Knowledge and Religion

On Returning to our Origin

We just got back from our trip to Philadelphia where my wife and I visited our family. In their nineties, my parents are moving towards the end of their lives. So what spiritual instructions could we give to someone of that age? Would you like to be a fly on the wall and listen to the instructions that will take them beyond birth and death? This is your opportunity. If you can catch the meaning of these words, you too will not taste death. And even in life you will live in peace.

Certainly a long and drawn out practice will not work for my parents. And, how are they going to focus on a difficult practice as if it were the razor's edge? Moreover if they depended on using their breath or taking drugs to calm their mind, the first thing they should know is when the body and lungs disappear, these techniques will no longer work. And if they think that meditation is a matter of controlling the mind and body they will also be in for a surprise. At the time of death the sense of I, as the one who controls is the first thing to drop out. That’s when they will come face to face with the things that they really take to be true.

You are the seer of thoughts; not the one caught in them
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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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.
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But my parents should also know that at the time of death, no matter how strange their thinking becomes, they are the seer of their thoughts, not the one caught in them. If they simply stand as the Consciousness that they really are, things will come to perfect balance. They will return to the harmony that was there all along and just got overlooked. It is the harmony that comes right from their self-nature. And they will not have to worry one little bit.

The only quality that they need for the meditation that transcends life and death is freedom from self judgment. After all, it is judgment that takes us out of our natural state of awareness and draws us in until we mistake a state of mind for reality. By giving up self judgment we are free to return to our natural state.

You are the one thing that remains
So here’s it what I told my parents:

Just abide in your original nature as all seeing Awareness. Everything else comes and goes. That includes the body, mother, father, doer and enjoyer, the world, any state of mind, no matter how strange it may seem, and even the thought I, which attempts to impersonate you.

Although everything disappears, the thing that makes the world seem so real remains. That’s because reality comes from you, not from the world. In relation to the world your identity, Awareness, is the witnessing Consciousness. But in reality you are the all seeing eye of God. Remain here as you always were, always are, and always shall be and you will rest in peace.

And with those parting words we boarded our flight back to California.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Out of the Body Experience

Recently I saw an article on the ABC news site talking about a scientific investigation into out of the body experiences. That is where you are floating above your body and looking back at it. The scientists were trying to determine if these experiences where real, or just a figments of the person’s imagination.  The way the article described this was a person looking back on his or her self.

This is exactly where the scientists get mixed up. They never fully investigate their own Self Nature. So today I thought I would help them set up a method for investigating their own identity. After they read this article, these scientists will wonder if they were ever contained in a body to begin with. So buckle up your seatbelts and get ready for some mind blowing information that will help you to uncover your original center. In fact this is your center even now.

We sense that we are greater than physical Beings _____________________________________________________________________________________

Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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.
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We already have a sense that there is something really deep buried within the person. Even though we see that everyone dies, we have a sense that we won’t die. Did you ever wonder where this comes from? Also, we feel like one person and not like many. At first you may think that this too is a contradiction to what you actually experience. After all you seem to be many people don’t you? For example you are a daughter to your mother and a mother to your daughter, a wife, a teacher and a friend.  It seems like as your experience changes your identity should also change. But it doesn’t. There is something within the person that is not affected by his or her situation or circumstances. That thing is the real you, and that’s the one we’re going to uncover today.

The method we are going to use is quite simple. You are the subject and the things that you experience are objects. You don’t mix yourself up with an object, do you? That’s why when I ask, Who are you, you don’t say, I’m Michael Gluckman. If you mixed yourself up with me, I would correct you and say, I am merely an object in your experience; I am not you, at least for now.

The body is an object — you are not an object.
Ok, so what does this mean? You know that you aren’t Michael Gluckman, because this writer is just an object in your experience; isn’t the body also an object that you experience?  Don’t look past this seemingly simplistic line of reasoning! This means that while the body is limited by time and space, perhaps its limitations are not yours. The reason I say perhaps, is because these words are mere pointers; you have to uncover their meaning for yourself by looking deeply into what you actually experience.

