Awareness Journal Nimal Fonseka

What is Meditation

2011-04-27T07:31:00.001+05:30

The practice of meditation may date back to thousands of years, even before the time of Buddha, when Hindu religious leaders practiced some form of meditation. It was Buddha, nearly 2600 years ago, who introduced a systematic form of meditation, which became known as mindful meditation and insightful (vipassana) meditation. These forms are very popular even today among buddhists.

It is mindful meditation that became very popular in the West, after many Indian gurus settled down in the West and started preaching. Mindfulness means being aware. However, popular meditation techniques are supposed to be a twenty-minute intense concentration, preferably once in the morning and once in the evening. You are expected to sit still and start concentrating your in and out breath, which will calm down your muscles, nerves and the entire body. This twenty-minutes of relaxation will then enable you to spend the rest of the day in a calm relaxed manner. So they say.

But can the mind stay calm during the day just because you were calm for twenty minutes? Try it! It is impossible. The mind is like a wild river, dragging you all over the place. You will remember what happened in the past and feel anxious and think about the things you have to do in the future and become worried.

The problem of the human mind cannot be solved with a short-period concentration. This meditation has to be an on-going, ever present movement. Meditation should be from the time you wake up till you drop off to sleep in the night. Meditation is awareness. Awarness is living in the present moment. There is only the present moment. The past and future are illusions, and the mind tends to live only in the past and future, and never in the present, which is the only thing that is real. Can anything happen outside the present moment? Whatever happened in the past are only memories and whatever you think of the future are only imaginations. But the present moment is real.

Living Meditation is living every moment with total awareness. When you live in the Now, the mind stops. Mind and Now cannot live together. When you are aware of the present moment, the noises, the smell, the wind, the sensations, when you are intensely aware of all these sensations, there is no thought. The mind has stopped completely. This is what is called Meditation. Meditation is a living thing. It is a movement. Meditation is the ever present awareness. Please do not restrict meditation for short periods and resume mind activities thereafter.

The secret of joy and happiness is in the cessation of thinking. Thinking can be stopped only when you are present. Thinking is needed only for practical purposes of life, like making a plan or something similar. But if you then start thinking of the end result of your planning, your mind has taken over and you are living in the future. Living in the now is the only way to total liberation.

