Katie Davis is a Satsang Spiritual Teacher of Advaita, Non-duality, Self-inquiry, enlightenment, spiritual awakening, the power of being now and presence. Since 1999, she has been traveling to offer satsang in communities worldwide. The Awake by Katie Blog is moderated by Katie Davis, author of "Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment." http://www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com
Sundance Burke, Author, "Free Spirit and Scott Kiloby, Author, "Love's Quiet Revolution" are interviewed by Richard Miller on Chicago's Never Not Here Show in November 2011.
Manu Namasivayam recently introduced us to a new Nisargadatta Maharaj Website that I would like to share with you. The website exclusively offers articles related to Nisargadatta and includes hundreds of photos, books, free downloads when permitted, videos and much more.
About Nisargadatta Maharaj - Pronunciation and Meaning, Biography - Meet the Sage - Navnath Sampradaya - Nisarga Yoga - I Am That - Lasts Days: Last Teachings - Mahasamadhi - Maharaj's residence - Monuments of Maharaj - The Style of Teaching - Consciousness - My True State - Memories of Maharaj - Narrations by various devotees - The Famous books of Nisargaddat Maharaj - Various other books about Nisargadatta Maharaj - Traditional scriptures often referred by Maharaj - Where to buy books - A Large collection of photos of Nisargadatta - Download print size portraits - Nisargadatta Quotes from famous books - Other Related Websites - Videos of Nisargadatta Maharaj - Original DVDs - Translations of I AM THAT into various languages.
"Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was an Indian spiritual teacher and philospher of Advaita (Nondualism), and a Guru, belonging to the Navnath Sampradaya. Sri Nisargadatta, with his direct and minimalistic explanation of non-dualism, is considered the most famous teacher of Advaita since Ramana Maharshi. In 1973, the publication of his most famous and widely-translated book, "I AM THAT," an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers."
The new Nisargadatta Website is truly a dedicated and devotional service to one of the most revered sages of India and the world and I would like to recommend it as an excellent resource.
"Who You Really Are Is Love" by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"
Rumi, a thirteenth century Sufi poet, defines love as the magical moment when two spiritually connected individuals first meet. We call that love at first sight. In this meeting of eyes, Rumi romantically shares that we not only experience the union of two loving souls, but also the Love that is the crux of the universe. According to Rumi, when we fall in love with one another, we are actually experincing the Divine.
While not the Absolute, upon spiritual awakening, one of the first miracles that we realize is that we are Divine Love. This realization is an explosion of Radiance, whose magnitude had never been consciously experienced. Far beyond the relative love that seemingly requires another, Radiant Love is a mystical wholeness that is utterly beyond understanding and too overwhelming to even express. In this writing, not one word is able to properly define or contain it.
All love is one Love. Whether ethereal or everyday love, such as mother for child, when this cherished moment appears, we often have the misperception that someone or some other thing caused this rising as Love. In reality, we lose ourselves and for at least a moment, we are free of desire. This disappearance of the ego creates a crevice through which shines the Radiant Love that we genuinely are. We realize that there is only This Love and it is ever-present, since it is who we naturally are.
What I often refer to as the Beloved is the sacred substratum of the life situation, which is free of lovers all together. It does not reside within the confines of space and time. It is discovered in the twinkling of an eye of no time at all. This realization allows unconditional love to emerge into our life situation, our relationships and into the world.
As time travelers, we are identified with being a lover who loves someone else. As long as this subject-object relationship remains, true love cannot thrive. We expect and demand this or that to satisfy our self-created sense of lack. This lack is the ego’s belief in individuality as identity that is based on separation. It manifests in this world as the never-ending search for personal love, gratification and acceptance.
The false sense of “me” hopelessly pretends to separate from Totality and then expects someone else to fill the resulting pain gap. It fears the loss of a lover; it feels jealous, competes and needs. It may even voice its love for the Divine and faithfully express deep longing, while mourning its aloneness and separation. Yet, it stubbornly insists upon maintaining its sense of separation and of course, the result is suffering. Nonsensically, it then blames someone else for the emotional pain. It is the divided one, who is longing and searching, that sustains the delusion of estrangement.
