There is only One awareness, aware of the universal oneness of itself, fully. It’s nature is our nature: peace, love, beauty – the enjoyment of watching one’s whole self unfolding. There is no subject/object, cause/effect, aka duality. Words believed conjure a personal duality and therefore division, apparently.This one awareness is intimate but not personal and […]
“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus: Let not such man be trusted.” William Shakespeare. I just vaguely recalled and gogled the above, […]
~ Ultimately, in realizing one actually lives in – and is – the unknown, we’re free to not already know, to not need to know; to stop dissecting a frog and pretending we know what a frog is, so to speak. Free to abide aware and unattached to any and all phenomena that appears and […]
In living here, questions fall away. We no longer see a ‘world’ according to our beliefs – those believed opinions that shape experience and personalize it. Looking from pure awareness, we see what is, as is, without opinions/beliefs. It’s that nonpersonal, ‘aware’ perspective of our inherent common awareness simply ‘seeing’ without knowing…lovingly, wonderfully, beautifully..in truth, […]
Beliefs mire one in conflict and confusion, and prevent self-knowing; paradoxically, deep self-knowing restores harmony as it reveals the peace of our aware self-nature. Belief in being a person among other persons – an “I” and a “you” – conjures, divides and creates conceptual separation where in fact there is none. What prevents realization? Stories, […]
The cause of suffering is separation, apparently. But in reality nothing ‘separates’ but belief.Belief divides, apparently. But not actually. Indeed it seems that suffering from belief in being a separate and real ‘person’, can be either transformed here and now, or variously hindered and delayed, for a lifetime…or until our story ends. 🙂Either way, that […]
In aware living, one is always finding out; always curiously alert and engaged and subtly astonished. There’s an innocence in meeting the moment as it presents, in appropriate relationship and response. In fact, that’s the common condition of a global awareness that’s stripped bare by the immense, the unadorned, the plain beauty that presents itself […]
As a retired, partly reformed wordsmith and erstwhile photographer, my ‘world’ came crashing down when I happened across this pix of an old abandoned library. 😉 Not really. But it was a nice surprise to somewhat revel in this fine visual metaphor of words wearily withering; the faded fallen leaves under the weight of time; […]
Grazing lightly on the news these days, it seems these times are like all times: full of confined, contested and conflicted humans variously and consistently repeating all the common errors man is heir to. There’s apparently all the historical desires and familiar fears, but now they’re globally amped up by social, story-based media, and the […]
Here’s a rainy day short story for the long-form readers among us. 🙂 It was written in 2018 about my time renting and living in an old stone cottage (top pix) on an estate in an English Cotswold’s village in 1991. It was written in five parts posted separately over two months and I’ve combined […]
(2010) ~ Why I write There is withinan urge that drips,An urging to releasethe confined meaning of wordsand ceaseless sighing.To free “freedom”from speculationsabout what it is. To explore that sadness of failure,that false gladness,that identity you’ve workedso longingly to construct,that fabrication of whatreal pleasure might be,that image so heavylong in its maintenance. And to truly […]
In loving aware experience, there’s wonder, beauty and grace. It’s all the movement of love, loving. It seems we’re moved and invited to grow and to keep growing without ever knowing. Being infinite. For me, these days, head and heart wholly include the gut, but the deepening here seems to best be described as ‘love, […]
~ Mind complicates; reality clarifies. In aware living, one rests in quietude and solitude as spirit, like love, does all the lifting, discovering and uncovering nothing but itself, fully. There’s no knowing, no knower, nothing known – just an amplitude, a borderless brilliance that is alert, living. Aware. Enjoy the beauty of being; allow a […]
“To watch him play was to watch the delight of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man.”~ The above was said by Nelson Mandela, of world soccer great Pele, who passed on bodily, this December day. Indeed, the man called ‘Pele’ demonstrated what much of the human world recognized – not only […]
It seems that legions of us live at home in our heads, in our ‘current working hypothesis’. In believing that we know, or will know, what’s ‘really going on,’ with more study and effort, yes? Me too, for yonks. 🙂 That’s all well and good enough it seems, for some. For some others, we’re still […]
The gift of awareness, of being aware one is aware, is the supreme Christmas gift to your self. Indeed, to open and directly know your self as nothing and everything, is to simply recognize one is – here and now – unadorned divine awareness appearing as a limited human. There’s nothing to do to unwrap […]
The mind’s comparing and contrasting is a useful function for surviving re food, clothing and shelter. It’s the believing that mind is actually who one is, that starts the personalization of experience and its problems and sufferings. Lovingly watching the bling of the mind gives a space for directly knowing that what is watching is […]
Life and the living of it is an amazing teacher, yes. Indeed, the man pictured here, waving in his doorway in Mumbai, India, is one of life’s teachings: Nisargadatta Maharaj. It seems he’d agree that life’s the real Master Teacher with – like him – a compelling way of presenting its ongoing series called, ‘Reality’. […]
BELIEFS ARE STORIES ABOUT REALITY.* All thoughts gain their power from our believing or not believing them. Of course, that power is given without awareness, from the totally conditioned unconsciousness we learned to think is ‘me’ and which operates – like a hand inside a glove – producing at least 85 percent of our daily, […]
Words – like all the products of the mind – may be useful symbolic pointers toward the recognition of ones inner nature, but they merely represent; they’re good servants but poor masters. All belief distorts what is; in quietude, allow the mind to simply relax; gently, openly look thru and beyond concepts and feelings. That […]
[ awareness & emptiness, noted, dept. ]It seems that ’emptiness’ (of self identity) is the first profound recognition in suddenly rediscovering one is actually pure life, living HERE; that renewed knowing is absolutely disturbing and life changing. On that timeless occasion, one can seem to find a ‘happy fullness’ exclusively in emptiness – it’s so […]
There’s a common thread with different colors in all our spiritual sojourning it seems. 🙂 I ‘believed my mind would supply the answers to the truth I became obsessed with and which pushed and prodded me in my early forties. I spent decades of devoted seeking in extensive daily studies and travels to spiritual centers […]
Q: It’s apparent that we cannot actually know what anything is, we can only know our concepts. Mind cannot capture it. Science seems to ‘progress’ by breaking things up and naming every fragment as though it were separate. Is there actually such a thing as ‘reality’ or is there no such thing as I have […]
It’s gently raining and the delicate drops flow and tinkle melodiously down the drain pipe near my open window. The light outside is soft wet greens and misty grays; the three story high forest of needled trees fifty feet away wave and beckon me to step out and to step into, nature. We’ll see if […]