2008-11-28T08:11:00.001+05:30

FAMOUS SPIRITUAL QUOTES

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

2008-11-27T07:21:00.000+05:30

THE IGNORANT BRAIN
Our brain does not know if something is real or imagined. The reason for this is everything in life, including what we experience is illusion. They have no absolute truth. What we see are things that are perceived by the brain through the five senses. When signals go in a certain rhythm to the brain, the brain interprets these signals and produces an image. An image, in whatever form is an image. Therefore there is no difference between a so-called image that you perceive as physically visible and an image that is imaginary. The word ‘imaginary’ is derived from image. So, where the brain is concerned, an image is the culmination of certain electrical energy frequencies sent through the central nervous system.
If we can accept this as fundamentally true, then what the brain can imagine is limitless and infinite. This power of the brain can be used to lead a life rich in abundance. If we can continuously imagine abundance feelings, then the brain will naturally assume that you are abundant and generate energy frequencies that match an abundant person.
Now, most people, who come across this amazing discovery will want to be rich. Their primary objective in life is material abundance. Most of the people in this world erroneously think that all their problems can be solved by having more and more money. But anybody who has great material wealth will tell you that they are not satisfied and not happy. More money, more material possessions, partners, business empires or anything that is form-based will not bring happiness. The reason is all these are wants of the ego. And what is the ego? Ego is the mind. Ego is something that can never be satisfied with anything. It always wants more, more, more.
Now we come to the important aspect of What constitutes Happiness?
Happiness is not wealth. Happiness is not money. Happiness is not luxury living. Happiness is not top job. Happiness is not luxury car. Happiness is not 'loving partner'. Happiness is not position. Happiness is not ... anything that has form. Everything that is material and thought based are forms and these cannot give you happiness.
Hapiness is the absence of thought!
When the mind stops, when all thinking ceases, what remains? It is that which cannot be named. It is Joy. It is the peace of God. It is heaven. It is Nirvana. It is the liberation from from. It is the end of suffering!
Now coming back to our topic on the Brain, I mentioned that the brain cannot distinguish between reality and imagination. The brain can only interpret electrical signals and is not aware, because the brain has no self to be aware, whether what it perceives is real or unreal.
But, the brain has unlimited capacity to perceive and trigger the human mind and the body towards any kind of action. If the brain is given thoughts of lack, fear, frustration and unhappiness, those are what the brain will perceive and shape the mind and body. Therefore it is no wonder people are eternally unhappy and suffering, because they continue to bombard their brains with thoughts of unhappiness and suffering.
If, however, if you can bombard your brain with signals of stillness, joy and serenety, what will happen? Of course, the brain will perceive them to be true and your body and mind in turn will become still, joyfull and serene.
So if you want to be happy, you need to be still, so that the brain will have no time to perceive anything other than stillness. How can you become still?
It is the most simple thing you can do. Just be aware! The secret to happiness lies in the present moment only, because only the present moment is real. The so-called past and future are just illusions and has no reality whatsoever other than some imaginery concepts. What is real is only this very moment. If we can be intensely alert in this moment, if we can be fully aware of what is going on around us at this moment, all thinking stops. Thinking and present moment awareness cannot coexist.
Present moment awareness is Pure Consciousness. The moment you are not conscious of the present moment, you are "Unconscious". You can visit past and future only when you are unconscious. Did I scare you by saying that you are Unconscious? But look deep within and you will find the answer.
To find true happiness, you need to send the correct signal to the brain. That can only be done by being in the present moment. When you are still and present, there is great, unfathomable joy. This joyful signal will be interpreted by the brain as real and your body and mind will transform into an enlightened state.
Remember, brain is an instrument which can be used or misused. What signals do you want your brain to receive continuously? Signals of joy or signals of suffering?
NIMAL BRINSLEY FONSEKA (27 November 2008)

Sanaseemata Maga

2008-01-23T15:42:00.000+05:30

By Dr Amitha Hewavitharana

A Review by Nimal Brinsley Fonseka
DAILY NEWS 24 September 2008

The Sinhala translation of the spiritual best seller THE POWER OF NOW – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle, (www.eckharttolle.com) published by Sahana Prakashakayo, Weliveriya, Gampaha. (www.sahanabooks.com).

The Power of Now is perhaps the most widely read spiritual book ever to have appeared in bookshops recently. It has been translated into 33 languages and millions of people worldwide have read it. The book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for a number of years. Tolle’s book stresses the importance of living with total awareness of the present moment and not being trapped in thought that lead either to past or future.

Eckhart Tolle is one of the most notable spiritual teachers to have emerged during the last few years. Tolle was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Eckhart Tolle is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his teaching, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: there is a way out of suffering and into peace.

The Sinhala translation of this immortal spiritual classic was undertaken by Dr Amitha Hewavitharana, an academic attached to The University of Queensland, Australia. Dr Hewavitharana obtained her B.Sc. from the University of Colombo and her post-graduate qualifications in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Victoria (Canada) and the University of Alberta (Canada).

The teaching outlined in the book is that the present moment, or the Now, is the gateway to a hightened sense of happiness and peace. “Being in the Now” takes you beyond the mind, an awareness which transcends the ego. The word “ego” here means false identification with anything that is form-based, the body, mind, emotions, all material possessions, the past and future and very particularly, thoughts. To make the journey into the Now, you need to leave your mind and ego behind.

From the very first page of the book, you take-off on a spiritual journey, and reach a very high altitude, where you breathe the fresh air of spiritualism. Although this is a challenging journey, due to the simplicity of language and the question and answer format used, it makes you feel that “Enlightenment” is something possible here and now, and not after ones death, as is popularly believed.

Tolle tries to simplify the word “Enlightenment” by saying, “The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you”.

To her credit, Dr Hewavitharana doesn’t use the common word “Nirvanaya” or “Nivana” for the word enlightenment in her translation. She uses the word “Sanaseema”, a word that does not overwhelm you like the word Nirvanaya, which, through hundreds of years of use, or perhaps misuse, has come to mean something not achievable, at least not in this lifetime.