Love is not really personal. It cannot be gained through any other. Love cannot be given to you, nor can it be threatened or taken away. It is essentially who you are. When you are seeking a lover, you are actually searching for love and its fulfillment. You are overlooking that you are what you are seeking, which is why it cannot be found.
Before you continue this search, my invitation is to discover that you are love’s conscious fulfillment. In this discovery, you then have the opportunity to meet romantic love as wholeness. You are free of the pre-existing condition and pain gap. At last, you no longer need to complete yourself.
If you are already in a problematic relationship, such as many personal relationships may be, as true lovers, you can disappear together. Free of “you” and “me,” we intimately rise above the push and pull of personal relationship and preciously rise as the Pure Love that we genuinely are.
In its purity and wholeness, Radiant Love is synonymous with Self-realization. It is the realized maturity of Pure Beingness. Then, romantic love does not need to bloom. When the perfect lover appears, the Rose already is.
"Who You Really Are” by singer/songwriter Kirtana from the CD “This Embrace.”
In this song, Kirtana points to the Ultimate Reality.
As Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon is quoted as saying, "I am the Abode of Love."
At Kirtana’s website, enjoy samples of all of Kirtana’s songs from all six of her CD releases.
Also available is a new songbook with lyrics that is entitled Singing This Love Kirtana
The ego is the false sense of self that bases its self-image on time. It forms concepts about itself and so called "others" that are all based on past experiences. According to these past life circumstances, it then forms its likes and dislikes. In so doing, the ego is creating its desires and fears. These desires and fears then form its attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, intentions, expectations, opinions, judgments and its overall conditioning; all of which require more time. In turn, the ego then forms its concept of self based upon its success in either getting what it wants or avoiding what it fears.
Some refer to this false concept of self as the conditioned personality. It is this psychological structure that is the source of all sorrow and misery. Ego needs time and its story in order to form its false concept of self. Without its story, it is clearly seen that ego is unreal and does not even exist.
The older the ego becomes, the more past it is carrying. The burden becomes heavier and heavier with less and less time for future hope. If the pain of the past becomes too heavy to bear, it is common for the concept of forgiveness to come to the forefront. Exhausted by the past pain and by trying to perpetuate further separation through blaming others, the ego begins surrendering and letting go of its past stories.
Since forgiveness requires "inner" work, the opportunity of spiritual awakening may be drawing near. Through this inner focus and self-observation, the ego becomes aware of its fears, lost hopes, anger, bitterness, regrets, sadness, resentments, shame and guilt. For the older ego, the list of stories seems endless and it might even seem altogether hopeless.
It is finally seen that it cannot keep its painful story and get rid of the pain. As the past stories are surrendered, the burden becomes lighter. Slowly, it is freeing itself from time. Presence begins emerging and it appreciates the present moment experience as something fresh and no longer shadowed by the past.
With the good fortune of self-observation, attention finally begins noticing that it is the storyteller and not the story that is perpetuating the pain. We begin inquiring who this storyteller really is and whether this concept of "I" is even valid in the first place. We finally realize that the concept of "I" is nothing more than another idea to which we add many good and unfortunate stories that condition us and therefore limit us. If we are willing to surrender this false concept of "I" that is the storyteller, all of the accumulated stories fall away with it.
In identification with dreaming "I," forgiveness sometimes remains only a mental concept. In other words, the ego might be relatively willing to conceptually forgive within the mind, but absolute forgiveness might elude the heart. By relinquishing the personal self-image, we transform the concept of forgiveness into the freedom of the heart that is unconditional love and perfect peace.
Then through presence, we maintain the openness of our inner space moment to moment. True forgiveness has no external requirement, which means it depends upon no one. It has nothing to do with any so called other and remains free of the accompanying story-time. Real forgiveness is the power of timelessness within us that is already free of personal history. Where is the past in the here and now?
When we are free of the concept of forgiveness, we are living free. This is not an optimist's hope for the future. It is readily accessible for every human being right now and only now. The problem, so to speak, is not the insanity of a multitude of personal, family and world problems. The problem is the insanity in the delusion of time, the idea of separation that begins with the concept of "me," and its repetitive storyteller. This in turn facilitates the runaway madness of the unawake mind.