Ah, awareness – here we enter mind’s contradictions and reality’s paradox. Awareness is nothing one thinks and believes it is. The dual mind cannot directly know what it can only – perhaps eloquently – picture and verbally describe, symbolize, represent. Awareness is reality; reality is awareness. Reality has no subject with its object; it’s not […]
The root of all allusion, delusion and confusion is belief. To ‘believe’ requires a believer; a ‘someone’ conceptually, theoretically separated out only by the conditioned mind; a somebody that describes and comes to believe its own conceptual imaginings – it’s castings of good/bad, right/wrong, define and confine almost all of our daily experience. Mind gets […]
What a year yes. Beautiful, and.. not so much. But still, through storm and flood, thunder and blood, there’s always been the candles, those little lights of love. Often, even in the pictures and reports of disaster and despair, if we look closely with love, we may also see love in action. We need look […]
Take your selfie out of the picture and you’ll really be surprised.Real freedom lies in non-resistance to whatever is actually happening in your experience, now. Really. 🙂 ~ To us, the known is very important. That is the only thing we have. The known being my memories, my knowledge, my experiences, my tradition, my house. […]
To find the nearest war – and peace – all we need to do is sit home, turn off, tune in and watch the parade in our mind. After all, it’s the mind that produces all conflict, that makes war and, when not burdened with belief, rests in peace. WE LIVE IN NATURAL PEACE ONLY […]
~ I have three hiking notes at my elbow; they were taken on my frequent stops along Cowichan valley trails on Vancouver Island, and they’re now stuck here beside my computer to delight and perhaps inspire a little writing: ‘There’s awareness here and now only.’ ‘Awareness is not what we think it is.’ ‘awareness is […]
One of the wonders in everyday, alertly aware living, is that if one wanders into a small crowd say, at the Saturday market, and simply, clearly, looks and listens directly – allowing the mind chatter to pass without attaching, without pre-judging – one is surprisingly and even frequently, delighted to spot – here and there, […]
FOR DETAILS AND TO SIMPLY REGISTER, PLEASE SEE BELOW. 🙂A series of four online meetingsSeptember & October: first and third Saturdays, 10 am – 11:30 am Pacific Timehttps://krishnamurti-canada.ca/…/living-here-cafe…/… You are invited to a series of focused self-exploration and discovery. As resource we will be using The Book of Life, a collection of daily meditations by J. Krishnamurti. […]
This world is not our beautiful – or horrible – ideas about it; it is, and we are, primal awareness of all these ideas, feelings and sensations we may call our “body/mind consciousness.”In quietude, simplicity and silence, awareness-of-awareness presents itself.. to itself. We see the beauty of it all. There is only awareness, yes.This is […]
~ It seems that some established religions and most of science are an articulate mind’s tale, told by the mind about the mind. Mind, being 0-1 binary (dual), can never know anything other than its ideas about ideas. Reality is not any ideas about it, beautiful and entertaining as they may be. Our conditioned brain […]
What knows the difference between a dream and awareness? What is aware…what dreams? Awareness knows the dream. That which one is, is an alert, non-personal awareness of the personal dream-world, yes 🙂.
Let’s explore a few spiritual words like ‘Self,’ ‘knowing’ ‘love,’ ‘being,’ ‘mind’ and its attending ‘conflict’. Ah, words and images. Oh, how they convey, portray and betray yes? Indeed, words – religious or sectarian – are freighted with trainloads of heavy, accumulated meanings, intonations, indications, preferences and denials…they’re loaded and gain their ‘weight’ not so […]
“Ideals and utopias offer means of escape from actually what is, which is, the human mind is violent. Let us face it, understand it, not in time, gradually, but actually look at it now, understand it very clearly. You can only understand it when the observer is not there because the observer is the very […]
There’s nothing good or bad in nature, taken in the whole. There is a need though, to directly see facts without personal, attitudinal bias. Duality. In fine, in awareness, facts are only actually seen if there is no person; no mind-made ‘opinion’ that’s personally conceived and believed. In aware living, there’s no person who believes; […]
~ Most of us do not learn from experience, we repeat experience. It is – in our mind and heart – who and what we think and believe we ‘personally’ are. That same ‘somebody’ called ‘me’. We live, move and have our being in faint fleeting pleasures and repeated-because-relived, sorrows – all based on yesterday’s […]
Q: What is belief and how does it affect the way we live? Indeed, life’s big questions about belief can only be answered without outside authority, with deep, direct self-knowing yes. 🙂 That said, a belief is a ‘mind label’ that represents, symbolizes, reality. As children, the brain/mind is entirely conditioned with cultural, personal beliefs; […]
[ making it up as we go along, dept. ]It seems these days we’re getting – we are – sick and tired, perhaps, yes 🙂 and some are starting to look around a bit more, to wonder a little, perhaps. To getting closer to perhaps beginning to address inner experience, beliefs, desires and despairs, directly. […]
There is, in fact, no such thing as ‘separation’ in reality. But that misplaced truth doesn’t seem to keep us from thinking and believing contrariwise, so to speak. Let’s go straight to where all separation, conflicts and ‘problems’ arise: the personal mind – the Great Divider. That alone – albeit only symbolically, apparently, with words […]
“The state of not-knowing completely is attention.”~ J KrishnamurtiWhen we pause, look and listen, just for this moment, this now, spirit directly encounters the beauty of it all; we dwell in light and shade; we eat, drink, touch and taste deeply. Gratefully. We’re nourished and delighted by the miraculous; we fall silently into a fuller […]
** Here’s a note I’m going to squeeze into a bottle like Huck Finn, toss it in and let it bob along the mighty FB river.. it’s a note about things passing and never-passing, time and the timeless: To not be aware of the passing idles, dramas and storms, mental ticks and torments in our […]
There’s great beauty and delight in the quietude of everyday simplicity. Find a quiet place inside, sip a cuppa, sniff the air and savor this moment as it presents. No control. No controller. Let the mind run unattended a little, look around, relax and enjoy your beautiful self-nature: let things and thoughts be exactly as […]
What we infinitely are is veiled by an apparent believing in thoughts as being actually who we are and what we do, so to speak. We learn to believe as children. The clear sky of awareness becomes clouded with beliefs. An emerging mind-made ‘me’ seemingly appears; that newly minted ‘me’ is conjured out of a […]
A LITTLE BOOK ON AWARE LIVING, AS IT HAPPENS. 🙂~ Introduction: Perhaps these days are a good time to really get close. To look inside a little closer and longer at what we’ve been conditioned to believe, and to allow our self to wonder if all that is necessary. In truth, what is necessary, after […]
In aware living, there’s a gentle quieting – usually first of the mind and then of the body; there’s a plain observing and delighting in, what is, as it is. That which is ‘watching’ is the changeless constant – awareness; the comings and goings are the flow of consciousness, so to speak. Awareness includes consciousness. […]