In “The Power of Now”, in response to the question to explain the word Being, Tolle writes, “Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, Being is not only beyond, but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature.”

However, the word Dr Hewavitharana uses for Being, Bhavaya, may not be the most appropriate. Having lived and studied in Sri Lanka until she obtained her BSc from the University of Colombo, and having brought up in a Buddhist household, she uses many words that are familiar to Buddhists. Non-Buddhist Sinhala readers may find it difficult to understand some words like bhavaya, which is her choice of word for Being. I feel a simple word like pavathma or a similar word would have enabled any Sinhala reader to understand the word better.

As you go through this wonderful book, you will stumble upon new discoveries like, you are not your mind, you can find your way out of the psychological pain, true power can only be found by surrendering to the Now, your body is an entry point into deep inner peace, fear arises through identification with form, true salvation is freedom from negativity, etc. The author bravely declares: “You are already complete and perfect.”

Having prepared the reader by convincing him that enlightenment is possible in this lifetime, the author gradually takes the reader into the many gateways that are open towards realising this noble state. The greatest impediment to becoming enlightened is identification with your mind. And how can you free yourself from your mind? “Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years … be there as the witnessing presence.”

The author says that the greater part of human pain is unnecessary as it is self-created by letting the unobserved mind run your life. The emotional pain experienced by every human being is an accumulation of pain from your childhood, which the author calls the “pain body, and the translator calls vedana rupaya. Everyone carries a pain body in varied levels. Some pain bodies are dormant and some are active, and when the pain body is active, it drives you into a negative state. In its extreme forms, the pain body may drive its host to commit acts of violence. How can you overcome the pain body? Pain body is active when you are “unconscious”, so only consciousness can severe the link between the pain body and the thought process.

One of the hindrances to becoming conscious is identification with “psychological time”. Psychological time is identifying with your past and future, which are both illusions. “Have you ever experienced, done, thought, or felt anything outside the Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything to happen or be outside the Now? The answer is obvious, is it not?”

The book concludes by stressing the importance of “surrender”. Though surrender may have negative connotations implying defeat, true surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. Since Now is the only place you can experience the flow of life, surrender means accepting the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. Relinquishing inner resistance to the reality of the present moment is living with grace.

The Power of Now and Sanaseemata Maga are books of universal significance. They transcend all religious, ethnic and class boundaries. The book quotes extensively from Buddha, the Bible, J. Krishnamurthy, a Course in Miracles, Zen Buddhism, Tao Te Ching and a host of other philosophical and religious texts.

Sanaseemata Maga is a beautiful book of clarity and understanding and deserves a place among classical expressions of human spirituality. Translating The Power of Now is no easy task. Dr Amitha Hewavitharana accepts this challenge and produces a beautiful work, which should rank among the top in the self-help and spiritual categories.

In a future edition of the book, I would suggest that the frequently occurring English words in the text be shifted to a Glossary at the end of the book. Finding the English equivalent of many Sinhala words in the text is a hindrance to smooth reading. Sahana Publishers should be commended for having ventured into this task. Ven. U. Dhammajeeva Thero of Nissaranavana, Meethirigala has commended Dr Amitha Hewavitharana for undertaking the translation of this great book and says “it will be a wonder if the Sinhala reader doesn’t feel a shift within while reading it”.

Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, created quite a stir recently when Oprah Winfry hosted a webminar (web seminar) for millions of viewers around the world to introduce his latest book A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. For ten Mondays, Oprah and Tolle sat facing each other and spoke live before an estimated internet webcast audience exceeding three million from all corners of the globe and answered questions live. A New Earth, which is ranking No.1 in the New York Best Sellers list today, is an equally great book like The Power of Now, and I hope, the Sinhala version of this book too will be available to our readers soon.

Nimal Brinsley Fonseka

2007-12-08T12:29:00.000+05:30

The Present Moment

Flow With The Present Moment Into The Fullness Of The Free Mind
Here’s an inner life exercise of immeasurable value. Think of these new instructions as a kind of special cleansing agent, but not as a way to improve yourself. Let me explain.
When we wash a window, to clean away its obscurities so that we can better see the beautiful outdoors, we haven’t improved the nature of the colorful scenery we can now see clearly. All we’ve done is take away what was preventing us from enjoying what was there all along. This is exactly how the following exercise will work for you. Soon you’ll see all suffering as just something that was unnecessarily in your way. Enjoy your new, bright view.
Start by dropping everything that isn’t a part of the perfectly present moment. Work consciously at clearing away all those rock-like, hardened thoughts and feelings that aren’t a part of what is the naturally occurring, spontaneous now. For extra help in discerning what’s a part of the present moment and what’s not, connect this next insight with all that you’ve learned in this chapter.
Everything arises within the present moment, but not everything has to linger within it. This means that no unhappiness is a natural, or necessary, part of the perfectly present moment. For any sinking inner state to thrive, it must actually be carried into the now by someone who insists on clinging to his or her concept of happiness in the face of uncooperating life changes. And this is the key point in our lesson: even though conflict may briefly appear in the present moment, it cannot dwell there anymore than it’s the nature of a stream to carry the impression of a stone that sits in its flow.
If there’s friction in our lives, that conflict is the proof we’re holding on to limiting beliefs which can never be a part of our freedom. Whatever psychological pains we may live with are the ones we just won’t give up. And the only reason we won’t release these loco-notions about ourselves is because we still wrongly believe that our ideas about who we are is who we are. They are not. They’re only incomplete concepts, as is the troubled and temporary identity they provide. Let go of these concepts and we lose their pains.
This is the power of the perfectly present moment: Dwelling within its incorruptible realm you awaken to the Truth of who you really are by repeatedly witnessing all that you are not. There’s no need to make this idea complicated, as the following clearly illustrates.
You are not that fear. You are not that worry. You are not that anger. You are not that doubt. You’re never any of those clouds of thoughts or feelings that pass through and darken the sky of the perfectly present moment. And even as you bask in the light of this higher self-understanding, and feel a new strength coming to you from beyond your mind, yet another realization awaits you.
Growing in awareness of the perfectly present moment is the same as awakening to your own True Nature: the Free Mind. They are one and the same. Your life and what is eternally now are one and the same Truth. And when you know that who you really are is new and fresh every moment, you also know that you never have to suffer over who you are - or are not - ever again. Know it!
Now it’s up to you to transform these principles about the perfectly present moment into your own experience of their powers.
As an additional exercise, copy the next ten insights on a separate sheet of paper. Then, using your own words, rewrite each one in a new form pleasing to you. Using your mind in this way helps to take you from the world of these higher ideas into a higher world of new personal understanding, where you see at last that you need never suffer again.
Never hesitate to question those thoughts your own thinking tells you don’t need to be questioned.
Freedom from the ties that bind follows outgrowing the need to always be in a struggle.
Who you really are is not, and cannot be, any thought you may have about yourself.
Dare to put aside for a moment what you want from life and, instead, dare to see what you’re really getting.
Until you directly experience the Truth of something, you may think you know it - or that you have its powers - but all you really possess is one thought about another thought, and neither thought is the thing or its power.
The father of frustration, anger, and ultimate defeat is looking to the temporary for a sense of permanence.
The “me mind” loves to feel inadequate so it can imagine what it would be like to live without those painful feelings.
See that self-comparison serves no purpose other than to produce self-conflict, and then watch how this painful form of self-interest fades away.
Call upon the power of the perfectly present moment to anchor you in a world where you can see that any suffering is a stone in the stream of your True Self.
Come awake as often as you can and consciously bring yourself back to the protective custody and permanence of the perfectly present moment.

Excerpted from Freedom from the Ties that Bind, pp.147-150

2007-12-07T08:16:00.000+05:30

AWAKENING

Awakening. The next stage of human evolution for mankind is the awakening from the the present unconscious state. Almost all the humans, save for a few awakened individuals, are living in an unconscious state, and they are not aware of it. For human beings to kill 100 million fellow-human beings during the twentieth century alone proves the widespread unconsciousness of the present race of humans.

The process of awakening is not a difficult task. But the human mind likes to make it seem an unconquerable task. The mind likes to live in the illusory past and future where it receives the food to feed the ego. The ego likes to live exclusively in the past and future, because it depends on psychological time for its survival. Without time, there is no ego. That is why ego thrives on living exclusively in the past and future and create all the misery human race is presently undergoing.

How does it create misery by living in the past and future? Living in the past creates worry over what you have done or not done as the mind will interprete every action taken in the past as mistakes, because the past has not given you happiness, but only frustration. The great party, the long-awaited trip … all these ended in feelings of discontent and a mental hangover. Since the future is illusory and therefore uncertain, fear reigns whenever mind goes to the future. So when you live only in the past and future, you invariably end up living in worry and fear. This is ego’s natural state of living.

What is the solution? How can you drop the past and future?

By just dropping it. Living intensely in the present moment is the only way to drop it. The present moment is timeless. Only in the timeless realm can you find your own Being, your Source, or your God, if you like it. Only in the inner stillness can you reach God, who is within and not without. God is not “out there” but deep within you. Heaven is not “out there”, but deep within you. This profound realization of the Truth can transform into a divine being, to the “likeness of God” in which you were created. If God made you to “His likeness” then you are a divine soul. A divine being.

If you are a Divine Being, why did they kill 100 million fellow-humans in 100 years? Because they were Not living in the present. They were always living in the Past and Future, which are nothing but illusions.

So, true liberation is only in the Now. Inner peace and happiness are found only in the ever-unfolding present moment.

Nimal Fonseka/7 December 2007, Colombo

2007-11-30T08:05:00.000+05:30

Humans have evolved into their present state over a period of millions of years. With the establishment of civilizations, cultures, religions, political systems and all sorts of ideologies, humans have moved further and further away from life's simple truths and realities. Civilization, whilst having its own benefits and order, have also contributed further division of man from each other.

The biggest misunderstanding and misconception man has come to depend on is the concept of God. He thinks he knows God. The word "God" is the most misunderstood and most abused word in human history. People argue about God as if they know what they are arguing about. Some people argue against God as if they know what they are denying.

The main cause for this misunderstanding is the establishment of "organized religions". Organized religions like the various Christian Churches and other leading non-Christian but organized religions, have ideolized concepts and theories around the word "God". The statements "My God", "Your God", "Their God" came into being because of this misunderstanding and misconception.

Some whack commented that "God did not create Man, but Man created God." Man did not create God. Of course man created the word "God". The word "God" is not God just as much as the word "honey" is not honey. God cannot be created by man because God is the Truth. Truth need not be created by man. Truth is truth.

Man, in his habitual messing behaviour, has also messed up God. The organized religions are responsible for creating the theory that God is "out there" somewhere, when, as Jesus clearly pointed out the "The Kingdom of God is within you..." If God is within, why all this fuss, why all these ritualistic garbage of the churches and organized religions? Is it for their mere survival? How many humans have been tortured and killed in the name of religion? Millions and millions have died in the name of religious ideology over the last few centuries.

2007-11-26T12:03:00.000+05:30

What Awareness Is

To awaken, there’s no technique or practice required—it’s just a pointing to this. The content of awareness is irrelevant. Nothing needs to be attained or avoided. If you don’t recognize the peace, and if you think something is wrong with your life—just stop for a moment and notice, I am aware. I am aware of this situation, and notice the awareness, not the situation. The peace and love are not in the situation. You can not get peace from any person, you can’t get it from your career, your finances or your relationships. You can not get peace out of any situation because there’s no peace or love in the situation. There’s no peace for you in another person, or in more money or a better career. It’s not there.
Nothing needs to be done—nothing. The only thing I can see to do is notice your awareness. I am aware right now. Not aware of the situation—whatever it is, but I am aware of this—myself, awareness. So, it’s awareness aware of awareness—noticing your awareness. Right now you know you are aware because you can hear these words. You’re noticing the awareness. Because you can hear these words you know you are aware. So, notice the awareness. Not the words. The words are irrelevant. The words are a pointer that point back to the awareness. So you notice—I am aware, I am aware right now. And everything is resolved. Your awareness is the peace. It is the love.
There are times in our lives’ when we get our relationships, our career, our finances all in order. And we stop running on the treadmill because we find our life situation acceptable. When we stop running we notice this sense of peace, this sense of love, the sense that everything is okay—not because we attained anything! Peace and love have nothing to do with attainment. Because we stopped running on the treadmill, the peace is noticed. The love is noticed. And there’s a sigh of relief. But the peace and love have always been here. It’s always here. It’s always free.
Any time the appearance of a problem arises, I know it’s my mind. It’s my own mind spinning in circles. And there’s no need to do anything with the spinning mind—not a thing. Just notice that I am aware. Realizing this resolves all psychological suffering because psychological suffering is based on a separate “me”—an image of myself, and I realize the image is not me. I am the awareness. So if the “me” I thought I was, is merely an image in my mind, and it doesn’t exist in reality, then there’s no one to suffer. There’s just awareness. And that’s what I am—I am the awareness. I’m not the imaginary character who has to run on the treadmill of life. I am the awareness, which is the peace and the love we are seeking. So you notice this—notice, I am aware right now—that’s it.
You are seeking love, peace and the sense that everything is okay. So you come back to this. I am aware right now. I am the peace. I am the love. I am the sense that everything is okay. It’s what I am. It’s what awareness is—unconditional love.
by Stephen Wingat

2007-11-26T08:15:00.000+05:30

AN EXTRACT FROM "THE SEER"

DEEP AWAKENING

Regarding ‘experiences of deep awakening’, you asked: “Does this happen to you often?” My reply is no, and yes. No, in the sense that there is really only one experience of deep awakening, and that is not actually an experience — it could be more accurately described as a shift of consciousness, or seeing, or of perception (apperception). One split-second, you see yourself and the world etc. one way, the way we have all been conditioned to see it from infancy, and the next, we see it as it really is and quite differently. One moment you are identified totally with your body/mind/personality, and the next, you are totally identified with the Awareness of that and every other phenomenon. You cease seeing yourself as one object among many and you know yourself instead to be one with the Source — you are no longer in the world, but the world, and indeed the whole universe is in you. That, Diana, only happens once, because it is not an ‘experience’ that can come and go, it is as if Awareness has awakened at last to its own witnessing of all that is coming and going.
On the other hand, experiences of deep awakening ‘happens’ to or for me constantly, because after the shift, every life experience is an experience of deep awakening. The unawakened mind imagines that experiences of deep awakening are somehow ’special’ or ’spiritual’ and is constantly looking for some kind of ’satori’ or ‘ecstatic’ mind-movement to break in upon their normal state of beingness — so that it can say to itself, “I am someone because I have had an experience of deep awakening, or whatever.”
Many truly awakened ones testify that ALL of life after the shift is an experience of deep awakening, and that includes experiences we might call, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant etc. etc. Awakening is NOT having a so-called satori or elevated experience of some kind and staying in it, but discovering that all of one’s life is a perfect unfolding of the divine will and that everything is the Unmanifest manifesting in trillions of forms constantly. After the shift, there is nothing ‘ordinary’, everything is seen to be extraordinary and that all of life is simply an unfoldment of the one miracle. In the film, The Last Samurai the Japanese here speaks of his search for the ‘perfect blossom’. At the end of the film, as he is dying, he has a moment of great insight and declares to his friend, I see now “every blossom is perfect.” That, in essence, is what everyone sees when they fully awaken.
Next, you asked, “Does anyone stay there (in an experience of deep awakening) permanently? This question is contradictory as I said because deep awakening is not an experience. But if asked can one stay in any experience, awakened, enlightened or otherwise, the answer is no, because ALL experiences come an go. Whatever you have, you can and will lose. Whatever you can get into, you can get out of or be taken out of by one means or another. That is why it is so important, Diana, to focus your attention and your identity not on experiences but on THAT which is the Source and witness of all experiences, which you already are and always have been.
You then asked, “Is it a bad idea to long for this experience?” Diana, it is neither good nor bad. What is important is that you clearly recognize where this question is coming from — who or what is it that longs for these peak experiences? The answer should be plain to you. It is the mind or what might be called the egoic self that always wants something more or different to what it already has. It always wants something other than what presently is. Awakening or enlightenment, it says can never be this, never be here, never be now. You are not this conditioned and defensive pattern of thoughts, Diana — seize the day — this present moment!
Finally, you asked, “did you detect personal change after experiencing these “flashes”?” The answer is obviously no, because “flashes” or experiences never change Reality or THAT which always is. They may change the dream or the illusory life, and if that is all that’s wanted, then fine — one can go ahead and improve the dream by whatever means one can. Awakening or enlightenment is never about personal change or self-improvement — that stuff is all about fixing up the dream and having a better illusion than the one your having right now. Awakening or enlightenment is about self-realization or realizing Who or What you really are. It’s about waking up to Who or What was actually having the dream! When you wake up to the fact that the character in the dream that you thought you were is really only a ‘dream’ character and that all the other things in the dream that you desperately desired or feared are only ‘dream’ desires or fears etc. then you understand that you are not a ‘person’ or a ‘thing’ that can ever change or ever needs to! You see that you are the No-thing, or the Formless from which all ever-changing ‘things’ or forms arise.
Interestingly, however, when the shift occurs in a particular person or form, that form begins to change in ever increasing conformity to the love and truth it knows Itself to be. Not only does the form tend to experience deeper levels of love, joy, peace and well-being, but the context or environment of that form tends to become more harmonious and fulfilling. It seems that ALL things work together for good for those in whom the great shift has occurred. It’s a case of “Seek first the Kingdom (awaken to the truth) and all things (necessary for well-being) will be added (arise in due course as you consciously abide in that understanding).” as Jesus once said.

2007-11-26T07:53:00.000+05:30

AN EXTRACT FROM "THE SEER"

WHAT IS AWARENESS?

Nothing needs to be done—nothing. The only thing I can see to do is notice your awareness. I am aware right now. Not aware of the situation—whatever it is, but I am aware of this—myself, awareness. So, it’s awareness aware of awareness—noticing your awareness. Right now you know you are aware because you can hear these words. You’re noticing the awareness. Because you can hear these words you know you are aware. So, notice the awareness. Not the words. The words are irrelevant. The words are a pointer that point back to the awareness. So you notice—I am aware, I am aware right now. And everything is resolved. Your awareness is the peace. It is the love.
There are times in our lives’ when we get our relationships, our career, our finances all in order. And we stop running on the treadmill because we find our life situation acceptable. When we stop running we notice this sense of peace, this sense of love, the sense that everything is okay—not because we attained anything! Peace and love have nothing to do with attainment. Because we stopped running on the treadmill, the peace is noticed. The love is noticed. And there’s a sigh of relief. But the peace and love have always been here. It’s always here. It’s always free.
Any time the appearance of a problem arises, I know it’s my mind. It’s my own mind spinning in circles. And there’s no need to do anything with the spinning mind—not a thing. Just notice that I am aware. Realizing this resolves all psychological suffering because psychological suffering is based on a separate “me”—an image of myself, and I realize the image is not me. I am the awareness. So if the “me” I thought I was, is merely an image in my mind, and it doesn’t exist in reality, then there’s no one to suffer. There’s just awareness. And that’s what I am—I am the awareness. I’m not the imaginary character who has to run on the treadmill of life. I am the awareness, which is the peace and the love we are seeking. So you notice this—notice, I am aware right now—that’s it.
You are seeking love, peace and the sense that everything is okay. So you come back to this. I am aware right now. I am the peace. I am the love. I am the sense that everything is okay. It’s what I am. It’s what awareness is—unconditional love.
by Stephen Wingate

Present Moment Awareness

2007-11-22T08:47:00.000+05:30

Present Moment Awareness is the most dramatic breakthrough I have ever had in my life. Though it looks so simple and unimpressive, living with awareness of the present moment is the most profound experience I have ever realised in life. Because, There is only the present moment there ever is; there ever was and there ever will be.

The Present Moment or the Now as Eckhart Tolle would call it, is the only place there are no problems; where there is no suffering; where there is only joy and happiness.

After entering the Now, I can never go back to my preveious life situation where I lived exclusively in the past and the future. Of course, every now and then my mind drags me either to the past or future, but I am increasingly becoming more aware whenever I deviate from the pristine present moment. I gently bring back myself to the Now.