Free of the ego, we are able to greet every moment authentically and compassionately. Free of time, we are free of the stories that bond us to negativity and suffering. Being Now, we realize that we have always been free.
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Questioner: What is "pure mind" and what is meant by "killing the mind"?
Katie: When you use the word "mind," where is that word pointing?
Questioner: Thoughts. Does it include feelings? Emotions? I don't know.
Contributor: It includes all, but the point is who's behind the mind? Killing the mind is simply to distance from it just as an observer.
Katie: When I use the word "mind" it points to thoughts and just as you say the mental-emotional aspect of the mind, mental images, physical energies and ever more subtle layers of the intellect. It includes both perception and cognition, understanding and the idea of selfhood, as well as the subject-witness.
Our primary concern is identification with thought and first and foremost, the "I" thought that is the body. This association is an illusion. Nothing wrong with the beautiful body of course, but when we limit ourselves to the body only as identity, we cannot be aware of the greater consciousness that we genuinely are.
The first step then is to observe thought which leads to "detachment" from thought. Instead of riding along on a train of thought, with detachment, thoughts float by like leaves in a river of consciousness, while we remain still. Thoughts are free and so is the one watching.
The mind is stilled, meaning there are not thoughts. Although, enlightenment is more than the blank mind state. We have shifted from the projecting power of mind to the resting power of mind successfully and that is beautiful ... yet not Self-realization.
When they speak of purifying the mind, they are speaking of tendencies or vasanas. The mind is a mirror that is covered with fog, much like the bathroom mirror after taking a shower. To clear the bathroom mirror, we merely open the door. To clear the mirror of the mind, we turn the mind within through Self-inquiry. Turned within, the mirror is cleared by the light of consciousness. It happens by itself.
When there are no more tendencies, we realize that there is no such thing as a separate mind. All is consciousness. So in fact, there is no 'mind' to kill. Anyway, the one that would try to kill the mind is the same mind. It just won't happen!
Even the separate sense of self, the ego-I, is merely an altered state of consciousness. So we hold onto it and focus all attention on the feeling of I-ness. This is the paradox. Even though it appears as a false I, we focus attention upon it.
Not awareness of I, which maintains duality, but rather Being I.
In attention, thought is stilled. It does not become the ego's story of "I am this" and "I am that." The altered states will burn away and the Pure I that you already are shines as the Heart.
Being I ... simply BE STILL ... as you are.
The effort in trying to still the 'mind' is only more agitation. It is the same divided 'mind' that it is trying to still itself. Mind cannot be 'fixed' at the level of the mind. Instead, we focus attention and realize the perfect peace that is beyond the mind ... that already is. In this, what never was dissolves.
Contributor: And purity is equanimity, equanimity to all that goes on mind. It's identification with likes and dislikes which causes the bondage and suffering.
Katie: Just as you say, when we observe thoughts, it does indeed 'distance' the observer, so that thoughts do not use us.
Thoughts are not really problematic. It is the identification where we 'lose' who we are.
I might point out that identification requires time.
So when we are solidly and consciously in the body (part of the content of the present moment), we are no longer lost in the head and less likely to attach to compulsive thinking.
That present moment is appearing within time. It is appearing within the formless NOW that is completely free of time, free of the content of the present moment and indeed already free of thought.
The body is a perfect tool for presence. Attend its breathing and the past and future fade away.
Time = mind = suffering. Remove time from the equation and the identification and suffering disappear.
Contributor: And it's so wonderful to be distanced from the thoughts and actions, a kind of kingly feeling. You know this very well, Katie!
Katie: Indeed, purity is equanimity and innocent stillness.
Free of identification with the ego-I, we are also free of all of its judgments that become likes and dislikes that separate us from the beauty of all experience and the stillness from which it arises ... all is whole and complete ... equanimity.
The tendency is to tryto manipulate likes and dislikes. Or some will even work for years on judgment. Instead, what is prior to judgment? When the ego-I thought falls ... all judgments, concepts and beliefs fall along with it.
How could there ever be equanimity and peace with a separated I?
That one believes in separation and therefore only perceives separation.
"ME" against the world, for or against God; separate from everything.
How is it possible to be separate from something called the Totality?