THE CLARITY OF PEACE.One of the beautiful things about real, non-personal love is it acts without prejudice and its’ conflicts. In aware living, there’s a seeing of all the mind-generated ‘problems’ wholly, from love…that love includes what is, and rather than react from cultural, social, traditional conditioning – those ideas, ideals and feelings we habitually […]
* Today’s Delight presented itself this morning with tea; it’s a short report by J Krishnamurti on the brain’s seemingly endless problem-making and – in a rare ‘how to’ – K outlines how we can recognize the mind’s quiet nature. It’s loaded with insightful gems of a deep understanding not accumulated in memory as fragments […]
Concepts – words – merely describe and represent; they are always personal and cultural, and as such are totally conditioned; all conditioned thinking and feeling is driven by desires and fears in the individual and collective ‘mind’. Apparently, they’re all necessary and healthy and functional if not too distorted by…beliefs. Beliefs are mind-made ideas and […]
..”experience” is what egos have it seems. In aware living, there’s no personal experience or experiencer, only a loving experiencing, – an awarenessing of consciousness, of perceptions, conceptions, sensations and appearances freshly arising now…so to speak 🙂
In aware living, we act not from unseen, inherited habits and age-old preferences and denials, but from a loving aware seeing of these built-in body/mind reactions. There’s a simple watching;a constant catching and releasing. In truth, there’s always a spacious letting go that’s ‘already done’ yes. Some say that’s the way love acts – it […]
So, what is the real world we seemingly step into every day? That’s the question we’re going to explore here a little, but first, there’s this caveat: I don’t know and no one does. Indeed, no one can tell us what’s real – reality is directly, immediately and comprehensively known only by itself. Indeed, it […]
* Absorbed in our daily reading and thinking, it seems we often turn our back on reality – the ‘heaven that lies around us’, yes 🙂* A life lived in pattern without rhythm is mere repetition.* Reality, aka, life, isn’t limited by personal thoughts and feelings we have about it. When we believe them, we […]
Peace and joy are at the heart of all inspiration, yes. In that vein, here’s a randomly assembled collection that’s inspired me this morning; some of you may endure..ah, enjoy, these little candles too. It further occurs to me that this ‘fresh bundle of small delights’ is inspiring its own production here. 🙂 as I […]
Ah yes, paradox..again. Awareness is reality; reality is awareness. Reality has no subject with its object; it’s not personal, not egoic, not a concept; it never appears as anything ‘other’ than the constant ‘awareingness’ which it is, here/now. All that comes and goes is not real; that which we essentially, infinitely are – pure aware […]
Real peace lies in fully loving;in constantly letting things come and go;in letting all events happen as they willin the light of an alert awareness;in deeply enjoying life as it presents;in relating from the inside, out,and from the outside, in, in resting in undivided onenesswholly here, completely now. 🙂
Visiting Voices: J C Tefft ~THE END OF SUFFERINGQUESTIONER: I have been a seeker for 30 years. I am 63, my father committed suicide when I was 19, and my best friend committed suicide when I was 18…[edited] My understanding, based on the teachings of non-duality teachers, is that the universe wanted to experience that […]
All of our life-long conditioning does nothing more than conceptualize and personalize experience…unless and until it seems we’re driven to deep inner seeking with questions like “What is really going on here?” or ” Who am I really?” For some, in their search, finally, there’s a giving up, a denial of all beliefs, a cessation […]
FINDING EASE IN BEING, IN LIVING ITSELF, HAPPENS. ** FINDING PEACE IS EFFORTLESS – STOP NOW, JUST FOR THIS MOMENT – REST IN THE CALMNESS OF JUST BEING – NOT A SOMEONE DOING SOMETHING. FIND THAT QUIET PLACE YOU DEEPLY KNOW AND LOVE. REST THERE, IN UNMOVED, ALERT, LOVING BEING. STOP, CEASE, ALLOW, INVITE, HOST..WHATEVER […]
THE CLARITY OF PEACE.One of the things about real, non-personal love is it acts without prejudice and its’ conflicts. In aware living, there’s a seeing of all the mind-generated ‘problems’ wholly, from love…that love includes what is, and rather than react from cultural, social, traditional conditioning – those ideas, ideals and feelings we habitually bring […]
In truth, we’re walking each other home. Anonji It seems passion is about as rare these days as peace. Turns out though that the two are the one, of course. Passion and compassion (loving) arises from peace. From our deepest urge for peace. Peace is the absence of conflict – not in the world out […]
Perhaps, to find the nearest war – and peace – all we need to do is sit home, turn off, tune in and watch the parade in our mind. After all, it’s the mind that produces all conflict, that makes war and, when not burdened with belief, rests in peace. To find real peace, all […]
“YOUR PAIN IS THE BREAKING OF THE SHELL THAT ENCLOSES YOUR UNDERSTANDING.” * I remember when and where I first met Kahlil Gibran, so to speak. I was a married twenty five year old junior marketing guy, away on a rare business trip, sitting in awe beneath the black star studded heavens on a crystal […]
A sincere seeker may encounter reality and goodness when left to himself in the woods. ~ Anonji It sounds trite but true: “The only way out is in.” The inner recognition that what we are isn’t what we think we are, changes everything. We discover we’re not psychological conditioning, not that ego/mind driven ‘person’ that’s […]
It takes real courage ie a deep active willingness, to doubt, to listen, to learn directly; to see what we think and believe is ‘true’, and to simply see that there are deeper questions calling for attention. Questions like “Who am I really?” Perhaps, one may instantly see not what one is, but what one […]
It’s been a wonderful year, full of gifts received and given, some delightful, some disguised and perhaps not appreciated until later, in a quiet pausing and a deeper pondering of the beauty of it all. In truth, life is good. May we grow in love and rest in simply being this Christmas. Love all, and […]
As very young children we are told bedtime stories. Even if our parents never actually read stories to us. We take in all of our life-story at the nipple of life, so to speak. And what we are fed adds not only flesh to our bones, but ideas to our head. From birth right up […]
“Am I aware of you if I am prejudiced against you? My prejudice projects itself and prevents me from looking, and therefore I am not aware of you. To be aware, I must be aware of my prejudices, of my likes and dislikes, aware of my conditioning, that I am a Dutchman, a Hindu, a […]
Belief shapes experience. Opinions bar understanding. Fear avoids knowing itself. Courage lies in not knowing. Peace lies in not needing. Joy abides in aware attention. Grace abounds in self-knowing. Acting from love is harmless. At bottom: be still, rest here, enjoy your Self. 🙂
This, from one of the great wonderers of the world – Albert Einstein – was slipped under my e-door this morning:“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”Indeed, and let’s add a little grace note here on the ‘direction’ we may also be well advised to look: Look deep into your inner […]
