The pain body is collective suffering that only appears to be alive in you. It is an accumulation of emotional pain or what we refer to as unconsciousness. Through misidentifying with thinking and being unconscious of how the pain body is functioning and thriving through identifying with your thoughts, you have the opportunity to transmute the unconsciousness into consciousness.
The perfect tool is self-observation. Become conscious of the pain body's structure and how it requires both thought and time to operate. Most of all, it requires that you identify with thinking. Since you are observing thought, you no longer tend to identify with the thoughts and therefore the pain body can no longer use you.
When you are able to be in self-observation all day, you are nearing the end of the pain. This essentially means that you become free of the emotional pain caused by psychological thinking. This does not mean that you have to sit doing nothing all day long in self-observation or meditation. It merely means that you are not only present with everything that is happening during the day, but you are also conscious of what is happening within you.
Even after you have become conscious of the structure, the pain body will continue to arise within you for awhile. It is almost like a temptation that begs you to dance with it. It may arise as a sense of unease or mild sense of dread. However, you are now conscious of when it starts activating. Take a few conscious breaths if you find yourself slipping into unconsciousness. Follow your breathing for a moment. You will notice that you shift out of time into presence.
I am not suggesting that you try to stop it or escape from it. That is resistance and it will actually empower the pain body all the more. The pain body loves conflict and grows stronger through resistance. So, simply follow your breathing and allow it to be as it is while observing it.
That which is unconscious will dissolve into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is. Be willing to feel the pain body, even welcome it, but do not identify with it. This requires a consistent, conscious watcher to always be present.
The emotional pain may be uncomfortable, but it does have an end. Just as the darkness of night effortlessly disappears when the sun rises in the morning, the darkness of unconsciousness cannot prevail in the light of consciousness. Instead of energizing the pain body, you will find that your consciousness is growing brighter and stronger.
Only This Love ~ Katie
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Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Content and Curiosity About Structure ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Below this post, I suggested Self-inquiry, if you would like to reread that entry. This is suitable for even "beginners" and will successfully remove the ego "I"; the one who suffers the mind.
However unless the patterns and ego mechanisms that are operating within us are made conscious, they will resurface again and again. So while we are speaking about the false psychological self, I am primarily pointing to how it functions within us.
Others have spoken about content and structure in the awakening process. I do not know whether they are applying the same definitions in use of these terms. When I use the word "content," I am referring to the life story; the content of the present moment. An example might be:
"My children were playing in the living room and they became rowdy. My husband was trying to work and he came into the kitchen and got angry with me. I got angry with him in return and now I feel sad."
This is the content of the storyline. For awakening, I encourage people to become more curious about the structure than they are about the story content.
The example above is displaying the ego's reactivity. How that ego functions is the structure. The ego functions and interacts all day long and we are unconscious of how the mechanism of ego works.
A first step toward awakening is observing and therefore making the underlying structure conscious. What is the mechanism within which the ego triggers an emotion? How do we become so enmeshed with one another during our daily living?
How is it that the husband became angry? How did he transfer or project this anger onto his wife. Just because the husband got angry, how is it that the wife reacted in anger? How is it she became sad?
While I can explain what I have discovered through self-observation for you to realize the mechanisms, it requires your curiosity to observe it within yourself. Otherwise, what I am sharing is only a philosophical concept.
Children playing in the living room cannot make you angry. It is a simple fact in the moment. So living free of the ego, we accept what is. This does mean that we would not still go into the living room and ask them to play outside. It just means: acceptance is primary and action is secondary.
Instead, the husband was in ego reaction. Based on his past conditioning that formed his likes and dislikes, he could have simply been aware of the dislike and realized that the ego was functioning in resistance. Added to this are all the present thoughts in the head regarding the circumstance:
"They should be playing outside. I am working and don't deserve to have to deal with this. Where is my wife? Why isn't she taking care of them? This happens all the time. In fact, it just happened last week and we discussed the situation. How can she be do unaware of what I am trying to do? I don't deserve this!"
This type of thinking and the mind's willingness to spin the negativity finally surfaces with a reaction. Reaction is not action. Pure action is first acceptance and then free of negativity, the appropriate action. Whereas, reaction springs out of our own problematic thinking and the dislikes of the ego. The accumulated negativity in the head SPRINGS into reaction and we have a pain body on the loose that is ready for a fight.
In the above example, the wife in the kitchen could have been present; that is, in self-observation. You will find that self-observation can become natural all day long. When the pain body entered the kitchen, she would have then been open, almost transparent, to the projected anger. She could felt compassion that he had been taken over by the pain body and that it was only the ego in reaction. In this manner, she would not have taken that attack personally. If she was already watching her inner body, she might not have done the pain body dance. Thoughts cannot use you when you are watching them.
In the final example, what had to happen in order for her to become sad? Well, once again, observe it sometime within yourself. The mind begins telling a story:
"I should have been more aware. How can my husband blame me for the children? My husband hurt "my" feelings."
No one can hurt "your" feelings. Observe your own thoughts and discover the structure that is the manner in which the ego is constantly either pushing or pulling our emotional state. Sad thoughts = sadness.
Now, I have not suggested that you get involved and try to change anything. When you resist your thoughts and then try to change them, it is essentially more thinking.
The divided mind cannot be fixed at the level of the divided mind. The one who is trying to apply the change is the ego. What I am suggesting is for you to merely watch so that you stand free of the thinking. Becoming conscious is the resolution. The change will happen by itself as you become more and more conscious.
Clear, conscious seeing combined with Self-inquiry will lead to ego freedom.
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However unless the patterns and ego mechanisms that are operating within us are made conscious, they will resurface again and again. So while we are speaking about the false psychological self, I am primarily pointing to how it functions within us.
Others have spoken about content and structure in the awakening process. I do not know whether they are applying the same definitions in use of these terms. When I use the word "content," I am referring to the life story; the content of the present moment. An example might be:
"My children were playing in the living room and they became rowdy. My husband was trying to work and he came into the kitchen and got angry with me. I got angry with him in return and now I feel sad."
This is the content of the storyline. For awakening, I encourage people to become more curious about the structure than they are about the story content.
The example above is displaying the ego's reactivity. How that ego functions is the structure. The ego functions and interacts all day long and we are unconscious of how the mechanism of ego works.
A first step toward awakening is observing and therefore making the underlying structure conscious. What is the mechanism within which the ego triggers an emotion? How do we become so enmeshed with one another during our daily living?
How is it that the husband became angry? How did he transfer or project this anger onto his wife. Just because the husband got angry, how is it that the wife reacted in anger? How is it she became sad?
While I can explain what I have discovered through self-observation for you to realize the mechanisms, it requires your curiosity to observe it within yourself. Otherwise, what I am sharing is only a philosophical concept.
Children playing in the living room cannot make you angry. It is a simple fact in the moment. So living free of the ego, we accept what is. This does mean that we would not still go into the living room and ask them to play outside. It just means: acceptance is primary and action is secondary.
Instead, the husband was in ego reaction. Based on his past conditioning that formed his likes and dislikes, he could have simply been aware of the dislike and realized that the ego was functioning in resistance. Added to this are all the present thoughts in the head regarding the circumstance:
"They should be playing outside. I am working and don't deserve to have to deal with this. Where is my wife? Why isn't she taking care of them? This happens all the time. In fact, it just happened last week and we discussed the situation. How can she be do unaware of what I am trying to do? I don't deserve this!"
This type of thinking and the mind's willingness to spin the negativity finally surfaces with a reaction. Reaction is not action. Pure action is first acceptance and then free of negativity, the appropriate action. Whereas, reaction springs out of our own problematic thinking and the dislikes of the ego. The accumulated negativity in the head SPRINGS into reaction and we have a pain body on the loose that is ready for a fight.
In the above example, the wife in the kitchen could have been present; that is, in self-observation. You will find that self-observation can become natural all day long. When the pain body entered the kitchen, she would have then been open, almost transparent, to the projected anger. She could felt compassion that he had been taken over by the pain body and that it was only the ego in reaction. In this manner, she would not have taken that attack personally. If she was already watching her inner body, she might not have done the pain body dance. Thoughts cannot use you when you are watching them.
In the final example, what had to happen in order for her to become sad? Well, once again, observe it sometime within yourself. The mind begins telling a story:
"I should have been more aware. How can my husband blame me for the children? My husband hurt "my" feelings."
No one can hurt "your" feelings. Observe your own thoughts and discover the structure that is the manner in which the ego is constantly either pushing or pulling our emotional state. Sad thoughts = sadness.
Now, I have not suggested that you get involved and try to change anything. When you resist your thoughts and then try to change them, it is essentially more thinking.
The divided mind cannot be fixed at the level of the divided mind. The one who is trying to apply the change is the ego. What I am suggesting is for you to merely watch so that you stand free of the thinking. Becoming conscious is the resolution. The change will happen by itself as you become more and more conscious.
Clear, conscious seeing combined with Self-inquiry will lead to ego freedom.
Participate in Katie's Friends of the Heart Facebook group where we share the awakening daily by clicking:
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Thursday, November 27, 2008
Untie the Knot by Self-Inquiry ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
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Untie the Knot by Self-Inquiry by Katie Davis
The dreaming "I" is the ego and it is only a thought. Its only function is to tie a knot between pure consciousness and the physical body. When you peer out into the world of form from the reference point of the "I," the Self-illuminating Light of Consciousness is "behind" you and therefore, you cannot be conscious of it.
You are misidentified with the dreaming "I." You are the Pure I which is pure consciousness. There are not two. The only resolution is to turn the mind inward to the vast inner space within you. What lies beyond the thoughts? Become curious about the space that is the gap between your thoughts. Instead of interpreting or analyzing the thoughts, just notice the tiny gap between them. That gap is the opening to the formlessness within you.
The situation is that we have been living a lifetime in misidentification with this dreaming "I" as it attaches to worldly things. In other words, looking from that personal reference point, it then projects outward into the world of form and further attaches to its desires and fears. Follow that outward projecting thought back the way that it came. Trace the thought back home to the Pure "I."
If you will apply Self-inquiry by asking this most essential question, "Who am I?", you will notice that the mind turns inward toward the silence and inner body spaciousness that is perfect peace. The dreaming "I" is more like a phantom that disappears when you seek it.
This misidentification with the "I" thought and its outward projection is a very persistent habit; one that has been practiced throughout one's life. However all habits can be broken and the appropriate tool is Self-inquiry ... the question, "Who am I?" When you ask this question, listen with every cell in your body. Where is this dreaming "I" thought arising from?
The ego itself is an altered state of consciousness and has within it the essential pure consciousness. By asking the question through Self-inquiry, it draws the altered state back into the Heart, where the concept of "I" dissolves irreversibly into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is right now.
Self-inquiry unties the knot and the misidentification with the "I" thought and all of its projecting outward are finally finished.
When we are dealing with practices, it is the ego's false idea of becoming. Ego's idea of "becoming" is resistance to what is. Resistance will only tie the knot tighter. It must be seen that the one who is becoming is none other than the mind-made self and it is the mind that is practicing. The mind cannot removed itself, no matter how many years of practicing, the "I" thought will remain.
Isn't Self-inquiry a practice?
No, it is not. It removes the idea of the practitioner (the ego) that needs more time and experience to become what it already is as its essence. It cannot take more time to realize timelessness. It does not take more experience to realize that which is prior to experience.
Self-inquiry preceded the lovely teachings of Ramana Maharshi, one of the most cherished sages of modern day India. Ramana consistently suggested Self-inquiry as the Direct Approach to enlightenment for those who were unable to receive the teachings in radiant silence alone.
Some may overlook Self-inquiry due to its sheer simplicity. After all, the mind cherishes its complexity as it attempts to analyze and interpret enlightenment. The mind is an extraordinary, beautiful power, yet it is the wrong tool for Self-realization. If you will be persistent with Self-inquiry ... you will consciously realize the Pure Heart that is eternally being.
Self-inquiry is presented Katie's book, Awake Joy, in Appendix II at the end of the book in "Practices and Meditations."
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Dissolving the Collective Pain Body ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Our conditioning determines our likes and dislikes. For the mind-made self, someone does something that the ego does not like and it judges it from a past perspective. That judgment is based on past experience and the conditioning from that experience. The ego resists what already is and reacts. That resistance and reaction cause suffering for you and others.
Self-observation begins when we start watching our thoughts and how they relate to our emotional environment. Content has to do with what someone said and what we dislike. Structure deals with how the ego and its thoughts interrelate with our emotion, regardless of the content or story about what is happening.
Through self-observation, we can notice that when the ego attaches to negative thoughts, the body reacts in contraction as though those thoughts were true. That contraction is what we call negative emotion. Our emotions do not change because of what is happening in the life situation. They change because of our problematic thinking.
When we watch thought, this structure becomes evident and we see more clearly how the ego mechanism is functioning within us. That is, we become conscious of what was previously functioning unconsciously. In self-observation, we can also watch our emotions and become aware of how the mind is more than willing to perpetuate the negativity as it moves deeper into unconsciousness.
If we resist the negative emotion, it perpetuates it in the same manner that when we try to control our thinking, it actually becomes stronger. Once you are caught in a deep emotion, the only option is to consciously suffer. If you are consciously watching, you are transmuting not only your present pain but also the pain of the past. The pain of the past formed your dislike and it reactivates in the present as reaction.