No wonder that tiny thought feels alienated, lonely and fragmented. Separate from love, separate from happiness, separate from every person and thing. No wonder it is sad, fearful and angry!
Yet when we look for it ... it is nowhere to be found ... other than the thought of separation.
Instead of seeking enlightenment, seek the "I."
From whence does it arise?
You will find that it (YOU) are already shining as the Heart that is beyond all and All.
Nonetheless, don't toss that ego "I" out. Focus attention ... Being I.
All the altered states (tendencies/vasanas) burn away ... effortlessly so.
Such simplicity ... Be Still.
Being I.
People speak of how complex Self-realization is.
It is the MIND that is complex and the 'mind' is not.
Each time attention shifts to I am this or that ... and gets lost in the story, just stop.
No big deal. Be still, being I, during all that is being done.
False identification is false bondage and needless suffering.
Contributor: "It is the mind that is complex", "being I is so simple" This sums up your flowing explanation. Well, what you have written is so insightful and it is befitting to be posted on your blog for the benefit of all other friends. Thank you, K!
Katie: Being I is so simple ... So much love and thank you for the suggestion about the blog. There have been many fine and creative ideas offered today.
Some schools refer to the pure mind as nirvana blue or what I call the blue void. This is still an experience.
Whereas enlightenment is no experience at all ... beyond the experience of no experience. You are prior to consciousness.
Nirvana is the realization of pure consciousness or full emptiness. It is the highest happiness that is transcendental bliss.
Pure consciousness is the unconditioned 'mind' and its state is perfect lucidity and clarity. Ecstatic bliss is divine love ... deep, cool blue with extraordinary luminosity.
Whereas YOU, dear Heart Friend, are That which makes all possible.
Not one word that I could say would be true. If you remember enlightenment, it is not enlightenment. No memory! I am beyond cognition, so I remain the Great Mystery. I only BE who I am.
Indeed, I am beyond all and All ... that is Self-realization; realizing who I am as the Totality.
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In one instant of quietude and self-surrender, the great stillness consciously emerges.
Previously unnoticed, the light shines through somehow.
This profound stillness is here right now, yet if you are reading with the mind, you are probably overlooking it. Instead, listen as within and join us.
The first glimpse of the sublime is so divinely quiet and radiant that every thought in the universe is humbled. The sense of awe and wonderment silences the mind. Since the divided mind has never experienced anything more powerful than itself, it falls to its knees in gratitude, devotion and adoration. When it then dissolves as the illumination, the bliss of pure being is all that remains. Bathed in love's light, all is beautiful!
This emerging is the end of "your" life as you had previously known it. It is also the conscious beginning of being the unchangeable mystery within which all is appearing.
For many, when the radiance then fades, the ego begins a compulsive search for what it thinks that it attained. When in fact, it is in the absence of the mind-made self that the timeless love that we genuinely are bursts into full bloom. What has never been attained or lost cannot be reclaimed. The resolution is to be still combined with Self-inquiry.
Heart is the abode of pure love that burns the appearance of all opposites into itself. Whenever one thing changes, everything changes. Indeed, the power of changing the world lies only in our willingness to surrender and realize who we truly are.
Self-realization is our true Individuality. Pure "I" stands alone beyond all and is dependent on none. What we previously thought of as a person is in fact non-existent as far as identity and therefore no "individual" at all. That one is totally dependent, vulnerable and therefore fearful in maintaining the delusion of its separation.
This is not to say that the body, its magnificent sensing and its life situation fade away. To the contrary, free of our past conditioning and compulsive thinking, the body's intelligence is truly free of the ego's limited ideas. The senses are no longer paled by the dust of the mind and become intensely alive. The love that we authentically are flows into the life situation and everyone and everything upon which you consciously shine are likewise illuminated in love's light. After all, there is only you ... appearing as all.
In spiritual circles, the idea of detachment is widely misunderstood. The ego that is already alienated in its idea of separation hears about the concept of detachment and then dutifully tries to further separate from the body, its beautiful sensing and all so called others. This is not the detachment of which I speak. Self-realization is not about becoming an isolated nothing!
True detachment is not something that is contrived by the mind and then enforced by the ego. It occurs spontaneously and effortlessly and is in fact the end of alienation and separation.