Now we assume that we are limited by the objects that we see. That’s why the scientists assume that when you have an out of the body experience you are looking back at yourself. But once you start to investigate, you will discover that there is a lot more to you than the scientists know. You are the Consciousness that lights up limitation; you are not the one caught in it.

Scientists assume that they know the seer
You may want to know where these scientists, who are brilliant men and women, get confused. Scientists are used to looking at objects. And as you know, objects are things that you sense, or things that can be defined by your thoughts. The problem is that you cannot know yourself like you know an object.

That would be like space assuming that it was limited to a pot and then trying to come up with a definition for space. Pot space is too limited to know the nature of space. The only way that space can know itself is by recognizing that the walls of a pot do not really define space. That deep knowledge will allow space to return to its original nature, the place that it never really left.

They fail to notice the treasure hidden in their own identity
Like the pot space, the scientists would have to notice that they are not contained in their mind and body. Moreover, their mind and body cannot see them. For this reason they cannot know themselves as a shape or thought. The only way they can fully know their self–nature is by being their self. I call this knowledge by direct experience. Since this is direct experience, it is the opportunity for you too to explore and verify the meaning of these words. Then you will step beyond the limitations of the body. But in reality you will not step anywhere; you will only find what you always were, always are and always shall be, and you just overlooked this great treasure.

Then you will recognize that if you appear to be in a body or out of it, you never really leave yourself. You always are yourself. And if you look back at the body you are merely looking back at the body, not at the Awareness and Bliss, which is the real you.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

How we relate to God

We are used to classifying religions according to sects, the major ones being Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and Jew. But there is a little used, though much more relevant way to classify religious practices and beliefs. It is by how a practitioner relates to God.

In this classification a religious sect can fit into more than one category. Instead of just labeling a belief, this classification relates more to what people actually experience.  The categories are duality, qualified duality, qualified nonduality and nonduality.

What is Duality?
Duality is the category that most people in western religions are familiar with. This is where the person is over here and God is over there and never the twain shall meet. Perhaps when you die you will get to meet that being called God, but that’s as close as you will ever get.

Incidentally an atheist doesn’t believe in this type of God. While some people have faith that when they die they will go to heaven and meet God, an atheist has faith that this won’t happen. Usually neither the dualist nor the atheist can imagine that there can be a completely different relationship to God that's outside belief and non-belief.

What is Qualified Duality?
Qualified duality is when a person has a vision or other experience of God. But even with this mystical experience, he or she and God are two separate beings. But here the practitioner has a little more than faith to go on. In some form such as a sight, sound, or sense of great love the person receives a visit from God.

Although these experiences are wonderful, people often report that they are very disappointed when their experience comes to an end. Mother Teresa for instance wondered where the love went that she had felt when she first started her practice of helping the poor people of India.

What is Qualified Nonduality?
Qualifies nonduality starts to shift the conversation. Up until now we were talking about you as being completely distinct from God. But here we share the same substance as God; we are no longer completely separate.

As an example we are a spark that comes from the flame called God. Although we are made of the same substance as God, we are only a tiny portion of this vast substance. The practitioner might notice that the world was created out of God. After all in the beginning there was no other substance available to create the world from except God.In that way he or she may feel like part of God or made of the sam substance as God.

What is Nonduality?
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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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.
________________________________________________________________________

Nonduality means that there is only one substance that permeates the whole universe. While the universe is made of this substance, this substance is not dependent upon the appearance or disappearance of the universe. You discover the nature of this substance by finding your identity. This substance is the source Consciousness and Bliss. It is the thing that makes the universe appear to be so real.

When you first hear about nonduality it may seem improbable. After all you may not feel as if your identity encompasses the whole universe. So to get a sense of what this substance is we can use the example of space. If space were to identify with a room, a pot or even a whole building it might think that it is limited by these shapes. When the pot breaks or the building falls down the space may feel that it will die.

But what actually happens; space merges with universal space and discovers that nothing really happened. Building space was neither dependent on the building, nor limited to that building. In the same way we may think that we are limited by the shape of our body or the thoughts in our mind. But if we investigate closely we will find that our real form can never be contained by the things that we see.