Sometimes, we may be confused when all of a sudden we find ourselves totally angry or deeply saddened. If the depth of the negativity is out of proportion with what is happening on the surface in the life situation, you are beginning to sense and feel the collective pain body.
What is collective pain? Well, if you could accumulate all of humanity's suffering into one "body" of negativity (unconsciousness), that is the collective pain body.
When this pain arises within you, if you resist it, you are accumulating more pain. Instead of resisting, invite it in and experience it fully. I am not asking you to get involved, analyze or interpret it. I am only asking you to consciously be with it. If it goes deeply enough, it is as though you become the negative emotion. The emotion consumes you.
I realize that it is uncomfortable, but there is no other way out. Through your willingness to watch and allow that collective pain, it is transmuted into pure consciousness.
Always ask, is there anything deeper? Discover what is at its depth. The pain does have an end. You will directly realize that suffering is a delusion. It does not help to just mentally say, "Well, this suffering is a delusion" and go on suffering from time to time. It requires that you directly realize the delusion.
In the core of the pain, you will realize the pure consciousness that you genuinely are. When all of the unconsciousness is transmuted, what remains is perfect peace.
Self-observation begins when we start watching our thoughts and how they relate to our emotional environment. Content has to do with what someone said and what we dislike. Structure deals with how the ego and its thoughts interrelate with our emotion, regardless of the content or story about what is happening.
Through self-observation, we can notice that when the ego attaches to negative thoughts, the body reacts in contraction as though those thoughts were true. That contraction is what we call negative emotion. Our emotions do not change because of what is happening in the life situation. They change because of our problematic thinking.
When we watch thought, this structure becomes evident and we see more clearly how the ego mechanism is functioning within us. That is, we become conscious of what was previously functioning unconsciously. In self-observation, we can also watch our emotions and become aware of how the mind is more than willing to perpetuate the negativity as it moves deeper into unconsciousness.
If we resist the negative emotion, it perpetuates it in the same manner that when we try to control our thinking, it actually becomes stronger. Once you are caught in a deep emotion, the only option is to consciously suffer. If you are consciously watching, you are transmuting not only your present pain but also the pain of the past. The pain of the past formed your dislike and it reactivates in the present as reaction.
Sometimes, we may be confused when all of a sudden we find ourselves totally angry or deeply saddened. If the depth of the negativity is out of proportion with what is happening on the surface in the life situation, you are beginning to sense and feel the collective pain body.
What is collective pain? Well, if you could accumulate all of humanity's suffering into one "body" of negativity (unconsciousness), that is the collective pain body.
When this pain arises within you, if you resist it, you are accumulating more pain. Instead of resisting, invite it in and experience it fully. I am not asking you to get involved, analyze or interpret it. I am only asking you to consciously be with it. If it goes deeply enough, it is as though you become the negative emotion. The emotion consumes you.
I realize that it is uncomfortable, but there is no other way out. Through your willingness to watch and allow that collective pain, it is transmuted into pure consciousness.
Always ask, is there anything deeper? Discover what is at its depth. The pain does have an end. You will directly realize that suffering is a delusion. It does not help to just mentally say, "Well, this suffering is a delusion" and go on suffering from time to time. It requires that you directly realize the delusion.
In the core of the pain, you will realize the pure consciousness that you genuinely are. When all of the unconsciousness is transmuted, what remains is perfect peace.
Mumbai India in the Light of Consciousness ~ Katie Davis, Awake Joy
If you are watching the events in Mumbai, India unfold, please stand fearlessly as the Light of Consciousness, without adding any more weight to the collective ego.
That weight will appear as negative mind activity. The human brain is must like a radio receiver. Those thoughts do not belong to "you" unless you identify with them. With attachment, the body will react to those thoughts and appear as "your" emotion.
Uneasiness ... sensitivity ... without mind activity? Consciously feel it fully as it is transmuted ... the only true answer.
That weight adds to the collective unconsciousness that is already hugely expressing itself.
Be still ...
True Compassion ... without wavering from unconditional Love ... and in open forgiveness for the divided mind that is unconscious.
Compassion to our Heart Friends in India and to those with friends or travelers there.
Only This Love ~ Katie
That weight will appear as negative mind activity. The human brain is must like a radio receiver. Those thoughts do not belong to "you" unless you identify with them. With attachment, the body will react to those thoughts and appear as "your" emotion.
Uneasiness ... sensitivity ... without mind activity? Consciously feel it fully as it is transmuted ... the only true answer.
That weight adds to the collective unconsciousness that is already hugely expressing itself.
Be still ...
True Compassion ... without wavering from unconditional Love ... and in open forgiveness for the divided mind that is unconscious.
Compassion to our Heart Friends in India and to those with friends or travelers there.
Only This Love ~ Katie
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Presence is Natural ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Presence is natural and does not require anything more. In other words, Self-realization is not an attainment or something you strive for. This Being-Consciousness-Bliss that you are is ever-present. It is right now.
The situation seems to be that a the thought “I” arises. In the old world, out of habit alone, we misidentified with the concept of "me” that is the “I am the body” idea. When this misidentification takes place, the “dreaming” I has extraordinary pulling power and suddenly all the other thoughts appear. So the thoughts are really not problematic. It is our misidentification that is at issue.
“I” is just another word. Where is the word pointing? We were taught that it was pointing to the body. This is true on a relative level of course. But is it true that your identity is limited to the body? I say this is not so, but this will be for your direct investigation. It requires huge curiosity, because you want to know the ultimate Truth. Ideas and concepts remain philosophical … instead we need to notice directly through direct experience.
When this misidentification with the “I” thought occurs, a veil drops and we are unable to be conscious of the being-consciousness-bliss that we are. To remove the veil, it requires that you seek this “I.”
Sit quietly for a few moments right now. Just close your eyes and be aware of how exquisite the air feels as it moves in and out your nose.
Then ask this question, “Who am I?” and listen with every cell in the body. We are not looking for a thought in reply. If a thought arises, such as “I am my given name”, ask the question again, aware of your breath, “Who am I?”
That question alone with lift the veil to perfect peace. Where is this thought arising?
It is beautiful to practice being present. The best tool for this is attending the breath. Breathing is always occurring right now and the present moment is the portal to the perfect peace within.
The body’s sensing is another tool. What do you hear right now? Do you smell anything? The body is part of the content of the present moment and therefore the key to the inner body.
But let’s take this a step further. The “I” that is practicing is the ego, the separate sense of self that needs more time and experience to realize. This is actually a postponement strategy of the ego. The more appropriate question might be, who is practicing? Who am I?
You are aware when you are driving your car, aware when you are shopping, aware when falling asleep. Are you aware that you are always aware? You are this Pure Awareness that is closer and more intimate to you than the body. YOU are appearing within this Awareness. You ARE this Pure Awareness. Another word for Pure Awareness is Presence.
So we are naturally present all day long during everything that is being done. However, most often, we get carried aware by compulsive thinking and lost in the thought stream in the head, instead of consciously being in the body.
The resolution?
1. Bring the “I” thought home by asking “Who am I?“ and then truly listen.
2. Are you aware of breathing?
3. Are you aware of sensing.
It does not take much effort to become aware of breathing all day long. It is always happening in every day life.
This is a first step and perhaps even unwise to move forward from here. Eventually the outward going mind (on its own accord) will remain within the Heart.
Of course eyes are looking outward, the body is functioning and sensing as it does, we are just deeply at rest … being still … while the body does what it does.
Body movement and activity can become Zen-like. During the morning shower, be aware of every movement. If there is a set habitual routine, change it. How does the soap feel as you pick it up in your hands? How does the water feel? Are you breathing? You become consciously present without rushing to the future about anything. Even if you are rushing, we are consciously present with that.
You soon find that the real effort is the misidentification with thought, having to maintain all of the ego’s ideas; constant thinking is exhausting! Day in and day out, how tiring is it to maintain the story of "me?"
When we misidentify with “I”, we move into time and space and then are caught in the world of duality. Relative happiness will eventually cycle to the opposite duality of sadness. Sadness will once again within time cycle to happiness. Neither are stable … where the Bliss and unending Joy are permanent.
Now, don’t go looking for it. You ARE it! When you are seeking, it cannot be found, which is why I say be STILL and notice what truly already is.
Katie's book, "Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment," is available by clicking:
Awake Joy
The situation seems to be that a the thought “I” arises. In the old world, out of habit alone, we misidentified with the concept of "me” that is the “I am the body” idea. When this misidentification takes place, the “dreaming” I has extraordinary pulling power and suddenly all the other thoughts appear. So the thoughts are really not problematic. It is our misidentification that is at issue.
“I” is just another word. Where is the word pointing? We were taught that it was pointing to the body. This is true on a relative level of course. But is it true that your identity is limited to the body? I say this is not so, but this will be for your direct investigation. It requires huge curiosity, because you want to know the ultimate Truth. Ideas and concepts remain philosophical … instead we need to notice directly through direct experience.
When this misidentification with the “I” thought occurs, a veil drops and we are unable to be conscious of the being-consciousness-bliss that we are. To remove the veil, it requires that you seek this “I.”
Sit quietly for a few moments right now. Just close your eyes and be aware of how exquisite the air feels as it moves in and out your nose.
Then ask this question, “Who am I?” and listen with every cell in the body. We are not looking for a thought in reply. If a thought arises, such as “I am my given name”, ask the question again, aware of your breath, “Who am I?”
That question alone with lift the veil to perfect peace. Where is this thought arising?
It is beautiful to practice being present. The best tool for this is attending the breath. Breathing is always occurring right now and the present moment is the portal to the perfect peace within.
The body’s sensing is another tool. What do you hear right now? Do you smell anything? The body is part of the content of the present moment and therefore the key to the inner body.
But let’s take this a step further. The “I” that is practicing is the ego, the separate sense of self that needs more time and experience to realize. This is actually a postponement strategy of the ego. The more appropriate question might be, who is practicing? Who am I?
You are aware when you are driving your car, aware when you are shopping, aware when falling asleep. Are you aware that you are always aware? You are this Pure Awareness that is closer and more intimate to you than the body. YOU are appearing within this Awareness. You ARE this Pure Awareness. Another word for Pure Awareness is Presence.
So we are naturally present all day long during everything that is being done. However, most often, we get carried aware by compulsive thinking and lost in the thought stream in the head, instead of consciously being in the body.
The resolution?
1. Bring the “I” thought home by asking “Who am I?“ and then truly listen.
2. Are you aware of breathing?
3. Are you aware of sensing.
It does not take much effort to become aware of breathing all day long. It is always happening in every day life.
This is a first step and perhaps even unwise to move forward from here. Eventually the outward going mind (on its own accord) will remain within the Heart.
Of course eyes are looking outward, the body is functioning and sensing as it does, we are just deeply at rest … being still … while the body does what it does.
Body movement and activity can become Zen-like. During the morning shower, be aware of every movement. If there is a set habitual routine, change it. How does the soap feel as you pick it up in your hands? How does the water feel? Are you breathing? You become consciously present without rushing to the future about anything. Even if you are rushing, we are consciously present with that.
You soon find that the real effort is the misidentification with thought, having to maintain all of the ego’s ideas; constant thinking is exhausting! Day in and day out, how tiring is it to maintain the story of "me?"
When we misidentify with “I”, we move into time and space and then are caught in the world of duality. Relative happiness will eventually cycle to the opposite duality of sadness. Sadness will once again within time cycle to happiness. Neither are stable … where the Bliss and unending Joy are permanent.
Now, don’t go looking for it. You ARE it! When you are seeking, it cannot be found, which is why I say be STILL and notice what truly already is.
Katie's book, "Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment," is available by clicking:
Awake Joy
Resistance and Time ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Whenever we resist something, we suffer. Resistance is the ego judging the present moment. It always has its idea of what it would like life to be. When it is otherwise, it resists the form that the present moment is presently taking. Some may not realize that it is actually our own thinking that causes resistance and therefore causes our negative emotions. The ego believes that it is other people and circumstances that cause its emotions to change and it is not so. But don't take my word for it. Observe directly to see how the ego operates and generates or perpetuates negative emotion. When thinking is unobserved and we misidentify with its judgments, it is self-inflicted suffering.
When you are feeling unhappy, turn your attention to your thoughts and notice how they are using you. The intensity of your unhappiness will always depend upon the degree of resistance that you are having against what is. This just is not that wise. The present moment is already as it is. Can you accept it just as it is? Is it possible to actually love the mystery of the appearance and truly be free to welcome all that is appearing, free of judgment?
Since the ego needs time in order to function, it will always resist the now. The now is the space within which the present moment is appearing. The more you are able to be the Now rather than the personal reference point of the ego, the less you will suffer. You will suffer less since you have not misidentified the dreaming "I" and its wants and needs. Free of the misidentification, you are also free of all the ego's thinking that causes you to suffer.
Since the ego is always under some sense of threat, it will attempt to control and manipulate whatever is. Of course, that is impossible since it is. That control and manipulation only causes you and others to suffer. We create more pain which will soon become more pain of the past that will be stored in the body for release.