Real detachment allows a magnificent connection, since only the ego "I" has been eliminated; the one that never existed in the first place. This glorious connection is far more than the unity of all people and things. It is so divinely intimate that even the word connection is too much separation. The spiritual realization is that there is only the divine appearing as all.
So instead of detaching from all things and people that gift this beautiful life with form, detach from the one who hopelessly is trying to separate; the ego "I" that is also attempting to own everything. Within that tiny concept of self is what appears to be "your" suffering and is reflecting as all of the lack and conflict in the world. To hold on to that separating concept is sheer selfishness and then you "own" your own limitation that is perceived as all, while blaming so called others.
Even this direction could be misunderstood. Forget about seeking enlightenment. Hold on to the "I" thought and through Self-inquiry, follow the golden thread of consciousness back home to the Heart. All departure was a delusion.
In true Individuality, our uniqueness and distinctions as human beings thrive, since we are no longer limited to that tiny image of self that at best can only be a reflection and no more than a fraction. As a fraction, we lack; as the totality, we are already whole.
Truly, we are infinitely creative and while divinely diverse, there are no differences. We are a symphony of one love in action and each has their instrument to play. It is recognized that competition and exclusion were the ego's way of living. That way can only lead to more suffering. Ego's mantra is that if you lose, I win. Instead, we can applaud the trumpets, celebrate the flutes, harmonize with the violins and truly love the global beat of the drums as they keep us in cadence with the Heart's way of living.
Can you sense the Changless as the white clouds drift across the pale blue sky?
This morning, do you hear the inaudible Silence of the red-breasted cardinal, while its song is outpouring?
Are you aware of the unfathomable Perfection of the radiant colors of the rainbow?
Is not the Infinity of space truly awe-inspiring as the stars twinkle in the midnight sky?
Do you feel the Harmony within as the sun sets over the Pacific or the Mystery of the full moon over the island of Lanai?
Are you distinguishing the Stillness, when a blue-tipped butterfly suspends in imperceptible space?
Well, close your eyes for a moment. Yes, there are many thoughts and corresponding feelings. Do you notice that they are all either about or in relationship with "you?"
Have you discovered yet the blissful joy beneath happy and sad, when you stop talking story?
Now, just rest as "I am" and stop at that ... nothing more.
Still with eyes closed, back away a little. Are you missing the space around "I," the sublime sky of being?
Are you able to discern that this sky is still within the field of experience? Are you any less, if you resonate solely as "am," this beautiful feeling of connectivity?
Ever more subtle, perhaps still unnoticed, does any reference point whatsoever remain? Not a personal reference point of course, but any?
Is there anything deeper than even the slightest movement ... or stillness ... of inner experience?
Upon Self-discovery, open your eyes! Let it all settle in, so to speak.
Can you be fully in this world, while not being of it?
Is there any difference between That which is within and That which appears to be manifesting everywhere?
Are you fully integrated and embodied as the non-dual Heart of Pure Beingness?
As True Sky, are you experiencing the sky, the cardinal, the starlit night, the rainbow, the sunset and moonrise as the purest joy of True You?
When all that is impermanent is surrendered, what remains is who you really are.
Every "thing" in the perceivable world of duality is subject to the law of impermanence. This means that everything that appears will eventually disappear. Forms come and they go.
If you are seeking for something permanent and lasting, within that which is impermanent, you will suffer. It is self-evident that the changing cannot contain the changeless. No-thing is permanent.
For instance, you might seek to find stable happiness within relationships, not really understanding that this is destined to fail. Since people and circumstances change, relative happiness will cycle to unhappiness sooner or later. While relationships may provide many moments of happiness, they will always be intermingled with unhappiness.
In fact, it might be quite helpful to note that whenever you feeling unhappy, that unhappiness is just as unstable as happiness. It will inevitably change, within time, and cycle to happiness.
When you give up striving for true and enduring happiness through objects, people and circumstances, it signals that you are closer to realizing the changeless joy that you genuinely are.
After all, if you were anything other than the changeless, you would not even be able to perceive the ever changing.
Your body and its life situation are subject to this law of impermanence. The content of the life situation is always different. It is therefore unreasonable to expect anything other than periods of unhappiness.
Pure joy simply cannot be found objectively.
Who is aware of the body and its life situation? Who is aware of unhappiness? Who is watching?
Does that awareness ever change? Is it not true that it is everywhere you are?
Is it not the same awareness that was looking at its image in the mirror, when you were only six years old?
Is it not the same awareness that was looking at the blue sky at the beach when you were only twenty?
In fact, is it not the same awareness that is looking right now in this moment?
Who is that? Who are you?
You are the only key to realizing pure love and joy that is caused by nothing and never changes. This joy is not some-thing for which "you" strive. It is who you already are.
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Hello Sundance, Thank you kindly for satsang yesterday. I am feeling decidedly dissembled. That's good news.
This is what is lingering:
This could be called a watching game: awareness watches consciousness, which watches the mind, which watches the world. Self, Awareness, is steady, immutable, mountain-like, as you say. Awareness doesn't care what arises. And, for Awareness, nothing is happening.
There is just That, Sat-Chit-Ananda, and That is who ‘we’ really are, our essence. But it's not really that “we” are “One.” That's what “Non-dual” is pointing at. It's not two, and yet it's not one, either.
The mysterious paradox is, there is not One, because Awareness isn't an object. Perhaps it could be said, “there is nothing and everything.” Awareness, as the ultimate subject and then all else that appears to arise; body, mind, world are objects.
So, it's about letting go of control and attachment to everything, total surrender to what arises as it does, allowing all to be as it is. No mind, no suffering, no agenda, no initiating. Yet, clearly mind can be picked up and used for practical purposes. When an impulse for self-interest arises, catch it by noticing and turn back. There-in lies freedom.
Can you clarify what you meant when you said, “when you're asked, How are you feeling, if you go inside, you get lost.”
Does this mean “you,” Awareness? When you asked me this question, there was nowhere to land, no sense of feelings, even though there was alertness and presence. Not a sense of an individual “I,” more a non-localized experience of aware being. Is it a trick question in the sense that it reveals where identity is arising from? And the challenge of using pronouns and who is being referred to, you not as the body/mind, but as Awareness?
Eternal gratitude and deepest pranams,
Sundance replies:
Beloved, Awareness is all consuming, as it is real Being and not imaginary minding. To Awaring-Self, the concept, sense or identification of "I" is meaningless, as non-existent. “To Be” does not require self-consciousness, any more than you need to look in a mirror to confirm your sense of body. What we are conscious to is always the false, the imaginary non-existent. Only Knowing Is, even when nothing appears to be sensed.
All that gets lost is the non-essential, the "I" self-interest, the non-existing. We simply cannot give our allegiance to the "I thing," while forgetting who we are and get away with it. Rather, this union of attachment will appear to get away with truth by giving Self a name, shape and time. We were never meant to elevate our believing over our Being.
Let me be clear, I was pointing to SOLITUDE, ALONENESS. There is nothing but YOU, SELF. You merely hang yourself on the branch you are holding in mind, for there is no branch or anyone to hold it.
There is no true answer to the question, "how are you feeling," except silence. After all, the question is speaking of YOU Beloved before feeling.
On another occasion, XO shares a quote with Sundance:
"Events in time and space - birth and death, cause and effect - these may be taken as one; but the body and the embodied are not of the same order of reality. The body exists in time and space, transient and limited, while the dweller is timeless and spaceless, eternal and all-pervading. To identify the two is a grievous mistake and the cause of endless suffering. You can speak of the mind and body as one, but the body-mind is not the underlying reality."
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sundance comments on this sharing:
Yes, all mind-bodies, all forms, all experiences of every order are sourced in the consciousness of Being …
and you are that consciousness, that ocean of ever-present awareness …
sometimes seen, sometimes not, life in calm waiting and potent expression, yet always awake, always being ...
the formless inspiration and the spiritual heart of our living dream.
Only the underlying reality of our nature as Awareness can set us free to be as we are...
fearless peace, loving expression without bounds or reason and so much more than words can convey.
You are the secret, the One you've been longing for.
You are within all time, all space; too close for discovery, too intimate to approach, too innocent to declare.
You are timeless. So, if you follow time, you move away.
You are nothing. So, if you seriously matter, you feel lost.
You are all presence, all power, all knowing,
In other words, All Loving.
Belief can never be the real You.
The impersonator is not the One.
You are an impossible act to follow, because you leave no trail at all.
Only the simple is truly profound,
so make no effort to be what you are...
Simply Be and Injoy
XO on the impact of Satsang:
Clearly, who I really am, is the awareness behind even consciousness. With residing there, comes a feeling of deep rest and peace. When you and I are in satsang though, this experience is so intense, a heightened sense of alertness, intimacy, great calm and detachment, almost disinterest in "things". What is that? Obviously an experience that comes and goes. Does this kind of experience emerge when two people are together and consciousness "recognizes" itself?
I notice I feel shy at first around you, uncertain about all of this, yet there's a fierce compelling quality to it. That dissolves once what seems like a shift occurs, maybe it's withdrawal from the perspective of a separate "me"? I so value your support and welcome any kind of guidance or suggestions of any kind.
Sundance replies:
Yes, I see and feel this in our Self-Presence. The blessings you speak of flow like a river, clear sailing unto Source. Surrendered as we are, we freely rest in the silence and stillness of our true depth. The miracle is that we know and the blessing of this knowing is our loving way.
Being true is intensely alive. This is satsang; fearless, desireless, All Loving presence. It is your true Being that is so compelling and beautiful.
The All Loving Heart is realized, once and for all in satsang. True living begins when dying ends and … even if the world could end … only the Awake would know.
The memory of body pain comes to satsang:
I'm noticing that when I allow it to be as it is, watching the pain come and go as the experience it is, there doesn't seem to be much suffering associated with it anymore.
Sundance on contemplating physical pain in the context of awakening:
It sounds as though your physical experience is serving to deepen your awareness of Self. This is not unusual in my experience. The path through this challenge is often easier for those who are already free of the belief that the Self is primarily a body. This I am certain you know. Nevertheless, we uniquely feel the impact of our hold and release from this human belief.
No one can really escape from the direct experience of our physical association. It seems the best option, when no other therapy is presently active and effective, is to continually abide in Self-Awareness, to be the witness beyond the symptoms.
All therapies hold potential for good, especially when acted upon from pure witnessing. If pain is present, what can one do but accept it, take action if it seems right and then allow everything to be as it happens.
Pain is clearly a call for attention, but attention to what and how to attend? I say, go to Self, pure consciousness and not just when we are hurting, but always. Let the message of pain become obsolete by its becoming unnecessary as a reminder. Easier said than done, but which of our lively efforts are truly worthy? This, we each answer by the quality of our presence regardless of circumstances; the body being one of these among many others.
It seems to me that each of us possess various forms of belief about healing and healers. Some of us strongly believe in medical doctors and science, others believe in holistic healers, shamans, energy healers, body workers, counselors, change of environment or behavior, etc. Still others intuitively combine the above. Our past human experience is a vast library in consciousness full of body ignorances and wisdoms.
A few of us question the entire experience of dis-ease. Is it real? Can I really be unhealthy? If I am the Self, can I really be suffering and subject to crippling and death? Does disease point to my true state of being or does pain appear for another purpose? What is pain if I am not opposing it? Can my being really be threatened? Is death to be feared, as a loss or diminishment of Self? Can I control my experience? Can I prevent what I do not want to experience from happening? If I act upon any belief in a fearful idea will it bring me freedom or dis-ease? If I am not in control, why worry? How will I know how I will act in any case, until it becomes my experience? What is my attitude of Self in all conditions? Do I have a permanently real attitude or am I searching for security and comfort, neither of which can endure in every condition?
There's no need for you to answer all of these questions, but they do seem to arise in consciousness in the midst of remembering or contemplating pain, aging, death, etc. My attitude is that only the Self determines my experience and the form of healing I choose is also Self-Will, no matter what it looks like. This is the only way I can be mySelf. I'll soon be in a dentist's chair contemplating Self as patient, dentist, assistant and all else in that moment of consciousness.
Surrender is the default attitude of witnessing, as the only condition worth your trust is... being aware.
While everyone appears to be dreaming, witnessing watches, unconcerned and fearlessly awake.
Sundance Burke is author of "Free Spirit: A Guide to Enlightened Being"