When you experience it, the dream seems real
Here is another example that may help. When you were about to wake up from last night’s dream you told your friends that this whole world was just a dream. They then cried out in alarm, “What do you mean, we’re awake.”

From within the dream the whole world seems like it is made up of many different substances, and guided by all the various laws and energies that you find in that dream. But when you wake up you get to see that the whole world was actually made from the mind of the waking one. Moreover, when the dream world disappeared, the thing that made it seem so real remained, just as it always was. This thing is of course the mind of the waking one. And guess who the waking one really is ... it is you!

Here lies the source of reality
As in the dream, when you wake up you become the thing that makes this world seem so real. But nothing really changes. You are what you were the whole time, and you just overlooked it.

One last thing, the purpose of this blog and of my book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive is to point out how you can experience the source of consciousness and bliss directly; to show you how close this state really It is not far away or just beyond your grasp. In fact this blog points to the thing that you are even now. If you find the place where these words point you will see how the thing that seems the most improbable is exactly what you are; that is the nondual reality on which the whole universe rests.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

 

Self Knowledge reaches into Eternity

I get many requests from people asking me to support their brand of spirituality. You should know that I support all flavors of spirituality, as long as they are based on love and on the desire of the practitioners to better themselves.

But I have a special place in my heart for anyone who wants to follow the path of Self-Knowledge. On this path the essential question is: How can I find that which will last? When I say last I mean lasts not for 100 years or even 1000 years, but that which will last eternally. I can hear your objection now: That’s impossible, nothing lasts forever! But by the end of this blog you will get a taste for how it is possible that something lasts forever.

Build a solid foundation
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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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. Go to Amazon Kindle.
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Furthermore I can assure you that this question will eliminate many of the brands of spirituality that we see practiced today. If you build your practice based on the condition of the body and mind, it is like building your practice on a foundation of sand. When the winds of time howl and the earth starts to quake this house will fall down. So it is important to build your practice on a solid rock like foundation. Then when the storms of life come with all of their furry your house will stand.

So now to get to our question, Where can you find eternity? After all everything comes to an end, doesn’t it? It is true that everything that you experience and see comes to an end. But did you ever consider this: where do you stand so you see that everything is in motion? The stillness that sees everything changing, that’s the real you, not the objects that are born, live and then die. In other words you are the one thing that doesn’t change.

Suffering occurs for Limitation, not for You
This means that the seer has no boundaries. It is only objects that are limited by space and time. You are the seer free from the qualities of the things that you see. So freedom comes by returning to your natural state of Consciousness and Bliss. Suffering and death occur when you take yourself to be the limitations that you see.

You should also know that your body and the thoughts in your mind are mere objects in your awareness; their changes are not your changes. By remaining centered in your own self-nature, you will get to experience a freedom that is not affected by the condition of the body and mind. Standing here you will know that your horrizons are even beyound birth, decay and death. Not as a mere theory, but as your direct experience.

You are the singular light that is never Extinguished
Moreover you should know that the mind and body are too limited to be able to look back and see who you really are. Since you see your mind but your mind can't see you, you don’t grasp your self-nature like you grasp an object. Now I can hear you objection: If I can’t see or think my Self-Nature how can I know it? The answer is that you know yourself because you are yourself. In the same way you don’t need a separate light to know the sun, you don’t need a separate mind or consciousness to know your-self.

So self-knowledge offers you the opportunity to experience yourself as you are, not as you are supposed to be. Standing here you will see that the sense of Reality, Consciousness and Bliss that you assumed belonged to the body, mind and world actually belongs to your ever present and changeless self. This is the place that spirituality actually points to. Standing here you get to cut the imaginary chains that bind you to limititation so you can be your original, all encompassing nature forever.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

 

Where does peace come from?

Now that the weather is nice in Northern California where I live, it is time to walk the local trails. Yesterday I passed a sign warning hikers that they may encounter rattle snakes and mountain lions. Given the right circumstances, both of these animals can be dangerous. That means that they can attack and kill a human being.