The other day, in passing by an I-phone-engaged couple wandering remotely together in a store, I was particularly ‘touched’ to hear Elton John singing his Rocket Man as he’s circling the brilliant blue earth below:“Some things look better just passing through… And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time‘Til touchdown brings me ’round […]
It’s raining and the tree branches are elegantly waving and bobbing and bidding me to join them outside my window as I sit here in the old wingback chair simply watching the various comings and goings – the ‘experiencing’ – of life and living while writing this little missive to myself. It’s a vague urge […]
Some years ago I bought in my travels, my one and only bumper sticker and promptly buried it in my basement; years later, after searching all over the world for “The Truth” (It’s complicated, or so it seems) I found it – the sticker – again and, moved perhaps by it’s growing relevance to my […]
IN KNOWING OUR SELF NATURE IS LOVE, BEAUTY AND HARMONY, THERE’S A RESTING IN DEEP PEACE, YES 🙂
** Sometimes we come across a particular clustering of words that point wisely and deeply; they inspire and ‘ring true’, they deepen and widen our understanding of what we are and the world is. Perhaps the below will strike you powerfully too. Enjoy your quiet self 🙂 “I reject the present pattern of social structures, […]
FINDING GRACE IN NOT NEEDING TO KNOW. All we really want is a little peace and quiet. That’s not too much to ask, right? How ’bout if the price for that peace is to allow everything to be as it is, like it or not? Seems Hell is when we don’t know the real value […]
Seems in aware living we’re always saying “yes” to life as it happens. Part of that welcoming arises from the recognition of our true self as being nothing in particular and everything in general – the whole – both empty and full, so to speak. Indeed, in aware living there’s living paradox.There’s a basic understanding: […]
There’s no need to stop thought. Let the brain chatter as it will – it has to move and you cannot control thoughts. There’s no need, just never mind them – if you don’t resist they won’t persist. Lovingly, non-judgmentally, watch like you’re a welcoming hotel hostwatching the lobby traffic coming and going through revolving […]
Indeed, I just gratefully found this pix and was deeply reminded of the innate ‘compassion’ in all of nature, in all of our self. Beauty – like love, is not limited – it manifests itself indiscriminately, freely, fully, unconditionally. When we look from love, we see it all the time, yes 🙂
By way of exploring our own experience, I’d like to share the following ‘daily delight’s’ from my notes that I’ve picked up this week like light-trapping gems and sent to myself by e-mail for further reflection..Perhaps they’re a little inspiring for you too, for easing the conflicted head and the wounded heart with the balm […]
“Who knows?” That’s the Big Question that often arises in our mind about reality and what’s happening now, in it, so to speak. The answer may lie in the way in which The question is approached ie via the mind or via empty awareness.The ‘active present’ as J Krishnamurt called it, cannot be perceived or […]
What is it that delights in small things, in the mysteries that present themselves when we are deeply, vulnerably, appreciative? When we’re startled by the suddenness of beauty, intelligence, fact and miracle, known and unknown? – all of which combine to explode the mind’s walling limitations, the heart’s superficial sentimentalities, to shatter the ‘need to […]
Wouldn’t it be nice just to rest in not knowing and in not needing to know; in not needing to be someone we imagine that really knows? Real understanding is found only in self-knowing – in recognizing our abiding awareness. In an innercasting of our attention – instead of seeking ‘outside’ for happiness, we stop […]
[ where we live is home, dept. ] A THREE BEDROOM HOUSE IN CAREFREE, ARIZONA We listen to our mind like our car radio. It feels some days like we’re driving along with the radio cranked up and angsting every time the street lights start to change, never change and always change! Fortunately, those sirens […]
(thanks to Gourav Mahanta
When we allow life to present exactly as it does, without argument, without personal desires and fears that life should be otherwise, we come into a graceful and joyful communion with our whole self-nature. This alertly passive aware living is meditation yes 🙂
“I’ve been fascinated by this process of birth and death. I was a midwife for seven years, delivering babies in the bush and it was always a great privilege and honor to be invited to a birth. I had many wonderful experiences there. One thing I remember about these births is the energy and excitement, […]
A former athlete, teacher, and entrepreneur, JC is a critically acclaimed author, video producer, and spiritual teacher who corresponds with students worldwide. His writing is penetrating, and we’re delighted to host him from time to time on NDL. Enjoy your self! 🙂 The meaning of the words duality and non-duality regarding the nature of Conscious […]
A former athlete, teacher, and entrepreneur, JC is a critically acclaimed author, video producer, and spiritual teacher who corresponds with students worldwide. His insights will go well with a warm cuppa! 🙂 INQUIRY FROM A DEAR FRIEND: As you know we were in each other’s presence back in the ‘70’s when you had your first […]
IT SEEMS.. it is always the mind/ego that produces contradictions and divisions…that verbally manufactures ‘our’ personal ‘self’ and its opinions about reality. In (mindless) reality – in what is – there is no opposition – indeed, there’s total co-operation and a beauty that arises out of the celestial harmony. This oneness of life that knows […]
When I was a small child, I moved to a place called Wanting, NY. You know the place, right? It has a population of 7.2 billion and it pretty much covers the earth! Wanting, NY. is not so much a US town, as it is a state within a state in which most of us […]
..“THOUGHT IS SLUGGISH, POSTPONES, TAKES SHELTER IN THE ILLUSION OF GRADUALNESS, IN IDEALS, IN TIME. “Through time mutation is not possible. The very denial of time is mutation; mutation takes place where the things which time has brought into being, habit, tradition, reform, the ideals, are denied. Deny time and mutation has taken place, a […]
I wish you all a happy and therefore, kinda fearless 2019.. Nisargadatta tells us how:“To make happy, be happy!” I just finished a cuppa Dragonwell green tea with this video and am moved to post it on NDL. Rupert Spira is compassionate, timely and insightful… Love, and be well 🙂
(Here’s a note from 2010 that seems relevant today) “ Suppose…suppose…” Wyatt Earp’s recorded last words were those, I read somewhere… We’re all living legends – that is, we live the life that’s handed down to us; the Legend that finds us just at the time we’re looking for it! For me, as a boy, […]
A note to myself: Don’t get stuck anywhere. One of my teachers –Nisargadatta- said wisely and well: “A man who claims to know what is good for others is dangerous.” He later also said in I AM THAT, that “Teachers are like milestones.” Indeed, for many of us spiritual veterans, there can be miles of […]
Sometimes we begin to think that presence is something in particular. In our eagerness to learn and find out about presence, we begin to make presence into an object. We begin to make it into something we can identify and put into a little box . We create a little corner somewhere in our minds […]
The view from here is of the whole, from the whole. “To be aware of little, quiet things, you need to be quiet inside. A high degree of alertness is required. Be still. Look. Listen. Be present.” (Eckhart Tolle. Photo: Norman Fox, Vancouver BC).