If you observe the ego, you will notice how it is constantly fixated on the past or future, which obscures the Now that is the source of all true happiness and peace. Whatever past pain that you perceive that you have, it will appear as present conditioning, which is why we do not need to heal the past. It will appear in the present moment as your reaction to the present moment. Likewise, the ego is always attempting to use the present moment to get something in the future. This creates anxiety, worry and other negative emotions. Those desires are also based on past conditioning.
If you are interested in creating no more pain for yourself and others, stand free of time and you will see that you do not accumulate more time and therefore more suffering. The present moment is virtually all that you have. Are you missing it? It is the only true representation of Life as it truly is and the only doorway to presence.
To ask questions or share, please click the Comment button below and Katie will reply. If you are reading this from another website, you will need to go to the original post at:
http://www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
Katie's website with free awakening videos, free Friends of the Heart newsletters with articles on non-duality, Advaita, awakening and enlightenment, Katie's schedule and her book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, is at:
www.KatieDavis.org
When you are feeling unhappy, turn your attention to your thoughts and notice how they are using you. The intensity of your unhappiness will always depend upon the degree of resistance that you are having against what is. This just is not that wise. The present moment is already as it is. Can you accept it just as it is? Is it possible to actually love the mystery of the appearance and truly be free to welcome all that is appearing, free of judgment?
Since the ego needs time in order to function, it will always resist the now. The now is the space within which the present moment is appearing. The more you are able to be the Now rather than the personal reference point of the ego, the less you will suffer. You will suffer less since you have not misidentified the dreaming "I" and its wants and needs. Free of the misidentification, you are also free of all the ego's thinking that causes you to suffer.
Since the ego is always under some sense of threat, it will attempt to control and manipulate whatever is. Of course, that is impossible since it is. That control and manipulation only causes you and others to suffer. We create more pain which will soon become more pain of the past that will be stored in the body for release.
If you observe the ego, you will notice how it is constantly fixated on the past or future, which obscures the Now that is the source of all true happiness and peace. Whatever past pain that you perceive that you have, it will appear as present conditioning, which is why we do not need to heal the past. It will appear in the present moment as your reaction to the present moment. Likewise, the ego is always attempting to use the present moment to get something in the future. This creates anxiety, worry and other negative emotions. Those desires are also based on past conditioning.
If you are interested in creating no more pain for yourself and others, stand free of time and you will see that you do not accumulate more time and therefore more suffering. The present moment is virtually all that you have. Are you missing it? It is the only true representation of Life as it truly is and the only doorway to presence.
To ask questions or share, please click the Comment button below and Katie will reply. If you are reading this from another website, you will need to go to the original post at:
http://www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
Katie's website with free awakening videos, free Friends of the Heart newsletters with articles on non-duality, Advaita, awakening and enlightenment, Katie's schedule and her book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, is at:
www.KatieDavis.org
Monday, November 24, 2008
Dreaming "I" and Its Attachments ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The dreaming "I" or "I" thought is like any other word. Words only represents things that they point to. We have assumed that this word has been pointing to our body and therefore believe that I = body. However, when we awaken, we realize that this first, primary assumption is actually false. There is something unfathomable here that we are overlooking. The word “I” is of course pointing to the body, but is it also pointing to something deeper within the inner body that is radically more?
When we accept this mental concept “I” that is limited to the body, our living experience is limited to a superficial, mental realm. We believe in this limitation and few have actually directly investigated this assumption to discover the truth. When we misidentify with a mental modification of what I call Pure I, our life is living in separation and it is the source of all sorrow. In addition, the misidentification drops a veil and prevents our discovery of who we really are in the deepest sense.
Those seeking enlightenment or Self-realization must first discover the falsehood of this most unfortunate misidentification. When we seek the “I” thought, it disappears. This lifts the veil that is blocking access to the divine dimension within.
We can define the word I that is the body in many ways, such as “I am a mother. I am a daughter. I am an author.” These descriptions are not saying who “I” is. If you investigate for yourself and find that since “you” are AWARE of the body, who you are must be beyond your form. Who is that who is aware? Who are you in the deepest sense? These questions signify the beginning steps toward enlightenment and Self-realization. Are you curious enough to want to realize the Truth?
Self-realization is the end of psychological suffering since it is the end of the psychological self. The old way to deal with misery was to try to manipulate or modify the emotion or thoughts. The new way eliminates the cause; the psychological self or “I” thought. In this, we discover that there is no thinker of thoughts, no performer of actions and we live free from the awareness of an individual self that is separate.
The body is still there with all of its beautiful inborn talents and traits, but the idea of “me” and all of its past and future fixations are finished. We are freed of the problematic psychology of the ego and free of its constant sense of threat.
Inside, there is the stillness and quietude that we genuinely are and in the world of form, our body is there accessing this ultimate creativity. A sense of giving all the love away and selfless service comes to the forefront.
When we give up this relationship with “myself,” we are at one as Life, whether with form or without. The Totality is the pure still awareness and its power, the appearance of the universe. After a lifetime of toil, it is amazing to discover that it is all happening by itself with such beauty, harmony and peace. We have only to get out of the way to consciously realize who we actually are.
When the “I” thought arises it does so to attach to things and objects it desires. “I want that new car. I believe that this is the right way. I need this to be happy.” These attachments take on a mental journey and we get lost in the mental world of form.
There will never be true and lasting fulfillment gained through attachments, no matter how many things, objects and people you attain or gather together. There will always be something more lacking.
That lack is inherent in the idea of being only a fraction of the Totality that is functioning independently from the whole. The lack truly has nothing to do with the lack of attachments that we hope to attain in order to feel whole and happy.
The lack is what is occurring prior to the arrival of the attachments; misidentification with the “I” thought and its individual desires. The entire search for happiness by the psychological self is actually a search for wholeness and fulfillment. Enlightenment is this ultimate fulfillment. In fact, a synonym for realization is fulfillment.
If you will silently watch and notice what is actually happening, you will be able to trace back every attachment to the original attachment to the “I” thought. Instead of trying to let go of attachments, let go the one who they all belong to … the dreaming “I” that is the ego-body. Self-inquiry removes this first person pronoun of suffering and all of the attachments fall like a wall of sand.
If you will hold onto “I am” and be free of “I am this” or “I am that,” the ego I will disappear and you will have a direct experience of the true Self. The “I” thought originates from the Heart that is within, so when it disappears … that is, go back where the thought came from … you will have a direct experience of peace. This will be a temporary, fleeting experience until one realizes that all objects are untrue as Self identity.
To comment or ask questions, click the Comment button below and Katie will respond.
If you are viewing this post from another website, you will have to forward to the original post at Katie's blog, Awake by Katie at:
www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
If you have read Katie's book, Awake Joy, and would like to "Write Your Own Review" to help network this book's message to the world, please click:
Awake Joy Book Reviews
When we accept this mental concept “I” that is limited to the body, our living experience is limited to a superficial, mental realm. We believe in this limitation and few have actually directly investigated this assumption to discover the truth. When we misidentify with a mental modification of what I call Pure I, our life is living in separation and it is the source of all sorrow. In addition, the misidentification drops a veil and prevents our discovery of who we really are in the deepest sense.
Those seeking enlightenment or Self-realization must first discover the falsehood of this most unfortunate misidentification. When we seek the “I” thought, it disappears. This lifts the veil that is blocking access to the divine dimension within.
We can define the word I that is the body in many ways, such as “I am a mother. I am a daughter. I am an author.” These descriptions are not saying who “I” is. If you investigate for yourself and find that since “you” are AWARE of the body, who you are must be beyond your form. Who is that who is aware? Who are you in the deepest sense? These questions signify the beginning steps toward enlightenment and Self-realization. Are you curious enough to want to realize the Truth?
Self-realization is the end of psychological suffering since it is the end of the psychological self. The old way to deal with misery was to try to manipulate or modify the emotion or thoughts. The new way eliminates the cause; the psychological self or “I” thought. In this, we discover that there is no thinker of thoughts, no performer of actions and we live free from the awareness of an individual self that is separate.
The body is still there with all of its beautiful inborn talents and traits, but the idea of “me” and all of its past and future fixations are finished. We are freed of the problematic psychology of the ego and free of its constant sense of threat.
Inside, there is the stillness and quietude that we genuinely are and in the world of form, our body is there accessing this ultimate creativity. A sense of giving all the love away and selfless service comes to the forefront.
When we give up this relationship with “myself,” we are at one as Life, whether with form or without. The Totality is the pure still awareness and its power, the appearance of the universe. After a lifetime of toil, it is amazing to discover that it is all happening by itself with such beauty, harmony and peace. We have only to get out of the way to consciously realize who we actually are.
When the “I” thought arises it does so to attach to things and objects it desires. “I want that new car. I believe that this is the right way. I need this to be happy.” These attachments take on a mental journey and we get lost in the mental world of form.
There will never be true and lasting fulfillment gained through attachments, no matter how many things, objects and people you attain or gather together. There will always be something more lacking.
That lack is inherent in the idea of being only a fraction of the Totality that is functioning independently from the whole. The lack truly has nothing to do with the lack of attachments that we hope to attain in order to feel whole and happy.
The lack is what is occurring prior to the arrival of the attachments; misidentification with the “I” thought and its individual desires. The entire search for happiness by the psychological self is actually a search for wholeness and fulfillment. Enlightenment is this ultimate fulfillment. In fact, a synonym for realization is fulfillment.
If you will silently watch and notice what is actually happening, you will be able to trace back every attachment to the original attachment to the “I” thought. Instead of trying to let go of attachments, let go the one who they all belong to … the dreaming “I” that is the ego-body. Self-inquiry removes this first person pronoun of suffering and all of the attachments fall like a wall of sand.
If you will hold onto “I am” and be free of “I am this” or “I am that,” the ego I will disappear and you will have a direct experience of the true Self. The “I” thought originates from the Heart that is within, so when it disappears … that is, go back where the thought came from … you will have a direct experience of peace. This will be a temporary, fleeting experience until one realizes that all objects are untrue as Self identity.
To comment or ask questions, click the Comment button below and Katie will respond.
If you are viewing this post from another website, you will have to forward to the original post at Katie's blog, Awake by Katie at:
www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
If you have read Katie's book, Awake Joy, and would like to "Write Your Own Review" to help network this book's message to the world, please click:
Awake Joy Book Reviews
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Power of Forever Now ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
In Self-realization, we realize that we ARE the Now that we also refer to as Self, Pure I, Pure Awareness, Heart, Essence or Absolute Truth; among others.
This is not to be confused with the power of Now that is the appearance of the universe that we call experience. The power includes the forces of nature, the content of the present moment, our bodies, thoughts, emotions, energies, physical sensations such as shakti or others. No matter what form Pure I may take, it never loses the consciousness that is its essential nature.
Even if you perceive a certain power or vision as “other worldly,” since it is experienced, it is none other than the power of Self. The power of Now cannot be separated from the Now any more than “my” power could be separated from “me.” ”My” power is totally dependent on “me.” Without “me,” ”my” power would not be.
The Now is beyond experience and its power is the mind-body that is experience. The mind-body and its experience cannot stand alone. It is totally dependent on the Now, whereas the Now stands free of experience and the appearance of the world. For experience, the mind-body is required and that is also dependent upon the power of Now. The mind is an extraordinary power, but not the Now. “My” body is included within that power. I experience “my body” and therefore it is dependent and cannot stand alone. Everything within the field of experience is the power of Now and inseparable from the Now that I am.
This is not to say that the human being aspect of us should not be embraced. It just is not who we truly are. We ARE the Now within which the body is appearing. When we say “I” that word is pointing to the Now that is Essence. The problematic situation that causes the veil to drop is the misidentification with the body. The mind-body is the power. You are the Now.
For the Self-realized, people, things and circumstances do not appear to be separate and they are appearing from “within.” Although the mental constructs of “inside” and “outside” have been eliminated, the forever Now stands alone and beyond the world and its present moment, although not separate. The Forever Now is eternally permanent, while the impermanent forces of nature are in movement. I am the screen upon which they are appearing and also the consciousness or power that is appearing as form. I am the Totality.
With Self-realization, suffering has been realized as a delusion and therefore has been spontaneously surrendered. The pain gap between the dreaming "I" and the Heart has been extinguished.
When the subject-witness is eliminated, the void of collective suffering is also realized as a delusion and is therefore eliminated. Pure I is free of time, space and therefore separation and its suffering.
I am pure consciousness- being-bliss that is beyond the "I am" that is the foundation of all experience. Now is free of the body idea and the mind’s ever changing phenomena. The body is still sensing and functioning as it does, but it is no longer one's identity. I just can no longer separate the Now that I am from my power; the world.
Pure I is free of the doer of action. This does not mean that the body is not productive. Rather, the belief that there is a doer has been realized as false. I am Pure I during all that is being done. All that is appearing is my power and therefore is the Heart that I am. There just is no doer that is performing the action. One could say that there is pure activity that is intelligent and creative without any identification with the action or its fruits. I am free of imagining that "I am the doer" of anything. It is a false idea to consider the Heart as the doer. There simply is no doer.
Contrarily, the mind-made self that is the ego is time bound and experiences itself as the divided mind. Although an illusion, it experiences bondage. For the ego, it believes that it IS its thoughts and that it is the thinker. Lost in time, it is not conscious of the freedom that is always present.
Since it believes itself to be separate, it experiences only separation. As an illusory subject, it perceives separate objects such as other people, circumstances and things.