But does this mean that harmony gets destroyed? After all people don’t go walking in nature in order to get killed, do they? The beauty in nature provides us with a chance to find peace and harmony; to come back to a sense of balance. But danger reminds us that if we want lasting peace we have to find it at the source.

Our environment can change at any moment _____________________________________________________________________________________

Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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. Go to Amazon Kindle.
________________________________________________________________________
One thing is for sure: If your peace is based on your environment it won't last. That’s because in the environment circumstances change. While here in northern California beautiful days are the norm, we still have earthquakes, floods, fires, and wild animals. And yet people travel here from all over the world just to enjoy this beauty.

If however you blame your peace on the places that you go for vacation, what happens when you have to face the rest of your life, your family, your job, and the city traffic? Two things here will seem to shatter your peace: when you change your environment like when you move from the country to the city, and when your environment changes due to earthquakes, floods, changes in your state of mind etc.

We do not create peace
Somehow though when we look deeply, we see vacations as a chance to get in touch with peace, not to create it. So how do you get in touch with peace? Like happiness, you get in touch with peace by noticing where you actually experience it. Is it in the oak or redwood trees? What about the rushing streams or the fields full of wild flowers? Is it in the health of your body or the state of your mind? You don’t experience peace over there, do you? You experience it here. The place where you actually experience peace is the place where it comes from.

What this means is that neither your physical nor your mental environment can create your peace, and therefore your environment can't snatch it away; when in the river of life, your environment changes unexpectedly, your peace does not have to slip away.

Peace is what you are, not a thing that you see
When you abide as the source of peace you will discover the meaning of the Peace that passes all understanding. This peace does not behave the way you might expect. When things in your life seem to go a-rye, this peace does not disappear. That’s because peace is closer to you than the events that make up your life. In fact it is so close that nothing can interfere with it, not the health of your body or the state of your mind.

And yet you can look right past your innate peace and blame your environment. That’s why when your environment change your peace may seem to slip away. But when you return your peace to its source, which turns out to be your real nature, you discover that peace is like the depth of the ocean unaffected by the storms above.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

What is your identity anyway?

Why do you look for a sign where there is no sign?

I’d like to continue this discussion on identity because it's confusing to many aspirants seeking their own self nature. That's because your identity is not objective. There is no sign that can confirm your identity; not even a state of health or a quiet mind. You have to know your freedom directly because you stand free of the limits that you see. When you experience this, it becomes obvious. But since it’s beyond your capacity to think about it, at first when you hear that you are Consciousness, it may seem incomprehensible.

The mind knows only opposites
However if you want a real adventure in life, go for self-knowledge. Since your mind is incapable of predicting the results of self-knowledge, at each turn, life becomes fresh and new. As for the mind, it can only grasp things that have opposites. You know a good vacation in relation to a bad one, a good day in comparison to a bad one, a small car in relation to a big one. You only know a huge mosquito by comparing it to a small one, and a high mountain in relationship to a foothill. You know sleep by wakefulness and even life by comparison to death.

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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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. Go to Amazon Kindle.
________________________________________________________________________

The opposites listed above are all objects that you see; but how can there possibly be an opposite to Consciousness, which is the knower of the mind itself. Whether the object is a thought, your body, or a thing in the world, the only proof of consciousness is the fact that you are aware of that object.

Your experience is the real proof
However the word only is a misnomer. There is another proof of Consciousness. You know the nature of Consciousness by standing as Consciousness. By pulling your identity out of the things that you see and standing as the one thing that you are. This is what I call proof by direct experience. So to follow the path of self-knowledge, eliminate every object that you see, until you remain as the self-luminous Consciousness alone. You are the one homogeneous Awareness that lights up the world.

As for limiting identities, you often get to see them and hear them: I’m a mother or father, daughter or son; I am rich or poor, young or old, a doctor, teacher or writer; I’m five foot nine inches, 165 pound man.  Your identity also gets attached to your desires and fears too: I want a new car or house; I never want to see that person again.