Walking late all over this old world looking around and around, and what I see seems so simple to me ’cause everywhere I go I’m just seeing myself tonight. You don’t have to wander far to see the stuff of what you are. Going back to the starlight cause that’s what I am. and that’s […]
Hell seems real wherever we live, long as we live in our head, in our beliefs about what’s real. …Talking about knowing reality, here’s a Walt Whitman, Song Of Myself, excerpt, apparently about the occasion of his ‘waking’ up: Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of […]
“Stillness comes only when you understand the whole process of thought, because to understand the process is to end it and the ending of the process of thought is the beginning of silence.” Question: Belief in God has been a powerful incentive to better living. Why do you deny God? Why do you not try […]
The more we have capacity to Be Here with what is, we find that which is really powerful, really amazing. This really creates a deep way to embody and deeply know how to be here, no matter what arises. It also creates that spaciousness that can be with anything, anywhere. It doesn’t really matter what […]
In our search for real happiness, it seems we all travel in diminishing circles to eventually return to where we started…here. Those years and years of mining for diamonds, of trading in synthetic silks, have taught us their lesson of great price. We know, deep within, not only that all that sparkles is not gold, […]
When I speak about Practice I am not speaking about a practice of Becoming – like becoming Presence -because Presence is our True Nature, we are already It and it is already Here! So when I speak about Practice I speak about training of our attention and about growing of the capacity of our nervous […]
The shadow of a personal self invites us to turn around, to look at the looker, to see that the seer – that which is actually seeing – is not a personal self, but spirit, itself. “When the deluded in a mirror look, they see a face, not a reflection.” Manjusri, The Kings Dohas Indeed, […]
“The reason why I want to talk about tenderness and conditioning together is that they really go hand in hand – they are not separate. In that real openness of the Present – when you are really at rest – tenderness naturally is. Tenderness is not something that is acquired. It is the natural movement […]
“Find your match In a worthy love” The poet Chandidas, quoted above, expressed what the likes of Rembrandt, Rilke and Rumi and legions of our luminaries have said about this love we all share and actually, already know. It’s purely the same love wherever and however we delicately attempt its description. It is the same […]
The beginning of wisdom is to see our own suffering. That wise, richly impoverished poet, painter and print maker William Blake once said: “I give you the end of a golden string, only wind it into a ball”. Though unknown in his lifetime, that ‘ball’ of insight into truth he spoke of in the 1700’s […]
The famous Victorian playwright George Bernard Shaw, grew tired of answering the same questions at frequent public functions – even as he enjoyed his celebrity. So apparently he penned a single sheet of ‘Answers To Typical Questions’ which he printed and carried with him and handed out to the pressing multitudes who enquired about him, […]
There is a certain ease and all-embracing acceptance in natural well-being. This does not mean a kind of constant comfort – although we may find refuge and solace in dwelling in awareness. Awareness is like a still pond over which the various breezes and storm winds of the body/mind pass from time to time. They […]
> Our nature is like a clear blue sky; our minds conceptual descriptions – when believed – create the clouds which would otherwise float by. Of course, this does not mean that there should not be clouds – they happen – but that the ego/ mind (which is nothing but beliefs) does what it does […]
IN APPARENT CHAOS, IT’S KEY TO STILL THE MIND WITH COMPASSION. THEN ACT FROM LOVE. Compassion means “to suffer with”, to empathize with all suffering – individually and collectively- and to radiate love and understanding: “Compassion is a quality desperately needed in the world today. If there could be more compassion in people’s hearts and […]
It’s our nature to be happy! As the name suggests, well-being is natural – that is, it’s a normal condition (if not an average one for most of humanity) and not just in the domain of some sages and saints. Our shared nature is one of balance and harmony, where suffering is not imagined or […]
Here’s this morning’s inspiration from “The Book Of Listening” by Jean Klein: “The moment when the seen brings you back to the seeing is a timeless moment when you live in your glory..you will feel clearly that there is no separation, that time is in the timeless.” “Find yourself in the absence of objects (activity)..and […]
It seems that time and space are objectively experienced by the ‘six senses’ that may or may not, be delighting us just now! Still, we can be grateful and appreciate what a truly awesome embodied mystery all THIS is! And… there’s the simultaneous BEHOLDING of all this: Absent all sensual experience, (which we ‘personalize’ as […]
The First Step. “Beginning my studies, the first step pleas’d me so much, The mere fact, consciousness, these forms, the power of motion, The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love, The first step awed me and pleased me so much, I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go on any farther, But […]
Finding a voice. In school days back in the 70’s, I heard that some dead and forgotten American poet had said that “All truths wait in all things.” But I never figured I would or even could, begin to find it in London, Ontario, where I lived for 38 years within sight of the hospital […]
“I have noticed that sometimes people speak of our planet as a thing. This attitude will not lead to the feelings of closeness and affection that would move us to take care of the earth. As we know, the earth is not a dead rock floating in space. It is a living system, in itself […]
A CONFESSION. Now, here’s the confession I mentioned earlier; I’m somewhat relieved to get around to it sooner than later! Truth to tell, Sister Perpetual Hope seems kinda alive for me, and I kept wanting to explore her more and didn’t want to hit the brakes! But it’s time to end this string of words… […]
“We would rather be ruined than changed” W.H. Auden. Sister Hope, as most called her, was always inscrutable to me; I felt much of her joy and most of her suffering, but something about her always remained a mystery after all. I came to know a few things about her, like her “real” name was […]
Note: I’m on Retreat at home and have just completed the below which I’m moved to post here. It’s about 3000 short words in length, so I’ll post it here in three parts to make the task more surmountable for those like me, who like to indulge their reading in short bursts! 🙂 In truth, […]
HERE, WHERE LIFE LIVES We need not rush out – Life is afoot with itself. It rushes in, takes us here with immediate wonder incessant grace. Light fairly splashes in even the tiniest holes. There is delight in simple being we are home here, where life lives.
I was nibbling on a little “Thomas Merton” this morning and he inspired the poem below. But first, here’s some of what he said way back in 1962 that’s even more appropriate to living today: “News becomes merely a new noise in the mind, briefly replacing the noise that went before it and yielding to […]
THE SUREST WAY TO DISCOVER TRUTH IS TO STOP RESISTING IT Jean Klein: The Ease of Being Indeed, this discovery is a moment-to-moment thing – a willing engagement even when sometimes we hesitate to love, to be, just exactly where we are. Love, and be well! *** Hi and thank you to my NDL Subscribers […]
THIS SUNNY LITTLE SUNNY SPOT I am not an old man, not young it’s true. I am not the man I used to think I knew. I am a bird on a branch high up an apple tree. I sing this song to you, I sing this song to me. The sun light meets the […]
THIS IS… This world is not our beautiful ideas about it; It is and we are, primal awareness of these ideas, feelings and sensations we could call our “body/mind consciousness.” This is one non-personal awareness intimately, abundantly, infinitely, lovingly, enjoying itself. This IS.