Because the ego believes it is separate, a personal reference point that is misidentified as the body, it also imagines that it is separate from the divine. For those who are drawn to enlightenment and curious about the Truth or longing for God, the ego begins an endless search for what is already within. It is an endless search, because the ego cannot realize the Truth. A temporary falsehood cannot meet the permanent Truth. It is itself the veil preventing Self-realization.
Through Self-inquiry and asking this question, "Who am I?" and noticing where the “I” thought arises from, the “dreaming I” is realized to be non-existent. The veil of illusion is removed and only the Self-illuminating Heart, the living Truth, remains.
While we are being Now, the conceptual “I” cannot take flight. That concept requires the mind and its time in order to separate and function. We are purely Now and its present power.
Suffering for the ego is always caused by other people and life circumstance. It therefore attempts to control and manipulate life circumstances in order to make itself relatively happy and avoid its pain. Even in this pseudo power, it is remains helpless as it is tossed about by others and life situations. It is constantly under the push and pull of its emotional state. As the ego, I AM my emotions and always under threat by some other.
Suffering for the self-observer is the body's reaction to what it believes to be its own thoughts. It eventually takes responsibility for its own emotional environment, when it realizes that it is suffering due to its own judgmental thinking. It begins experiencing emotional balance by becoming consciously present to its thoughts and emotions. By observing the thoughts and emotions, it is not as likely to be used by them.
After complete detachment from form, the witnessing consciousness emerges and being-consciousness-bliss comes to the forefront. Nonetheless, all that remains unconscious within the void of the collective continues to emerge as an overlay on the bedrock that is Truth; yet its perfume is plainly evident. This is not enlightenment, but some mistaken it as such.
The subject-witness is a study of formlessness and the witness frees ever more subtle layers of the intellect. Those are two reference points: (1) a formless witness, who objectively is witnessing (2) formlessness (awareness aware of itself). There are not two. Nonetheless, what lies unconscious within the collective surfaces and the collective pain body is freed. It transmutes into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is.
Because the ego state of consciousness is misidentified with the physical body and its limitations, it believes that it is the doer of action and is therefore responsible for the fruits of those actions. The ego believes that it is making individual, mental decisions independently and these decisions will always be based on past experience. Its divided and conditioned intelligence thereby experiences the consequences.
Pure I is beyond this law of cause and effect and thereby free of causality. The Heart is pure intelligence and potentiality that is divinely abundant, all powerful, unconditional love and perfect peace.
To ask Katie questions or share, please click the Comment button below. If you are viewing this blog from another site, you will need to advance to the original post at:
www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
For Katie's book, Awake Joy, and reviews, please click:
www.KatieDavis.org/AwakeBooksKatie.html
This is not to be confused with the power of Now that is the appearance of the universe that we call experience. The power includes the forces of nature, the content of the present moment, our bodies, thoughts, emotions, energies, physical sensations such as shakti or others. No matter what form Pure I may take, it never loses the consciousness that is its essential nature.
Even if you perceive a certain power or vision as “other worldly,” since it is experienced, it is none other than the power of Self. The power of Now cannot be separated from the Now any more than “my” power could be separated from “me.” ”My” power is totally dependent on “me.” Without “me,” ”my” power would not be.
The Now is beyond experience and its power is the mind-body that is experience. The mind-body and its experience cannot stand alone. It is totally dependent on the Now, whereas the Now stands free of experience and the appearance of the world. For experience, the mind-body is required and that is also dependent upon the power of Now. The mind is an extraordinary power, but not the Now. “My” body is included within that power. I experience “my body” and therefore it is dependent and cannot stand alone. Everything within the field of experience is the power of Now and inseparable from the Now that I am.
This is not to say that the human being aspect of us should not be embraced. It just is not who we truly are. We ARE the Now within which the body is appearing. When we say “I” that word is pointing to the Now that is Essence. The problematic situation that causes the veil to drop is the misidentification with the body. The mind-body is the power. You are the Now.
For the Self-realized, people, things and circumstances do not appear to be separate and they are appearing from “within.” Although the mental constructs of “inside” and “outside” have been eliminated, the forever Now stands alone and beyond the world and its present moment, although not separate. The Forever Now is eternally permanent, while the impermanent forces of nature are in movement. I am the screen upon which they are appearing and also the consciousness or power that is appearing as form. I am the Totality.
With Self-realization, suffering has been realized as a delusion and therefore has been spontaneously surrendered. The pain gap between the dreaming "I" and the Heart has been extinguished.
When the subject-witness is eliminated, the void of collective suffering is also realized as a delusion and is therefore eliminated. Pure I is free of time, space and therefore separation and its suffering.
I am pure consciousness- being-bliss that is beyond the "I am" that is the foundation of all experience. Now is free of the body idea and the mind’s ever changing phenomena. The body is still sensing and functioning as it does, but it is no longer one's identity. I just can no longer separate the Now that I am from my power; the world.
Pure I is free of the doer of action. This does not mean that the body is not productive. Rather, the belief that there is a doer has been realized as false. I am Pure I during all that is being done. All that is appearing is my power and therefore is the Heart that I am. There just is no doer that is performing the action. One could say that there is pure activity that is intelligent and creative without any identification with the action or its fruits. I am free of imagining that "I am the doer" of anything. It is a false idea to consider the Heart as the doer. There simply is no doer.
Contrarily, the mind-made self that is the ego is time bound and experiences itself as the divided mind. Although an illusion, it experiences bondage. For the ego, it believes that it IS its thoughts and that it is the thinker. Lost in time, it is not conscious of the freedom that is always present.
Since it believes itself to be separate, it experiences only separation. As an illusory subject, it perceives separate objects such as other people, circumstances and things.
Because the ego believes it is separate, a personal reference point that is misidentified as the body, it also imagines that it is separate from the divine. For those who are drawn to enlightenment and curious about the Truth or longing for God, the ego begins an endless search for what is already within. It is an endless search, because the ego cannot realize the Truth. A temporary falsehood cannot meet the permanent Truth. It is itself the veil preventing Self-realization.
Through Self-inquiry and asking this question, "Who am I?" and noticing where the “I” thought arises from, the “dreaming I” is realized to be non-existent. The veil of illusion is removed and only the Self-illuminating Heart, the living Truth, remains.
While we are being Now, the conceptual “I” cannot take flight. That concept requires the mind and its time in order to separate and function. We are purely Now and its present power.
Suffering for the ego is always caused by other people and life circumstance. It therefore attempts to control and manipulate life circumstances in order to make itself relatively happy and avoid its pain. Even in this pseudo power, it is remains helpless as it is tossed about by others and life situations. It is constantly under the push and pull of its emotional state. As the ego, I AM my emotions and always under threat by some other.
Suffering for the self-observer is the body's reaction to what it believes to be its own thoughts. It eventually takes responsibility for its own emotional environment, when it realizes that it is suffering due to its own judgmental thinking. It begins experiencing emotional balance by becoming consciously present to its thoughts and emotions. By observing the thoughts and emotions, it is not as likely to be used by them.
After complete detachment from form, the witnessing consciousness emerges and being-consciousness-bliss comes to the forefront. Nonetheless, all that remains unconscious within the void of the collective continues to emerge as an overlay on the bedrock that is Truth; yet its perfume is plainly evident. This is not enlightenment, but some mistaken it as such.
The subject-witness is a study of formlessness and the witness frees ever more subtle layers of the intellect. Those are two reference points: (1) a formless witness, who objectively is witnessing (2) formlessness (awareness aware of itself). There are not two. Nonetheless, what lies unconscious within the collective surfaces and the collective pain body is freed. It transmutes into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is.
Because the ego state of consciousness is misidentified with the physical body and its limitations, it believes that it is the doer of action and is therefore responsible for the fruits of those actions. The ego believes that it is making individual, mental decisions independently and these decisions will always be based on past experience. Its divided and conditioned intelligence thereby experiences the consequences.
Pure I is beyond this law of cause and effect and thereby free of causality. The Heart is pure intelligence and potentiality that is divinely abundant, all powerful, unconditional love and perfect peace.
To ask Katie questions or share, please click the Comment button below. If you are viewing this blog from another site, you will need to advance to the original post at:
www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
For Katie's book, Awake Joy, and reviews, please click:
www.KatieDavis.org/AwakeBooksKatie.html
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Is the World Real? ~ Katie Davis, Awake Joy
What is the true nature of the world? Is the world real? Yes, no, relatively so, yes ... depending on who is asking. As I said in my new book, Awake Joy, the perceptions change according to where you are looking from (your reference point). Once all reference points are surrendered, there is only the Self and you are That.
Nothing can truly be known conceptually. Concepts are ideas. I can share what has been directly realized, but until someone directly investigates it, it remains a concept. Once one realizes who THEY are, they then directly realize what the world is beyond all ideas and doubt. So, first things first. Continue the investigation until it is directly realized as true or false rather than accepting it by concept.
Further, there is nothing that can be truly known objectively. We can have ideas about other things and describe their attributes, but we have no idea of how it would be to BE those things. Also, the Self is not a thing, so it cannot ever be found. Since it is who you are, it can be realized. We can only BE the Self that you are right now.
As the ego, we believe we are separate and therefore can only perceive separation, so we see a separate world. Then, we begin waking up and realize that we are not the mind-body; suddenly the world is unreal. This is good, since it points us deeper into formlessness and its deeper inquiry to realize that we have always been Self-realized. We realize the false, it is eliminated, and what remains is who we have always been ... true Self.
Upon Self-realization, the world as consciousness is my inherent power. It is not that the Self creates the world, dreams the world or thinks the world. That would slip us back into separation ... Self and world (world includes here the mind-body). There is only the Self and its Self-illuminating power.
The Self-realized one sees no "inside" or "outside." That is another mental construct that will be eliminated. Instead, I am the Totality. I am Pure Awareness and my power ("my body") is the appearance of the universe. Form is Essence and Essence is form. There is only the Essence that is the Totality.
Within that Totality, Katie, mind-body and world are appearing. Self appearing as Katie. Self appearing as body. Self appearing as world. This is why we say that it is all dependent on the Self. The Self can only be Self.
For clarity, virtually every night, you fall asleep and the body and world disappear. Beyond deep sleep is the Self and we "go back Home" every night (without ever having truly left Home!) When we regain body consciousness in the morning, suddenly the world appears. Without the mind and body, there is no world. The world is dependent on the body and mind, which is dependent on consciousness which is dependent upon Self. All of that is only the Self appearing as ...
So, we now we have to say that the world is relatively true and not absolutely true, since it does not stand by itself, whereas the Self, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent CAN stand by itself, whether the body mind (world) appears or not.
A paradox? Yes, it is all the Self that I am and my inherent power. My power cannot exist without me and my power IS me ... therefore the world (my power) is as real as I am.
For enlightenment, we surrender all that can be surrendered until only the Self remains; Pure Awareness. For Self-realization, we consciously realize the Totality.
Really the mind will never be able to really get its head around it.
I welcome your comments and questions below by clicking the comment button.
Read Awake Joy book reviews in the Awake Joy Guest Book on Katie's website or purchase her book at:
Katie's Books
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
Nothing can truly be known conceptually. Concepts are ideas. I can share what has been directly realized, but until someone directly investigates it, it remains a concept. Once one realizes who THEY are, they then directly realize what the world is beyond all ideas and doubt. So, first things first. Continue the investigation until it is directly realized as true or false rather than accepting it by concept.
Further, there is nothing that can be truly known objectively. We can have ideas about other things and describe their attributes, but we have no idea of how it would be to BE those things. Also, the Self is not a thing, so it cannot ever be found. Since it is who you are, it can be realized. We can only BE the Self that you are right now.
As the ego, we believe we are separate and therefore can only perceive separation, so we see a separate world. Then, we begin waking up and realize that we are not the mind-body; suddenly the world is unreal. This is good, since it points us deeper into formlessness and its deeper inquiry to realize that we have always been Self-realized. We realize the false, it is eliminated, and what remains is who we have always been ... true Self.
Upon Self-realization, the world as consciousness is my inherent power. It is not that the Self creates the world, dreams the world or thinks the world. That would slip us back into separation ... Self and world (world includes here the mind-body). There is only the Self and its Self-illuminating power.
The Self-realized one sees no "inside" or "outside." That is another mental construct that will be eliminated. Instead, I am the Totality. I am Pure Awareness and my power ("my body") is the appearance of the universe. Form is Essence and Essence is form. There is only the Essence that is the Totality.
Within that Totality, Katie, mind-body and world are appearing. Self appearing as Katie. Self appearing as body. Self appearing as world. This is why we say that it is all dependent on the Self. The Self can only be Self.
For clarity, virtually every night, you fall asleep and the body and world disappear. Beyond deep sleep is the Self and we "go back Home" every night (without ever having truly left Home!) When we regain body consciousness in the morning, suddenly the world appears. Without the mind and body, there is no world. The world is dependent on the body and mind, which is dependent on consciousness which is dependent upon Self. All of that is only the Self appearing as ...
So, we now we have to say that the world is relatively true and not absolutely true, since it does not stand by itself, whereas the Self, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent CAN stand by itself, whether the body mind (world) appears or not.
A paradox? Yes, it is all the Self that I am and my inherent power. My power cannot exist without me and my power IS me ... therefore the world (my power) is as real as I am.
