Knowledge and Religion

How can I step beyond the fears that hold me back?

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Hi Wynne,

Thank you for your questions and your patience. Sometimes when people ask questions it takes us a while to answer them. But we take your questions seriously and attempt to answer them fully. The sense we get from your questions is that there are things you want to do in your life. These are things that you feel will make your life worthwhile. But there are certain fears that seem to hold you back. Instead of running away from your fears you want to embrace them and use their energy to propel you in the direction that you want to go with your life.

If I need clarity about my life, I like to start at the end. I pretend that I am lying on my death bed and am looking back over my life. What are the things that really made my life worthwhile? And then, what are my regrets, the things that I thought were important and never got around to doing. I then take a look to see what held me back from accomplishing these things. In the end was it worth living by fears and distractions, when I could have enjoyed living life without regrets? Of course I can now come back to the present, and with my new perspective, start to live the life that I really want.

If fears keep you stuck in the same old rut
But now Wynne, what if you run into old fear and because of it, remain stuck in the same old rut?  How can you step beyond this obstacle that you call fear, when it seems to limit you and keeps you from living the life that you want?
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Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

First here are four principles that you can use to step out of your fears. We will follow them with an example so you will get a sense of how to apply these principles.

How much do you desire freedom?

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Hi Chinna,

Thank you for your comments and questions. While you practice various forms of yoga meditation like pranayama, you don’t have much ambition to accomplish things in the world. So you want to get a better sense of who you are and what you were born for.

There comes a point in your spiritual practice where you start to notice that no matter what you accomplish in the world, it won’t give you what you really want. You notice that great fame and vast wealth will just end up with death. You see that Steve Jobs, who had billions of dollars and was known over the whole wide world, in the end died from a painful illness. You see rich people who have exactly the same problems that you might have. Tiger Woods, for example, had problems with his marriage. Moreover when you are rich, people like you for what you have, not for what you are. So when the money goes away, so do your friends.

When you want more from life than
things can give
That’s when you hope to find a deeper meaning to life. So you ask, “Is there such a thing as finding lasting happiness?” “What happens to me when the body passes away?” “Is there a deeper meaning to life?” Or “What am I anyway?” When your curiosity reaches an intense feverous pitch, you become a candidate for liberation. 

Ramana Maharshi said that you should have the same desire for liberation as a person held under water has for getting air. You should note here that liberation is not for the lazy. If you feel dull then live an active life. As in my case, it is possible through activity to lose the sense of being the doer, and then wake up. If fact when you lose the sense of I do and then after the job is done I can enjoy, activity becomes a great meditation.

Curiosity is another name for desire
for liberation
___________________________________________________________________________________

 

Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

Another name for the desire for liberation is curiosity. It is the ability to look at your experience afresh and notice what you actually experience, as opposed to what you are supposed to experience, or what your friends think you should experience.

For instance inhibitions and feeling of limitation are often dressed up as, “This is just the way I am,” “This is just the way my mind works,” or “That’s life.” In dullness you just bumble along holding on to the same old assumptions. With the energy for liberation however, you are able to challenge these views of life, your mind and yourself.

 Challenge your feelings of limitation
Note here that liberation is not a quiet or blank mind. The very nature of the mind is change. So how long can it remain blank before thoughts rise again? So rather than blanking your mind, become curious and challenge the assumptions that seem to cause feelings of limitation and suffering. Then you will start to view life with wonderment, as if looking through the eyes of a child. You will no longer know what your mind is, what you are, and what life is.

Now you are in a perfect position to find out; not as some theory but by your direct and immediate experience. You will then die to the limitations that you thought belonged to you and you will wake up to the reality that pervades the whole universe.

Please Join Us
If this sounds like what you want from your life then please join us. This forum is not really a club. It is a group of people glued together simply by their curiosity and desire for liberation. So to get a better sense of what we are talking about, read through these blogs and if you wish my book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. Don’t attempt to memorize these words. Rather use them as a pointer to that which is at the core of every human being. 

Then in your meditation practice attempt to find the meaning of these words. Use your own direct experience as a guide. Remember, these words are just another name for what you really are. They point to that which is deep and at your very core. But because they point to your essence you can discover their real meaning. This discovery is knowing by being.

Please fill out our questionnaire and get your free copy of The Best of the Blogs on Wisdom.

