If you can see it… it’s you
So here we are. I’ve been counting these lessons, and we’re on number 24. We’ve seen all sorts of things all the way from razors to giraffes.
How are you doing since that last exercise, anyway? If you saw nothing that is a transformational moment. If you stepped back and became nothing, that, dear reader, is enlightenment.
The Real Thing
Now it is time to move into step two.
Everything before this was preliminary. This is the point, in training new monks, where Shankara (an ancient nondual teacher) would switch everything. Imagine him sitting there with his disciples, his students. He gets a wicked little smile and says, “OK, is everyone really understanding what I’m saying? Do you understand that anything you can see is not you?”
The eager little students are nodding and smiling back., “Oh yes, master! Oh yes, we get it.”
Shankara would look at them and go, “Then you don’t get it. At all. I take it all back. Nothing that I’ve said is true.”
He’s right, of course. So, let’s stop this whole charade right now. Rewind the tape.
All Is One
Think about this: If all is oneness. If all is awakened consciousness. If awakened consciousness is all there is… then anything you see is you.
There’s only one thing. The you that is looking and the thing you are looking at are the same.
We have a new way to look at our exercises now.
This is stepping back another step. The universe has become itself and you are the entire universe, all of oneness., enlightenment itself looking out of your eyes at everything. So, everything you see is you.
What are you?
I am that.
Lost in a Nebulous World
Starting Over
If you can see it. It’s you.
If you can feel it. It’s you.
The left brain and the right brain? That’s you. There’s no division there. It’s Just two operating systems that run well together: The oneness that is you, is the oneness that is the universe..
These things are all happening at the same time, like the water down in the well. It’s always there. Your mystical experience, that’s you.
Your worry? That’s you. Your pain and your misery? That’s you. The pain and the misery of the whole world? That’s you. The beauty and creativity of all existence? That is you.
We’re not separate. Me? You? No difference. I’m you, you’re me. There is no separation.
If you can see it, if you can feel it, if you can think it? It’s you, and that’s because you are alive.
This is the step most people miss in non-duality. This is why non-duality teachers, and nonduality students get lost in a nebulous world of nothing.
If you are stuck in the first set of lessons for a long time, then life becomes confusing. This isn’t me, that isn’t me… We can’t live our lives that way. This turns into a misinterpretation of the teachings, and we reach a point where it seems like nothing matters.
Worse than that the teachings can turn into an attempt to get away from suffering. It becomes escapism. “I’m trying to get away from suffering. I’m trying to live in the moment.”
Life is always in the moment. We can’t escape it. The moment is always there. We travel through time in the moment. No matter what we do.
We’re alive. We’re real. What we do matters. What happens matters. The way that we live matters. Who we are? It matters.
Think about this for a second: If everything you see, feel and think is you, then what happens to everything or anything matters.
That’s huge.
Everything matters.
If you have been living in this nebulous spiritual world, then shake yourself out of it! Come back to reality. Not only does everything matter, but life needs you. Life itself needs you.
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