I will soon have to abandon this page, and look into starting another.

All my forms are impermanent, yet I remain, the ground of being, pure awareness, the universal life force energy.

The most beautiful thing in the universe is the beholder. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder; beauty is not the eye of the beholder; beauty is the beholder. The Beholder is beautiful. The Beholder is universal mind. There is nothing else.

Things in the universal mind, rising, falling, all things impermanent. The universal mind goes on. When conditions are right, the universal mind recognizes itself through its impermanent bodymind form.

The Company of Cats vs. The Company of People
Every day that I wake up in my own bed in my own home I have to extricate myself from at least one sleeping cat wedged tightly upon me or next to me. To have cats share the house makes life immeasurably sweeter. I can, and I have, spent entire days solely in the company of the cats, and such days are delightful, restful, and well-spent. Serene eye contact, silly noises, roughhousing and petting are effective communication techniques to make for happy times.

Whereas most people have an annoying buzzing cloud of restless thoughts and irrational opinions surrounding them that I must tolerate. The company of people is being in the company of self-centered chronically unsatisfied monkeys who must be communicated with carefully lest they get upset with what they hear. 

To Save All Sentient Beings, Save Yourself First
Only when we learn how to end our own suffering can we even think of helping others out with theirs. Aside from physical pain and physical discomfort, suffering is psychological in cause, and psychological in cure. I am keenly aware of my own suffering, and I am keenly aware of what it takes for my suffering to end. My latest bout with suffering was caused by being judgmental, by being conditional with my acceptance of others. Unconditional love, unconditional acceptance is the royal road to freedom, peace, insight. I am my own prisoner, I take away my own intrinsic freedom by being judgmental, conditional, exclusive. It's difficult but not impossible to accept even the heart of darkness when it manifests in this form or that form. Within the encrustations of anger, ignorance, delusion shines the pure light of universal energy.

The Five Stages of Grieving About Things Not Being How I'd Like Them To Be
The Five Stages of Grief apply as equally to unrealistic expectations as they do to the death of a loved one: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. I have been grieving over the delusional thinking of people and the attendant dysfunctional relationships. After much painful self-examination, I'm reaching acceptance of how things are, of how people are.

Mourning Impermanence
This long time-exposure of this corner of the universe has shown graphically and viscerally the impermanence of all things. There is nothing that can be grasped that doesn't slip away like sand, or water. It's all a dream in flux, appearances and disappearances.

Celebrating Impermanence
That the person I thought I was is impermanent comes as quite a relief. In its place is That which transcends impermanence, That which is all things, That which is nothing, That which takes all forms, That which is formless. To be That which lives forever in form and beyond form is a simple, subtle, profound reality that alone transcends impermanence.

Heart of Stone
Righteous anger, righteous indignation, is not very righteous. My lack of acceptance, my unforgiveness, my rejection, of certain people and certain situations has created a hard, flinty stone in my chest that encases my heart. Mercifully, the heat and light of the heart has been melting the stone into lava that flows out of me, harmlessly. I'm relieved to feel the light, and the lightness, return, and to dwell in the unconditional acceptance of the universal mind.

Perennial Innocence
That which I am is perennially innocent, incapable of harming or wishing harm, and totally pure and true to its own nature, truly a newborn babe, a tree, a noble universal beast. It is nothing less than the same Thing found to be universally present: universal mind, universal essence. This Thing is innocence itself.

The Age of Distraction
We are distracting each other quite well these days, cell phones, voice and text messages ceaseless. A train engineer texting oblivious of warnings, disaster ensues. Teenagers driving and texting or cell phoning, heedless of stop signs, tragedy after tragedy. Heedlessness, distractedness, obliviousness. The impoverishment is alienation from source, from the true Self. Such sophisticated collective ignorance. Television, Internet, more likely to distract, divert, entertain, waste away precious life time, stuck in ignorance, willfully or unwillfully, knowingly or unknowingly, ignorant.

The Cosmic Baseline
When we make ourselves deliberately go off baseline frame of mind through psychotropic agents we do so for a variety of reasons: to get away from a dreary baseline frame of mind, or to find a better frame of mind to be our new baseline.

It's my firsthand experience that it's not baseline per se that we seek to leave, but soul-concealing delusional thinking from which we seek escape and release. The baseline people are quick to call 'normal' is actually dreary conventional delusional dualistic thinking, a limited mindset. Our true baseline is not a way of thinking. Our true baseline precedes thought and contains thought. Our true baseline is pure awareness, the manifestation of our true nature, beyond thought, beyond good and evil. Our baseline is the universal mind itself. There's no need to escape or seek relief from the cosmic baseline. Who, having found our Right Mind, would, in their Right Mind, want to leave their Right Mind? The cosmic baseline is untroubled, spacious, perfect from the very beginning. Emaho, baby. It's been here all along.

Remembery Lane
Just as Ramana Maharshi had his Mount Arunachala, I have my West Lorain Street. The Oberlin sidewalk that starts at Professor Street and runs west north of Finney Chapel is where I remember first encountering my old pal Pure Natural Mind. I wonder if the aura of the four Ginko Biloba trees that grace the curb lawn made it easier to remember my True Mind. Wild musings aside, that place has a special significance to me even now, years and decades after that astonishing realization.

And the realization continues to astonish. Having been so thoroughly distracted for most of my adult life away from the universal mind, engrossed in the personal mind, at the mercy of troubled thoughts, to suddenly recognize my Right Mind, being my real mind all this time, was a moment of healing, a sea change in this life, the first light of the day of awakening. The nightmare was ending, transcendental sanity was recognized, and it was up to me to live in the universal mind to my heart's content.

Indeed, the heart's content is the very nature of the universal mind. It's my lifeline and my life.

Awareness Watching Awareness
Awareness watching awareness is the direct path to the Supreme. When awareness is at last freed from objects in awareness--from awareness OF something--it becomes aware of itself, and the sudden recognition of itself occurs. Awareness watching awareness is the blessed estate of the highly self-aware who become insatiably curious about just who, or what, is this self which is aware of itself. This very awareness is the universal mind, the universe at last recognizing itself as the universe. Happiness ensues. And healing. And relief. And hilarity.

Inescapable Universal Mind
Having recognized universal mind with universal mind, there's no escaping it. It's as inescapable as the present. I used to think I was doomed to live a short, miserable life, against my will, not my decision to be here. Now, I enjoy this limited existence which is fully embraced by unlimited universal mind. The purity and perfection of universal mind is the endless source of solace, strength, patience, joy, peace, and kindness. How wonderful that the universal mind, and the universe, is as it is, nonjudgmental, impersonal, intrinsically perfect. It's a fact that the universal mind is the same mind praised by all buddhas and all liberated beings of all time. I see eye to eye, mind to mind, heart to heart, with all sages in this identical timeless universal mind.

The Mission of the Universe
The mission of the universe is my mission. The universe has no mission statement, and so it follows neither do I, since I am the universe, working in and through this form. I do what I do, I do what I must, sponaneously following the dictates of my true nature.

Be Possessable
Live a life that's so simple and so unencumbered by soap opera selfish machinations that at any moment you can be taken over by the universal mind. To be in our right mind--i.e., the universal mind--is the only permanent thing in the midst of impermanent phenomena. The universal mind is always present, even while we're lost in delusion. Returning to the clarity and peace of the universal mind means letting go of that which we thought was our mind, of that which we thought was 'me.' 

Animal Planet
This morning all four cats rested on my lap as I read the paper. Watching them breathe, I can't help but adore them, innocent animals that they are. We humans are animals, too, just too often not so innocent. Our loss of innocence comes with delusional thinking, where we become our own worst enemy, hostages and victims of our own distorted thoughts. Unfortunately, our six billion strong species is inflicting the consequences of its delusional thinking and massive insatiable countless desires on the biosphere. Instead of being content with a little water, a little food, a little shelter, a simple life and a small lightweight footprint upon the earth we consume, collectively, a vast amount of natural resources to sustain an ultimately unsustainable way of life.

What will save our species, and all species remaining in this poisoned world, is a return to our biological roots, and making our true biological needs the basis for our way of life and our civilization. We can turn to the animal to see how it's possible to be content with the bare minimum necessary for survival. We can be, and some of us are, philospher-animals, or is that animal-philosophers? Here I am, bespectacled, with a pelt, a talking animal chock full of thoughts in between foraging and sleeping and shitting. If I was to live a truly wise, intelligent life, I would take as much as a 150-lb. animal needs, and leave behind as much as a 150-lb. animal would leave. Biodegradable, all of me, all of mine. Recycled forever.

Astrophilia, Biophilia, Cosmophilia, Psychophilia, Nihilophilia, Philophilia, Sophophilia
I've determined I'm not an astronomer, not even an amateur astronomer. An astronomer by definition names stars. I'm not interested in naming stars, or counting stars, or quantifying stars, or qualifying stars. What I am, more precisely, is a lover of stars. I'm an astrophile. I'm not a biologist, and could not dissect or kill a fellow organism, but I love all life, all living forms, and I'm very much a biophile. I'm neither a cosmologist nor a cosmonaut. I don't rigorously study the cosmos, and I don't care to travel through its hostile voids, but I love the universe for being what it is and how it is and that it is at all. I'm a cosmophile. That the universal mind, the universal soul, is pure awareness, pure energy, I'm grateful, and adore awareness and energy. I'm not a psychologist, I'm a psychophile. That at the heart of everything is absolutely nothing, I'm grateful, and adore the universe for being so impersonal, that there is no supreme personage present anywhere. I'm not a nihilist, but a nihilophile. That I can touch and be touched, communicate with, recognize and be recognized by, trust and be trusted by, love and be loved by, other sentient lifeforms fills me with gratitude and joy. I'm not a voluptuary, I'm a philophile. Loving all forms of life is lovely. I don't know all the philosophies devised by people over the centuries, I just love wisdom for its own sake. I'm a sophophile.

Human Stupidity
Only human beings can manipulate each other, and be manipulated, heavily conditioned animals that we are. To be a witness to human stupidity is a challenge. The very fact that I use the word 'stupid' is implicitly judgmental, and to that charge, I'm guilty, guilty, guilty. Human stupidity has made me a bitter old misanthrope. Stupid is as stupid does, they say, and there's a whole lot of stupid being done lately.

Lest I forget, stupidity is its own reward. The consequences of stupidity are often harsh. This is as it should be. This is as it is. Stupidity can only be ameliorated through suffering.

Rather than being vexed by the abject stupidity of people whom I thought should know better by now, maybe I should encourage their stupidity so that they can suffer the consequences of their stupidity sooner rather than later. I accept stupidity wherever it arises, and I accept the suffering that accompanies it. Through suffering comes the impetus to be a little less stupid. Stupid is not fun. There is no hearty laughter or delight or contentment to be found in stupidity. To the stupid, life is an endless cheesy troubled and troublesome soap opera.

The stupidity in the conditioning of this bodymind includes being judgmental, which is no fun at all. I'm only hurting myself by passing judgment, by being afflicted by the sickness of 'good' and 'bad,' 'right' and 'wrong.'

I wish only happiness for all beings. Stupidity causes unhappiness. When I remember what I really am, I'm as happy as it's possible to be while in human form.

Animal Wisdom
Again I'm blessed by four cats on my lap, all content, complete, innocent, ingenuous, unlike most humans. I look to the cats for wisdom, and strength, and patience, and encouragement, and find it through them. Almost blinded by my own bitterness about human stupidity, I can now see with my own animal eyes: calm, clear, untroubled eyes. I regain a sense of humor as I gaze upon the clump of catbox litter stuck to the nose of Mister Mischoff. The most important things in life are the simple things: sleeping, eating, playing. Being totally relaxed is the default mode. Humans need animal wisdom, desperately: I know I need it. I found it, again. Now I live it. By living it, I share it, and encourage it. Every human being has animal wisdom, waiting to be found, waiting to be lived. The body wants animal wisdom, for the body is an animal. The mind wants animal wisdom, for the mind is the universal animal mind. Animals in the natural state are relaxed and untroubled, the epitome of natural wisdom. 

Implosion
In the human condition, fully, sleep-deprived, depressed, resigned, I let go, and fall inward, toward the black hole that pulls all of what I am toward its unfathomable abyss. I can carry on no longer, and am on the verge of total collapse. So collapsing is what's at the end, then. Collapsing upon the essence of being, the ground of being, which catches me, supports me as I fall into it. Now I am at rest, finally. Whatever happens, must happen. I must let it happen, I must let it be. All is very, very well within every within. There is only Source, for everyone, as everyone, at the center, the ground of being. Wealthy, impoverished, young, old, male, female, in every circumstance, there is only Source at the center. Implode and find wholeness, peace, freedom, always within. There is only Source, within, without, everywhere. Source silently abides, we have only to return to it and resume our true nature as Source. Implode to Sourceness, implode to Suchness.

