For more rambling, head to:

http://blesseddisillusionment.blogspot.com/!

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The Self is complete in itself. No searching or suffering is needed to be what you are. Though the game of seeking can feel important and dramatic, it is meaningless. Only raw, non-conceptual being IS. You are already free.

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"I am", "I am not" - words. Reality is here and beyond either statement.

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Life, even with what thought labels it's "flaws", is so perfect that it defies description.

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Words can never nail this down. That is why there are so many attempted descriptions, pointers at it. No matter how many words are said or unsaid, they arise in the uncloudable clarity of being. They and every other “thing” are only that, appearing as form.

Conceptual descriptions are often mistaken for reality but the essential is always present, even when appearing as a confused human being.

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Enlightenment is an imaginary event that will supposedly happen to an imaginary individual at some point in an imaginary future.

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Advaita, as a philosophical system is utter crap, as are all intellectual attempts at describing reality. Concepts are unnecessary to BE.

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We are not a thought, state, feeling, sensation, body, person, subject, object or any "thing" or nothing that can be described. To try to understand our nature with thought is a futile exercise. We are. I am. Ignore all of these words - by what are they known?

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Beliefs about anything aren't the reality of what you are. Being/awareness preceeds thoughts and is the necessary ingredient for them to appear. This is a concept. In what field does it arise and dissipate?

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Words fail to describe anything or nothing and imagine a difference between the two.

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To be a seeker, there must be a feeling that one is separate from something. What are you separate from and who is aware of this? You don't need anything to BE.

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No one is controlling "the show" called "life". There isn't a director somewhere calling "action!" and "cut!". It is a selfless arising.

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"You" cannot do a thing. The "me" is a powerless image that arises and sets spontaneously. I am that which it is known by.

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"Life will be perfect when _____ happens." - this is a thought story. Life is here and now and nowhere else.

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Though the thought may arise that you "know yourself", you cannot know yourself as an object of knowledge. You are not an object. There is no such thing as an object apart from a subject - all divisions are only conceptual.

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I am nothing and no one, nor are you. I don't have special knowledge or grace. I am not an authority of any sort. I am.

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An excerpt from my upcoming book, "Blessed Disillusionment", to be released by Non Duality Press (planned date of release May 2011) -

The ego cannot die

...for the simple reason that anything that isn't real never lived.

You cannot kill the ego. Try to smite the air with a stone and you will hit nothing.

It all boils down to one unexamined or perhaps cherished assumption - that I am apart from life and death. While laboring under this pretext, it seems that every second brings a new struggle. It feels like being “in the trenches”.

What a relief to find this object of crushing gravity to be nothing more than a passing thought - nothing. While assumed to exist, it feels denser and more substantial than a black hole but the ego is simply not real.

What is real?

What is real is present right now - day or night, asleep or awake, rain or shine.

Time and space are just misinterpretations of it by thought.

It is something that cannot be grasped but can never be lost.

Search into the endless universe and you will still be it. You cannot find that which was never missing.

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I am.
If I was not, no experence could arise.
The thought “I am” is not what I am.
I am that which is prior to thought, which is it’s precondition.
I have never been limited, no borders impinge on me.
In my clarity, impressions and thoughts arise.
Some of these thoughts pretend to describe me.
Other thoughts reference these images.
Being is never sullied by appearances.
Our nature is freedom, we only suffer in thought.
In reality, oneness is all that ever appears.
There isn’t anyone who “gets this” and “doesn’t get it”.
There is only this.
Thoughts of confusion and separation will pass and this will still be.
Thoughts couldn’t appear without this.

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It’s strange that there appears to be so much identification with thought. The glaring gaps in it’s stream go unnoticed, I guess because there’s no content to be aware of. That which is absolutely obvious is overlooked because it isn’t an object.

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In spiritual circles, the idea of "awakening" is usually seen as a big deal - "Ooooh - he's awakened!" but, in reality, NOTHING can appear to happen without wakefulness/awareness.

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Nothing needs to be done - I AM.

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"Problems" are only such in appearance. In reality, nothing is ever wrong. What we are (I AM) is birthless, deathless and effortless. Oneness was never lost.

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You are not a body (sense impressions) or a mind (thought) - you are that which is aware of them and gives rise to their appearance.

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In appearance, it can seem that some pointers are more helpful than others. There’s nothing at all wrong with that. The crucial point of a pointer (!) is that it points directly at one’s being.

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Pure advaita is the easiest "thing" in the world. There is nothing to be achieved, there is noone to achieve it and, lastly, THERE IS NO WORLD, there is only timeless awareness appearing as everything and nothing.

