Taking Questions February 15th through 28th

Hi John,

I try to share from my own experience. On the spiritual search, in the middle of the day, or whenever convenient, I would simply notice whatever thought was appearing, and then allow that thought to be as it is. I didn't try to push it away. I saw that each thought was naturally temporary. It naturally came to rest when I didn't manipulate it. By "manipulate" I mean when I didn't try to understand it or add other thoughts to it. It was seen to appear and disappear on its own. And when it disappeared, in noticing it, I saw that it came to rest in awareness. And that awareness that saw the thought appear, saw it hang around for a while, and saw it come to rest was realized to be my true identity (so to speak). Before I thought I was this thought-based separate person or ego.

As the thought would come to rest, I would notice that what I am--in the deepest sense--is like non-conceptual awareness. It is pure being without concepts. I would just walk around looking without any labels for what was seen. I would walk around work or at the house in a peaceful quietness, without any idea of what I was seeing. The moment was seen as ever fresh. Any thought that came in to label something was seen as a learned idea--the past. There was this perfect restfulness and relaxation in this present seeing.

As I did that repeatedly, there became this natural return to this awareness without conceptual labels. It became very natural actually. Peaceful. In fact, I realized that there was no personal will doing it after a while. It was happening on its own. The world was seen as a set of concepts. In taking a moment without concepts, emptiness was realized over and over. It then became obvious that this empty awareness is what I am. The whole body and mind began to relax in and as this empty, restful awareness.

For some, they don't even have to return throughout the day. Just one look into that aspect of their being that does not change or move and they recognize this awareness as what they are--as what is presently awake and looking prior to thought. For others, I've noticed that recognizing this awareness repeatedly helps.

In any event, the very important aspect of the Living Realization text is that this is not about stopping thought permenantly or no longer thinking. I think that is a huge trap! Recognizing moments of non-conceptual awareness or even taking one moment to recognize non-conceptual awareness is just a method to see that what you are--awareness--has no independent existence from what appears within what you are--thoughts, emotions, states, sensations, experiences, the "world." None of these appearances has the power to harm or affect awareness so there is ultimately nothing to push away or deny. It's all the flow of awareness.

In recognizing this fundamental emptiness or non-conceptual awareness, we come to see that thoughts--when they appear--are also empty. They are transparent and fleeting. They come and go within this awareness. But they are not separate from it. They never appear apart from awareness. They are the movement of awareness itself, inseparable from it. The same is true of all appearances including emotions, states, sensations, and experiences.

In this realization, we see that there isn't even a need to "return" to non-conceptual awareness. This awareness is seen to be here constantly, whether we are thinking or not thinking, feeling or not feeling, returning or not returning, recognizing awareness or not recognizing it. This is total freedom. It is not escape from the world and from the realm of thought. It is seeing that your real identity is like pure space, or emptiness, or "awareness" as we call it in Living Realization. But nothing that appears has a separate existence from awareness. So the world that is seen to be a set of concepts has no separate existence from what you are--awareness. Awareness is undivided, borderless, boundary-less, non-locatable. So it isn't your personal awareness. It is impersonal. Therefore separation is seen through. The separation comes from believing that certain appearances (thoughts and emotions) make up a separate entity.

This complete inseparability ends the idea that you have to be at war with anything or anybody that appears--including the "I" thought itself.

Hi Anna,

To keep this post from being too long, I will break it up in two parts.

Here is part 1

The notion of oscillation is mentioned in the Chapters called "appearances." There are several chapters on appearances.

I put Chapter One "Recognizing Present Awareness" in the front of the book for an important reason. It is important to first do a simple look into your present experience. Before you think or feel ANYTHING about your present experience, there is a simple awareness. It's taking this moment in directly, so to speak, before the filter of thought and emotion comes in. Take some time to focus just on Chapter One. Drop all your descriptions of yourself, others, life, the world, reality, and what is happening now and simply be. Just be here without any labels being superimposed over what is here. Do this repeatedly throughout the day, when you can.

It reveals something amazing. Our entire interpretation of what circumstances mean, of whether a day is good or bad, and everything else we think about life is like a conceptual overlay that the mind "places over" the bare naked non-conceptual space of the present moment. Just looking without descriptions goes a long way in revealing that our story and the interpretations within it are not "out there" in the world. It's mind, that is all.

The first time you do this, thoughts may rush in. That is fine. Just rest and return there throughout the day. It gets easier. In fact, there becomes this natural return to this recognition of non-conceptual awareness. There is a natural peace and well-being in it. The whole body and mind starts to relax into simple presence. It is very sweet.

I will talk about the oscillation in Part 2.