For enlightenment, we surrender all that can be surrendered until only the Self remains; Pure Awareness. For Self-realization, we consciously realize the Totality.
Really the mind will never be able to really get its head around it.
I welcome your comments and questions below by clicking the comment button.
Read Awake Joy book reviews in the Awake Joy Guest Book on Katie's website or purchase her book at:
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Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
Thursday, November 20, 2008
You Are the Goal of Self-realization ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
You are the peace and bliss that you are seeking. You are the Self that you have been searching for. You cannot deny that you exist. Is this not so? Are you being right now? That existence is pure consciousness.
The notion of a goal is a false idea. A goal indicates that there is something to become such as some new attainment. It is only the ego that is in constant search. However, when we seek the dreaming "I" (ego), it is nowhere to be found. Surrender the ego and there is only pure consciousness.
The ego and evermore subtle layers of the intellect are like armor that only appear to obscure that which forever shines; much like clouds that block the sun. Even when ignorance seems to be appearing in the life situation as unhappiness or discontentment, there is something that is AWARE of it. You are that pure awareness. You are already THIS right now and at home as Pure Being.
The entire seeking process is a postponement strategy of ego. The mind-made self will always require more time and experience, since it cannot function without time. Remove the dreaming "I" and you will realize the perfect peace that is beyond understanding. The false perceptions of time and space are only due to the divided mind. That division and separation are also false notions. It will be seen that nothing has ever been anything other than pure consciousness.
The Self will never be realized in an objective manner. For example, if you have lost your eyeglasses, you may search for this object all over your home. That is an objective search. Since you ARE the bliss of Self, it is impossible to discover it as something separate from you. We can only BE the Self. You are being that now. Remove the false notion that you are not Self-realized and you will realize that which is already realized within you. What you realize is the mistake; the mistakened identity.
The appearance of unconsciousness will continue to rise for awhile. You do not need to become involved with it or change anything. Being aware of it, you look directly and recognize it as false as it burns into consciousness.
In the end, it is seen that ignorance never existed, but the delusion must be directly noticed. Ignorance appears to come and go, while you remain the permanent awareness. Pure being IS ... whether with form or without form. Pure Awareness and its being-consciousness-bliss are eternal which means it must be here now.
Katie Davis is author of Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment:.
Awake Joy is a unique and comprehensive guide to awakening to the new state of consciousness that is currently emerging on this planet. It points to the discovery of the radiant joy that is beyond the thinking mind, the separate sense of self, its idea of separation and identification with form.
Awake Joy is meant to be your companion throughout your life’s journey to true and lasting fulfillment. It will be a trusted resource again and again throughout the years. This A-Z handbook stands free of concepts, philosophy and eastern jargon to point clearly and pragmatically for those who are ready to surrender suffering for themselves, their relationships, their families, the schools, the workplace, the world’s religions and the world.
"A powerhouse of a book! Katie Davis has captured the uncapturable: a clear view of enlightenment ... in plain English. Bravo!"
~ Chris McCombs, Author, Delicious Silence, Beloved, Lover's Road
To read more reviews or purchase Awake Joy click:
Awake Joy
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
The notion of a goal is a false idea. A goal indicates that there is something to become such as some new attainment. It is only the ego that is in constant search. However, when we seek the dreaming "I" (ego), it is nowhere to be found. Surrender the ego and there is only pure consciousness.
The ego and evermore subtle layers of the intellect are like armor that only appear to obscure that which forever shines; much like clouds that block the sun. Even when ignorance seems to be appearing in the life situation as unhappiness or discontentment, there is something that is AWARE of it. You are that pure awareness. You are already THIS right now and at home as Pure Being.
The entire seeking process is a postponement strategy of ego. The mind-made self will always require more time and experience, since it cannot function without time. Remove the dreaming "I" and you will realize the perfect peace that is beyond understanding. The false perceptions of time and space are only due to the divided mind. That division and separation are also false notions. It will be seen that nothing has ever been anything other than pure consciousness.
The Self will never be realized in an objective manner. For example, if you have lost your eyeglasses, you may search for this object all over your home. That is an objective search. Since you ARE the bliss of Self, it is impossible to discover it as something separate from you. We can only BE the Self. You are being that now. Remove the false notion that you are not Self-realized and you will realize that which is already realized within you. What you realize is the mistake; the mistakened identity.
The appearance of unconsciousness will continue to rise for awhile. You do not need to become involved with it or change anything. Being aware of it, you look directly and recognize it as false as it burns into consciousness.
In the end, it is seen that ignorance never existed, but the delusion must be directly noticed. Ignorance appears to come and go, while you remain the permanent awareness. Pure being IS ... whether with form or without form. Pure Awareness and its being-consciousness-bliss are eternal which means it must be here now.
Katie Davis is author of Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment:.
Awake Joy is a unique and comprehensive guide to awakening to the new state of consciousness that is currently emerging on this planet. It points to the discovery of the radiant joy that is beyond the thinking mind, the separate sense of self, its idea of separation and identification with form.
Awake Joy is meant to be your companion throughout your life’s journey to true and lasting fulfillment. It will be a trusted resource again and again throughout the years. This A-Z handbook stands free of concepts, philosophy and eastern jargon to point clearly and pragmatically for those who are ready to surrender suffering for themselves, their relationships, their families, the schools, the workplace, the world’s religions and the world.
"A powerhouse of a book! Katie Davis has captured the uncapturable: a clear view of enlightenment ... in plain English. Bravo!"
~ Chris McCombs, Author, Delicious Silence, Beloved, Lover's Road
To read more reviews or purchase Awake Joy click:
Awake Joy
Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Time = Ego = Stress ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The next time that you are feeling stressful, please notice that you are looking with the eyes of the ego and its required time. The ego will always resist timelessness, since it requires time in order to function.
Within time, the ego will always be resisting what already is or wanting something more in the future. In either case, it experiences stress and anxiety.
No matter how many things the ego resists (fears) or how many desires it attains, it will continue to feel stressful. It has an endless list and it will always want more. Its intention is to complete itself at some future time. Likewise, no matter how many threats it escapes, once again, it is sure that there are more to come.
The mind-made self is lacking because, through notion alone, it has pretended to separate and made itself an object unto itself (there are not two - Pure I and "me") and therefore can never experience wholeness. It can acquire more and more things or befriend more and more people or even marry the perfect mate and it still has not changed the fact that it thinks its a fraction.
That sense of lack will remain as the ego wanders through life and searches for completion and meaning. It just makes sense that it can never realize wholeness as a fraction. In the end, a fraction will always remain only be a fraction.
The ego is threatened that something or someone will be taken away. Whether conscious or not, it is on guard, defensive and under a constant sense of threat. Although it thinks that its strategy is hidden, right there in plain sight is control and manipulation.
It perceives everyone as separate from itself and that concept is based on its own false idea of separation from Source. In fact to the ego, you are not even important as long as you are not threatening or as long as there isn't something that it can get through you.
The only option is to surrender the ego. In this great release, we profoundly realize that you are already whole. We then live fearlessly, free of wanting, since we are already complete.
The key to stress is ego freedom. Consciously, take a deep breath and notice that you return to the awareness of the present moment. As the Now, you are complete, whole, free of time and its conceptual goal.
I do not mean that there will never be times when you are moving more quickly to catch an airplane after waiting through rush hour or some other life circumstance. I simply mean that when you rest as conscious awareness instead of the ego, you are stress free. In the past, we may have blamed stress on time. Now, we realize that stress is inherent in the ego. Further, the ego can only operate in time.
What a relief! Time = Ego = Stress and all are delusions in the Light of Now.
For reviews of Katie's new book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, please click:
REVIEWS
Within time, the ego will always be resisting what already is or wanting something more in the future. In either case, it experiences stress and anxiety.
No matter how many things the ego resists (fears) or how many desires it attains, it will continue to feel stressful. It has an endless list and it will always want more. Its intention is to complete itself at some future time. Likewise, no matter how many threats it escapes, once again, it is sure that there are more to come.
The mind-made self is lacking because, through notion alone, it has pretended to separate and made itself an object unto itself (there are not two - Pure I and "me") and therefore can never experience wholeness. It can acquire more and more things or befriend more and more people or even marry the perfect mate and it still has not changed the fact that it thinks its a fraction.
That sense of lack will remain as the ego wanders through life and searches for completion and meaning. It just makes sense that it can never realize wholeness as a fraction. In the end, a fraction will always remain only be a fraction.
The ego is threatened that something or someone will be taken away. Whether conscious or not, it is on guard, defensive and under a constant sense of threat. Although it thinks that its strategy is hidden, right there in plain sight is control and manipulation.
It perceives everyone as separate from itself and that concept is based on its own false idea of separation from Source. In fact to the ego, you are not even important as long as you are not threatening or as long as there isn't something that it can get through you.
The only option is to surrender the ego. In this great release, we profoundly realize that you are already whole. We then live fearlessly, free of wanting, since we are already complete.
The key to stress is ego freedom. Consciously, take a deep breath and notice that you return to the awareness of the present moment. As the Now, you are complete, whole, free of time and its conceptual goal.
I do not mean that there will never be times when you are moving more quickly to catch an airplane after waiting through rush hour or some other life circumstance. I simply mean that when you rest as conscious awareness instead of the ego, you are stress free. In the past, we may have blamed stress on time. Now, we realize that stress is inherent in the ego. Further, the ego can only operate in time.
What a relief! Time = Ego = Stress and all are delusions in the Light of Now.
For reviews of Katie's new book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, please click:
REVIEWS
Monday, November 17, 2008
Only the Self is Big LOVE ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The unconditional love that you are is beyond relative love. The dreaming "I" that we used to believe was limited to the body is just incapable of genuine love and this will always be so.
Dreaming "I" (ego) is a mental idea; only a word that is expressed in time. When you mis-identify with the word as your identity, you are making an object out of yourself. The true Self and dreaming "I." There simply are not two. Write the word "I" down on a piece of paper. Then look at it. Are you that word? Or is there something deeper here?
For a moment, just say the word "I." Yes, right now. Are you aware of the thought? How deep can a mere thought be? You are not the "I" that you are presently equating to your body. You are the Awareness of the word "I." You are the Awareness of the body. That Awareness is not personal.
We are not referring here to eyesight. It is just beyond eyesight. Are you aware of the eye? Are you aware of seeing? For enlightenment, the only essential question is WHO is aware? If it is not "me" then who is aware?
Close you eyes for a moment. Are you still aware?
The dreaming "I" that is the body exists only within the mental realm and its time. Since it is in time, it is then subject to duality; the law of the opposites. This means that when you experience relative love, it can only remain "in love" for a certain duration.
Time is always in movement. Relative love is unstable and will inevitably cycle to hate. Hate is equally unstable. Because it is traveling in time, it will inevitably cycle back to relative love.
There is a continuum between relative love/hate. The less we hate, the more we feel loving. The less loving we feel, the more likely feelings of hate will arise. Love/hate are polar opposites that require on another. The cycling requires time.
As the ego, we then thank people, because we feel loving and then blame them whenever we feel hate. Not so intelligent in either case. It is "your" responsibility. Where are you looking from? The Heart or "I?"
We have all been in relationships and everything is going along just fine and suddenly the pain body rears its heads within either one person or the other. Generally, the other ego will take that bait; rear its pain body also to defend itself. Instead of a loving relationship, we now have a fighting, hateful and cruel relationship.
If you watch it in action, the ego actually becomes hatred. Observe the face of your partner. Isn't true that they look like hate? Sometime, while you are fighting, look at your own face in a mirror. You will surely notice that hate has taken over the body.
Please listen. The ego is incapable of being free of the love/hate cycling. So we do not need to try to perfect the dreaming "I" so that it is unconditionally loving. We do not need to make a false self a better false self. We do not need to feel guilty about the cycling. It is a given as long as you are mis-identified with the mental word "I" and its time.
The only resolution is timelessness. Free of time, we are free of cycling. Timelessness is being AWARE of the present moment and also realizing that you are the Pure Awareness. That Pure Awareness is timeless and eternal. It is the formless NOW within which your body and world of form are appearing. You are the formless NOW and not the body appearance.
The nature of the true Self is unconditional love. You ARE that unconditional love. It is not something that the ego can attain. The dreaming "I" is a word, remember? Is a word capable of unconditional love?
You already are this unconditional love. It is ever present just beneath (or we could say beyond) the dreaming "I," its time, its concepts and all of its problematic, compulsive and psychological thinking.
Unconditional love is formless and "arises" within the body from the divine dimension within you. Rather, it IS you.
When we realize Pure Awareness (Self-realization), we also realize that we are the unconditional love that never, ever wavers. That realization is then also the transformation of the world. How different would "your" life be and how different would the world be, if humanity was living as unconditional love?
Only the Self is LOVE. It is everywhere "you" are. Are you noticing this?
In attention to being, you stand free of time. In attendance, being (or we could say presence) will seem to grow stronger. This is not ultimately true. Beingness is already all powerful and omnipotent. It is just that while we are consciously being, the mind is still and thinking no longer obscures the Pure Beingness.
Just try it for one day and see. Can you consciously BE during all that is being done? This is beautiful movement meditation. You will notice how vibrantly alive you feel or eventually conscious being is just normal and effortlessly so.