Overheard today, something about silence, kinda 🙂 “The truly wise man is he who is not continuously involved in the process of accumulation, but is usually free of such a process, so that he is relaxed and spontaneously open to whatever the moment brings. Whatever comes from that silence is spontaneous and not based on […]
“Everywhere joy in relation and nowhere grasping; world in abundance and earth enough.” Rainer Maria Rilke
A DEEPENING IN FREEDOM About three years ago, I was having dinner with a CEO friend who was talking adamantly about his daily dilemmas and their attendant conflicts and uncertainties. He kept waving his loaded fork at us to punctuate his ongoing frustrations. At one point, he paused, sighed and said, with an accustomed smiley […]
Eyes that want, search in darkness. Open the curtains, let in a little light, Everything wrong doesn’t have to be right. THE ISSUES OF THE DAY An astute commentator (Carina Chocono, NYT) suggested the following, and I’m going to copy and paste it here: “He’s in hell, basically, basting in his own issues.” Now that’s […]
“The man that hath no music in himself Nor is mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils: the motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted…” (Shakespeare: “The Merchant of Venice”) Truth is at the core of […]
By relaxing our powerful desires and fears, our mind rests more and more in peace and real happiness. This is meditation. Meditating, like loving , involves an active engaging in an unfiltered, unlabeled relationship directly with life that sometimes calls for an unknown courage. Courage is the total abandonment of all resistance to what is. […]
By way of introduction, the following short story – my first “story telling” since 1993 – started out shorter, and became longer and…just a little…longer – but not over 4807 words, or about as long as it takes to have a cupa tea, if not coffee. It was written while on retreat at home. May […]
The below – from a full page ad in the February 27/17 edition of the New York Times – is perhaps one of the most important messages of our time – it points to, and sounds the beginning of, America’s emerging search for happiness beyond the material, via our ongoing discovery of truth. I’d like […]
I love to wander. I think I learned to wander – to walk, really! – when I got slowed down enough to move to, and live in, Venice, Italy, for a few years beginning in the stormy winter of 1987 when I moved to Europe in my search “for the Truth” as I put it […]
It seems we’re going to continue this emerging “AVAILABLE LIGHT” theme; it might open up more possibilities all around to widen and deepen our recognition of this multi-faceted jewel we call our Self. In short, it’s a theme that helps by adding various and sundry voices to the choir! So here’s this edition and along […]
Whatever our disposition these days, most of us can agree on one thing: we’re stressed BIGTIME! So, that said and accepted as our opening assumption, (based on an ongoing survey of dozens and dozens of fellow Peet’s cafe dwellers this Media month) we’ll move on out of the weeds and words and into that more […]
Hi, Is there any need to awaken mankind? Thank you Regards, C. —– Hi C, thanks for the note; there’s many perspectives invoked by your question, but today I’ll take a perspective founded on a simple truth I’ve been savoring, as expressed by one of my teachers, Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Forget opinions, remember facts” Exploring facts […]
Life itself, and the living of it, has its natural challenges for food, clothing and shelter, but it does not have to be so psychologically stressful. If and when it is – which is often – perhaps the following four bottom-line observations may provide a little useful insight. Of course, these few pointers only touch […]
The theme “Enjoying Life, Living Here” has been delighting me these days, and I’d like to share some reflections on this subject here and now: “So what’s it like to enjoy life living here?” That’s the question ringing down the corridors of my mind this week and it’s a bit of a challenge to talk […]
On his return voyage, looking out the porthole at our blue Earth and the actual planets and stars floating in the vastness of space, the 6th man to walk on the moon, Edgar Mitchell, had an epiphany: “That was an overwhelming sense of oneness,of connectedness,” he said in an interview years after the Apollo 14 […]
“M” and I first met a few weeks ago in a cafe in Seal Beach, CA. He was sharing a poem he’d just composed sitting in the light by the window; he showed it to me and we began to talk about it in the context of searching and how writing can be a tool […]
A feathered friend said to me “Keep that sense of absurdity. It’s easy to find, you’d have to be blind To look at life and not to see The real beauty in absurdity.” “Beauty resides in flawed things” said she to me “In what delights our curiousity. And you’re so really not unlike me It’s […]
I’m inclined to post a few of these daily delights, for stress. Be well! We can live for – or with – money and things. Happiness lies in knowing when enough’s enough. Like music, we’re all the same design…with variations. Be like a plant; love where you are and you will flourish. Feel free to […]
I just watched a fine video of physicist Stephen Hawking, author of “A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME” and am inspired to post these few, random observations about the timeless. I must of course, declare here and now that I do not know anything – only a little about things- but am merely passing on some, […]
* The mind maintains itself though opposition, comparison, division…we’re systematically educated to “compare and contrast” things to demonstrate not so much understanding as “knowledge.” * Real understanding is not cerebral or emotional which is the domain of the ego; it is impersonal, universal, true perception that is supra-sensual, supra-mental. * We don’t learn to understand; […]
* We often use words to disguise our fear, to hide our ignorance, to pretend to know something…words become beliefs we mistake for reality…we forget that words are symbols that re-present; they tell us about reality. * When believed, words form a mind-made experience of a “world” chock full of conflicts and the need to […]
* And all your prayers for tomorrow, and all your cares for today, will soon pass away. (An old note, perhaps from an old song, found in my book today) * There is only one prison and it is belief in thought. The good news is that it’s all imagination. * Here’s a song from […]
* It is necessary to not only grow, but to outgrow. (Vedanta) * We grow by tending and feeding new shoots, not by maintaining old growth. * It’s often useful not to repeat and therefore sustain, life’s experiences, but to do lots of things once and move on. * Repetition strengthens conditioning and produces reactionary […]
* At considerable risk of perpetuating the Story of Sin and Redemption, and out of respect for my readers, plus my tendency toward brevity and a creeping sense of humor, here’s a very short story for a thrilling one-page Western titled: WALTZES IN WONDERLAND… Via Dumpsterland (subtitle) Looking for something he never lost, looking for […]
*“I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around me like circles on water.” – Wendell Berry – * In watchfulness, nature gives us a tutorial in design and function, economy and ecology. * Our nature is one of perfect ease and contentment, here and now. * “Rest in awareness” (Adyashanti) […]
I just returned from a hike in the majestic Redwoods north of San Francisco. A smiling hiker paused as he passed me, and said: “these Redwoods sure take you to church, don’t they?” Indeed! And while I don’t send Tweets (I am a fan of twitters along the path!) I sometimes take little notes. I’m […]
Don’t like this Don’t like that, Think a dog outta be a cat? (old song) * The mind-made “me” is a cluster of received and conceived opinions. * It’s possible to function well in life without having opinions. It’s impossible to truly love with them. * Feel free to not have an opinion! * https://www.eckharttolletv.com/p/6bzj3g
* Words cast shadows on the truth. And the most powerful words continue to cast their towering shadows over centuries of mankind, shaping, influencing and imprisoning our entire human, cultural, psychological and especially spiritual, experience. * To find the truth of it – that which casts those shadows, it may be useful to gently and […]
* Ripples – like this daily series of deliberately short statements which it seems we’re beginning to present here – make waves by perpetually building on themselves. * Ripples are the movement of formless energy taking the form of vibrations; our body/mind experiences these ripples as sensations like seeing, touching, hearing, smelling, tasting and thinking. […]
These ripples are dewdrops in time and space, related, concentric, connected, all One. From many directions these whispered words blow a breath of the unknown on the surface of what we think we know: Life dances in circles, languid, liquid lap, lap, lapping…lap, lap, lapping…laughing, laughing… *To die is to trans-port – to be transported; […]
On Wednesday last, a few of us walked around our beautiful Berkeley and talked about the ego – that it is mind-made and maintained and that it is what I think I personally am – until that is recognized as an illusion. Perhaps we can expand on this theme a little here. The ego or […]