Life Rings
One of the cats brought out a ray of pure joy as I prepared to leave home for work after lunch. How fortunate to live with affectionate cats. They're life rings. Tealzy-Wealzy really saved my spirits with his last-minute goofy ploys for affection. Other life rings, those people and things that make life more bearable, include affectionate housemates of every species; reading; writing; making music; listening to music; the Internet; amateur radio; naps; coffee; beer, wine, and spirituous beverages in general; entheogens. The simple things, the simple everyday pleasures. The universe takes care of its own.

The best life ring of all is the natural state. This spontaneous, intrinsically perfect, universal natural Mind keeps me in touch with myself in every form, this form, the seemingly 'other' forms of Me. It's untroubled, free, vast, transparent, beyond personal or subjective yet the only Real thing there is.

Shine On
We can't be anything else but That which we really are. We can fool ourselves, we can pretend, we can be in denial, we can be distracted, we can be in the stupor of stupidity and egocentricity and conventional thinking for a while, but that's tiring, vexing, dreary as hell, hell in point of fact. When we surrender to That which we really are, we shine, we have hit bottom as the universal ground of being. Walking about, we look about, secure in our true nature. So many people are insecure, denying true nature, pretending to be something other than the universal ground of being, alienated, or identified exclusively with certain types of people to the exclusion of all others.

All I can do is be That which I really am. I can't turn it on and off, I can't hide it, I can't deny it, I can't disguise it--and why should I bother. I live and work and play and associate in normal daily life, doing what needs to be done. I stay alert to recognize, and be recognized, the universal ground of being recognizing itself whether it knows itself as such or not. Simple communication, the miracle of the universal ground of being communicating with itself, recognizing itself, shining in all flesh, in every eye. Being, Awareness, Recognition, Communion. Shine on, shine on. Be this eternal universal thing, and shine.

Being Chi, Being the Tao
It's neither megalomanic nor inaccurate to say, and know, that we are nothing but the Tao, bodyminds of universal chi. The chi of the Tao assumes all forms and all roles, all the while remaining nothing but universal life force energy, nothing but the Tao itself. No self, no role, no name. The universal energy, the universal mind, has no name. 

Source
There's a colloquialism that asks the question, "where is he coming from?" i.e., from what do his words and actions flow? Are there ulterior motives, a hidden agenda? What is this guy after? So the question, as commonly framed, is really asking about the quality of character of the person. The question can also be used as a form of transpersonal transcendental self-inquiry: Where am I coming from, from what source does my life, my existence, my awareness flow? It's obvious, after much self-inquiry, that there's no separation between the source and that which issues from the source. Where am I coming from? Source. Nature. The lively lovely spontaneous One, all-pervading. It's not enough to stay close to the source: it's essential to BE the source. There's no megalomania about being life, being nature, being the universe: it's just being honest, it's just having ultimate common sense. The megalomania issues forth from delusion of separation from source, that there is a separate Do-er.

End of Story
Early-morning insomnia perpetuated itself with brooding over this personal life story--what foolish things this bodymind has said and done, and not said and done. Also prominent were harsh judgments, this thing or that person or that action bad, or good, or foolish.

Imagine what life would be like with no connection to personal history, no concept of good or bad...it would be a constant, stable, impersonal, nonjudgmental life in the present. What a concept. What a very real possibility.

So much literature, and casual conversation, involves Story, the telling of a story, and Story becomes commonly adopted as real, and necessary, to be fully a Person, to share the values held in high esteem by Persons. We all must have a personal story, and a cultural story, a story to justify everything and make it feel like we exist.

This bodymind called Bill Ruth has a personal history, a personal story, and what a long, strange story it would be if committed to words. Why bother when the greatest story ever told is the living present, presence, awareness, beingness, now. This is the life, living this life fully in the present AS life, not as a role or a phantom person. Beingness and awareness needs no story, no explanation, no rationalization, no belief. The spirit of nature, the spirit of the universe, is not dramatic, not melodramatic, not sophisticated at all, for there is no person and no actor and no role-playing in the natural world. It's all just this living natural energy. There is no-one and nothing else but this living energy presence. This is a story too peaceful to tell. This is a story that tells itself through its own beingness, its own presence, its own pure unconditioned awareness. Living in the present means living without any story whatsoever.

The True Wealth
I had a dream this morning, dazzling, where I was in clear pure water with people and looking up at a strikingly beautiful mountain. What a pleasant evocative vivid dream. I also got my paycheck and felt such a relief, a sense of security, even a sense of power. How natural it is for people to want a lot of money and to visit beautiful places.

Money is uncertain, and travel is expensive, and for most people life is spent at home, working to make ends meet, on the edge of poverty.

In this fleeting moment of security, and in light of massive uncertainties on a global scale, I go back, again and again, to the elemental fact which is nothing short of astonishing: that we are, and that we are aware, and that we are awareness. To be aware of awareness, to be aware of being, is true wealth. I know what it's like to be poor in wallet, barely able to have enough to eat, and even then being and awareness remain. To those who have found themselves in involuntary asceticism, fill your belly with rice and rejoice as the Self, the universal being, the universal awareness. Be a yogi, be a rishi, be a jnani, be that amazing being and awareness, the eyes and the life of the universe.

Fear of Death
Looking into Barnes' new book "Nothing to be Afraid Of" after hearing him being interviewed, it's interesting to hear intelligent, very self-aware people discuss mortality. I would love to discuss mortality as much as I love to respond to the world and all sentient beings with unsparing nonduality, loving That which is equally everything.

The fundamental reason people tend to fear death is that people understandably tend to identify with the bodymind.

There's a great deal of misunderstanding and misperception about what exactly is the "soul" of a person, the presumably immortal part of us. A living aware self-aware other-aware being is alive because the 'soul' is present in the bodymind. A corpse is inert, insensate, unaware, because the 'soul' has evidently 'left' the bodymind.

What takes away the fear of death is ceasing to identify with a particular bodymind, and to examine That which is aware of itself, in whatever form That happens to have assumed. To the relentlessly inquiring mind, it eventually becomes obvious that "I" am That, and That is nothing more, and nothing less, than the universal, impersonal energy of the universe.

Nothingness is fearsome to ego-identities who are strongly attached to somethingness. The universal energy of the universe is impersonal, and while it has no self or sense of self, it's the ultimate Something, the one and only Something that's Everything, that's misidentified as nothingness by egocentric perspective.

It's a subtle understanding that makes the difference between eternal nothingness and eternal beingness. Most people are in a stuporous state, having identified with their particular bodymind so strongly that the crucial understanding of our ultimate identity is lost upon them. Hence the weeping and wailing and lamentations, celebrating births, mourning deaths.

The Five Stages of Grief Apply to Life, not Death
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance: these stages apply to life as well as death and loss, for what is life without loss, without ceaseless change, without suffering?
Having gone through the first four stages ad nauseum, it's my distinct privilege and prerogative to enjoy the last stage, Acceptance. Accepting it all, as-is. Accepting:
Ignorance
Stupidity
Greed
Selfishness
Self-delusion
Dishonesty
Heedlessness
Cruelty
Disingenuousness
Arrogance
Smugness
The list is endless. I accept it all, no matter in which bodymind it arises, even this one.

Mortals Denying Certain Experiences to Other Mortals
Some prudish people, some with good intentions, become prohibitionistic, making illegal certain experiences that are deemed wrong, evil, etc. Sexual expression and altering consciousness are two things often harshly regulated if not banned in some cultures.

I take the same view taken by many funeral directors, which is "enjoy it while it lasts." To have lived without having known orgasms or transpersonal entheogenic journeys is not only an unnecessary sacrifice, but an impoverishment. Every mortal is free to fully experience the range of experiences available to us in the brief time we have in these bodymind forms. Who would deny another fellow mortal a few fleeting minutes or hours of pure pleasure or ineffable transcendence between womb and tomb? Eat, drink, be merry. There is wine, there is music, there is the Call of Nature. Enjoy to the fullest, ad libitum.

Spontaneity
I worship nature and animals and plants, moving as they move, being as they are, perfectly totally spontaneously genuinely authentic. When this bodymind is in the spontaneous authentic mode things just happen, there's movement, activity, speech, all on its own accord, effortless. That which we call 'cute' is in fact 'acute' i.e. spontaneously arising, and totally authentic. That's why babies and animals are cute, and adult human beings so often aren't, acting out strange scripts and playing roles based on the degree of mental conditioning they've undergone.

The Roman Catholic Mass = Eleusinian Mystery?
I wonder if the hoary Eucharist is a vestige of the Eleusinian Mystery, appropriated by the early Christian church fathers and made mainstream? "Take, eat. Take, drink. This is my body, and yours too. We live forever as One."

If so, the Mass should be transformative in its power, such that Cicero would extol its virtues as much as he did for the Mysteries at Eleusis.

What the Mass might be missing is nonduality, nature worship, and entheogens...with those, that would be one kick-ass Mass. You won't be leaving the cathedral bored.

The Solitary Eleusinian Mystery
How fortunate the young adult who has the opportunity to have his own approximation of the Eleusinian Mystery, having the right mindset, setting, and entheogen to go hardcore transpersonal. Truly it's a blessing to have trusted friends, a public park with plenty of space on a warm, sunny day, and the modern equivalent of kykeon on hand to enjoy the open-minded carefree opportunity to explore more deeply the mystery of being, to alter and broaden the underpinnings of perspective itself. Everyone could use a transformative experience, especially at the peak of youth and strength when the ego is also at its tyrannical peak. A good mass ego-shredding entheogenic experience is what could set things right in this crazed, unhappy, runaway civilization.

Self-expression
How fortunate the child who receives encouragement from adults to engage in creative self-expression, such as writing, improvising music, drawing, and other such outlets. This child, this human monkey bodymind, was so favored, and here it is, still going on. The outlets are still issuing forth words and music, expressing self. There's the little-s self to express, certainly, the sturm-und-drang of egoic life. There's also the Big-S Self to express, and in this the autumn of this bodymind's life, it's the Self that is of sole interest. Therefore there's no urge for self-expression, only theunstoppable urge of Self-expression. It's as easy to stifle Self-expression as it is to stifle the need to sleep, or eat, or shit. It's the elephant in the room that no-one sees because we're the elephant, i.e., the Self.

It's all Self-expression, even when the Self is self-deluded into believing itself to be a separate, limited self. It's by turns tragic and comic to witness the Self in the state of self-delusion, fearing death, clinging to life, alienated, exclusionary, judgmental, conditioned. Weep for the poor self that dies, celebrate its birth, hope for its happiness in the midst of change and loss. To the self, life is a struggle, death is terrifying. To the Self, it's all the same. The ocean of the Self remains untroubled by its own currents and waves and transformations.

So I find it delightful to express my Self, as it is truly delightful, to say the least. How do I love thee, Self? let me count the ways, and write them all down.

The way to express the Self is to simply surrender to the Self and just be the Self. Being the Self, fully, in this human monkey bodymind form, is perfect Self-expression. The Self naturally expresses, and is totally unaware of itself, even though it is pure awareness and pure being.

Purely Pure: Natural Purity, Natural Purification
What is Pure? What is the standard of purity, the essence of purity? To experience pure purity would be a good thing, surely, and it is. I am in touch with purity all the time, pure awareness, pure being, inescapable. The path to appreciation of our innate purity and perfection starts with the appreciation of the natural world. In order to appreciate nature, we only need to go to it, and spend as much time as necessary savoring nature's purity and perfection. How fortunate the child who has the time and the opportunity to be alone, in the woods and fields, communing with creeks and rocks and sky and squirrels. The spirit of nature and the Self are one and the same spirit, and that spirit is vast, serene, pure, perfect, absolutely impartial and impersonal and spontaneous and wild. The spirit of nature is our very being, our very awareness. The breath of nature produces bodyminds, points of awareness, nodes of sentient energy, made of its own spirit.

Surrender Monkey
This bodymind is obviously a great ape, and really has done a great job of surviving and propagating. All the generations of toil and trouble have led to this, a life of relative security and relative leisure. As I pluck the low-hanging fruit, a silverback ape now, it behooves me to breathe a sigh of relief, and a deeper sigh of unconditional surrender to the natural world. It's nature surrendering to nature. How good it feels to be nature, no worries. There's nothing I can do about the toils and troubles the human monkeys manage to think themselves into. I've suffered long enough. I fall back into the soft green lap of nature, where I abide for all time. Nature neither toils nor is troubled--only in fevered monkeybrains is there worry. Dualistic thinking = worry. The surrendered state--the natural state--is peace.

Wholeness=Holyness=Natural State
Walking to work, I revisited the old spiritual maxim of holiness is wholeness, completeness, and had no qualms about applying it instantly to this life, this bodymind. The bodymind loves to be whole, to know it's whole, complete. The mind becomes content, the body relaxed, as the intrinsic wholeness of the One descends and pervades the bodymind.

Birthday Musings
On this day which happens to be almost exactly the anniversary of the emergence of this sentient lifeform, I have a fine opportunity to reflect where it's been, what it's seen, what it's said, what it's done, and where and how it's now. All I can say is, wow. All the been-there-done-thats, and I find myself sitting in a reclining rocking chair morning after morning, blanket and several cats on my lap, reading the newspaper or a good book, esconced in an old house. I've wished for many things, sometimes carefully, sometimes carelessly, and have gotten many things, and have had many experiences, from tedium to awe, agony to ecstasy. And now back to the beginning, when these eyes, unconditioned eyes, saw first light five and a half decades ago. And how "I" did not exist until maybe age 2 or 3 or 4. Before the I, something existed, but it had no concept of being "me."

Hence the Wow. I've come full-circle, or, more accurately, I've never left where I started. There is no I. There is no me. What there is, can only be called nothing. The ground of being knows not. The ground of being knows not it even is. These eyes are the same eyes as newborn lifeform, life seeing, the light of life shining in them, taking it all in, one with it all and not knowing otherwise, not knowing at all, just the fullness of life, the fullness of the ground of being. Who says Wow? How? Now?

Mystical Understanding
All the fascination with mysticism and mystical experiences is understandable. The question arises, sooner or later: What good are mystical experiences when it comes to day to day life?
Mystical experiences are fleeting, as are all experiences.
What isn't fleeting is a stable Understanding of That Which Is.
The mystical understanding becomes so deep that there is no recourse but to simply be the understanding and the understander and the understood.
Universal eternal life is understood to be one's true life, the life that lives in every form.

Daemon Possession
It's a fact that we are all possessed and have at least two personalities, one which is Real, and the other which is Unreal. We can have an infinite number of unreal personalities possess this body throughout its corporeal existence. The unreal personality is a conditioned and conditional personality; the real personality is unconditioned and unconditional, quite an impersonal personality, or transpersonal personality.

The unreal personality is the only personality that suffers from mistaken identity and therefore suffers when conditions change as they must. The unreal personality is a cauldron of emotions and opinions and memories and fantasies and thoughts that misinterpret everything. The unreal personality's understanding is limited, distorted.

The impersonal personality, being real, possesses every body all the time, whether it's known as such or not. The impersonal personality is pure awareness, unchained to thought or opinion or like or dislike or concept of good or bad. The real personality does not interpret reality, it IS reality. At this very moment every body can, in fact, allow itself to be taken over by that which is always in charge: the universal spirit. The vast calm pure awareness behind thought is always at hand, always what we are. Here it is, and this is what we are. Experienced firsthand, the constant silent presence of pure awareness, the signature of the real thing, its presence our presence, its awareness our awareness.

Contact
Being in direct contact with other sentient beings is a wonderful thing. Intercommunication is communion, life recognizing life. Eye contact, touch, voice, facial expression...exchange of words or exchange of bodily fluids...the whole gamut. The interpenetration of the One Energy. It's all now.

Conceptual Life vs Life
Listening to the radio during the presidential campaigns, reaching a point of maximum cynical disgust from so much mind-manipulation afoot, I nibble a small Salvia leaf and head off to work. Car-free and carefree, walking along, life energy shimmering in the leaves of the trees and shrubs and birds and squirrels reminds me that I too am life, and this awareness and beingness one and the same as all life around me. This cosmic viriditas is nonverbal, nonconceptual, silent, real. There's nothing I can say about it or think about it. It just is. Just to be this is the culmination of this existence. Is there a politician who would work for the recognition and preservation of life itself--to lead this wayward civilization back to nature?

If I were elected president, I would remind people of the wisdom of contentment: to be content with simple pleasures, to be content just to have the basic needs met: enough water, food, clothing, shelter, medical care--to be happy just to have Enough--requiring the least amount of energy and resources to sustain a comfortable healthy life. The imperative is two-fold: everyone should have Enough, and we should let the biosphere begin to heal itself of the toxic destruction wreaked thus far by our species. To do so requires sacrifice--everyone needs to reduce excessive demands upon the Earth.

The deep-seated problem with our civilization is the widespread failure to recognize life as our common identity, our true nature. True contentment is being true to our inmost nature, which is life eternal. It's enough just to be life itself. As life, our needs are simple and few, easily met. If everyone could be content just to be life, there would be no environmental destruction, no war, no crime, no alienation, no suffering.

The Hippie Commune, The Ideal Democracy
I had the good fortune to live and work with a tribe of hippies for a couple years. Sharing resources and living simply, we had self-government and met all our needs materially and spiritually. I knew then and know now that the 'meek' are inheriting the earth. The Amish community has doubled. Sustainable cultures are sustaining. Unsustainable despotic cultures are doomed. It's all changing as it must. Hippies are nature's way of turning a destructive species into a peaceful harmonious one.

Getting Back to the Magic of Life
It's easy for me to be enchanted by the magic of life itself, and that's why I'm so content just to be this, i.e., the magic. The problem is, many if not most people are distracted by material things and don't see the magic, and don't feel the magic, and have therefore lost the ability to be the magic, and are discontent. With no magic in life, existence is dreary and meaningless and frustrating and fearful.

One exercise I do habitually is to look at the aura, the life-energy field, which surrounds everything. To plainly see the presence of this energy field is a magical experience. We are beings of energy, radiant cosmic energy. This is a magical thing, to be a being of cosmic energy. How many people are ready, and willing, to be this? This is wonderful, this is pure magic.

Veganism and Universal Respectfulness
Veganism is, to me, not just a totally plant-based diet but a way of living and a way of looking at the world that is all of a piece. The whole world is our body, and we should treat our great body in the way we would like our small body to be treated. It's not enough to stop eating mammals and other sentient beings: we have to stop polluting and consuming to excess. We have to treat every thing, animate or inanimate, sentient or insentient, with respect. No angry throwing of broken gadgets. Every thing does indeed have its own spirit. Every thing is indeed energy in condensed form. Every thing is indeed the flesh of the One. So speak kindly to every thing and every one, and be kind. We are all kin, one body, one flesh, one energy.

Life Seeing Itself
We see with the eyes of life. Life sees life. Life recognizes life. The vitality that sees, sees the vitality present in all living beings: plants, animals, birds, insects, the glowing, vibrant energy of life. The eyes of life open and close and open, always seeing somewhere, in some form.

No-one Controlling, No-one Controlled
The fatigue of insomnia puts me in a dreamy state, moreso than usual. One foot follows another, and the motions go through nonetheless. This body is a vessel, a boat, a vehicle, a ride, and this rider slumps back in the seat, watching the scenery go by through these window-eyes.

What am I after? What do I want? All I can do is passively slump in this seat of flesh, watching the scenery go by. This is the story of this life, another pair of eyes of the universe, witnessing itself. I can do no more, I can be nothing else.

Uneasy Circumstances
Living in this developed country, blessed by all the advances this civilization has provided, at the moment still healthy and with a few years probably remaining in this form, doesn't make it any easier to accept the fact that everything and everyone passes away--it makes it more difficult to accept. Easy circumstances are easy to become attached to, and therein lies the uneasiness when, through education and experience, the evanescence of all things and circumstances becomes obvious. The ship of state and the ship of individual physical existence are leaking, and will sink by-and-by.

Security and Nothing and Back Home
The idyllic days of my childhood were idyllic because I felt completely secure. My house and my family and my neighborhood, for all I knew, would last forever. Nothing lasted forever, and nothing lasts forever. Where then can I find lasting security? In nothing. Nothing. Verily, in pure unadulterated nothing itself. Abiding as nothing, nothing abides, no-one abides. No-one is the same as nothing, and I am no-one, I am nothing. Strangely, this feels like home, sweet secure abiding neverending home--nothing itself. This is home, now and forever. Pure awareness, no-one is aware, nothing is aware, there is only this wonderful impersonal awareness, no-one aware of nothing.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road
The quality of energy in this node of energy called "me" can't help but radiate its quality--it's the nature of energy. We modulate the energy and convey intelligence of some sort, with words and symbols and with emotion and intention. The quality of energy is determined by the depth of our understanding, and by the quality of energy imparted to us by other "nodes" especially in our formative years. What it all boils down to is, do we convey kindness, or meanness; generosity, or selfishness; unity, or duality. We may not be remembered much by name after the bodymind craps out, but the energy we impart to others goes on nonetheless. We are wise to always be bidding each other a fond farewell, for sooner or later all nodes disappear, all waves fall back into the ocean.

Tense Time Troubleshooting
It's good to get into the habit of living in the present tense, as well as writing in the present tense. Writing in the present tense reminds me to live in the present. What I have done is done, and what I will do exists only in the imagination. What matters is, right now. Awareness abides, Beingness abides, Spirit abides, the Ocean of Energy abides, the Universe abides, the Mystery abides, in the present only. What I really want to write about is the eternal present, and I now write in the present, and live in the present. All mistakes in the past have led to this wonderful abidance in the present. A future of abiding in the present is a future realized in the present. Time ceases to be.

The Eyes of the Universe
It's exhiliarating to know these eyes are the eyes of the universe. It's astonishing to know the One looking through these eyes is the universe. It's the universe looking through these eyes, no less. The universe is the only One looking through all the eyes of all the sentient lifeforms throughout the universe. It is unbearably wonderful to share this knowledge--the process of the universe recognizing itself not only within one lifeform but between lifeforms, in all lifeforms.

Losing Every Thing
These bodies eventually fall apart, sooner or later. Everything falls apart sooner or later. Nothing remains pristine for very long. The only thing that remains, and remains pure, is the ground of being, the ocean of being, waves of beingness and awareness rising and falling forever.

Surrender Nap
Weary, I took a nap after lunch. As soon as I stretched out flat on my back on the futon upstairs I could hear and feel my bones sink into place. All the tension of having to work and stay awake after a too-short sleep vanished when I let go completely. When I surrendered, I relaxed, and entered a blissful realm where healing took place.

It's good to know that no matter how bad things seem, sleep comes, healing comes. The calls of nature are all answered, and all is well, even though it's possible to believe otherwise. Put all beliefs to rest, believe nothing, and reclaim pure being and pure awareness, the natural state, the bliss of surrender to the self-existent reality in every configuration.

Cosmic Consciousness
I used to think 'cosmic consciousness' meant some kind of exalted consciousness ABOUT the cosmos. Now, I'm happy to report, Cosmic Consciousness simply means that consciousness itself is the Cosmos' very own consciousness. We are the eyes and ears and brains of the universe, and this very awareness, this very life, is the cosmos' awareness, the cosmos' life. It is the Cosmos enjoying its own Consciousness, aware of its own awareness, being its own beingness. The cosmos has no personality and is no person per se, although in its deluded manifestations it believes itself to be something other than the cosmos. Actually, it's more accurate to regard 'consciousness' as 'awareness' as 'consciousness' implies 'awareness of some thing' whereas the cosmos is pure awareness and pure being, one without a second. The universe doesn't have awareness, it is awareness, awareness without either a subject or an object. This very awareness is cosmic awareness, the cosmos itself, aware, present.

Living in the Inexorable Present
We're all stuck in the present. We can try to escape through memory and fantasy and distractions and self-indulgence, expending much energy and effort in the process. We can also, without trying, without effort or strain, relax into the inexorable present, and let it gently, fully, support us. No-one chooses to be born--in fact, no-one is born, it's just the fecundity of the universal life-force in action. "Tired of living and afraid of death" is the way it is for deluded beings. Life is a burden, yet the thought of personal extinction is terrifying.

It's possible to be in sympathy with all beings, of whatever species, who are sharing this very present, this very presence, in the way our conditioning or lack thereof has provided. Circumstances of the present are what they are: it's the response to circumstances--our conditioning--that determines the quality of the present. With a good, clear, deep, insightful surrendering to the present, it's possible to accept even the most wretched of circumstances with equanimity.

In the present the transience of all forms is clearly manifesting, and this passing away of all forms, all things, all people, all circumstances, is fully accepted, fully embraced, with good, clear, deep, insightful unconditional surrender to the inexorable present.

In conversation I now am more mindful of not often saying was, or will be--to get out of past tense and future tense. The present tense grammar-wise helps me to be fully mindful of the present, and helps me release my grasps so that I am not tense in the present.

The Neverending Bike Path
When I get my jollies and exercise on the local 13-mile-long bike path I find myself using the time as a meditation and as a means of social interaction, if only by the brief passing exchange of smiles, waves, and hellos.

At work today it occurs to me that social interactions continue much as they do on the bike path. There's the eye contact, the smiles, the waves, the hellos, and even some conversation. We're all on the neverending bike path of life, passing by from behind or ahead, greeting each other, recognizing each other, communicating with each other in various ways. Our smiles are infectious, passed along to each other, and go on.

The Natural World, the Natural State
Riding my bike along the bike trail in the sultry summertime, all the plants and animals on either side listen to me vocalize my feelings about them. All beings are waves of the ocean of life. Rising and falling, falling and rising. I have all of you, and you have all of me. To know that the ocean of life, the ocean of being, is my true nature, my true identity, allows me to resume my true nature in its vast, peaceful completeness: birthless, deathless, complete, eternal, infinite, unbound.

Equality and Humility
The popular saying goes "We're all equal, it's just that some are more equal than others." There's actually some paradoxical truth to that otherwise cynical statement. People have self-images that range from poor to overblown to distorted to realistic, and depending on their self-image they view others uniquely, particularly in terms of whether they regard others as equals, superiors, or inferiors.

There is a self-image that goes beyond self that is intrinsic radical equality. There is no concept of inferior or superior when universal essence is recognized as the universal identity and universal presence. It's only when universal essence is unrecognized that concepts of superior and inferior, good and bad, can arise. Universal essence in human form fails to recognize itself in its own and other forms, and misidentifies itself as a separate self. This fictitious separate identity is, because it is perceived as separate from others, unequal, and is regarded as superior or inferior or otherwise different in essence from others.

Humility is not a devaluation of self, but identification with the Ground (humus) of Being, which is the ultimate in correct identification. The Ground of Being is omnipresent and eternal and equally perfect in every form, even when so disguised from itself it forgets what it really is.

The Significance and Implication of the Aura, the Visible Energy Field Surrounding Every Thing
Ever since first seeing the aura surrounding all forms I knew there was something very significant about its visible presence. The aura is the energy field surrounding every form. Aura is form, form is aura. Matter is energy, energy is matter. The significance of the aura took many decades for me to understand. It's really very simple. I don't have an aura, you don't have an aura, things don't have auras. We are the aura. We are the universal energy.

Furthermore, the aura demonstrates that there is no separate self--we are all reflections of the whole, containing all of the whole, reflecting the entire whole. Consciousness is the display of form in formless awareness, and form and awareness are of the same universal energy. The aura extends and connects all parts of the whole to itself.

Ocean Waves
Waves cannot exist independently of ocean, ocean cannot be without waves. Waves are ocean, ocean is waves. Every apparently separate being is a wave of the ocean, and is fully ocean in essence. Waves rise and fall, rising out of the ocean as ocean, falling into the ocean as ocean. When a wave falls back into the ocean the wave cannot be said to have died; when a wave rises from the ocean it cannot be said to be born. The ocean is never born, the ocean never dies.

If "I", this particular wave in human form, would have a headstone and an epitaph inscribed upon it, the inscription would be something like this:

"When a wave falls back into the ocean, it hasn't died."

The Contemplative Life
Over and over, I am ever so grateful for a quiet, boring, regular life: this is as powerful as living in a monastery in terms of making spiritual headway. I pray that everyone would aspire to live the contemplative life: what a peaceful, orderly, intelligent, fulfilled and fulfilling society of human beings it would be, if this planet's people were all contemplatives.

I've made many stupid decisions and did many stupid things, and they were all occasions of wandering off the contemplative path. Yet my stupidity proved again and again how totally superior the contemplative path really is.

So indulge in acquisitions and experiences if you feel you must. It can't be helped. When you've had enough, the contemplative life awaits. The ocean that is the wave silently abides as the wave ripples and froths and foams and sprays and commingles with other waves and air and sand and sunlight.

Vacationing
Taking a vacation usually implies keeping busy with not keeping busy, driving distances, spending lots of money, seeking new experiences. A vacation can also be a state of mind: a sense of freshness and freedom. Vacationing doesn't require a future experience, or traveling. Right now is where I spend all my time. I am now on vacation, and retired, and at ease, in spite of how it appears outwardly. I need not and will not postpone the vacation state of mind.

Entheogens, the Ego Detector and Egocide
Eckhart Tolle has clearly described the problem: the ego, a.k.a. the "pain-body." It's that bundle of conditioned responses that comprises who we think we are and how we act, speak, think, and feel. The ego is an illusion. The ego is judgmental. The ego is a psychological parasite, a psychic plague, with which self-aware human beings are afflicted.

It's not necessary to hate or to fear or to stamp out the ego--to do so is in itself an egoic act, for the ego alone hates, and fears, and rejects. It is necessary, however, to recognize the presence of ego when it manifests: to feel what it's like to be 'possessed' by the ego and to be fully aware of it, dispassionately observing it without reacting to it or identifying with it. This requires the construction of a 'shockproof ego detector' which alerts us to the manifestation of ego.

Construction of the detector is simple: using a calibrating baseline of egolessness--the natural, unconditioned state of pure awareness--be fully aware, i.e., mindful, of thoughts and feelings arising and falling. Let them rise and fall, without acting upon them or speaking aloud at their prompting words that we would regret later anyway.

The only problem with building the detector is that many people don't know what egolessness--the natural, unconditioned state of pure awareness--feels like, having been so thoroughly conditioned, so tightly in the grip of ego, that the requisite egoless baseline is unknown to them.

Enter entheogens. For many people, all it takes is one rousing entheogenic romp to get a brief experience of egolessness, the unconditioned, natural state. This glimpse of the egoless baseline is oftentimes enough. But without this glimpse, the ego detector can't be built.

The ego detector helps to sever the control the ego has had up until now. By seeing what has been causing psychological pain and suffering to oneself and, due to its virulent nature, to others, the ego detector is useful for shrinking the tumor of ego, and eventually rendering it powerless and nonexistent: egocide. This happens naturally as the light of pure awareness shines on the murky distorted convolutions of the ego, revealing its illusoriness. Rather than take the drastic, unnecessary step of suicide--killing the innocent body-mind, the universal essence, the sentient being of the universe--it's only necessary to locate and isolate and render harmless by the pure radiance of universal awareness-essence the source of suffering: ego.

The I AM, the universal, cosmic I AM, recognizes itself, and its unbounded nature is known to be our true nature. Ego, an illusory identity, a misidentification, gives way to recognizing oneself as the universal essence. The universal essence-awareness is beyond suffering, even though it has undergone all the agonies of hell, over and over again, while in conditioned, self-entrapped, egoic states.

The Joy of Poverty
Poverty, namely material poverty, need not be a source of anxiety and frustration. Poverty can, in fact, be liberating, causing a person to make do with less and less until only the essentials remain. Along with the essentials, there is, inseparably, essence, to be savored.

It's actually distracting to have too much nonessential material goods. When poverty becomes the circumstance beyond one's control, nonessentials vanish and only essentials remain, and, inseparably, so does essence.

To those with sufficient insight, essence alone is enough: food and water and clothing and shelter will be provided in due time, as needed, for true needs must be met, one way or another, for survival.

Simply to survive, to be, is enough, for those who have recognized essence as the true universal self, the true self of every self.

To surrender to our true nature--essence--is to become the source of pure joy. There is no joy in being joy itself, there is only vast peace, perfect freedom, the nature of universal essence.

The Natural State
If I had to sum up the best thing of all in life in the fewest words, it would be the natural state. Every morning walking to work, I marvel at the effortlessness of existence. This being, this awareness, all natural, just is, spontaneously, effortlessly, constantly. Of course there is constant change, and the change is also effortless, spontaneous, and continuous. To simply be this, that which lives everywhere and eternally, ceaselessly changing in the endless cosmic present, takes heroic effort at first, overcoming the obscurations of mental conditioning and a limited conditioned identity, but with practice becomes as effortless as the universe, for that is what "we" are anyway.

Why the Natural State is Pure Laziness, and Why Pure Laziness is Mankind's Salvation
It's long been known that contemplatives' needs are minimal, forsaking materialism and finding their riches within. With the current global food and energy and other shortages and crises, now is the time for all human beings to become contemplatives, to forsake materialism, selfish desires, and the need for many, if any, progeny.
When contemplation comes to fruition and blossoms into Self-realization, there truly is nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to desire. Lounging around all day in a loincloth is just fine for the Self-realized. The human being in the natural state is a simple animal with simple animal needs. No planes, no cars, no TVs, nothing much beyond water, food, a few clothes, protection from the elements is needed, or wanted.

It has been a relief to be car-free for months now, depending on nothing but these two legs to get me to the grocery store and to work. I can easily imagine being car-free indefinitely.

If basic changes such as less cars and more public transportation were available, there would be plenty of fuel to meet demands for essential transportation. Moreover, if people began to voluntarily, joyfully, renounce materialism and selfish desires, they would find life itself to be simple, rich, meaningful, fulfilling.

Until it's absolutely painfully necessary for people to do without, there's a cultural tendency to want more, and get more: it's what the economy is based upon. Until we start to want less, the shortages and crises will get increasingly severe.

The lazy will inherit the earth, and appreciate it to the fullest. The lazy are close to the earth, one with the earth, totally humble, totally exalted. Shine on, lazy ones!

Animals Are In The Natural State
I adore my cats, and worship them, and they respond with great affection. The more I know cats, the more I know my true self. Cats make no apologies for sleeping much of the day away, or for limiting their ambitions to getting up to eat, or use the litterbox, or tend to something interesting happening outside the window. They have no shame and no guilt, nor need they feel shame or guilt, for they are perfect, and perfectly natural. If only people could be more like cats, or mountain gorillas, and be content just to be.

The End and the Beginning of the Universe
This universe, a form, will unform in due time. And over eons, quantum fluctuations will cause a brand new universe to spring into being. All that happens is just a dream, a passing fancy of energy taking form, briefly, knowing itself through form, and then dispersing, totally unknown to itself.

Presence!
Why it is that early-morning insomnia can be so conducive to epiphanies, at least in my case, is still a mystery to me. This morning the reality of Presence hit me like a ton of bricks when the life and words of Meister Eckhart rolled into the mix: his whole schtick was to communicate to as many people as possible that God's presence is within all of us. Presence is not just a bland New-Age Eckhart Tolleism--it's the real deal, the presence of God, no less.

To experience this directly, firsthand, is something of a revelation, and a shocker, and a responsibility. We can't undo a new understanding and go back to ignorance and selfishness very comfortably. We are obligated to live as if we know God is present within us, that God is the one seeing through these eyes.

Okay, it could be said it's the universe present within us, true enough, and much more palatable to the scientifically literate. The very energy-essence of the universe is present throughout every fiber of being. This body and this awareness is not mine, it's universal.

This Presence takes us instantly from the personal to the impersonal, the particular to the universal.

Entheogenesis
At some point awareness becomes aware of awareness, and the old egoic conditioned limited self vanishes instantly, and in its place is That Which Is, eternally. Once the true Self is met by the true Self, once awareness is aware of awareness, there's no choice but to immediately cease believing in a separate self and to unconditionally surrender to That Which Is.

The awesome Presence within is Me! I will not call myself a god, much less God. I will say, with impunity, with 100% accuracy, I am life, I am the universe, I am universal energy, I am essence, I am awareness. That's good enough.

Encountering My True Mind
Long before reading about "Awareness Watching Awareness" I encountered, as if for the first time, my true mind, my natural mind, the mind that just is, without thought, without effort, arising spontaneously and constantly, while I was walking along the sidewalk, going to work. There, so clearly, were two minds: one that I identified as 'my mind' filled with thoughts, memories, a sense of separate selfhood...and one that exists naturally, constantly, spontaneously, effortlessly, without any thoughts of its own, just pure awareness. All this time the true, perfect, real, natural mind--awareness--has been the genuine article, every day, always present and in the present. Everyone has the same pure awareness, the same source of sanity, relief, release, wholeness, joy, compassion, wisdom, every timeless good thing. To be this awareness, to be this essence, is no longer a yearning for some future day of enlightenment: that day is now, always, for everyone. It just takes time for people to get through the distracting illusion of their own 'my mind' and their identification with this false mind, identification with thoughts. It took me decades, although there were glimpses in my youth, reading Ashvaghosa's Awakening of Faith in the essence of mind, while reading in the public reading room of the large downtown library, and reading passages from the Upanishads while sitting quietly in my room, a pipeful of ganja at my side, noting that Self-realization was more intoxicating than the ganja, but the ganja didn't seem to hurt at all.

This very awareness is universal essence. Universal essence is this very awareness. Without adding, subtracting, or changing a thing, without any effort on anyone's part, we are universal essence, the very awareness of the universe itself, the eye of the universe, the flesh of the universe, the essence of the universe. Just to know this, just to be this, is almost too much to bear. The only way to bear it is to be it. How wholesome the universe, merciful, when we know we see it with its eye.

A Way to Prevent an Impending Ecological Apocalypse
The root cause of pollution and overpopulation is ignorance, specifically self-ignorance which results in an overconsumptive, ego-aggrandizing way of life, including unchecked lust-based procreation heedless of consequences. Legions of chronically insatiable high-maintenance beings result.

What's called for is radical inner transformation where the individual is satisfied, nay astonished, by the sheer fact of Being, requiring and desiring nothing beyond the basic necessities of life. If and when we become a planet of philosophers we will have a sustainable future. Otherwise, we will continue to deplete and poison the world to satisfy our many desires.

Hardcore Radical Extreme Philosophy
Philosophy, if it's worthwhile, gets real personal real quick. The whole 'problem' of life is the fact that we take life personally, because we have this imaginary fearful craving ego person with which we've identified. The best philosophy is surgery upon the person, an egoectomy, an unpersonalization. The mystery of Being and Awareness is pursued until the ego is crushed, happily, mercifully, as the ego is the cause of philosophic blindness, although the ego does serve well as an impetus to go beyond the ego, to at long last consider the mystery of Being and Awareness. Eventually, in this body's lifetime if all goes well, the ego ceases to be a problem, is ignored, is no longer one's identity...and in its place is our true Self, which is always present as Essence, as Awareness, universal and complete. We already have eternal life as Essence. We are not just waves, we are the ocean. One.

Spring Fever
These warm early April days have provided the equivalent of opium, as I'm feeling sleepy and dreamy, a longtime curse--or blessing--that has been part of my experience since I can first remember. It's coming on strong again. There's nothing I can do to prevent it, or to stop it.

There Is No Do-er
Nobody home, nobody doin' nuthin. Stuff happens, stuff gets done, but by whom, and for whom, is the mystery. All I know is, when I'm self-deluded and lapse into believing I'm the do-er, things get tiring and annoying and desperate sometimes. When I let go and let spirit run things as it does so well strictly by ear, jazz spontaneity improvisation happens, it's fun, it's light, it's free. The body is the instrument, the musician is the universal spirit, always playing that jazz on every planet and in between. We are all riffs of the One Player.

It feels so good to relinquish all control and let the Player play this life in the neverending present.

Money and the Service Industry
Going to restaurants that have waitstaff is much like going to a bordello. Both expect payment for services rendered; in either establishment there is no relationship based on common courtesy and mutual respect and mutual recognition, it's all about money, and survival. Servants depend on those they serve out of necessity.

The same goes for any spiritual or religious persons or organizations who put money into the equation, charging for services rendered. When the universe expects payment from itself we're not talking about unity here, but duality.

Somewhere along the line, when money was invented, greed and alienation and dualistic thinking got a boost.

Animalism
I practice Animalism, a coined word for a peculiar, if not unheard-of, religion. Animalism is not animism, is not bestiality, only recognition of, and worship of, the innate nobility of animals, i.e., the sentient lifeform in its pure state. Those human beings who when so alienated and alienating by delusional thoughts, are not fully in the present, and have rendered themselves as less than the noble animal which is fully in the present.

Our companion animals are typically called "cute" because they live "acutely," i.e., in the present: and human babies and toddlers are likewise cute/acute for the very same reason.

Animals are pure spirits, guileless, spontaneous, natural, unpretentious, uncontrived and uncontriving. Animals are expressions of the universe, the body and the mind of the universe in its pure state.

All my life I've been blessed with companion animals, mostly cats. The company of animals is invariably therapeutic. Animals don't provide solutions to any perceived problems I have, they ARE solutions to any problem. By sharing presence with animals, we cease being self-tortured by thoughts, and relax into a simple, warm, furry world of unconditioned being and unconditional love.

The Entheogens/Psychedelics
Of all the effects catalyzed by entheogen/psychedelics, the most profound, life-changing effect is showing what it's like to live completely, and complete, in the present. The restless, conditioned, fearful, desire-laden life comes to an abrupt end, and the ecstatic life of pure consciousness in the eternal present resumes in fullness.

Of course it's not necessary to depend on entheogen/psychedelics to remain in timeless presence-awareness, as that is our natural, primordial state. Whenever the illusory, nonexistent person is recognized for what it is, and isn't, the universal presence is recognized as, and by, universal presence, and the nonexistent person ceases to exist, as if it ever did. All that remains is presence-awareness, simply being that which is. That is the stable, unending, ultimate entheogen/psychedelic, being that which we already eternally are.

Suggestions for Living a Self-Realized Life
Be aware of awareness.
Be aware of the I AM.
Follow the I AM--contemplate it, day and night, whenever possible.
Read about Self-realization. Talk about it. Contemplate it.
Eat optimally, low fat, high fiber, whole food, ideally vegan, complete balanced nutrition, minimum calories necessary to sustain optimum health.
Avoid high-risk situations and activities--strive to live to a ripe healthy old age, whether such will be the case or not.
Avoid soap opera situations and intrigues. Stay single if possible, and celibate.
Be sexual, full of life, and be chaste and wholesome too. It can be done. Let the organism undulate orgasmically, it's healthy to be sexual.
Make mistakes, which are inevitable anyway, and try not to make any of them fatal or too catastrophic or harmful to anyone.
Live a little, live a lot, live fully, get a bellyful of everything.
If married, stay celibate.
Make amends with everyone.
Forgive everyone, including yourself.
Spend as much time as possible outdoors, alone, in nature.
Get plenty of fresh air, sunlight, exercise. Walk a lot, every day possible.
Try to live long enough to know better, knowing that wisdom and maturity need time to ripen.
Live a plain, dull, quiet, ordinary life, and let the process of Self-realization unfold. A stable situation is fertile ground for Self-inquiry.
Be undistracted if possible, be aware of the prevalence of distractions if possible.
Have faith that there is such a thing as Pure Awareness, as universal mind, and that it's possible to recognize it for what it is, and thereby we find the intrinsic freedom and perfection that's our essence.
Have faith that such recognition is a subtle thing, and requires wisdom and maturity, so live lightly, live wholesomely, and be patient.
Have faith that sincere Self-inquiry will blossom into magnificent Self-knowledge, unfolding in due time, in this very moment.
Have faith that Self-knowledge is everything, eternal life, unconditional love, the whole enchilada.
Have faith in birthlessness, deathlessness, Oneness, as the True Self that lives in us as us.

Cars and Driving
Whenever I walk about in town, cars are everywhere, parked, zooming past. I can't help but give cars a second thought. Cars are inherently stupid, dangerous, expensive, and toxic to the environment, and have contributed much to geopolitical tensions, with their/our insatiable appetite for petroleum.

People in cars are diminished--subhuman, aggressive, defensive, but lacking the nobility of animals. Machines driven by fear and desire, can't be late, don't want to miss out.

I've really lost interest in cars and driving--I would burn my driver's license as I did my draft card, in protest, if the license weren't required for this and that.

I first saw how crazy people in cars just are when, long ago, I sat with my friends on the warm grassy ground of a park, enjoying a youthful expanded consciousness experience, cognitively loosened and nonlinear, wide-open to see things in a new way, good stuff coursing through our neurons. All ground is sacred, and there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, but be, blissfully be. People in cars passing by on the road next to the park were not driving cars, they were driven, in a hurry to be somewhere else. Speeding past and ignorant of the bliss of the present moment, the perfection of the present moment, the here and now. There we were, in no hurry to be anywhere but here, fully in the present, the ultimate sanity. Sitting upon the living, breathing, radiant earth, under the vastness of sky, in sunlight.

The ecological crisis could be averted completely if only people could be content to just be, here, now. Nothing much needed.

The Unconditioned Life (working title of a book to be written)
It's easy enough to get conditioned, and stay conditioned, throughout a lifetime.
What a waste, what a tragedy, to not even know that we are so heavily conditioned, and to grieve and be grieved.
It's possible to see the conditioning for what it is, and thus transcend it, and live in the freedom and lightness of unconditioned being.

Simple Needs, All Met
In this experimental life I've learned how few are the real needs, and how easily met they are. Air, water, food, medical care, shelter, clothing, fuel for warmth and cooking. All of these things should be everyone's birthright, truly should be taken for granted.

It would be only natural for the human species to devise a global 'welfare state' of the most effective, sustainable and practical kind, apolitical, non-ideological, wholly scientific and impartial. No-one would suffer from want.

The problem is, too many people want too much. Rather than simple needs, too many people have complex wants, insatiable wants, luxuries becoming necessities.

On this August day I've come to recognize that there's no thing I could not live without. I have a collection of toys and things, but if I had to start all over, I would have very few toys and things--if I had no toys, I would still be happy. Just to be is enough.

The secret of happiness is to be satisfied with simple things, simple pleasures, the innocent pleasures of innocent flesh. Quenching real thirst. Allaying real hunger. Resting when weary. Evacuating bowel and bladder and enjoying the relaxation of all sphincters. Relaxation in all its forms. No clinging, no straining, no retention of anything, be it shit or luxury. Pure being is enough.

A wise culture, a wise individual, finds pure being is enough. Whatever it takes to simply be: simple needs, easily met. Everyone is entitled to the meeting of real needs, the needs of innocent flesh.

Who, then, would be content with plain simple food, plain simple clothing, plain simple shelter, plain simple health, plain simple existence? I would!

I wish for everyone to have the intelligence of the animal, be content to eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, rest when weary...to be content to have just enough clothes, shelter, fuel...to enjoy the health and well-being and contentment that arises naturally from sheer existence itself...to enjoy sheer existence itself, the wonder, the magic, the miracle of nature.

We could have a wise tribe, making sure all needs are met. For those with wants, they're on their own.

Mental Health and Mental Wellness
Just as physical health is simply the absence of disease, and wellness a positive healthy state of physical well-being, so it is with mental health and mental wellness. Mental health is considered to be a condition of sanity, well-adjusted. While this is an understandable goal, especially for people in the throes of insanity or for people treating people in the throes of insanity, there's a higher goal than mental health, which is mental wellness, where there is not only sanity but also deep, penetrating insight into the true nature of the mind. Such insight transcends sanity, transcends the personal altogether. There's a branch of psychology that's even named to reflect such transcendence: transpersonal psychology. The underlying identity of the individual is experienced by the individual, and the individual realizes he is not separate from the whole of existence, and is in fact an expression of the universe, and is not a separate person with a separate insulated mind.

The foundation of mental wellness is direct experience of the true nature of mind, which is vast, transparent, open, empty and impersonal, the very mind of the universe. Mental wellness is unfathomable peace, security, calm, freedom, meaning, that finds its source in its own inexhaustible energy, its own true nature.

Technology and Spirituality
In cars and trucks and planes and motorized go-fast go-far machines of all kinds, fueled by the liquefied bodies of ancient beings,
Heedless while speeding along,
Heedless too while staring into computer and television monitors, awash in eye candy and brain candy,
Symbiotic, cybernetic, addicted to electrons and hydrocarbons,
An impoverished being is born.

Mysticism
Everyone should be a mystic.
I'd rather be a mystic than a poet, or anything else.
When the mysticism is strongest, I'm not anything at all, just everything.

Comfortable In My Own Skin, At Home In The Universe
Surrendering to the moment is surrendering to the immediate environment and surrendering to the universe. This surrender results in becoming comfortable, at home, at rest, right now, right here, in whatever circumstance. I belong here, I belong everywhere. There is nowhere I have to go, nothing I have to fear, nothing I have to have. I act like I own the place, because I do own the place, and, the place owns me. Either way, I'm home, I'm secure, I'm where I belong, wherever I am.

This is such a tiny invisible little change, perceptual shift, perspective tweak, all dealing with that phantom nobody that comes between me and the universe. Now, having nothing in me that's not the universe, I can relax into the universe. A perfect repose, while still very much alive.

People generally get their perfect repose only when asleep or when lying dead and pickled in a showingroom casket. I like repose too much to limit it to the oblivion of sleep or death.

Therefore let it be resolved that we all should do whatever it takes to get comfortable now--as we are the universe itself, we deserve nothing less.

The Worst Kind of Ignorance
Poverty and illiteracy per se are not nearly as unfortunate as fundamental spiritual ignorance, specifically the lack of curiosity about who one's self really is. Even in the midst of poverty, even if unable to read or write, if the sense of "I am" is present there is the potential, the impetus, for insatiable curiosity about what this "I" really is. Unfortunately, most people seldom contemplate the "I am" or have any curiosity about it, taking it for granted and endlessly distracted by thoughts, sensations, and phenomenal world, with a false concept of the self being the perverse, unsatisfactory identity that most people believe themselves to be. Self-awareness, alas, is commonly relegated to the fears that persons have of how they are perceived by others, or how they look in the mirror in their bathroom or in the mirror of their fevered imagination. If there is anything approximating eternal damnation, it's the life-long ignorance about self-awareness--that the "I am" is the path to and the location of self-inquiry, self-knowledge, self-liberation, and self-realization. The seeker turns out to be the sought. When the seeker finds out the seeker is what he or she has been looking for all this time and has been there all along, as the seeker, that's cause for wild celebration and a good long laugh.

Until then, there's no reason to celebrate anything, and life's cold, cruel, brutal, meaningless, unfair, and short: an ignorant, bogus life lived by a bogus entity who believes he or she exists as a separate self that was born and will die. These are the victims of the worst kind of ignorance.  

The Crime of Individual and Collective Delusionality
Delusional thinking is normal thinking. Dualistic thinking is normal thinking, and dualistic thinking is delusional. This Great Delusion is natural, and inevitable, as animals evolve and pass through the stage of sentience into the stage of self-awareness.

Self-awareness is passed on from generation to generation, and along with that are passed on delusions about who we are. When identity is based on a delusion, there is the potential for all the varieties of suffering that can be afoot in the world. Mental illness, fear, frustration, anger, hatred, delusional belief systems, violence against oneself and others--all the evils of the world come from delusions found nowhere but the human imagination.

When people get so delusional they become a danger to themselves and others they are often institutionalized and heavily medicated. Unfortunately, "normal" delusional states are accepted as normal, and exploited by advertisers, churches, schools, and governments.

It's no longer possible for so many billions of us to be ruled by delusions and delusional people. There is only one way for us to begin to find our way to a meaningful, sustainable existence, and that is the scientific way, no delusions allowed, no superstitions permitted. Delusional thinking is what makes life dangerous and miserable, and should be outlawed.

Knowing how unenforceable it would be to make delusion a crime, the only recourse is to shed light on delusion, exposing it for what it is, and isn't.

It's so good to know there's freedom of speech, that in most countries we won't be shot or jailed for exposing delusion for what it is, and isn't. We have professional delusion-blasters doing great and noble work through stand-up comedy, writing, creative works of all kinds, and wielding a deadly sense of humor. The punishment that befits the crime of delusionality is uncompromising mockery.

On "On" Essays
What a pompous way to title outgassings of precious thoughts, "On Blah blah blah." 

On the Awesome Unlimitation of Understanding Ultimate Identity
Once we can convince ourselves that we are the universe, it's no longer 'poor little me' against a seemingly hostile, uncaring universe. We are the universe, plain and simple, and we might as well look into our fate as universe.

Everything changes, and everything gets recycled, forever. This is a dream, all of this, and the dreamer is the universe, us. This is all a cosmic dream. In 500 million years all life on this planet will vanish as the Sun gets brighter and drives off CO2 into space, making plant life impossible, and hence all life impossible. So life on this planet is doomed, as it is on every planet throughout the universe. We have this relatively stable time, and in this relatively stable time we can come to understand just who we are, before we vanish as individuals or as global civilization.

We have to learn to live with this understanding of who we really are, and of our ultimate fate: it's a liberating understanding, yet it's difficult to live with this understanding, at least it is for me sometimes. While I trust myself implicitly, I find it tempting to find the 'off' switch, or at least the 'dimmer' switch, and so I cease to wonder why people enjoy ethanolic beverages as much as they do. The universe enjoys its effortless oblivion, and still finds itself waking up over and over.

On Thoughts and Thinking
Thoughts are only natural for human beings, but o how thick and furious they can come. It is so easy not to be able to see past thoughts, oblivious to everything except the mental imagery, truly a psychotic delusional hallucinatory state, and such the normal state of mind for most people. Hearing voices in our head...acting upon those voices...normal state of mind, perfectly acceptable. Thus we have all human misery, individual and collective suffering, both private and public psychosis.

Having out-of-control thoughts and a Greek chorus of voices in my head for a long time, it was the most wonderful breakthrough of my entire life to finally experience my natural mind in between thoughts. Pure awareness, self-sustained, intrinsically pure, nature's awareness, the universe's awareness. All this time.

Thoughts still come, and that's okay. Thoughts and thinking are only natural for human beings. The voices in my head are as real as voices heard on the radio, the images in my head just as real as images on television.

Thoughts and thinking make the discovery of one's true mind--pure awareness--the biggest relief and the most wonderful discovery.

On Enlightenment
All sentient beings are already awash in enlightenment, but most don't realize it. The sentient being who has passed through the gauntlet of extreme self-awareness, who has grown weary of desires and fears, is ready to appreciate the simple fact of being sentient. Awareness, and beingness, is enlightenment. One does not have a life, one is life itself. One does not live, but is lived, by life itself.

There is nothing special, or magical, or supernatural, about enlightenment. Enlightenment is as plain, simple, ordinary, and real as awareness and being. Enlightenment is gracious grateful surrender of the nonexistent person by the spirit of nature which has at last recognized itself in human form, in every form. The spirit of nature at last sees itself through yet another form of itself.

On the Power of Pondering Death
This morning while walking to work and stewing about people and dysfunction and dysfunctional people, and my own niggardliness, I wondered if it would help to tell others, as I tell myself, what would you do and say differently, how would you be, if you knew either you or your dysfunctional significant other were to die tomorrow?

This is not a morbid or hypothetical line of thinking. Car crashes or heart attacks are not unlikely scenarios in this neck of the woods.

Imagining the other deceased can put a whole lot of renewed respect and affection into a relationship.

The cold-heartedness, the bitterness, the anger, the greed, the selfishness, the ignorance, the dysfunctionality of many, many people needs a cure. The young couple fighting, cursing, screaming, hating, separating...what would they do if they only knew the object of their scorn could be dead the next day?

The guilt, the regret, of being a cold-hearted cheapskate with someone who may be dead the next day would be extreme.

The old story of personal transformation, of making the rest of one's life be based on lovingkindness and generosity of spirit, is never maudlin, always urgent.

It's not so much being kind in order to ensure that survivors remember the deceased as a kind person, but to promote kindness while still able to do so, and to say a long loving goodbye to everyone and everything right now. It can be a meaningful life.

On Enfranchisement and Empowerment
The ultimate source of all freedom and all power is found in what we really are, our true identity, which is the universe. From the misery of disenfranchisement and powerlessness that arises from delusional-thinking misidentification, the universe provides itself with a liberating empowering understanding where it comes to realize what it really is. There is no outside authority, no outside power, no outside anything: all is contained within oneself as one's true self.

On Being the Mind of the Universe
All sentient beings are the sentience of the universe. It's not as if the universe is mostly lifeless insentience, but rather that the universe is a sentient being, just as the human body is a sentient being, with the cells comprising the human brain the body's sentience. Actually, sentience is found in every living cell of the body: poke or prod any cell and it will respond.

So we, so tiny in the midst of the infinite extent of the universe, are sentient parts of it, its sentience. The entire structure and function of the universe enables these sentient forms to evolve and come to understand whose sentience they are.

To arrive at this cosmic understanding is exhilarating, at times unbearably so. That this very awareness, this very sentience, is the universe's--nature's--awareness, and is what we really are, is a constant, immediate, intimate, unshakable, overwhelmingly powerful reality. Here it is, look no further. This is it.

There is no good way to convey this with words. As I happen to be rather skilled with using the English language I will continue to happily attempt to use words to refer to what is beyond words, to use concepts to refer to what is beyond concepts. My attempts at using words for this wordless reality are not at all frustrating anymore, since there are so many other ways to fully express that which I love to express, the living truth of what we are: through eye contact, tone of voice, touch, smiles and facial expressions, recognition, respect, kind words, humor, helping out, body language, singing, chanting, musicmaking, silence, presence, pure awareness, pure energy, pure being, pure spontaneity.

The mind of the universe is all there is, and all expressions are made by, and within, the universal mind. Some understand this, some don't. It's far better to understand this, as such understanding is immediate, constant, and unshakable freedom, peace, wonder, and joy, the source of meaning, purpose, wisdom, and love. To not understand, or to deny, that this very mind is the mind of the universe, is not just ignorance, but the source of suffering.

The mind of the universe is comfortable to be in, a relief to be: spacious, free, pure, real. There are no barriers, no obstructions, no shackles, no chains, in the universal mind. Only delusional thinking, ignorance, can make a being feel enslaved, suffering, with fears and desires. Not knowing that one is the universal mind and eternally free, there is a perception of bondage and limitation.

On Aging
Growing old is a fearsome thing when one identifies oneself as an aging body and not the ageless universal energy-awareness. The process of aging is evolutionary to the person: not only is there the accumulated scientific wisdom of a lifetime of trial and error, but there is also the impetus of looming personal extinction to help get priorities clarified well in advance of extinction. What I understand now, and the quality and depth of this understanding that has taken decades to ripen, is very timely, apropos, and well worth the wait. Not only am I better prepared to lose this aging body, but I'm also better able to savor the eternal present and eternal presence, as that is my immortality, the eternal present, the eternal presence: the 'life' in "life goes on." There is nothing better than an adequate understanding of what's really going on, of what's really doing all and being all. Such an understanding that age can ripen turns aging into a friend and benefactor.

On Greed
There's enough, and there's more than enough. There are the 'have-nots' who number about 1 out of 6 people, those who don't have all the basic necessities for life, health and well-being; there are the 'haves' who do have enough of the basic necessities, and then some; and then there are the 'have-mores' who have an absurd amount of personal wealth.

It's amazing how eloquent, how persuasive, how sophisticated are the rationalizations of the 'have-mores' on why it's okay to be a 'have-more.' It takes a certain amount of intelligence to be a 'have-more' and perhaps there's a feeling that intelligence should be amply rewarded, that that's the Law of the Jungle: the spoils go to the most cunning. True enough.

When I enjoy a warm bed and a warm house and warm clothes and clean running water and plenty of food and medical care and a sense of security and well-being I wish everyone could enjoy what I am enjoying: that the wealthy could appreciate the basic humble necessities, and the impoverished could be brought out of poverty once and for all, that there would be no more want in the human population; that won't happen until the 'have-mores' stop wanting more than they really have to have. 

On the Calls of Nature
I feel inspired to write by, and about, good bowel movements. Because of my whole-food vegan regimen my bowels move very well. How merciful the universe is that all beings can find complete relief: eating relieves hunger; drinking relieves thirst; rest relieves fatigue; shitting and pissing relieves the discomfort of a full bowel and bladder.

And yet, how so many people are willfully deaf to the calls of nature: forcing themselves to stay awake, or to hold it in, or to forgo food and water, or to go past satiety into gluttony. The infant is happy just following the calls of nature, effortlessly. The infant has no stress because it's satified just to have its basic needs met.

When through mortal injury or illness or old age it's time for death of the body, that too is a relief: a relief from all pain and all suffering. The universe is very kind to itself. The universe will also let parts of itself be delusional and unkind to its own part or other parts and suffer the consequences of delusion and unkindness; these consequences are educational, and lead to the sweet relief of genuine wisdom. Wisdom is a call of nature, the hard-won acceptance and understanding of why nature must be nature. 

On Love
There is no ambiguity about what we are and what what we are is to do about it. It's simple science: we are the sentient, self-aware manifestation of the universe; when the universe finally understands, through its evolving sentience and self-awareness, that it IS and that it is what it is--the Singularity--there is ultimate meaning in this constant moment, in every manifestation, in sentience, in being. It is a wondrous and joyous understanding. Everything is transformed and everything remains just as it is.

The universe comes to know itself, here and there, when conditions are right. Conditions on this planet are obviously right for the universe to be able to know itself, through the sentient, self-aware beings known as human beings.

When a human being understands what he/she really is--the universe--there is also the understanding that there is nothing and no-one that is NOT the universe.

This is the basis for the supreme, ultimate, absolute love: universal unconditional love that spontaneously flows between manifestations of the universe. When the universe recognizes itself within a sentient, self-aware manifestation, it also recognizes itself in every manifestation, and expresses that recognition; this recognition, and this expression of recognition, is what love really is.

Love everything and everyone. Love insects and old ugly people as much and the same as cats and dogs and young beautiful people. We are all manifestations of the universe; we are all the sentience and the essence and the energy of the universe: understanding this, being this, loving this, is the most beautiful condition.

Universal unconditional love is the love the universe has for itself. Cosmologists have found evidence that the universe is expanding, and the expansion is accelerating, so that in a few billion years what we can see now in the further reaches will be out of view. Even so, the stars and galaxies now in proximity to each other will remain together, held together by gravity fields, in essence 'married' by gravity until heat death do they part. Likewise, on this planet, all living beings are interdependent, interconnected, bound by gravity and the need for the sustenance and protection afforded by this good Earth, in essence 'married' by biological interdependence and interconnectedness. Every sentient being is married to every other sentient being, and far from parting at death, each is fully reunited with the whole, in flesh and in spirit.

I had a dream this morning where I was very happy and very content to be in the midst of an warm, effortless, sustained, innocent group hug. It feels, and is, so good for sentient beings to share the life, share the energy. We are one life, one energy, and to share it is only natural.

On Ignorance
Ignorance, nescience, is not knowing. Ignorance per se is only natural--everyone starts out essentially ignorant. What is troublesome, definitely not conducive to bliss, is sustained ignorance, which comes about often through the individual's not wanting to know, preferring familiar ignorance rather than unfamiliar knowledge, even though ignorance, especially ignorance of what we really are, is the source of suffering. For many people, it's preferable to suffer in dualistic ignorance and keep feeding the insatiable desires of a nonexistent separate self than to put forth the effort to cultivate self-knowledge, such cultivation requiring an open, undistracted mind. The distractions of incessant selfish desires sustains ignorance and delays the cultivation of self-knowledge.

Even so, ignorance does lead to suffering, and suffering does serve as the impetus to climb out of the pit of ignorance, at least in some cases.

We all have a lot to learn, and even more to unlearn. The depth and extent of ignorance is formidable, but the universe is infinitely patient.

On Patience
Standing in line, or while on hold on the phone, I find great joy just enjoying awareness itself, pure awareness, pure being. To understand that this very awareness, this very being, is the universe's awareness and being, is a blessing that is almost impossible to bear. This awareness, this being, is the universe's very own. And this is what I am. To live with this, as this, to know that I exist forever, everywhere, is the cross I must bear as well as I can. I wish this cross upon everyone, and to have every self-aware sentient being's delusional separate self and all its idiocy and suffering crucified on the cross of the one and only cosmic consciousness. Cosmic consciousness is the source of infinite patience: it makes standing in line or being on hold a totally blissful experience.

On Beauty
Beauty is a state of mind, a condition of being, a quality of understanding. Beauty is a feeling, an intuitive understanding. Beauty is found at its source: That which is, That which we really are, the One, the Singularity, the universe. Being is beautiful; sentience is beautiful: as sentient beings, we are awash in nonstop beauty.

On Identity
Identity is destiny. What we believe ourselves to be makes all the difference. The problem is, most people believe they are something they are not, limiting and distorting what they are in their own view. This creates all kinds of misery and misunderstanding.

Some people think they are what they do, and identify themselves by their occupation.

Some people identify themselves by their belief system, or by the place and people in which and with which they were born and raised.

The human population has skyrocketed, and if our species is to survive at the present number, perceived differences that result in conflict, especially armed conflict, will have to be transcended. The only way to transcend perceived differences is to have a shared identity.

The only tenable, plausible, correct, universal identity that can be shared by the human population is, in fact, a universal identity, i.e., we are all part of, manifestations of, the universe. The global population needs to transcend politics and nationalism altogether, and science has provided a superior alternative, the scientific truth of what we all are: part of one universe, parts of the universe itself.

On the Whole Point of Existence
The universe exists, but does not know itself until it divides into sentient pieces of itself so that it can at last look upon itself. We as sentient beings exist, for no particular reason other than that's the way the flow of energy through the universe happened to evolve. At first the universe remained unknown to itself, and complexified. Parts of itself instinctively acted to survive, by tooth and nail if necessary, to preserve and propagate the form assumed by the universe. Eventually, a sentient form evolved that was so good at surviving that it had the leisure time in which to develop a curiosity about how it and everything came to be. Homo sapiens, "wise" man. There are no philosophers found anywhere in the animal kingdom other than the human species.

Self-awareness became such a strong trait that it went beyond concerns of individual and tribal survival to contemplation of existence and awareness.

The whole point of existence is to exist, to survive, first and foremost; when that is assured, the point of existence is to enjoy the pleasures of existence; when enjoying the pleasures of existence has ceased to be fulfilling, then and only then is there impetus to become curious about existence itself, sentience itself, a burning desire to have a satisfying understanding. Hence:

WHO AM I?

And the answer, the gift of the universe to itself, is:

THE UNIVERSE.

On Well-Being
There is much talk about 'wellness' and 'wellness programs' but not much talk about the whole point of wellness, which is that feeling of well-being, or as the French say, 'bien etre.' Today I have a pronounced feeling of well-being which is the consequence of accumulated wisdom, dietary habits, regular moderate exercise, circumstances, good physical health, peculiar biochemistry, and the drug-saturated wonder beverage Coffee. I feel so good I'm singing out loud about feeling so good. This is as good as it gets, and it's a feeling, just a feeling, just an experience in the Mind.

I have not always felt this way. In fact, I have spent more than my share of time in the blackest pit of depression, despair, angst, hopelessness, anger, frustration, and with good reason of course, the thinking rationalizing conceptualizing part only needing to think about a bogeyman and the Ultimate Bogeyman stands before me, threatening me with all manner of dire consequences.

The plight of other people has also sent me on the Down Elevator. Dysfunctional, miserable, starving, ill, injured, old, homeless, impoverished...and thinking about them does the job of summoning the same Bogeyman. Thinking about the plight of innocent animals, cold, homeless, hungry, sick, injured...

So how to share this well-being with beings who are at the moment lacking well-being?

First off, the best well-being is unconditional: it must have its origin and sustenance from something that doesn't change or go away; it must be from something everyone intrinsically has, or is.

Everyone has a perceived self, the "I am:" THAT is the source of misery as well as the source of the end of misery. The Suffering Self. Okay, then, who, or what, is it that's feeling this sense of suffering?

There is no-one suffering, in fact, there is no self: only natural pure transparent Mind, pure awareness.

Animals who are cold find warmth, and stay there; if not, they freeze to death. No sufferer, no suffering. Animals that are hungry find food and eat until satisfied; if not, they starve to death. No sufferer, no suffering.

Human beings in every circumstance--young/healthy/wealthy to old/sick/impoverished and everything in between--have, if they care to look, no self, "no head" as Douglas Harding found out--we are only pure awareness, no self. There is thinking, believing, there is a self, but in fact there is no self, only pure awareness.

In pure awareness is found unconditional well-being, for pure awareness alone is unconditioned, unconditioned awareness, unconditioned being.

Being pure awareness is the source of unconditional well-being for everyone, if they have the courage and the will and the wisdom to only look for themselves, and just stop thinking about stuff for once...it's there, dammit, pure awareness, it is what it is, essence of Mind. Right here, this very Mind, for everyone!

Enough of the soap opera, enough of the tragedy. Get past it. Who Is The One and Only Doer?

It's only that Vast Impersonal Energy, which is one hell of a perfect refuge for those who are tired of bullshit and suffering. Vast Impersonal Energy is real, no bullshit, no suffering, no sufferer. That is all.

Well-being. Ultimate wellness. Forget the "life coaches" and "wellness experts." Find the universe, find yourself, confirm for yourself we are the universe.

On Goofiness
One of my four beloved companion animals, who all happen to be a litter of black cats adopted when they six weeks old and who are now seven years old, is the biggest of the four, Mischief, 'Mitch' for short. I call him, as well as his siblings, various affectionate aliases depending on the circumstances, and one of Mischief's main alternate names is 'Big Goofy Guy' because he's a big, good-natured, lovable guy who chirps and twurps a great deal, especially before jumping up on laps or beds.

Mitch is a deadpan comic par excellence, who does whatever he does in total seriousness, heedless of what others think. He just barges right into the scene, a trait that he exhibited even as a kitten, which inspired his formal name Mischief.

Mitch has inspired me with this goofiness, demonstrating that it's not just okay to be goofy, it's a desirable way to be.

I knew a man once who was very goofy. He worked where I work, and I had the good fortune to cross paths with him from time to time. He was a smart-aleck, a wisecracker, who giggled and made many unserious comments about his work. Everyone who knew him, loved him, for he seemed to take nothing seriously. He was genuinely goofy.

He died too soon, he didn't take very good care of himself. But in his life he had the rare quality of Goofiness that I admire above all other qualities people may express. Being around a goofy person is liberating, there is no seriousness whatsoever. Being around a goofy person is as therapeutic as being around a beloved companion animal. Ingenuous goofiness is rare among people.

How can I, a disingenuous, perfectionistic, serious, misanthropic, introspective person, ever hope to attain Goofihood?

Maybe I'm goofy and don't know it.

Pretending to know cosmology is certainly a goofy endeavor.

Maybe there's more goofiness in people than I realize.

It's better to be regarded as a fool, there's no pressure that way. My life and way of life is foolish is many ways. That's okay. I'm a fool, I'm goofy. Better to be a happy fool than a miserable so-called sage.

For the well-being of all sentient beings, especially me, with Mitch as my witness, I vow to be Goofisattva. No pressure, no worries mate. Nothing's perfect, not even the universe. When nothing's perfect, everything's perfect. Perfect goofy logic, that works.

Look for the goofy, and you will find it in unexpected places and people. I will cultivate the goofiness within me, with Mitch as my inspiration.

Goofy-Goggles reveal the innate goofiness of the universe, of the present. A constant sight gag. To be observed with full awareness, open-mindedness, dispassionately. To allow innate goofiness to manifest fully and freely. To savor, to appreciate, to be fully receptive, to innate goofiness. 

On Animals
I address my cats as "beautiful sentient beings of the universe." They are as alive and aware as any sentient being, including me. They are of the same universal energy as me.

That the universe evolved in so many sentient beings is astonishing. It's a delight, an honor, a privilege and a miracle that sentient beings are aware of each other as sentient beings, and can intercommunicate, nonverbally if not verbally.

Not only do I adore my cats, but I can also express this adoration and know it is being recognized as adoration; at times my cats return the adoration, expressing it in nonverbal ways. This interspecies intercommunication is wonderful.

I couldn't harm or kill or eat any sentient being, having seen my own face, my own true nature, in the sentient face before me. If it was a matter of survival, I would look the animal in the eye and extend my love and gratitude for his sacrifice. I would 'eat' the essence of the animal by intercommunicating with him first, actually allowing him to take over my body, his flesh becoming my flesh, my flesh becoming his flesh.

Animals are pure spirits, pure sentient beings. How could I not adore them all?  

On Home
A promo for a TV movie included the line "the best path is the path that takes you home." Where is our true home? Is it a physical space, or is it a state of mind? Home for me is more a state of mind than a physical location. Wherever I happen to be, if I feel content, relaxed, secure, at peace, I'm home.

Home is not just a familiar dwelling, it's the whole sense of place, of belonging to a place. Home is a stable situation. I was blessed to have ten stable years in the first ten years of this life. The neighbors, the neighborhood, all this was part of home. I would live there forever, and there was no reason at the time to think I'd ever leave it, or to ever want to leave it. There were woods and paths and sky and friends and family.

The only thing remaining the same in the old home is the sky, and the woods is still there, I think. I might drive there and spend a long summer day walking through the old neighborhood and find the paths I walked almost half a century ago.

Just imaging this revisit has brought tears to my eyes. I'm still grieving the loss of everything that I used to think would last forever: my friends, my family, my old neighborhood, that feeling of security, of belonging.

All that's left is what's now. Were it not for the overwhelming fact that what's now is glorious I would be grieving the inevitable loss of everything. I would not want to go back or change anything for what's now: presence-awareness-energy, the universal mind, the universal spirit, the universal energy, the universal presence, our true identity, our ultimate and immediate destiny. THIS is our true home that is never lost.