In relationship with your mate, it takes "two" to fight. Do not try to change them. Just remain true to who you are. We then can offer true compassion. It is simple to see that they have only been taken over by time. Does it make sense to fight time when time is a delusion. Instead, we are asked to remain open and free, while the pain body loses its pseudo power.
"Write Your Own Review" of Katie's new book, Awake Joy by clicking:
REVIEW
You can help network this message to the world by sharing it in review.
Dreaming "I" (ego) is a mental idea; only a word that is expressed in time. When you mis-identify with the word as your identity, you are making an object out of yourself. The true Self and dreaming "I." There simply are not two. Write the word "I" down on a piece of paper. Then look at it. Are you that word? Or is there something deeper here?
For a moment, just say the word "I." Yes, right now. Are you aware of the thought? How deep can a mere thought be? You are not the "I" that you are presently equating to your body. You are the Awareness of the word "I." You are the Awareness of the body. That Awareness is not personal.
We are not referring here to eyesight. It is just beyond eyesight. Are you aware of the eye? Are you aware of seeing? For enlightenment, the only essential question is WHO is aware? If it is not "me" then who is aware?
Close you eyes for a moment. Are you still aware?
The dreaming "I" that is the body exists only within the mental realm and its time. Since it is in time, it is then subject to duality; the law of the opposites. This means that when you experience relative love, it can only remain "in love" for a certain duration.
Time is always in movement. Relative love is unstable and will inevitably cycle to hate. Hate is equally unstable. Because it is traveling in time, it will inevitably cycle back to relative love.
There is a continuum between relative love/hate. The less we hate, the more we feel loving. The less loving we feel, the more likely feelings of hate will arise. Love/hate are polar opposites that require on another. The cycling requires time.
As the ego, we then thank people, because we feel loving and then blame them whenever we feel hate. Not so intelligent in either case. It is "your" responsibility. Where are you looking from? The Heart or "I?"
We have all been in relationships and everything is going along just fine and suddenly the pain body rears its heads within either one person or the other. Generally, the other ego will take that bait; rear its pain body also to defend itself. Instead of a loving relationship, we now have a fighting, hateful and cruel relationship.
If you watch it in action, the ego actually becomes hatred. Observe the face of your partner. Isn't true that they look like hate? Sometime, while you are fighting, look at your own face in a mirror. You will surely notice that hate has taken over the body.
Please listen. The ego is incapable of being free of the love/hate cycling. So we do not need to try to perfect the dreaming "I" so that it is unconditionally loving. We do not need to make a false self a better false self. We do not need to feel guilty about the cycling. It is a given as long as you are mis-identified with the mental word "I" and its time.
The only resolution is timelessness. Free of time, we are free of cycling. Timelessness is being AWARE of the present moment and also realizing that you are the Pure Awareness. That Pure Awareness is timeless and eternal. It is the formless NOW within which your body and world of form are appearing. You are the formless NOW and not the body appearance.
The nature of the true Self is unconditional love. You ARE that unconditional love. It is not something that the ego can attain. The dreaming "I" is a word, remember? Is a word capable of unconditional love?
You already are this unconditional love. It is ever present just beneath (or we could say beyond) the dreaming "I," its time, its concepts and all of its problematic, compulsive and psychological thinking.
Unconditional love is formless and "arises" within the body from the divine dimension within you. Rather, it IS you.
When we realize Pure Awareness (Self-realization), we also realize that we are the unconditional love that never, ever wavers. That realization is then also the transformation of the world. How different would "your" life be and how different would the world be, if humanity was living as unconditional love?
Only the Self is LOVE. It is everywhere "you" are. Are you noticing this?
In attention to being, you stand free of time. In attendance, being (or we could say presence) will seem to grow stronger. This is not ultimately true. Beingness is already all powerful and omnipotent. It is just that while we are consciously being, the mind is still and thinking no longer obscures the Pure Beingness.
Just try it for one day and see. Can you consciously BE during all that is being done? This is beautiful movement meditation. You will notice how vibrantly alive you feel or eventually conscious being is just normal and effortlessly so.
In relationship with your mate, it takes "two" to fight. Do not try to change them. Just remain true to who you are. We then can offer true compassion. It is simple to see that they have only been taken over by time. Does it make sense to fight time when time is a delusion. Instead, we are asked to remain open and free, while the pain body loses its pseudo power.
"Write Your Own Review" of Katie's new book, Awake Joy by clicking:
REVIEW
You can help network this message to the world by sharing it in review.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Self-realization ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Please stop for just one moment to listen. You are awake. Are you receiving this? There is only wakefulness. Even if you are still misidentified with the mind-made self that we name ego, consider whether it could be possible for someone to be separate from that which we refer to as Totality. Totality is just that. It is total.
If we could surrender the false idea that there is a separated somebody (body-mind), you will consciously realize that you are already this wakefulness that is bliss and joy. So in a way, the notion of Self-realization is somewhat a false idea just as all notions and concepts are. Who is there to Self-realize? Can you intuitively sense this?
When we say, "I want to realize the Self," can you see that you are holding the belief that there are two? The first is the ego (or perhaps at a deeper level the subject-witness). The second is the one who is Self-realized. In this, you are believing that the Self-realized needs to realize the one who is Self-realized.
It is impossible to deny that you ARE. Rest in this sense of "I am." Isn't it true? Can you sense and feel it? Do you exist right now or do you not exist?
The question is who is that who is constantly and eternally being/existing? There is nothing personal in this sense "I am." That is the pure Beingness of the sacred that is consciously arising within you. There is not a personal being and an impersonal being. There is only Pure Beingness and you are that. Is not the felt-sense of being blissful? If you will call off the search, stop the seeking, you will realize that you ARE the joy that you are seeking in every other.
Is "being" in the world? Can you show it to me such as you could show be any worldly thing?
Bliss and joy is simply being and it cannot be found in the world of form.
Pure Beingness is the bliss of the formlessness within. This formlessness already IS. It IS.
Are you willing to stop just for an instant to consciously realize that it already IS? That Pure Beingness is also Pure Consciousness. That is the Self and absolutely inseparable from you. There are not two ...
Can you see the folly of holding on to the idea that it will take 20-25 years of faithful meditation to Self-realize. This can only be a postponement. The idea that it will take more time and experience to realize what is now is a false notion. How do you realize that which is beyond experience through more experiencing?
How could it take 25 years to realize a mistake? Time is only of the mind. Is there time in being? Or are you being now?
All Love ... ~ Katie Davis
To enjoy the first two chapters of Katie's book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, please click: "Look Inside"
If we could surrender the false idea that there is a separated somebody (body-mind), you will consciously realize that you are already this wakefulness that is bliss and joy. So in a way, the notion of Self-realization is somewhat a false idea just as all notions and concepts are. Who is there to Self-realize? Can you intuitively sense this?
When we say, "I want to realize the Self," can you see that you are holding the belief that there are two? The first is the ego (or perhaps at a deeper level the subject-witness). The second is the one who is Self-realized. In this, you are believing that the Self-realized needs to realize the one who is Self-realized.
It is impossible to deny that you ARE. Rest in this sense of "I am." Isn't it true? Can you sense and feel it? Do you exist right now or do you not exist?
The question is who is that who is constantly and eternally being/existing? There is nothing personal in this sense "I am." That is the pure Beingness of the sacred that is consciously arising within you. There is not a personal being and an impersonal being. There is only Pure Beingness and you are that. Is not the felt-sense of being blissful? If you will call off the search, stop the seeking, you will realize that you ARE the joy that you are seeking in every other.
Is "being" in the world? Can you show it to me such as you could show be any worldly thing?
Bliss and joy is simply being and it cannot be found in the world of form.
Pure Beingness is the bliss of the formlessness within. This formlessness already IS. It IS.
Are you willing to stop just for an instant to consciously realize that it already IS? That Pure Beingness is also Pure Consciousness. That is the Self and absolutely inseparable from you. There are not two ...
Can you see the folly of holding on to the idea that it will take 20-25 years of faithful meditation to Self-realize. This can only be a postponement. The idea that it will take more time and experience to realize what is now is a false notion. How do you realize that which is beyond experience through more experiencing?
How could it take 25 years to realize a mistake? Time is only of the mind. Is there time in being? Or are you being now?
All Love ... ~ Katie Davis
To enjoy the first two chapters of Katie's book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, please click: "Look Inside"
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The Joy of Being ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
All longing, seeking and discontent have their roots in the delusion that we are separate from the Heart of all being. When we are desiring and wanting things, people or circumstances at some future date, we cannot be conscious of our organic sense of being; the joy of being that is already within.
When we are identified with the ego state of consciousness, it is as though we BECOME the longing for what we "think" that we lack. We become the discontentment that we are trying to escape. We desire something other than the present moment. Even enlightenment can become something that we are seeking and we believe that it can only "happen" at some future date.
When we have a future fixation, we are not being present for the very joy that we have been seeking within every other. The joy of being can only be realized now and it is within you. Lost in an external search, it cannot be found. The only option is to look within.
Where is your attention right now?
Read Amazon reviews for Awake Joy by Katie Davis or Write Your Own review to help network the book's message to the world by clicking:
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When we are identified with the ego state of consciousness, it is as though we BECOME the longing for what we "think" that we lack. We become the discontentment that we are trying to escape. We desire something other than the present moment. Even enlightenment can become something that we are seeking and we believe that it can only "happen" at some future date.
When we have a future fixation, we are not being present for the very joy that we have been seeking within every other. The joy of being can only be realized now and it is within you. Lost in an external search, it cannot be found. The only option is to look within.
Where is your attention right now?
Read Amazon reviews for Awake Joy by Katie Davis or Write Your Own review to help network the book's message to the world by clicking:
Reviews
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Self-illuminating Light of Consciousness ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The Self-illuminating light of consciousness is the light by which the mind can see. We would not be able to sense or perceive anything within this dimension without this Pure Awareness or Pure I; who you truly are.
The mind turned outward is the altered state of consciousness that we refer to as the ego and the world. In this, we suffer the delusion of separation and therefore experience a sense of abandonment, alienation and lack; whether we are conscious of the fact or not. This fear then takes form in our life situation as anger, sadness, etc.
The mind turned inward and that disappears into Pure Awareness is then realized as the illumined mind. In this, all suffering is destroyed and we realize that we are sacred love and perfect peace, without the slightest separation.
Both the conditioned mind and the illumined mind are totally dependent on Awareness. Although inseparable, the mind cannot stand alone, whereas Pure Awareness alone is real.
It is a mystery why we seek this Awareness and are not conscious of its presence. It is always here. It is everywhere you are. In fact, it is another name for you.
Every day, we pass through three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and deep sleep. All three states are dependent upon Pure Awareness. They are appearing within Awareness. Everything is appearing within Awareness. All is appearing within you.
The three states come and go, whereas Awareness is state-free, eternal and never changing. Awareness is transcendental and is the bedrock upon which all is appearing. It is the Life that is supporting all living.
1. Waking is dependent on Awareness.
Are you aware right now in the waking state?
2. Dreaming is dependent on Awareness.
Are you aware when you are dreaming?
3. Deep sleep is dependent on Awareness.
You may not have body consciousness during deep sleep, but when you awaken in the morning, are you aware that you had a good night's sleep?
You are this Awareness.
Look Inside Katie's book, Awake Joy, to read the first two chapters by clicking:
Look Inside
Read reader reviews by clicking:
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If you have already read Awake Joy, create your own review to help network this book's message to the world by clicking:
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Get this book by clicking:
www.KatieDavis.org/AwakeBooksKatie.html
The mind turned outward is the altered state of consciousness that we refer to as the ego and the world. In this, we suffer the delusion of separation and therefore experience a sense of abandonment, alienation and lack; whether we are conscious of the fact or not. This fear then takes form in our life situation as anger, sadness, etc.
The mind turned inward and that disappears into Pure Awareness is then realized as the illumined mind. In this, all suffering is destroyed and we realize that we are sacred love and perfect peace, without the slightest separation.
Both the conditioned mind and the illumined mind are totally dependent on Awareness. Although inseparable, the mind cannot stand alone, whereas Pure Awareness alone is real.
It is a mystery why we seek this Awareness and are not conscious of its presence. It is always here. It is everywhere you are. In fact, it is another name for you.
Every day, we pass through three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and deep sleep. All three states are dependent upon Pure Awareness. They are appearing within Awareness. Everything is appearing within Awareness. All is appearing within you.
The three states come and go, whereas Awareness is state-free, eternal and never changing. Awareness is transcendental and is the bedrock upon which all is appearing. It is the Life that is supporting all living.
1. Waking is dependent on Awareness.
Are you aware right now in the waking state?
2. Dreaming is dependent on Awareness.
Are you aware when you are dreaming?
3. Deep sleep is dependent on Awareness.
You may not have body consciousness during deep sleep, but when you awaken in the morning, are you aware that you had a good night's sleep?
You are this Awareness.
Look Inside Katie's book, Awake Joy, to read the first two chapters by clicking:
Look Inside
Read reader reviews by clicking:
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Conscious Emotion and Uneasiness ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The body will always be a mirror of your problematic thinking. This is why I encourage people to be consciously within the body and aware of how it feels. Busy in daily activity, we may miss our thoughts that cause a contraction in the body. That contraction is emotion and inflicted by our own thinking. When we feel the emotion in our body, we can then shift our attention to our thoughts and dis-identify with them. We do not try to change our thoughts. That is only more thinking. Instead, we can be aware of the body's senses or our breathing and it will bring us back to the present moment where the mind rests tranquilly.