Is the thought I really the subject?
When most people question the thoughts going through their mind, they assume that they know who the thinker is. By contrast, when it comes to self-knowledge we don’t care about the thoughts going through our mind. Rather we care about the assumptions that thoughts point to. The most basic of these assumptions is that you are the thinker. For instance when you think, I can’t do math, you assume that the I and the can’t both apply to you. Then you try to replace the I can’t with I can. This is the formula for creating a huge struggle; which one will win? The I can’t or the I can? 
 
But on the path of self knowledge you take a different approach: neither the I nor the can’t apply to you. Remember you are the seer of these thoughts, not the one stuck in them. So you can think these thoughts all you want. You just remain in your natural state of Awareness. Where before you felt limited by two possibilities, you now have open space.

So does this guarantee that you will be able to learn math, of course not. But what you will find is that things will start to happen outside the opposites that your mind conceives including I can and I can’t. I’m sure that you will agree, without struggling with your mind you will have a much better chance of understanding math.

Pull your identity out of the thought I and see what happens
As with I can and I can’t you can pull your identity out of other insidious thoughts that seem to speed through your mind such as: I’m depressed or I’m angry etc. If this is hard to understand, simply pull your identity out of the thought I and see what happens.

It is a pleasant surprise to find a clear space that was once cluttered by suffering. Although you won’t be able to predict the future, you will be very happy living in the present. And life will unfold like a wonderful present, just the way it’s supposed to. All this without having to control your mind. As a bonus you will know that you are the one harmonious Consciousness that's free from the notion of another; just like you always suspected, you are not a collection of thoughts and objects.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

How can I possibly get to my real nature?

Often I get questions about what can I do to get to the final goal enlightenment.  With this question comes the assumption that the path to Self-Knowledge is a long path with many difficulties. But today I want to take difficulty and pull it out by the root.  Remember this is the path of Self-Knowledge.  So you are actually asking the question: What can I do to get to myself? Framing the question like this the answer becomes obvious. You can’t do anything. You already are yourself!

Self knowledge is just a matter of setting the record straight. When you mix your identity up with the limitations that you see, then it seems like there’s a long hard path ahead. This is like walking through the woods in the dim morning light. All of the sudden you feel a bite on your leg and then something quickly moves away. You have just been bitten by a poisonous snake and you are about to die! You feel the bite swelling and you recognize that you only have a short time left. Then an old lady comes by, sees you crying and asks, What’s the matter?

Do you really die?
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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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. Go to Amazon Kindle.
________________________________________________________________________

You tell her that you were just bitten by a poisonous snake and you are about die. She sizes up the situation at a glance and says, See that branch blowing in the wind. See the twig jutting out from the end of the branch with the blood on it. You weren’t bitten by a snake. You were scratched by that twig.

What a relief. You are not going to die. Now you can put a band aid on the scratch and happily go on your way. So how did the old lady cure the snake bite? By showing you that the snake was never really there; it was just an assumption. How difficult was it to get rid of the snake and see the branch for what it was. It was just a matter of looking at your situation afresh, wasn't it? The same is true of Self Knowledge.

We assume that we are the things that we see
In the same way that you assumed that you were bitten by a snake and are therefore about to die, you feel that you are limited by the things that you see. The body was born, grows old and dies. So if your identity is tied in with the body, then when the body suffers in illness and death it feels as if you are suffering and dying. Until of course this old man comes along and shows you how you were always free of the condition of the body.

Similarly if your identity is tied to certain thoughts in the mind, when you start to lose control of these thoughts which happens in disease and death, it feels as if you are ceasing to exist. But did you ever wonder where you stand so that you are aware of the changes that occur in the body and mind? The motion that you see belies the stillness that you are.

Self Knowledge is not intellectual knowledge
So what is Self Knowledge anyway? It is taking your identity out of the limitations that you see, and returning to the place where you actually abide anyway. This is setting the record straight.

However, you should know that Self Knowledge is not merely an intellectual pursuit. Intellectual knowledge is a product of thoughts, and thoughts are objects that you see; they come and go and therefore they are not you. If your practice is supported merely by your thoughts, when you begin to fade and you lose control of your thoughts, it will feel as if your lifeline is being cut.