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It doesn't matter which word is prefered - awareness, presence, consciousness, being, god, spirit - they all point at the same reality. You are this reality. Nothing exists apart from it. Nothing could appear to be without it. It is not-a-thing but IT IS, YOU ARE, I AM (all saying the exact same thing).

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In appearance, forms arise and dissolve. In reality, being abides.

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When there is the thought that one is the appearance (body/mind), there is generally the attempt to fit some pre conceived notion of how or who one should be.

When it is seen that one is the presence in which appearance arises, there is no longer an attempt to modify what appears - it isn't what you are.

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This is simple.

In your own, direct experience, what are you? To see clearly one should put aside everything they've read, been told or believe.

If you say "the body", what is the body but a series of changing, intermittent sense impressions?

If you say "the mind", isn't the mind just thoughts appearing and disappearing? Has there ever been a permanent thought? The self thought comes and goes like all others - it is not what we really are.

What you really are has to be with you always.

What is the key ingredient of any experience, thought or feeling?

Awareness.

Within awareness, there arises a thought about a "me", an image. In thought, this imagined person struggles and suffers the dramas of life. With the arising of the idea of me, there come ideas of space and time, being apart from me. There are also ideas of other "me's". All of these are only concepts arising and setting in present awareness. See for yourself!

The description is not the thing. These words have no value, the only use they might have is in pointing at something real. Feel free to look for yourself and see if what they are saying is true.

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What is being discussed is not a "special understanding", it is simply a matter of seeing what is.

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Being cannot be taught.

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Noone can rightfully claim to be closer to truth or source than anyone else. Such a statement is an outright denial of non-duality. There are self-avowed "teachers" who claim that duality is illusion and then tell their "students" that they need to "purify", "be sincere", "meditate" and all other number of ridiculous things. How will any practice make you more what you are than you are now?

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From what I've observed, it seems like alot of people who claim to have "the understanding" try to make something special and exclusive out of it. They act as if they've been given access to some sort of spiritual country club where only a very few select elite are allowed. There often seems to be the implication (or the outright statement) that they have "it" and you don't. To me, this absolutely contradicts what the message of advaita is telling us. Non-duality means no me, you, us, we or them. The important pointer of it is that we already have and are the oneness that we think we've lost. The only thing that apparently obscures this realization is the ego or self idea but, as was pointed out on the intro page, this is just a concept that appears and disappears in awareness without leaving a mark. The reality of what we are is what allows thoughts, perceptions and all appearances to seem to exist. It is HERE ("here" being wherever there is awareness) right NOW.

You can call it "God", "source", "sentient emptiness" or whatever you like but the important thing to realize is that it's what you are. It's the essence of all experience. The body, mind and thoughts, world and all of creation occur to it but do not confine or define it. John Wheeler, Sailor Bob Adamson and, before them, Nisargadatta Maharaj all pointed out that the answer is not in the mind. The mind can deal with "objects" but what we're talking about is the prerequisite for an apparent mind and can therefore not be contained or understood by it. Searching in the mind will lead to much confusion and chasing carrots on sticks. Rational thought has it's place, especially to dissolve falsities and come up with solutions to tangible problems but it is absolutely useless in this matter. When the mind stops, YOU ARE. When the mind chatters, YOU ARE. For there to even appear to be a chattering mind YOU HAVE TO BE. This is really just a matter of seeing through the false believed identity and realizing what is constant in your experience. We think we're the noisy mind but, what is aware of it? Who does it occur to? It's so obvious that it's often missed. It's kind of like when you tear your apartment apart for hours looking for your keys and then realize they've been in your pocket the whole time. Though painfully obvious, this has to be seen for oneself, that's why those with a solid understanding of this use "pointers" to show us where to look for ourselves. Their description of it won't do any good in itself but, if we can try to look at what they're pointing at, we may see it and in that there is freedom from the belief in a limited, flawed self.

"Seekers" are generally seeking an experience that they think will set them free from the idea of the isolated self. This is what we've been told we need and what we often read about in "spiritual" literature. Also, there is the image of the perfected master that is put before us, that we're supposed to live up to - someone who wears bright robes and never gets angry, swears or thinks about sex. Advaita is not about conforming to an ideal, it is about finding out who you really are and just being yourself. No experience will ever grant freedom from the self idea, it is the imagined self that craves wider and greater experiences. Spiritual "fireworks" are often desired but no fireworks are needed to be what you are - the clear awareness in which arises the apparent universe. Throw away all of the complexity and theory and what we're talking about is what you are. You are not the body and mind you take yourself to be but that which is aware of them. You are the precondition to any perception or apparent existence. Don't take my word for it (it won't do you any good anyway), look for yourself - it's easy!