When I was a small child, I moved to a place called Wanting, NV. You know the place, right? It has a population of 7.2 billion and it pretty much covers the earth! Wanting NV. (pun intended!) is not so much a US town in Nevada, as it is a state in which most of […]
These last days of the year 2013 are a good time to reflect not so much on what has passed in Time, but what does not pass. In that regard, the other day I was gratefully contemplating reality and friendship, returning to the perpetual themes of sharing this love and being, when the article below […]
“It’s life’s illusions I recall, I really don’t know life at all.” (“Clouds” by Judy Collins) For some of us who are earnestly exploring our real self-nature, the fading of another year is a good time to listen to the bells, and not just the Christmas variety! And so I offer this soft ringing reminder […]
(Part two: ALWAYS HERE) THE FEAST OF LIFE A mind-sourced life is the way most of us live our entire lives. Like Cinderella, we rarely get invited to the Ball – to this Feast of Life. Most of us will run through the corridors of our mind looking at our own portraits of reality as […]
“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” Henri Matisse Explore a flower, hold it in your gaze, in your hand, smell it, touch it, see it with reverence that acknowledges its very being and the beauty of its existence. Then you will simultaneously contact that same beingness which you also are. […]
“I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day?… That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be.” (Walt Whitman, Leaves of […]
On a “personal” note (it all seems so personal, doesn’t it?) I have approximately 23,336 days today on my odometer or body-clock. The vehicle – mind and body – is showing a lot of road! Or as Leonard Cohen puts it: “I ache in the places I used to play.” There are challenges these days: […]
James, I thought you might enjoy this: (above) This cartoon, also from the New Yorker, has been on our fridge for a couple of years now. Funny and true, P. ******************************************************************************************* Now – speaking of launches! – here’s the official posting of my upcoming course starting Oct. 23 here in Berkeley. If you’re in the […]
For the past fifteen years or so, I have watched the sunlight and the lamplight play across a pair of 1800 year olds on my dining room buffet. They’re Han Dynasty (200 BC – 200 AD) Chinese terracotta funeral figures, about 15 inches tall; one is an Archer (left in picture above) with wide sleeved, […]
INTRODUCING IDIOTMAN! I clipped a New Yorker cartoon the other day and still glance at it now and then with delight. There’s a picture of a wide-eyed, grinning man dressed up in a superman outfit with high boots and a cape; on his mighty chest is a large capital “I”. The banner above our guy […]
We listen to our mind like our car radio. It feels some days like we’re driving along with the radio cranked up and angsting every time the street lights start to change, never change and always change! Fortunately, those sirens of our mind are not where life is lived; they’re where life is thought about, […]
I had a thought when I was three Since then I’ve been dreaming I was me. Nonduality is a kind of revelation of the obvious. Like real love, which can only be truly known in its verb form – loving – nonduality can only really be known by its action. In an ultimate sense, it […]
…Hi F, thanks for the note. I’ll try with words to convey the wordless here; please do not read this with your mind, but with your innate knowing, like a letter from a lover who you know you have met, but forgotten – lost in the fog of getting caught up in the worlds activities. […]
It’s a curious thing, life. People always say how it goes by so fast. Truth is, we run through it so fast. We’re in such a hurry in our heads and hearts, to grasp experiences – to touch, to taste, to hear, to smell, to see, move, think and talk. In truth, we live in […]
Let’s continue this little report on living here with a caveat: I make no claim to know anything other than love, and, like Walt Whitman during the Civil War, pretty much find myself to be all that really interests me these days. That “myself” includes you; we are not, and have never been, separate. And […]
The Buddha once said: “The cause of all suffering is ignorance”. It is this innocent “not knowing” about our inherent Oneness – this ignoring of our one-self nature – that has, and continues, to create such worldwide suffering. And it is only in the knowing of this source of our suffering that we may find […]
Here are a few pieces I’d like to share with my NDL friends! We’ll start with an amended letter exchange on Depression and Reality, follow that with another (famous) letter on the same subject from Rainer Maria Rilke and finally offer a delightful duet of poems from my NDL friend Wilcox Snellings! Be well! James […]
We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot If death is the end of the illusion of being a person, birth is the beginning of that illusion. At birth –and for the first […]
Life as we drive through it is mostly “curves and round-abouts, with the odd straightaway,” as my British friends would say. Generally, the idea behind driving in England is to proceed obediently in an orderly fashion. Now, contrariwise, the French and the Spanish and especially the Italians are propelled with an added reckless tiger in […]
Perhaps a useful way to approach this subject of will is to “pop the hood” so to speak, and look at the machinery inside a little; to take a look at the wheels-within-wheels and to seriously pose the question: “Do I have free will?” When I look into this for myself, I find that from […]
As very young children, we’re told fabulous bedtime stories. Even if our parents never actually read stories to us, we take in all of our life-story at the nipple of life, so to speak. And what we’re fed adds not only flesh to our bones, but ideas to our head. From birth right up to […]
There’s a certain kind of anguish we all experience when apparent realities collide! We’re talking about that mouthless scream that happens when we see we’re wedged tight between our contradictions; when we’re in such a pressed place we can’t… hardly…breathe, and yet…somehow we must! At first, the old tricks do the trick and we wiggle […]
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool…because almost everything -all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” (Steve Jobs) Famous or infamous, rich or poor, we all assume a dream life shortly […]
We start to toddle in early childhood and spend the rest of our days teetering into tomorrow. Our balance is precarious; we reach for that parental hand that will help hold us up, keep us going and otherwise save us from what we fear may harm us. From our first, hesitant steps into our brave […]
I recently interviewed with Rick Archer over at Budda at the Gas Pump (batgap.com) and am delighted to share the video with my friends on NDL. Here’s the intro and the video. Be well! James. DISCOVERING OUR NATURAL WELL-BEING As the name suggests, well-being is natural – that is, it’s a normal condition (if not […]
First, a letter concerning a discussion I had about Alzheimer’s with Dr. David Hilfiker over at www.davidhilfiker.blogspot.com. He’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and he’s blogging bravely with first-hand reports from the inside, so to speak, titled “Watching the Lights Go Out.” That resonated with me in light of my own adventure in reporting the inside […]
Ah, the Great Assumption! The self-sense of being a critter called “me” and “you”, is a fiction – a story invented with a learned language of symbols and images about reality contrived by mind and supported by feelings like fear and hope. Psychological fear is a man-made invention of course, and not to be confused […]
Growing up in the Age of Plastics, i.e. the 1960’s and 70’s, in an old fashioned English–from–England speaking household in Canada, we boys learned a word that used to be common but is rarely used these days: “shall”. Now “shall” was the proper way to refer to a contemplated action in the future. So, sitting […]
The Island is called “Terra Cognito” – Latin for “known territory“, and the name pretty much describes how our habitual self takes up residence with its repetitive, reassuring and therefore safe, routines for daily living. The island is an insane little place where we live on a very limited diet surrounded by an ocean of […]
LIVING IN THE HALLWAY OF TIME. We’re always passing through time, living our actual life in a hallway that connects a remembered yesterday with an anticipated tomorrow. You could say we’re in the importing and exporting business – we import yesterdays’ experience into todays’, and export that repeated experience with our notions about tomorrow. That […]
As it happens, I’ve been meeting with a small group of friends at Peets for tea here in Berkeley on Wednesdays (11 am) and Sundays (2 pm). If you’re in the Bay area, I’d be delighted to see you there! You can slip an email under my door at: nondualityliving@gmail.com As a writer, one of […]
THE PHANTOM “I opened myself too wide. I forgot there’s more outside than things and animals at ease with themselves, whose eyes reflect the wholeness of their lives. I forgot my habit of grasping every look that fell my way: looks, opinions, scrutiny.” Rilke The personal ego can only fake responses to life. It encounters […]