But fortunately you know yourself in a deeper way then by thought. You know yourself because you stand as the Consciousness that lights up your thoughts and makes them seem alive. Standing as Consciousness, you will know by your direct experience where these words point to.

Thoughts come and go not you
The different between intellectual knowledge and direct experience is the difference between reading about California and living there. I think you will agree that no matter how many facts I know about your home town it is not the same as living there.

The same is true of self knowledge. If you attempt to understand yourself by standing as objects called thoughts, this path will seem unduly complicated like a razors edge. But fortunately it’s easier to stand as the Consciousness and Bliss that you are, then to ruminate over this knowledge with your thoughts. Standing here as the self you will see where these words point. It is not to a state of mind; it is to a state of being; this is your natural state.

And most important you will know what I mean when I say, The path of self knowledge is not about what you do, it is about what you are.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

December 2012, will the world come to an end?

I think you would be surprised to know how many people in my radio interviews ask: Will the world come to an end December 21, 2012. Apparently this is the day picked by Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar. So today I am going to put on my psychic hat and predict the end of the world. But first I should tell you that my prediction comes not from knowing the future, but rather from knowing what is going on right now.

More exactly, I know where reality comes from and so can you. You do not know this as a theoretical concept stored in some cavity of your mind.  Rather you know this by direct experience. After all we have plenty of experiences where  the world disappears, don’t we? And yet our sense of reality remains unfazed.

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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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

________________________________________________________________________
 

You experience a different world when you dream
Here are some examples that will illustrate this: as you read this blog you get sleepy and your mind starts to wander. You now live in a palace where you are a king or queen. There are many servants to tend to even the smallest of your needs. Suddenly one of the servants steps forth. He has white hair and a white beard.  He tells you that this world is not real. That you are king or queen of a dream world, and what you see is a figment of your imagination. Reality comes from the mind of the waking one. The other servants react in shock and assure you that you are really awake and that you are really the king or queen of this country.

You wake up with a startle. At that moment the world including all of your servants and all of your wealth disappears and a whole new world appears where you are sitting at your desk reading this blog. Although a whole world came and went it felt like nothing really happened. The sense of reality that you had in the dream survived but now it seems to belong to the waking world. 

When everything disappears what happens?
Then, being tired you go to bed and fall into a deep restful sleep. Although all of the objects are gone, the room, the chair and this blog, reality happily remains the same. The proof is that when you wake up you proclaim, I feel so refreshed; that was a wonderful sleep.

Moreover as your state of mind changes the world seems to change too. Whether it’s a dream, deep sleep or the waking state, we attribute reality to the things that we see. But at this point you might object: Surely the waking state is different from the dream state. We experience the dream in our mind, while the waking state is outside of us, right? First of all when we were dreaming the dream world seemed like it was outside of us too, and it was only when we woke up that we noticed that the dream world was just in our mind.

Take a look and see where you actually experience the world
But here’s the question that I have for you: Where do you actually experience the world anyway? Is it out there or in here? I am sure that if you look closely at your experience you will see that the world is here and not over there. After all if it was over there, you would experience it at all. But let’s explore our experience in a little more detail: First when you experience an object where exactly do you experience it. You experience the world through your five senses, right? But when you trace your sense of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting back to their source I think that you will be amazed at what you actually find.

Take your sense of sight as an example, your eye acts like a camera and the scenery passes through the lens in your eye. Next the objects go through the optic nerve and enter the brain. From the brain the objects enter your mind. And you see your mind.

Sound works in a similar way. The ear captures the sound which goes through the auditory nerve into the brain. It is your mind that puts sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste together to make it seem like you are experiencing one contiguous world. But in reality the mind is the place where you are experiencing the five senses which seem to make up the world. So is the world out there or is it in here? If you look closely at your experience you will begin to notice that you experience the world in here. It is only an illusion that the world is out there. As in a dream, you experience the world in your mind. But overlooking the thing you actually experience you take the world to be outside and separate from you.

It is you that makes the world seem so real
If you are concerned that you will lose the sense of reality that the world seems to have, you can be assured that reality remains the same. You just return your sense of reality to the place where it comes from anyway. Reality comes from you! That’s why when the worlds seem to change your sense of reality remains the same.