There is something deeper here to observe. Beyond our thinking, there is within us all that remains unconscious. This unconsciousness does not express itself in our thinking. Instead, we sense an uneasiness or maybe a feeling of dread. When you recognize this unease, it is a gift, even though it may feel uncomfortable. That which is unconscious deep within you is being released into consciousness.
We do not need to analyze or interpret what this unease means, why it is here, or how to get rid of it. Instead, we allow the unease to be just as it is. That is to say, we consciously BE with the uneasiness. In this willingness, we are burning the unconsciousness as it transforms into consciousness and this happens all by itself. Our consciousness becomes more clear and therefore seems to grow stronger and brighter.
Being with uneasiness or emotion is the same as watching or listening to your thoughts. The only difference is that thoughts are in your head, whereas emotion is expressed within our physical body. Just like not being controlled by your thinking, you are then not controlled by emotion. Instead, you consciously recognize that you are the awareness of emotion instead of being the emotion. When you are the watcher of emotion, it cannot use you. There is a space between "you" and the physical emotion.
That space is the doorway to your organic being.
Look Inside Katie's book, Awake Joy, to read the first two chapters by clicking:
Look Inside
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There is something deeper here to observe. Beyond our thinking, there is within us all that remains unconscious. This unconsciousness does not express itself in our thinking. Instead, we sense an uneasiness or maybe a feeling of dread. When you recognize this unease, it is a gift, even though it may feel uncomfortable. That which is unconscious deep within you is being released into consciousness.
We do not need to analyze or interpret what this unease means, why it is here, or how to get rid of it. Instead, we allow the unease to be just as it is. That is to say, we consciously BE with the uneasiness. In this willingness, we are burning the unconsciousness as it transforms into consciousness and this happens all by itself. Our consciousness becomes more clear and therefore seems to grow stronger and brighter.
Being with uneasiness or emotion is the same as watching or listening to your thoughts. The only difference is that thoughts are in your head, whereas emotion is expressed within our physical body. Just like not being controlled by your thinking, you are then not controlled by emotion. Instead, you consciously recognize that you are the awareness of emotion instead of being the emotion. When you are the watcher of emotion, it cannot use you. There is a space between "you" and the physical emotion.
That space is the doorway to your organic being.
Look Inside Katie's book, Awake Joy, to read the first two chapters by clicking:
Look Inside
Read reader reviews by clicking:
Awake Joy Reviews
If you have already read Awake Joy, create your own review to help network this book's message to the world by clicking:
Create Your Own Review
Get this book by clicking:
www.KatieDavis.org/AwakeBooksKatie.html
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Key to Liberation is the Present Moment ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The present moment is the key to liberation,but you cannot find the now as long as you are identified with the mind. The mind is meant to be only a tool that we use to complete a certain task. When we are done, the tool is no longer needed. No doubt about it, the mind is an extraordinary tool. However, whenever it is using you, rather than you using it, it is dysfunctional and causes separation and suffering.
For most people still, they are compulsively thinking all day long. Most of what is going on in the head is repetitive, tedious and basically useless. It is constantly causing stress, anxiety and worry when it is not necessary.
Most are still identified with thinking. In fact, they believe that they ARE their thinking. This thinking and conditioning creates the delusion of a separate sense of self; a false sense of self that is based on our ideas about who we are or conditioned by what others have said about who we are. This false sense is totally dependent upon our continued, habitual thinking. When thinking stops, that false sense of self disappears and we discover the aliveness of now. People are unconsciously misidentifying with the mind.
To the ego, the one whose identity is derived through thinking, the present moment hardly even exists and yet it is virtually all that exists. To the thinking mind, the past and future are all important. The ego needs to keep the past alive. It needs the past since it is the past that is defining who it is. For its continued survival, it then projects who it is going to be into the future. For the ego, happiness and true fulfillment are always just out of reach after some future goal.
Even when the ego thinks that it is seeing the present moment, it is not so. The ego is looking at the present moment with the eyes of the past and blind to what actually is. Or it is busy using the present moment as a means to reach some point in the future when it believes it will gain its freedom or fulfillment.
If you will observe the mind, you will discover how it works and how it is constantly using you. True happiness, peace and aliveness are always here. You just can not realize it until you break the addiction to thinking.
For most people still, they are compulsively thinking all day long. Most of what is going on in the head is repetitive, tedious and basically useless. It is constantly causing stress, anxiety and worry when it is not necessary.
Most are still identified with thinking. In fact, they believe that they ARE their thinking. This thinking and conditioning creates the delusion of a separate sense of self; a false sense of self that is based on our ideas about who we are or conditioned by what others have said about who we are. This false sense is totally dependent upon our continued, habitual thinking. When thinking stops, that false sense of self disappears and we discover the aliveness of now. People are unconsciously misidentifying with the mind.
To the ego, the one whose identity is derived through thinking, the present moment hardly even exists and yet it is virtually all that exists. To the thinking mind, the past and future are all important. The ego needs to keep the past alive. It needs the past since it is the past that is defining who it is. For its continued survival, it then projects who it is going to be into the future. For the ego, happiness and true fulfillment are always just out of reach after some future goal.
Even when the ego thinks that it is seeing the present moment, it is not so. The ego is looking at the present moment with the eyes of the past and blind to what actually is. Or it is busy using the present moment as a means to reach some point in the future when it believes it will gain its freedom or fulfillment.
If you will observe the mind, you will discover how it works and how it is constantly using you. True happiness, peace and aliveness are always here. You just can not realize it until you break the addiction to thinking.
Monday, November 10, 2008
The First Step Toward Enlightenment ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The most important first step toward enlightenment is to dis-identify with the mind. Every time that you recognize a gap in the thought stream, your consciousness grows stronger. You become more curious about the space between your thoughts than the content of thought.
Another way to dis-identify with thought is to direct your attention to the present moment. You will notice a deeper sense of being alive and a subtle joy comes to the forefront. In this, you withdraw attention from your mind activity and create a space of no-mind where you are alert and aware, but not thinking.
Another way to dis-identify with thought is to direct your attention to the present moment. You will notice a deeper sense of being alive and a subtle joy comes to the forefront. In this, you withdraw attention from your mind activity and create a space of no-mind where you are alert and aware, but not thinking.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Katie Davis, Compassion, Service, Suffering, Author, Awake Joy
Questioner ~
We are all ONE... The world is as it should be... Suffering is just due to the dualistic mind. Yes?
Then....
Is the grief of the mother who has lost her child due to her dualistic thinking?
Is the pain the dying child feel just due to the child's dualstic thinking?
Is the starvation in the world as it should be?
Are the suffering from the victims of war just coming from the their minds of dualistic thinking?
Is the pain a victim of violence (physical from a broken body and mentally from the experience) just due to the dualistic thinkng of the mind...?
And is the hope for a "better" world and my goal to do the best I can to ease the suffering just due to my dualistic mind?
Katie:
I am delighted that you asked this question. It is the very essence of the spiritual quest. This is life's purpose. Until this body's last breath, I will be pointing to the possibility, potentiality and Reality that is within.
Self-realization is the end of all suffering. For ourselves, our relationships, the world, the living earth. Can you imagine this? And yet, there are so many who cannot hear this call. This is not a trivial matter. The impact is as huge as the universe.
Our first responsibility is to wake up from daytime dream of dual mind, its suffering and its time. When we discover that virtually NOTHING is as it seems, the focus shifts inner. If I am not "me" ... then who is really here?
Between the Heart that you actually are and the misidentification with the false, separate sense of self (the mind-made self) is the pain gap. Within that gap is not only what appears to be our personal suffering, but also the COLLECTIVE suffering that you are noticing in the world. Through this misidentification, suffering appears not only in our lives ... but within the world of form. We blame the world and yet we are projecting it.
The only enduring resolution is to dive in and realize the unconditional love, perfect peace and overflowing abundance that we are. In Self-realization, the dual mind is destroyed and realized as the illumined mind that is at home as the Heart. When we then turn to look at the world without the pre-existing pain gap ... it is the "new earth." It is here now for everyone. The key is within you.
Someone shared a story of walking on the street in the city and she came upon a man who was laying on the sidewalk just left to die. Everyone on the crowded street was just walking by. They may not have even been conscious of the situation. The person called an aid car and perhaps saved the man from dying.
She had an apparent choice there. She could have been scared and upset about the situation, judgmental of the others that were walking by and then generalized it as an uncaring world. This negativity actually strengthens the negativity in the collective consciousness and the negative only gains more power.
So we are asked to stay still as the genuine love and compassion that we are. We remain free of judgment and in acceptance of what is. Stay true to the Heart. We are then spontaneously animated in right action.
Instead of interpretation (bad, awful, shouldn't be) ... yes, this man may be dying ... compassion moves us into action. True compassion never reduces to suffering. In the old world, when we saw people suffering, we would begin suffering as well. In the new world, True Compassion remains steadfast as authentic Love in action.
It is a mystery why so few hear this call. If we will investigate to discover the falsehood of the separate self, then dive into the collective ego, we realize the delusion of suffering ... you are free ... and collectively the world is free.
Meanwhile, the love that we are is in constant selfless service. Helping Love's child that has fallen on the playground. Opening the door for the elderly. Every day there are simply ways to give this love away; to be the instrument of true love.
We either strengthen the illusion ... or we realize the Truth.
If this can be true for "katie" it is true for everyone. We are free of all bondage right now. We have only to look with clearsight. THAT is a miracle.
We are all ONE... The world is as it should be... Suffering is just due to the dualistic mind. Yes?
Then....
Is the grief of the mother who has lost her child due to her dualistic thinking?
Is the pain the dying child feel just due to the child's dualstic thinking?
Is the starvation in the world as it should be?
Are the suffering from the victims of war just coming from the their minds of dualistic thinking?
Is the pain a victim of violence (physical from a broken body and mentally from the experience) just due to the dualistic thinkng of the mind...?
And is the hope for a "better" world and my goal to do the best I can to ease the suffering just due to my dualistic mind?
Katie:
I am delighted that you asked this question. It is the very essence of the spiritual quest. This is life's purpose. Until this body's last breath, I will be pointing to the possibility, potentiality and Reality that is within.
Self-realization is the end of all suffering. For ourselves, our relationships, the world, the living earth. Can you imagine this? And yet, there are so many who cannot hear this call. This is not a trivial matter. The impact is as huge as the universe.
Our first responsibility is to wake up from daytime dream of dual mind, its suffering and its time. When we discover that virtually NOTHING is as it seems, the focus shifts inner. If I am not "me" ... then who is really here?
Between the Heart that you actually are and the misidentification with the false, separate sense of self (the mind-made self) is the pain gap. Within that gap is not only what appears to be our personal suffering, but also the COLLECTIVE suffering that you are noticing in the world. Through this misidentification, suffering appears not only in our lives ... but within the world of form. We blame the world and yet we are projecting it.
The only enduring resolution is to dive in and realize the unconditional love, perfect peace and overflowing abundance that we are. In Self-realization, the dual mind is destroyed and realized as the illumined mind that is at home as the Heart. When we then turn to look at the world without the pre-existing pain gap ... it is the "new earth." It is here now for everyone. The key is within you.
Someone shared a story of walking on the street in the city and she came upon a man who was laying on the sidewalk just left to die. Everyone on the crowded street was just walking by. They may not have even been conscious of the situation. The person called an aid car and perhaps saved the man from dying.
She had an apparent choice there. She could have been scared and upset about the situation, judgmental of the others that were walking by and then generalized it as an uncaring world. This negativity actually strengthens the negativity in the collective consciousness and the negative only gains more power.
So we are asked to stay still as the genuine love and compassion that we are. We remain free of judgment and in acceptance of what is. Stay true to the Heart. We are then spontaneously animated in right action.
Instead of interpretation (bad, awful, shouldn't be) ... yes, this man may be dying ... compassion moves us into action. True compassion never reduces to suffering. In the old world, when we saw people suffering, we would begin suffering as well. In the new world, True Compassion remains steadfast as authentic Love in action.
It is a mystery why so few hear this call. If we will investigate to discover the falsehood of the separate self, then dive into the collective ego, we realize the delusion of suffering ... you are free ... and collectively the world is free.
Meanwhile, the love that we are is in constant selfless service. Helping Love's child that has fallen on the playground. Opening the door for the elderly. Every day there are simply ways to give this love away; to be the instrument of true love.
We either strengthen the illusion ... or we realize the Truth.
If this can be true for "katie" it is true for everyone. We are free of all bondage right now. We have only to look with clearsight. THAT is a miracle.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Practicing Presence ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
Questioner:
One question that I have been pondering is: How should we actually practice the presence, awareness or tranquility in everyday life? I guess that should become very natural for us, but as we have opposite tendencies that we are accustomed to, it is not so obvious at all!
If I practice being present, how much of the awareness should be in the outer 'things' and how much should be directed inwards? And should I be aware of details in my sensory experience or should my awareness be kind of diffuse and not to be fixed to particular things (if that is not needed in a particular activity)?
Does being present require psychic or mental energy? I ask this question because I have not found a way of being present that does not make me strained after some practise. I guess that I am doing something wrong as I have an intuition that awareness should come very naturally. How does the awakening to that kind of natural presence happen? Just by grace only?
Just yesterday I read an excerpt from Osho and he wrote that happiness is always fleeting but bliss can be found constant. How can I realize that bliss or inner joy are constant?
Katie:
Presence is natural and does not require anything more. In other words, Self-realization is not an attainment or something you strive for. This Being-Consciousness-Bliss that you are is ever-present. It is right now.
The situation seems to be that the thought "I" arises. In the old world, out of habit alone, we misidentified with the concept of "me;" the "I am the body" idea. When this misidentification takes place, the "dreaming" I has extraordinary pulling power and suddenly all the other thoughts appear. So the thoughts are really not problematic. It is our misidentification that is at issue. "I" is just another word. Where is the word pointing? We were taught that it was pointing to the body. This is true on a relative level of course. But is it true that your identity is limited to the body. I say this is not so, but this will be for your direct investigation. It requires great curiosity because you want to know the ultimate Truth. Ideas and concepts remain philosophical … instead we need to notice directly through authentic experience.
When this misidentification with the "I" thought occurs, a veil drops and we are unable to be conscious of the being-consciousness-bliss that we are. To remove the veil, it requires that you seek this "I." Sit quietly for a few moments right now. Just close your eyes and be aware of how exquisite the air feels as it moves in and out your nose. Then ask this question, "Who am I?" and listen with every cell in the body. We are not looking for a thought in reply. If a thought arises, such as "I am Katie," ask the question again, aware of your breath, "Who am I?"
That question alone with lift the veil to perfect peace.
It is beautiful that you are practicing being present. The best tool for this is attending the breath. Breathing is always occurring right now and the present moment is the portal to the perfect peace within. The body's sensing is another tool. What do you hear right now? Do you smell anything? The body is part of the content of the present moment and therefore the key to the inner body.
But let's take this a step further. The "I" that is practicing is the ego, the separate sense of self that needs more time and experience to realize. This is actually a postponement strategy of the ego. The more appropriate question might be, who is practicing?? Who am I?
You are aware when you are driving your car, aware when you are shopping, aware when falling asleep. Are you aware that you are always aware? You are this Pure Awareness that is closer and more intimate to you than even your given name and your body. You are appearing within this Awareness. You ARE this Pure Awareness that is beyond your name and form.
So we are naturally present all day long during everything that is being done. However, most often, we get carried aware by compulsive thinking and lost in the thought stream in the head ... instead of being in the body. The resolution? 1. Bring the "I" thought home by asking "Who am I" and then truly listen. 2. Are you aware of breathing? 3. Are you aware of sensing.
It does not take much effort to become aware of breathing all day long. It is always happening in every day life.
This is a first step and perhaps even unwise to move forward from here. Eventually the outward going mind (on its own accord) will remain within the Heart. Of course eyes are looking outward, the body is functioning and sensing as it does, we are just deeply at rest … being still … while the body does what it does.
Body movement and activity can become Zen-like. During the morning shower, be aware of every movement. If there is a set habitual routine, change it. How does the soap feel as you pick it up in your hands? How does the water feel? Are you breathing? You become consciously present without rushing to the future about anything. Even if rushing is required, we are consciously present with that.
You soon find that the real effort is the misidentification with thought, having to maintain all of the ego's ideas; constant thinking is exhausting!
This not require psychic or mental energy. All that is appearing within the Awareness.
What you shared about Osho's words is true. When we misidentify with "I" we move into time and space and then are caught in the world of duality. Relative happiness will eventually cycle to the opposite duality of sadness. Then, sadness will once again cycle to happiness after a certain duration. Neither are stable … whereas the bliss and unending joy are permanent. Now, don't go looking for it. You ARE it! When you are seeking, it cannot be found, which is why I say be STILL and notice what truly already is. Only still permanence can realization that which is permanent. Be still.
Only This Love ~ Katie
Questioner Report:
I am so grateful for your kind reply. I have read it now for a couple of times and I think that it is very close to what is required at the moment. :-)
I have observed an interesting phenomenon after the question I posed about practicing presence. During last two weeks or so I have found that I have been resting in peace more often. As I have attended to this peace, now and then I have investigated the question "Who am I?" Replying to this question feels utterly impossible and absurd. It feels that there is no "I" but just a vast presence. I guess that is probably how the question is meant to work, to leave the thinking mind disarmed so that it can surrender to the consciousness that it is born of. In gratitude ...
Katie:
Thank you for letting me know. Excellent, what are you attending right now? The perfect peace within or the noise in the head? Are you aware of breathing?
I am so grateful for this report. And you have now realized directly through asking this question “who am I?” that when you seek it, it disappears … no where to be found … only “vast presence.” Delightful! At ease. And yes, that is the point of asking the question. The dreaming I disappears into the Heart of all being … the Pure I that is the Pure Consciousness … unending joy … perfect peace … free of time.
Now when you notice once again that you are lost in the head (habits are sometimes hard to break!), just silently ask the question and there you are once again … being peace. Or, just for an instant notice the breath … notice sensing. Then we are in a type of meditation all day long during all that is being done. Being peace … paying bills … being peace … taking the shower.
All Love True Heart ~
Katie
One question that I have been pondering is: How should we actually practice the presence, awareness or tranquility in everyday life? I guess that should become very natural for us, but as we have opposite tendencies that we are accustomed to, it is not so obvious at all!
If I practice being present, how much of the awareness should be in the outer 'things' and how much should be directed inwards? And should I be aware of details in my sensory experience or should my awareness be kind of diffuse and not to be fixed to particular things (if that is not needed in a particular activity)?
Does being present require psychic or mental energy? I ask this question because I have not found a way of being present that does not make me strained after some practise. I guess that I am doing something wrong as I have an intuition that awareness should come very naturally. How does the awakening to that kind of natural presence happen? Just by grace only?
Just yesterday I read an excerpt from Osho and he wrote that happiness is always fleeting but bliss can be found constant. How can I realize that bliss or inner joy are constant?
Katie:
Presence is natural and does not require anything more. In other words, Self-realization is not an attainment or something you strive for. This Being-Consciousness-Bliss that you are is ever-present. It is right now.
The situation seems to be that the thought "I" arises. In the old world, out of habit alone, we misidentified with the concept of "me;" the "I am the body" idea. When this misidentification takes place, the "dreaming" I has extraordinary pulling power and suddenly all the other thoughts appear. So the thoughts are really not problematic. It is our misidentification that is at issue. "I" is just another word. Where is the word pointing? We were taught that it was pointing to the body. This is true on a relative level of course. But is it true that your identity is limited to the body. I say this is not so, but this will be for your direct investigation. It requires great curiosity because you want to know the ultimate Truth. Ideas and concepts remain philosophical … instead we need to notice directly through authentic experience.
When this misidentification with the "I" thought occurs, a veil drops and we are unable to be conscious of the being-consciousness-bliss that we are. To remove the veil, it requires that you seek this "I." Sit quietly for a few moments right now. Just close your eyes and be aware of how exquisite the air feels as it moves in and out your nose. Then ask this question, "Who am I?" and listen with every cell in the body. We are not looking for a thought in reply. If a thought arises, such as "I am Katie," ask the question again, aware of your breath, "Who am I?"
That question alone with lift the veil to perfect peace.
It is beautiful that you are practicing being present. The best tool for this is attending the breath. Breathing is always occurring right now and the present moment is the portal to the perfect peace within. The body's sensing is another tool. What do you hear right now? Do you smell anything? The body is part of the content of the present moment and therefore the key to the inner body.
But let's take this a step further. The "I" that is practicing is the ego, the separate sense of self that needs more time and experience to realize. This is actually a postponement strategy of the ego. The more appropriate question might be, who is practicing?? Who am I?
You are aware when you are driving your car, aware when you are shopping, aware when falling asleep. Are you aware that you are always aware? You are this Pure Awareness that is closer and more intimate to you than even your given name and your body. You are appearing within this Awareness. You ARE this Pure Awareness that is beyond your name and form.
So we are naturally present all day long during everything that is being done. However, most often, we get carried aware by compulsive thinking and lost in the thought stream in the head ... instead of being in the body. The resolution? 1. Bring the "I" thought home by asking "Who am I" and then truly listen. 2. Are you aware of breathing? 3. Are you aware of sensing.
It does not take much effort to become aware of breathing all day long. It is always happening in every day life.
This is a first step and perhaps even unwise to move forward from here. Eventually the outward going mind (on its own accord) will remain within the Heart. Of course eyes are looking outward, the body is functioning and sensing as it does, we are just deeply at rest … being still … while the body does what it does.
Body movement and activity can become Zen-like. During the morning shower, be aware of every movement. If there is a set habitual routine, change it. How does the soap feel as you pick it up in your hands? How does the water feel? Are you breathing? You become consciously present without rushing to the future about anything. Even if rushing is required, we are consciously present with that.
You soon find that the real effort is the misidentification with thought, having to maintain all of the ego's ideas; constant thinking is exhausting!
This not require psychic or mental energy. All that is appearing within the Awareness.
What you shared about Osho's words is true. When we misidentify with "I" we move into time and space and then are caught in the world of duality. Relative happiness will eventually cycle to the opposite duality of sadness. Then, sadness will once again cycle to happiness after a certain duration. Neither are stable … whereas the bliss and unending joy are permanent. Now, don't go looking for it. You ARE it! When you are seeking, it cannot be found, which is why I say be STILL and notice what truly already is. Only still permanence can realization that which is permanent. Be still.
Only This Love ~ Katie
Questioner Report:
I am so grateful for your kind reply. I have read it now for a couple of times and I think that it is very close to what is required at the moment. :-)
I have observed an interesting phenomenon after the question I posed about practicing presence. During last two weeks or so I have found that I have been resting in peace more often. As I have attended to this peace, now and then I have investigated the question "Who am I?" Replying to this question feels utterly impossible and absurd. It feels that there is no "I" but just a vast presence. I guess that is probably how the question is meant to work, to leave the thinking mind disarmed so that it can surrender to the consciousness that it is born of. In gratitude ...
Katie:
Thank you for letting me know. Excellent, what are you attending right now? The perfect peace within or the noise in the head? Are you aware of breathing?
I am so grateful for this report. And you have now realized directly through asking this question “who am I?” that when you seek it, it disappears … no where to be found … only “vast presence.” Delightful! At ease. And yes, that is the point of asking the question. The dreaming I disappears into the Heart of all being … the Pure I that is the Pure Consciousness … unending joy … perfect peace … free of time.
Now when you notice once again that you are lost in the head (habits are sometimes hard to break!), just silently ask the question and there you are once again … being peace. Or, just for an instant notice the breath … notice sensing. Then we are in a type of meditation all day long during all that is being done. Being peace … paying bills … being peace … taking the shower.
All Love True Heart ~
Katie
Friday, November 7, 2008
What is Satchitananda? by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
When speaking of awakening and Self-realization, we often hear the Sanskrit term "satchitananda" or being-consciousness-bliss.
Reality is alway Real. It never changes and is free of names and forms. It is the only enduring, supreme Reality ... and you are That.
You are beyond your given name, beyond "me and my thoughts," "me and my emotions," "me and my form."
You are the single immanent Reality and it is being experienced within you right now. The question, are you conscious of it?
When speaking, I often refer to this Reality as the Self, Essence, Heart, Pure Awareness or Pure I. They are only words that point to the supreme principle that is ever shining within and available for direct realization.
The Self is pure being and this being is not personal. The Reality is also conscious, so we speak of Pure Consciousness. The direct experience of this Pure Consciousness is unbroken happiness, uncaused joy and Pure Bliss.
While being-consciousness-bliss may appear to be separate attributes of the Reality, this is not true. It is one homogeneous field of intelligence that is absolutely inseparable from who you are.
My invitation is to be still and notice what is shining deep within.
Reality is alway Real. It never changes and is free of names and forms. It is the only enduring, supreme Reality ... and you are That.
You are beyond your given name, beyond "me and my thoughts," "me and my emotions," "me and my form."
You are the single immanent Reality and it is being experienced within you right now. The question, are you conscious of it?
When speaking, I often refer to this Reality as the Self, Essence, Heart, Pure Awareness or Pure I. They are only words that point to the supreme principle that is ever shining within and available for direct realization.
The Self is pure being and this being is not personal. The Reality is also conscious, so we speak of Pure Consciousness. The direct experience of this Pure Consciousness is unbroken happiness, uncaused joy and Pure Bliss.
While being-consciousness-bliss may appear to be separate attributes of the Reality, this is not true. It is one homogeneous field of intelligence that is absolutely inseparable from who you are.
My invitation is to be still and notice what is shining deep within.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Friends of the Heart November Issue by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
The new November issue of Friends of the Heart is now posted on the Katie Davis Website. To enjoy, please visit Friends of the Heart.
In This Issue:
"Holiday Presence" by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy
"Being Beyond Belief" by Sundance Burke, Author, Free Spirit
"Gratitude to Heart Friends" Sundance and Katie Travels
"Diamond of Joy" Free Video (5 min) by Katie Davis
Awake Joy and Free Spirit New Book Reviews
Heart of Life E-book by Katie Davis at Awake Books
Donations to the teachings at Friends of the Heart
Visit www.KatieDavis.org/FriendsoftheHeart.html
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