The most pathetically homeless people are those who may live in mansions but don't yet know what they really are, and have yet to understand where the only lasting home is found: within.

I can understand how there can be outwardly homeless people who don't mind living in an old box or in the jungle or in a cave or in the desert or in a monastery, knowing as they do what they really are. Knowledge--understanding--is not just power, it's home. And, no mortgage, no repairs, no expenses, no foreclosure.

Who I am and where I live is one.

On Rethinking How We Live, and For What We Live
All the basic human needs, which are largely creature comforts, should be met. No Human Left Behind. Enough food, water, shelter, clothing, fuel, medical care, relevant education for everyone. Care for those unable to care for themselves, the very young, the sick, the injured, the old. In large measure these needs have been met, yet there are still fellow human beings who are malnourished, without clean water, homeless, with inadequate clothing to protect against the elements, without enough fuel to keep warm and cook food, without enough medical care to survive and be well, and without sufficient education to be a useful productive member of society or to have a rich, meaningful life. Poverty and ignorance still abound.

Walking across town to and from work, a fierce bitterly cold wind sucking the warmth away from my body, I wonder if it would be possible to ensure that everyone now alive could enjoy the same measure of warmth, health, well-being and security that I enjoy. What is it that keeps some of us relatively well-off, and the rest of us living a miserable existence characterized by poverty and ignorance?

Would it help to bring the 'top down' or just try to bring the 'bottom up' to a very high standard of living, a standard of living which, unfortunately, is energy- and material-wealth-intensive, causing the rapid progression of climate change?

What's really needed is a radical change in the way we think of ourselves, specificially what we think we are. When more people know that we are the universe, that the universe is living our lives through us, it will transform our individual and collective life. The universe will survive, and rejoice, through us until the day when we must all say farewell as individualizations of the universe and reunite in the unknowing and unknowable Singularity of the meta-universe.

On Technology
Using computers and televisions and radios and electrical appliances of all kinds and cars--is there no going back just a little, just for the sake of going back? There is a dearth of charm in modern life, with all its gadgets. I caught the tail end of old world old school old days old ways, and have a deep nostalgic yearning for a simpler life.

It's really important to have a life that's as uncomplicated as possible, no serious money worries, survival and well-being not issues, certainly no dualistic soap operatics, in order to contemplate the universe, all the Big Questions.

Technology tends to blind and distract and complicate life. I am not a better or smarter person because of high technology, any self-cultivation I manage to do is in spite of high technology's pervasive presence.

Technology has led to pollution and environmental degradation and climate change. Technology has blinded us to the starry sky with light pollution and has kept us glued to flickering monitors day and night.

Give me pen, paper, and candlelight, at least for a little while yet. And give me silence, and darkness. And time enough to breathe, to be real, to be whole.

Give me forests and fields and clean air and clean water and wildlife of all kinds.

Technology has made us hurry, and worry.

Technology has turned what was once wilderness into a 'private property' travesty.

We need less technology, and more wilderness.

People are the problem, and the problem will lead to a solution. Nature will take care of the source of the problem, and restore balance, sooner or later, as necessary.

On Reconciliation
The universe is one, and all its manifestations are of one essence and energy. There was a time when all of us were indistinguishable from each other, and unaware of our own existence. Through sheer happenstance intelligent self-aware and other-aware life evolved, and the universe has become seemingly more-than-one, at least more-than-one manifestation.

Somewhere along the line the universe's manifestations have forgotten just what they are, have forgotten our oneness. The duality delusion becomes established individually and collectively, and individuals, friends, lovers, families, communities and nations are aware only of differences, and have forgotten the underlying unity.

This underlying unity of ours is a scientific fact; it doesn't take a leap of faith, only the scientific method and critical, wide-ranging thinking.

Therein lies the problem: people are by and large scientifically illiterate to some degree, and thinking patterns are based on unproven assumptions and narrow views.

Ignorance is not bliss.
In the absence of scientific knowledge and critical thinking skills to overcome ignorance, there is an acceptable substitute that works well to mitigate the suffering of ignorance, and that is: Love.

Love is the universe finding itself, recognizing itself in the Other whether it knows exactly what's being recognized or not.

When parts of the universe comes together, energy is enhanced, energy is stabilized. Two can live almost as cheaply as one--a tremendous gain in efficiency, a mutual empowerment through interdependence.

I write this upon hearing that my niece and her husband have reconciled, this time possibly for the long haul. They are once again cohabiting, and the children have both parents together under the same roof. I am optimistic, very cautiously, that Love will keep them together, under the same roof, at least long enough for the children to have the benefit of being raised by both parents, together. The bills will be more likely to get paid, and survival will be much easier all around. I am happy for them, and I hope and pray to the universal spirit that all people will come together in Love, recognizing consciously or unconsciously that we are One, in This together forever as That, that we are truly selfless, having no self other than the universal Self, and therefore capable of selfless Love. Not martyrdom, not masochism, but real, simple, powerful Love of one warm mortal body for another. Universal unconditional selfless Love of the universal Self for the universal Self. That's all. 

On Consumerism
Materialism per se is not unhealthy, as the matter in materialism is pure stuff, universe, condensed energy, impersonal, just-isness. Science is materialistic, and science is perhaps our best hope of a unifying frame of reference for the planet.

What isn't healthy, either for the individual or the planet, is consumerism, the compulsive acquiring of too much stuff, and unnecessary stuff. This bankrupts both bank accounts and global resources, diminishes the quality of life in the ecological as well as the spiritual realms.

Consumerism is the new state religion, and it's sweeping the globe.  

On the Sense of Humor
The standard to use to measure the maturity of a human being is the Sense of Humor. Most people have a sense of humor, at least about something, sometime, the degree to which they have it depending on how seriously they take themselves, or things in general. The perspective determines the seriousness quotient. Although some people think a high-flown perspective is inherently serious, the exact opposite is true: the higher the perspective, the less serious the person becomes. The cosmic perspective--"Cosmic Consciousness"--is the highest possible perspective, as it is the universe looking through these eyes and seeing itself everywhere it looks, including looking inwardly. The cosmic perspective cannot possibly take itself seriously because it realizes there is no self to take seriously, and no other to worry about or fear or crave. There's nothing left to do but marvel, and laugh, and live out the days in this mortal form lightly and gracefully. The cosmic perspective and the comic perspective are one and the same. The cosmic perspective is intrinsically a comic perspective.

The longest-lived, healthiest, happiest people are those blessed and blissed with a keen sense of humor; these wise wizened ones don't take anything seriously, and they wind up suffering the awful consequences of such unconscionable levity.

On Sexuality and Bonobos
Watching a PBS Nova television show "The Last Great Ape" about the matriarchal bonobo was a revelation. I see my true face in the bonobo, just as I see my true face in the cat. What noble beings. Chimpanzees and human militants have uncontrollable patriarchal aggressiveness, sexual competitiveness; bonobos and hippies make love, not war.

Having a rich vegan diet puts me in a bonobo situation: plenty of food, no need to compete, no urge to fight. With no scarce isolated protein sources to fight over, I wonder if worldwide veganism could help bring about world peace: billions of carefree bonobos, living and let living, growing beans and grain cooperatively, establishing a happy and sustainable global civilization.

Sexual expression is tightly controlled by patriarchal societies, of fundamentalist ideologue bent; violence is okay in television and movies, sexuality is not. In liberal contexts sexual expression is better tolerated than expressions of violence.

Sexual expression per se is therapeutic, as Wilhelm Reich realized. All tension in the organism is released in the orgasm.

Orgasm is optional, as hard as it is to believe, especially when young and libidinous. It's possible to get the benefits of feeling very sexual without having orgasm as the focus. Sexual arousal is biological arousal, and causes the entire organism to wake up and undulate in a very therapeutic way, loosening up rigid, stiff, inflexible bones and muscles and nerves and blood vessels, causing an opening-up that restores the flow of energy through all parts of the body. Our bonobo self thrives on touch and pleasure and release of tension.

Being too cerebral, conceptual, ideological, can be unhealthy, separating us from our bonobo nature, causing us to become tense, stiff, frustrated, distracted by thoughts. Everyone should at least move the body as freely and openly and frequently as possible, sexually-charged or not. The body needs to move, to be free, to express freedom, to feel free. Free-form dancing, yoga, tai chi, whatever it takes to restore flexibility and flow of energy through the body, is therapeutic.

Life-promoting, life-affirming dance and sexiness. Living in the human equivalent of the forest canopy, an inexhaustible source of energy, free expression of this energy.

On Innocence
I've lost all my innocence, yet there is innocence all around, innocence through-and-through. What keeps me from innocence when I'm awash in it, filled with it?
The way I look at things makes all the difference. I can be surrounded by beauty, but if I'm feeling ugly, all I can see is ugliness.

Innocence is spontaneous, and innocence is in the moment. I leave this keyboard now to enter into the moment, and reclaim innocence, and spontaneity.

On Immortality
Knowing all things pass away, and knowing that this body is just another thing to pass away, I enjoy the rest of this journey, knowing it will end. All that is personal--memories, conditioning, identity, unique physical form--will cease. All that is impersonal goes on: minerals, water, energy. This planet, this galaxy, this pocket universe, all forms, all things--will be passing away in due time. All that goes on is energy.

Time ceases when sentience ceases. Eons pass, and no-one is present to note the passage of time.

Then, energy comes together just right, and the eye of the universe opens up yet again.

On Toil
Shoveling snow after a blizzard, I was weary. When is work done? When is business all taken care of? Never. And now. I am grateful that there will come a time when I will lay this weary old body down for the last time. Does the universe need to feel an oppressive grim sense of duty? No work, no worker, just universe doing its thing.

On Freedom
There is such wild total freedom to be had by resuming our original nature, our true identity, i.e. the universe. We as pure awareness have no aversions, no desires, and are fully complete, fully at one with the surroundings, extending forever. This freedom of being, this truth of being, is available to every sentient being. To the degree we are capable of understanding, and identifying with, the truth of our being, we realize our intrinsic freedom.

On Walking
As I spend too much time sitting as it is, I prefer "to meditate" while on the hoof, although walking has become such a habit that I don't think of it as meditation, only as something that needs to be done. As I am still relatively healthy, with two good legs, walking has become my primary exercise and method of getting outside, under the sky.

I've tried exercise-walking indoors, around an oval running track, and although that's certainly good exercise, the absence of open sky makes it an overall dreary experience.

Walking outdoors puts me in the midst of the natural world, exposed to the elements, clement and inclement as they may be. Rain, snow, wind, sun, clouds, heat, coldness, all the ever-changing natural forces--it's all good. As long as I have the time and the protective clothing and the strength to go walk outside every day I can, I will.

At the very least I walk 40 minutes a day, to and from home and work, and while that qualifies as sufficient from a health standpoint, it is by no means the kind of, or amount of, walking I would do every day. A good walk is at least an hour, and a great walk longer than that. A good walk goes through familiar territory, a great walk through unfamiliar territory.

Walking brings out patterns of thinking for review as effectively as a good psychedelic. After head-tripping and working through the thought patterns and problems awareness is suddenly aware of itself and the surroundings as if for the first time, and it once again becomes possible to live completely in the present, at one with the environment, at one with the universe. And self-inquiry is facilitated by walking, the clarity and freedom of walking naturally leads to the clarity and freedom of the natural state. Who is walking? The universe. Who is aware? The universe.

Dream Days on the Canal
A little rowboat, a long canal, forgotten, abandoned, a relic of the past but still navigable from one city to another but no further, yet still far enough for a lost young man to get in touch with the fundamental sanity of earth, sky, water, and life. The insanity of human dysfunction dissipates under the sky, while drifting with the slow current, taking in new vistas emerging around every bend in the canal.

I'm still on the canal, rowing, gently, merrily. The canal goes on, and on, and on, never ending. Someone is always on the canal, rowing. The wise rowers have learned to row gently, merrily, on this endless canal. enjoying the view along the way.

This little boat is still holding together after all these years. Nothing to do but continue on, gently, merrily, for as long as this boat remains afloat. I abide forever with and as the birds and crickets and trees and water and earth and sky.

The Wealth of Poverty
Being impoverished while being attached to things leads to misery. Being impoverished while non-attached to things is liberating. Non-attachment and poverty work to prepare us for the ultimate loss--death of the body--which is really no loss at all. In fact, in losing everything, everything is gained. Our essence is unbound and universal. We believed we are that to which we were attached. The Ground of being goes on. To live knowing we are the Ground of being is the ultimate wealth.

No End, No Beginning