A MISPLACED SELF. “Everywhere joy in relation and nowhere grasping; world in abundance and earth enough.” Rainer Maria Rilke Sometimes, I write to weep, and sometimes to sing, but always to explore reality. To explore this joy, this aliveness…to celebrate all that life offers up moment to moment, day to day. I take particular joy […]
NOT FAR FROM HERE. It’s funny how far we go to get away from our self, only to someday find we not only never left, we never returned either! It’s at that point not far from here where we’ll pick up our story about living here. And we’ll reflect a little on life up to […]
It seems that for most of my adult life I’ve had more trouble with my doctors than with my pain. Or to put it more precisely, it’s always been more troubling to go to a doctor than it was to grin and bear the pain. And that suffering doubles for some of us when it […]
This book has arisen from Direct Pointing sessions that I’ve had with clients around the world. These deceptively simple inquiries and dialogues work. Men and women who have studied Nonduality for decades, both in and out of structured traditions, without experiencing even the first authentic glimpse of themselves have come to recognize their true nature […]
POPULAR DREAMS: Do we have free will? Perhaps a useful way to approach this is to turn to our own authority, to turn the question around: “do I or you have free will?” When I look into this for myself, I find that from early childhood, I have never had free will; that, in truth, […]
(First, for context, here’s my 2010 NDL article, followed with comment by Laurel:) BEDTIME STORIES As very young children we are told bedtime stories. Even if our parents never actually read stories to us. We take in all of our life-story at the nipple of life, so to speak. And what we are fed adds […]
Communion-with-Self. I lived the first 38 years of my life pedaling around familiar terrain within sight of the hospital I was born in. Early marriage, family, career, cars and houses – you know it! – the whole imported dream that turns into a nightmare! Of course, these nightmares are exactly what we need to wake […]
Our average living (if not “normal”) is guided by emotions and intellect, by pleasure and pain, by the habitual self…what’s it like to let the love inherent in our natural well-being guide us in daily aware living? About 30 years ago, at a time when I was poised to begin a decades long search for […]
“Darkness is your candle” Rumi. Suffering is endemic to the human condition. Even with the extraordinary advances we in the developed world have made in the quality of daily life, few would deny the suffering that continues to dominate our horizons. In addition to the endless conflict, starvation, and natural disaster we see on the […]
Let’s start this little report on aware living with a caveat: I make no claim to know anything other than love, and, like Walt Whitman during the Civil War, pretty much find myself to be all that really interests me these days. That “myself” includes you; we are not, and have never been, separate. And […]
It’s a curious thing, life. People always say how it goes by so fast. Truth is, we run through it so fast. We’re in such a hurry in our heads and hearts, to grasp experiences – to touch, to taste, to hear, to smell, to see, move, think and talk. In truth, we live in […]
(The following is a reply about awakening I’d like to share with the NDL community. Have a lovely Christmas! James) …Hi F, thanks for the note. I’ll try with words to convey the wordless; please do not read this with your mind, but with your innate knowing, like a letter from a lover who you […]
Life is lived the way we describe it to our self – usually narrowly and conceptually. Our conditioned memory-based mind – when believed – shapes our present experience. What is, is not an idea or a feeling we have about it. What this is and we are, is infinite spirit, and its manifestation in form: […]
Whenever I have the opportunity to spend time with my little grandsons, all under the age of three, I am vividly reminded of the wonder and miracle of simply being alive. A muddy twig or stone they find on the ground fascinates them as easily as a shiny new toy. They see with “Beginner’s mind,” […]
Dear NDL community: I’m delighted to premiere the new book “BEYOND RECOVERY” by our friend Fred Davis. It is truly a fine expression of the power of love founded on reality. Be well! James) Intro and First Chapter: BEYOND RECOVERY Nonduality and the Twelve Steps Fred Davis INTRODUCTION There is just one thing going on […]
ONE OF THE PRIMARY DIFFICULTIES I had in trying to fit both recovery and Nonduality into my life and lifestyle was figuring out what a recovery-style spiritual awakening was–and what it wasn’t. I mention this here because this column is about telling the truth. This truth may upset a bunch of people. So be it. […]
We cannot know anything, unless and until, we know our self. And when self-knowing occurs, there is no self that’s knowing. No particular self remains. Nobody with a limited identity founded on an idea about reality, a creation of minds’ imagination. A fiction founded on words and beliefs that have defined almost all our entire […]
A friend emailed, asked me “do you pray?” earlier today. I’m moved to share the response with my NDL community, along with my best wishes for Thanksgiving. Perhaps real thanksgiving is all about prayer?…James Hi you! For me, there’s prayer and there’s prayer…the first is a kind of bargaining; it arises mostly from a conditioned […]
I have just finished reading James Waite’s book, Fading In The Light, Nonduality Insights on Living and Dying, and I loved it. It is a gem of uncommon clarity, and is written in an almost lyrical style that can be savored long after it is finished. His gift for written expression gently draws the reader […]
I clipped a New Yorker cartoon the other day and still glance at it now and then with delight. There’s a picture of a wide-eyed, grinning man dressed up in a superman outfit with high boots and a cape; on his mighty chest is a large capital “I”. The banner above our guy says: “Introducing […]
I had lunch last Saturday with a really pleasant guy who lives in the area. He discovered Awakening Clarity not long ago, {That’s Freds’ blog; more below. Ed.} and invited me to eat with him. I liked him right away, but noticed that he did tend to have a bit of a racing mind. It […]
In my days of sailing, it was common to drop a long length of rope from the bow of our boat as it was entering unknown waters in search of a safe harbor. Let’s call it “sounding for bottom” or probing the depths. Likewise, here are a few pointers to help us “sound for truth”. […]
I’d like to share some “delights” my friend John Greer sent (below) and also issue a second invitation to San Francisco bay area NDL readers to a 6 part series on NATURAL WELL-BEING & AGING starting Sun. Sept. 9 here in Oakland, CA (More Meeting details are posted on NDL home page) And now this, […]
I’d like to share a little walk with you. The other day, two friends and I were alternately strolling, loitering and walking randomly about our Berkeley ‘hood. It was a walk on a day not unlike any other day. You know, a full sky and a full town – up to the heavens and down […]
It’s our nature to be happy! You’re invited to a free, 6 week exploration with friends about life’s most profound and timeless existential questions – “Who am I?” and “What is this?” This is an unstructured and teacher-less gathering, drawing on some of the core non-dual spiritual principles common to all the major religious traditions […]
We’re always passing through time, living our actual life in a hallway that connects yesterday with tomorrow. You could say we’re in the importing and exporting business – we import yesterdays’ experience into todays’, and export that repeated experience with our notions about tomorrow. That is , we’re always living in transit, in the connecting […]
( PASS IT ON! ;>) Thank you for registering for Spiritual Awakening: A Radical Shift in Identity with Adyashanti. This two-hour live video event will start on Wednesday, August 22, at 9 pm Eastern Time (GMT -4). Please bookmark the link below to join the event once it starts. http://live.soundstrue.com/spiritualawakening/event.php We look forward to sharing […]
We’re not talking about the recent landing of the space-ship “Curiosity” on Mars here! (Although we offer our congratulations all around, and salute spirits’ amazing expressions in science, time and space!) The kind of “curiosity” we’re talking about here is the kind that always moves toward love. The kind of curiosity that lands us smack […]
SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS ARE TYPICALLY LAYERED. For example, sacred literature, whether it was written a thousand years ago, or the day before yesterday, can only reveal to us what we’re already prepared to see. There is a wealth of terrific information, and a ton of fabulous pointers in plain sight every day. We can’t see them […]
I’ve had vertigo all my life –ever since I was dropped off here. It’s a strange kind of fear of heights, this fear of falling. It gives me sweaty palms just to think about it. I cringe when I reflect on all that losing, all that slipping, all that disappearing. One by one –and rarely […]