Asking Questions
If this blog seems a little theoretical to you, ask questions. Then you will see how the explanations in this blog apply to your life. And the freedom that you find will be real. Questioning is the key to your freedom. You’ll see that when you question limitation, it falls away.

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com.  I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it. When you can ask, you are well on your way to freeing yourself from the limitations that seem to cause your suffering. Of course, to preserve confidentiality your name will be left off.

Also for more detailed explanations and examples read through these blogs or get my book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.

Please Tell Your Friends
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Sending peace and light

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Hi Aisha,

Thank you for your wonderful questions and comments. You would like us to send you peace and light from our wisdom. It is our joy to do so. We send it to you by pointing to the place where we are one. If you can take a peek behind the curtain that we usually call life, you will find that this peace and light is not a gift from us to you. It is a gift straight from God. You can find this gift right in your heart.

My wife, Brigit, calls this gift, “The Source of Love.” This love is so deep that it is not dependent on the condition of your body or mind. Minds and bodies appear to divide us. Bodies are born, grow up, are healthy, then get sick, and finally pass away. Minds are constantly changing. Sometimes they are awake. At other times they disappear into sleep; at times they are sharp, at other times they are dull.

Compared to the mind and body, love is like the depths of the ocean
But compared to the depth of this love, minds and bodies are just on the surface. They are like the waves of the ocean. This love is like the depths of the ocean, so still that it is unaffected by the storms above. So you should know that we do not wish you a quiet mind. Rather we wish you the love that comes from your own being, a love that is so deep that it is unaffected by the thoughts in your mind. 

Like a cat however, we tend to focus on the things that change. We look right past the stillness that allows us to see all that changes. This stillness is the light that lights up the world and illumines our mind. But while we can know our mind and body, they are incapable of detecting the still light of our being. But fortunately we can abide in our heart as the light of love — by love we can know this stillness directly. Who would have thought that we already have the peace that we are looking for?

Abide in the stillness and security of your own being
Although the body will continue to grow old, abiding here in the stillness and security of our being,  we will remain at peace. And even the mind will breathe a sigh of relief as it can finally rest in the bliss of its original nature.

Not being limited by the mind and body, we discover the ancient meaning of oneness. It is oneness with your family and children. It is also the oneness that connects us all by love.

Please fill out our questionnaire and get your free copy of The Best of the Blogs on Wisdom.

Asking Questions
If this blog seems a little theoretical to you, ask questions. Then you will see how the explanations in this blog apply to your life. And the freedom that you find will be real. Questioning is the key to your freedom. You’ll see that when you question limitation, it falls away.

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com.  I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it. When you can ask, you are well on your way to freeing yourself from the limitations that seem to cause your suffering. Of course, to preserve confidentiality your name will be left off.

Also for more detailed explanations and examples read through these blogs or get my book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.

Please Tell Your Friends
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

How can I destroy bad habits?

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Hi Frank,

Thank you for your questions. Curiosity is the first step to finding your freedom. When you question limitation, you are no longer taking it to be reality, and that allows you to change. Now for the purpose of this blog I’m going to assume that your bad habits are little self destructive things like smoking or drinking etc. that you want to get rid of. If on the other hand you are talking about criminal behavior or behavior that affects others in a negative way, that would take a different  type of response or practice, which I’m not going to talk about here.

Rather in this blog I am going to talk about how to destroy bad habits by transcending them. From the tone of your questions it seems like you’ve been struggling with these habits for a long time. It sounds like just as you are about to get rid of them, these habits come around and hit you from behind. And that’s why you wonder if freedom from the past is possible.

Stop self-judgment
So the first step that I would recommend is to stop the self-judgment. The mind tends to work in opposites. You may think, “Now I am bad; when I finally get rid of these habits then I will be good.” If you stand as the mind, and see things as opposites, you are setting up an endless struggle. So have a little compassion on yourself. As you explore this teaching more, you will begin to notice that your essential nature is good. If you’re essentially good, then the tiny habits that occur in a vast mind cannot make a dent in that goodness.

Truth is not a reward for good behaviour, nor a prize for passing some tests. It cannot be brought about. It is the primary, the unborn, the ancient source of all that is. You are eligible because you are. You need not merit truth. It is your own. Just stop running away by running after (that which is limited). Stand still, just be –

Sri Nisargdatta Maharaj

In freedom there are more than two possibilities
___________________________________________________________________________________

 Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

Now the next step is a bit harder to express. I know that your goal is to change a habit or two. So you may be surprised when I tell you to put less emphasis on the result and more on the process. In fact the results that you get may be different than you think. Remember in freedom there are more than just the two possibilities for change that your mind comes up with. So if you find yourself thinking in opposites like you either have the habit or not, or you are either good or bad, know that there is more than you are seeing at that moment. You should know that you could start out to change a habit and end up with complete enlightenment, which comes from what you are, not from what you do.
 
So before you attempt to change a habit, explore a little. While in the midst of this habit, notice what you hope to gain from it. Then notice where you actually experience this satisfaction. Does your satisfaction come from the habit? Or does the satisfaction that you experience come from a deeper reservoir that was there the whole time?

Your habit does not equal happiness
Look at what you actually experience and contrast it to what you think you should experience. When in your life you feel the satisfaction that you are looking for, whatever its cause seems to be, get in the habit of returning that happiness to its source by noticing where it actually comes from. You will find that the source is in the place where you actually experience happiness; not the thing that supposedly caused it.

After all, you don’t want to deny yourself happiness, do you? In fact it is very difficult to deny happiness because bliss is another name for your self-nature. That’s why as long as you connect your habit to the satisfaction that it seems to give you, the habit will be difficult to break. In other words, if the habit contains happiness then breaking it will be like denying your nature.

Consciousness does not judge
Now here’s where the teaching of self-knowledge is unusual; can you eliminate your habit by just looking into the actual source of happiness? Maybe or maybe not. But this practice will take the focus of your life off the habit, and put it on finding the source of the satisfaction that you hope to gain from your habits.

As you attempt to find the source of happiness, do you know what will happen? You will step out of both the good and the bad side of your mind completely. Instead of identifying with a few thoughts in your mind, you will return your identity to the consciousness that sees the mind. This space-like consciousness does not judge. It is here that you will find the boundless freedom and bliss that you are looking for.

As for your habits, some of them will go and some won’t. But compared to the expansiveness and freedom that comes from your identity, these habits will be inconsequential.  Remember, Nisargadatta Maharaj smoked till the day he died from throat cancer. But he knew that he was not born and didn’t really die. Just become like Maharaj and we will see if you have to worry about your habits.

Please fill out our questionnaire and get your free copy of The Best of the Blogs on Wisdom.

Asking Questions
If this blog seems a little theoretical to you, ask questions. Then you will see how the explanations in this blog apply to your life. And the freedom that you find will be real. Questioning is the key to your freedom. You’ll see that when you question limitation, it falls away.

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com.  I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it. When you can ask, you are well on your way to freeing yourself from the limitations that seem to cause your suffering. Of course, to preserve confidentiality your name will be left off.

Also for more detailed explanations and examples read through these blogs or get my book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.

Please Tell Your Friends
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

How to destroy the frameworks in your mind that seem to cause suffering

Please fill out our questionnaire and get your free copy of The Best of the Blogs on Wisdom.

Hi Andy,

Now as promised in the last blog, your other comment:

I still see the world as a real and dangerous place.

In the blog, How to remain as the light, even at work, I talked about the natural harmony of the universe. Additionally, just about all of the news stories today are consumed by people’s animosity towards each other. But that’s far from the whole story. The vast majority of people in this world act out of love, and when the opportunity arises, they want to help each other. This is certainly a part of this natural harmony.

But today I would like to talk about your questions from a different angle that particularly applies to a more advanced aspirant. You said that you see the world as a dangerous place. I am sure that it doesn’t feel natural to live in fear of people and events in the world. What I noticed from my practice is if it didn’t feel natural, I was viewing life or the world through “a lens darkly.” This lens was a framework of thoughts glued together by my belief in them. I call this framework of thoughts a concept.

Conceptual frameworks are too limited
From within this concept the view seemed normal. I would think, “That’s life,” or “That’s just the way the world is.” It almost seemed like to question this concept would be to question the air that I was breathing.

But there were certain signatures that alerted me that there was more to life and the world than I was seeing. First of all this concept would feel too limited or like plain suffering. Then I would hear myself thinking: “That’s life,” “That’s just the way I am,” or “That’s just the way my mind works.”

When you question the concept, it falls apart
___________________________________________________________________________________

 Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

So like you are doing with your comments, if I was alert enough I would start to ask questions like, “Is that really the way the world is?” Questioning this concept is the most important step in destroying it. It allows you to see limitation as limitation and not as reality. One other comment here, this is not a time for self-judgment. Even if a concept is painful to look at, you should remember that you are on the verge of finding your freedom. In the long run it is less painful to look at what is going on in your mind than to try and ignore it.

Get to know the why and how of limiting views
Once I noticed that I was viewing the world through a conceptual framework I started to explore. Why do I see the world the way I do? Where did I pick this idea up from? How has it been affecting my life?

Where is the I AM anyway

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Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your excellent comments and questions:

I spend as much time as I can watching the I AM sense, I "believe" that's what self-inquiry is about and it seems to "me" that the less complicated it is the better.

These comments show your intense desire to find your being and waking up. You are right to keep it simple. If even Ramana Maharshi’s cow, Lakshmi, could wake up, I am sure that it is not complex.

First, you spend as much time as you can watching the I AM sense. I have some good news for you. The practice of Self-Inquiry is easier than that. For all of the words that I use, do you know what I am really saying? “You already are the self − period.” If per chance you take the self to be less than you really are, I give you a few pointers to get you back on track.

The point of self-inquiry is that whatever you can see you are not. You are however the one thing that the mind and the senses cannot see or know. So you have to know yourself in a different way. Know yourself by being yourself. You might call this practice knowing by being.

Mind tries to find your identity in objects
___________________________________________________________________________________

 Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

But what happens is that the mind, by its nature, latches onto objects. So you ask, “Who am I,” and the mind attempts to be helpful by looking for some answers. But there is one thing that the mind doesn’t know: The real you is not centered in the mind at all. You are space-like Consciousness that was not born and will not die. When the mind is present, consciousness sees the mind. This is sometimes called the witnessing consciousness. But, like your eyes do not see themselves, your mind cannot perceive the consciousness that knows it.

Not knowing the secret location of consciousness, aspirants for liberation make a critical mistake. In their practice they split their mind into two parts. One part, which they call "I", attempts to witness the other part, which they call "not I". Then one part of the mind tries to get the other part into whatever state it conceives as a liberated state. This could be the place where it thinks the "I AM" arises from; it could be a quiet mind, or having just the right thoughts, and certainly not having bad thoughts however it defines them. And that’s where the struggle starts, me against my mind.

Keep your practice simple
Then it gets even more complicated. These aspirants attempt to witness their mind while they are in the midst of activity. Could you imagine if I attempted to write this blog while half my mind was attempting to watch the other half, or if you attempted to read this blog while in that state? I do not know how clearly I could write or how much you could understand. Whatever state we would manufacture would be far from the natural state.

Do you see how complicated and convoluted this practice gets? Ramana’s cow could never have figured it out. In fact Ramana called this type of practice, a thief dressing up as a policeman and then attempting to catch the thief. Will this fake policeman ever succeed?

The thief is just a group of thoughts dressing up as consciousness; this thief is not the real you, the consciousness that lights up your thoughts, but is not a thought in itself.

You are aware without the need for a separate I
Now let’s get back to your question “I spend as much time as I can watching the I AM sense.” Who is watching and what is the "I AM?" Neither of these is the real you. The proof is that you are aware of both the "I" and the "I AM." Your Awareness is natural. It is aware by itself without the need for a separate you. That means that even while you read this blog and concentrate on what I am saying you are still aware. Without shifting your attention away from this blog, if there are noises in the background like a bird singing or a child crying, you will be aware of that too. Whether you remember to watch the I AM sense or you forget, you are still aware. This is your natural state; this awareness is not a mental state.

Meditation on the I AM is shifting your identity out of the objects that you see and returning your identity to its natural place, where you are free from the limitations of those objects — and one of those objects is the "you" that's supposed to be watching.

In the next blog I am going to take up your second comment, I still see the world as a real and dangerous place. I am going to show you how to examine and let go of the frameworks in your mind that seem to keep you stuck in limitation and suffering. This is the secret that caused my meditations and my life to change in ways I never could have imagined.

We will also have some fun with where does reality actually come from.

Please fill out our questionnaire and get your free copy of The Best of the Blogs on Wisdom. 
Asking Questions
If this blog seems a little theoretical to you, ask questions. Then you will see how the explanations in this blog apply to your life. And the freedom that you find will be real. Questioning is the key to your freedom. You’ll see that when you question limitation, it falls away.

Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com.  I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it. When you can ask, you are well on your way to freeing yourself from the limitations that seem to cause your suffering. Of course, to preserve confidentiality your name will be left off.

Also for more detailed explanations and examples read through these blogs or get my book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 
 
Please Tell Your Friends
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

How to remain as the light, even at work

Please fill out our questionnaire and get your free copy of The Best of the Blogs on Wisdom.

Hi Andre,

Thank you for your important questions:

First: How can I share the light so that when I have contact with people my experience enhances the stillness and light in others?

And second: “How can I stay in the light when in the midst of my daily activities?”

These questions are good ones and they apply to many aspirants. They also take me back to my own practice where I had to answer them for myself. After having very high sitting meditations where I felt that I was the light of consciousness and not anything separate, I had to go to work or talk with my girlfriend. That’s when old limitations would start to come up and I would feel nervous and out of sorts. I knew that I was supposed to be the light all of the time; so I had a strong desire to find out what was causing me to come down with a thud.

You are the other person
First of all you should know that you are the light; it is your true home. You will find that the light is even closer to you than the feeling of being a man. This means that there is not a separate you who can do anything with the light. All you can do is be the light and see what happens from there. Standing as the light you get to experience oneness first hand. Standing here you connect with others because you are what they are.
___________________________________________________________________________________

 

Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

As long as you take others to be different from you or in some cases inimical to you, relating to other or dealing with them will feel a bit out of whack. But if you can discover and tune into the basic harmony that pervades the whole universe you will feel free, even while you communicate and relate with others.  

The light is the harmony that pervades the universe
Now for this harmony that pervades the universe: This is a harmony that comes directly from the light. We did not create it and we cannot destroy it. It is the same harmony that fulfills our need to eat by providing food, our need to breathe by providing air, our need to see by providing sights, and our need to hear by providing sounds. If we feel that there is something wrong with the universe so that we have to get in there a do something about it, our view of the universe is too small.

How can I make sense of the unexpected death of my husband?

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your important questions:

What do you feel is your biggest challenge?
Growing old alone. I live alone; my husband passed suddenly and without warning on a beautiful spring morning in 2000. How can I make sense of it? I am still trying.

Also, how can I live my life in such a way that my children and grandchildren will miss me when I have crossed over?

Isn’t it strange how life’s circumstances can change so quickly? When we experience it, life seems so solid. Yet in a moment it can change completely. Although on some level we know about the ever-changing world, we still feel that behind it all there is something that is very real. Against all evidence, on some level we feel as if we won’t die and that feeling makes the changes that affect our lives so deeply unexpected.

So, Sarah, did you ever wonder where the feeling that something here is very solid and will not die comes from? Is there a place where we can find lasting peace that is unaffected by the ups and downs of the world?

Know Thyself

___________________________________________________________________________________

 Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________
When Plato asked the Oracle of Delphi, “What’s the most important thing in life,” she replied, “Know thyself.” The Oracle was saying that self-knowledge is the most important thing in life. You may have heard other quotes like, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32) But this leaves another import question: How can knowledge set you free? Everyone knows that when you want to accomplish something in the world it takes more than just knowledge. You need the necessary materials and you need skill. For instance, if you want to build a house it takes more than a trip to Barnes and Nobles to get a book on house building.

But there are circumstances where knowledge alone can set you free and they are the circumstances that we address here. For instance if you drive into a gas station and asked the attendant, “Can you tell me how to get to San Francisco,” and the attendant replied, “What, you are already in San Francisco!” 

You overlook your self-nature

Is Self-Realization a state of mind?

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We ended the last blog by saying: In the next blog, "Is God Realization a state of mind?" we will find out if purifying your mind is necessary for waking up.  We will also discuss your other question: when a person is God Realized does he or she know it? We use the terms “God-Realization” and “Self-Realization” interchangeably. Both terms refer to your most direct experience.

Hi Joe,

Now I would like to discuss the third part of your question which is, “How can I find time to purify my mind?” Many people feel that Self-Realization is a state of mind. By the end of this blog, I hope you will see that Self-Realization is not a state of mind. In fact Self-Realization is easier than attempting to purify your mind.  That’s because you will see that your mind is not impure to begin with. You discover this by noticing what you actually experience as opposed to what you are supposed to experience.

So before you do anything, let’s attempt to see what a thought is in itself, without your usual assumptions about it. Pick whatever thought you want; it could be your most pleasant dream or worst nightmare. Hold on to this thought for a moment and let’s take a look. What color is this thought, green or blue? What shape is it, round or square? If you draw a blank you are on the right track.

Mind in itself cannot be defined
What you may find is that mind cannot be defined by its apparent content. In fact like space, it cannot be defined at all. This means that the sense of reality that thoughts seem to have does not come from the thoughts; reality actually comes from you.

I can hear your objection to this, “What do you mean reality comes from me; I am my thoughts, aren’t I? For instance if my thoughts are good then I am good; if they are bad, then I am bad.” This seems reasonable but it ignores a few facts: First, although your mind is in motion, as the thoughts twist and turn through it, your sense of identity remains the same.

You see thoughts; you are not thoughts
For instance sometimes you think I am a husband, at other times I am a son, I am a father, I am a security officer, I am a writer, I am a reader, I am a questioner and I am an aspirant for liberation. But let me ask you this, do you feel like many or do you feel like one? Despite your variegated thoughts, you feel like one, don’t you? This sense of being one comes from a place that is beyond the mind.  Another name for this place is Awareness.
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 Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
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Yes, you are the boundless Awareness that lights up the mind. But here’s the problem that people face in their quest for the sacred knowledge of the Self. None of your senses including seeing and hearing can perceive this awareness. Moreover no thought or lack of thought can capture awareness. That’s because this awareness is a constant light and your mind and senses can only know that which changes and has opposites.  

Mind purification is an endless task

To know God, just be yourself

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Hi Joe,

It is good to hear from you again. Thank you for all of your questions and comments. I thought that we could examine them over the next few weeks so that you can have a fuller understanding of how to proceed in your quest for God Realization. I hope that you will achieve your desire of not coming back again into the limitations that the world seems to present.

What is the achievement or thing that will bring the most satisfaction to your life?
God realization and in doing so not have to come back here to this world again.

If your parents were affiliated with a church when you grew up, you might have learned that God is some huge entity up there in the heavens. And you are some little creature down here. If you are good enough or pure enough you might be able to meet this God when you die.

God is love
Then when you grew older you stumbled upon a teaching like The Course in Miracles that says you can experience God’s grace right here in this lifetime. You may have heard teachings like, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” and “God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.”

You might also have learned from other traditions that life is a series of births and deaths. Based on your good deeds and bad deeds, desires and fears (good karma and bad karma) you are born again and again into this world to face the tribulations that life has to offer. You learned that if you are able to realize God in this lifetime you will not have to come back into this world again.

Who might be ‘God Realized'
So based on your desire to not return to this world you begin to wonder, “Who might be ‘God Realized’, and what do I have to do to gain that state?” So first you began to visualize what a realized master must look like. You saw his long flowing white robes as he sat high above his captive audience, made up of his thousands of disciples. You saw his long white hair and beard as he spread his grace over the entire universe. Then he began to speak in his low mellow voice and the audience became transfixed by his words.

Of course you may have another variation on this master like a head shaven monk in a monastery spending his days with his mind so concentrated that time, space and the whole universe disappears. Rarely, he comes back into this world to say a few profound words to the monks around him; and then he is gone again.

What’s wrong with these pictures?
Now I hope you can detect the one missing element in these images of a master. These images do not include you and what you are likely to obtain in this lifetime. In other words you might have an exaggerated view of what a master is. You might think, “These masters are way up there and I am way down here.” Does this remind you of your old view of God?

A real master does everything he or she can to counter that type of thinking and to show you how you can be what the master is and see what the master sees. After all that is what you are even now.
___________________________________________________________________________________

 Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is a guide to waking up to your innate freedom. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory. See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also, now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Please go to Amazon Kindle.

IPad and all ebook formats: EBookIt.
 ___________________________________________________________________

Then you begin to wonder, “What do I have to do to obtain God Realization.” The first devil you encounter is the world; it is full of distractions and saps all of your time and energy. In fact you must think there was a mistranslation in Genesis where after creating the world it said, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” You must think, “He actually meant that it is a distraction from the real purpose of life, which is God Realization.” You must wonder: “How could the world possibly be good?”