Now let’s get back to the original question: will the world come to an end on December 21, 2012? By now my answer should be obvious. The world has already come to an end and things are working fine, aren't they? That's because the thing that is continuous remains, which is of course your sense of reality.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Now what do I do?

Oftentimes in my blogs I talk about meditations, or you can call them inner experiments so that you can experience the place that these words point to. For instance I ask you to discover where you actually experience happiness, or I ask where do you actually experience the world, over there or in here? If you carry out these experiments you will discover that your experience is richer and more amazing than these words can convey. Also, you may notice that sometimes your actual experience is beyond what your thoughts can capture. That’s why it is possible to completely overlook what you are experiencing and to only notice the experiences that seem to fit in with your thinking.

Because of this I often get the question: Now that you explained all of this, what can I do to get there? Remember this is a blog on self-knowledge. So you have to wonder: who is the one who stands separate and attempts to get there?  The assumption here is that you are somehow separate from yourself and have to get to it as if you were an object. In fact this question assumes that you are an object.  This object can take on many forms. For example it might be the doer of actions or the thought “I”.

You Know yourself because you are Your-Self _____________________________________________________________________________________

Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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

________________________________________________________________________
But here is the thing that sets self-knowledge apart. You do not know yourself in the same way that you know an object. You know yourself by direct experience, because you are yourself.  Like the sun, you shine by your own light. You do not need a separate light to know the thing that you already experience, your own self-nature.

At first this may seem very subtle. But once you actually stand here it becomes the most obvious thing that you can imagine.  As Ramana Maharshi said, “A day will dawn when you will laugh at all of your struggles. That day is here even now.” So here is an ancient Indian story that illustrates this. 

The Tenth Friend
Ten friends were on a holiday from school. So they decided to walk through the forest  to the local monastery where they hoped to learn how to meditate. On the way, they had to cross a stream where the currents moved rapidly. Just to be safe, when they got to the other shore the leader decided to count each friend to make sure they were all there. She was shocked to find that there were only nine friends. 

As the leader counted again and again, the friends got more and more worried. Where could the missing friend possibly be? They got soaked as they searched the river bed. When an old man walked by he found the despondent friends and asked what had happened. The leader cried, “We started out as ten and now we are nine.” In an instant the old man grasped the situation and saw what had happened. He asked the leader to count her friends. When she counted the ninth friend the old man tapped her on the head and counted ten. The friends were relived because the old man had found the tenth friend. They thanked him and went happily on their way.

Finding your self is simply being yourself
So what happened? The leader forgot to count her self. And what did the leader have to do to find the tenth friend? Did she have to do pertinence for many years at the monastery, or work really hard, or think the right thoughts, or read the right books?  No, it was just a matter of knowing that it was just a mistake, the tenth friend was never really lost.  With that knowledge, all of the sadness and fear turned into joy.

So when I ask you to experiment a little and to notice where you experience happiness, or where you experience the world anyway, it is not the beginning of a long impossible journey with a million steps. When you take a fresh look at your experience you will have done all the doing that is necessary. That’s because you will find that the thing you are looking for, you never really lost. That’s because even now you experience yourself. Since you don’t see yourself like you see an object, it is easy to overlook your very identity and mix it up with the things that you see. Self knowledge is just a matter of returning your sense of consciousness, reality and bliss to the place where it comes from anyway. Although you don’t see yourself, you know yourself because that’s what you are.

When you discover what you really are, it will be like coming home. You will find that the security and joy that you were looking for in a million different places, actually comes from you, and not the thing you hope to find.  Best of all you will have found the still place on which even birth and death rests.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

The one Advantage to Self-Knowledge is the Freedom that you Are

I love it when questions become a conversation and I can sense a person getting clearer. Here is another question from Bill:

Thank you for the reply.
        I got your book about a week ago. I had already been studying various religions and had tons of stored up knowledge but wasn't so good at applying it to my life and you do a great job with that! I thought about what you were saying about the different goals for meditation and saw that my view of it was off. Because my first real experience with meditation was of the energy type I assumed that's what it was supposed to be. But that's not at all what I want. I led a life full of suffering and family trauma so I never really appreciated life.

