“We can understand only that which we have risen above.”  –Vernon Howard Ah, here it is. Life has sweetness to it–an easy flow. After four years of seeking, and turmoil and confusion, here is the easy peace that was always here. The effort has fallen away. Go ahead and dive into self-discovery. Yes, it does [...]

Click here: Mother’s Day: On gold-smuggling, refugees, and the strength of women

When you see that the you you take yourself to be is a fiction–when you actually recognize this, not just agree with it–what happens is…nothing. Nothing actually changes. The old patterns of fear and emotions and delusions remain firmly in place. Well, not firmly. You still get caught up in fearful and self-ish patterns but [...]

What works What I talk about here I talk about from direct experience. There is nothing here which is based on beliefs or concepts. In the last four or five years of exploring, these are things I’ve found: -Most human beings operate from fear and desire. This is what the Buddha called dukkha, or discontent, [...]

Last week I felt fear, in reaction to a life event. Anxiety, or any other negative emotion, does not have the same gripping power as it used to, but nevertheless I found it curious that fear should come up at all. I notice it first as body sensations, usually a butterfly feeling in the belly. [...]

The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into brief existence. Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a dream character, [...]

  It’s not like you existed, and someone came by and said here, this is your body, and your mind, and your awareness, and your life. Now go and live your life. That didn’t happen. ~~~~~~~~~~ What happened was an infant was born. A body-mind-awareness-life was born as an infant. The you came later. You [...]

Honesty We’re not concerned about external honesty here. That kind of honesty that we want, or say we want, outside to others–well, that’s kind of important, but not for awakening. I’ve had clinical depression, and any depressive will tell you that depression makes you into a very capable liar. A depressive’s life swings up and [...]

Well, I haven’t been swarmed by a bunch of gleeful, flower-bikini-clad spiritual babes. Maybe that will still happen. And my mortgage lender refuses to believe I don’t exist. The bastard. Seriously, though. It’s a no-big-deal kind of a thing. That’s not bad. That’s truth. This technique is solid. You don’t exist. It’s compelling and unrelenting. [...]

Notice, notice everything, with the view I don’t exist, without expectation or anticipation or projection. This is the inquiry I am doing. When doubts pop up, I ask what it is that is doubting. When thought-stories pop up, I inquire who the story is about. My conceptual understanding of “I do not exist” is complete, [...]