And also equally I have the desire to have the words or actions for the people in my life to impact them when they are going through tough times. I've noticed as I become closer to my core my words just carry more "weight". And I am noticing the beauty of the world around me and life in general more as I stop worrying so much about the different paths and where they might lead to. Practicing the meditation you gave me and going through your book I can see the words point towards the core which is like a mirror which reflects the mind back at itself. At times the mind doesn't really like what it sees. I definitely had an experience of being sick in my stomach and chills up my spine disgusted that I had let that happen as I got a clear view of some of the frameworks that make up my mind.

I more often have moments of an inwardly centered nature where things seem very still inside and very "real" for lack of a better term. But I guess it all just seems kinda sketchy to me and I won't stay that close to my core for long. I still seem to carry large amounts of energy most of the time and it seems like it wants to break free like out of restraints as the mind cries sketchy! The other thing of noticed is that most of the time my mind is drawn inward toward the core at the level of the eyes, like where Hindu woman have the dot. Then I carry a lot of real heavy feeling energy. Sometimes it seems to draw through more in the middle of the forehead and that is a lighter feeling energy. I guess I have been pursuing crazy energy experiences and stuff for a while now but have now seen that is the last thing I actually want! Any feedback would be much appreciated and thank you for writing the book it is extremely helpful at applying all the head knowledge I have been accumulating.
                               -Bill

 

Hi Bill,

Thanks for getting my book. For all of your studying, one thing is really good: you did not become an intellectual, mearly memorizing lots of information. Rather you go by your direct experience. Starting with your experience you will soon discover how amazing your direct experience really is.

When people feel suffering they start looking for the devil to find the cause of their suffering. Now you should know that the devil comes in many flavors. Some people call it the subconscious, negative thinking, and conceptual thinking to name just a few. While there is a place in spiritual practice for looking into assumed limitations and concepts, I wouldn’t suggest beginning your meditation practice there.

Let Your Experiences Carry You

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. 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

________________________________________________________________________

Rather you are starting to have new experiences that you describe in your question as appreciating the beauty around you, and a deeper connection with the people around you. The way you described your family and upbringing, I would bet you didn’t have much chance to experience these connections. Before getting into obstacles take some time and enjoy these experiences. See if you can bask in them and enjoy the place that they are coming from. Let your actual experience reveal itself by itself. Be adventurous; don’t assume that you know how things will turn out; be ready for some surprises.

Here are four comments that could help as you sort things out:

First, as you go deeper in your practice it won’t necessarily mean that more people will start accepting you or liking you. The only sign of this wisdom is more clarity, more peace and more joy. If you look to people in the world to affirm your experience, it is like asking the reflection in a mirror to affirm the mirror, or the dream character to affirm the nature of the waking one. It won’t always happen. You have to know the waking one directly, because that’s who you are. Sometimes you will find that as you go deeper and become wiser, you start to attract friends who are deeper and wiser too. But the only thing that happens for sure is that you discover what you really are.

Here is a verse I meditated on persistently during my practice:
Praise and blame, loss and gain a yogi is the same.

Second, your experience of the core as a mirror which reflects the mind back at itself. Watch out for having too many moving parts careening through you mind: The core, the mind, and a mirror reflecting back on itself, and a separate thinker in there too who likes or doesn’t like what he sees; too many parts. Don't deny this experience, but as you go deeper you will move towards oneness and simplicity. Just note that your experience is probably pointing you to something deeper that you haven’t fully seen yet.

Third, don’t attempt to repress energy experiences. That would be a misunderstanding of what I said. If they are meant to come let them come; they can teach you many lessons that are hard to put into words. The third eye is a doorway to white light experiences.

Fourth, if you do look into limiting frameworks that you lived by, do so without judgment. Remember when you see limitation you are on the verge of a new found freedom. That’s because you are the seer of limitation, not the one caught in it.

Please let me know if this answers your questions or brings up more questions.

Asking Question
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.

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

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman